Interview with Jeff Fenster & college student Grant Hafercamp on exploring your ultimate potential.
Find your passion and purpose: Grant Haferkamp's inspiring story of founding Strictly SoCal highlights the importance of pursuing a career that aligns with your values and allows for a good quality of life.
Personal branding and resumes matter: Jeff Fenster emphasizes the significance of crafting a compelling personal brand and resume that authentically represent who you are and resonate with potential employers.
Relationship capital is key: Building strong relationships and leveraging connections is more important than what you know. Jeff encourages listeners to lead with value and give something to the relationship first.
Find your passion and purpose: Grant Haferkamp's inspiring story of founding Strictly SoCal highlights the importance of pursuing a career that aligns with your values and allows for a good quality of life.
Personal branding and resumes matter: Jeff Fenster emphasizes the significance of crafting a compelling personal brand and resume that authentically represent who you are and resonate with potential employers.
Relationship capital is key: Building strong relationships and leveraging connections is more important than what you know. Jeff encourages listeners to lead with value and give something to the relationship first.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hey guys, welcome to Back to the Basics with Jeff Fenster, where we bring in college students
00:03 from around the country to ask questions and help them be the best version of themselves
00:08 and the future founders of tomorrow.
00:09 I'm so excited to have Grant Haferkamp, a San Diego State student, here today to ask
00:14 me questions.
00:15 What's up, Grant?
00:16 How's it going?
00:17 We doing good today?
00:18 Doing great.
00:19 Thanks for having me.
00:20 I appreciate it on the show.
00:21 Yes, thanks for coming on your spring break nonetheless.
00:22 Yeah, man.
00:23 I just, I couldn't find a better place than to be here with you and ask some simple questions
00:28 about college and see what you have for me.
00:30 Well, thank you, man.
00:31 Let's, let's jump right in.
00:33 So the first question I have is, as personal branding is really evolving over the last
00:38 couple years and through TikTok and through Instagram and social media, how important
00:43 is it to build a personal brand through college?
00:46 And really, should people be harping on building a personal brand through college or building
00:51 their resume?
00:53 Well, I actually think they're one in the same.
00:56 And it took me until about a year and a half ago to understand that.
00:59 And so if I could go back myself, I would have started the personal brand earlier.
01:03 Your personal brand is your resume.
01:06 In the world of social media, in the world of TikTok, Instagram, and all these influential
01:10 platforms, what you are as Grant, what I am as Jeff Fenster, becomes the resume.
01:16 So as we think of resumes as the jobs I once had and the, you know, the internships I've
01:20 taken, the classes I've excelled in, those are what you've accomplished.
01:24 But who you are as a person is your personal brand, and that's what you stand for.
01:28 So I would definitely focus a lot more attention in my personal brand as early as possible.
01:33 And it doesn't just mean talking head stuff where you're sitting there promoting yourself,
01:37 but personal brand is all aspects of Grant, who you are, what you stand for, why you stand
01:42 for it.
01:43 And if you can portray that in your social media, then anyone who's looking to hire you
01:46 or looking to come work with you or for you, they're going to understand what you stand
01:50 for, and then they're going to align their core values with yours.
01:53 So you mentioned having a good reputation, right, with working with different employers
01:57 and having that reputation that really sets yourself apart and that you have a good connection
02:02 with others.
02:03 I've watched other podcasts that you've been on, and I've seen that you've used the term
02:07 relationship capital.
02:08 And I love that term.
02:10 I've never heard that before, and I've listened to a lot of motivational speakers, inspirational
02:14 speakers, business leaders in the world, and they've never mentioned that.
02:18 And when I heard that, I thought I was ecstatic because I would call myself someone that,
02:23 you know, is good with connections.
02:24 And I don't know, I just kind of want you to go into that concept and that term and
02:29 how important relationship capital is.
02:31 Sure.
02:32 So we talk about networks, and a lot of times it's your network is your net worth.
02:36 We've heard that saying.
02:37 And what I like to think about things is in the simplest form.
02:40 So capital is any type of currency, whether it's money, whether it's your network.
02:45 We could trade baseball cards, and the baseball card can be currency.
02:49 Your time in volunteering it is a currency.
02:51 I'll work for blank, right?
02:53 Food, money, et cetera.
02:55 When you understand that relationships have that same value and who you know is so much
02:59 more important than what you know, because if you know the right person, then you can
03:03 skip so many steps along the way.
03:06 And so what I think a lot of people fail to realize is if you don't think of it like a
03:10 currency, you don't appreciate it like a currency.
03:14 Think of it your money in your bank account.
03:15 If you have $100 in your bank account and you withdraw $20 for dinner tonight, $20 tomorrow,
03:19 and you keep withdrawing, eventually you're going to run out of money and be broke.
03:23 Same thing is true with relationships.
03:25 If I have a friend or an acquaintance or someone I'm trying to meet, and all I do is ask for
03:29 favors, ask for things for me, and make it all about me all the time, I'm making withdrawals
03:34 in that relationship.
03:35 And eventually I lose the ability to go to that human, and I don't build that long-term
03:39 value with them.
03:41 But if I go the other way and I lead with value, and I see how can I help you?
03:44 What can I do to help inspire you?
03:46 What can I do to help grow your company?
03:47 What can I do to help you with your children?
03:50 Can I help you wash your car?
03:51 Whatever the needs are of the individual, whatever they're looking for, the more I can
03:55 do for them, I'm making deposits, and I'm becoming wealthy in relationship capital.
03:59 And then all of a sudden, when I need things, I've earned the right to make a withdrawal
04:03 because I'm wealthy.
04:04 Also, I've learned that time is also a big thing, and you can't really rush the process
04:09 with relationship capital.
04:11 And like you said, giving is really important.
04:13 I've heard you and your actual role model, David Meltzer, talk about giving first and
04:18 how important that really is to building a relationship.
04:22 Could you kind of expand on that and maybe provide an example of where you gave first
04:27 in your life and it came to benefit you?
04:30 Yeah.
04:31 So leading with value is the way I coin it myself.
04:33 I like to think of it as, OK, when I meet somebody, especially someone that I want to
04:37 build a relationship with, my only goal in that first exchange is what can I do to help?
04:43 What is something that they need?
04:45 Is it an introduction?
04:47 Everyone likes to have introductions.
04:49 Those are easy things to figure out.
04:50 Is it they are putting on an event and they're short on humans, and so maybe I can devote
04:54 my time?
04:55 Do they need a recommendation on a restaurant or a hotel or a place to go?
05:01 Things that I might be able to help and lead with value and give something to the relationship
05:06 first.
05:07 So that's the first one.
05:08 As far as an example, David Meltzer is a great example.
05:10 So I've known David since I was four years old and he was a high school kid.
05:15 So naturally, we were family friends and our moms are best friends.
05:19 But when I became a teenager, he didn't really have a need for me, so I wanted to be around
05:25 him.
05:26 So I had to think about what can I do to make someone who's now in his late 20s and killing
05:31 it in the world and in business, and I wanted to learn from, how can I make myself valuable
05:36 to him?
05:37 And so I said, "David, you have this company.
05:39 I don't know anything.
05:40 I'm 15 years old.
05:41 Let me just come intern.
05:42 Let me just come be whatever you need me to be there.
05:45 I'll take out the trash.
05:46 I'll get you coffee.
05:48 I'll write notes."
05:49 I didn't care what I did.
05:50 I was just going to be resourceful and give him my time in the hopes that he was going
05:55 to receive it, and then maybe I would learn something along the way.
05:58 So I did that for many years.
05:59 I interned or worked for Dave for free at four of his companies from when I was 15 till
06:04 I was 22.
06:05 And as a result of that, I earned the right to ask for stuff.
06:09 And so that was the timeframe and giving of leading with value first.
06:12 I learned things along the way, but when I was 24 and I started my first company, I called
06:17 David and I said, "Hey, I need a favor."
06:20 And he said, "What?"
06:21 And I said, "I'd like to...
06:22 I just started my first payroll company and I need clients.
06:25 Can you open the door for me?"
06:26 And he did, and he gave me 100 names and 100 warm introductions, and I closed like 40,
06:30 50% of them, and it was a six-figure for my company.
06:34 I generated six figures in revenue just from that one group of 100 that he gave me, and
06:39 it changed the whole dynamic of my startup.
06:41 Overnight I was making money.
06:43 And you could say, "Well, that was just lucky."
06:44 No, that was five years of giving for that one moment.
06:47 I didn't know that at the time.
06:48 So that's obviously a bigger example, but it can be as simple as what we're doing here
06:53 right now.
06:55 I want to give and lead with value.
06:57 So I love the idea of bringing college students in here because hopefully I can give something
07:02 to you guys, not knowing if it's ever going to pay dividends for me.
07:04 I don't know.
07:05 I don't care.
07:06 I want to build wealth in the relationship bank account with as many humans as I can
07:12 because I never know when you start...
07:14 Your first startup might become the next Google, and hopefully I'm going to be able to call
07:19 you one day and be like, "Grant, remember me?"
07:21 And you're like, "Yeah, dude.
07:22 I remember you."
07:23 And then I have a relationship with the founder of the next Google.
07:25 Yeah, that's awesome.
07:27 That really gets me excited, the relationship capital aspect.
07:30 And really what I've done to try and be as successful as I can and reach my biggest potential,
07:37 just switching gears, but is to surround myself with like-minded individuals and successful
07:43 other entrepreneurs like Serfina and Enoch in the back there.
07:50 But I find it...
07:52 Some people might find it difficult to find these other like-minded people and successful
07:57 entrepreneurs in a place like college when the real aspect of...
08:03 Or not aspect, but lack of a better word.
08:06 The real concept of college that people see is party, party, party.
08:09 But when you're really trying to get down to working and finding those like-minded individuals
08:15 that don't go out and party, and they're working on themselves, and they're working on their
08:18 brands, how important is that to be around those people and to find those people at an
08:23 early stage in your life?
08:24 I think it's very important.
08:26 I don't know how easy it is to find it necessarily with your peers.
08:30 I struggle with that even now.
08:31 I mean, as an adult, most people that I interact with, they're not entrepreneurial minds.
08:37 That's not who they are.
08:38 It's not a bad thing.
08:39 It's just the reality.
08:40 They're not thinking about starting companies and solving bigger problems and building organizations.
08:45 They're thinking about, "What are we doing this weekend?"
08:47 And, "I'm taking my kids to Disneyland, and my job sucks," or, "I love my job," and spousal
08:54 stuff.
08:55 It's always the case that it's hard to find with your peers.
08:58 What I think is amazing that you guys have at your disposal at San Diego State and other
09:01 colleges around the country is you have organizations and groups.
09:04 I would definitely start connecting with them.
09:08 But I would also realize that you don't have to just look at college.
09:11 You can also trade up.
09:13 You guys are young adults.
09:14 There are so many businesses out there that would love to have free help.
09:18 I use that word importantly because you're in the years where I think focusing on earning
09:23 money should not be your main focus.
09:25 Learning right now and building relationship capital.
09:28 I know when I was in college, I always had an internship.
09:30 I always was calling a company I wanted to work for or work with and people I wanted
09:35 to be around.
09:36 I would say, "Listen, I'm Jeff Fenster.
09:37 I have no skills to offer except my time.
09:39 I will do whatever you want me to do.
09:41 I just want to be in the building.
09:42 I want to be around you guys.
09:43 My hope is to learn.
09:44 I want to get exposed to everything that's going on because I didn't know what I wanted
09:47 to do."
09:48 And so, yes, I think you should be looking around at your peers in college and saying,
09:52 "Who here is like-minded?
09:54 Who can I start not be focusing on parties but settling down, focusing on things we can
09:58 do?"
09:59 Because you're in the greatest time frame.
10:01 If there were entrepreneurship schools when I went to college, I would have probably participated
10:07 in something even though I didn't know about entrepreneurship.
10:10 That wasn't a word that I even knew.
10:13 I had to just kind of get thrust into it.
10:15 And so I think the best way I can answer your question is, yes, I would hunt for it, but
10:19 I wouldn't just limit myself to who's at San Diego State that is like-minded.
10:23 You obviously have Lavin at San Diego State, which is a group of juniors and seniors that
10:27 definitely are thinking that way.
10:29 But you also have outside the school and you have CEOs and founders all over the place,
10:34 and especially in San Diego where there's three and a half million people.
10:37 So definitely find your community, find your tribe, and just be a sponge.
10:42 Ask questions, be there, be in the room, do what you can and devote your time.
10:45 And when you graduate or at any point when you're ready to start your company, all those
10:50 lessons, all those things that you will have been exposed to, they're going to pay dividends.
10:54 It's going to be that fuel for you to rocket your next venture.
10:57 Hey there, it's your host Jeff Fenster, and I have something very exciting to share with
11:00 you today.
11:01 You know, here on the Jeff Fenster Show, we're all about growth, both personally and professionally.
11:06 Speaking of growth, have you ever heard of Everbill?
11:09 As the proud founder of Everbill, I can tell you firsthand that we're on a mission to help
11:13 everyone un-evolve, to live actively and eat stuff that's been around forever.
11:18 Imagine stepping back into a world where everything you eat is fresh, nourishing, and packed with
11:23 nutrients.
11:24 At Everbill, we've got you covered with our wide range of superfood bowls.
11:29 But it's not just about the food.
11:30 It's about a community of like-minded individuals who are determined to embrace a vibrant, fulfilling
11:35 lifestyle.
11:36 Join us on this journey as we redefine what it means to be healthy and active.
11:41 So if you're ready to un-evolve and be the best version of yourself, head over to everbill.com
11:45 and check out our menu.
11:47 Another question I had was for you personally, what type of, I guess I could say like sacrifices
11:54 did you have to make to be able to have this type of success with being the founder of
11:58 Everbill and having, I think it's 175 locations, maybe more, right?
12:05 - Sacrifices are part of it.
12:07 They're part of everything.
12:08 I can glorify the sacrifices I made as the founder and an entrepreneur, but I think we
12:13 all make sacrifices for any job we take, for any company we start.
12:18 You have to look at opportunity cost.
12:20 You have to look at the fact that as a founder, everything is my fault.
12:25 It's just the way it is.
12:26 I get the credit for everything good as well, but every issue in my company is my fault.
12:31 I hired somebody to do a job.
12:33 If they do a bad job, it's my fault, which means the buck always stops on my door and
12:37 I don't get to take the day off and just say, "Well, it's not my problem."
12:41 They're all my problems.
12:43 Especially as you raise money from outside investors and you bring in outside capital,
12:48 it becomes even more on you.
12:50 I would say the biggest sacrifice at the Everbill level, I mean, I was fortunately already financially
12:54 successful when I started Everbill from past ventures, so my sacrifices were different.
12:59 I will tell you when I started Everbill, the first four months, I never left the store,
13:03 seven days a week, 13 hours a day.
13:07 I had a wife and two kids and they were pissed because I was never home.
13:12 I was always working.
13:13 My wife even said this specifically to me, "You're a millionaire working a minimum wage
13:17 job, spending time away from your family and you don't have to do this.
13:20 Why?"
13:21 It's like, "What's my answer?"
13:23 My answer was because I started this company and this is what's required.
13:27 That's the thing is I do what's required and founders who are successful do what's required.
13:31 It means there are periods of time where I work 23-hour days and there are periods of
13:35 time where I don't have to work.
13:37 Point is, when you're in the 23-hour day phase, it's all in.
13:40 If you don't go all in, you can't be successful because you're competing with other founders
13:46 and CEOs and organizations that are going all in.
13:50 I'll beat most companies just because I'll outwork them.
13:53 To compete, you have to equal and match my work ethic and I'm not unique.
13:57 There's a lot of people like me who are building companies that have that work ethic.
14:02 Biggest sacrifice is time, especially as a father and husband.
14:05 That time away from my family is my biggest sacrifice.
14:08 I don't get that back.
14:10 When I was young and early, it was much more financial.
14:13 I sold my house when I had a job and moved in with my parents and had to sacrifice all
14:18 of the material things because I had no money.
14:21 Those are different sacrifices.
14:22 It's just where you are on the journey.
14:23 For Everbolt, the biggest sacrifice has been time away from my wife and kids and missing
14:27 out on life events that I'll never get back.
14:29 I think you bring up a good point, is what your wife said.
14:32 You're a millionaire and you're working a minimum wage job.
14:37 It's very important to show your employees that you really care.
14:43 Through growing the business, what has kept you with that fire?
14:47 What keeps you growing the business in such an expansive way?
14:52 It's what lights my fire is industry.
14:56 It's business.
14:57 It's growing companies.
14:58 I love that whole journey.
14:59 I like the problems.
15:01 They're problems.
15:02 They keep me up at night.
15:03 They give me stress.
15:05 I like them because problems are the differentiator.
15:08 I know that I can make a lot of money and have a lot of fun and build disruptive organizations
15:13 in the chaos.
15:14 A lot of people don't thrive in chaos.
15:17 That becomes really overbearing for them.
15:20 Really where I lose my fire is when it's so optimized that no longer are we really
15:25 doing disruptive things.
15:26 We're optimizing the business in the margins.
15:29 It's the little things that are going to change it.
15:31 Everbull's growing to the point now where I brought in a brand president.
15:33 His name's Trevor Sacco.
15:36 He runs Everbull day to day as far as the restaurants are concerned because I don't
15:39 really add value anymore.
15:41 It grew bigger than what my benefit is to the organization.
15:44 What did I do is now I'm focusing on the other areas of the business that are in the more
15:48 startup phase because that's who I am.
15:50 I'm a startup guy.
15:51 I like you and me sitting here.
15:52 We come up with some idea.
15:54 Taking that from here to scale, I'm all in.
15:57 I don't even know what day it is.
15:58 I don't care.
15:59 Let's just do that.
16:00 That's like my drug.
16:01 But once you get to a certain point, I lose that.
16:03 So I found ways to go back to those phases.
16:06 I'm focusing on a company called WeBuild where we build new concepts and I get to go back
16:10 to the beginning.
16:11 We get to start retooling and refinding it.
16:14 I get to be a founder again versus a president.
16:17 And I think a lot of college students, they're really just still stuck, honestly, on what
16:22 they want to do and the things that they think they can do in life and honestly their purpose.
16:28 When did you find out that you were a startup guy, essentially, quote unquote?
16:33 I would say probably over the last 10 years.
16:37 It took a while and it took the glorification of entrepreneurship and it took the social
16:41 media craze and the fact that now entrepreneurship is a degree.
16:44 It's a focus.
16:45 I don't understand.
16:46 It's a thing for me to go, "Oh, wait.
16:47 I'm an entrepreneur."
16:48 I just never thought of myself that way.
16:50 I just couldn't work for someone else.
16:51 I wasn't programmed that way.
16:54 I don't see boxes.
16:55 The prison?
16:56 Yeah.
16:57 For me, it was a prison.
16:58 Yeah.
16:59 I don't see boxes.
17:00 I don't think outside of a box.
17:01 I don't see the box.
17:02 It's not that I want to be different.
17:03 I don't.
17:04 If you ask me, honestly, I don't know that I want my kids to do what I do.
17:10 There is a lot of sacrifice and time.
17:12 It's the biggest sacrifice entrepreneurs have to make and I don't think people realize it
17:16 early on.
17:17 If you can do something else and make a good living and have a good quality of life and
17:22 find passion in it, but go home at night and not have to have that all be on your shoulders,
17:27 I would do that.
17:28 I just can't.
17:29 I wish I could.
17:31 For me, I found my purpose in the fact that when I'm doing it, I don't realize what time
17:35 it is.
17:36 I don't realize what day it is.
17:37 I don't go, "Oh, my gosh."
17:38 I don't wait for Friday.
17:39 I don't.
17:40 There was periods of time where I'm working at Sunday.
17:42 I think it's Thursday.
17:44 It doesn't matter.
17:45 I'm just enjoying what I'm doing and that's when I realized my purpose and my passion.
17:49 I understand being in college, I had no idea what I was going to do, none.
17:52 It used to stress me out beyond belief.
17:55 When I graduated college, I enlisted in the Marine Corps and applied to law school at
17:58 the same time and talk about two polar opposites, not knowing which one I was going to do and
18:05 not knowing if I wanted to really do either of those.
18:07 It was like trying to find my job is tough.
18:09 It's like one of the hardest things that I ever went through.
18:12 I think it's a journey, but when you do something and you don't realize what time it is, the
18:18 days fly and you go to bed and you can't wait for tomorrow to do it again, you found your
18:23 purpose and that's what you need to find.
18:25 If it's entrepreneurship, you'll know right away because when you start those companies
18:30 and you realize you're working long 15, 16, 18-hour days, you're exhausted.
18:34 When you wake up without an alarm clock at 5 a.m. the next day wide awake because you
18:38 have ideas pouring through your brain and you can't wait to see and get going, that's
18:43 your purpose, man.
18:45 That's what you need to be doing.
18:46 Well, Grant, this was a lot of fun, man.
18:48 I can honestly say it's been enjoyable getting to meet you and have you here.
18:52 I have a question.
18:54 I know you're working on your own project.
18:56 What is it?
18:57 Yeah.
18:58 I got a little clothing company called Strictly SoCal.
19:01 I was born in San Diego and you said you're from here as well.
19:04 Yeah, born and raised.
19:06 And I went to San Diego State so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to make a little
19:09 clothing brand.
19:11 And the people out here of Enoch and Serfina have really helped me just to kind of expand
19:16 the brand and helped me a lot with it.
19:17 And I wanted to give you one of my shirts.
19:21 Yes.
19:22 Check it out.
19:23 And you got a little note there for you.
19:24 I'm going to open the shirt first and then read the note.
19:27 Go for it.
19:29 So I started in about August and I've just been running with it.
19:32 But I've had a lot of help from some friends.
19:35 Oh, yeah.
19:36 This is cool.
19:37 So is the thesis to basically highlight all things SoCal?
19:41 Yeah, pretty much.
19:43 Just kind of shed light on the greatness of Southern California.
19:47 And you got the sun there and the waves and just kind of surf vibes.
19:53 So where can people buy this?
19:56 So you could go to strictlysocal.com.
19:58 I have a little Shopify website there.
20:00 We got hats, shirts, hoodies, and actually sorority hats as well.
20:06 So if you're in a sorority, you can check it out there as well.
20:09 That's awesome.
20:10 And did you do all the designs yourself?
20:11 No.
20:12 So I actually outsourced the designs on a site called Fiverr.
20:15 I'm sure you've heard of Fiverr before.
20:18 But I'm not really a graphic designer myself.
20:20 So I had someone else do that for me.
20:21 And I took the business part of it and ran with it.
20:24 So if you're listening to this and watching this, do me a favor.
20:27 Go to strictlysocal.com.
20:28 Let's buy some gear.
20:30 Let's support our future founders of America.
20:33 Grant's doing some awesome stuff.
20:34 And I'm a customer.
20:35 I'm going to rock this shirt.
20:36 And thank you for coming on, man.
20:38 And thank you for being a guest on another episode of Back to the Basics with Jeff Fenster.
20:42 This was a lot of fun.
20:43 And I'm a resource, man.
20:44 If there's anything I can ever do for you, hit me up.
20:45 All right, brother.
20:46 Thank you a lot.
20:47 Appreciate it.
20:48 Thank you so much for listening.
20:50 If you're looking to level up your relationship capital game, then take a minute and text
20:53 the word JEFF to 33777 for a free copy of my Network to Millions playbook.
21:00 The link will also be provided in the show notes below.
21:03 See you guys next time.
21:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]