Johann Nogueira

Nick Abregu: Hey Google, I want to build an empire through my business. Who do I go to? Ladies and gentlemen, we have Johann Nogueira. And I don’t think I say your name properly after all these years.

Johann Nogueira: Dude, you got it right.

Nick Abregu: Did I? Oh, go*** it. Dude, thanks for coming on the show.

Johann Nogueira: My pleasure. Glad to be here.

Nick Abregu: So, we’ve been friends for a while. Oh yes.

Johann Nogueira: How many years now.

Nick Abregu: Since, I want to say 2012.

Johann Nogueira: I was gonna say the same.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I think maybe 2011.

Johann Nogueira: Okay, cool.

Nick Abregu: When I started building my businesses. But we only met like in person, 2 years ago?

Johann Nogueira: Yes, we became real friends a year and a half year ago. Yes.

Nick Abregu: But virtual friends, it’s always the nice thing.

Johann Nogueira: Facebook friends. Facebook friends, is great.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. It’s where, give you most intimate details.

Johann Nogueira: Well it’s really good because people know everything about you. So you get to skip all the small talk. Hey, you got a kid. You got two kids. You got a dog. I love your stuff. And all that stuff.

Nick Abregu: And how do you make friends like overseas? Like I mean no, I mean that’s how you become real close friends.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly.

Nick Abregu: You have somewhere to stay when you go to Sweden or to…

[Laughter]

Johann Nogueira: Well, we already know you got a thing for blonde hair and blue eyes, right?

Nick Abregu: Well I’ve only just found that out.

[Laughter]

Johann Nogueira: Plays it safe. I like it. That’s her laughing in the background.

Nick Abregu: So, for those that don’t know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Johann Nogueira: I’m gonna do better. Can you tell a little bit about me?

Nick Abregu: I can. This guy, he’s started off, from what I know you started off selling things on eBay.

Johann Nogueira: Yup.

Nick Abregu: Right? As a, e-commerce?

Johann Nogueira: Yup.

Nick Abregu: And you did really well. And you’re like… you thought about like this is small game and then you went big game.

Johann Nogueira: I did.

Nick Abregu: And you started… you built a… you were living in an apartment in South Bank.

Johann Nogueira: Correct.

Nick Abregu: South Bank and it was actually the building…

Johann Nogueira: There we go again.

Nick Abregu: Well, you told me about this. It was actually the building that I helped to design or designed as a graduate engineer. The lighting for the foyer.

Johann Nogueira: No way. Really? You did very well.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, thanks man.

Johann Nogueira: I enjoyed the lighting.

Nick Abregu: It was the lighting where it’s like it’s jagged. It’s not really uniform.

Johann Nogueira: Yup.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I did that.

Johann Nogueira: Cool. Well done.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. So, what you did is you had these… you keep getting pieces of paper and… correct me if I’m wrong but…

Johann Nogueira: No, no, you got the story. You got me good.

Nick Abregu: You keep getting pieces of paper to be informed about things that were happening…

Johann Nogueira: Under my door.

Nick Abregu: Under the door.

Johann Nogueira: Yup.

Nick Abregu: And you’re like this is killing trees and you thought there has to be a better way. So, then you started to design apps that helped to distribute information to the people living in the apartments.

Johann Nogueira: Correct. So, every day I’d get two pieces of paper under the door and it would say your windows are getting cleaned. Your cars are getting cleaned. Twice a day. After a month I’ve got an inch of paper sitting on my desk. I go up to the building man and I go, “Man how much is this costing me?” He goes, “A dollar per sheet.” A dollar per sheet, twice a day, 500 apartments, and a $1000 a day wasted.

Nick Abregu: $1000 a day.

Johann Nogueira: Plus, all the trees, right? So, I said, “What if we build an app? Just send out one push notification, job done.” He said, “I don’t know. I don’t know what that means but you’re a brown guy. Must know that stuff. Let’s go with what you’re saying, let’s build an app.” So, that’s how it all started.

Nick Abregu: And just for all of those listening, he’s brown because he’s half Indian, half Brazilian.

Johann Nogueira: Portuguese.

Nick Abregu: Oh, Portugese. Dude, why do I keep thinking Brazilian?

Johann Nogueira: It’s all good because I can shake my booty.

Nick Abregu: Do you wanna show us? Dude, I love the story of… if we can tell the story of you and your wife on your honeymoon.

Johann Nogueira: Yep.

Nick Abregu: I love this story.

Johann Nogueira: Cool, cool.

Nick Abregu: Because it’s a… someone set you in line. Someone put you in line to get *** done.

Johann Nogueira: So, I’ll give you a bit of prelude. I went to the seminar and in the seminar, I heard it said… I heard this thing which changed my perception around relationships. So, if you’re fighting… when you’re out there every day you’re fighting against the world, right? When you go home, you cannot be fighting again. If you’re fighting the world, when you come home and you’re fighting again, you’ll never gonna achieve your dreams. It’s gonna be a long-drawn-out battle. So, you need to find somebody who knows your vision, who’s gonna support you through everything and who believes in you. And at this point in time I was seeing a girl, we’re about to get married actually and called off the wedding one month before. And then I said I never… and I listened to another tape and it said, hey write down the hundred traits that your ideal partner needs to have.

Nick Abregu: And just… if I can just chime in there doing that, you got a little backlash from family.

Johann Nogueira: Oh, *** yeah.

Nick Abregu: Because like you, it’s very traditional to be… to get your ducks in a row.

Johann Nogueira: Family, you know, family pressures, blah, blah, blah. You’re embarrassed in the family.

Nick Abregu: And everything was paid for.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly. It doesn’t matter, it’s in the past. It’s my life…

Nick Abregu: You bring shame to the family.

Johann Nogueira: They’re very proud of me right now.

Nick Abregu: They are very. They love you a lot.

Johann Nogueira: Until next time. So, you know identifying the exact traits in the ideal partner is life changing because I’ll give you an example, so in there I had I wrote down athletic. Now at this point in time I was chubby, so hey how am I gonna attract an athletic woman when I’m chubby? So, I had to go to the gym to become fit because in order to attract that right person they have to find me attractive too. That’s generally, that’s one thing. And you can imagine how hard that is, right? In the transformation, so hundred things. For four years I stayed single until I found the right woman. So, when I say stayed single it was like, nope, nope, nope, you have to level up. No sorry, you don’t make it like that.

Nick Abregu: You don’t fit the criteria.

Johann Nogueira: You don’t fit the criteria, see you later. Look, I’m not gonna… you only have one life, right? You’re not gonna sacrifice. So, four years later I met Kyoko at our friend’s wedding and then from there that’s a whole another story. But now I’m gonna skip two years ahead where we go… I got engaged. We got engaged, we go to this hotel and after the engagement we go… after that, after I proposed she goes, hey let’s go, you know, let’s go out somewhere. And we go to this beautiful hotel by the beach. I open up the doors and I’m like, wow! This hotel is awesome. Baby, we’re gonna have some fun here. She goes yes, we are. She pulls out three books and I’m like that’s not the fun we were talking about. And in these three books we sat down and for three days we wrote down exactly how we wanted our life to be. That moment was a defining moment. That moment changed our lives because we created a new reality. It didn’t exist before. We wrote down exactly how we want our finances to be. Exactly how we want our companies to be. How are we gonna raise our kids? How can we have our friendship circles? Who’s gonna be in there, who’s gonna be out of there? Because you can imagine, you know, we all accumulate a lot of friends through our lifetime but then how many of those friends serve your purpose or gonna be with you along the long journey. Those friends you have picked up when you’re a teenager or when you’re 20 years old whatever. And, you know, you love drinking and partying and doing all that. But are they part of your future legacy? So, there are things that you had to remove and it’s hard. So just like, you know if you have a girlfriend and when you break up. Like oh my God, I’m never gonna find anybody like her again or whatever it is. And then two weeks later you get another girl, right? So, you always upgrade. So even when you… with your friendship circle you always have to keep…

Nick Abregu: You always have to upgrade.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, so I’m not saying upgrade… isn’t upgrade in order to, you just want to be surrounded by like-minded people but people who have the same vision and same goals as you because then you become more powerful. The vision gets more powerful.

Nick Abregu: Absolutely.

Johann Nogueira: So, by doing that exercise, what was it? For a year, five, six years ago then, I think. It changed our destiny because we created a new reality. Yes, what more do you want want me to share on that talk.

Nick Abregu: How do you think she changed your life? If you never met her, do you think you’d still be…

Johann Nogueira: Oh man, if I never met her, I’ve just been partying and drinking.

[Laughter]

Nick Abregu: Yeah, yeah. She’s a very…

Johann Nogueira: She’s got structure, systems… when we started dating, she came and she goes… she’d walk up to my house at 12 o’clock in the afternoon. And be like, “Hey you want to go out? Let’s go to the Great Ocean Road!” I’m like, “Are you serious?” Like I’ve got a business to run. She’s like, “I’ve got a business too.” I’m like, okay, sure you do. Sure, you got a business.

Nick Abregu: Which eliminate on the weekends? That’s what you thought.

Johann Nogueira: And then, you know a couple of days later she rocks up again. She goes, “Wanna go for a picnic? I packed a picnic basket. Let’s go for a picnic.” I’m like, “Baby, I’ve got work until 10 PM tonight.” She’s like, “Oh, all right.” Sad and disappointed. I’m like, “You know what? We need have a talk. Are you a real business owner? Because I don’t see you ever working.” And she was like, “Well during the day, everybody’s working so I get to enjoy all the beautiful things around. And when I want to work, I’ll work.” Usually, she works three to four hours at night. And she had all these people working for her. I was like, “I have all these people working for me.” She goes, “Yeah, but you’re not a business owner. You’re self-employed.” I went woah.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Johann Nogueira: Woah!

Nick Abregu: Yeah!

Johann Nogueira: I’m like, “So, tell me what it’s like to be a business owner.” She’s like, “Well, you have to have all these systems.” She goes, “If I want to take a holiday I can.” I’m like oh ***! You’re right if I don’t… if I go take a holiday my business starts to – so then I got into systems, processes, people the right people. People management is huge. Having the right people in your team is just permanent because you can now clone yourself. And if you have to take three people to clone yourself do it.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, absolutely. Because they say there’s nothing more important than time. Time is our most valuable resource.

Johann Nogueira: That’s the only thing you can never get back.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. I realized that as I get older, I realized that time is so limited. Like yesterday for example… Alia who is here, she is listening to our conversation. She… we’re talking about how long we want to live. And we have this thing, we’re like I want to outlive her and she wants to outlive me. I said we incorporate that into our life like eating better exercising and all these things so that we can leave for as long as we want.

Johann Nogueira: For sure.

Nick Abregu: But life expectancy is 70.

Johann Nogueira: Yup.

Nick Abregu: Is that average?

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, well from blogs I think 75, for women it’s 80.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, and that’s if you live.

Johann Nogueira: My wife is a Japanese. She’s gonna live to a 150.

Nick Abregu: Three hundred and seventy.

Johann Nogueira: I already know that I’m never gonna have to spend the day without her. Touch wood.

Nick Abregu: Oh man, isn’t that the saddest thought like to think that the person that you love is not gonna be around forever?

Johann Nogueira: What do you mean? I’m gonna die first.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I know. I’m hoping too. I can’t live without her, so…

Johann Nogueira: Aw, he’s looking at her, such a lovely guy. She’s gone all red.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, so Kyoko, she’s a… she’s got her *** down. She got her *** down phase.

Johann Nogueira: She runs two businesses. She runs the whole household. She runs everything. She’s the nucleus of our family.

Nick Abregu: Do you think that’s a… do you guys work together? Do you guys have a business together?

Johann Nogueira: Business Authorities.

Nick Abregu: Business Authorities. What’s it like working with your partner?

Johann Nogueira: It was the best thing we ever did. So, I’ve got two other businesses; one’s a digital agency, one’s a software company. She’s got a mortgage broking company and a financial planning company. Business authorities brought us together because it’s the first company what we worked on together. Because if I came home before and I’d be like, “Hey baby, we closed a deal. We got a new building on board blah, blah, blah.” She’s like, “Oh, good on you.” And then if I talk to her, she’s like, “I closed three loads today blah, blah, blah.” I’m like, “Cool.”

Nick Abregu: You just don’t understand the excitement.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly. But then building Business Authorities together, you know, it’s great, it’s amazing, what it has created. But it was more to solidify our relationship and bring us back to who we were.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, that’s nice.

Johann Nogueira: It was huge. It was the best thing working together.

Nick Abregu: Was it… does it ever get a bit rocky? Because say, different ideas?

Johann Nogueira: No.

Nick Abregu: That’s nice.

Johann Nogueira: Everybody knows their role and they know their… what needs to be done. And we’re working toward one vision. And actually, that brings an interesting point. We have only have had I think about three or four fights in the entire relationship. I’m talking about fights, fights.

Nick Abregu: A real fight.

Johann Nogueira: A real fight because every time we have a fight, we actually sit down and we go, so why did this happen? How do you feel? How do I feel? Oh right, there’s actually just miscommunication. And then we go, oh well we never have to deal with that again. And we never have to deal with it again. So, having that clear communication solves that problem and we believe in prevention is better than cure. So, if anything is ever eating at you or you know if you have stressed about something, you discuss it. And if you discuss it straight away you defuse the situation before it become something bigger.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, and I feel like that is the case as well as relationships but also with business or your clients as well. And if I’m a client of someone I want to talk about what’s going on as well. And as soon as you do that you start… you get into problem solving mode. And when we get into problem solving mode, you grow. You grow either way regardless of the outcome.

Johann Nogueira: Completely agree. And so, problem solving mode is what… that is there’s a genetic disposition. If you’re a man, you’re built to solve problems. It’s just how we’re hardwired. And when we first got married it caused a lot of friction in our relationship because I’d be working all day and I’ve come home. And then she’d want to tell me about her problems. And I was like man, I’m so drained I’ve had like 12 meetings today. I’m freaking tired. I just want to sit down and eat, you know, in peace. And she wants to tell me about her problems, so I’ve got to go into problem-solving mode again. I didn’t… I felt like I didn’t have any downtime. And then she’d tell me and I’d give her the best solutions to her problems. And she’d just slam her fist and go…

Nick Abregu: Like shut up!

Johann Nogueira: No, no. She goes, “You’re not listening to me.” “What? Hey baby, I just gave you the three best solutions that you could ever figure it out. Then pick one.” Why’d you get out, right? And she’s, “You’re not listening to me.” And I’m like, “I have been listening.” Anyway, then I went out on what the h*** going on? What’s… why this is like starting to form a pattern every day issues. She was grumpy. Like this is… this wasn’t how it was when we’re dating. What the h*** going on? And I’m like, I gotta solve this problem. So how can I solve this problem? And then I run on David Suyak, call him up, assailing and I’ve downloaded this relationship program. And then the program gives me these wise words it says women just want to talk sometimes. They don’t want the problems to be solved. That is the biggest thing. Like what? What? Like how does that even work? All you have to do is listen and say I understand. Like nah, nah. It can’t be. Nah! No way! Oh my God, I’m gonna try this. So, I go home that night. She’s telling me about her problems. I’m like baby, I understand. Baby, I understand baby. It’s all good. It was then, grabs my hand, leads me to the bedroom. Damn! I had to give that audiobook like a five-star rating. H*** yeah, everybody should listen to this!

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I get that there. Like I really understand.

Johann Nogueira: Sometimes… so now we have an agreement. So now when we talk about this stuff, before the preface of her saying I have a problem. I go, “Do you want me to solve it or do you want me to just listen?” She goes, “Just need you to listen.” “Yeah, cool.” And then she’ll talk and she’ll talk and she’ll tell me everything. And I’ll be like, “Baby, I understand. I’m here for you.”

Nick Abregu: That’s nice. That’s growth. That’s personal growth for the relationship not personal growth for yourself. And that’s really nice. Does it… the same way, the other way around, does she feel like she shouldn’t just listen? She has to solve your problem?

Johann Nogueira: No.

Nick Abregu: Because it’s like the opposite.

Johann Nogueira: We’re different. I’m different. I’m not gonna generalize about all men but when I have a problem, I’ll go and spend time on the toilet. I’ll sit down until I figure that…

Nick Abregu: The home office.

Johann Nogueira: That’s, you know, my throne. I’ll sit there.

Nick Abregu: You see? You see?

Johann Nogueira: She’d be like, what are you doing in there? It’s been 20 minutes. I’m like, baby I’m taken.

Nick Abregu: That’s the home office.

Johann Nogueira: It’s a one place that nobody can disturb you.

Nick Abregu: Exactly!

Johann Nogueira: And you have complete peace and then when you’ve got kids like I got two kids.

Nick Abregu: You need a lock.

Johann Nogueira: If I’m in my office they’re gonna come into my office. If I’m sitting down on the couch, they’re gonna come, “Daddy!” But in the bathroom, nobody…

Nick Abregu: No one wants to go in there.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly.

Nick Abregu: I love that. I love that. You guys have a really beautiful relationship.

Johann Nogueira: Thank you.

Nick Abregu: And I look up to it. I think we both look up to it, right? It’s nice. It’s nice the way you guys are together. And to be in the position that you are, it comes from having that when everything’s beautiful at home, you know, the whole… the rest of the world just like lights up for you guys.

Johann Nogueira: Yep. I’ll give you a funny story the other day we were at the office. And we were in Jenny’s office. And we walked in and you know there was mate… there was like five people there. And Kyoko came in. And so, Kyoko came in and we all talking and then we leave. And then Sasha, one of Jenny’s people, she goes to Jenny, “Hey, I think there’s something going on between Johann and Kyoko.” Jenny goes, “What do you mean?” She’s like, “When Kyoko came in, he started acting all different. He’s like so loving. I think they’re hooking up.” She goes, “That’s his wife, of course they hook up.”

Nick Abregu: Dude, did you replace, is that a replacement for the wedding ring? Do you guys both with that?

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Abregu: Lovely. That’s the business authorities ring.

Johann Nogueira: That’s our vision. That’s our legacy. That’s what we wear both. I never wore the wedding ring. It just fell. I hate stuff.

Nick Abregu: Me too.

Johann Nogueira: I don’t like stuff. I don’t like having stuff. The most stuff I have, I mean more I feel like…

Nick Abregu: Clanky.

Johann Nogueira: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I feel that.

Johann Nogueira: So, you know, watches and all this stuff. Man, I’d rather just be buck naked.

Nick Abregu: I know, I get that. I feel the most at ease when I’m…

Johann Nogueira: I’m not going there. You have this conversation…

Nick Abregu: Buck naked!

Johann Nogueira: No, you know, actually that comes down to a phrase. So, a phrase and belief that the more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you. So, I’m not talking about little things like this. I’m talking about, you know, material possessions when you’re young you feel like material possessions are, I’m gonna show off. I’m gonna show everybody. Look I got a $5,000 jacket. I’ve got this. I got this car. I got all that. But then you soon realize that the most stuff you have the more stuff that you have to look after. The more stuff you have to look after, the more it drains you from actually thinking. Now this fit me, I had… a couple weeks ago and said what do the wealthiest people in the world have that other people do not? And the answer is it’s time to think.

Nick Abregu: Oh, I like that.

Johann Nogueira: Now, when you have time to think, you can run simulations in your head about all these different scenarios. Time, back to our first comment, time is the most precious resource in the world. When you have time to think you can predict the future because you can create the future.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Johann Nogueira: Right? And so, buying time is the best thing that you can ever do.

Nick Abregu: And to buy time you replicate yourself.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly. And in order to replicate you need systems, procedures, policy, and a good team. I mean, you know we’ve built a new company by the way. I don’t know if I told you.

Nick Abregu: The one that with Eric?

Johann Nogueira: Yeah. Earthlink.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. Dude, tell us about it. Please use this platform to tell the world.

Johann Nogueira: It’s all good. I don’t need to tell the world. It’s just the world comes to us.

Nick Abregu: That’s true.

Johann Nogueira: So, we built a new company.

Nick Abregu: I like that.

Johann Nogueira: We… this new company started in October 2019. By December 2019, at 2 million in the pipeline.

Nick Abregu: Wow!

Johann Nogueira: We don’t even have a freaking website up yet.

Nick Abregu: Wow.

Johann Nogueira:  And by the way, we are a digital agency which is quite funny. But… so, how that came about? Now I’ve got another digital agency which is called my Alliance that’s been in existence for 10 years. So, I gave somebody the definition of… the differentiator between the two. Because why the h*** do you have two digital agencies. I said well, my Alliance is like… have you ever been to a Chinese restaurant? How many items do they usually have on the menu?

Nick Abregu: Heaps. Like a whole book.

Johann Nogueira:  Yeah. And how many do you think roughly?

Nick Abregu: Do I? Usually a hundred.

Johann Nogueira:  There’s usually a hundred items, right? How much profit margin do you think they may converse?

Nick Abregu: Chinese, they’re good business people.

Johann Nogueira:   But… so, what I’m getting to is they’re high volume, low profit. Now this new digital agency, it’s high value. It’s focused on the value that we add to the marketplace and it’s like hesitance. There are literally three things on the menu. You can either have an app, automation, or strategy. That’s it, three things. So, that made the biggest difference. One company with a hundred items which I built with no business acumen and I built everything from scratch. To the second and fourth company with just three things on the menu.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. We had this discussion the other day. You said in your agency you had 70 something products?

Johann Nogueira: Yep.

Nick Abregu: And then you brought that down to five.

Johann Nogueira: Yup.

Nick Abregu: And you made more money just having five.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly. So, productization is the key. It’s huge. Because when I started the company people were like, oh I need a website cool! Oh, where’s your logo? Oh, I need a logo? Okay, cool, new menu item. Oh, I need, you know, email marketing. Cool! Oh, I need Google Ads. Cool! I need Facebook. Yes, done! I need brochures. Done! And they just keep adding on like yes, yes, yes, we can do that! We can do that! We can do that! We can do that!

Nick Abregu: You became the problem solver instead of…

Johann Nogueira: Instead of, hey you need that? Go to that guy, when you’re done, come back to us because this is what we’re good at.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. I… that’s one of my biggest problems. I always tell you that we have a… whenever we bring on a new client, we have a blank canvas. And I know you laugh at that inside because you’re like, you’re just drilling yourself into the ground. But I feel like the problem-solving was our business but it’s not. It’s not. We’ve restructured now so that we only have… we broken up into three sections. It’s like the physical work, the digital work, oh sorry, the editing stuff and then the distribution stuff. So, we broke it down to that. And if you need something that fits in any of those three or you need all three, like we can. But I’ve stopped grabbing at anything just because to prove that we can do it. That was my ego in the way.

Johann Nogueira: And that is it’s an ego thing. You know when I started and it’s a mistake that I see most people make now. I would do some of the biggest jobs. I would make no money on it. It would take six months to eight months of my life but I wanted the case study. I wanted to be able to say, look who we worked with! And you know what I realized? All these big companies they know that. They know that now. They know that if they go to that one or two or five person, you know, agency. They can get it done. The work will be done because: one your reputations on the line, two you promised that you’d get it done, and three that there are big, you know, mark on your belt for them. So, yeah, stick to your guns. If there’s any advice I could give to past Johann? It’ll be like don’t worry about the… getting those accolades of, oh I worked with these people. It’s just, do what you’re good at.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, we took on a big-name client. They’re like international clients and our profit margin was like almost non-existent like because of exactly what you said. You said like, it’s having that brand under your name as a case study that potentially brings on other work. So, I mean you can’t see it as a marketing expense. Yeah, it’s just absolutely not worth it.

Johann Nogueira: But eight months of your life my friend.

Nick Abregu: Exactly.

Johann Nogueira: Yep. For us who works.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, the whole thing about automation and having a system like to automate people is… I kind of like that. It’s kind of nice because I looked at McDonald’s way of doing things. And although not all things apply but it’s nice that they segment each task. And for a small company where you need to leverage as much of someone as you can, their skills. We tend to give them say this work, and this work, and this work because you can’t do it all. And then they get jumbled up or they do the tasks that are easier and they leave the tasks that are harder. And then that seems to be a bit of a problem.

Johann Nogueira: Yup. McDonald’s is my longest job. From 15 to 21 I worked at McDonald’s. And it taught me all about… well it taught me about attitude because as soon as we walked in the door they said, whatever happened outside those doors does not matter. You’re here. It’s a happy place. Look at the clown. Be like it. You’d sit down. They’d always have training in the rooms. So, you’re always watched. You’re getting programmed, right? At 15 to have all of this structure, like how many people have that in their businesses.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, none. Not that many.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah. Imagine if you did. Imagine if you had that, you know, training, going on in the background. Anytime you wanted, oh actually I’m gonna upgrade. I’m gonna learn this new skill. Oh, you learned this new skill, guess what? Now you can go work at the drive through because now you can be customer facing. And well that was… those were the rewards. So, people who went to the drive-thru were like the coolest people.

Nick Abregu: That’s awesome. That’s awesome because it’s not a monetary reward that… you’re not there for the money, you’re there for the reward. That’s more a reward.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: That’s cool. That’s really cool. All right.

Johann Nogueira: We’re back!

Nick Abregu: Dude, I love the ring that you have.

Johann Nogueira: Thank you.

Nick Abregu: Can you tell me… what I love about business or, so for those that don’t know you’re the CEO of Business Authorities. Oh, look at this. That’s a privilege. Oh, that’s heavy.

Johann Nogueira: That’s a real gold.

Nick Abregu: Is it?

Johann Nogueira: Oh, yeah.

Nick Abregu: D***, that’s nice.

Johann Nogueira: Ben in Vanessa made that for us.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, Ben in Vanessa, they make jewelry?

Johann Nogueira: Yeah,

Nick Abregu: Look at that. I don’t know if you can see that. That’s pretty cool. I like that.

Johann Nogueira: Thanks man.

Nick Abregu: So, you’re a CEO of that. What I love about it and what attracted me to it was the all the good stuff that you’re doing with the income that coming in. So, part of it is sent to B1G1.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Which is buy one give one?

Johann Nogueira: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: And that’s an organization that allows companies and they… I love that they streamlined it. That’s really awesome.

Johann Nogueira: Made it easy.

Nick Abregu: Made it easy.

Johann Nogueira: And transparent.

Nick Abregu: And transparent.

Johann Nogueira: So, we, that every dollar that we send over to whichever causes we want to support, a hundred percent of it goes over to them.

Nick Abregu: So, they have a list of organizations that you… or charities that you can donate money to from your events or…

Johann Nogueira: Causes rather than charities.

Nick Abregu: Causes, yeah. So, if you’re a business and you want to pledge X amounts from every sale.

Johann Nogueira: And the best thing is you don’t even have to tell people that you’re doing it. You do it after the fact. Because you don’t want to say, “Hey Nick, when you buy this you know twenty dollars goes to blah.” Because then you’re like okay, well I could have given them twenty dollars anyway. But if you make a purchase from us and then you get an email saying, “Hey Nick! Thank you for buying a ticket to our Mastermind Event. By the way because you came, because you bought your ticket, a child in the Ukraine got clothing for the winter.” That’s pretty damn good and you don’t even need to know about it.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, so just to give that an example or context rather, how… what has Business Authorities done to all give them back.

Johann Nogueira: Awesome. So, let me preface it. So, there’s different businesses and built for different purposes. So, I’ve got businesses, so my digital agencies. I built for cash flow. That’s their purpose to create cash flow which then allows us to invest. There’s SAS company is built for equity so that it can realize as an evaluation and then you can settle down your shares. And so that’s a long-term strategy. Business authorities wasn’t built for profit and it wasn’t built for cash flow. It was built for impacts. It’s created for legacy. It’s created to do good in the world and to empower business owners. So, in the last year that Business Authorities has gone live. We’ve went live on I think 18th of January 2019. In that one year we’ve made it a million eighty-thousand impacts. Now, what is an impact? One impact is…

Nick Abregu: So, can we just say that again. A million and eighty…

Johann Nogueira: Thousand impacts. So that’s 1 million, 80,000 people have been affected by Business Authorities. So that means… so as I gave you the example before, you know, you bought a ticket to the Mastermind. When you buy that ticket, one person got clothing for winter. One!

Nick Abregu: That’s amazing.

Johann Nogueira: There are one million and eighty thousand people. And the first year of business is always that the worst year because you’re building all the foundations it’s, you know…

Nick Abregu: It’s the hardest.

Johann Nogueira: It’s the hardest but once you get the momentum, it grows. So, our target, because we achieved 1 million this year it’s like, wow! If we can achieve 1 million, what can we achieve next year? So, our goal this year for 2020 is to hit 10 million. And so, we can do that with all of our community. And so, we need to now empower our community and say hey, if we did this, you know; one we’d never be in the event space, we’ve never been in the event space. It was a completely new business model and I did it because people said you can’t do it. I said I’m gonna enter it and disrupt the industry. And create some good in there. Because I don’t know if any, you know, any of your listeners or whoever. If you’ve ever been to seminars. If you’ve been to any events. All they do is they just pitch, pitch, pitch especially multi-speaker events. Everybody’s just pitching, pitching, pitching. It’s just they don’t add value. So that’s why the first of it of which you bought the first ticket ever you were the first transaction that Business Authorities ever had. You go down in history for that. You bought the first ticket to the event. And when he bought the first ticket, I went d***! Now I’ve got to put this event on. So, because of you, we continued because now we had, you know, people who believed in us. All it takes is one person to believe in you in order for you to go ahead. And so, you were that first person. Thank you.

Nick Abregu: Oh, thanks. No, it’s my pleasure man. I remember when you told me about it, I couldn’t go to that first event because we had… I think we were recording something for someone. Kind of…

Johann Nogueira: January, halfway past month.

Nick Abregu: The first one.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, not the big event.

Nick Abregu: No, the big event!

Johann Nogueira: Oh, you didn’t come to the big event?

Nick Abregu: No, no. I did go but we had to… you guys had to move it.

Johann Nogueira: Yes, yes, yes.

Nick Abregu: Remember? So, the first time…

Johann Nogueira: It was scheduled for October but then we changed it to January. That’s right.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. And then as soon as you said we’re gonna change it to something else then I was like, all in. And I’ve been all in ever since.

Johann Nogueira: You have.

Nick Abregu: So, you guys are the only, I guess mastermind and community that I attend like everyone else because the most important thing is just block out the noise and just focus on one thing.

Johann Nogueira: Focus on what works.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah. Thanks man.

Nick Abregu: And that sheet that you guys, I still fill that out. The circle, that the 12 pillars.

Johann Nogueira: Yup. And where are you up to now?

Nick Abregu: It’s expanding. It’s getting bigger. It’s because I’m doing that every month, my focus and also my clarity on what things need to get done.

Johann Nogueira: So, walk me through the formula please.

Nick Abregu: No, it’s burned. I need the sheet. I have a terrible memory.

Johann Nogueira: Come one! You know where it begins. You know how to play hard.

Nick Abregu: I don’t. You tell us. I know what sections to fill out but I would rather you tell the people because you know it.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, cool.

Nick Abregu: Not that I don’t know it but I just need it in front of me.

Johann Nogueira: Need reference point, all good. So how it came about: one, I was, you know, I went to these seminars and realized everybody’s pitching and the education of business owners has gone down the toilet; two, I had a couple of friends who were business owners who took their lives and all it needed was one conversation which could change the trajectory of their lives. And so that was impactful there’s the word; and the third thing I went to another seminar somebody invited me and said, “Come to this. You have to go to this.” And I knew speak on the stage and I went, this guy’s yeah, not that good. I’m like let me be kind. And I’m sitting next to this little 65-year-old lady. And she’s sitting there and we become friends. And she goes, you know, she confides in me that in her whole life savings she’s got twenty-six thousand dollars, that’s it. And she knows that, you know, she hasn’t got that much longer to live 10, 20 years, whatever it is we talked about the age that people pass away or how much time we have. And she goes, “I have nothing left to give to my kids other than, so I need to use this money wisely.” And the guy at the end of the freaking day pictures a $25,000 product of which he goes and gives it to her. And I know 100% that he could not deliver what he was promising. And I know that all of her money was just going to exist or whatever. And now she’s left with a thousand dollars and of the system that doesn’t work. So that was very disappointing. So, these three turning points created Business Authorities. Me and Kyoko sat down and I said, “Okay, cool. You know, how have we… we’ve consulted for 14 years between us. Between us we’ve got thousands of clients other than that what successes have we had? So, we built, building interactive for the zero to 20 million in four years. How did we do that? And then the first step that happened was when I met my business partner. He goes, “Johann, I want to turn this company into a hundred-million-dollar company. So, first step mindset.” I’m like, “Man, come on! Whatever.” Yeah, hundred million dollars.

Nick Abregu: You just don’t see it. Like you told me that you

Johann Nogueira: Yeah. It’s not part of your world. It’s not part of your universe. Like hundred million, like I can’t even picture that amount in my bank account, right? It’s ridiculous! And then he goes, “I don’t build companies the way you do. We’ve built companies properly.” I’m like what does that mean? And then he starts showing me all the companies that he has built. And then I’m like, “Why are we aiming so low? Like your other company is at 1.2 billion. Why are we aiming for only a hundred?” He’s like, “Because this business model is to create this amount of equity and this is what we do.” Oh, okay. Cool. So, from that mindset we had to have a shift. After we had that mind shift then I said, “Okay, what do, you know, who we’ll gonna serve in the marketplace? So, let’s take for example video editing, who can you do video editing for? Absolutely everybody! Everybody and their dog, including their dogs made video editing now, right? Tiktok and all these things. All these cool little snippets. Everybody needs video. You’re in the best industry right now. So, we decided, okay cool. Who needs an app? Well everybody does, every business does but they don’t know or they don’t see an hour away. Who will clearly focus on that sees the biggest ROI, return on their investment. Oh, okay cool. It’s the apartment buildings, the new ones, and the developments they get the biggest ROI. They’re like, man why are you guys so cheap? So, we designed all of our branding around attracting those people. So, step two is identifying the ideal clients, identifying the product, identifying the price, identifying all the ideal client. Once we had that then we designed the brand to match that ideal client. So, our branding is all around, you know, well it’s green because it’s buildings and everybody wants to be part of the green revolution. And then we wanted to target the spot peeps. So, our tagline says, “Creating smart cities one building at a time”, which gets their attention. So, they’re like, wow cool! All right, yeah, let’s go. I want to… before we even have made a meeting, they wanted us in the meeting. Once we did that then we created our presence at all of our messaging, all of our emails, all of our brochures, everything, which shows them all about them. Now too often people say we are the greatest. It’s all about us, us, us. Nobody gives a about us. They only care about what can you do to increase their bottom lines. What can you do to help them survive or thrive, right? So, then we made it all about them. So, now we’re going into deals. Now before it would take six months to a year to close the deal. Now we’re closing 10, 15, 20 deals in one meeting.

Nick Abregu: Wow.

Johann Nogueira: So, that’s the power of doing this properly. Then, once we did that like, okay cool. Now we’re getting, you know, we’ve got the system… we’ve got the formula in place, wrong word. We’ve got the structure in place. Now we need to scale. We need to do 10, 15, 20 apps a week or whatever. How do we do that? Automation. An automation is not just for our systems. Automation is also for our salespeople. If you record your best salesperson which in your company would be you. If you record a video, videos what you do. That cool video going out to your ideal clients they’d be like, wow I want one of those, right? That’s leveraging technology. So that’s what leveraging technologies, it’s you’re using the tools that we have. We’ve had iPhones and, you know, these awesome phones since 2007. How many people right now are using video in all of their marketing and inclined their position?

Nick Abregu: Yeah, not many.

Johann Nogueira: You’re in the best freaking industry there is. So, now we know how to leverage technology. Now we need to increase the sales. Compare on the sales. So, hey, you know, you’re already here, you know, do you want these few upgrades? Yes, I do. Increase the lifetime value of the client. Done! And by doing that you’re extending their lifetime with you and you’re giving them exactly what they want. So, you’re adding value to them. By this stage, once you get to this stage, you’re no longer working in the business anymore. Now you’re working on the business. Now you systemize and procedurize so you’ve mentioned McDonald’s before. That is the McDonald’s theology, whatever. Philosophy, you know, have your business run so a 15-year old could run it. Imagine if a 15-year old could pick up the phone and talk to your clients right now and say, “Yeah sure, I can get the videos edited for you. This is what, you know, which blah, blah, blah, and whatever you need to say. How amazing would that be?

Nick Abregu: Yeah, absolutely.

Johann Nogueira: So, aim for that. Once you’re working on that, once that’s all done, you can now open up franchises all over. All licensed your IP because now you’ve created intellectual property. How many other agencies would want that exact IP? Make sense?

Nick Abregu: Yeah, within the money, it makes their more time, the way it is in your system, right?

Johann Nogueira: Exactly. They’ll pay you. They’ll pay you for the systems. They’ll pay you for the structure of how you built it. Then, now you can go… because all your systems are working, now you can just go and work on your business. PR, joint ventures, that’s it! Focus on those two.

Nick Abregu: And a big one is also going back into the systems and finding out where you can improve them. So most most people just create a system and the first ones always going to be s***, right? The key…

Johann Nogueira: But it’s better than nothing.

Nick Abregu: Yes, yeah, that’s right. But the key is to go back and improve. If people are fighting in your business, right? For say, something went wrong, right? They blame the system. They don’t blame each other.

Johann Nogueira: I don’t know about that. The systems are usually working, it’s the people that cause the problems.

Nick Abregu: But doesn’t that mean you have to go back and…

Johann Nogueira: And figure out why there’s miscommunications.

Nick Abregu: Figure out why that’s happening and that’s… you just make that system a lot better.

Johann Nogueira: So, after Hiroshima, the Japanese became the manufacturing hub of the world. And then they invented the system called kaizen. So, kaizen is a methodology where they would have the factory running and they’d run it at full-bore until something broke. And then they’d fix that part and then they’d run it at full-bore again. And then something else would break and they’d fix that part. And so, every day they were optimizing, right? The business, and so that’s why they became the world’s leading manufacturing hub. Now China has taken over that but you know, that’s called kaizen. So, you have to practice that in your business. So, as you keep adding more and more and more and more, one thing’s gonna blow one thing’s gonna break. That’s what you need to fix and once you fixed it, it’s gonna be fine until the others break. And so, you’re constantly working your constant never-ending improvement.

Nick Abregu: Just I want to ask if for a company that doesn’t have volume coming in to test that system at full-bore. How, what… I mean what number would you say like you’ve tested it three times and something broke, is that enough to say this is broken or just keep going.

Johann Nogueira: Just keep going until it breaks. So, it’s not even about volume. So, we deal with some design houses who have three clients but still their systems break down. It doesn’t matter that there’s only three clients. There’re other companies that we work with. That are e-commerce companies that I have ten thousand clients. And have a hundred thousand orders, right? That’s where you see, okay cool. What are the… why did it break there?

Nick Abregu: It’s easier.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, just keep focusing, just watching. You know, your job as CEO is to always look, look, look for the improvements. Where can you make the improvements? Where’s the optimizations?

Nick Abregu: Yeah, and also about getting your systems right is if you begin your business creating the systems first, right? Your business becomes sellable.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly. I mean that’s… why do you, most people get into business? Why? Passion?

Nick Abregu: I think some people just because they don’t want a boss or sick of their boss.

Johann Nogueira: They didn’t want to do the 95 so they skip that up to work 365.

Nick Abregu: A hundred hours, yeah.

Johann Nogueira: You know, 24 hours a day and 365 days. So that’s…

Nick Abregu: And most time in the first year, you’ll you have no time. So, you start a business to have extra time but you have no time.

Johann Nogueira: Man, it’s not only the first year like, you know, we’ve known business owners who have 14 years down the track, they still have no time. We know business owners who have five years down the track, they have no time. We know business owners who were two years down the track and they’ve built an amazing company that’s sellable. Because they built with the end in mind, so they knew exactly where they wanted to get it to. So yes, the system’s [our very key]. Once you’ve done that, hey, how can you dominate your industry? Just what are the leaders doing? How can we outdo them? So, now you’re competing against the top guys but you’re competing against them with different methodologies that they weren’t used to. And so, you can out-compete them. And so, we use Gorilla marketing tactics to do that. Now you talk about Empire. So, we talked about you know selling businesses. So, when you build your business most people start off with passion. And they’re like, “I can make some money out of this, so I can do it better than that idiot.” You know, the boss who doesn’t know what’s going on and they try and do something better. But they don’t realize, if they don’t have that vision of when I achieved this, this is when I’m gonna sell. And even if you’re not gonna sell, if you’re gonna pass it down to your kids or if you’re gonna, you know, hire somebody and put it… put them in there to keep it as a cash flow business. You need to have that goal in mind because if you’re building it to sell, you systemized everything along the way. And I know that this podcast is now everything about systemization because systemization is the key. Systemization gives you freedom. Systemization gives you time.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, and I like the idea that you are so much more attractable to someone that’s got… that sees bigger growth because you’ve got the systems in place. I love that! And also, if I can just chime in, with Business Authorities it’s those steps, right? It’s… you have specialists and experts that guide you in those each key, each little section.

Johann Nogueira: Correct.

Nick Abregu: Like I know Fabian, in sales, he’s amazing!

Johann Nogueira: He’s the best. I have never met anybody than him.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. He’s just such a hardworking… he’s an animal in that industry. In there, in sales.

Johann Nogueira: He’s just one of the best people on the planet.

Nick Abregu: But people think sales, people think like Grant Cardone.

Johann Nogueira: Sleazy.

Nick Abregu: Sleazy. Scumbags.

Johann Nogueira: Pssh, Grant Cardone.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I know. Exactly because I haven’t seen Fabien yet. That’s why but I love that and Jenny Junkeer for, you know…

Johann Nogueira: Scaling.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, scaling.

Johann Nogueira: And so that’s another thing, a lot of your listeners they are amazing what they do. And this is what Business Authorities is about. You are an authority at what you do but you need all the other pieces in order to fulfill your legacy. You need… so I keep telling people like Fabien like, “Dude, you got morons like Cardone out there. The reason why they’re out there and they’re making the money that they’re making is because they’re making the most noise.” They don’t… what’s the thing? It’s the smart people who sit there and analyze and go, uh, you know, I’m gonna perfect this. I’m gonna make this right. I can’t put this out just yet. People might think bla, bla, bla. They might think I’m not that smart or whatever it is. Whereas Cardone, I’m not dragging Cardone but seriously that day he just opens his mouth. But he’s always there, he’s always noisy and then eventually people… it’s the same as Trump, right? They just talk, talk, talk, you know, like I’ll just buy that.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, exactly. Well that’s right. I always say that the loudest person in the room gets all the attention.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly.

Nick Abregu: But you just want to make sure that when you get the attention that you can deliver.

Johann Nogueira: Correct.

Nick Abregu: And then that makes your powerhouse.

Johann Nogueira: And most of the time these guys can’t deliver, right?

Nick Abregu: Absolutely.

Johann Nogueira: We know that Trump hasn’t delivered. We know that Cardone hasn’t delivered. But they are out there making so much noise and they’re attracting new people into the top of their funnel. They’re churning and the people they’re burning, they don’t really care about anyway.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, exactly. And I find a lot of people that their business isn’t really going anywhere. Like even though they’re exceptionally good at what they do, they don’t have the sales or they don’t have the business mind. You know, they might be really good at one thing or several things in the business but they’re not good at putting themselves out there. And then us as consumers we think he’s maybe not that good at what he does because he’s not… he hasn’t got 20 million customers. But really, you’re missing out because he is or she is the best at what they do.

Johann Nogueira: Correct. And so business owners… there’s three types of people. There’re artists, most business owners are artists. They love what they do. They take passion. They have, that’s their purpose. The second person you need is a manager somebody who can manage them, manage the teams. I have people who manage me. I’m an artist. I love to create I don’t like to do all the stuff. The managing of everything but I’ve had to in the past. But now I have people who do it for me. And then the third one is the entrepreneur. So that’s a person who builds it to sell. And they’d say, hey you know what? I took… it took two years of my life to build this business but I’ll sell it to you for X. If you said that to the artist and then the artist…

Nick Abregu: No, no.

Johann Nogueira: Artist would be like, h*** no! I’m not selling my business. That’s my baby! You’re talking about my baby? You want me to sell my baby? S*** no. So, artist, entrepreneur, and the manager. You need these three people in the business in order for the business to work. We were talking about, you know, we went to see Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins is an artist. That only… he only got successful 20 years ago. So, he shared this on stage. And he was broke at 20 years ago he had nothing because he was an artist. He loves doing what he do but he did not know how to manage his money, how to manage his finances, how to manage his teams, how to manage his knowledge, how to manage everything. Only when he got those right people there. Those people then helped him accelerate everything because he was good at… well he is the best at what he does. There’s nobody better than him. Then these guys they accelerated that because they could then amplify everything that he was doing. And then he had the entrepreneurs around him who said, here’s an opportunity, here’s an opportunity, here’s an opportunity. So, he could just sit down and do his craft. And they opened up all the doors. They open up all the other news. They open up all the negotiations.

Nick Abregu: That’s such an interesting point! If you are the artist, right? Just, don’t try and be the entrepreneur. It’s… hire someone, surround yourself with people that allow you to be the artist.

Johann Nogueira: Correct.

Nick Abregu: That’s such a good point.

Johann Nogueira: Correct. It’s a huge effect for me.

Nick Abregu: And I know it’s hard at the beginning when there’s, the cash flow might not be there or say you haven’t had funding or whatever. Like you have… you want to do everything to save on money but it’s counterintuitive.

Johann Nogueira: Wrong words, my friend. Never use words, saving money, you will never save money. It’s always about making more money. How can I make money to afford that person working in my business? So, when you say those words then you’ll fit… your brain will go, I’ll figure that. Because if you… if I gave you $100 and said, figure out how to save this $100. Well, you know, I want you to buy an apple of blah, blah, blah. And how can you save that money? Good analogy. So, on that you’d say, okay cool, you know, I’d spend $2 on the apples. But if I said, how can you take this $100, buy me an Apple and make more money? Then you’d buy the apple, the banana, you then turn it into smoothies, sell that for five dollars, right? You spend two dollars on it. You sell them for $5 as a smoothie. And you’ll be like, ah! I can actually go and get 50 of these things made, units. Sell them for $5, guess what? Your $100 just turned into $500. Make sense?

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Johann Nogueira: Different mindset.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. And that’s important to learn at the beginning.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah, it’s important to know you learn by trial and error and fail. Fail as much as you can because the more you fail, the quicker you get there. Because success is all about failure. Let that sink in for a second. Success is all about failure. It’s the people who succeed, who have failed so many times. I have failed more times in the last six months than most people have tried because I can. Not because I can but because I want to.

Nick Abregu: But because you save your life up because you can.

Johann Nogueira: Because I want to. I want to fail. I want to try different things. I want to go into that grave going, I f*** did everything I wanted to.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I love that. I always say it’s the, not everyone succeeds. Not everyone that tries, succeeds, right? But everyone that doesn’t stop trying, succeeds.

Johann Nogueira: Correct. You only fail when you quit.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, exactly.

Johann Nogueira: Otherwise it’s just all learnings. There’s no such thing as failure. It’s only learning.

Nick Abregu: And for those that are listening that you just… they have just started their business. Like everyone’s… a lot of people gonna tell you, they’re gonna give you their opinion and you’re gonna start believing that you’re gonna fail. And then… but just keep trying. Just don’t stop.

Johann Nogueira: Keep failing. Fail as much as you can. It’s the best thing you can ever do. Go home and go, “Hey baby! I failed today. Yes!”

Nick Abregu: Yeah, the stresses are gonna be like…

Johann Nogueira: It’s part of life.

Nick Abregu: Business is full of stress. It’s a roller coaster of emotions but that win. That one win that you’re gonna get after like the hundred fails is so worth it.

Johann Nogueira: The only one deal away.

Nick Abregu: Exactly. I love that you say that! When you said that to me it just… it clicked so much in my head. Like fail, fail, fail and then that one.

Johann Nogueira: One deal.

Nick Abregu: That one deal.

Johann Nogueira: Changes the trajectory of your entire life.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. Because you get better. Every time you fail, you get better.

Johann Nogueira: Yep. And you ask, why did I fail? Write it down. Journal it. And then figure out why, what you can do better. Every time you fail, say thank you. Thank you for letting me fail because now I can do this.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. And just be prepared if you fail enough times and it puts you in a dire situation, just be prepared that you might have to go and take this job, you know, whilst you still build this business. But don’t stop trying to build.

Johann Nogueira: Yeah. Never…

Nick Abregu: And don’t get comfortable working in a job just keep that end goal in mind.

Johann Nogueira: So, do you know what the definition of a job is? I mean we all know it’s just over broke but a job is the…

Nick Abregu: Just over broke.

[Laughter]

Johann Nogueira: Job is… the salary is what they pay you to sacrifice your dreams.

Nick Abregu: Mm-hmm, yeah.

Johann Nogueira: If you pay me $100,000, if you pay me $200,000, I will give up my dreams. But a true entrepreneur, you’re never satisfied. And you want to build that and fail. Try. I literally, the amount of things either I tried when I started as to fail at so many things every month. It was great! It was all learning.

Nick Abregu: When you work for someone, you’re exchanging your time for money but as an entrepreneur you want to exchange your knowledge for money. Because then that becomes…

Johann Nogueira: Well, again that’s a fallacy because what happens… so you were like going back to the boss-employee thing. You’re like, no, I don’t want a boss. And hey, I’m now at the… I’m the boss, right? But what actually happens is you’re not the boss anymore. You’re the employee of 10, 15, 20 clients. They’re your bosses, right? When you think about it because you’re reporting to them. You’re trying to cater to their needs and all those things. That when I realized that I was like, okay, hang on. But then I realized that that’s the way the relationship was because they’d call up. They’d be like, “I want this.” Hang on a second, I became an employee. And I went, “Actually no! You’re paying me for my knowledge. That’s not how you want it. This is how you want it. This is how we’re gonna do it and this is the steps that we’re gonna take in order to achieve your end goal.” They’d go, “Yes, let’s go with that.” Then you became from the boss to the authority.

Nick Abregu: I realized that when… can a client call me at 11:00 at night and say, “I need this done.” I am just, I’m the employee. I’m not the owner.

Johann Nogueira: Exactly. So, when…

Nick Abregu: And that’s a hard pill to swallow.

Johann Nogueira: Man, it took me probably five or six, probably ten years to realize that because I was a people pleaser. I wanted to please everybody. I wanted to have raving fans and all of this stuff and so I would take calls at 10:00, 11:00 at night. I would talk to them by their relationships. I’d talk to them about, you know, all these things just to make sure that they were happy. And then I realized, hang on by me spending time with them at all these weird amounts of time, I was stealing from my family. I was tired for my family. I was keeping out on holidays for my family. I was rubbing my family off me so then I met this guy who said you need to put boundaries in place. So now we have boundaries. In our first thing we go, this is when we work, this is how we gonna work, these are how many meetings we’re gonna have. During this process. This is when the meetings are triggered. Put it in your diary. Nobody called me anymore. Everybody would check online and go, “Yes, thank you very much. Everything’s done.” Man, it simplified my life.

Nick Abregu: It took you 5 years to learn that.

Johann Nogueira: Yup. So, I’m telling you now and just try to do it.

Nick Abregu: My man?

Johann Nogueira: Yes.

Nick Abregu: It’s a pleasure to call you my friend. It’s a pleasure to call you a mentor. And thank you so much for sharing all this stuff.

Johann Nogueira: It’s a pleasure.

Nick Abregu: That you have come on.

Johann Nogueira: Thank you for having me. You’re amazing.

Nick Abregu: My pleasure.

Johann Nogueira: You are amazing!

Nick Abregu: I love the connection we’ve had. And I love that we just… it just continued on from the friendship we started, from 2012.

Johann Nogueira: I don’t think I’ve stared into my wife’s eyes more than I stared into your eyes today.

Nick Abregu: Stop it. I’m blushing. Dude, absolute pleasure. And I look forward to helping as much as I can in Business Authorities. And anyone listening like, check it out, because we’ll put the links up. Check it out because it will change the way you think about business.

Johann Nogueira: Go watch the trainings. So, we just released amazing videos. Businessauthorities.com/new-training.

Nick Abregu: We’ll put that up as well.

Johann Nogueira: Awesome man.

Nick Abregu: Dude, enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks for coming on.

Johann Nogueira: Thank you guys! Bye.