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Guest: Adam Force, founder of Change Creator.
Host: Kevin Mako, founder of Product Startup and the leading expert in hardware startup consulting. A hardware entrepreneur since 1999, Kevin has advised more than 1,500 founders and built and scaled MAKO Invent through its acquisition by TriMech in 2024.
Creating Impact Through a Focused Business Model
Adam Force explains why product founders do not need to solve the world’s largest problem to create meaningful social or environmental impact. The episode focuses on choosing a specific behavior or root cause, connecting it to the founder’s values, and building the persistence required for long-term change.
Episode transcript
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Filip Valica: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Product Startup Podcast, a podcast that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors, product designers, and other industry professionals.
Filip Valica: This podcast is run by Mako Design + Invent, and hosted by Filip Valica. Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful, from initial idea to putting your product on the shelf. We're taking you step by step to build a functional product and scale your product business. Now onto the show.
Filip Valica: Those big challenges around the world are actually opportunities. So you just got to find the problem you want to solve, that aligns best to who you are as a person, what you believe in and what you love.
Filip Valica: That'll help you feel good about being persistent over time so you don't get frustrated. And, you know, everyone's going to go through ups and down. So one of the most important
Filip Valica: things is it's not easy. And you have to understand that it's also not a sprint. It's a marathon. So it takes time. So you have to have persistence. And with persistence, you have to have
Filip Valica: patience. The Product Startup, Episode 29. Welcome to the Product Startup Podcast, helping you turn ideas into successful products step by step with your host,
Filip Valica: Philip Valisa. Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining me again. In the last show, we talked with Lisa Ruiz. She's the founder of credible products, and she took over the family janitorial cleaning supply business and expanded it into
Filip Valica: the consumer market. So while that doesn't sound that exciting on the service, We got into talking about how she got into HSN, the Home Shopping Network, and how she changed up those products to make sure that she differentiated from what was existing on the market.
Filip Valica: I think cleaning supplies are pretty competitive, and so I thought the show was interesting because we really got to dive in to see how she did some of her testing and market differentiation. Before we get started, I really wanted to highlight one reviewer on iTunes.
Filip Valica: BM Rossum wrote in, what an offer as an amateur inventor and an at-home prototype builder. who one day hopes to make it big. This podcast is one of the most helpful that I have found. By talking to a variety of insiders,
Filip Valica: Philip shares great insights covering all aspects of the business, design prototyping, development, funding, marketing, and more. I look forward to each week's episode and highly recommend this to others with product ideas. So thank you again, BM Rossum.
Filip Valica: I super appreciate your note as well as everybody else's. I take everybody's input and I try to create a better show every week. So thanks again for your advice. Now on to today's episode. So today I talk with Adam Force.
Filip Valica: He's the founder of Change Creator, which is a digital magazine and a resource for social entrepreneurs. I wanted to talk to him today because I've always wanted to make a larger impact in the world.
Filip Valica: And I always thought that one of the ways of doing that was to earn a lot of money and then when I have a lot of money, give that money away. And so through this conversation with Adam, we kind of explore this tug of
Filip Valica: war relationship between one hand of pure capitalism and on the other social responsibility. So if you're curious about building a business that has a social twist, you'll definitely want to
Adam Force: listen. So let's get started. Hi, Adam. Thanks for coming on the show today.
Filip Valica: Hey, Philip. I appreciate it, man. It's an honor to chat and share my stories. So I'm excited. Let's get rocking and rolling. Great. So look, I'm just going to dive in. I know that you and your
Filip Valica: wife took a trip to Costa Rica, and while you were there, you had this epiphany to create some
Adam Force: social-driven work to go out there and really make a change in the world. Tell me about that. Yeah, I mean, like so many entrepreneurs, you know, the travel thing is such a, can be such a powerful
Adam Force: experience that spurs the opportunity to kind of, you know, sit with your thoughts, see different cultures and just have these epiphanies. I've always been a little bit of an activist at heart,
Adam Force: but my mindset, I don't know what it was that jolted me, but sitting out there, I'm in this almond cove where the rainforest meets the beach. It's completely remote. I'm coming from, you know, New York, Philadelphia,
Adam Force: we were out there in the middle of nowhere. I felt like I was on another planet. And seeing just how pristine and, you know, beautiful everything was, it really just offers this opportunity to to start wondering and thinking about, well, you know, why am I
Adam Force: doing? What am I doing? Is this where I want to be in 10 years and all these crazy thoughts? And you also just see how delicate nature is. And then you think about what we're doing to it and the
Adam Force: problems. And you're like, wow, we really got to protect what we have. It's so amazing. And so, you know, it really just kind of, I think, escalated my activist inside me. And so I came back and I was on a mission, man.
Adam Force: I was, I was eager to work for myself. I was eager to do something that was important. And that just made me feel good to wake up in the morning. I call it the Christmas effect where it's like, you know,
Adam Force: are you like a kid waking up and waiting for Christmas morning every day? Because if you're not, you're not living the life that you're excited about, right? So I really delved into those things and I was researching it.
Adam Force: But at the time, there was not a lot of social entrepreneur insights, no classes and, you know, magazines or anything like that. So for me, I finally found this one book. But it was a struggle.
Adam Force: And the book was Making Good by Billy Parrish. And he's on the second cover of our second issue.
Adam Force: And so that was like the kickoff for me. And, you know, moving forward, it just grew into this idea after dabbling. I was like, I tried rainforest protection.
Adam Force: And I tried hemp water bottles because I can't stand the plastic pollution issue. And there's so many other things. I didn't know what direction to go. I didn't know how to get started. It's a very different path, social entrepreneurship versus business entrepreneurship.
Adam Force: And then obviously, it's a very different path working for a corporate gig and then going into starting up on your own. So you're like in a whole new world. And so finally, after dabbling for about, I don't know, I was like four years of messing around.
Adam Force: I even started my own conscious news blog, the blue dot post.com.
Adam Force: And that was just because I didn't know where I wanted to focus my attention. So I was talking about everything, basically. And I was a big on self-development. And I knew at the time that for me to be more successful on my own,
Adam Force: I needed to continuously help myself grow and develop through education and things like that. So I was always reading books. I was listening to podcasts on a daily basis.
Adam Force: And I always carried a small notebook with me to write down my ideas, write down my thoughts and all these different exercises.
Adam Force: And finally, I came across this podcast where they were talking about a successful digital magazine about entrepreneurship. The audience who apparently was asking the founder, Nathan Chan, he's a great guy. the awesome magazine founder,
Adam Force: and he said they were asking for more interviews about social entrepreneurship with social entrepreneurs. So for me, the bell went off because I have a ton of experience over 15 years in the professional business world, creating strategies for major
Adam Force: companies, whether it was Walgreens, Accedron, or Dove, or whatever it is. And so I had these skills around business development, design, user experience.
Adam Force: And so for me, I was like, great. So maybe I'm not the actual social entrepreneur, but I can fill the void that was there, meaning information, connecting people with these social entrepreneurs, and I can help that
Filip Valica: category grow because it's so important. And it's about nurturing a mindset of how we approach business and the reason why we're actually starting a business. So I'll pause there,
Filip Valica: but that's kind of like how that all evolved. Wow, that's a really involved story. I think we could definitely pick apart a lot of those details and getting into some of the nuts and bolts.
Filip Valica: So why is creating a business that has a social component so important now or something that is bigger than yourself? Because you could argue that anyone that's creating a business now,
Filip Valica: one of the typical responses back from people that are creating a business is, hey, I want to
Adam Force: create this business so that I can have some money so then I can then use that money how I want. And one of those, the directions that I want to take with my money is to give it back to a cause that I believe in.
Adam Force: Well, yeah, so you can give it to a cause, but there's a difference in, you know, NGOs, charities and social entrepreneurship. And it really becomes a mindset thing.
Adam Force: So if they're approaching a business because they want to make money and later do something with it, that is, you know, the mindset of I want to make money. And when you do that, that's very different.
Adam Force: Your actions that result from that mindset are going to be very different than the actions of, I want to solve this problem and I want to change those people's lives.
Adam Force: If you take those two paths and start seeing the types of actions you're going to create as your goals to get to those endpoints, right? So the social entrepreneur, when they're starting to think, well, I want to impact these lives, I want to solve this problem.
Adam Force: They are more inclined to take actions that create a byproduct of money. You know, and you're going to hear people like Richard Branson and a bunch of others like Blake McCoskey,
Adam Force: they're going to tell you at the same time, you know, as long as you put people first, people before profit, then you're going to be very successful in a very sustainable long-term format.
Filip Valica: So the most important thing for any business is really to approach it with people first. in mind and then you're going to find greater success can you be successful just aiming for money yes but
Filip Valica: the result is very different for the person and for everybody in the world yeah so let's take that
Adam Force: another step further what if you're looking at your social cause and that is your main focus and if it's not profitable if it's not sustainable then you you haven't really helped the people that you wanted
Adam Force: to help yeah so let's create a point of clarity and that is when you're creating a business that is designed for a specific social cause or environmental cause, money is part of
Adam Force: your business plan. It has to be there. So it can't be a lost thought. It has to be something that is part of the plan. So you have to have a model for creating revenue. So there's no argument
Adam Force: there. But there's a difference in focusing on that versus focusing on the actual impact. So it's it's a very simple shift. And when we're talking about social entrepreneurship, I mean, there's a couple of ways I look at it. And, you know, we are focused on social entrepreneurship,
Adam Force: but honestly, we're open to anybody that's creating a business that is doing something that actually contributes back. It helps alleviate a problem or solve a problem that is social or
Adam Force: environmental. But the traditional social entrepreneurship definition is, you know, through Oshoka and Skoll Foundation, is that it is somebody that is creating system change. So they're shaking up the equilibrium of a system.
Adam Force: And that's big, you know, that is like changing how cultures think. And for example, when I mentioned, you know, you can say, I want to give to a charity or a cause. That's great.
Adam Force: But if you look at someone who's supporting poverty as an NGO or a charity, they are alleviating pressure from a problem.
Adam Force: But until they actually get to the, if they're not looking at the root cause, and we need people to do that, they're doing wonderful work. We'd have to address the immediate right now and alleviate. the problem, but it's a band-aid, meaning the actual system change, the equilibrium
Adam Force: shakeup would be if you look at, well, what's actually causing, what in our system and our structure, economic structure or our policies is actually creating this poverty in the
Adam Force: first place? And how do I actually change those policies in that system so that now as an output,
Filip Valica: there is no poverty? So, you know, you see the difference there? So instead of just saying, here's some money, here's some food, now you can eat.
Adam Force: and now you have a house, great, but still, poverty will continue to populate more and more and more because we're not changing the actual cause of poverty. So I think it's just those differences there.
Adam Force: Do you think that you have to have a particular skill set to go into social entrepreneurship, or do you think that anybody can just kind of make that shift in the mindset as you talk about? I think everybody has the entrepreneurial fire in their belly.
Adam Force: And I think it's in human behavior and nature to, want to help people.
Adam Force: So I think that it's just a fire that needs to be lit. So my answer is that anybody can do this. And I think we're seeing that transition. More people today are interested
Adam Force: in doing meaningful work, feeling a sense of fulfillment. And that comes from giving and that comes from helping and solving problems. So as kids are growing up, the younger generations, the question
Adam Force: is shifting from what do you want to be when you grow up to what problem do you want to solve? And there's a big difference in that mindset there. But I think anybody can do it.
Adam Force: It's just a matter of, you know, what happens to it, you know, there is conditioning. We're from day one, all these stimulus, the stimulus around us, the conditions in life are actually shaping our behavior and how we think.
Filip Valica: So if everything around us is saying money, money, money, the economic system, profits most important, then that's the mindset you're going to grow up with until something jolts you, right? you have this other experience, another stimulus that's going to make you think differently.
Filip Valica: But, you know, so it's just a matter of that person coming across experiences and information and things that will help shape their behaviors that way. So they can be anything they want to be. No, that's a very good point.
Filip Valica: And I think to maybe drive this home, we could give a couple examples of the people that you speak with on your show.
Adam Force: So maybe you can bring up Gavin Armstrong or Kenton Lee that you had recently on your show and talk about their businesses really quickly so we can kind of relate to the types of problems that you're talking out because you're not just saying, hey, you need to go out there and cure
Adam Force: cancer or solve world hunger. These are very specific, targeted, focused problems that you can have a huge impact. Yeah, absolutely.
Adam Force: And they're doing just awesome work and I idolize what they're doing. So hopefully it inspires other people too and that's the idea and they give a lot of good tips.
Adam Force: But Gavin Armstrong is one of our most recent interviews that we released. And basically, there is a problem, which I didn't realize was so big. And I worked in healthcare for a long time.
Adam Force: But 3.5 billion people around the world are suffering from vitamin D deficiency. And that can cause all kinds of problems and complications with pregnant women.
Adam Force: That can cause tiredness, fatigue, dizziness, like all kinds of issues that translate into bigger and bigger. problems throughout these cultures and populations.
Adam Force: So when he was in Cambodia, again, travel experience,
Adam Force: you know, his partner was,
Adam Force: he who's now a partner, this doctor that was studying water filtration systems or something like that, you know, he found this problem. And he was like, wow. So long
Adam Force: story short, he came up with a solution, which was they need more iron, obviously. But how do you do that? How do you impact to them? And so what they came up with is lucky iron fish. And so, you know, while he went back to medical school,
Adam Force: Gavin was like, hey, let's create this as a business and start helping these people by solving this problem. And so using Cambodia as their initial
Adam Force: market, they created this lucky iron fish. And it was a different name when it started. I forget what the original name was, but it wasn't the shape of a fish. It turned. From a business strategy
Adam Force: standpoint, they changed it because a fish over there in Cambodia means like, you know, good luck. And originally with the original style and name, nobody would use it. And then when they changed it to the fish, they started using it. So long story, short, you cook with it, you put it in
Adam Force: your water, and it just gives five years of use with this one little iron fish, and it solves all their deficiency problems. So, you know, there you go. Now it's going to start, now the idea
Adam Force: of a social entrepreneur, they're changing that culture's, you know, health issue, their primary
Filip Valica: health issue, he's scaling the business. Now it's going to other cultures around the world, and it'll go global, and each one's going to have to have a, they're going to take a look at it and say, you know, how do we address this culture specifically? How do we brand it and kind of
Adam Force: all that stuff again? But yeah, super, super, what seems to be a super simple thing, you know, he took it and he's helping people all over the place now. So it's a pretty incredible story.
Adam Force: that sounds like a really great story especially since like you said the solution is relatively simple the product itself has no moving parts it's a single piece of iron that you could technically
Adam Force: get made almost anywhere in the world and it's making a huge impact well and everything they do the
Filip Valica: iron they get is all like sustainable like repurposed iron that's like super healthy and all that kind of stuff so they also part of this is like they're looking at the whole chain of production
Adam Force: you know, how, what is the product? Is it healthy? We're not using, you know, poor materials. Is it hurting the environment? And, you know, all those things are considered throughout the whole process of it.
Adam Force: So as you've interviewed a lot of these entrepreneurs, small business owners that have created some of these big products, have you seen a common thread in either how they behave or some of
Adam Force: the qualities that they have as owners or people that have created this massive change? I think that part of it is they're inspired,
Adam Force: I'm going to say almost 50 to 60 percent of the people I've spoken to are inspired by their travel. So I think it's really important to go out and see what's going on around the world.
Adam Force: Now technology, so that's one common thread is a lot of experiences inspired by travel, but also they have like their life usually is surrounded by conditions that are.
Adam Force: related to what they're doing. So, you know, you can do whatever you want in this world, but at the end of the day, the timeline will be a lot faster if you're kind of using the skills you have, the experience you already have to do something. So they're already in these
Adam Force: conditions and environments, just like Malika Dutch. She was living in India. She's dealing with human rights violations against women. And now she's solving that problem on a huge scale, changing the whole mindset of cultures around India through, you know, using pop culture
Adam Force: media, who would have thought. And so the common thing I think they have, too, is courage.
Adam Force: It's a huge common characteristic. When you hear the story from Moika Dutt, you just got to scratch your head and say, wow. I mean, the risk she took in pursuing her ideas and believing in herself
Adam Force: and solving this problem were incredible. And even, you know, Gavin and all these other guys, Kent and Lee, they're going into unknown markets. So part of being a social entrepreneur is likely you're going into an unknown market.
Filip Valica: Nobody has created shoes that grow like Kent and Lee, and how do you know that's going to be a successful business?
Adam Force: No one's made an iron fish that's going to support, you know, this health issue around the world. So these are all unknown markets. So it takes a lot of courage to pursue these ideas and test them and go through those failures and experiences.
Filip Valica: But when you have, what they have is, in addition, is persistence, persistence, believing in what they're doing and having the courage to take the risk.
Filip Valica: Yeah, it's all really good points. And I think even if you don't go into social entrepreneurship, you need a lot of those same qualities to succeed. You do. Yeah, you do. I mean, those are characteristics for any entrepreneur for sure.
Filip Valica: And a lot of other business entrepreneurs, though, you're not going to unknown markets. That's a big variation there. But you're right.
Adam Force: A lot of it is true across the board for sure. Hey, so the good news is if you already have a business that is selling a product, there's hope for creating a product that meets a.
Adam Force: social need, you know, to go out there and make a real impact in the world. So would you say that's a good avenue for somebody that's already in business or is already selling a for-profit
Adam Force: product to maybe create a non-profit angle or a non-profit product? Or do you think it needs to be a completely standalone company to be successful? No, I don't think it needs to be standalone. It's
Adam Force: whatever you want it to be, really. So you look at Jackie Bergland. She was on our fourth issue cover and she
Adam Force: she is essentially doing what you call it's like a hybrid of non-profit and for-profit so she created a for-profit beer business because it's like she had experience with a friend that
Adam Force: ran a bar and all this kind of stuff and she has a pretty incredible story too but she then created a non-profit and she uses 100% of her revenues
Adam Force: post
Filip Valica: expenses obviously
Filip Valica: to support her nonprofit, okay? So she's basically using both businesses to accomplish an ultimate overarching goal, support her life and obviously the people that work for her.
Adam Force: And then all the other 100% profits, you'll see on her website, they go towards the nonprofit, and that is going towards feeding families.
Adam Force: So it's changing how business is used in order to help people with their lack of food.
Filip Valica: She helps like food shelves. So that's interesting. Is any part of the beer component of the business used in the food? I mean, does she eat?
Filip Valica: So it's two completely separate arms that basically you're just taking funding from one and moving it to another. Correct. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Adam Force: She's a B-Corp. I guess that's the new big thing, the beneficiary like B-Corp status. Oh, I didn't even know about that. That's to identify businesses that are based on doing this type of work.
Adam Force: this kind of do good work. You mentioned that you had some products that you started that didn't quite work out. Can you kind of, do you mind going through some of those? Because I think we can certainly all learn from.
Adam Force: And I don't like to use the term failure, but I use it as a test that you get data back from. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, I had to figure out my own path and figure out what made sense for me. And I started,
Adam Force: I was so frustrated with plastic pollution because when I was out, in Costa Rica on these remote beaches. I mean, there's just nobody out there. I'm walking down the beach and I see all these little speckles. I'm like in the sand. I'm like, oh, okay, and I pick it up
Adam Force: and I'm looking at the sand. And actually, there was little plastic particles in the sand. It's like, man, you've got to be kidding me. So I'm looking at that. And that's just really frustrating because there's really no one out there to pollute the beach. So it's just washing up from the ocean.
Adam Force: You know, and just for example, 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year, probably more now. This is maybe me two years ago doing research three, four years ago.
Adam Force: And over six million of those go to the ocean. So a lot of plastic in the ocean. I was super frustrated. It's a product that is not biodegradable. Maybe over a thousand years it might break down.
Adam Force: But we are making so much of it on a regular basis. And now, now I ask you, Philip, when you go throughout your day, start paying attention to every piece of plastic. that comes across you throughout the day, whether it's the wrapping on food or it's your
Adam Force: cake up for coffee or anything, all that plastic always going to be here, never going away and just piling up. So I was doing research on this topic and I saw this kid made a hemp
Adam Force: water bottle concept and he won awards for it. It was in hemp magazine, all this stuff. And so I was like, that's a great idea. But he got stuck on a certain area. And I forget, it was something
Adam Force: something about how, oh, it was the hemp water bottle would absorb water over time. So I found a solution to that problem and I started investigating like how to manufacture and I spoke to hemp
Adam Force: experts and it came across through a lot of complications and I had no experience in setting up like manufacturing and the science of like, you know, polyethere polyurethine and all this other
Adam Force: plastic technology and stuff. So, you know, what happens too is to do that, you have to go to a even if you go to a plastic manufacturing warehouse or whatever, you'd have to change the entire
Adam Force: system to function for hemp molding versus plastic. So, you know, you'd have to raise a bunch of money to do this. And I was like, ah, I don't have the expertise. And I honestly, I started a Facebook page.
Adam Force: I started doing all kinds of stuff around plastic pollution. But after a while, I was like, I just didn't feel like it was the right fit for me as much as it was a passion.
Adam Force: So I moved on to this blue dot post,
Adam Force: conscious blog, conscious news blog. Like I said before, I wanted to talk about the plastic pollution. I wanted to talk about political issues, you know, rainforest issues, you name it, everything. And I didn't know how to do it other
Adam Force: than this conscious news blog. So started writing articles every day. And I had a bunch of ideas on how I wanted that to evolve. I had a couple writers working with me. And I pursued that.
Adam Force: for about a year and a half or two years and then after a while that's when I came across this podcast with the magazine for entrepreneurship that mentioned the stuff about people wanting more
Adam Force: interviews with social entrepreneurs. So I think those are the two big things that really led me. And just to give you a little bit of info, I did actually run a record label as well, which
Adam Force: is way off topic, but it contributed to what I do today because that's when I forced myself to learn how to do graphic design, music production,
Adam Force: you know, we had a lot of success with the record label and I learned a lot of skill sets that now apply to what I do today. So a lot of it was just me figuring out what direction to go. And then finally, when I heard
Adam Force: that podcast, I was like, listen, this is something that's more in my wheelhouse based on my skill sets, you know, doing reinforce protection. I set up a lot of info and Facebook pages and did all
Adam Force: that even Instagram page and all that. But I had no expertise in, you know, for it's like, you know, science and all that kind of stuff. And so it was a very long, slow road.
Filip Valica: So for me, doing something like the magazine, I know design, I know user experience, and I know business development. So I can put these pieces together more effectively. And, you know,
Filip Valica: here this business is born. My graphic design skills come into play. I learned how to build websites. I learned how to edit my podcast myself because of my music production background. And that's all come in handy with time and money.
Filip Valica: So it's huge to learn some of these skill sets because when you need updates on your website and you want to wait for some web designer, you're going to just waste so much time going back and forth and waiting on other people.
Filip Valica: So if you can do it yourself, including like your design stuff, it's a big benefit. Right. Absolutely. Just get it out there as quickly as you can. Yep.
Filip Valica: Exactly.
Adam Force: So, you know, as you were creating some of these products and you maybe realized that they didn't quite fit you or you weren't able to launch them, how far did you take it
Adam Force: before you realize that, you know what, it's not working out and it's time to pivot or quit? I've gotten to where I am through hard work, and it's been, initially I thought that it was maybe an asset and now I see it as a double-edged sword because I will
Adam Force: absolutely plow through things that maybe I should have quit. know, weeks ago or months ago,
Adam Force: and just to force them to work. So how do you know when to quit or how do you know when things aren't going to work? I don't know that there's a clear answer for that. I mean, I guess everybody's different and you have to go through your own experiences and
Adam Force: say, you know, how do you feel about it when you wake up? Do you feel like it, like, you have to have a little bit of a gut instinct. Like, is this my path? Is this what I'm doing in 20 years? Am I going to be a plastic pollution expert and solve this?
Adam Force: problem. And if it's not sitting right, you have to be realistic with yourself and maybe not force the issue. And so I think one of the things you want to do and what I did a lot, remember, I talked about that notebook,
Adam Force: is I went through a lot of steps to identify what is important to me. So there's a process of taking self-inventory and, you know, creating your vision and understanding your real reasons of why you want to be an entrepreneur, why you want to, you know,
Adam Force: help make the world a better place. And then you go through the the self-inventory process and you understand what your values are and what's important to you and you start identifying all this important information. And once you see that, you start looking at it
Adam Force: and going, all right, so here's my skill sets. Here's what's important to me and all these things. And you're like, okay, well, now you can start seeing, well, is what I'm doing the right fit? Or maybe I need to make an adjustment to align more with these values and what I outlined here.
Adam Force: So that's how I started looking at it, and it just didn't feel like the right fit.
Filip Valica: So I have this free guide that I put my blood, sweat, and tears into online here, the social entrepreneur startup guide, and that's all the steps that I've taken. So I'm sharing what has worked for me, but also these are things I confirm through a lot
Filip Valica: of discussions with entrepreneurs, through interviews and other ways to find out, well, how did you start? Did you take these steps? Are these important to you? And I would say 99.9% of them said, yes, I did a vision. I created a business plan.
Filip Valica: I, you know, I went through these processes. So I shared exactly what all the steps were that I have taken to identify my passion, get on the right track, and then build a foundation that was strong for this current business change grater.
Filip Valica: No, that's some excellent tips for sure. I think, you know, myself, I've definitely struggled. You mentioned that you're working for corporate and you've got this day job.
Filip Valica: that you're doing and I definitely did that for 12 years and I got into this mindset that because again grew up as a only child to a single parent and money was really tight and so my
Filip Valica: focus as I was growing up was a lack of money creates stress yeah so therefore if I have this opportunity to make more money I should take it and see where it goes and by making those
Filip Valica: decisions, I made maybe eight or ten of those decisions throughout my career to constantly kind of push the envelope, so to speak. After 12 years, I was in a place that I kind of got what I wanted where I was really good financially,
Filip Valica: but I wasn't fulfilled at all. And I would drive into work and not want to be there, like on the way to work. And my commute wasn't even that bad, but on the way there, it was. Yeah, I totally know that feeling. And it's not because the
Filip Valica: people you know usually the people that you work with is what's the most important and i always worked with some mostly really good people but it was just the work that i was putting out to at the
Adam Force: end of the day i would say i gave this place my best eight or nine or ten hours and and i feel that it was a wasted day that i didn't accomplish anything and i didn't create anything that was
Adam Force: worth the value to the world and can i keep doing that for 30 years and i would justify it by saying, oh, well, I'm making an income and I'm providing a living for my family and all these things, which are super important. And so it was really tough to make that balance. And so I had an
Adam Force: opportunity to kind of reassess my values as I was laid off here recently at the end of June. You know, there's an oil and gas recession here. And I thought, man, what a perfect opportunity
Adam Force: to kind of like pull back and explore. And I can't believe how focused or how much tunnel vision I had in my, just by kind of going through the day-to-day of life.
Adam Force: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's easy to rationalize. I mean, it's a bit of a conundrum for people because it's like, yes, I have to make money. It's the only way to have to live the lifestyle I want. But what are you sacrificing ultimately in order to get the money for the lifestyle
Adam Force: you want? So you have to really consider that. And, you know, are you happier doing something
Filip Valica: that you're excited to wake up for and that means something to you every day? And maybe maybe you don't realize it, but maybe you don't need as much money if you're doing that. So you have to understand how do you define success? Like what does happiness mean to you?
Filip Valica: And so those things are important.
Adam Force: And if you're going to work every day, miserable and just collecting paychecks and going through the motions, sounds great that you're helping your family, but you're also probably
Adam Force: not the happy and inspired person living up to your greatest aspirations. and that kind of projects off people too. You have an energy and your conversations are different because it's about how miserable
Adam Force: you're at work or things are boring or whatever it is versus the exciting and enriched life that you might be explaining to people otherwise and, you know, you might have a different kind of glow to yourself, if you will. Totally agree with that.
Adam Force: I think the last few months that I was working at my job and it's, you know, we all knew that the end was coming and, you know, you're having to lay off parts of your team and And it's just not a good work environment, but still, I think we all fed from each other's
Adam Force: negative energy and it's basically racing each other to the bottom in a way. Yeah, that's exactly right.
Adam Force: Yeah, and the negativity factor, yeah, who you surround yourself with, I can't tell you how important that is. And they will bring you down. So your thoughts is where it starts.
Adam Force: And if you're not thinking about things the right way, you're going to go in circles and you're going to drag yourself down. So really,
Adam Force: I'll throw out a book that changed, I don't know, it was so pivotal for me. It was T. Harb Ecker is the author. And he wrote a book called, I think it's the mindset of a millionaire, something like that.
Adam Force: And, you know, it's not about money like it sounds.
Filip Valica: It's about thinking. And he says, listen, when you grow up, you're conditioned to think about money a certain way. And if you're going to make more money, you just have to understand that it's really about how you think.
Filip Valica: And for example, if you hate money because it makes the world, you know, it's the root of all evil and all those things, which I totally get, if that's the case, deep down
Filip Valica: subconsciously, well, when you have money, you're not going to hold on to it or you're just not going to make money because you have that feeling.
Adam Force: Why would you, would you buy something that you hate? No. So if you hate money, you're not going to have much of it. And it's the psychology behind what he was explaining really helped me shape how I thought about it because I was the person that hated money.
Adam Force: And I was like, you know, money is just does terrible things to people and how they behave. But if you can control that and see it for what it is, I mean, we live in this economic system. Yes, it has its problems.
Adam Force: But when you can learn to control how you think about things and be more positive, you get more positive results. no that's thanks for bringing that book up now millionaire mindset is pretty amazing i've uh i've
Adam Force: read pieces of it and it's i have this issue where i have like five books that i'm reading at the same time yeah i definitely need to go and dive back into it you know one of the things that you mentioned was keeping right people around you you know i definitely believe that you're
Adam Force: the average of the five people that you hang out with the most um can you name some ways of people finding other people like them or some mentors yeah it's It can be a tough one.
Adam Force: Yeah, but so I guess if you're going to a certain field and you're, you want to, and you're in town with somebody, I lived in Philadelphia. So, you know, I literally would hook up with someone that had, I find common ground with.
Adam Force: And it may not be the most famous person in the world that's, you know, the Ariana Huffington. She's not going to go out to lunch with you. But you can get people who have experience in your area and bend down a certain path to a certain level, ask them out for a cup of coffee. It works sometimes.
Adam Force: I went through and I was just trying to find people that had success with like content planning and all that stuff as I was developing the magazine. And I literally asked probably, I went through LinkedIn and I was finding all these people
Adam Force: and I would reach out to them and say, hey, I'm in New York. Can we get a cup of coffee? I'd love to learn from you about this content planning stuff.
Adam Force: And I think pretty much 90% said never replied or said no, but then that one person connected. So you have to be willing to just throw yourself out there, start asking,
Adam Force: and it really helps to, like, if you have something to offer them. So for me, I had this concept of this magazine. So when I started reaching out, it was, hey, I have this magazine. I'd love for you to be on the cover. And that opens the door for a relationship.
Adam Force: I now have a relationship with a great entrepreneur, Joel Brown. He's the founder of Addictus to Success. And he's doing amazing things around self-development and coaching.
Adam Force: But because of my, I was actually really. reaching out to him about getting support for a crowdfunding campaign, which I never did.
Adam Force: And he turned around and he was like, and it happened to be a good time for him for a number of
Filip Valica: reasons with this movie he's in. And he just got back to me. He's like, okay, and we made a deal. I was like, great. Let's work together. I'd love to have you in the magazine. And he said, great. And now we have this relationship. And then he introduced me to other people. And when I
Filip Valica: first started with Jake Oreck on issue one, I reached out. He was the first person I got a cover
Adam Force: agreement with. And then his team referred me to three other people. So now I'm building this network. I have all these other social entrepreneurs, branding experts that are in the social
Adam Force: entrepreneur space and, you know, like Ann Miltonberg who I interviewed, awesome, awesome woman, doing amazing things for social entrepreneurs. She's a branding expert. And so I just start networking and it starts building up. So now I'm surrounded and I have a whole contact list
Adam Force: of amazing people. And I had something to offer at that point. But, but But when you don't, you want to connect with people that will have an understanding of what you're going through.
Adam Force: So it is about how you're positioning your email where maybe you've got to have some kind of game plan of what you're aspiring to that will connect to them emotionally.
Filip Valica: And it's kind of like, hey, I know you've been here. Can you help me out? And nine times out of ten, people don't mind helping you out. It's just you might have to be a little persistent in asking. No, that's really good tips. Be prepared to not get any responses back.
Filip Valica: I definitely go through that a lot with the product startup trying to get guests on the show. I'll end up with maybe at the end of the day, 10% of the people that I ask are probably people that end up being guests. So, you know, you have to just keep pushing forward.
Filip Valica: Well, and there's strategy there too. Obviously, it's like, you know, I'm going to talk to person A and they have this level of success. They're a lower barrier to access, right? And then, but when I have that, and then the next part,
Filip Valica: who's similar like now you have a couple like it was for me just as an example podcast or magazine i had a few established and then you get that next person because now your brand is established
Filip Valica: you look more professional and you get the next level person b and then if you want that a class person or whatever it is the high level person that you really want you know it's kind of like working up to it because then you can start saying hey well we've talked to this guy and this guy so
Adam Force: what do you think you know and you you got to tee yourself up you got to so timing is important as well And I, you know, I could definitely dive into some of that, but I think I would do a disservice to everyone listening if I didn't ask you about content creation.
Adam Force: You run an online magazine. Everyone that's listening to this that probably has a small business as a website presence, they know, and I know the importance of creating content that is shareable, that drives traffic.
Adam Force: And people talk about in general, well, you need to create engaging content. and that annoys me a little bit because there's no that is very difficult it's very easy to say create engaging
Adam Force: content it's very difficult to actually make that content engaging and yes you can go online and look up what the top copywriters are saying about this is how to structure your titles which is borderline clickbait
Adam Force: I think or to do things that are just driving traffic but it may not even get any engagement
Adam Force: And I know I'm very frustrated with some of the content that I put out on Facebook because Facebook prioritizes different types of content over mine, even the people that like my page and follow me. Of course, yeah. So what are some ways of getting traction?
Adam Force: And while you're answering that question, talk about quantity versus quality. Yeah, so I think that I agree. Forget engagement. I think it's the wrong word. It's really, well, what creates engagement to begin with?
Adam Force: and what does that mean?
Adam Force: So, you know, there's, before I tackle, like, what, what is that?
Adam Force: You know, it's, it is even knowing what content, how to approach it and what content, it's a matter of taking the time to write it or having someone else do it. So you'll even notice on our blog, like, we just brought on a content strategist who's going to start helping with our blog content strategy.
Adam Force: Right now, it's been, you know, kind of halfway content that is about our interviews, which is good. It's all valuable. but we're going to start getting more robust and more in-depth. And sometimes you need some support to do that because it takes a lot of time and commitment to write
Adam Force: what actually becomes an engaging article.
Adam Force: I know. So the way I think about it is from actually I took a writing class and it was by John Morrow. So anybody out there, John Morrow is really brilliant writer and he has classes and things like that that are really, really helpful for content writing.
Adam Force: Even it was based on guest posting. So, anyway,
Adam Force: the idea is you have to understand your audience. What is their deepest wish? Okay, so one, you've got to know who you're talking to. Then you have to think about what's their deepest wish. And I like to then say, well,
Adam Force: what are the results they're looking for? And that is based on their greatest fears and their greatest desires.
Filip Valica: You know, people, they don't want a ton of, you know, diet blog tips and all that stuff. They want to look good. That's the results, right? How would it look good in 10 days, whatever it is? And you can call it dinner talk.
Filip Valica: It's like when you sit down at the dinner table, what is the takeaways? When you talk about something, it's not like the process that you talk about. It's the end result. It's, you know, hey, I published a book today. Okay.
Filip Valica: So now my article should be how to publish a book in six months, right?
Adam Force: It's not how to the process of creating a book and blah, blah, blah, like that, right? So it's really about understanding what they're afraid of, understanding what gets them, what their desires are,
Adam Force: and then addressing them with very results-based insight. And then, of course, the part that makes it engaging is, one, you're hitting the key elements of what they need to understand
Adam Force: and what they want and need, and then because of that, that becomes valuable to them. And if it's valuable to them, well, guess what? They're going to engage with it, and then they're going to share it.
Adam Force: So it's really understanding that deeper psychological need from people and the better you know who you're talking to and you want to define it and then maybe just make it one
Adam Force: person, Sarah from Connecticut, she's between this age and that age, her hobbies are this, her interests are that, her greatest fears are this, her greatest desires are that. And once you really dive into that, you've got to say, all right, I'm talking to Sarah.
Adam Force: And what does Sarah want to hear from me right now? Where is she in her mindset and her journey in life? And what does she need for me to help her go to the next level in her life of success? If you can talk to that, she's going to engage.
Adam Force: So I think those are my thoughts on writing engaging content. Yeah, excellent tips, especially about whittling down and finding who your target audience is and making sure that you have that avatar. Absolutely.
Adam Force: As we near the end of the show, I always ask people for their top tips for people that are creating businesses that are struggling and they haven't been able to kind of have the impact or get to where they're going. Maybe they're a little bit frustrated because they haven't made
Adam Force: the progress that they want to make. What are some of the tips that you'd give them to keep
Filip Valica: pushing to take that next step? Well, I guess it depends on where they are in their journey, but it can be frustrating if you haven't found your sweet spot yet. So I think it's important to continuously assess yourself and take that.
Adam Force: kind of self inventory about what you're trying to do. So if you're in that early phase of I'm not quite sure if this is the right direction, well, then just always look at yourself, understand why you're doing what you're doing, and really look at your values as a person and what's important
Adam Force: to you. And once you can really get realistic with that, you're going to find businesses that are important to you. And you might find what's your frustration in the sense. Is something in the
Adam Force: world really ticking you off or, you know, like stuff like that? And those big challenges, around the world are actually opportunities.
Adam Force: So you just got to find the problem you want to solve that aligns best to who you are as a person, what you believe in and what you love. That'll help you feel good about being persistent over time so you don't get frustrated. And everyone's going to
Adam Force: go through ups and down. So one of the most important things is it's not easy. And you have to understand that it's also not a sprint. It's a marathon. So it takes time. So you have to have
Adam Force: persistence and with persistence you have to have patience you could take hits financially you have to be willing to invest in yourself i know it's scary when i first started doing stuff i was like
Adam Force: what i'm going to pay a thousand dollars to what take this class what is that am i really going
Filip Valica: anything with that or am i just going to waste my money if you're not willing to invest in yourself i promise you you're not going anywhere so invest in yourself make sure you're aligning to things that you love and you understand what's important to you and be willing to be persistent
Filip Valica: and just show up every day and just move the needle a little bit. Great tips, Adam. Thank you for sharing that with us. If we wanted to get more information about what you do and connect with some of the entrepreneurs
Adam Force: and listen to some of the stories
Filip Valica: and read the articles that you write, where could we find that? Yeah, so just go to www.
Filip Valica: ChangeCreatermag.com. And we've got tons of good stuff. So, you know, some great tools like our Facebook formula, the startup guide, depending on what you're trying to do that will really help kind of boost your success in those things.
Filip Valica: And like I said, that startup guide will take you through the early on steps that will help you really identify the direction you want to go. And then obviously the important piece of the puzzle
Filip Valica: is the magazine. And that's kind of like your tool set to accompany your journey to get inspired and surround yourself with those social entrepreneurs, people that are doing inspiring work
Filip Valica: so that it will spur ideas, learnings about their marketing, their branding, and just how they're doing these things and how they're tackling what seem to be in possibly large problems. I can't tell you enough, we put so much time and effort into making it a valuable asset.
Filip Valica: So, you know, it's the price. You can get a whole year's worth. We release six a year right now every other month. And, you know, 1999, it's, you know, you want to go out to lunch in New York. You're getting a whole year's worth of our blood, sweat, and tears to help you on your journey
Filip Valica: or you do a $1.99 a month.
Adam Force: It's just kind of a drop in the bucket. So for that kind of offer, hopefully you guys find that value. And our goal is to make it low-barrier access
Filip Valica: and just give you the best info that we can. Great. No, and you do some really well-designed work. I downloaded some of your PDFs, and I have to say that the layout of all the pages is visually really interesting and definitely know what you're talking about
Filip Valica: when you're talking about creating brands and doing that strategy. Thank you. So, Adam, thanks again for coming on the show and sharing all your wisdom. in your story and encouraging all of us to take that next step in creating something that has
Filip Valica: a larger presence that makes a bigger impact in the world. I appreciate you having me. It was fun. And that's all I have for today's episode. Thank you again for joining me.
Filip Valica: If you've got questions, comments, as usual, I've put all the links that we've covered under the show notes posted on the product startup.com slash episode 29. So join me next time.
Filip Valica: I speak with Josh Smith, he's a forester turned designer turned perfumer. In the last year of his industrial design degree, he started Libertine Fragrance as a way to learn the other side
Filip Valica: of product development that his industrial design degree didn't teach him. And so we dive into a lot of those lessons that he learned in the next episode. So don't forget to tune into that next week.
Filip Valica: If you're on Facebook, let me know what you thought of this episode and what you'd like to hear about next. You can get to my Facebook page through at the product startup. Thanks again for joining me,
Filip Valica: everybody. I really appreciate your comments and for listening to the show. And I hope that it helps you take that next step. I hope it gets you closer to the goal of launching your own product
Filip Valica: or licensing your product. And I will see you guys next week. Thank you for listening to this episode of the product startup podcast with your host, Philip Valisa. For more great content and to stay up Today, visit theproduct startup.com,
Filip Valica: your guide to getting there.
Filip Valica: Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what it really takes to bring your product to market and turn it into a big success. This podcast series is brought to you by Mako Design + Invent, the first firm in North
Filip Valica: America to provide global caliber end-to-end physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product businesses. If you're looking for product development help on your
Filip Valica: invention, head over to macawdesign.com. That's M-A-K-O-design.com for a free consultation from one of Mako-Design's four design studios from coast to coast. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
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