Okay, I’ll Show You my financials.

Misc

Okay, I’ll Show You my financials.

Posted on Mar 4, 2009 - 6:16 PM PST

When I built Bradford & Reed with my brother Michael, we didn’t have outside funding and we had no prospect of getting it. So we hustled our asses off.

As you can see from this video, even the company’s name was designed to give us an edge. We knew that calling the company Bradford & Reed would mean more people would take our calls. We picked the name because we knew it would help us get our calls answered.

No one would ever turn down a call from a company called Bradford & Reed, because it sounded like a law firm (trouble) or a venture capital firm (opportunity). When they finally took my call, it was my job to sell them.

I love sales. All real businesspeople do.

I always revealed to people why we invented the name Bradford & Reed. And even that was part of my sales process. It let the prospect know that I trusted him/her enough to be open, and it communicated what I think made my company special: our hunger and creativity.

Did the technique work? Damn right it did.

As you can see from this video, it was part of what helped us reach $38,572,258 in annual sales. (That’s right. That’s million.)

I know I shouldn’t care about money. It’s declasse to even talk about it, right? But some people were born to care about little animals in the destroyed rain forest. And I was born to care about little numbers on a financial statement. To each his own.

But there’s one thing that’s missing from the story: legacy.

You probably don’t know that we were in the online greeting card business, even though we served hundreds of thousands of greeting cards every day. You probably don’t even know that the brilliant team we formed created a top 20 web property, in terms of traffic. Your world–and most people’s world–wasn’t rocked by us.

Now my mission is to build a legacy, something that changes lives and outlives me. To do that, I need to learn from the best mix of people I can. That’s why I record these programs on Mixergy.

I also need YOU to use the ideas I gather and build a world-changing, legacy-making business from them. Because if these programs, interviews and ideas don’t help YOU, then after I die, all I’ll be remembered for is caring too much about little numbers on financial statements.

So what do you think? Am I giving you information you can use to reach that goal? Is there anything I can do better?

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tmeloche

Reminds me of Ashton-Tate, and dBase-II. There was no Ashton, there was no Tate, and there was no dBase-I. The old tricks still work.
Chance_Stevens

Andrew,

Motivation speaking is what you should be doing…heck do it for free and just record all the sessions, and sell the live DVDs, sell these interviews on DVDs. If you made $38 million with the last business – this could definitely be bigger.

You speak from a place most people only wish they could get to and you're not selling bunk or hope, but encourage people to research and dig deeper.

I don't know if it's the coffee I just drank, but hearing this is exciting. Knowing someone else made it proves I can make it too.

I <3 Ambition!
http://mixergy.com AndrewWarner

That is one of the best comments I've ever gotten!

I love this. Wish you used your name so I could thank you by name.

Thanks for making this link for me. You just made a smarter.
http://mixergy.com AndrewWarner

Right on Chance!

I have to build something bigger than Bradford & Reed or else I'll spend the
rest of my life looking back at the “good old days.” And that's not the kind
of life I want. On to bigger and better.

For you too buddy.

This is a life-long quest for me. So we'll get there together.

i <3 ambition
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http://www.evodence.com/ James

Wow, I'm impressed by your ambition & perseverance, but more so than that, how do you actually achieve $38m in sales in 1 year for online greeting cards only!? How many units are sold for that revenue, how many people needed to achieve total, what was the average # of units sold per sale. You product must have been very saleable!
http://mixergy.com AndrewWarner

The revenue actually came in from advertising. It wasn't until years later
that we sold anything through Bradford & Reed.

Thanks for the compliment. It wasn't easy, but it was very satisfying to
reach that point.
http://kshuk.com alexhoule

Videos like this one are what gives me a kick in the morning.
It makes me want to leave my mark on the business world before I hit 25 years of age.
http://mixergy.com AndrewWarner

You're not 25 yet?

I can't believe I sat on that video for months before running it. I thought
talking about myself would distract from my mission here. Neil Patel was
right to push me to do it.
http://kshuk.com alexhoule

I'm only 20.

Undoubtedly, this video gives you huge credibility.
http://mixergy.com AndrewWarner

My brother Michael was under 21 when much of this happened.
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http://www.samuellavoie.com Samuel Lavoie

Thanks a lot for sharing that story and numbers, really this is inspirationnal. Will keep in mind the name design and ideas behind it. thanks!
http://mixergy.com AndrewWarner

Thanks! I really hope other entrepreneurs could use the ideas.
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willieplasencia

Major inspiration for me…

I hope to be in your shoes one day.

New fan of your blog.
http://mixergy.com AndrewWarner

I hope to help you get even further than I did.
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Truman River

You are certainly a great public speaker and you seem to have motivated quite a few people with the video.

However, why do you only show the revenue number? Can you share how profitable the business was and the cash flow generated? Potentially anyone could build a $40million revenue business by selling $10 bills for $1 – unfortunately it would not last for long.
http://matthewkrawse.com Matthew Krawse

What an excellent idea. Reverse engineering at its best.
http://pegobry.tumblr.com/ Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

That's great, but what matters in a business isn't the topline, it's the bottomline. Am I the only one who finds somewhat suspicious that you're willing to share one but not the other?
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ssaikia ssaikia

TOTAL EXPENSES?

Your revenues were $38 million. What were your total expenses?
http://twitter.com/marksellsla marksellsla

Hey Andrew,

My friend John Yang referred me to your site. He's doing a video interview with you tomorrow, how cool. First and foremost it's awesome that you've created this site for other ambitious business owners, your post is inspiring and kicks me in the butt to move forward with my business plan and vision.

This is going to be a major resource for my project to help me create a “legacy-making” business. Kudos to you Andrew.

BTW- Early last year a friend and myself thought of a web concept similar to Mixergy.com, we even bought the domain name http://www.startyourventure.com. We never did anything with it, because we didn't even know where to begin. A site like your's is needed to get us ambitious idealists to take action.

- Mark Gonzales, http://www.facebook.com/marksellsla
http://mixergy.com Andrew Warner

Thanks. Looking forward to showing your friend an his viewers how I do
interviews on Mixergy.

Sent from my mobile
TristanPR

I'm glad you posted this, Andrew.

I hope this gives EVERYONE out there a giant kick-in-the-ass to get moving! If Andrew Warner, Noah Kagan, Gary V, Siamak and all the others can do it — let's join them! Let's do it too!

I'm pumped.
http://www.CALaborLaw.com/ Gene Lee

Dude, you are awesome. Thumbs up for sincerity and directness.
eugenedlee

Dude, you are awesome. Thumbs up for sincerity and directness.
Shanz

I want andrew to elaborate on this
http://twitter.com/WCbusinessCoach WCbusinessCoach

Man, that is a sweet strategy with the random name. I might have to copy that.
http://EliteBrains.com/ Dmitry

Hi Andrew,
can you please post an URL to Bradford & Reed site? I wander to see how it looks. Google doesn't give any relevant result by this name. If you were able to sell it to Fox, it must be worth it.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Omar-Duarte/566275284 Omar Duarte

Wow Andrew. Just wow!

Now I'm really pumped of starting my business. It's going to be a rough road since I'm living in the Dominican Republic, but I'll freaking get there :).

All this time I considered Angels and VCs a top priority for every business, but the people you've interviews and yourself have taught me otherwise.

Regards,
Omar Duarte
http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

I just read this story for the second time, it took a bit to really digest, this is super encouraging. Not just the money portion, but the fact that you admit you failed and then just grew from it. I always worry about complete & epic failure… so seeing you grow from it makes me smile.

Thanks again, this site is really like the Mentor I never had…
http://mixergy.com Andrew Warner

Thanks. Failure was a hard thing to admit, but I felt reborn after.

Sent from my mobile

El Feb 6, 2010, a las 7:18 PM, “Disqus” <
> escribió:
juliusorias

Hey Andrew, I found your site through Neil Patel tweet. I started reading his awesome blog and followed him at twitter just today and then I saw his tweet about your site and now I am reading it
to the fullest because since then I was young I love to do business or about sales. Anyway, right now it open up again my hunger about owning a real business and lately I already started having an affiliate business and started helping other people to be better about their financial situations. And as I do that, my business are being blessed also. Starting today, I will be following your blog and learn more from you and others. Maybe, someday I want to own my first company or venture online. As I learn from you and of all the interviews in here I am sure I will be successful someday just like you.

Great story about your success.

Julius
http://twitter.com/AntwonDavis Antwon Davis

I think you're doing an amazing job of connecting the dots. It's as if you're a mini-TED. I've taken the time to watch a few of your interviews and they all surpass the typical TV interviews we all usually see. You make your interviews count.

I also respect and admire your desire and ambition to think and dream bigger. Your goal for your life will liberate other entrepreneurs to think and live in terms of “legacy” over “currency”.

Thanks.
Cindy

Andrew–
Inspiring! And a great coincidence that I found your site today: the dream I have had for three years was realized today when my website went live this morning. It still needs a few tweaks before I start promoting it, but I believe with all my heart that it has something to offer the world that people will enjoy. I will definitely be back to check out your interviews–thank you for a great site!
Fin

Nice video. Who bought out Bradford and Reed? And was the operating expenses around $14M, Did I see that right?
mizzfit

I really loved this video. I can hear the amazing in your voice. I hope to inject that same kind of amazing into my business…

http://www.mizzFIT.com
http://mixergy.com Andrew Warner

Thanks.
http://www.myspace.com/GODOLIFE Matt Shorty Wells

I'm glad you decided to run it and share a story about some of your past success. I'm new to your site (found out about it through Todd Smith, I follow his stuff) and when I landed on your site I didn't know anything about who you were. With SO many people out there on the net I think you def should share the story of your success. It gives so much credibility to your ability.

Personally I only care to learn from people who've “been there done that” and sharing the story of what you've done proves you know how to “walk the talk”

Now that I know about this website I am a fan and am keeping tuned.
http://www.ThoughtRod.com Mark Alan Effinger

Totally Transparent.

Funny, Andrew. I'm rereading an old article in Wired Magazine as we speak. It's on radical transparency and the new world of the web.

Of course, that was wayyy back in 2007.

But I spent a day with Dr Vic last November (the Experience Architect behind Zappos). Seems clear, engaging and honest dialog is never out of style.

Really cool to see you growing another big-picture business. Let me know if I can help. Your type of content is truly the RichContent we most like to promote.

Best of success this year. And thanks again for opening the kimono.
Mark Alan Effinger
Chief Evangelist
RichContent.com
ThoughtRod.com
http://www.ingboo.com Rikard

Love the point about the name, just tells you how important it is to game the human brain. Makes me wonder how effective “ingboo” is…
rikardkjellberg

Love the point about the name, just tells you how important it is to game the human brain.
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