In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Charles Kim about his morning routine, the differing risks of entrepreneurship vs being an employee, conversational tips, going from employee to entrepreneur, and much more.
In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Charles Kim about his morning routine, the differing risks of entrepreneurship vs being an employee, conversational tips, going from employee to entrepreneur, and much more.
Announcer
Welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote, where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.
Ryan
Hey, Charles; welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How's it going?
Charles
Good morning. Good morning. Fantastic every day. It's a great day.
Ryan
Yes, I agree. 100%. Let's kick this off. Charles, tell everyone who you are and what you do for a living, and then give us a big win that's happening in your life right now.
Charles
Sure, my name is Charles Kim. I currently live in Los Angeles. But I'm originally from Boston. So I'm an equal East Coast guy, but my wife is from LA. I live here, three kids, you know; what keeps me going is, you know, I started, I became an accidental entrepreneur, right? My previous career, my previous life, I was a banker. And Wall Street did that for over 20 years. But I'm a sort of accidental entrepreneur now. And it's, it's amazing. I love the journey that I'm going through right now. I'm learning so much.
Ryan
So the banking world versus the entrepreneurial world, do you like the entrepreneurial better?
Charles
Yeah. Because every decision I make has an impact, right? Whether it's, you know, with my employees or for the company, and there's no sort of like a safety net to fall back on. When you're working for a big corporation or bank, you know, it's always, you know, you're working as a team, or you're looking at a different group. And, you know, you could say, hey, it's somebody else's fault, right? If something goes wrong, you know, you have to own it. When you are an entrepreneur, when you own your own business, and you have to own it, and you have to understand, and you have to learn from your failures. So I don't run away from my failures. Actually, the most learning I had in my career is from all my failures. So when someone tells me that they never fail, then I start questioning them. And their motivations.
Ryan
This a question I don't think I've asked yet. But it's kind of on topic here. You know, everyone says entrepreneurship is risky. And, of course, it can be. Do you think that being an employee is risky, too, because you can be like, Oh, at any time? Do you think entrepreneurship is any riskier than or any riskier than being an employee?
Charles
Yeah, I mean, I think they're both risky. But it's just you have to decide what the risk is for you. So each person determines the risk factor differently. So if you are an employee, you have no control over your career, per se. If the company is downsizing, you may get laid off. Right, you may be doing excellent work, but you may be laid off, there might be an internal conflict with your colleagues or your boss, right, or you may not like your boss. So sometimes I think as an employee, there are a lot of factors that are beyond your control. Right. But as an entrepreneur, as the owner, every decision has an impact, and you have to, again, you know, you have to own it. And that's the repercussions. So it's really different, you know, in terms of the mindset, because if you're an employee, right, you can say, like, you know, what, I don't really like this job, you know, I'm going to call a headhunter, I'm going to look for another job. Well, you know, entrepreneur, you know, you can't say like, Hey, I don't like this company, I'm going to shut it down and fire everybody. And then I'm gonna start a new company,
Ryan
With your business crave, like, where are you learning all that? And actually, I'm, I want to hear about your win. And I want to get your morning routine. But the last question on this topic, like, the last question on this topic with craving, you're working a lot of deals with a lot of famous athletes, like where are you learning all this from? You know, is it just you're learning as you go? Do you have mentors? Like, how does that work for you?
Charles
You know everything is a learning process for me. So there's no handbook, right? You know, how to run, you know, how to run crave the company that I started. So it's not like I can go buy a book at a bookstore. And you know, and there's a formula behind it. We're pivoting every day. There are new opportunities and new challenges every day. And I have to pivot. But my main thought process as a CEO, as a leader, and as a founder, is three things. And this is one of my mentors told me about this when I was really young in college; he said, you know, you have to remember three things as a leader or as the CEO or founder, which is one is people, two is culture. And number three meaning, you have to hire the right people and empower them and trust them to do the job. Number two, you have to set the right vision and write a culture in the company where everything's positive. And people believe in the vision, and they want to come to work every day excited. And number three, the numbers have to work, you know, if you don't make a company, if you don't make money, then you know, it doesn't exist. So but and he said, you know, you can't micromanage everyone and everything, you know, and the hardest part as a founder is letting go, you know, we want to control everything, right? We think we have all the answers. And but we don't, you know, I only know point 000 1% What I need to know, and I even learned from my employees, right? So I hired the smartest people and empower them, and I told them, hey, this is your company to you know, you're not just an employee; the success will depend on everyone in the company. And we're all going to benefit that we work together.
Ryan
And you get your employees fully interested in the outcome of the business since they're not owners.
Charles
Two things are one is, again, like I said, micromanaging, right? I don't look over the shoulder; I really empower them and let them make decisions. And I don't override their decision unless I really have to. And they have to live and die by that decision, whether it's success or failure, and it's okay; it's a failure. But I need to know why they make that certain decision, both good and bad. So really, you have to feel like they owned a company and that date and decisions matter, right? So I'm not going to override every decision they make that they don't own it. So they have to own it. And the second day is the vision. They really have to blow the budget date back, they can't work for the money, they can't work for the salary were more of a startup, a lot of my guys are three guys are from Wharton MBA, you know, unless they believe the vision. But what we are building would never work for me. And to the right culture.
Ryan
I like the way we're starting this a lot, a lot of great advice that now I want to switch back to the personal development side habits and whatnot. And, you know, we have a couple of questions for you that we talked about before we started recording; give us a big win. And then let's talk about how you start your mornings.
Charles
So, you know, I have had big wins every day, sometimes big losses, but I've been getting returnable wins. But for me, the wins are everything I do is storytelling. And what I try to do is understand the story of all my clients, I work with a lot of NBA players and NFL players and musicians, and I work with different organizations. What I always tell them is what I want to know is their story of origin. Like how did they become famous basketball players, right? Or a football player? Like, what did it take to get there? When we watch Marvel Comics, right, we'd be the movie we know how Spider-Man became Spider-Man or Superman became Superman, right? And as human beings, we love the story of origin, right? We want everybody wants to learn the secret sauce, that's how you go to, you know, the bookstore at the airport, everything's how to, you know, how to lose weight, how to be successful, right? Everybody wants the secret sauce. And that's the story that we want to tell to our audience and to their fans. So for me, I'm learning every day, every day is weird, because it's almost like reading a book, like an autobiography, sort of, you know, for every one of my clients. So every day is a learning experience for me. So for me, that's what I consider a big win like that. How do you start your mornings? You know, I don't have a set routine, you know, I don't, you know, wake up at 6 am. And I'll go work out. I'm more of a spiritual person. So I'm a Christian, you know, God is really important in my life, right? So I'm not doing this for money, you know, not for my own personal, you know, effort in terms of glory. Right? Because at the end of the day, you know, we die, we die, right? We can't take it with us. But it's for me, while I'm alive, how am I going to make an impact on the world? Right? Or is that a legacy, but it's more about that about me? Me, I want to be a servant leader. So it's always when I wake up, you know, I talked about, like, how can I serve? Right, others in a way that I can have a positive impact, you know, in their life, right? So for me, you know, one of my prayers is like, I have to believe that winning at all costs, it's not really winning. And I have to hold on to the truth, even though it's unpopular. So I want to be the person who will stand when all others walk away or kneel, you know, and that's what I try to like when I start the day, that's what I try to think about it like, am I going to be that person? And am I going to be that person who's going to stand and not walk away? Am I going to believe that, you know, winning at all costs, it's not winning? So sometimes, you know, during the business, you get swayed by money and other stuff, right? But I have to sort of reflect on what does that mean for myself personally and for my company? And sometimes you have to remind yourself every day because you forget.
Ryan
Yeah, especially because you said you had a lot of things coming at you now. So you have to filter through those opportunities through your values. It sounds like you're saying you mentioned the word impact. So I like that word. And in your baking days, and it was a big job, very stressful. Did you get pulled, like what pulls you into entrepreneurship, where you just felt like you wanted to try something different? And yes, how did you take it? How did you get the courage to leap into the entrepreneurial world?
Charles
Yeah, good question. As I said in the beginning, is that accidental? So I've never planned to, but you know, I've worked with dozens of companies, you know, and over my career as a banker, as an investor, now as an entrepreneur, and I try to keep everything simple because it's all about simplicity, complexity. So when I look at successful companies like Uber or Airbnb, SpaceX is an unsuccessful company that fails. It's all about solving problems. So I always look at companies and, you know, an opportunity as, what is the problem? How big is the problem? Who's solving the problem no one thought; how can I solve it? So Uber solves the taxi problem. You know, Airbnb solves the hotel problem. So they're solving a big problem. Like once you write Uber, you're not going back to riding taxis, right? For the most part, the same thing with me when I started my company; I didn't realize this, right? I happened to go to a party that Dwayne Wade had, and he signed a huge shoe deal with leaning, a Chinese Shoe Company. He asked me one question and kind of sent me off. He says, Hey, Charles, I have millions of fans in China. Is there any other way I can monetize, say, beyond a shoe deal? Right? It really made me think, and I the way I answered them; I said, this was the wait, I said, I said, technology has changed. Everything has completely shifted the power to you, meaning 20 years ago, for the internet right before Twitter and talking to your audience or your fan. So you need the brands to beat that spokesperson, right? Today, you have Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, and all these social media. As you are the brand, you can speak to your fans directly. What that means is you have the power to own your own brand and business and IP, meaning, yes, you can sign with Adidas or Nike, but they'll give you great money. But at the end of the day, they own everything. They own all the IP and the trademark. And I told them, look, all the NBA team owners, all the NFL team owners, they never play basketball, or football, maybe Magic Johnson, right? The team owner. But how did they make money? Well, they own the company; Mark Cuban sold his company, made hundreds of millions, and bought Dallas Mavericks. Right now. He's been there writing hit his check. So, you have to be an owner. That's how you build generational wealth. And then, as I dug deeper into the industry, I realized, you know, these guys didn't know how to build wealth and build ownership. So I said, I'm gonna solve that problem. But that's how I started craving it literally to solve that problem and bring them to a market of 1.5 billion people. We still weren't monetizing.
Ryan
And the athletes and musicians are you working with right now?
Charles
We have about 30 it's growing. Pretty, fairly solid, yeah?
Ryan
Excellent. Yeah, that's excellent. Okay, so I want to go and go to the two questions that we spoke about before we started recording. Because I think, you know, I think it'd be really helpful for my audience. The first one is around your ambition and enthusiasm for the business. And I think you've touched upon it a little bit here. But it's, you can feel it on the previous mastermind call Gharana could feel it from you there. Where does that come from? Is it just like you get just excited about solving problems, or is something else feeding that energy?
Charles
Yeah, you know, what, I personally have a lot of energy. But yeah, solving problem really energizes me because whether your business or even personally, each one of us has a lot of problems with stress in our life, right? Now, if I can solve one and pick one of your problems away, man, you're gonna be a lot happier. And you're gonna thank me, right? So, you know, every day, we're inundated with a lot of problems and issues that come up every day. And for me, I love solving that problem. And you know, and, again, simplifying people's lives, right, in a way that now they have more time to spend there with their family, or they can use that time to do other things like go fishing, or camping, whatever they want to do, that's gonna make them happier, right, or fulfill their lives. So yeah, what really energizes me is really about, you know, how do I simplify and solve problems for people? During the process? I have to tell you, I learned a lot it really helps me because I learned so much, right? About subjects and topics that I had never known before. Or I don't even know if it was a problem. Are you an avid reader? Yes. And no, I do more these days audiobooks. So yeah, I like to read audiobooks, but not necessarily like self-help books, but more history. You know, I like to read autobiographies because, again, I'm learning sort of their story of origin, right, whether it's a president or whether there's an inventor, you know, or someone like that. So I'd like to read sort of historical autobiography books. Yeah.
Ryan
My brother Scott, listens to this podcast. And he's gonna. He's gonna love that answer because he listens to the, you know, the biographies of the Presidents like these 30-40 hour beasts on Audible. You know, he plows through those, right,
Charles
Right. That's what I do exactly.
Ryan
I got one last question for you. And then we're gonna wrap up with you telling everyone how they can connect with you if they want to reach out to you. So my last question to you speaks to my audience, the introverts, and I guess it was the amber verts, the ones that are kind of in between. Think I've got that right. I know you do phone calls all day with your clients and prospective clients, you're speaking to these athletes and musicians, and just, you're always talking, meeting, traveling. Give us some conversational skills for the, for my audience, for those listening where it does not come naturally. Give us some skills.
Charles
Right? I would say number one is emotion. So like we talked about earlier, you know, there has to be some sort of passion, a motion to the communication, and to have to feel that energy. So if you're talking about a certain product or whatever service, well, you have to feel excited about it, you have to feel it, you have to want it. And I think I think that's really important the emotion of the conversation. And secondly, it's really understood the other party and how they receive that communication. I always tell young people it's about clarity; I just tell them if you cannot tell the other person, your idea, your message within 30 seconds. It's a problem. Right? They have to understand and decipher that information within 30 seconds and be able to relate back to you as they understand it. Because, again, it's all about clarity, right? So one method is, you know, when someone talks really slow, right, that's their pace; everyone has their own pace. So I tend to talk a little bit slower because I talk super fast, and they can't understand me to shame it the other way; if someone talks super fast, and they're like, going a million miles an hour, well, you have to sort of beat that pace. Because if you talk really slow like this, they won't listen to you. They've already tuned you out. So I would say is really understanding who the other listener is, understanding where perspective where they're coming from, and why would they listen to you? Why would they spend time listening to you about your message or whatever your pitches are called anything else?
Ryan
In the first part, you mentioned that it resonates with me if you don't, it was good. But like the first part, you said about having a passion for the topic and whatnot. It made me think of there's a podcast and a Skype Alex for Mozi. I'm sure you're familiar with him as a younger guy but very successful in multiple businesses. And he was he's got a great podcast, and the one I was listening to ironically, today, he was talking about like sales tips and whatnot. And he was saying you have to have a passion for it. You're selling a belief in what you're selling because then that energy will transmit from you to the person you're trying to convince. And so that passionate energy, and it's kind of what you touched upon. So thanks for pointing that out.
Charles
Yeah, I mean, we don't buy anything logically, right? Everything's emotional buying, like, we don't need, like, 90% of the stuff that we purchase. We don't really need it for survival, but we buy it because it's all emotion.
Ryan
So true. Well, thanks. This is great. Thanks for sharing. If someone wants to reach out to you, where should we send them?
Charles
So my name is Charles Kim. My company is called Crave Global. My website is www.craveglobal.com. But you can always email me my email is Charles@craveglobal.com. Happy to, you know, talk to anyone you know; I love meeting people, one of my mantras. I never say no to a meeting. Because, again, you never know where you're going to meet or what you're gonna learn. So what am I other? Somebody someone asked me once, you know, what is your sort of vision and goal in life, and I always tell them, my goal is to meet all the Yoda masters around the world because I don't have time to learn everything. But if I can meet the experts, the Yoda masters of whatever category or subject matter, there is just going to help me grow much faster. So my goal is to meet all the Yoda masters around the world.
Ryan
Excellent. And just a follow-up tweet you sent me, you say you never say no to a meeting. I'm assuming you mean phone meetings, like if you get invited to networking events, and both are really okay.
Charles
Oh yeah, I'll travel to different countries. I went once went to China, flew 12 hours just for dinner, and I flew back.
Ryan
That's the next level. That's excellent. Okay,
Charles
So as a person, if they know that I flew 12 hours each way to China to have dinner with them. We're here with respect. It shows that, hey, you are an important person to me. And I'm willing to do this to meet you. So if I can, I try to do a personal meeting because it's much more impactful, obviously, with COVID. You know, we'd love to have you do it, and I know. And I always tell people don't ever turn off their video. I think it's very rude to turn off the video when you're doing zoom. Again, it sends a message like this. You know what? You're not that important. Even though we're doing zoom, I don't even want you to see my face. So I don't care what I look like. I'll have my Zoom video on to show just to show that, hey, you are important to me.
Ryan
Yeah, I try to tell my team that too. Because if your videos are off, especially with if you're with a client, it's like, you know, it shows you're not paying attention. And, you know, as you said, it's just a lack of respect or interest. So yeah, I agree with you there. Charles, this is great. Thanks for everything you shared. Have a great day.
Charles
Thank you, Ryan, you too. Thank you so much.
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