Elliot Clark got the entrepreneurial itch, and he never looked back. He followed that instinct and it led him to become an influencer before influencers were a thing, launch Apartment Bartender (80K+ followers), be featured on Good Morning America and so much more.
Elliot’s living the dream, but it takes balance and hard work. In this episode of Conquer the Chaos, you’ll learn how Elliot finally made the leap to start a business, the ways his influencer business has evolved and grown, and what he does to maintain balance while scaling his following.
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Transcript
[00:00:23] Clate: Welcome, everyone to this episode of the Conquer the Chaos Podcast. I'm Clate Mask, co-founder and CEO of Keap and your host for the Conquer the Chaos Podcast today. I've got a longtime friend and a former employee of our company, who has gone out and done amazing things as an entrepreneur. He has learned what it means to conquer the chaos.
[00:00:43] Clate: He has lived the keys to success. And he's going to share with us from the perspective of an influencer, someone who's built up a brand for creatives. He's going to share with us a little bit about how those keys have worked for him. In particular, we're going to talk about the vision and especially the rhythm of execution.
[00:01:03] Clate: So I'm really excited to introduce to you our guest today. Our guest is Elliott Clark. Elliott, you might know him as Apartment Bartender online. He was a member of our team years ago here at Keap and then saw the entrepreneurial way and decided, “You know what? I'm going to give this a shot.”
[00:01:24] Clate: And here he is 10 years later. He's built up a really amazing brand for creatives. And he helps them do what he's done in the spirits industry where he creates content for premium brands in the spirits industry. So Elliot, thank you so much for being with us. I'm excited for you to share a little bit of your experience with our audience and to dig in a little bit on the keys to success. Thanks for being here, Elliot.
[00:01:47] Elliot: Absolutely, Clate. I appreciate you having me. Very full circle moment, like I had mentioned earlier. So, if you would have told me 10 years after walking out the doors that I'd be here on a podcast with you and kind of reflecting on the journey, I don't know that I would have believed it.
[00:02:04] Elliot: So this is a really special moment. So thank you again for having me on.
[00:02:07] Clate: Well, you bet. It's so fun. It's so fun for me to see people sort of fly the coop and spread their entrepreneurial wings, so to speak, when they leave Keap and build up a brand and a business. And you've done amazing things. You were an influencer before there were influencers.
[00:02:27] Clate: You started doing this and kind of found your way into this world of being an influencer where you … as obviously you've written a book, you're big into blogging and then your blogging started to turn into being an influencer for premium brands. So maybe just take two minutes and just share with the audience a little bit about how that evolution occurred. And the reason I'd like you to share it is I think a lot of times people see the influencer life and they want to be that. They want to create that. The path on how they get there can be pretty tricky.
[00:03:03] Clate: And by the way, it can also look a lot like fool's gold. Sometimes there are so many people out there sort of posing as an influencer. You've done it. You've done the real thing. You've been through it. And you charted a course to it before there was everybody and their dogs wanted to be an influencer. So I'd love to hear you just take two minutes about how you charted that course.
[00:03:26] Elliot: Yeah, that's a great question. So, it's kind of hard to answer that without going back to the beginning. I got really into learning how to make drinks at home. I had taken a cocktails one-on-one class after visiting a friend and his wife in New York.
[00:03:42] Elliot: This was around the time when I first started at Infusionsoft back then, now Keap. At that time I also got really into photography. So I started teaching myself. And the thing that really inspired me working at Keap at that time was just the love for small business, the promotion of entrepreneurship.
[00:04:02] Elliot: And so there was, uh, a spirit of entrepreneurship amongst a lot of people. At that time, I was on the sales team. So, I really got to be around a lot of other people that were … They had watch brands. They had jewelry brands. They had these other things outside of work. And I feel like the company really promoted that.
[00:04:19] Elliot: And so that was a big motivator for me. During the time when I was getting into photography, I started just posting things on Instagram because it was the easiest place to keep a log of content and recipes. For me, starting a website was a little bit more difficult.
[00:04:37] Elliot: My brain. Doesn't fully work on the tech and digital side, which is probably where a lot of my conversations went south when selling the platform. They start asking about automation. I'm like, “You know what? You need it. All right.
[00:04:52] Clate: Just trust me.
[00:04:58] Elliot: Just try to stay out of the weeds. So, again, like you said, I started before influencer marketing became a thing on social media. But what I found in that was kind of a niche. And I think for anybody that starts out, the thing that I always share is that like I didn't start it for money. I think now when you look at influencers you can see the ability to travel, the ability to get free products, the ability to make a good amount of money, the ability for a small amount of fame or celebrityship and stuff.
[00:05:30] Elliot: And when I started, none of that existed, at least, especially in the spirits and drink industry.
[00:05:37] Clate: Because at the time, you didn't really have big brands putting money behind online influencers, people who had a following, especially not, like you said, in your industry. So, you didn't see the gold and then go after it.
[00:05:51] Clate: Because the gold wasn't there.
[00:05:54] Elliot: Yeah. And there were a lot of food bloggers and there were travel and fashion. Those are three verticals that have always been really big, but again, the spirits industry and cocktails is very niche because. You know, you have to eat every day, but you don't have to drink and you don't ever have to drink.
[00:06:09] Elliot: So like, you know, it's a really unique thing. And I always say like the way a chef views food is the way that I view spirits and cocktails. I can nerd out all day on that. And I think a great drink is a good way to foster camaraderie and communication amongst people. You know, obviously, there's a limit to that, but I'm talking more about the craft of a good drink and it doesn't have to include alcohol.
[00:06:33] Elliot: So at that point, like, like you said, there was no gold. It was purely just an interest. It was a hobby. It was a creative outlet that I felt like I was lacking in my life at that time. So it scratched a lot of itches that I have and it also scratched a little bit of the creative entrepreneurship side. I grew up and my father owned his own business. My mom always had her own odd jobs that she did for side money. She was a stay at home mom, but she always kind of did something.
[00:07:02] Elliot: So yeah, I didn't grow up seeing my parents working for other people. So, I think that spirit of wanting to do my own thing was always instilled in me from a young age. And so again, it scratched an itch for me and I pursued it. And that's another thing that I'll tell people is that if you're going to start one, really dial in on what your motivation is because your motivation really is going to dictate a lot of your actions.
[00:07:29] Elliot: If you're doing it just for the money … I think there are a lot of ways to make money. I don't think you're really going to last in a field if you're simply just doing it because of the gold, right? Because if the gold doesn't show up for 10 years, then what are you going to do? You've got to love what you're doing.
[00:07:45] Elliot: And then the other side is like the niche, right? What specifically do you know? And so for me, I've really …
[00:07:53] Clate: Let me interject there for just a second before you jump into that because you're kind of part way through the story of how you really exploded as an influencer. And the first part of it was, if I heard you right, your parents were entrepreneurial and you came to a company that was very entrepreneurial and encouraged you to be entrepreneurial and have something on the side. You had always kind of seen that was the way to be and then you had this passion around bonding with people, connecting with people around creating drinks.
[00:08:22] Clate: And so you had this creative flair in you and also this desire to foster relationships around spirits. And so you had this desire to sort of have this creative outlet and then, and there wasn't really a business model there yet because you didn't have the big brands in spirits that were putting dollars behind somebody.
[00:08:47] Clate: So now, kind of build the bridge for us of where you went from. So you've got this entrepreneurial fire. You’ve got this passion to do this and this desire for a creative outlet and no market yet. So then what happened?
[00:09:00] Elliot: Then what happened was I just couldn't stop focusing on Apartment Bartender. Maybe something I have to apologize to you for is because part of that was while I was at work, right?
[00:09:10] Elliot: So I wasn't I wasn't fully hitting my quota every month. So my manager was like, “Hey, Elliot. We're all about you being an entrepreneur …
[00:09:20] Clate: And you have to hit your numbers.
[00:09:21] Elliot: You gotta do your job. So there came a point where it was like, “Hey, we're not letting you go, but if you want to stay, you have to hit your number next month.
[00:09:36] Elliot: And at that point in time, a few months before that, I had seen a friend that was on my pod at Infusionsoft … He had left to pursue his thing. And I remember I went home and I saw him do that and wrote down on a piece of paper, “On this date, I'm going to leave and pursue my own thing.”
[00:09:56] Elliot: And that conversation with my manager, it was a moment that came months before that date, but I had an advertising campaign with a major men's brand men's fashion brands. And so I said, “I think I'm going to take this opportunity to just jump ship and pursue this.”
[00:10:21] Elliot: And at that time, like that, that campaign was enough to float me for a few months, not enough to float me for 10 years, that's for sure. But this was back in 2016. So I was like, okay, my rent's low. Again, I was getting into photography. So there was one cocktail bar that I was starting to take photos for and run their social media.
[00:10:43] Elliot: And I was like, “Okay, if I could just float myself for three months and just try this out for three months. I'll see what happens. And then in three months, if it doesn't work, then I will go get another job.” And, you know, I’ve been doing it ever since. So, the bridge was a bit more of a bungee jump than walking across the bridge, which I wouldn’t fully advise that.
[00:11:15] Clate: Your manager gave you a little nudge out of the nest.
[00:11:17] Elliot: Yeah, exactly. I appreciate that moment. That's a very pivotal moment because I was scared to make that step by myself. But that conversation, I was like, “You know what? I think that I could do this for three months at least.” And then, again, next year will be 10 years.
[00:11:34] Clate: Well, because you had a client. You had one account that was paying you so you could do that. And then you had this specialty cocktail, which sounds like kind of a cocktail bar that you were able to go and start doing photography for. So you had a little bit of money that was supporting the passion, the creative flair that you had, and you knew, “Okay, well, if I'm going to go make this work…”. You mentioned something else a little earlier before we started the episode. You had seen the business model of agencies, which are many of our partners. So you'd seen Infusionsoft, now Keap, partners that had an agency where they had clientele, where they were operating as a creative agency. So you had a model of what that could look like in your mind I'm guessing. Is that right?
[00:12:22] Elliot: Yeah. So, in the beginning, I was very scrappy, right? We had talked about how there wasn't a business model. I saw the way that Keap was operating. And was privy to certain partners. As I said, Marcus Murphy is a good, good friend of mine. And so when he was on the team,
[00:12:41] Clate: Yeah. I love Marcus.
[00:12:41] Elliot: Yeah. He's a great, great, great guy. I was actually just talking with him the other day. But I saw the partners and some of what they were doing, like Ryan Dice, and I always was really curious about it. So I feel like there's always been two sides to my business, right?
[00:12:58] Elliot: There's been like the public-facing influencer blogger side that did really well, which has now kind of morphed into more of like a talent personality work. Then there's always been like the content creation and more agency side of what I'm doing. And I didn't really realize that or wasn't able to articulate it at the time.
[00:13:18] Elliot: But in the photo and social media work that I was doing with cocktail bars, that was something that at that time, paid my rent. And I'm like, whatever this other public-facing side is going to do is … I didn't have any structure. There is very much like going with whatever it was, but I did know that at the very least, on that side, the consistency of creating and putting out content and building your own community was really important.
[00:13:47] Elliot: And so with social media, what I didn't really grasp at that time was how much it was top of funnel, right — building awareness for these brands and generating just eyeballs and attention and stuff. I can articulate that now, but at the time, the activity that I was doing on social media was creating a buzz and creating a following and creating a community that was then interesting to brands as they were starting to look at social media as a great way of marketing and shifting towards influencer marketing. But all the while doing that, I was still doing content creation for brands. And this is when I went to Phoenix and that hasn't stopped.
[00:14:28] Clate: I like how you described that because as you started to make money, when you left and you had a client and one ad account, and you could kind of figure out a way to pay the rent basically, but you had to start building a business model. And you can now look back and say, “Oh yeah, there were kind of two sides of it. One was the social media content and the social media top of funnel awareness aspect of what I was doing where I was just sharing my passion, sharing what I love to do in mixing drinks. And then the other side of it was actually the content creation for clients where you were applying your photo skills, applying your passion and helping them to create content for their brand and building up clientele in an agency model like that. So I can see how that evolved.
[00:15:22] Clate: And then when you start to get a following and brands start to recognize, “Hey, instead of going and paying a bunch of money on an ad platform, we can take a piece of that and put it behind Elliott's following and build our brand that way and get business that way.
[00:15:40] Clate: So I could see how the dollars … And obviously that started happening as the influencer world sort of took off. It became another way for brands to get a return on their investment. And so I can see how that started to just take off because you got the top-of-funnel social media awareness part of it. And you had the component of the agency.
[00:16:05] Clate: Tell us kind of what's happened in the last couple of years … Maybe since sort of COVID and beyond and give us kind of an update of where you are. Then we'll jump in and talk about the keys to success.
[00:16:16] Elliot: Yeah, definitely. So after … So 2016 Halloween day was the day that I moved on from Infusionsoft at the time, now Keap.
[00:16:27] Elliot: And so after that 2017, 2018, and 2019, were really formative years for me in just riding the wave, I say. So influencer marketing became like brand sending products, and then it transitioned into a lot of like experiential products. Influencer marketing things where they're like, “Hey, we can just send this guy product or we can bring them out to our distillery. We can fly this person to a really beautiful environment and just kind of open up the atmosphere for them to create.” And so, those three years were just a ton of travel in those years. I moved from Phoenix to Denver and then COVID happened and that was really, a peak year for business because everybody was stuck at home, right?
[00:17:17] Elliot: A big part of that was the experiences that you create for yourself at home, right? People were working out at home and brands like Peloton blew up because you had to turn your home into your daycare, your work, your gym, your restaurant. It had to be everything.
[00:17:34] Elliot: So with that, that was a year that I really worked with a lot of really cool brands across a lot of different verticals. And I realized in that year how a great drink is woven into everything that we do, so that opened my eyes to it. Along that same timeline, though, I was kind of getting to this point of a little bit of burnout.
[00:17:56] Elliot: And that's when I really started focusing on the agency side because I was getting a lot of brands that were wanting to work on the ad side and the social media side. And you know, you can't say yes to everyone, but I wanted to find a solution in how to serve them still and provide a solution for some of the things that they were facing, whether it's not having great content or visual identity.
[00:18:21] Elliot: So I formed a creative agency with a few friends and business partners of mine. During that time frame, we launched a few campaigns. We did some influencer marketing for some major spirit portfolio companies. We ran a few social media channels and that went really well.
[00:18:43] Elliot: And we did that for about two and a half, three years. So that led up to, I think, towards the end of 2022. But during that time frame, I also became a dad. So, my son is three and a half now. He was born in 2021. And that changed everything, right? It's like I went from …
[00:19:02] Clate: Tends to do that.
[00:19:04] Elliot: Yeah. And it's been the best change because, for me, prior to COVID, I was traveling four or five times a month. And it was great because I was in my twenties and I was young and I was single, I was going to all these cool places all over the world. And then COVID happened and there was a big question mark on what is the world going to be like after this?
[00:19:23] Elliot: Um, and then I became a dad and so it just really changed my view on what I do. It changed my view on how I go about my work. I realized in that process that I didn't really have a lot of structure actually. So the last several years have just been me leaning into home, leaning into … I live with my fiance. We live just outside of Denver in a town called Nevada.
[00:19:54] Elliot: So, it's like leaning into home, wanting to be home more. Being on the road five times a month is not feasible both for your health, but also as a family man and that's my main priority. And so the past few years have really been shifting more into the agency side.
[00:20:12] Elliot: Back towards the end of 2022, I ended up … Me and my business partner ended up opening up a creative studio here. We also didn't know what we didn't know, opening up a brick and mortar. And so, the past two years have been the build-out phase and going through and learning about city permits and what you can and can't do.
[00:20:34] Elliot: And again, all the while being a dad and still doing Apartment Bartender, I wrote a book that was published and released this year. I've still been doing a lot of the personality work, like I was on Good Morning America this year. And so that's been going well and that's always been steady.
[00:20:51] Elliot: But you know, in my heart, I really have sought to just build more structure and build something more sustainable because I think that the freelancer project-by-project model is not as sustainable when you're a dad and you're like, “Okay, I need to understand and have a little bit more predictable revenue, right?
[00:21:11] Elliot: It's like the wild, wild West flying by the seat of my pants that I've always gravitated to. Like you said, routine and creatives are like polar opposites sometimes. So I'm like, “Yeah. Let me try out this structure thing.”
[00:21:26] Clate: Well, let's talk about that a little bit because the rhythm of execution, which is what makes possible the life vision … Like the rhythm of execution — what are we executing?
[00:21:37] Clate: We're executing our vision, right? That's what we're executing to. And you know I love that you are a family man and you're trying to balance family and entrepreneurship. As I've, as I've talked about many times on the podcast and in the book, that tension is really difficult because the passion that you have for the business can collide with the needs of the family and where you want to be in spending your time with them. So, you're calling out all the things that happen and particularly as entrepreneurs go from the twenties to the thirties, they start to settle down and figure out: How do we make this business really serve our lives?
[00:22:16] Clate: You're touching right on a really sensitive topic for people, especially for creatives because the issue is getting that rhythm in place that supports the life vision. And as you called out so many times, entrepreneurs and especially creatives don't want rhythm. They feel like rhythm is actually going to disrupt the creativity, block the creativity and prevent them from being in their flow and doing their jam and what makes them great.
[00:22:50] Clate: I always say, “No, no, no. We're not talking about a rut here. We're not even talking about … Sometimes, I say a rut is in routine.” You can do routine and then it can turn into a rut, right? R U T is in routine. And so if we're not careful, the routine will turn into a rut. And instead, we want rhythm.
[00:23:12] Clate: We want harmony. We want magic. I love rhythm because it actually has a musical connotation. It's basically igniting creativity, not blocking creativity when we do it the right way. So tell me about what you've wrestled with there. How have you done that dance to find a rhythm that really fuels your creativity and your agency versus putting you into kind of a stale routine that turns into a rut?
[00:23:37] Elliot: Yeah. Great question. Personally, I kind of break up creativity into just personal passion-project creativity, and then the creativity that you went to … I have come to find out that creativity very much has its own life. There are moments of inspiration and those moments I consider like the more personal passion-project stuff.
[00:24:06] Elliot: So for example, I bought myself a really, really nice camera and I decided this camera is only used for that personal creativity. So I'd take a lot of photos of my family, take a lot of photos of my son, you know, when I'm traveling, everything is a little bit more artsy, a little bit more … This is the camera that I have.
[00:24:26] Elliot: It's a Leica and it's just like my little point-and-shoot. And I take it around everywhere. And so, I think creating a separation between physically the cameras that I use for brand work and the cameras and the stuff tools that I use for personal creativity was a big thing for me.
[00:24:41] Elliot: Then I think also, creativity is very fickle, you know? And so you need to establish consistency in what you're doing, like creating dedicated shoot days and creating a series that you do and you just stay consistent. Because you're not always even going to feel like creating something, but I think when you time block and you create time to do it, especially in this industry, something is better than nothing. The content, you never really know who it's going to hit. So really stepping outside yourself and realizing that sometimes, from a work perspective, just the consistency and the rhythm that you get into and staying true to that is super important.
[00:25:23] Elliot: And that's something that I've struggled with, especially after becoming a dad. It was a lot of trying to find … Do I even really want to be in the spirits industry anymore? There were a lot of questions there. And also, too, coming up on 10 years of doing it, it's like subject matter burnout.
[00:25:42] Elliot: Sometimes you're like, “Okay, I don't feel as passionate about it as I did in 2015. Now, it's going to be 2025, so what else am I really excited about?”. So that's really what I've struggled with is the consistency and the rhythm of creating in a space that I've been in for going on a decade.
[00:26:00] Elliot: But the personal side and the creativity side, I think that it's really important to create things and in my case as a photographer, to shoot things that aren't connected to money, right? I think when you're just only focusing on brand work and you're only focusing on what you're doing for your clients, there's creative work in it, but you are provided with the brief you're provided with, guaranteed deliverables, timelines, and “Hey, it has to be this. Here's the do's and don'ts and that stuff.” So there are some pretty strict boundaries and those boundaries might not necessarily be inspiring to you as a personal creative, right? So, I think I really make a separation between brand work and client work and what I do just in my own desires and what I like to shoot in my own time.
[00:26:51] Clate: Okay. We're going to keep this going, but first a quick message for you. Conquer the Chaos listeners, let me talk to you straight for just a minute. You're running your business, and it dominates your mind. It can be very difficult to take a step back and see what's needed to create balance in your business and your personal life, and to create great growth and development and progress in your business and personal life.
[00:27:14] Clate Mask: One of the most powerful ways to gain the perspective that you need is to get away from things and immerse yourself in an environment where you're going to be inspired, where you can see possibilities, where you can create connections, and where you can learn and grow and develop. And I know of no better place for entrepreneurs than Keap’s Let's Grow Summit. For years. We ran this conference as just an amazing mecca for entrepreneurship. And then, truth be told, for a few years, we didn't run it. We got back to it last year, and this year, we're putting it on and it is going to be awesome. I am so excited about this.
[00:27:52] Clate Mask: And I want you as our listeners to not miss out on this event. It's going to be November 20-22 in downtown Phoenix with the main days being the 21 and the 22. You can register for it by going to keap.com/lets-grow-summit. That's keap.com/lets-grow-summit. And you can take advantage of our early bird registration pricing, which expires at the end of July.
[00:28:15] Clate Mask: So if you are needing a reflection time, an opportunity to take a step back, gain greater perspective, inspiration, and most of all, see what automation — the fifth key to success — can do for your business, then make sure that you attend the Let's Grow Summit. keap.com/lets-grow-summit, November 20-22 in Phoenix. I look forward to seeing you there. Alright, now back to our chat.
[00:28:40] Clate: I'm hearing a couple of different things as you described this. One, you said you're separating out your personal and your business and recognizing that there's creativity in both. And I'm also hearing that then when you get on the business side, sometimes the constraints around what you're doing for the brand can rob a little bit of the joy of creation of creativity.
[00:29:07] Clate: And so you've replenished … You're replenishing that on the personal side in different ways and making sure that you're getting that. I think that's super fascinating because most entrepreneurs are creators, even though they don't realize it. By the way, I say this all the time, like in seventh grade, my art teacher saw something that I did and she said, “Oh, I'm so sorry. You're just not creative.” And I just believed I wasn't creative because … And bless Mrs. Watson's heart, she was looking at the job I was supposed to do. She'd given a quote-unquote, a creative brief. And I really sucked at it. But then I took that to mean that I wasn't creative and I went years and years thinking I'm not creative until I realized that entrepreneurship is an act of creation.
[00:29:53] Clate: And I love it. It's so fun and it brings a ton of joy. And I think most entrepreneurs recognize that they are creators. They're creating something, but it's really interesting because most of us also lose some of that joy when it gets to the business goal, to the biz, to the money. It works for a while by the way.
[00:30:16] Clate: And at times it works, but we lose some of that joy. We lose some of that freedom and a little bit of lack of constraint. There's a really interesting dance between the creation that is lined up to a goal. It's creation with intentionality to achieve goals. And that's an important form of creation.
[00:30:37] Clate: Then there's another form of creation that is just expression. It's actually just playing really. It's a way for us to fuel our souls as entrepreneurs. And the reason I like what you drew out is a lot of times entrepreneurs, when they're putting their week … When they follow what I teach or what other people teach that’s similar, where they're designing their lives and they're intentional about their weeks and their quarters, they're getting creative around the goal, but they're missing some of the joy part of it, the fun part, the play part of it. And you need both of those things to be well-fueled. If you're not, your entrepreneurial spirit actually starts to die inside of you a little bit and it starts to romanticize other ideas and other things, when really the joy is right there. It's just been pushed out a little bit in different ways. And so I like that you called out fueling the creative spirit on the personal side and on the business side and recognizing that they're both acts of creation and they both have their purpose in an intentionally designed life that we are executing to this vision that we have.
[00:31:46] Clate: So I appreciate that. Appreciate what you said there.
[00:31:49] Elliot: Yeah. So just to quickly add to that, I mean, I absolutely love how you summarized that. For me, I feel like it was extra important because as the influencer model grew, it was hard for me to see where, especially as a driven individual, it's hard for me to see where Apartment Bartender ended and Elliott began.
[00:32:13] Elliot: So it wasn't really until I became a dad and became a family man that I started to realize and want the distinction between home and family and Elliot and the Apartment Bartender, and that was a big motivator behind getting the space that I have and getting out. Other than realizing it's a losing battle with a toddler for space at home.
[00:32:37] Elliot: It was really important because again, like my work is … I wouldn't say that other than the book, like the book and a few little odd projects here and there over the decade, I have been my own product in a lot of ways. And so, it's hard to scale that.
[00:32:56] Elliot: But it's also really important to. If you are the product, if your time is a product and your personality and that stuff, you do need to absolutely create boundaries between work and personal. Otherwise, the burnout is really real. And also too, I think there was a phase when entrepreneurship and the hustle and the grind mentality was really celebrated and promoted.
[00:33:23] Elliot: And I think I dove into that, and then now I look back on that, and I'm like, there is no reward for not getting any sleep. There is no reward for not taking time to work on your personal health and your mental health and spend time away from work because it actually fuels your creativity and fuels your ability to work. And so that was a lesson that I needed to learn for sure.
[00:33:51] Clate: Yeah. That's why in the book, I define entrepreneur success as balanced growth in your business and personal life. Because if you're just burning it like crazy, the hustle and grind world takes its toll.
[00:34:06] Clate: And we start to have a lot of collateral damage. I call it the dark side of entrepreneurship. You start to have all kinds of issues in the other areas of your life because the business becomes so dominant and your point about your personal brand being so intertwined — where does Apartment Bartender end in Elliot begin and vice versa?
[00:34:27] Clate: That's such a common thing for entrepreneurs where their identity … I get into that. We all do at times where the identity becomes the business and the business becomes the identity. And it's the reason why in the book, I call out how to set the vision because it starts with your identity independent of the business.
[00:34:45] Clate: These are personal keys and the identity and then purpose, values, mission, and goals. Those are the five components of your vision. Once you get those in place, now you can design and actually execute in a rhythmic way. You can execute this personal vision.
[00:35:04] Clate: When people don't do that, the business just starts to crowd out everything. And then you start to have kids and you start to have family and important relationships. And you realize, “Oh, if I don't get some sort of structure here and how I'm going about my business, then the family suffers.”
[00:35:20] Clate: And so that's why I'm so passionate about it. And I appreciate you sharing your journey of how you've gone through that. And it's the reason I start vision with identity. Because once you get that clear of who you are for the world, then you can go to why you exist as a purpose and your mission for what you're up to in this life.
[00:35:37] Clate: Again, all this is independent of the business — your values of how you go about doing it, then your goals for your life, then the business. Then you put together a rhythm of how you execute to that and the business fits into that whole thing. And I think that's what you've described is you got to a point where you're like, “Well, fun business, really enjoy doing this, but, it feels a little bit out of balance. If I don't start putting together a little bit more of a rhythm of how I do this, then I burn out.” And that's what happens to all of us when we don't put that in place. We either burn out or we flame out spectacularly as our friends and family watch in horror.
[00:36:18] Elliot: Yeah. And I think another part that I have come to … Because so much of the early days of what I was doing was surrounded by travel. And so I kind of was able to be around a lot of people. And then as I've been home more and been more central to Denver and being here, I realized that I accomplished a lot of things that I kind of wanted to with this.
[00:36:39] Elliot: And I'm so grateful for this journey because of the lessons it's taught me, the people I've met, and the relationships I've formed. The experiences that I've had are some that I'll always cherish. I think what I've realized too about myself is I am one for community.
[00:36:54] Elliot: I am one for being in a team. I grew up playing basketball. And so I say I grew up playing basketball. I played basketball. I didn't play tennis. And so, a lot of what I do … The influencer model, sometimes, depending on how it's set up is really just about you.
[00:37:12] Elliot: You have people around you. I've had talent managers. I've had assistants and stuff. And I have independent contractors or creatives that I'll work with and hire. So once in a while, you're around it, but there's a big difference between having a partner and a team that are building towards something together versus having people around you who are being paid to kind of fulfill a need or serve what you're doing.
[00:37:36] Elliot: And I've found that model to be something that doesn't align with who I know myself to be and who I've learned that I truly am, you know? And so, that's where I'm focusing now is on building structure outside of the public-facing side because once that fizzles out, I feel like I'll be able to walk off into the sunset and be like, “That was a really cool thing.”
[00:37:56] Elliot: As my son grows older, it'll be like, “Once upon a time, I was this person called Apartment Bartender, and I really enjoyed that, but I'm really looking forward to structure and this other business venture that has more people involved and has more team.
[00:38:17] Clate: Yeah. Well, what I hear is, you haven't laid out for me your identity, purpose, values, mission, and goals. But what I can hear very clearly is you have something in your identity that is about enriching the lives of others through experiences and you have something in your values that's around having community and doing something together with people.
[00:38:45] Clate: And so, when identity, purpose, values, mission and goals — which is all collectively the vision for life — when you put that together, then it helps you get really clear on how you want to build a business that supports that and folds into that.
[00:39:04] Clate: And so, I love the way you've described that and your point about basketball, not tennis shows something about your values, about what's really valuable to you and about how you … Because the values are how you go about doing your work, right? How you go about your life.
[00:39:21] Clate: I appreciate you kind of calling that out. It's a really good example and a good way for people to see how when we lay the foundation of our vision with identity, purpose, values, mission, and goals, then the business can fold into that very effectively and support it. And all too often, people get running down the path of a business and they haven't taken the time to slow it down and say, “Wait, what do I want for the vision of my life that the business supports?”. It's very natural to do, especially when you're in your twenties. Like it's fine.
[00:39:53] Clate: You're traveling all over, you're doing all kinds of stuff. So none of this is meant as a critique. This is just the experience of entrepreneurship and how you evolve and how you see it. I've loved hearing your story and just hearing kind of the … When Christina was like, “Hey, we're going to have Elliot Clark on.”
[00:40:12] Clate: She started telling me the story. I was like, “Oh yeah, I remember Elliot. That'd be so fun to catch up.” And honestly, for me, one of the funnest things is just seeing people who leave the company to go start a business and practice entrepreneurship, discover the keys, play with the keys themselves, and start to realize how powerful they are.
[00:40:31] Clate: And you've done that in just an awesome way. So thank you. You're an amazing creator. And I appreciate you bringing your experience here for other creators that are here, and by other creators, I mean all entrepreneurs who are listening because the way you articulated how you fuel your creative spirit in business and personal life and how those two things work together in rhythm to create a beautiful days, weeks, months, quarters, and years, that's the stuff of building an intentionally designed life. And so I really appreciate you sharing that.
[00:41:07] Elliot: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. This is a full circle moment and if there are some things that I said that some people can hang on to and use in what they're doing, then that makes me really happy. So, again, I appreciate you having me on and allowing me to share.
[00:41:23] Clate: Definitely. Thank you for being with us. Where can people learn more about you, Elliot, if they want to follow more of what you share out there?
[00:41:31] Elliot: Yeah. So ApartmentBartender.com, a few cocktail recipes on there, but also you can get in contact with me through there and then on social media at Apartment Bartender.
[00:41:42] Clate: Awesome. Awesome. Elliot, thank you so much. Congrats to all you're doing. I'm excited for where you are right now, the next chapter of entrepreneurship for you as you practice the keys to success for entrepreneurs and conquer the chaos for everybody else. Thank you for listening. Thank you for all you do out there as entrepreneurs. I salute you in the way that you create and build and lift up others around you through your entrepreneurship and your creative efforts until the next episode, keep growing. All right. Thanks Elliot.