Some Future Day

Marc Beckman: [00:01:00] [00:02:00] Andrew Cartwright, it is such an honor and a pleasure to have you join me today on Some Future Day. How are you?
Andrew Cartwright: Awesome. It's, it's beautiful here in Vegas. So just landed, came from DC. So, uh, loved it there. Spent a, about a week and a half there,
Marc Beckman: so I can't help but notice like, obviously you have these amazing cars behind you, vehicles behind you, but more obvious is right behind your head. It says reluctant, but I can't see. Billionaire. Got it. The reluctant billionaire. What's the purpose of that message?
Andrew Cartwright: I had a, a really close friend of mine. We were lobbying for, we've been lobbying for nine years on blockchain technology in uh, Wyoming. And we were on a flight coming back and, um, we were actually, uh, moving gold onto the blockchain in Wyoming. And my friend, uh, told me, he goes, you know, you're definitely a reluctant billionaire.
Like I have, there's been lots of ways that I could have, uh, become a billionaire, [00:03:00] but. There, the looking in the mirror and doing it, there's, I just, you know, I want, there's, there's people who have become billionaires that have done it on their own. Other people have smashed people into the ground. Um, litigation caught, stole their technology.
Like, um, you know, I don't wanna mention names like Bill Gates that took Steve's stuff, or, um, you know, crushing somebody down to 2% of their company or taking a company and then pretty much wiping out the founders and. And growing it. If you, if you look at a lot of billionaire tracks, um, there's a lot of people that they had to crush to get there.
I've had, taken an ethical path forward.
yeah, I mean, I could have gotten, uh, I big in the banking world. I could, I could accumulate debt and actually, you know, crush a lot of people financially and become a billionaire pretty easily knowing what I know. Um, you know, we've had collection agencies that have. Had as much as $5 billion [00:04:00] under management.
And uh, if you really wanted to, you know, and I sold outta all those companies 'cause I just couldn't, anything that doesn't bring joy to people's lives or doesn't contribute or add value, I'm just not interested in doing it. So any of the shortcuts to becoming a billionaire, just not interesting to me. Um, I, I'm, I'm done.
I don't have to work ever in my life, so it's not like I'm hurting. I got 86 streams of income, so, you
Marc Beckman: So let's talk about that for a second. When, when you say you have 86 streams of income, what does that mean? A little bit. Let's back up and talk about Andrew Cartwright, the, uh, brand builder, the business builder, what you've done to get up to this point today. And then let's catch at that, um, putting gold on the blockchain in Wyoming thing because, you know, obviously you and I share a lot of, uh, interest on that level.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah, I'm passionate about blockchain. Uh, you know, my journey started, my dad cut me off at 12 years old, and part of that, it wasn't to be mean, it's just [00:05:00] that when he was 12 years old, he was cut off. And he wanted me to become a man, be able to take care of a woman, get married, take care of kids the whole bit.
So he wanted me to be strong. So right out of the gate, um, I started, you know, at 12 years old, what do you do? You can't get a job, you can't really, what, what, who's hiring a 12-year-old? Right? So I started selling just goods and services at school. And then, um, I got a resell permit, uh, when I was a kid and started selling to Longs and Payless and.
Uh, Macy's General Goods, um, that were coming in from South Korea, uh, that I was bringing in and built that. And then I met a mentor, uh, at 15 years old Joey Koman, that I poured everything I had made at that point into the, uh, program that he created, uh, and was teaching. And I had my first patent in at, uh, 16 years old.
Um, I was, you know, got exclusive rights to several lines. One of those lines took [00:06:00] off. By 17, I had two, 200 employees. My youngest manager was 37 years old, and I was 17. Um, and that was all through understanding intellectual property, property rights, and how to, how to actually control a product. Um, so often, you know, when you're building something, a brand, especially if you can't control it, it's like Louis Vuitton, it, you know, uh, when you people look at it and they go, why are all these logos on the bag?
Anybody could make that bag. But when you put a logo on it and you trademark it, then no one can put your logo that you own on another bag. And that's what gives it the value from $200 to a $10,000 bag is because you own the mark that is on it. And that's something that I learned when I was 15. And every time I've gone back to the basics, which is understanding how the laws work in this country, I've been able to instantly, you know.
Surpass a hundred million [00:07:00] dollars pretty quick.
Marc Beckman: So Andrew, going back to the, um, uh, part of the conversation where you mentioned your father cut you off at 12, uh. You know, for me as a dad, it's hard to understand that I have an 8-year-old and a 16-year-old. So you were kind of like right in the middle of that. Um, what does that mean exactly? Like, did he sit you down at 12 years old?
At 12 year olds don't really have a great understanding of the world and, and, uh, great base of knowledge of foundational level of education. So what, what was that moment like? Like did he sit you down and say, son Andrew, I have bad news. You're on your own. Like, how, what was that about?
Andrew Cartwright: So I, I came home, he opened the door, grabbed me by the arm, lifted me up in the air. Brought me in my bedroom, basically sat me down on the, the bed and started yelling at me. So this was delivered with a yelling session, uh, that put me in after when he left the room, I was in a, a state of depression. It was, it rocked my world and, uh, [00:08:00] it, it was one of the, one of the hardest moments of my life.
Was that moment because I felt abandoned. I felt like, and it was my stepfather. It wasn't my biological father, but my stepfather that I was cut off. Now he gave me a roof. It's not like he threw me on the streets and I had food at home, but I had to work for food at school. I started, um, I went to the school cafeteria.
I negotiated with the, uh, manager, well that was there, and I worked for food in the cafeteria. So what was cool about that is I worked so hard, they felt so bad that they gave me enough food to feed eight people. So, you know, when I was a kid, I actually, you know, fed eight of my friends in the, in the courtyard.
So I always had friends, right? Anybody who was hungry was a, was a friend of mine and I fed 'em. So what, whatever they wanted. So I showed up.
Marc Beckman: So like, I like, to me, that kind of behavior from your stepfather sounds totally dysfunctional and like something's wrong with him. To be [00:09:00] honest with you, I think there's, there's, there's something positive about giving your son the skill sets to be autonomous. There's no doubt about it. But at 12 years old, it seems a little extreme to come in, barge, shout at you and say.
We're cutting the cord, but maybe Andrew, that was a pivotal moment in time as it related to growing, not just your autonomy, but your long-term success. You said you don't have to work another day in your life, and I wasn't wonder if he, um, impregnated you with a certain mindset, if that, if that action was kicking off a mindset that you have and that perhaps other successful people have.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah. I, I think from that moment, and it's, it's, it's both good and bad. It's a blessing and a curse is that, my gut feeling is that no one's coming to save me. No, no one's coming to help, right? No, nobody's, nobody's coming to save the day. So there's this inherent, independent, [00:10:00] 100% responsibility for everything that I see in my life.
Everything that I create in my life. And there's, there's this sense of, um, you know, nobody's got you like it, you know, most, most of my friends, almost all of my friends, if something happened to them, they got, you know, cut from a job, something. Their parents would take care of 'em. Their, their parents would give 'em a room, buy 'em a car, get 'em back on their feet, pay for their college,
Marc Beckman: Great, safe. Net.
Andrew Cartwright: great safety net.
And I just never had that safety net. Um, and I think when you, when you know there's no safety net, then you know, you do, i, I do overachieve, so I'm willing to work 10 times harder than somebody else, you know, but by 17, I didn't mention, I had three companies by then. Um, one of 'em is a framing factory where I've, I've framed pictures and sold them to stores and furniture stores.
And oftentimes, uh, [00:11:00] more than, more than not, I slept in a warehouse in a two man tent with metal shavings and glass inside of it with a space heater, um, to finish orders. So I, I, you know, because I sold so much in between the three different companies. I just, that's all the time I had to frame was, uh, during the, during the nighttime and when, you know, I needed some sleep.
I just went to the two man tent and, and, and trust me, this is not, not like a, a bad story. I was in heaven. Like, I, you know, I got to create, you know.
Marc Beckman: you, Andrew, like were there any early signals or, or, um, behaviors that were clear indicators to you at that young age that you were like, on the right path for financial success? But if in hearing that story, I would think Uhuh, there maybe were no indicators and. The fact that you didn't have a safety net, like some of the friends you referenced the fact that you were an overachiever, um, or, or compelled to be an overachiever per, perhaps there were not [00:12:00] any signals, uh, that said, okay, I'm on the right path towards success.
Were there. I mean, sleeping in, in one of your factories sounds horrible with glass and metal shards and,
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah, especially, you know, when you have a, a girlfriend that's coming to visit you and, uh, you know that, uh, but I mean, I was, I was so entrenched in what I was doing and, you know, as I, I bought pallets and pallets of glass and 10, 10,000 feet of molding at, at any given time and, and was building actually equipment to be able to frame faster and put glue on the pictures and, and put it on foam core and.
All this stuff and really heavily into making the best product possible. Um, I was so passionate about that. The other thing is being that there was no safety net. I lived on like pennies. Like I didn't spend money at all. Everything I made, I saved and invested. I invested in equipment, I invested in more pictures.
I am, I invested in, you know, these [00:13:00] huge pallets of, of glass, you know, that were. Uh, they had to come in with a crane and drop off these, I mean, it was 40 by 60 inches, like of glass. And it would come in, in these, these boxes that were like, um, maybe the half the size of this, the tv, I mean, it's, it like two or three feet.
And then, uh, I mean, if it fell on you, it would, it would kill you. So you had to set it at a certain angle and you know, it'd come off a crane and. You know, here I am 16, 17 years old, uh, doing this stuff. And it was just fun and industrious and, and, uh, every day was different. I learned stuff. Um, that's when I learned about, um, bankruptcy.
Uh, one of the, one of the, one of the orders I delivered, um, it was, it was over $20,000 worth of pictures and I delivered it to a store that had five stores and I delivered it. And I came back, uh, a month later to pick up a [00:14:00] check. And they had a receiver there and, and said that they had filed bankruptcy.
I said, okay, well I just dropped off the pictures. You haven't paid me. Why don't I just pick 'em up? And they said, no, you need to get in line behind everybody else. And uh, that's when I learned about, you know, the first experience with law, uh, and going, okay, I have to wait to get paid. I can't even get my property back because I've handed it over and I'm waiting on an invoice.
I never actually got paid for that. 20, $20,000 just evaporated. That was
Marc Beckman: is a good strategy, huh?
Andrew Cartwright: Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's, you look.
Marc Beckman: But bankruptcy with great American success stories is common. Like I understand that Tommy Hilfiger, who's a, a, a person that I've dealt with quite a bit in my lifetime, uh, he filed several times before reaching the ultimate level that he ascertained as a, you know, massive American fashion house.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah. Yeah. Thank God I've, I've never, um, filed bankruptcy [00:15:00] personally, so I, I like, for me, especially during the real estate crash, when I lost everything and I. Went $12.8 million in debt. It was September 5th. I remember listening to Nancy Pelosi and going, I wish she would stop talking because every time she talked, the, the market just tanked worse.
It's like, you know, stop trying to fix what's, what's, you know, let it, let us figure this out before you guys jump in and try and, you know, turn everything upside down. And, uh, it took me four years. I remember. Being $12.8 million in debt, I had 14 companies. Thank God, by this time I had diversified, I already had some exits.
So even though I was a total, my net worth had dropped to $12.8 million backwards. I remember reflecting, you know, Donald saying that the bomb was worth more than him. I, that echoed in my mind because the bum actually was, his net worth was better than mine because I was 12.8 backwards. And I worked [00:16:00] for, I didn't, uh, change salaries.
I was well diversified in different markets because I've created 32 companies in 17 different industries. Real estate had collapsed my construction development and real estate brokerage had, and I had a hundred projects going in real estate, including subdivisions, custom homes. Uh, restorations. Remodels.
And people weren't paying. But I had, you know, car dealership, finance company, insurance company, collection agency. Um, you know, lots of, uh, warranty company, lots of other companies that were still, that was still blood flowing even though it was negative. And, uh, I worked for four years, losing 50 grand a month, uh, until April 12th, 2012.
And I remember I was sitting outside of layers, this bakery, and I stood there and I paid my last $50,000. Uh, the banks still talk about it till today. Um, there was this, you know, they, they say there's this guy, Andrew Cartwright. He called us every single day on all his [00:17:00] projects to say that, you know, he, he's protecting it.
He's gonna make sure that we get the most money for it, and that, uh, you believed in me and I'll make sure you get everything back. So, uh, I have bankers say I'm the most interesting man when they, because when they do, whenever I do a loan, they'll do a background check and they'll go all the way past 2008 and they look for some way that you've messed over a bank and, um.
You know, I just took care of all of them. I just made the calls and, you know, I put fences around projects that weren't finished and protected them and insured them. And, you know, when copper got stolen, I would, I would put the copper back and, you know, pay the, pay the bank. So, yeah. Yeah. It's
Marc Beckman: so Andrew, it's interesting the story that you shared with regards to the, um, framing business when you. Would purchase, um, big, big slates of glass. That's a, I I imagine that goes into like a very specific, um, business strategies, uh, as it relates to that business. But I'm wondering if there are any [00:18:00] other strategies that successful people, um, should be implementing or that maybe are overlooked in your experience that you can highlight for one of, uh, the members of the audience here today.
Uh, that should be considered more.
Andrew Cartwright: Well, I, uh, give you an example on the glass, uh, 40 by 60 glass. It was powder coated so they didn't have to paper do it. So you actually had to, you know, clean the glass because it came with powder between the two different slates. But I got glass down to where it was $3 and 50 cents for that sheet, that same sheet if you bought it.
In smaller packs would cost to 25, $30 for the same piece of glass. So bulk buying, um, negotiating good terms. Um, I got, I went to the, uh, the actual, another strategy I used was I sold to the stores, but also went to the flea markets. And I would sell products at cost to get [00:19:00] my volume up to distributor levels.
That way my pricing was with my pictures was. 50, less 50. So it was half and then half of that. So I got distributor pricing and, and I would go to the flea markets and pictures that I sold to stores for 70 bucks. I sold at the flea market for like 50 bucks. And I would tell people that they were damaged even though they weren't damaged.
The, the whole thing was to get people to impulsively buy because the deal was irresistible. And as long as I broke, even at the flea markets and moved product, it gave me the volume to be able to make more money going to the stores. Um, and Bruce McGall, which was a, and I loved going to all the art, you know, um, festivals and, and the galleries and the openings, and I got invites to all that.
Because, you know, like me, Peter Kitchell and Ansel Adams and all the different galleries I got to go to. Yeah, it was, it was [00:20:00] phenomenal. Um.
Marc Beckman: Very cool. So, so really that strategy is interesting. So you were leveraging, um, uh, mass distribution at a discounted rate, um, effectively creating a, a, a positive average, uh, profit margin for your company just so you can get cash flow going at the bottom, uh, tier of distribution. But that also helped on the production side because it gave you volume discounts.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah, a huge volume discounts and I would buy 10,000 feet of molding at a time, pallets of glass so that I could reduce the price down. Um, that is probably, you know, that to me, manufacturing is such a really strong base because you are creating something and when you're able to get something so low, there's a strength.
F in that, um, at the same time, there's no malt around it. And that was one of the, the areas, um, that I had a problem with was like, I couldn't protect, you know, somebody could just set up a [00:21:00] framing company, do exactly what I was doing, and, and I have competition now. There's two people fighting for the same customer.
So then I started getting rights to like master art press. Uh, graphs and then I was able to make more money because now I controlled different artists in markets and basically in central and Northern California, San Francisco area, I was able to control artists, so they had to buy through me. So if it was a graph that was signed and numbered and there were 200 of 'em or a thousand, I would, you had to go through me in order to get those prints.
I made more. By having control of artists than I made manufacturing. But the two gave me like a superpower. 'cause not you had to buy from me. And then I had the ability to frame it at the same time.
Marc Beckman: so you had an an interesting manufacturing and distribution engine as it relates to like, let's categorize it as the [00:22:00] commodity of framing versus the creation of a moat against intellectual, like, prestige, exclusive intellectual property coming from the artists. And that together was a rocket ship for your business.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah, I mean, I had pictures that were going consistently going up in value that I bought at a discount and you couldn't buy from anybody else. You had to buy through me. Um, which later on in different other markets like cellular, I did the same thing. I got exclusive rights in Nevada, uh, to, for the non, non-exclusive agents here.
I put 106 Delors online, uh, opened up 45 stores and then started putting up sale towers, you know, all complimenting that business. Um, again, building, I had a molt. I controlled, like if you got a cell phone for, until I exited that business, uh, for, you know, any time during 2002. Well, actually 1999 to about [00:23:00] 2003, 2004, I got $10 for every single activation across the market.
Um, so I, I was skiing and making money and answering calls and helping people. I got cell towers being put on, uh, put up at the same time so that I collect reoccurring revenue. But I was just passionate about, I'm passionate about technology. And I like, I, I like to move quickly and, um, be there as fast as possible.
I wanna be an innovator when, when the technology's really broken and, and, uh, not working proper because when it, when you straighten out all the edges, uh, technology is amazing. It's the fastest way to reduce costs. I mean, if we want to handle inflation, AI and robotics is gonna handle a lot of, a lot of inflationary items because the cost of production's gonna come down.
Marc Beckman: I agree. I agree. So it's interesting you, you talk about being diversified in business. I've never met somebody that owns so many businesses. It's definitely unique to you. But are there any [00:24:00] key indicators in selecting those businesses or going into those businesses that in your mind, separate a good business from an excellent venture?
Andrew Cartwright: Margin. Margin. Uh, margin. So
Marc Beckman: Margin margin.
Andrew Cartwright: yeah, whenever, whenever I look at a business I am. You know, I wrote a book called The Origin of Opportunity, and it's really about stripping away all the layers of our identities and, and really getting to that, that core sense of nothing so that you can create anything.
I don't have, I'm not particularly, you know, um, like no identity controls me. I can be whatever need I need to be in any given moment to do what I need to do, which has given me that superpower to go into different industries. And part of the first thing I look at, I, I bought a word and kind of working on coining it called opportuneer.
What I look for is, you know, there, there's no word in the English language that captures what [00:25:00] I do, and that is entrepreneurs run businesses, opportunists find opportunities. But what I look for is the opportunity that I could build a business around which, like right now, the opportunity is unbelievable with NFTs, with, um, blockchain, like in a thousand years, something hasn't come along that could really, really revolutionize everything like the blockchain.
And when you look at the opportunity, there you go. Okay. The huge opportunity you can actually, there's a malt, it's. It's shot 2 56. It, it like literally is encrypted and you can control something that is literally in the air and everybody agrees with, 'cause they got a ledger, which is crazy. Um, and yet there's so many opportunities like title companies.
We went to Dubai, got the first crypto license there, started putting gold in the blockchain there, storing Bitcoin there in the DMCC. Got Lloyds of London to step up and [00:26:00] insure our accounts up to a hundred million dollars. Uh, talked to the Dubai government about putting their real estate on the blockchain.
They instantly started moving in 2018, and it's like you would never need title insurance. If all the property in America was on the blockchain, you would just look at the blockchain and it would just, it's transparent and it's immutable. You wouldn't be able to, I like the whole idea of this whole title plant.
And in going and the research and paying thousands of dollars every time a house trades hands. And even with that, we still have title fraud that's an e epidemic across the country where people steal properties from people daily. I talked to a lady just the other day, she's, they're going through the, the legal aspect of it, so she can't be on the podcast, but her house was literally taken from her, the.
The sheriff came out to evict her out of a house. She paid cash for 30 years ago.
Marc Beckman: Wow. It's [00:27:00] devastating, you know, it's a devastating situation. Who knows where she is today? Financially. I know a lot of people that have, uh, earned a tremendous amount of money in their careers, 30 years in, out in LA Hollywood types of people who put everything back into their home and there's no insurance, and they lose the home and they're screwed.
It's like, it's totally alarming. In your, in your, um, mindset, what do you think is the big opportunity now for the average person to make money in the Web3 space?
Andrew Cartwright: I think I was, you know, going through, and I happen to agree with the McKinsey report that 50% of jobs will be gone in the next couple of years and 80% of people will be displaced. We're gonna be displaced. And, um, the, the thing is. In that uncomfortable, that uncertainty, we need to get comfortable there with knowing that what you do today, you may not do tomorrow.
I'll give you an idea. My wife works with Google 25. More than 25% of their code now is generated by ai. That's [00:28:00] 25% of their base, that they don't need programmers to program.
Marc Beckman: just had big layoffs just last week.
Andrew Cartwright: Yep. And now they have super agents and agentic workflows. That they'll have agents working on a bunch of stuff, and then a super agent that oversees the agents.
We have agents managing agents now, you know, and I remember, uh, in two, uh, 2022, um, Anya made, uh, uh, Ben Franklin and, uh, George Washington made a different people and day. These agents were all arguing with each other based on all the information of, you know, what was online about these characters. And, uh, these people, and she was having, they were having a full on fight argument, and she was showing me the agents actually fighting with each other.
I went, this is, this is wild. This, this is like three years ago, know, and I'm watching every day the progression of what's happening. And she builds for like the IRS, she builds for, [00:29:00] you know, uh, product solutions for all the major 100 corporations and countries like India and. You know, and is an expert and she's got a PhD in data science and artificial intelligence, so it's pretty amazing.
Marc Beckman: So let me ask a question. You mentioned earlier your book, um, and this concept of Optum, how did you say it, opt. Optimist, tour Optima
Andrew Cartwright: Oh, opportuneer, that's where, where opportunity meets, like, I don't care when I see margin and an opportunity. You can build any business. Businesses, business to me are, there's just so many divisions. Uh, you have accounting, production, um, customer service, pr, you know, advertising, marketing, and then the executive level.
So to me, companies are basic and there's only two things that you can do, and that is you can only deliver a product and service. That was mind boggling when I was 16 years old when I, or 15 when I heard that [00:30:00] from my mentor. I went, wait a minute, you gotta be kidding me. There's only two things you can really do a product or service and maybe some blend of the two.
That's it. So to me, the basics of business are are basic. So it's margin and that it is an overly bloody saturated. You know, there's a book called Blue Ocean, I think when you find blue ocean areas, and one way is you can create a blue ocean like luxury brands. You know, that have blue ocean because they're, they're, they're the brand.
They, they, they create their ocean. Um, and of course they still compete with other brands to make, make them desirable. So people desire their brands. But it's, yeah, it's, it's, uh, to me, business is really basic. Uh, no matter what business it is, it's, it's, uh, just putting the component parts there,
Marc Beckman: But one part of it that's not basic. I think it's really nuanced and I, I, I see, um, that you do a great [00:31:00] job at it is building your personal brand. Like, how important is your personal brand as it relates to running this, um, broad spectrum of businesses creating influence in the marketplace, um, you know, on a global scale, like what went into your decision in building your, your personal brand, what is it and what would you recommend people do as it relates to building their own brand,
Andrew Cartwright: I, uh,
Marc Beckman: not their business brand, their personal brand?
Andrew Cartwright: yeah, I think it's, I think it's essential that you build a personal brand. Um, you know, so that you can d differentiate yourself. It also, it's a great way I to document history as well. Like when you call things and you record it and you actually publish it, you can look back on it and go, you know, you're gonna be right, you're gonna be wrong, but at, at least you took a shot.
Um, about seven years ago, I noticed that um, people that had personal brands were getting an un their unfair [00:32:00] share in the marketplace. With zero cost advertising. And, um, also they were able to contribute. 'cause people, you know, you empower people by teaching them how to help themselves. And then if you have, like we have.
We have unlimited capital as far as fix and flip ground up construction, rental portfolios, and I sell that off. We have private credit, which is huge. Thank you Bill Clinton for, for making and, and, uh, Greenspan for creating such an amazing marketplace. Uh, private credit is gotten to the point where oftentimes I'm cheaper than the banks.
And, uh, easier to get. We don't require tax returns. We don't require bank statements. We don't even hard pull someone's credit. We soft pull just to verify KYC. So literally, I think when you go out and you start educating people, whatever you're passionate about, to build that brand by helping people, and I, I, I think you know, [00:33:00] 90%, if you focus on 90% helping people and empowering people.
And then you are, you, you asked the 10%. So give 90% away and then, then ask for the 10%. And I think you'll get an unfair share of, uh, of the marketplace.
Marc Beckman: So Andrew, when you started looking at personal brands or personalities seven years ago, who really stuck out for you back then?
Andrew Cartwright: Well, I, I looked at, uh, like Casey Neistat that was vlogging, and I tried to vlog and that fell on its face and I didn't understand. Uh, it, I think too, the, the personal brand is such a journey. Uh, it's so, there's so much growth. In, in really kind of looking at yourself and discovering who you really are.
Like most people who they, who they're acting like is a pebble of sand on the beach of who they are. Like they're, they're [00:34:00] these incredible people and people's stories are amazing and they have billions of experiences and they pick like eight to define their life and, and it is. You know, when you start developing a personal brand, I think it, you start looking inside what matters to you.
What do you stand for, what, you know, what, and the other thing is being able to capture people's attention and being able to be interesting and be interested, you know, uh, and the difference of showing people that you do care, especially when you go the distance. And I have people that, like, I've been out to dinner and.
Some the next table over is, you know, staring at me. And then they come over and they start crying and I'm like, did I do what? And they go, you, you changed our life. Um, you know, you helped us get capital. You saved our whole community. I'm the only one that speaks our language. And we used the tools that you did and you, you helped us [00:35:00] and you've changed everybody's life at the table.
And I was sitting with another guy, he's worth I think, three or $400 million. And that moment was priceless. Priceless. I, I mean, I still vividly, you know, it, it was one of the bigger moments. It happens quite a bit where people hug me and go, you, you helped me through some tough times. I figured some stuff out.
You know, the big thing is just understanding we have one of the best, we have the best infrastructure for upward mobility in the world. And if you understand how to access. The American Dream. Um, it, it's, it's just mind boggling how quick your life can turn around.
Marc Beckman: How could people learn how to access that upward mobility track that you're talking about?
Andrew Cartwright: Uh, big things are, um, we have grants. I know that it's been hit. They're not going away no matter, you know, grants are out there. Um, al almost all the billionaires apply for grant [00:36:00] grants. Uh, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, they all apply for grants. They got grant writing teams. Um, so there's, there's access to, to free capital.
If your dreams align with the, the dreams of like one of the agencies, like, uh, whether it's the USDA, if you want to commercialize a product, you can use the step grant, which literally the US government will fund all your research and development and actually build a product. That they end up becoming a customer and they'll give you like 375,750,000, 1,000,005, and then the last step is almost unlimited money.
It's like, how much do you need to finish off commercializing your product There, there's that.
Marc Beckman: Have you, have you used that, Andrew? Have you created a product and if so, which one?
Andrew Cartwright: Um, I haven't used this step grant. I mean, I'm talking about, you know, I always think of like if I had nothing, zero. Where, where would I [00:37:00] start? I, I'm not, you know, I can develop my own product, I can do that. I don't need to go through the paperwork to do it. I don't even need to save the money. Uh, in the development process, I'm okay with the, you know, 'cause there's a little bit of bureaucracy that goes along with the documenting of that product.
Um, but if I, if I had nothing and I was on a couch at a friend's house, then that's what I would probably start building on. If, if I had a product that I was looking to develop. Um, then the SBA, I'd buy businesses, you know, 10% down. Now you can buy into companies. Um, since last year, you can buy just a portion of a company and actually partner with the owner and then do an earnout on the rest of it and actually put no money out pocket.
Marc Beckman: there's. you explain? So how does that work, Andrew? Explain, like gimme a, um, an actual example.
Andrew Cartwright: So, you know, basically when you look at a business, any business, um, and this, if I could tap myself on the shoulder at 22, I would say don't create [00:38:00] another company. Buy companies is, the fastest way to become a billionaire is to literally buy your competition and just keep buying. Uh, if Warren Buffett's made 22 decisions in his life, his entire net worth is from buying companies.
How I missed that, like had to be an ego, right? So, um, basically they broke down to where you can buy just a portion of a company with the s with SBA as of, uh, and I did a video on it about a year, uh, I think it was about six, no, almost a year ago now, where if you, you know, talk to the owner, you look to buy a 50% or.
49% of the business, the SBA will give you a loan for that, that you could then pay back outta your earnings. Most small companies trade at a three multiplier. That means the total net what, what it makes as far as income that would go to your bottom line, times that by three, and that's what you get when you [00:39:00] look at the revenue in a business.
That's a 33% return on your investment if your bank debt is eight or even 10%. You're still making 20% more based on what you've borrowed, and over time, seven years, you'll pay that loan back. So you're actually buying income, which is a wild thing to think about, but up to $5 million, the government will, has your back.
With the SBA 5 million bucks, they got you back. And even if you're, let's say you're gonna do, um, 10% down and buy the whole company. A lot of times the owner can actually carry some of that so that you're have no money out of pocket. I think the biggest problem we have in America right now, people don't know how to run companies.
They don't know how, like there's $68 trillion worth of assets that have to trade hands in the next 20 years and there's nobody there. Like even in Japan [00:40:00] there, there are people that own companies that are adopting adults. To take to, to take over the business because there's just nobody there. Right. You
Marc Beckman: So it's interesting on the SBA thing, um, you're saying they'd give about 5 million, um, for, for this type of a, a loan, but aren't they, um, leveraging the, uh, entity or the person that is, uh, create that, that's taking advantage of the loan that's benefiting from the loan based upon that person's, um, financial foundation?
Andrew Cartwright: So, and this is the funny thing, most people think they've gotta build, get wealthy before they can go buy a business. And, and it's quite the opposite. Um, I do have a brokerage, we do m and a, so I'm, you know, funda, fundamentally familiar with this. I'm also, in 2012, I went to underwriting school and became an underwriter for the SBA.
So I'm very comfortable with the SOPs. 95%. I would say almost [00:41:00] 98% of how the SBA makes loans is based on the business, not the person. And I tell people, it's not about you, it's about the business. And it's cash flow. It's stability. What's it been doing over the last three years? Is it on a growth trajectory?
Is it, is it flat? Is it declining? You know, and basically it, what's crazy is. the SBA loan doesn't lend the actual money. They just guarantee it for the banks. So banks have the ability to loan money with an SBA guarantee, guaranteeing them the return if somebody defaults. And it's actually been an amazing program because there's not as many defaults as you would think.
It's pretty
Marc Beckman: people, uh, yeah, I would imagine. I mean, I've never heard of, of such a thing. It's just hanging out on the details for a second. So you're saying for, um, most companies, the average company, it's like a three x multiple and. Uh, basically what you're buying is [00:42:00] cash flow income and, uh, at a, with a $5 million loan coming through the SBA, what's the threshold?
What kind of a company are you looking at then? You wanna buy a company worth, how much at the gross level and, and, uh, like what, what's the, what's the key mathematics that you would generally speaking, subscribe in that kind of a scenario?
Andrew Cartwright: So I have a program that I do is, it's Epic 99, and we have, we're looking to help fund people that are looking to buy businesses, a thousand of them. Um, and then also my goal is to have a million people become financially free. That's my personal goal. Um, is to do that. And part of what we look for when we're partnering with people in business, we put up that equity piece that a lot of people don't have that 10% down payment.
We put that up. But what we look for is a company that's big enough that somebody who's running the company, because we don't run the companies, we just put it up, we give 81% to the [00:43:00] operator that's gonna own the business. Um, and then we take in our fund, 19% of the company and we don't operate it. But basically we look for something that's gonna pay the owner way above what they're used to making.
Like, say, say they're used to making 50 grand, if they're, if they'll make 300 or $400,000, it drastically changes the quality of their life. And then they're not, they don't begrudge the fact that they have a partner. When you get, when you go lower in the business where you're making a hundred or $200,000, that's really self-employment.
It. Right? So we look for that, that sweet spot of a, a mid-size co small company, uh, SMB, small to medium sized company that makes enough money for the owner, the 81% partner, that it really changes the quality of their life. They haven't gotten that much money in their life. Uh, and at literally, if you're buying a $5 million company, the actual bottom line [00:44:00] revenue is gonna be a million.
So you know that that's enough to change somebody's life. At the same time, you have a baby boomer that most of 'em are desperately, they want outta the business. I call it the, the white flag. You know, they're waving the white flag. They're like, you know, one more lap to go, and I want outta this race. Gimme the checkered flag already.
And the problem with most entrepreneurs, they don't plan for their exit because they, they, it's just not programmed. In in somebody who creates a company that they would think about the exit.
Marc Beckman: Sure. I get it. I understand. So, you know, it makes me think about, um, a lot of the things you talk about as it relates to these passive income businesses, these, uh, side gigs where, where individuals can create new, uh, new cash flow and, and you know, you say in, in some of your. Conversations, turn people into millionaires.
So for example, there's one that you spoke about that I got a kick out of recently. The copy and [00:45:00] paste Google and YouTube content. Uh, can you, can you explain that one a little bit?
Andrew Cartwright: I, you know, I think the, the big thing about, uh, the great thing about when you get outta school is you can cheat, uh, you can copy other people's material, especially now it's getting easier and easier. Uh, you can create, somebody creates a website. You can literally recreate it in seconds if something is working.
Um, so the copy and paste method is just simply, you know, being able to copy other people's homework. Like for me, copy my homework, you know, do this. That's, that's what I'm putting it out there for, is to empower people to do it. Not to hold onto it and cage people in, but give people strategies that they can copy and paste and actually make a living, you know, 10,000, 20,000 a month or even a couple thousand.
Part-time where you're copy and pasting material. There's Nvidia now that'll make a video, uh, AI video. Like, like [00:46:00] amazing, like Disney type quality. You're like, you gotta be kidding me. Disney is gonna have a run for their money because you have creators that, like with Nvidia, you can in video, you just like give it, like, one of the things I love and I put in there is I'll put Bible verses in there.
And tell it to create a whole story on a Bible verse. And then I've got, I've got all these characters that get created and, and they're going through this Bible verse and, and it's just wild,
Marc Beckman: Which tool? In which tool?
Andrew Cartwright: in video. Uh, I in video
Marc Beckman: That's amazing. Alright, so talk to me about Print on Demand. I thought that was a really cool idea. You know, being in New York City with, um, a lot of friends in creative industries, fashion designers and beyond, like they're all saying they don't get paid enough and they're all creative Powerhouses.
Tell me how Print on demand could make sense for some of the people who are, you know, photographers, graphic designers, even fashion designers.
Andrew Cartwright: Well, what's what's awesome [00:47:00] about Print on demand now is that you can literally create within seconds a whole store, um, and then you upload your images. You've got your store already designed. You put your, like, whatever your expressions are or whatever your particular niche is. People like they, they love people.
You know what's funny is if you go to Richard Branson's page, you'll see he, he has millions of followers. But you look at Virgin's page and there's hardly any, we follow people. So being able to print on demand and create the ability for people to buy into whatever your movement is, whatever you're working on.
Marc Beckman: So, but that's going back then, Andrew, that when you say people of people, people love to press the flesh. I often say then that means that if you're in a print on demand business, you gotta get people to come onto your tribe, and that goes back to your personal brand.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah, it's, it's circular. But the other thing too though, is if you find, I watched, um, you know, some of the things [00:48:00] like right after, uh, the Pennsylvania, uh, the, uh, what you call it, Butler, you know where Trump got shot in the ear,
Marc Beckman: Yes. In Butler, Pennsylvania. Yep.
Andrew Cartwright: They immediately made shirts that had, uh, you know, the, the, the, the, like, the outlaw and the, um, and the, you know, Vance and they had the different instant images and, and, and that photo and people jumped at that.
And the cool thing is you upload a logo or a picture, modify it a little bit so that you're not violating any copyright laws. You can instantly put that on a shirt and if it doesn't sell, you just change the design and it costs you nothing. The, the ability to create a whole product line of different stuff like, you know, this is, you know, is on my store and like literally this cost me nothing to have it up for sale.
Marc Beckman: So who's the best at [00:49:00] manufacturing? Andrew, gimme another resource. You mentioned Nvidia for, um, uh, content creation. What do you, what do you think for, uh, for physical product merch?
Andrew Cartwright: pre sify, um, and also, um, principle, I believe they're in the process of buying, uh, each other. But tho those two are, are incredible. Um, and I think the key to, um, is that. You, you want multiple, multiple revenue streams. I, I've often wondered, like when you send an email at the bottom of an email, has no way to interact with pe you know, to, normally you could have an affiliate, your principal store name there, where people can, if they're bored looking at your email and then click on that, you've got 'em into your store and now they're looking at stuff.
If you've got compelling products that they go, wow, I like this saying, no negativity allowed. Or, um, whatever, uh, whatever you want to put no, you know, BS detector or, you know, [00:50:00] whatever it is, um, that, that you like, uh, to, I mean, and the cool thing is just that you could throw in, in, uh, chat GPT um, BS detector.
Make me a cool graphic and it'll probably come up with something incredible that's funny. About what a BS detector would look like, right? And, uh, then you can iterate those ideas and it, and you could tell it, you know, give me 20 more ideas like that. Then you take those images, you dump it into your store, and then you're selling it.
But I think the key is, is people don't realize how many different ways they can actually monetize what they're doing. Um, whether, you know, I go speaking that's, that's active income when I go speak. I just spoke at the Pivot Conference in Atlanta, and, and then I flew to dc I'm flying to speak to, um, uh, like 332 VC attorneys in, in London.
And then I'll be speaking at, uh, [00:51:00] this FF up nights, I don't want to say the word, but, uh, talking about all the disasters in, in London. So I'll be on stage there. So then I have the white Label conference, which that, that's another one. White label is huge. You can make almost any product you want and throw your name on it and you don't have to manufacture anymore.
There's tons of manufacturers. Now. Manufacturing is not where it's at anymore. Where it's at now is creating a community and monetizing that community and.
Marc Beckman: when? When you talk about selling. Digital files, is that something that you would sell into that community as well?
Andrew Cartwright: Uh, you could sell digital files. Um, you can, I, I mean, you could sell physical products. Uh, digital files are, are nice because there's no delivery, but most of all, these principle and sify and white label companies, they do all your backend for you. They help you. Like I built, uh, a supplement line. [00:52:00] With, um, protein powder, um, all types of stuff called Cartright Health.
I did it in, it took me the, the full thing was probably about eight minutes to create my own white label, um, product line. I have it, I have it upstairs, so I buy my own products. Now the cool thing is,
Marc Beckman: Where, so where like, it's like a, like a printable type of company or
Andrew Cartwright: yeah, yeah.
Marc Beckman: same idea.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah, same exact idea. Um, I think I have, um, Michael Jordan and um, Kim Kardashian on the front because Michael Jordan and Kim Kardashian are both billionaires off of other people's products. Kim Kardashian, the Shapewear is basically, uh, Spanx with her name on it. Right. And then Michael Jordan, you're buying Nike shoes with Air Jordan on it.
He gets $400 million a year for his basically white label brand that runs through Nike's [00:53:00] manufacturers because he puts his name on it, $400 million. And I, I'm a, you know, I have Jordan thirteens. I buy the ones that he's played and won a ring in. Uh, so like thirteens are the one I I love. I wear a lot. I have a lot of those white, black, purple.
Marc Beckman: how, so how, how do you find Andrew? Like, uh, like, it's interesting to me. I've never heard of somebody coming up and creating like their own collection of ingestibles. Like that's a white label business there. Is there like a, a, a, a place where people watching the show can access and figure out how they can.
Mitigate risk and in eight minutes create their own supplement business.
Andrew Cartwright: A Absolutely. I'm trying to figure the, the company that I built it for, it's in my video, but, um.
Marc Beckman: Where's your video? Let people know where to go,
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah, it's on my channel, Andrew Cartwright, and it's, uh, has Kim Kardashian and, and, uh, what do you call it, Michael Jordan on it. And I, I make the product in a second. I came, came up with my own, my own brand. I uploaded [00:54:00] it.
The cool thing about making that is the protein powders I don't like in that arena. I don't want to creatively be different than anybody else because you expose yourself to litigation. They sell the same protein powder that they sell in probably 90% of all the protein powder products the same that's sold at the store.
What's fascinating is people think they're getting a different product. Like when you buy Kirkland, you're actually buying another product, but it's got Kirkland on it. When you buy CVS branded stuff, you're still getting ibuprofen. It just has C vs. But same factory. It comes out of the same place. So, you know, like, for example, any one of the vitamins that, that are there, it's, it's all I, the name's alluding me.
I'll, I'll text it to you when, uh.
Marc Beckman: But it's interesting, it reminds me of something that Jeff Bezos said. Um, he talks about often about this concept of being stubborn on a [00:55:00] long-term vision, but being flexible with the details. And that's kind of like where you're hovering here, you're kind of, if I understand correctly, you're like, you know, it's good to have a long-term vision, whether it's a, you know, an extended business model or, or a straight stream for a new product.
But the idea is to have some flexibility and take some risks.
Andrew Cartwright: A hundred percent. And a lot of people are so attached to being right that they forget to look at what works. Um, that flexibility, like if your logo's not working, if you're what pivot, look at what's not working about it and, and, you know, go to, go to the place where it works. Find that center where it actually works.
Uh, and, you know, get over being right. I think that's the big thing, especially like in branding and advertising and marketing. Now you can test like you can for a dollar. You can pay to send out an ad daily, a dollar a day, to actually test the analytics of how people respond to colors or [00:56:00] maybe different pictures or different ads.
So today you can constantly iterate. At a very low price that we couldn't do back in the day. Back in the day. You, you back in the day, like, you know, in the beginning of like,
Marc Beckman: so old,
Andrew Cartwright: I was so old. So, you know, you, you put up a billboard, you're stuck for a month with that billboard, right? Like you hope that whatever you set on that billboard works.
Um, and with today's technology, your billboard, your online billboard can change. Every, every five minutes, 10 minutes, you can A-B test, uh, it, it's mind boggling. And the insights that you get from like an Instagram, a Facebook, uh, from YouTube, the insights when you actually advertise, they'll show you the back end of what happened in your audience.
What, what moved them, how old are they, so that you can start crafting, uh, what your offer is to actually fit the [00:57:00] marketplace that actually really wants it. It, you know, that, that, that becomes the real key. And if you can get to that space, then you'll pay less to get to that audience and you'll make more returns because you're paying, you're getting your unfair share of business because you're able to, to market like a sniper and not like a shotgun,
Marc Beckman: I love it. So, Andrew, um, I appreciate all the time you've given me today. It's, you know, mo mainly the insight though, I think your insight is, is really telling and valuable. Um, every one of. My guests ends the show the same way. Uh, essentially what I do is I incorporate the name
Andrew Cartwright: Super full. Super full.
Marc Beckman: That's the name of the, of the, uh,
Andrew Cartwright: SU super full. SUPI. I know I, I have some timers sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't. But, um, yeah, super full is the name of the company. Uh, and they actually, I actually get got them so much business from that YouTube video [00:58:00] that they didn't pay me for that I, they actually had to shut down their site for like a couple of weeks because they were overloaded with people creating brands from a video that I did that got millions of views.
That, uh, created so much business and they didn't pay for it. They just made a great product and it was irresistible for me not to share that with the world. I I did it for free, so,
Marc Beckman: love it. Alright, so let, so we're gonna bring this baby home. So what I do is I incorporate the beginning of the name of the show, some future day into a sentence, and you need to finish it. Are you ready?
Andrew Cartwright: yes.
Marc Beckman: Okay. So Andrew Cartwright, in some future day, the audience could become millionaires, billionaires in some future day if they do this.
Andrew Cartwright: Take action. Action, action, action, action. You know, ideas are nothing until you actually move on 'em. And guess what? If, if [00:59:00] you, uh, if it doesn't work out, just, just pivot and do something else and just keep consistently being relentless.
Marc Beckman: Andrew Cartright, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your tons of knowledge, um, on some future day.
Andrew Cartwright: Yeah. Cool man.
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