Joshua Chin 12:55
Just putting yourself out there and just not hiding behind the shadows of building a business I think a lot of a lot of entrepreneurs are well, entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, there are people who are extroverted people who are much more introverted. And what do you What’s your advice for someone who may not be too keen on this meeting new people in general? Because you’re one of the friendliest guys. I know. And you’re one of the most well connected guys and ecom that I know, what’s your take on that kind of looking, if you had to kind of take a step back and look at your
Dr. Charles Livingston 13:35
so a couple different things on that if you’re an introvert and you hate doing that stuff, whenever you hate doing something, that’s usually a sign that you should be doing it, right. So you need to put yourself out there and even if you you know, set goals for yourself, like just focus on meeting one person, you know, if it’s like that much of a fear to like, put yourself out there, just start with one person, then the next time be like, I’m gonna meet one more person this day. Right? That’s it if that’s just baby, step your way into it, but just put yourself in the situation where you you can you can meet people it’s things where it’s, it’s such a viable, easy thing to do. You just need to be there because who knows if you’re an introvert and you know somebody, you meet somebody, they introduce you to somebody else, and they’re like, Oh my gosh, this guy, you know, he’s a great copywriter is a great designer, or he has this great idea for a business. He’s looking for somebody, I think you guys would be perfect. So you didn’t do any talking. They just you you were just there in that moment. Okay. That makes sense. putting yourself out there, man.
Joshua Chin 14:47
That makes sense. And I think that’s that’s great advice. Kind of creating structures around goals around what you’re trying to achieve, especially for someone who that don’t Find networking or meeting new people. Just a regular thing of the of your lifestyle. That’s, that’s, that’s just great advice. Now let’s take a slight shift to your business Lifeboost Coffee. Now I’ve personally tried Lifeboost Coffee at at Blue Ribbon St. Pete and it was amazing. It was. And I think I told you this, that it is one of the only cop one of the only espressos that I’ve had that doesn’t give me a crash pretty much immediately afterwards, and doesn’t mess with my like, my stomach acid and stuff like that. And it’s incredible. I didn’t know this, but after the fact is one of is a very low acid coffee. That is also organic. And it’s free from basically what we call mycotoxins that comes from mold on the coffee. Just speak a little bit to that and what how do you how do you find out about this in the first place? Was it a personal issue that you have with coffee? Or was it some observation that you made?
Dr. Charles Livingston 16:06
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. So I honestly I will give the thanks to Dave Asprey, The Bulletproof Executive right from Bulletproof Coffee, he actually awakened to me to like the coffee world and, you know, a lot of the nuances and a lot of the dangers and pitfalls. I was never really a coffee guy. Um, you know, I drink Starbucks, and, you know, a lot of the foofy drinks before that. It was like super low with sugar, and I would never feel great afterwards. Right. So then I started to do Bulletproof Coffee with, I’m not a black coffee drinker, I usually put like, you know, cream, and his whole thing is like putting butter in the coffee and MCT oil, which I did that for a while, then I created my own variation of that for Lifeboost. But, you know, he awaken me to mycotoxins and understanding, which is basically it’s mold. A lot of those, you know, I can’t remember the the, the data I think was like 70% of coffee beans have mold on them. Um, so it’s just, you know, it’s, it’s one of those things where my whole goal is to make sure that you decrease the amount of toxins you put in your body. Right. So yeah, I mean, some of them they say that some of them, you know, a lot of that gets burned off with the roasting process. Yes, but you’re still getting some. So this is why we third party test. And we have like, we created a process that we call trust fear. That’s like a list of like 14 different things we check off to make sure that, you know, our coffee is what it says it is right. And one of the things we do is we test for mycotoxins to make sure it’s, you know, negligible to where it’s, it’s gonna affect you. So and the other thing is it’s weird because with coffee it it’s one of the things that happens is that I guess the US has their laws for for importing coffee is much more lax in Europe. So what happens if Europe? If it doesn’t pass Europe? A lot of times we’ll send it to the US?
Joshua Chin 18:08
Okay,
Dr. Charles Livingston 18:09
yeah. Well, I didn’t know that. Europe is much more strict when it comes to that. I see it Oh, I’m like it. I thought that was pretty interesting. Like, okay.
Joshua Chin 18:20
That’s, that’s interesting. Because, so I’m not sure if you notice, but where I’m from in Singapore and Malaysia, we, we have a we have a very different coffee culture. I mean, it’s a very common common thing for for for adults to drink coffee in the morning. We call it kopi. Oh, it just means coffee without milk. That’s coffee. Oh, it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a Chinese dialect. That means Ooh. Which means dark, essentially.
Dr. Charles Livingston 18:53
So drink a black.
Joshua Chin 18:55
Yeah, black coffee, right with a little sugar. That’s that’s a variation of the coffee. But the beans that we use in this area. It’s It’s It’s really cheap. It’s very cheap coffee. It’s a I believe it’s robusta beans, roasted beans. So they’re really, really cheap and very bitter. And the taste of coffee isn’t what what people go for. in the morning. It’s just part of a ritual of a routine, right? Yeah, so I’m curious as to what your ritual looks like in the morning. I mean, 50 odd percent of a world drinks coffee and daily basis. That is incredible. Crazy, isn’t it? It’s it’s crazy that that’s something I didn’t know. And for something that is kind of such such an essential part of just the human condition. I think it’s pretty important to personally I think it’s pretty important to put something that’s high quality and healthy into your body. Every single day, what’s your routine in the morning? what’s a typical day for you?
Dr. Charles Livingston 20:05
Yeah, sure. Okay. So when I get up right now I just started doing this, I take something called modified citrus pectin, which is, so I just dump a scoop of that in water. And I’ll chug it because it’s bitter and gross. But it binds to toxins. And so it allows you to flush toxins out of your body. So I started that, then I’ll usually do a greens powder, which is like powdered fruits and vegetables. You know, I’ll either do that or kombucha, which is like fermented new tea, that’s that it’s got probiotics and stuff in it. So I’ll do one or one or one of those. And then usually around 10 o’clock, is when I have a coffee. And I’ll have like, you know, I always just cycled through my coffee says, I always want to just be tasting all the different variations and making sure they’re on point. And in that. So what I do is, I’m a big cold brew fan. So I’ll cold brew my coffee. And then you know, from there, I’ll add, you know, collagen and MCT oil and blend that together with a cold brew, and then I’ll do some heavy whipping cream. heavy whipping cream is, in my opinion, better than butter because it has more immune properties, and it doesn’t raise your cholesterol. So I use an organic, heavy whipping cream. So it makes it absolutely delicious coffee that I look forward to every single day. And so I don’t eat in the mornings, I intermittent fast. So I don’t usually eat till like 1pm
Joshua Chin 21:40
Gotcha. That’s actually that’s actually a very similar routine. I intermittent fast as well. What is the what has been I know that kind of morning rituals and morning routines tend to change over time, I guess not so much this year, we’re all kind of stuck at home, especially when you’re traveling. What has been the number one thing that doesn’t change? No matter what you do, no matter what changes goes on in your life that’s always stays
Dr. Charles Livingston 22:13
probably a coffee cup for real. Like if I’m traveling or something like the first thing I think about is like where am I gonna get find good coffee from? Or I bring my own? So yeah.
Joshua Chin 22:25
Do you have travel versions of of Lifeboost? Or are you for like little sachets I’ve seen versions of like little fighter prebuilt.
Dr. Charles Livingston 22:40
So I’ve toyed around with it. I have the ability to I just I don’t I haven’t yet we’ve had we have so many things on our plate that I have not gotten to yet. So I’m I’m still contemplating whether I want to do trial versions or not. Because we’re very customer focused on our business. So if somebody doesn’t like it, or just like return it to us, like back,
Joshua Chin 23:05
right,
Dr. Charles Livingston 23:06
I’m gonna, you know, make you keep something that you don’t like. So whether give credit. I mean, we give a 30 day guarantee. So they have plenty of time to figure out they like,
Joshua Chin 23:16
yeah, a 30 day guarantee, even if I’ve opened, yeah. Wow. Okay,
Dr. Charles Livingston 23:24
guess what a refund rate is?
Joshua Chin 23:28
What is it? Like? 1%? point? 6%. Yep. Point 6% refund. That’s, that’s incredible. So that’s 99.4% of your customers are 100% happy? Because they have the option. Right? They have the option of just sending it back. Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s amazing. And I like to that, is that is a core value or core principle of yours that customer centricity. 100%? Is does it resonate throughout your entire team? Does it?
Dr. Charles Livingston 24:05
Does it? What we do what I told my, my team is a word Yes, company. So that’s kind of one of our mantras, one of the things we go by as well. Yes, company. So whatever you have to do to make the customer feel good, do it, right. They need to exchange they need to return you know, whatever it is make it easy on him. Just make them happy. I mean, you and then the big, you know, blowback or the pushback on that is oh my gosh, got all these people who are going to try to scam you and stuff. You know when they’re trying to scam you. Right? Like it’s blatantly obvious. Yeah, you can just tell them their demeanor and what they say then, you know, you either be like we’re only gonna do this one time only, or you just, you know, blacklist them or whatever you need to do if they’re like crazy, right? No.
Joshua Chin 24:56
Right. That’s that’s, that’s really interesting. I mean, A 30 day guarantee is, especially for consumable like coffee is because you can reuse coffee or you can read repackage that and sell. It’s once it’s used, it’s used. Yeah. What are the core values or core principles? That guy that has guided you in growing your business till today?
Dr. Charles Livingston 25:24
Yeah, so for me, it’s like me personally, or the business? Or both? Or?
Joshua Chin 25:29
Both? I think, um, I think what I’m interested in understanding is what has guided you, in building your business, and as well as what have guided your team and your company as a whole?
Dr. Charles Livingston 25:44
Yeah, yeah, that’s a great question. So one of the things I’m huge on is just treat others like you want to be treated the golden rule, right? Yeah, treat people like you want to be treated. It’s not rocket science. So it’s that, you know, just be kind, above all else, you know, it’s really easy to get, especially this or 2020, right. But it’s very easy to get very emotional about all the craziness in the world, and politics, and you know, all this stuff. So, above all, you just need to remember that, you know, despite those type of beliefs, we’re all human, we all deserve to be loved and cared for. And we all still have things in common, right. So focus on the commonality commonality with each other and focus on working together instead of, you know, tearing each other apart. Because nothing will ever get done when you’re tearing each other apart like that. So that’s one thing that we’re always talking about. The other is just doing random acts of kindness for people, right. So we’ll like, for instance, one of the things we do with our company is, you know, I’ll send an email and be like, Hey, if you’re a first responder or something, and you have, you know, if your hospital or whatever, it needs some coffee, you know, let us know, we’ll send some over so that we’ll send some to the military, we’ve taken some different fire stations around locally as well as like Texas, and you know, any, you know, firemen who are, who are customers who hear about us doing that, and then ask for the firehouse will, will do things like that, just helping each other, right. Another big one for me is to do what you say you will do. And this is like one of the core values I passed down to the team as well is just, if you’re going to be on my team, if you’re going to work with me, you need to do what you will say what you will do, right? super important. I, I live by that mantra, if I tell you, I’m going to do something, I will do it. And I try to get it done in a timely manner. You know, nobody’s ever 100% perfect. But the goal is to just make sure that you do what you say will do. So those are two very important things for me.
Joshua Chin 27:48
Gotcha. That’s, that’s really, really cool. I see that, well. Obviously, your company’s values have to come from your values to some degree. Where has that come from? You know, it’s it’s very interesting to see a company that has done so well. Do good, really well as at the same time. And I think it’s, it’s counterintuitive to some people that companies that do well can also do good in a sustainable way. What what’s, where did that come from? What’s your guiding? is there other mentors that you kind of look up to in these principles? Or, rather, where’s that origin from?
Dr. Charles Livingston 28:36
Yeah, so, I mean, I’m a Midwest, from a small town in the Midwest, so country bumpkin, or hick or whatever, you want to call it that redneck. That’s where I’m from so small town, USA. So our core values were very, you know, take care your neighbors, you know, saying behind, you know, cuz this small town, so if you don’t, then everybody talks, and then you get labeled, right. So. But, I mean, I grew up in a Christian community. So I guess by religion, I’m Christian. So a lot of those values will just come through. It just ran through all the companies. So but you know, now it’s just like, all the mistakes I made in the past. You know, I try not to repeat again, so they’ve all just kind of accumulated. And so on this journey I’m on right now. You know, I’m trying not to repeat old mistakes.
Joshua Chin 29:34
Talking that that’s that’s awesome. Talking about mistakes. What is the number one mistake that you have made in building Lifeboost Coffee?
Dr. Charles Livingston 29:44
Oh, man, the number one mistake that I’ve made building Lifeboost um, that’s a good question.
Joshua Chin 29:56
Or rather, what’s what was the best failure that you You’ve had
Dr. Charles Livingston 30:02
the best failure that I’ve had in Lifeboost or in general?
Joshua Chin 30:09
Which, whichever stands out to you.
Dr. Charles Livingston 30:11
Okay, so I guess for me, it was, you know, not focusing on something and getting shiny object syndrome. And so like we built, like, for instance, the digital Fat Loss Factor, we built it up, we were doing eight figures a year, um, but then, you know, we hit some rough patches, and instead of like digging deeper, we kind of let it die, right? So is because one of those things that a good business is boring. And so as an entrepreneur, it’s very hard for you to be bored, or it’s very easy for you to get bored. And then you look for the next shiny thing. And so there’s, you know, a lot, there’s so many just different shiny objects that I chased that, you know, I failed at. And, you know, if I would have stuck with something that I look back, I’m like, Oh, my gosh, I would have been at an eight figure business easily, you know, different things like that. So that’s why I said that focus was a big one, for me just really putting a lot of intention and focus and going deep instead of like, why write your stuff, because you get the, you know, build the multiple streams of income and stuff. But in order to do that, you need to have one deep well, that provides for you, then once you have a good base, and you have a team around you that you can open up, you just need to make sure that you’re you’re doing it in a responsible way. Because if you ever try to shotgun something, like 99.9% never works out to what you think it’s gonna work out to.
Joshua Chin 31:48
It’s really interesting. That’s really interesting, because that’s a very soon I have a very similar experience to that without without the successes. Chronos is actually my first company, my first business, as well as my first job. So it became kind of essential for me to just hunker down and focus on just building the company, building the agency well, and serving the clients that we have, well, to the best of our abilities. And that was that turned out to be really, really a really, really good decision, even though we had to say no to tons of opportunities and, and ideas that could have been a major success, but would have derailed us from our key focus as an agency. And it turned out well, I mean, it’s first business and all. So with Lifeboost, looking forward into just this year, right in 2021. Are there any shiny objects in your horizon in your life? Right now? Yeah, for you right now. Anything that you think is clean,
Dr. Charles Livingston 33:05
there’s always shiny stuff, but like, I’ve done what you’ve done, and just put the blinders on. And I’ve just, you know, I, I know now, it was very hard at first. But now as I see the growth, and I see what happens when I put intention and focus, like deep focus on something, the growth that happens, and just the understanding the deeper understanding of the business and a business in general, right, you get that there’s definitely power in that. So knowing that, now, it’s less easy for me to get derailed from any shiny objects. So at this point, no,
Joshua Chin 33:48
gotcha, gotcha. So that that comes of experience.
Dr. Charles Livingston 33:54
took me a long time, and you
Joshua Chin 33:57
got it. You mentioned a good business is a boring business, a boring business, a good business? What is currently boring to you, but deep down, you know that in building Lifeboost trying to do that, you know, that that’s super important, super impactful that you should keep doing, but you just hate doing. Oh, yeah, like that,
Dr. Charles Livingston 34:21
like, boring things. Like, you know, making sure you’re staying top on top of the numbers and the analytics and you know, financials and you know, really focusing on being data driven, and not just emotional driven and what you think and, you know, digging into the trends, and cuz it’s easy to like, see another company do product and think that, oh my gosh, this is amazing what they’ve done. I want to do this too. And then you try to do something similar, but you don’t really know the depth of the research that they put into it to figure out if it was accessible because it may not be it could be in the testing mode still. So Just like things like that. Um, but yeah, I mean that with Lifeboost right now, like I absolutely love with the business. Like I said, I think we talked about this previously that just so many different things I want to do with it still, one of my favorite things to do is product development. I just absolutely love that. So for me, it’s just like planning that out for the future is one of the non boring things. So I spend a lot of time on that. Like I said, it’s more the analytics, because I’m not unlike you. I’m not the numbers guy. So I’m more the visionary, the creator, in the back end guy.
Joshua Chin 35:46
Sure. It’s incredible. Who are your mentors? And have they evolved over time? Or has there been mentors that you go back to again? And again? Yeah,
Dr. Charles Livingston 36:00
Great question. Um, so one of my mentors used to be Oprah’s financial planner. And I’ve been with this guy he’s worth like, I don’t know, like $600 million or something. Wow. But he’s, you know, just a real down to earth guy. And just really is like, bought and sold, like, I don’t know, like, 30 different businesses. So he’s been through the whole gambit. And, yeah, I mean, he’s done it all. So whenever I need advice, and you know, about these type of things, I always go to him. And then, you know, him obviously, like, guys, like Ezra, he’s, you know, a friend and a mentor. Just somebody that, like, I’ll go to for advice for things. And my business partners, my best bud, who got me into it, you know, I have I keep a council people, right? So depending on the question, depending on, you know, what I’m doing depends on who will ask. Or if it’s like a big decision, like, hey, should I sell? Like, if I’m selling business, right, and I get an offer? I would pass it by all we think, good or bad. Before? You know, that’s my first step. And then you do you’re obviously sent to your lawyer and stuff. But guy, a council of people who are much smarter than me,
Joshua Chin 37:29
a council of people who are much smarter than you? Yeah, that’s incredible. How do you begin that relationship with a potential mentor?
Dr. Charles Livingston 37:43
I’m one I paid to play, you know, a lot of the money I made, I poured right back into my own personal education. I spent, oh my gosh, I’ve spent, like, a few years I’ve spent like, 50 to 100,000 simply on just education just for me, I just learning and growing and, you know, trying to, to break into circles of people that I wanted to meet, things like that. So you got to be willing to pay that and understand that there will be halo effect from that. And the fact that, you know, you just one just getting it in there is the first step in just getting to know people and I mean, if you’re nice and kind, and not a weirdo and like act all like either starstruck or, you know, act, you know, just super awkward, then I have a problem with anybody. Um, so, I mean, you used to be nuts, like, like I said, it’s not rocket science, you just be nice to people. That’s all you got to do. And then people will just be nice back. And then you can start conversation, you can start a relationship from the conversation.
Joshua Chin 39:03
I love this, this comes back to your core values and your guiding principles and building a team as well. What, what’s next for Lifeboost Coffee.
Dr. Charles Livingston 39:13
So the next step is to, you know, focus on, you know, selling to a strategic partner, to help with growing even more. So, we’ve got, you know, we’ve still got, you know, some things that we want to do, but we also know that we’re interested in, you know, selling and pulling on a strategic partner because I, I know that I don’t know everything, and, and my partner feels the same way. We’re, we’re here we’re having a great time building it. We’re taking as far as we can go with our skills, but ultimately, to get to that next level of breaking, you know, we want to go to 100 million. So we’re even past 100 million in order to do that. You know, there’s some strategic pieces that we need. To add, so that’s kind of the next steps.
Joshua Chin 40:03
That’s super exciting what what a, what would an ideal strategic partner look like? Or how would you identify strategic partner?
Dr. Charles Livingston 40:16
So it wouldn’t be just about, you know, just taking money, they can just bring money to the table. And that’s it. It needs to be, you know, somebody who is well versed in operations, I would say, or who has, you know, logistics overseas or something like that, that can help to accelerate the growth of Lifeboost? Right. So we’re not in it just to take somebody else’s money.
Joshua Chin 40:48
Gotcha. And 100 mil, that’s a that’s, that sounds like a really big number, is that a number that kind of came out of a discussion? Or is that that was, that has always been a plan. It’s always
Dr. Charles Livingston 41:07
been the plan. So when my partner and I sat down and discussed what we wanted to do, like 100 million, so that’s, you know, it’s one of those things where you shoot for the moon, you’ll land among the stars, even if we don’t, it’s gonna be a great ride. But we, we built out a plan that we think can get us there.
Joshua Chin 41:33
So that’s incredible. That’s amazing. So let’s say that it’s the 31st of December 2021, what must have happened for you, for you to say, this has been an incredible year. For you, personally,
Dr. Charles Livingston 41:54
I would say growing the business 50 to 100%. So essentially doubling the business, that’s gonna be the like, yes, that’s what we set out to do. This is that’s kind of our thing.
Joshua Chin 42:13
That’s amazing.
Dr. Charles Livingston 42:15
And maybe, maybe sell, you know, that’s, like I said, that was the end result. So even like, we do a little bit, you know, if we take off a portion, just for that strategic growth, that strategic buyer, that special someone we’re looking for.
Joshua Chin 42:35
And we are awesome. We will we’ll check in again, on that progress. And I think it’s gonna be really interesting to talk about the process of finding a strategic partner process of selling, what parties are involved, because that is where I, I will from in my, in my conversations, that’s where most brands would want to be add, but don’t typically don’t have much of an idea of what that process could look like. So that’s gonna be really cool. Really interesting. here’s a here’s, here’s a quick one. When, what was what was eight year old? Charles says, aspirations, what do you want to do? Before your chiropractor and everything else? What was your childhood ambition?
Dr. Charles Livingston 43:36
So when I when I was eight years old? Oh, yeah, I wanted to be a black belt in martial arts. That was my thing. I always knew I wanted to be a doctor at that age, probably because everybody, it was an old thing that you know, a lot of the older generations would say would be Dr. Livingston. So I would get that like, every day at school, some teacher would say that to me. So it was that sir, what
Joshua Chin 44:03
was that phrase?
Dr. Charles Livingston 44:05
It was the it was a Dr. Livingston, I presume? I think it was from like an old Sherlock Holmes, like, show or movie or something.
Joshua Chin 44:14
Oh, interesting. Okay.
Dr. Charles Livingston 44:16
Like literally like the older generations here for that non stop since I was young, all the way through high school, even in college, even people I would meet. So the older generations now. I mean, that’s the first thing they say, oh, Dr. Livingston, I presume? Like Yep, it was like, in the stars. I was supposed to be a doctor of something. So
Joshua Chin 44:36
Wow. That’s That’s incredible. What do you think that if circumstances were a little bit different than instead of a doctor, people, like people around you were if, if people around you have had expectations for you to be safe As a lawyer, for instance, authors or scientists, would you have changed in in a career path? Or do you think it was something else?
Dr. Charles Livingston 45:11
I think it was the day. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit ever since I was younger. I was in I think it was in sixth grade. And I was in a multi level marketing.
Joshua Chin 45:22
No, really.
Dr. Charles Livingston 45:23
I was I was selling phone cards, because I was before we had, you know, we were all like corded phones. Yeah. You know, typing cards to call on business. We do like a prepaid phone card, right? Yep. So selling those in sixth grade to adults, that somehow they would buy them from me. I don’t know how I was able to sell those. But I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. That led me towards some type of owning a business.
Joshua Chin 45:53
That’s amazing. Okay, now I would have loved to to dive deep into that. Maybe the next conversation. But just a couple of final questions. Quick one, rapid fire round. What are your favorite books that you’re currently reading? Or favorite books of all time?
Dr. Charles Livingston 46:13
Who? Great, great, great question. I just finished. This one Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. Well, I got to get it on Audible, because he reads it himself. No, really? Oh, it’s incredible man. He’s just, he’s such a prolific thinker. And a lot of wisdom in there. And it was fun to hear his backstory and how it affected his his life. Right? A lot of wisdom in that in this book for sure. Another great one that I just read, my partner actually introduced to here’s a funny story, actually. So my partner introduced me to this author, his name is Trevor Blake. And he wrote this book called Three Simple Steps. And one of the steps that he talked about, because I bought it on Audible. And I was listening to it. And one of the steps he talked about was setting intentions on things, right. And so as he was talking about that, I was like, You know what, it’d be really cool to meet this guy. I bet. You know, he has some wisdom on Lifeboost and stuff. And so the next day, you know, I’m checking my email, because what I do with my email is I go ahead, and I forward all my customer support emails into my my personal Gmail account, because I just, it’s my way of just scanning real quick, it’s a lot. But I seen a lot. So I can see the patterns of what people are complaining about what I need to fix. And every once in a while, I’ll go in, I’ll respond different people to help my team out if it’s a hard question or just to, you know, bless them and just give them you know, some because people like sometimes write their life stories, and they’re telling me that they’re, you know, somebody close to them died or something, because, like, in my email marketing, I’m very, you know, I very transparent, I opened up about different things like that. And so like, I’ll respond to people. But I see this name in there, and it says, Trevor Blake, some like in my customer support, so I click on it, and like, the picture is the same pictures on this book. So I hit reply, and he’s like, Oh, I didn’t get my coffee yet. So he reply, I’m like, is this the Trevor Blake who wrote Three Simple Steps? And then like, within my apparently he was on the computer the same time I was within like, three minutes, I get an email back saying, Yes, it is. And so I wrote this, like this paragraph, I was like, Oh my gosh, man, I literally, last night was listening to Three Simple Steps. I set my intention that I would like to meet you someday. So we could talk, you know, about Lifeboost behold, it was him. And I was like, I told my my my customer service managers like send this guy some free coffee, make sure he’s prioritized get him whatever he needs ASAP. This guy’s a life changer for many, many people. So he needs his coffee.
Joshua Chin 49:18
That is incredible.
Dr. Charles Livingston 49:19
But I was like, I told him that story and then he ended up talking you know, using that story and example for his on his podcast or whatever, but I was just so crazy.
Joshua Chin 49:28
Do you know do you manage to meet with him in person?
Dr. Charles Livingston 49:31
Not yet. He’s in Seattle. So that’s on the to do list so we’ll you know I’m gonna join all probably he’s got like a membership or some or he’s got a couple courses I’m gonna go through. I’ve got a he actually sent me an autographed copy of his his his other book Secrets of Successful Startups. So we’ll read that person and
Joshua Chin 49:53
guide you that you
Dr. Charles Livingston 49:54
never know it’s kind of crazy in business. You just never know who drinks your coffee, right? uses your product.
Joshua Chin 50:01
Yeah, yeah, that’s I guess that’s one of the one of the perks of just having an incredible product that people love.
Dr. Charles Livingston 50:08
Yeah, definitely.
Joshua Chin 50:10
What is what are some of the what are some of your favorite podcasts right now that you’re listening to?
Dr. Charles Livingston 50:19
Favorite podcasts? I took a hiatus from podcasts for a while simply because I had so many books backlogged on Audible. That hadn’t yet
Joshua Chin 50:28
okay.
Dr. Charles Livingston 50:28
So, I took a hiatus on podcast. I’m like, I like Mike Dillard. I listened to his I listened to I’m trying to think who else is the Dave Asprey, The Bulletproof I listened to Bethel, which is a Christian, it’s a church out in Redding, California, they have a very good message that they just put on the podcast. So I listened to him weekly. Um, yeah, I mean, right now, those are the ones that I’ve been listening to that are top of mind. I’ve got a whole list of them that I was I was rotating through a bunch of different ones. But I had I’ve literally had to take it. So there’s just not enough time in the day.
Joshua Chin 51:12
Too much information. Yeah.
Dr. Charles Livingston 51:14
And then I’m doing video courses and you know, things like that, like, I’m right now I’m going through a power MBA. Okay. I don’t know, you probably that one happened to
Joshua Chin 51:24
you? I have I’ve not been through that.
Dr. Charles Livingston 51:28
It was a, it was a steal. And it’s like 750 bucks for a year’s worth of content, basically. And they drive it’s like 15 minute videos every single day, five days a week. And they run it through an entire year. They’ve got like, you know, the CEO of Wazes the CEO of Sugarfina. Like all these big companies, they go in and they dissect their business. And they break it down. It’s super simple. A lot of good stuff in it. Yeah.
Joshua Chin 51:55
Is it always sent out for 50 bucks per year? Or was that just a one time thing?
Dr. Charles Livingston 52:01
Yeah, well, it’s not. I think it was just for that, because it was like a one year program. So 750 bucks for that year.
Joshua Chin 52:10
Gotcha. Okay. Well,
Dr. Charles Livingston 52:11
I don’t know. Like, if there’s a continuation, I think I’m only, I don’t know, four months into it or whatever. Because I think it started in September.
Joshua Chin 52:19
Has it paid for itself? Four months?
Dr. Charles Livingston 52:23
Yeah, you know, I’ve definitely got a lot of good data from it and a lot of good insight. And, like, one of the top things they talked about is, like they talked about, like Eric Ries was in their Lean Startup guys. Yeah. I love his methodology. Right? The minimum viable product.
Joshua Chin 52:40
Love it. Yeah.
Dr. Charles Livingston 52:41
And so that’s kind of the framework, we base a lot of our of what we do off of it, starting with a minimum viable product and build it up. And then, like, give you a talk about Blue Ocean Strategy, things like that. So that’s one of my favorite things is Blue Ocean Strategy. So
Joshua Chin 52:58
very cool. Very cool. What uh, what are some of what are some of the other brands that you admire? In econ?
Dr. Charles Livingston 53:09
Oh, man, there’s so many. There’s so many in Ezra’s group. Oh, my goodness. His group has so many rock stars. I love everybody in my group. I’m like, obviously, Boom. You know, I think is a phenomenal job with that. Yeah, that’s probably one of the biggest I’m trying to think of. You put me on the spot, man. I lose marbles there.
Joshua Chin 53:34
You got to pick favorites.
Dr. Charles Livingston 53:36
Yeah, like Boom. I like like some, like BioTrust I He’s a good friend of mine, the owner of BioTrust, the owners of BioTrust are good friends of mine. Follow them on it nutrition. Trying to think who else a TruLife. Get around McKenzie and his group there. Those guys think they’ve done an incredible job. Yeah, there’s so many, like, that group is just full of rock stars. So
Joshua Chin 54:07
awesome. So And is there anything else that I haven’t asked you yet? You feel could be a good value add to the conversation.
Dr. Charles Livingston 54:18
I would just say you know what, whatever you’re doing or whatever you want to start, you know, do your research. Take your time and then just go after it. You know, be persistent. Take the bumps, learn from them. Just keep moving. I mean, that’s the I think what separates the people who win and who become successful in this arena are the ones who can stick through it. And just, it’s all problem solving, right? It’s just solving a bunch of problems. So it’s just your ability to have grit and stick with something
Joshua Chin 54:52
you know, and put your blinders on.
Dr. Charles Livingston 54:55
Put your blinders on and not get caught in science shiny object syndrome.
Joshua Chin 55:00
Charles. Dr. Charles, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
Dr. Charles Livingston 55:05
Hey, no problem, Josh anytime man.
Conclusion 55:11
Thanks for listening to the eCommerce Profits Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get notified of future episodes.
