This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jeremy Parker. Jeremy is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Swag.com. Swag.com is the best place for companies to buy and distribute quality promotional products that people will actually want to keep. They work with over 5,000 companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Spotify and Tik Tok. The company was ranked #218 on 2020’s INC 500 list and has been growing tremendously.

But, a promotional products company growing massively in age of no tradeshows or in person meetings where these things are typically exchanged, how can that be? That was exactly the question I had when I was first introduced to Jeremy. What is he doing differently at Swag that has people flocking to them?

I thought it best he share his secrets with you.

www.SWAG.com

Jeremy went to Boston University for filmmaking. But he also liked branding. He chose filmmaking because YouTube was just beginning, and he saw a way to tell stories/market through filmmaking. He did a documentary that won the Vail Film Festival. It was this point that he had to make the decision on if he wanted to continue down the filmmaking path or go to his true passion in marketing. He went back for his final year in college and focused on marketing. He decided to start a high-end T-shirt business and use it as a learning process – right before the crash in 2007.

Just after getting started, all the places he was selling his shirts to were starting to have trouble. He decided to index the price of his shirts to the price of the DOW Jones. Every 100 pts it fell equaled a discount on his shirts. Jeremy wrote to Mark Cuban sharing what he was doing, and Mark shared it on his Maverick blog. It then got seen by the CEO of MV Sports, a larger player in the promotional space. After meeting, the CEO committed to help fund his next business.

He decided to re-imagine university apparel and started a brand under MV Sport. He then started a company doing product placement in Youtube Videos which then sold to a publicly traded company.

He always liked the promotions business and new it was stuck in old ways and needed to be tailored to work with the Millennial buyer.

Talk to use about the early days and getting going. What is your best advice for entrepreneurs just starting out?

• When you start a business, you have to put yourself out there, listen to your customers and adapt quickly.
• Know the power of a name as the name of your company have a huge impact on your success if done right.
• They successfully negotiated to get the exclusive license to use the Swag.com domain for 2 years in exchange for a little equity and have the option to buy the domain for $200k during that period.
• Then, Jeremy went big. He did a top-down approach to get logos and focused on Facebook and others to get any type of sale so it could then be referenced to parlay future sales.
• They focused on sales first and didn’t even build out the website.
• They got a number of Blue-chip companies, got their feedback for what they wanted in a buying experience and then built the Swag platform around it.
• Don’t be afraid to go after the big clients from the start.

Is there a framework you use for disrupting an industry?

• Look for an industry or niche where every player is doing things the same or not collectively serving a market.
• You can either disrupt by doing something that no one is doing or by recognizing that the players are doing it wrong or not adapting to the changes in the market because they are “stuck in their ways.”
• You have to talk to all those you think are customer and get great feedback you can use to fix the problems and pain points they have as a group.
• Customers will tell you what they are looking for.
• You will not have everything clients want and have it working properly and that is ok. You solve a problem and continue to improve.

What has been the most impactful decision for your success during the pandemic?

• Pivoting. They started to sell masks, either blank or printed with logos, etc. Access to their manufacturing power for clients.
• They kept their team intact.
• The sped up the release of Swag Distribution where they allowed clients to ship 1 item or a few at a time to individual addresses. Swag would hold the inventory and clients could send them out to whoever they want at any time. This made a huge difference and gave clients a new way to engage and promote.
• They changed to give the customer experience people needed in the pandemic quickly.

How do you get customers today? What works? What doesn’t?

• Started with knocking on doors
• Graduated to Google Ads
• Once customers were coming in, they thought long term, SEO
• Content strategy is critical and where they focus.
• They use content across all channels (web, social media etc.) to drive memory
• The name of the business is by design because you type it right in. Like “googling” you “swag it.”

What applications do you use to manage your marketing, engagement, re-targeting, etc.?

• They use Hubspot as their CRM and marketing automation.
• One of the biggest tools they use for sales is Intercom. It allows them to engage in chat real time on the site with clients and help them to get what they want quickly and make the sale.
• Intercom integrates into Hubspot

Tell us about your unique perspective on fear…

• “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever could”
• People get into their own way.
• Take the first step.
• Once you take the first step, you then focus on the problems, listening to the customer, and start building and creating
• You will never have all the answers, so don’t be afraid of you don’t.
• Use the fear to make you better and stronger as every time you push through it, you get better.

At the 35 min mark, we discuss fear further and asymmetric risks… ​

At the 40 min mark, Jeremy talks about trends he sees for the future…

• Work at home is here to stay.
• No more tradeshows, but buying for Virtual Events
• People are buying for specific holidays they didn’t used to do like “Employee Appreciation Day.”
• Gifting is becoming more important.

Best Quote: "Fear kills more dreams than failure ever could"

Jeremy's Misfit 3:

1. Be confident in yourself and your ability.
2. Be a good person. Treat others well.
3. Be healthy. Stay in good shape and take care of yourself.

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Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.

"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.

This week’s Lesson for Hannah

Hannah, I want to talk to you about something very important in life, common sense and independent critical thinking. Sadly, as I watch our society, these things are more and more lost every day and yet, they are so important to maintain.

So, what is common sense and independent critical thinking? Well, the dictionary defines it pretty well stating common sense is sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence.

Personally, I like to think of it as thinking that is between intellectual rigidity and total emotional ignorance. Intellectual rigidity being that someone has just made up their mind based a fact, but not all the facts and will not consider any other possibilities or even change when new facts are presented. To me, this stifles the ability to learn and grow keeping people trapped in a single thought pattern. On the opposite end is total emotional ignorance which I deem as a complete disregard for the truth and facts, even when presented, because a person thinks their feelings are the truth.

Make no mistake, feelings are not facts or truth.

To illustrate this point I want to use something that is controversial and happening right now during the Wuhan Coronavirus – Mask wearing, mask mandates and the 6-foot rule.

First, let us look at what our leaders in the US have told us. On March 8th 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the lead infectious disease expert for the US response on the Wuhan virus advised Americans against wearing masks on 60 minutes stating “There is no reason to be walking round with mask.” As we all know, this position was reversed in the summer of 2020 and later Fauci said that the reason he originally said not to wear masks was to preserve PPE at the time and that he does not regret it. Now, for me at this point, common sense kicks in a little to ask a question, “So are you telling us that masks actually do work and we should have been wearing them from the start, but you lied to us because you wanted to preserve PPE? How many lives were lost because of not wearing masks or some sort of face covering because you told us not to?” Notwithstanding that bit of contradiction, let’s take further a look into masks.

You may not know this, but there are actually many contradictory scientific studies on mask wearing. Some studies say they work, others say they do not. Without getting into the do they or don’t they debate which will rage on probably forever, let’s look at things from an angle of common-sense using reason, not emotional ignorance or intellectual rigidity. It’s time to think independently.

When I look at what is happening with the virus a few things immediately standout.

Mask wearing and social distancing is at an all-time high, but cases of the virus worldwide are at an all time high. Think about that for a second. I’m not saying masks don’t help, but they certainly aren’t preventing the spread in a large way based on the data.

Another important fact to note is that the average mask and respirator filters particles that are 30-80 microns in size, but the virus particle size is about 10 microns. That means, even wearing a mask, every time you breath, particles are going through the mask – which may be why the spread has continued.

Another thing I have thought about is how the virus is transmitted. By all accounts, it is airborne and lives on surfaces if not cleaned or disinfected. This led me look at things we are doing such as the 6-foot rule and other practices and ask, do these really matter? Is the virus that smart that it knows how far 6 feet is? I played football from 2nd grade through college. It is a sweaty, bloody, fluid swapping sport and I loved playing it. Nowadays, I love watching it and found it interesting this past year that players would go on the field without a mask, sweating, breathing hard, tackling each other, huddling up after each play, and so on, but when they came off the field, they all had to wear a mask on the sideline. To me, that makes no sense. Does the virus actually know when players are on the field and off the field and only attacks them when on the sideline, so they need a mask?

Or what about how in some states you can go to a grocery store, but cannot go to church. Does the virus really leave you alone at the grocery store vs. when you sit in a pew?

When you think about it, it seems pretty ridiculous. It gets even more interesting when you do a little research on the origins of social distancing in the first place. They actually started from a 14-year old’s high school science project back in 2006 and 2007. If you want to learn more about it, you can read the New York Time’s April 2020 story about the origin and it is not a scientific process.

If you have common sense, even from the football example above, you would ask about the validity of social distancing and its efficacy, but knowing the origin is not based in any real scientific study that was thoroughly tested, you have to at least question it. Is the virus really that smart? Or is it like every other virus in history that works it way through a population until it reaches a point where enough people have gotten it and developed anti-bodies and/or have been inoculated through vaccination that it becomes like any other virus we all deal with in our lives? Based on common sense and what has happened to this point, personally I think it is the latter.

But, I don’t dismiss everything either. Instead, common sense tells me the real answer lies somewhere in the middle. Masks probably help some or in certain situations and so does distancing, but should I have to wear one to walk to my table in a restaurant where I then take it off and am breathing and talking with particles leaving my mouth floating throughout the air alongside everyone else’s particles in the restaurant – no. Should there be such drastic measures for a virus with a less than .9% death rate? Probably not.

One last point on cases. The flu typically has over 30 million cases each year in the US and we are currently past the halfway point of the flu season and there have been less than a million cases according to the CDC. Where are they? I don’t know if people know that the flu is another form of coronavirus, so common sense would tell me that we are probably counting cases of the flu as Wuhan virus and the case numbers are not as large as reported. Additionally, the flu kills up to almost 700,000 people a year worldwide and pneumonia kills a staggering 3 million+ per year (that’s 2016 data). You can find these stats on the CDC website and with a simple search. That’s almost 4 million deaths per year that the flu and pneumonia account for. My question, why haven’t we been wearing masks and social distancing our whole lives? ​

As you can see, common sense and independent critical thinking is more about asking questions and seeking answers than just making a decision based on a little bit of knowledge. Doing that is intellectual rigidity or emotional ignorance basing everything on feelings. You must ask questions and delve deeper and seek knowledge before forming an opinion or set of believes on something, especially major topics. That advice is not new. It can be found in the Bible, and from Plato, Aristotle and others. In fact, Thomas Jefferson told us to question with boldness when he said, “Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”

Hannah and everyone listening, we must question with boldness in our lives and not take everything at face value. We must use reason, common sense, and independent thinking and not allow ourselves to be too rigid or form our thoughts based solely on emotion. We must also not allow fear to drive our decision making. I’ve said many times that I believe entrepreneurs are the answer to the problems of this world as just about everything stems from entrepreneurial thinking, so we must strive and work hard to become the best thinkers we can be and help others throughout the world to think critically and use true common sense.

The world will be an even better place for everyone if we do.

I love you,

Daddy

Best Quote: We must use reason, common sense, and independent thinking and not allow ourselves to be too rigid or form our thoughts based solely on emotion. We must also not allow fear to drive our decision making.

Misfit 3:

1. Common sense and independent critical thinking is the place between intellectual rigidity and total emotional ignorance.
2. Feelings are not facts or truth.
3. We must strive and work hard to become the best thinkers we can be and help others throughout the world to think critically and use true common sense.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Karim Abouelnaga. Karim is CEO of Practice Makes Perfect (PMP), a Public Benefit Corporation that partners with K-12 schools to help narrow the opportunity gap.

Karim founded PMP at 18. He is an author, a TED Fellow and Echoing Green Fellow. At 23, he was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in Education, and at 24 was named to Magic Johnson’s 32 under 32 list. In 2016, he was ranked in the top 3 most powerful young entrepreneurs under 25 in the world. Karim’s TED Talk was named one of the 9 Most Inspiring Talks of 2017 and his Forbes day-in-the-life feature is Forbes’ most viewed video of all time, collectively garnering over 5 million views.

If you’ve listened to this show for any length of time, you know that I believe traditional education is important, but self-education and learning to think independently is paramount to success. I’ve brought Karim on to talk about his experience and what he’s learned in creating PMP and in his entrepreneur journey.

www.KarimAbouelnaga.com

You have to know where you are from to know where you are going.

Karim’s parents were both Egyptian immigrants. His father had a dream to come to America to create a better life for himself. He was an entrepreneur that started from scratch. He drove a cab and the later started importing Egyptian collectables and selling them at street fairs. Eventually, this led to starting a little thrift shop. Karim spent a lot of time working in the shop helping the family business.

Karim and his siblings attended some of New York City’s most struggling schools. And early on school wasn’t that much of a priority. Then his father got sick with terminal cancer. It was then things changed.

As a kid, he hard that education was his way out. He hadn’t thought much of it, but after his father passed and he got into high school, he began to see what this meant.

He had some luck in that he had a series of mentors that helped him. He graduated at the top of his class. He went to college for business and management.

As he started furthering his education, the disparities in education became more apparent and he found his mission and purpose. He graduated from Cornell and started PMP as a way to solve the education gap with low-income schools – what he calls narrowing the opportunity gap.

10 years later, the company has grown and is a multi-million-dollar education enterprise.

What are some of the principles you learned from your father that have helped make you successful?

• Show up early. Be reliable.
• Foster an incredible work ethic.
• The importance of learning to work for yourself.
• Learn from those around and get mentors to help you – don’t stop learning.

At the 12 min 12:30 mark, Karim and I have a conversation about nature vs. nurture.

What is the challenge and opportunity that you see right now in education?

• Money doesn’t solve problems, people do.
• It is what you do and how you use the money to create the environment to succeed.
• If you figure out something that works and prove it works, then the more money you put into, the more successful it can be.
• So, the big challenge and opportunity is how to better use the money to really make sure it is being used effectively.
• There is also a lot of bureaucracy and interia.
• We also make assumptions that the problems we all see are being worked on already – and many times they are not.

How does entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ways of thinking help in education?

• Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. They see a problem and design a solution.
• There is no shortage of problems in education.
• One big constraint is always limited resources and entrepreneurs are great at succeeding with limited resources.
• Entrepreneurs are always great at addressing problems that they are intimately familiar with.

How do we better foster independent self-education in our education system, so student realize the importance of it alongside their formal education?

• Humans respond well when we have purpose.
• It comes down to intrinsic motivation and how we foster it in kids in school.
• You have to kids understand what their purpose is.
• The easier we can make the connection between what a kid will learn and the results it can have for them, the better.

At the 26 min mark, we talk about teaching entrepreneur principles in k-12.

• It can possibly help.
• The bigger thing is being able to customize education to each kid’s personal needs.
• It is taking the large bureaucratic system and making it more nimble to cater on an individual level.

Tell us about your routine and what you’ve learned on how to be most productive….

• Routine is key – it takes the thinking out of things.
• Prioritize sleep and don’t compromise on it.
• A lot of evenings are spent just wasting time and not productive – by going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, you will have more time to focus during the hours that matter most.
• Constant learning and work on skillsets is also part of routine, doing them in your own way.
• The hardest part is being focused and sticking with it.
• The biggest difference between the most successful and the others is their ability to cope with boredom and continue along a same routine day in and out, as boring and same as it may seem.

Tell us about your new book and its mission…

• It is all about purpose.
• The goal of the book is to help people figure out their clarity of purpose.
• There are key questions that help people understand and figure this out.
• It is a great book for people who are starting something new and for people who are thinking about changing careers.
• It is called the Purpose Driven Social Entrepreneur.

 ​Best advice for a young entrepreneur starting out today?

• Start! Don’t get stuck.
• Much of entrepreneurship is learned as you go and through learning from others.
• Going through the process is the best way to succeed.

Best Quote: You have to know where you are from to know where you are going...

Karim's Misfit 3:

1. Your attitude determines your altitude – Zig Ziglar
2. Less is more. The root of success is focus.
3. Don’t be ashamed to ask for help on your journey.

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Hello Misfit Nation! I am excited to bring a special weekend episode of the Misfit Entrepreneur. Occasionally, I find something I truly enjoy and when I do I like to share it with you. In 2021 I’ve started listening more to the immersive shows on Wondery. If you haven’t checked it out, you need to do so.

Recently, I was able to connect with them and they offered to share a small sample of one of their new shows with the Misfit audience and that is what I want to share with you in this short special episode because it focuses on one of my favorite topics – origin stories of business leaders!

Business movers is one of Wondery’s newest series. In the series, host Lindsay Graham dives deep into the inner workings of some of the most successful companies of all time. From the origin stories of their famed leaders to the million dollar idea that catapulted them to success, how exactly did these companies grow from an idea and a dream to multi-billion dollar corporations? Hear the landmark decisions, the scandals, and the stunning triumphs that made them who they are. And First up in series is Walt Disney! If you don’t know his story, you’ll be amazed.

Learn how, even when faced with harrowing obstacles and wide-ranging skepticism, he remained true to his vision and brought his world of magic to life. You’re about to hear a preview of Business Movers. While you’re listening, subscribe to Business Movers on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or listen early and ad-free in the Wondery app by going to wondery.fm/lukasmovers.

Enjoy!

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is David Wood. David is the founder of Focus.CEO. He left a cushy Park Avenue job over 20 years ago to build the world’s largest coaching business. He has coached and mentored entrepreneurs worldwide on how to do what matters, get there faster, and be extraordinary. He has been ranked the #1 life coach on google and has built a following of hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs. He is also the author of Get Paid for What You Are.

Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series had this to say about David, “David walks his talk; I admire his willingness to put himself in the fire and do what it takes to make that next step.”

So, how has David done all of this? Simple, by learning what it means to truly focus and get to what truly matters and delivers results in life and business. And I’ve asked him to come on the show to share his best with you.

www.Focus.ceo

Get the checklist and training on how to double revenue: www.MyFocusGift.com

David began his career as a consulting actuary because he was good at math. He thought he had it made. He was from a country town in Australia and landed a job on Park Ave. in New York consulting with the largest companies in the world.

Then someone introduced him to personal growth and he was skeptical of it. His heart was cracked open after spending time with these people. He realized there was so much more. He didn’t want to work with people around numbers, but people around people. So, he devoted the next 20 years to learning from the best of the best and teaching others.

He now teaches people not only how to increase their income, but how to show up in all areas of their lives.

How can people get more in touch with themselves emotionally and with their vulnerability and use that to their advantage in life and business?

• Early in his life, David had a tragedy – his little sister was killed getting off the school bus. He shut down much of his emotions and developed his cerebral side.
• He got really good at thinking and finding solutions.
• There are at least fields that we need to get interested in.
• The first is the field of thinking and thought. Most of us are not aware of our thoughts. They just happen.
• Second, the body and understanding the signs from it, like the need to take a deep breath.
• Third is emotions. Understanding how we feel and why.
• You can do courses to practice in these areas.
• Most importantly is to slow down and check in in these areas to understand and then you can share them with others.

At the 12 min mark, David and I have a conversation on awareness. Many people are living on default and not aware to how to understand the 3 areas and use this understanding to help their lives and business.

Google “Authentic Relating” this it term that describes this field of study.

How does understanding this help you in life and business?

• It can help you in leading people
• It can help you in keeping key staff and growing them
• It can help you get clients.
• It will help keep customers.
• It will help you in your marriage and your relationships with your kids.

Explain focus as you see it and teach it?

• “The human mind is like a monkey on crack…”
• At the 20 min mark, David gives an example of how this happens.
• The problem as entrepreneurs is that we see all the options and opportunities around us and start to get scattered. We lose focus trying to accommodate all of this.
• Work out what you are going to choose to care about for 12 months and narrow it down for 12 months.
• Once you’ve chosen what to care about it, you then have to choose what not to care about.
• Write these things down.
• You have should have 12 months goals, 8-week goals, and then you need 7 days goals that you write down each week that are helping you get to the longer term goals.

Anything people can do daily to keep focus and/or remind them of keeping focus?

• You can double your productivity with a simple checklist.
• Make sure you have your 12-month goals and that you LOVE them.
• Make sure you have 8-week goals that you will celebrate because when reached they are getting you close to your 12-month goals.
• Book in your calendar for a weekly recurring 20-minute date with yourself. David calls this a CEO date. In this session, look back at what you did in the last 7 days and celebrate it. Then look at your 8-week goals and ask what you are going to choose to care about for the next 7 days. Write it down as that will be your 7-day goals.
• Have a penalty that you do not want to keep you honest to doing them.
• Daily, block off “sprints” in your calendar. These are focused time blocks with no interruptions. 2 hours blocks work well.
• Put your phone on silent and let everyone around you know to support you and give you the time.

Get Paid for Who You Are – tell us about it…

• The book is about what you care about and really love and how you make a living around it.
• Even if you have to start it as a hobby – you need to scratch the itch.
• If you track all your actions during the week, look at them and then ask, “Do I love doing it? Am I great at it?” If the answer is yes that is your genius zone.
• With everything else, you need to get it off your plate and get someone else to do it or eliminate it. The more you are in your genius zone, the better you will be.

Talk to us about leadership and tough conversations?

• Having a tough conversation is a leadership move.
• Don’t let things hang in the air that you know need worked through delt with.
• David gives multiple examples and it is best to just listen
• The clue that you have a tough conversation opportunity is that you are feeling a bit awkward or uncomfortable. How you approach it is different in each scenario. ​

5 steps to double revenue?

• Have your 12-week goals
• Have your 8-week goals
• Book your sprints and show up for them.
• Have a weekly CEO data for yourself to pick your targets for the next 7 days
• Set an alarm for the end of the day where you ask, “If I only got 2 things done tomorrow that would make the most difference, what would they be?” That will tell you where you need to start the next day.

Best Quote: The human mind is like a monkey on crack…

David's Misfit 3:

1. Love your goals. Have goals that if achieved would make you do a happy dance.
2. Have a “not to do” list. Have an agreement with yourself of what you won’t do.
3. Welcome everything. Embrace things and then think and choose action from there.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Eric Partaker. Eric is an interesting guy. He had been ranked "Top 30 Entrepreneurs in the UK", 35 and under, by Startups Magazine, and among "Britain's 27 Most Disruptive Entrepreneurs" by The Telegraph. His work has been featured on a number of major TV stations and networks, as well as in the Wall Street Journal and The Economist. He has also appeared as a guest judge on the The Apprentice.

Over the last 20 years Eric has advised Fortune 50 CEOs while at McKinsey & Company, helped build Skype’s multi-billion-dollar success story, and founded several companies, before becoming one of only 300 certified high-performance coaches in the world by the High-Performance Institute.

But, it’s not just that Eric coaches a very exclusive number of top performers throughout the world, it’s unique experience and way of looking at things that really makes his standout – and that is what I want him to share with you today.

www.EricPartaker.com

Get a free copy of the 3 Alarms there as well

Eric story takes place over a decade when we got on a plane and felt a little “off” at take-off. As the plane climbed, he began to feel pain in his chest and arm. Luckily, a doctor was on the plane and checked him and determined he was having a heart attack. The plane had to do an emergency landing.

He landed in a small town in France to a waiting ambulance and remembers saying to the paramedic, “Please don’t let me die. I have a 5-year-old son.” He ended up being ok as they got to him in time. Eric says that this was the start of history, because prior to that he was a workaholic working 100 hours a week.

It became his mission to help others avoid what he went through. But it took a little more time. Eric says that it was not even the heart attack that sparked the final change. He changed his health habits, but still 3 years later he still had not changed himself outside of that and woke one day to his wife sobbing telling him she was going to leave him if he didn’t change his ways. He was not present and available to his family. He needed to make changes on the home front. He realized there were 3 domains that we must be balanced in: Health, Wealth, and Relationships.

Define High Performance and what it means. What does a true Top Performer look like?

• Take a step and look at the why
• Only 2% of people that reach their full potential. 98% don’t. It’s terrifying and liberating at the same time.
• The liberating part is that you can be part of the 2%.
• Think of performing at your best in the life domains: Health, Wealth, and Relationship.
• Peak Performance gives a set of tools to be your best in each of the areas.
• Don’t picture the Ferrari. Picture what it means for you to be your best.

Are there habits that people can develop to perform at their highest potential? What are the traps that keep them from doing this?

At the 13 min mark, Eric talks about the 3 Alarms.

He starts with I-P-A.

Identity: Behavior follows identity – you have to choose who you want to be before anything.

Productivity: Knowledge isn’t where the game is played. It’s readily available. The game is turning knowledge into action.

Anti-Fragility: The more you get hit, the stronger you become. The true opposite of fragile. Things will not go to plan. You must step into it, rise to the challenge, and get stronger because of it.

Understanding this is one thing, but putting it into action is another…How does someone choose who they want to be and so on? Focus on 3 things, the 3 domains.

At the 18 min mark, Eric talks about us putting on our hero costumes and instinctively knowing what to do.

Remember, behavior follows identity. We did this as kids all the time.

• The practice and simple practical tool for remembering this is the 3 Alarms.
• Take out your phone and set 3 alarms each for one of the domains – but in the alarm write out what you at your best would be called in each of the domains. What is your super hero name for each one?
• For example, in the health department for Eric, his alarm says “World Fitness Champion” because that is who he is when he shows up in the gym. At 6:30am each day, this goes off for him. He steps into this identity when he works.
• 9am is “World’s Best Coach”
• 6:30pm is “World’s Best Husband and Father”
• Linking this intentionality to the best time of day for it is game-changing.

At the 21-minute mark, we discuss how little reminders like the 3 Alarms and others can make a difference even subliminally and using them to create your future self. We also discuss choice and the role it plays in your success in your life. It is best to listen.

What are some of the traps that you see keeping people from reaching their true potential?

• Procrastination. It kills success.
• It ends up being a self-defense tactic because what you know you need to do is not something you want to do.
• The simple solution is to change the way you talk. When you feel the urge to procrastinate, you should stop and take notice of what is going in your head.
• Instead of saying “I have to,” change it to “I choose to.” Even if you don’t like it, you are still choosing it.
• Then give it a small of time, like 5 mins. So instead it becomes, “I choose to start for just 5 mins” - this defeats procrastination.

2 Special Forces techniques to increase success?

• Some of Eric’s clients are ex-special forces and are masters of anti-fragility.
• One of the things they do all the time are “pre-mortems” and “post-mortems.”
• This is a great anti-fragility builder.
• When you visualize everything ahead of time and note any potential obstacles and how you will overcome, it helps tremendously as you begin the project, task, strategy, or going after a goal, etc.
• Ask, “If I were to fail completely in this, what are the reasons this would happen?”
• Then figure out what you can do ahead of time to overcome the reasons. Then, when done, do an analysis of what happened and what you learned from it – and what you could do better the next time around.

The 3-13-3 multiplier. Tell us about that and how it relates to entrepreneurs.

The first 3 is the 3 Alarms

• The 13 is adding 13 weeks back to your life every year.
• The average person loses 28% of their work day to the ineffectiveness of multi-tasking. (this stat comes from the book The One Thing)
• Taking out 6 weeks for vacation per year, that means at 28%, we are losing 13 weeks per year of productivity. Over a 40 year career, that is an entire decade!
• The solution is to master the art of single tasking.
• Get old school with a time sheet and track every activity you do in a day for a week to see where you time is going.
• When you get better a single tasking, you get more productive and you add more time back into your life as you are becoming more productive.
• You can increase the ability to achieve your goals 3x by taking on the avoidance of loss head on. We have an over-aversion to loss.
• If you tie a monetary loss to something you are avoiding that if you continue to avoid and not do, you have to pay up. Basically a bet. It will motivate you to do it. You can also make the payout go to something you despise which further incentivizes you as you will not want to pay it. ​

What is the one thing that has surprised you most on your entrepreneur journey and what is your biggest takeaway from it?

• Becoming world class at something is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be.
• It requires you really understanding where you are going to be your best in.
• Blocking your calendar and time to work on and develop those skills.
• Then show up and have respect for yourself to keep your appointment with yourself to do it.
• It is so much closer than people realize.

Best Quote: Becoming world class at something is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. It is so much closer than people realize.

Eric's Misfit 3:

1. Choose your identity. Choose who you want to be. You did it as a kid and you can do it now.
2. Measure how you are doing daily. Show up and do you best. At the end of the day give yourself a W for a win and an L for learn. No more than 6 L’s in a month.
3. Remember to not take things too seriously. Have a good time.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Dylan Blau. What does dog training have to do with massive success in entrepreneurship? A lot actually. Dylan is the founder of Epic Dog Pros and a professional dog training expert and behaviorist. He has rehabilitated thousands of dogs; training some of the most challenging cases from extreme aggression to dogs scared of everything. His consistency & dependability is incomparable allowing him to do what others cannot.

Aside from that, he is a Public Figure, Mentor, Life Coach, and social media/PR wizard who used these tools to create all of his businesses and grow exponentially. In fact, hacking social media was the key to showcasing his talents in dog training to the world and making him known selling millions’ worth of dog training programs. Nowadays, he works with Celebrities, YouTube Influencers, Facebook Public Figures, Authors & other Social Media Celebrities to help them maximize their selling potential on social media.

So, going back to my question at the beginning. What does dog training have to with massive entrepreneur success? Dylan’s shares how he used everything he knows about dog training to create a massive brand and business.

@WeAreDogTraining on Instagram

Dylan has been training dogs for 13 years and never expected to be in that business. He originally went to school for musical theatre and even did standup comedy for a while. He thought he was headed into acting. He ended having an opportunity in Arizona to work with dogs and learn lessons from watching Cesar Milan. This inspired him and a friend to rescue dogs and train them. And he did. He found he understood it almost intuitively and continued to develop the skill. He felt that he needed to share his knowledge and what he learned to help others learn it.

As he went down the entrepreneur path, he found people like Tai Lopez and others. He immersed himself in learning top minds. This let him to fall in love with social media as it became an amazing stage for him to share everything he was doing. It began to take off. After training thousands of dogs and being known for really helping problem dogs and aggressive dogs, his teachings have been adopted by many throughout the world.

“Training a dog is solving a problem. And working with animals is almost more fun than working with people as they don’t give you excuses. They only show you their limitations. The problems to solve.”

Humans put up barriers and resistance. People can go to therapy for years and never solve their problems. And several years ago, Dylan doubled down on his brand on social media as a dog trainer and he now has hundreds of thousands of followers across many platforms and ways to get to his teaching and training. His whole business literally runs on social media and has allowed him to sell millions in his programs.

During Covid, he offered to help others with the strategies he has used to grow online and now his latest business, The Blau Agency has grown tremendously.

What are the principles that make for successful dog training that relate well to entrepreneurship?

• Consistency – Training a dog is all about creating a consistent day to day routine of actions that will help the dog to grow and progress. It is the same with an entrepreneur. Every day you work on the same things and trying to get better at them. Clarity –
• Clarity is one of the biggest reasons why dog trainers and dogs, and business owners and entrepreneurs will succeed or not. Things must be clear, easy to follow, and understand. The opposite of clarity is confusion and when we and dogs get confused, we shut down. Dylan uses the example of ordering a black coffee vs. trying to figure out Starbucks’ men. Black coffee is easy and universal.
• Confidence: You need to build confidence in your dog just as you need to build confidence in yourself as a business owner or entrepreneur. Fear is a terrible motivator. Building confidence builds motivation and confidence comes from healthy communication that is clear (clarity) and consistent.
• Patience: You must be patient with the process as you put in the work in the other areas with a dog and as a business owner or entrepreneur.

At the 21-minute mark, we discuss these and my DCP formula in more detail and get into overcoming the challenges that happen even if you are doing well. We also discuss structure. It’s best to just listen.

• When you hit a roadblock, your ability to adapt, evolve, and problem solve comes down to your mantra (your battle cry) and your confidence/clarity in that you can work around it.

Talk to us about hacking social media to grow a business, what should we know?

• Social media are free platforms where you can show people who you are every day and get attention to your brand and your business.
• With the right strategy, it can seem effortless.
• Dylan explains social media using his father, who is a successful, old school entrepreneur who never used social media. These business can and will continue to succeed.
• But Dylan said that social media is “Missed Potential Income.”
• Instagram is one of the best platforms to be on.
• .Tik Tok is now a must and has taken over social media.
• LinkedIn is still good.
• Parler is a new one.
• Dylan focuses the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Youtube.
• Dylan learned that the more he showed people, the more they responded and connect with him.
• If you can use social media to make your customers feel like they know you, the more successful you will be.
• If people see you consistently with confidence and clarity talking about a topic that you know, they will come to you because you are always there when the time is right for them.
• Every day, Dylan wants people to see him, engage with him, and have an opportunity to interact with them.
• Dylan was not originally a fan of Tik Tok, but now in his mind, it is the #1 place to be currently. It is a goldmine for anybody and Tik Tok will allow you have to fund with social media – it is all about being relatable and vulnerable.

How are you able to put yourself across all these platforms, how much time are spending a day, and what is your strategy to monetize? How do you manage it all consistently every day?

• First, you need to present yourself in a way that gives you credibility. People judge your social media pages the way they judge a book cover.
• You want to develop your brand to be credible. It could be with PR, features, etc.
• Then you need to generate an outflow – a way to connect and develop a relationship.
• Relationships create opportunities.
• Connect with people – Dylan does this through Direct Messaging
• Opportunities create sales.
• Collaborations are important such as going on podcasts or with other social media influencers.
• You can certainly hire people to help you like VA’s or direct hires.
• Focus on what you are good and get help for the rest.
• At the 40 min mark, Dylan talks about how creates content and documents what he is doing as he goes.
• Documentary style content is the easiest to make. Show people the inside look at things.
• To collaborate – Dylan will go onto someone’s page and like 10 photos that he thinks is meaningful to the creator, then comment on 1-2 posts, then follows them. Once they respond and follow back, he direct messages them with a simple message to connect.
• He and his assistants send messages connecting every day.

“The more you know yourself the more you can show yourself.”

​ Any last thoughts?

• Have fun. Enjoy your life.
• Money is a result of doing what you love to do.
• Play the long game. Don’t think short term.

Best Quote: Training a dog is solving a problem. And working with animals is almost more fun than working with people as they don’t give you excuses. They only show you their limitations. The problems to solve.

Dylan's Misfit 3:

1. Taking responsibility. You are wherever you are in life, because of everything you’ve done. You are in control.
2. Ask for help. Life is more fun with people. Surround yourself with great people to help you grow.
3. Have fun. Enjoy life! Believe in yourself to be yourself.

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Misfit Nation! Welcome to the Misfit Entrepreneur 2020 year in review where each year I attempt to boil down all of the incredible, useful information, strategies, and tips that our guests have given on the show into less than one hour for you…with a few surprises thrown in. Now, it’s impossible for me to go over every single best piece of advice and that is why I urge you to take some time and go through the Misfit Archives to see which episodes resonate most with you, but in doing this episode, my goal is to spur ideas – to give you a lightning strike that propels you down a path of action to better improve yourself, your life, and your business or career in 2021!

That’s why I do this show – to not only provide a treasure trove of some of the best information to succeed in life and business for my daughter, Hannah, for when she grows up, but to give you a place where you know you can come each and every week to get inspired and find real, tried and tested tips, secrets, and strategies to succeed in all areas of life, and to share different perspectives from some of the highest performing entrepreneurs in the world with you. I truly believe that one great episode can change someone’s life and that’s what we set out to do each and every week.

But, before I begin I want to tell you something. I want to say “Thank YOU.” Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support of the show and thank you for sharing our message. Without you and the amazing feedback members of this audience give me every week, it would not be half of what it is. Because of you, in just a couple short years, this show has reached hundreds of thousands of people in over 140 countries. I am truly humbled and in awe at what we’ve done together and I am excited about having an even bigger impact with your help in 2021.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, and I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did creating it for you!

Misfit 3:

1. Listen to 2020 Misfit Entrepreneur Year in Review
2. Pick 3 things from the episode to take action on in your life and business.
3. Make 2021 your best year yet!

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Patti Plough. Patti is a serial entrepreneur and the President and CEO of Excel Legacy Group. The company works in conjunction with leaders in the ESOP advisory industry. They specialize in tailored solutions to help their clients achieve their ESOP goals. Their unique approach focuses on the goals and strategic priorities of each selling shareholder in addition to the creation of an employee-owned business.

For those of you that are not familiar with an ESOP. It is an employee stock ownership plan. The plan gives workers stock in the company as part of their compensation and they get to share in the benefits of being an owner in the company.

There are a lot of benefits to both the employees and owners of a business and this is one subject that I think every entrepreneur should know about and Patti is the go-to expert in the space.

https://ExcelLegacyGroup.com/

Patti’s background is in nursing and she spent the first 15 years of her career as a bedside nurse before becoming an entrepreneur. She then had what she calls a “divine appointment.” She was contacted by the company she was working for to do an insurance screening on a VIP for a big railroad. When she got there, the gentleman asked her if the company did wellness programs. She checked into it and her company did not.

She had to find a wellness company and found the one and only around. She contacted them and found out the owner had just lost his only client to budget cuts. She decided to partner with them and bring the service to VIP. From there, she kept going and built the company into a multi-million business in the corporate wellness space and after many years, turned the company into an ESOP.

She created other businesses along the way using the same attitude and persistence.

At the 8 min mark, Patti tells the story of how they went from potentially selling their business to private equity to choosing to do an ESOP.

• Patti’s biggest concern was what would happen to her employees if they sold.
• Patti and her partners would come out favorably in a transaction, but there was uncertainty about the fate of the employees.
• While meeting with a financial professional to discuss the transaction, the concept of the ESOP was brought up and discussed.
• It was like a light bulb went off.

Take us through the entire concept of ESOP and the benefits to the employees and owners in choosing this route…

• The benefits to the employees including them keeping their jobs, ownership in the company, etc.
• The benefits to the owners are that they can get fair market value for the company.
• ESOP is like a retirement program for the employees, but they are now owners and get shares. They can cash those shares in after a vesting period.
• The employee can retire and cash in their shares.
• The owners can still be active in the business.
• As the company grows the value of the shares grow.
• It also gives the ability for tax deferral as it functions like a 401k type plan.
• The ESOP is free to employees and as the shares accumulate in value and that is the retirement fund.
• Owners realize the value by the company buying the shareholders out over time.
• There is benefit to selling 100% of the shares as it allows the company to become a tax free entity, like a 501c3
• The savings in corporate taxes helps produce enough revenue to pay the owners out over time.
• Leveraged ESOP allow owners to sell their shares over time to the corporation over a period of time (typically 5-10 years)

At the 21 min mark, Patti talks more about the tax side of things.

Other things we should know? Any risks?

• There is an opportunity to get a second bite at the apple and sell shares twice.
• The reason Patti is so passionate about the ESOP is that she feels there is no risks and only benefits to the program.
• It is important to make sure you systems and process are well honed in and the company is not dependent on the president or CEO. It helps valuation.

Talk to us about how you roll out an ESOP to an organization…

• First, you do a very high level valuation.
• Then, take time to discuss and understand the structure possibilities and vesting schedules.
• Decide how the owners will get paid for their shares
• Decide how you will do payout while keeping the company healthy.
• Make sure the employees can benefit in the best way possible.
• You will them select a trustee and do financial due diligence and valuation. This is typically done behind the scenes and worked through before announcing anything to employees.
• You will then finalize with the trustee to agree on a number an finalize the ESOP.
• Lastly, you announce, rollout to employees, and celebrate!

What have you learned about how to build a great business?

• It’s the people that see your vision, believe in your vision and help you to build and grow that vision.
• The credit goes to them.
• You have to operationalize and do all those things, but your business will only be as good as the people you have in it. Take care of them. ​

Advice for someone starting out today in a new business?

• Do NOT give up. Never, ever give up. It took 15 years for Helix to grow and become what it is today.
• Never give up on your vision and dream.
• Push forward.
• Passion and persistence. Things don’t typically happen as quickly as you anticipate.

Best Quote: What have you learned about how to build a great business? "It’s the people that see your vision, believe in your vision and help you to build and grow that vision."

Patti's Misfit 3:

1. Always listen to your first witness, follow your gut.
2. Surround yourself with people that are more success than yourself and learn from them. True mentors.
3. Passion and persistence. Stay committed to your dream. Do not give up.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Samit Patel. Samit is World’s #1 Crowdfunding Marketer. He is the founder of Joopio and several other businesses that help grow, scale, and get companies known. He and his teams create “done for you” campaigns that are unique to each product and service.

Samit has been featured everywhere from Forbes, Fast Company, Alphr, and is tapped by many of the world’s biggest influencers and companies to help them get their products and services off the ground or better known.

Samit has created a process that ensures products and services get the attention needed to be funded and sell into the future. They do everything from making sure pre-launch is right all the way through to E-commerce after launch. And that is what I want to dig into with him in this episode, to have him teach you how he and his teams do it.

www.SamitPatel.net

Samit got pushed into business when he went to university to help pay the bills. He set up an events company that helping make $1000 or so a week as an 18-year old. He graduated in 2009 into a horrible job market. And after making $1000 a week, was not going to take a job for less, so he started a number of other businesses in sectors like travel, beauty, and he says, “You name it, I tried to do it.” He then got into a partnership for a new business where he worked for over a year to make it come to fruition and just when it was about to launch, got kicked out of the partnership.

He was dejected and lost and hit a bottom. It took a freak accident that happened to his younger brother that led him take a consulting role for a startup and had success. It took him about 10 years and pretty much giving up before things happened for him and he found a big success.

The freak accident that happened was his brother drowning and being brought back to life. It made him realize that he needed to rethink his whole life and really get focused – a wake up call that he was nowhere near where he wanted to be.

It was in this startup that he built a campaign to launch the product it did over $1.3 mil, one of the top crowdfunded products at the time. He then went on to another product in the skiing industry with great success and further honing his skills. And nowadays, he raised over $30 mil launching product across 40 different industries.

Why is Crowdfunding such a good way to launch a product or business?

• It’s a great way to validate your product or service and see if it is truly worthwhile.
• It allows you test it out with consumers and get feedback.

What are the pitfalls or bad side Crowdfunding? What mistakes do people need to be careful to avoid?

• If you look at Crowdfunding as your only channel and pin your hopes solely on it, then most will be disappointed.
• Think of Crowdfunding as a part of a glorified PR campaign introducing your product to the market, but you cannot just stop there – you need all of the other marketing, engagement, resources and actions to go with it (social media, e-commerce, etc.)
• You also should use a multi-platform approach across the different crowdfunding platforms across the world.

Take us through your process and how you do what you do. (it’s best to listen, but here are some short notes)

• First, you don’t necessarily need to create your product. You could go to Alibaba and find a product that is close to your idea and use that.
• Second, create a landing page which has the product, 3 core features, and why people should buy it.
• Third, you can start advertising and sharing it on Facebook groups or spend a little money on Facebook advertising. You will be asking for their name, email, etc. and your goal is to get at least 100.
• Fourth, you will put them in a VIP or community group, so when they sign up, on the thank you page and you can push them to be part of the group.
• These groups are critical because they give the feedback you need to make your product great and give you ideas for ancillary products.
• Fifth, you can jump on a call with each of the 100 people to walk through the product and discuss it in detail with them – and sell it to them.
• At this point, you will have validation of interest in the product or not.
• You can also test pricing at this point to see if people will pay for it or put a “deposit” down for it once it is available.
• Sixth, scale the whole process up. If you spend $20k, you should be seeing a 3x return and give you 10-15k leads when the campaign goes live.

What else should we know about how to launch a product right?

• Samit will always launch on Crowdfunding first because it gives validation and gives early adopters.

Samit has a system he calls TLFES:

• Traffic
• Leads
• Funnels
• Engagements
• Sales
• You should also put your face behind the product – it will separate you and help you connect with your early adopters.

At the 30 min mark, Samit and I discuss other nuances of launching.

• When you launch, you want to get 200 sales as that will get you trending and get the platform promoting your launch. Samit says it takes about $20k spend to achieve that.

At the 32:30 mark, Samit explains more about how Crowdfunding platforms work…

• Crowdfunding platforms have algorithms just like social media and if you generate 200 backers on your first day, you will trend on the platform.
• Kickstarter, for example, has “Projects We Love” that highlights products that are trending. 200 sales are the key.

​ What are the lessons you’ve learned being an entrepreneur? What are the principles you use to succeed?

• Structure is important.
• Samit has had to become a lot more patient and less YOLO.
• Putting systems in place are very important to success in anything. Personal, business, etc.

Best Quote: You should also put your face behind the product – it will separate you and help you connect with your early adopters.

Samit's Misfit 3:

1. Don’t be ashamed of getting a job to help you while you are getting your business off the ground.
2. Work to replace yourself. Create process and SOP’s for the actions you do so you can hand them off.
3. Create the structure for yourself. Health, family, etc. Beware of chasing the money. You do not get time back that could have been spent with your loved ones and friends. Make time for it.

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