This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Bill Flynn. Bill has over 30 years of experience working for and advising hundreds of companies, especially startups. After working for ten different high-tech startups in different market segments such as speech recognition, e-commerce, and affiliate marketing where he was a VP of Sales eight times, twice a CMO and once a GM of a division of a $100MM IT services company, he pivoted to becoming a business growth coach. He had five successful outcomes, two IPOs, and seven acquisitions, including a turnaround during the 2008 financial crisis.
Bill is the author of Further Faster, The Vital Few Steps That Take the Guesswork out of Growth. And he embodies them, everywhere he’s gone, he has been the key ingredient in the growth of the business. It’s probably, because he says, “Most business do just about everything wrong.” They do decision making wrong, hiring wrong, teams wrong, strategy wrong, and so on. In fact, a lot of it boils down to how we read and interpret people, which Bill has a gift for.
So, I brought him on the show to share his wisdom and lessons with you to help you in your life and business.
www.CatalystGrowthAdvisors.com
Bill started out in high tech through some family connections and spent a lot of time in startups, including the company who created Siri. He did 10 startups over 5 years including two that went public at well over a billion valuation. He was 5 for 10 in startups through the mid 2000’s and then got into coaching because he was forced to turn a failing company he was involved in around. He had to learn to lead and coach others to be leaders and succeed.
He put together his own system of running the business that worked well and became basis for him to coach other business owners on how to build a business. He really fell in love with helping business owners “figure it out” by working with leadership teams and take the guesswork out of growth.
What is neuro-leadership and why it is important?
At the 10:30 mark, Bill talks about using this for sales and how the brain makes buying decisions – and how knowing this made him the top sales person and create top sales teams wherever he’s gone.
What are some of the basics people need to know and understand to start practicing neuroleadership?
At the 13 min mark, Bill gives a good example of reward vs. threat in the workplace and how it can impact people and leaders.
The model Bill uses is SCARF.
Bill’s best tip for sales success:
Thoughts on building a sales team/organization?
Further Faster, Vital Steps to Growth…what should we know?
What is one thing every entrepreneur should do every day to help their success?
“A plan is about doing, a strategy is about thinking,” what do you mean by that?
Final thoughts?
If you are entrepreneur and struggling, it’s not your fault. We’ve never been taught to do this.
Running a company is a unique thing that you have to get better at by learning and growing over time.
Learn the science behind building a great company.
Best Quote: Few things matter in business or life, but those that do, matter tremendously...
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Damion Lupo. Damion is the founder of multiple businesses, EQRP co, My Gold Adviser, and Financial Underdogs. Damion’s mission and that of his businesses is helping people break financial bondage by empowering them with the tools and training to be financially free in retirement.
And if that is not enough, the guy has published 12 books, is the comeback king after losing $20 million and being negative $5 million – he built it all back and surpassed where he started, and is a multiple degree black belt who created is own martial art called Yokido.
Needless to say, Damion’s experience, mission, and discipline has allowed him to become the leading voice in helping realize how to take control of their financial future and I’m excited for him to share his wisdom with you today.
Damion’s path was all over the place. He originally had gone to the Air Force Academy and was going to be a fighter pilot but had issues with his eyes and ended up working in the article circle. After a little while, he went back to school and ended starting a textbook business out of his dorm room that paid for his school – until the school shut him down and would not allow him to run it.
The universe kept giving him feedback to be an entrepreneur and after he left school, he embraced it. As he says, “I’m a bad employee – I got fired from a volunteer position…”
He then started into real estate and learned how to use other people’s money and did it 150 times. He was naïve and just focused and took action amassing millions in property. Things went great until 2008 hit.
Damion got caught up in the 2008 bubble and lost $20+ million. He lost everything and after a few years, he finally admitted defeat and lost the game. He went to work on himself and found that who he truly is, is a teacher, but he needs to be in trenches doing the work too. He shifted his focus to freeing 1 million people from financial bondage. It took him 10 years to go from the crash to surpassing his previous wealth.
Can you elaborate on what truly happened in 2008 and what happened to you so people can learn from it as the market is heated up again?
What is EQRP?
Why is it better to specialize than diversify?
What type of investments can be done that people don’t know can be done and how do they give you more control?
At the 26 min mark, Damion talks about how you can do an EQRP account…
What should people know about investing in real estate in these accounts?
“Money makes people stupid. And a lot of money makes people super stupid because they think they can solve all of their problems with money and the reality is they just gave up thinking.”
At the 31 min mark, Damion talks about how is not a good fit for EQRP.
We also talk about personal responsibility and empowerment and not playing the role of a victim.
How did you go out and create your own martial art?
What principles from martial arts have a made a big difference for you in business?
What is something you think every entrepreneur should know?
Best Quote: Money makes people stupid. And a lot of money makes people super stupid because they think they can solve all of their problems with money and the reality is they just gave up thinking.
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Carl Allen. Carl is an entrepreneur, investor, and one of the most prolific corporate dealmakers in the world. Over his 30-year career, he’s done over 330 deals worth over $48 billion.
Carl has analyzed thousands of deals, large and small, across dozens of countries and nearly every business sector. And because of his experience, he’s brought in to advise some of the world’s largest corporations on investments and acquisitions.
Recently, he’s launched a new venture, the Dealmaker Wealth Society, a platform that teaches people how to use Allen’s techniques to purchase and sell businesses.
Needless to say, Allen is the go to for how to successfully buy or sell a business and he was the perfect guy to come on and discuss the topic.
www.dealmakerwealthsociety.com
Carl started back in 1992 when started working for the investment banking arm at Bank of America. He was helping to buy and sell businesses for the Fortune 100. He then had a brief stint in private equity investing in tech company that was bought by HP. As part of the deal, he became one of the M&A directors at HP buying and selling businesses all over the world. He spent most of his time on the road, granted he loved it, but he spent a lot of time away from his wife.
In February 2008, he life completely changed in the matter of 24 hours. He was in Moscow doing a deal for HP in a boardroom and keeps getting calls from his wife. He finally stopped and answered the phone and his wife told he needed to be back to the UK immediately because she had gone into labor 4 weeks early with their son. He had his wallet, phone, and passport on him and ran out of the building leaving his luggage behind, sped to the airport, and when he landed in the UK, he had a police escort waiting for him – and he got into the room 5 minutes before his son was born.
When he cradled his son in his arms, looking at him, he burst into tears. He knew he couldn’t do it anymore. He called up his boss at HP and quit leaving behind millions in stock and bonuses and decided to retire.
3 weeks later, he was bored beyond belief and knew he had to do something. He sat down with his wife and she helped him understand that he could be a local business broker.
Within a few days, he had his first deal. He found the buyer; things went on for about 3-4 months. The night before the deal was to close, he got a call from the seller, who he represented – they had decided to pull the deal. He left immediately to meet with the owners and got to the business where they had assembled all the employees. They told him the buyer was going to fire the employees and essentially gut the business and they could not allow that. In a half-crazy moment, Carl looked at them and said, “I will buy the business.”
At the 10:50 mark, Carl goes on to tell the story of how bought the business and ran it with no experience. What makes a great deal for both the buyer and seller?
How does someone go about finding a deal?
What are the most important factors to look at when looking to buy a business? What do you need to do if you are looking to sell?
What is the blueprint to buy a profitable business in 99 days or less?
What are some of the things to do in the first 100 days?
Purchasing a business with no experience or no money – any tips?
Where are you seeing the opportunities in right now? What is the trend?
Best Quote: Nobody wants to own or buy a business. We want the deep emotional benefits that business ownership gives us – freedom, cash flow, legacy, assurance, etc.
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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 personal responsibility – one of the greatest assets to your success and living an amazing, fulfilled life.
Most people upon hearing the term “Personal Responsibility” may not associate it with living their best life, but I do.
Let me tell you why.
As I write this, I continue to watch many parts of our society erode and give way to anarchy, riots, and emotional outbursts with no logic behind them. And when many of the people that are participating or leading these actions are confronted, they blame everything and everyone besides themselves for what they did or for why they did it.
To me this sad. I feel for them. Because by not taking responsibility, they are giving up all their personal power. Think about it, if you do not take responsibility for your actions, your thoughts, and basically your life, that means that you have given up these things to something or someone else. You have lost control. You have given away your best chess piece. Your personal freedom and individual liberty.
And every time this has been done in history by people and groups, it has not ended well. It has devolved into the destruction of societies, massive poverty, needless suffering and death. Every dictator in history has told those that they have taken over that they are not responsible for their problems, their place in life, and to just give up their rights and liberties to them and they will solve everything and all will be wonderful. And every time people do this, it ends badly.
Personal responsibility, the freedom to think for ourselves and take control of our lives, and yes, take responsibility for our mistakes, failures, and the good things, the wonderful things and yes, bad things we do is the greatest asset we have. When you take personal responsibility, it frees you. It frees you from the forces of groupthink. It frees you from having your value in life dictated to you by someone else or some group. It allows you to chart your own course and be your best. It gives you the ability to reach your potential and not be held back. It gives you everything you need to be the greatest version of yourself and leave your impact on this world.
Do not, under any circumstances, ever give up or surrender your personal responsibility to someone else or some thing. Especially out of fear or anxiety. These are the easiest ways it is taken and when people are most willing to give it up. They throw in the towel – because they just want things to be Ok or “normal. But, that is part of taking personal responsibility. Because things aren’t always going to be OK. It is an illusion that they can be. There will be times of suffering, loss, deep fear, and even catastrophe in our lives – but none of that is ever worth giving up your greatest asset as it is that asset, personal responsibility, and our ability to use it that gets us out of these challenging times and dark places. Without it, we can sink deeper. For example, think of the addict that will not confront their illness and take responsibility. They blame very circumstance and everything and everyone for their problems and in doing this, they slide deeper into darkness. But, if you have ever talked with someone who has been down a road like this and tuned everything around, the same elements are always present. The minute they took responsibility for their life and for taking care of themselves – they started to get better, get the help they needed, and ultimately win over the illness. There are countless stories like this throughout history – many of them are people in society we look up to, from famous leaders, artists, world-changers, and so on. All of them, at some point realized the asset of personal responsibility and used it to its fullest.
Hannah, I have given you many lessons over the years and will continue to do so, but out of all of them, this may be the most important one and it is the underpinning of everything. The lesson to build all lessons on, except for one. There is only one thing that is more important and goes along with this. While, it is critical for you to practice personal responsibility for your life, it is even more important for you to put your faith in God because he will never let you down. Responsibility plus faith in God is the secret to life. Not to get too preachy, but I have it on my wall for a reason – Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”
So, to sum it up, Hannah, take personal responsibility for your life, your actions, your thoughts, everything you can control, but make sure you put your faith in God. That is the secret to living an amazing, fulfilled, successful, and happy life.
I love you,
Daddy
Best Quote: Personal responsibility, the freedom to think for ourselves and take control of our lives, and yes, take responsibility for our mistakes, failures, and the good things and bad things we do is the greatest asset we have.
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jake Kiefer. Jake is a serial entrepreneur, founder of the Pro Basketball combine, that has been called the “Steph Curry of speaking.” He helps entrepreneurs and freedom seekers build their dream business by creating world class networks that create raving customers, unlimited freedom, and epic life experiences.
Jake has been featured everywhere from NBC to ESPN, USA Today, Forbes and on and on. He’s reached his success by being a master networker and creating opportunities within his network and starting businesses.
I could not think of a better guy to come on the show and teach you how to build and grow your network and use it to succeed.
@JakeKelfer on Instagram
Jake has always been a “hungry” kid. Growing up his dream was to play for the Lakers. But, at 5’8’’, that wasn’t going to happen. So, Jake studied to be a sports agent to be able to work with the players and the Lakers in some way. He was willing to do whatever he could. Coming out of college, he put his hustle and what he had learned to work and go a job with the Lakers to work in corporate partnerships.
He got to be on the court and work in the business and with the players every day.
“In the pursuit of greatness, you must always be willing to take action every day because great things will happen when we don’t expect them or how we expect them.”
It wasn’t too long before he realized that it was time to move on and start his own business career. He started his first business, launched several books, building a combine for the NBA, and teaching entrepreneurs how to build a 6-figure business – all from creating world class networks.
How do you build a world class network and get in the room with the right people?
Where is the first place someone should start?
How do you cut through the noise so people that you want to network with actually get your message and connect with you?
Once you build a network, how to do you cultivate it, engage it, and start to make it work for you?
71 things you must do to turn your network into a 6-figure business. Give us a few...
At the 25 min mark, Jake talks about using a network to create a 6-figure business….
Has anything changed in the age of coronavirus?
At the 37 min mark, Jake talks about creating the Pro Basketball Combine and the business lessons he’s learned. It’s best to just listen.
Tell us what it means to “Elevate beyond the competition.”
Best Quote: In the pursuit of greatness, you must always be willing to take action every day because great things will happen when we don’t expect them or how we expect them.
Jake's Misfit 3:
The only shortcut in life is to start now.
Live in the moment and enjoy the journey.
Take one action related to your network every single day to build a world class network.
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Sean Castrina. Sean gives new meaning to the term “serial entrepreneur” having started over 20 companies in the last 20 years. In fact, he seeks to start a new venture annually.
Sean has been featured everywhere from Entrepreneur, Fox Business, Forbes, NBC news, and just about every other business media outlet that exists. He’s the author of 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success, The Greatest Entrepreneur in the World, and The World’s Greatest Business Plan.
Needless to say, Sean knows how to build a business and succeed and I’ve asked him on today to give his best advice on how you can do the same.
Sean was a good high school athlete and got a scholarship to play in college. He came out of college and got his dream job by offering to work for free for 90 days and bet on himself. It worked well for 5 years and then leadership changed. He had the picture perfect life at the time – new house, married, a new child and was in grad school. Overnight, he was let go.
It was at this moment that things really hit him – employment was a fantasy of security. He had done everything he was told to do to succeed, was doing well at a good company, and in one day, he was gone. Oddly enough, the CEO that had left remained friends with Sean years after and his son is one of Sean’s business partners.
Sean realized that when you work for someone you don’t have much security and you make them wealthy. It’s ok if you have that type of mindset and really want to be an employee, but if you have any inkling of entrepreneurship in you, you must explore. So, Sean went out on his out.
What is the most important qualification for business ownership?
Have you developed a “blueprint” for starting and building a business?
At the 12 min mark, Sean talks about how he has built a $60+ million business started with Handyman business – but the most important thing is to stay in his lane and be focused. Its when he deviates, he has troubles.
What are your keys to marketing?
The mistake small businesses make is that they stay small and think small. You should follow the same strategy you would follow if you owned a Fortune 500 company.
That solves all problems. Be so great at what you do that you customers know there is no alternative. It is too expensive to be average. If you build a great company, market it like a Fortune 500, and staff it well, you will have a great company.
Where do you see most businesses fail? What do they miss?
The Bermuda Triangle of why startups fail:
The 3 mistake businesses make in general:
8 unbreakable rules for startup success?
Most important lesson from the Greatest Entrepreneur in the World?
What are your thoughts on thriving as an entrepreneur during the pandemic?
Best Quote: Be so great at what you do that you customers know there is no alternative. It is too expensive to be average. If you build a great company, market it like a Fortune 500, and staff it well, you will have a great company.
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Rachel Graham. Rachel is the CEO and Founder of Evolve and Transform and Co-Founder of Healing Springs Ranch, a treatment facility for addiction that bridges mental health, trauma and addiction by treating the entire person both physiologically and psychologically. Evolve and Transform is an international speaking and coaching platform that helps business leaders, teams and individuals reach their optimal performance and purpose.
Rachel is a not just a successful entrepreneur, but a TEDx speaker and renowned resource and speaker for YPO, as well as a member. To be a member, you must have a business that does over $10 million annually in revenue.
I asked Rachel to come on today, not just to talk about her entrepreneur journey, but to share her best advice on how to care for your mental health and well-being.
Rachel had the perfect life. Perfect marriage, perfect family, job, etc. She had it all together, but in less than 24 hours, it all unraveled when it was uncovered that there was an addiction problem in her family. As her world began to unravel, it took an even worse turn with other things happening like her family dog passing away, she was ni the process of leaving her current business.
She had a profound moment as she was driving to her house and the babysitter called her to tell her that her house was flooding. She got home, looked at everything, and just lost it. She had a moment with God where she just screamed and fell to her knees in two inches of water screaming “Why? Why? Why?” It was in that moment that she had a transformation, as if the hand of God was picking her up and telling her “You’re going to be alright,. I’m trying to show you something.”
She felt it through her being and in that moment realized that she needed to evolve and transform. She immediately went and bought the domain name as she knew she had a mission.
Where do people start when they need to pull themselves out of these dark times? What is the starting point?
Talk about confronting pain…
What should people do to start the process of confronting pain?
Are people afraid to show their true self?
How important is it to find meaning and purpose? Where does it fit in?
Talk about compulsive behavior and how we can use it for good and control it in our lives…
Explain “You can’t level up if you are tethered down…”
What is it that you see consistently in top entrepreneurs that keeps them at that top of their game?
Who inspires you? Where do you get wisdom and advice?
Best Quote: "We are sick as the secrets we keep..."
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Ann Sieg. Ann is considered one of the pioneers of attraction marketing. In fact, she generated over $4.2 million dollars in her very first online product, an e-book that helped her generate over 400,000 subscribers.
She is the CEO and President of the E-Commerce Business School – a company that has taught more than 8,000 entrepreneurs over the last decade on how to setup an automated e-commerce business in a 90-day sprint. And she’s impacted the lives of 10’s of thousands through her coaching and training programs.
She is the top affiliate of just about every affiliate program every created, but what interested me most about Ann from my initial discussion with her, is that, like me, she believes deeply that entrepreneurship is the answer to many of the world’s problems. I just had to have her on to talk everything from making it big online to entrepreneurship, family, and success.
www.Ecommercebusinessschool.com
Ann started selling at 7 years old, buy selling hand-made Christmas bells. She went door to door selling them and even had bundled offers. She sold out. This gave her the underpinning, but as she grew, she got into sports, specifically gymnastics and devoted herself to it. As she says, it taught her ridiculous, insane mental and physical discipline and taught her how to incrementally get better.
She learned that with a lot of discipline, you can find success. She then went on to coach gymnastics for 15 years and had to quit because of the pain she would get in her hands from spending most of her life in the sport. This experience gave her the love for tracking everything, stats, etc. to incrementally get better and this later translated into a good skill for selling online.
“There is a very distinct difference between someone who is a master at something and someone who is a great teacher or mentor. They are two different skill sets.”
She never planned to be an online marketer, but got into it later after raising her boys.
Why is having a strong family environment so important to your success and an entrepreneur and what have you done to create that in your life?
How did you get into E-commerce later in life?
What are the products you are selling today? Take us through the steps of what you do in 90 days to get someone up to speed?
At the 30 min mark, Ann talks about what stops people and how she found ways to help them keep at things to success using the 90-day sprint.
It all comes down to systems and teams.
What does it take to create a business that generates $10k online in revenue?
Give us your thoughts on why entrepreneurship is needed now more than ever?
This inspiration came from Paul Zane Pilsner, who wrote The Next Millionaire, and Robert Kiyosaki. Richard Mayberry as well- there is no free lunch.
Ann shares that we have shifted to a handout society.
Ann calls it the redistribution of opportunity. She abhors calls for redistribution of wealth.
What sets entrepreneurs apart is that we live by our ability to calculate risk and take it – stepping out on a tightrope without a safety net.
Handouts cause us to lose our muscular strength as business owners. Bailouts do not foster strong business owners – mentally and entrepreneurially.
Challenging times offer the opportunity for great innovation. Ann cites Panera Breat starting Panera Grocery during the coronavirus as an example.
The extreme of total government control over business robs people of their intellectual capacity, mental, and spiritual capital and destroys the freedom of the individual to create and do great things.
Best Quote: "There is a very distinct difference between someone who is a master at something and someone who is a great teacher or mentor. They are two different skill sets..."
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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 saw a piece the other day on true greatness being achieved through serving others. The piece talked about how people get the pursuit of greatness in their lives wrong. They seek personal satisfaction, fame and fortune, power and privilege. In short, they seek to be served.
While some people gain wealth, power, notoriety and so on by approaching greatness in this way, the greatness that they achieve is typically not satisfying to them – because at the end of the day, all they have are the accomplishments and themselves. They are typically lonely and unfulfilled.
I have met many people like this over the years that on the surface seem to have everything – all the money, possessions, and things anyone could ever want, but they are some of the most unhappy and unfulfilled people I have ever met. They spend most of their time complaining or taking their frustration out on others around them – driving them away.
This happens because true greatness has to have meaning behind it. Real meaning. Otherwise, it is empty and shallow. But how and where do we find real meaning on a path to greatness? We find it in serving others. Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything you want in life, if you just help enough other people get what they want.”
And what Zig was saying was what Jesus taught us all as he shared his light into the world. As the son of God, he came not to be served, but to serve. He gave his life for us. He washed his disciples feet at the last supper bowing to them. When we seek opportunities to serve others, we find our greatness, our joy and meaning, and we help others to do the same. And helping others can be done every day with a simple act of kindness or helping someone in their lives.
I can also come from solving a great problem for people, such as in creating a business in which it serves and helps people. But the key is being genuine and sincere in your pursuit to do it – and not just in it for the money or your personal gain. The mission and vision must be to serve others and enrich their lives and help them to make them better. And through this you will find success and true greatness for yourself. As Zig said, “You can have everything you want in life, if you just help enough other people get what they want.”
It’s a simple principle, but one that is hard to action every day.
Hannah, every day we have an opportunity to serve others in some way and put them and their interests before our own. And there are so many ways to do it. It can be just simply helping someone with a need. Teaching a skill or new subject to another. Serving through a business with a mission and vision of truly helping to solve problems and enrich people’s lives. And in just being kind to those around you and giving to your relationships. The lesson I want you to take is that you can make a difference every day and you can achieve great things in life just by looking for ways to serve and enrich others lives instead of your own. You will get way more in your life that you ever imagined if you make this your focus.
Now, go out there and serve others in your life today!
I love you,
Daddy
Best Quote: True greatness has to have meaning behind it. Real meaning. Otherwise, it is empty and shallow.
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Nathan Hirsch. Nathan is the go-to entrepreneur and expert in remote hiring and e-commerce. Nathan started FreeUp.com in 2015 with $5000 and scaled it to over $12 million per year, selling it in 2019.
He then went on to co-found the Outsource School, a company that educates and provide resources to entrepreneurs to train and help them effectively build and scale their business through outsourcing. The platform combines all of the knowledge and tried and tested systems that Nathan and his co-founders have used to scale businesses to 8-figured and beyond entirely through outsourcing.
Hearing that, I bet you can guess why I asked him to be on today. In the world of Covid and business in general, it literally pays to know how to outsource well for your business – and Nathan is the guy to teach us.
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Nathan’s parents were both teachers. He grew up thinking he would go to school, get a job, etc. But his parents made him get jobs every summer and he realized he hated having a boss. When he went to college, he saw it as a way to learn, but also as “4 years to create a business” that he could own and run after college. He started our by buying and selling textbooks, essentially competing with his school. Before he knew it, he had lines out the door and got a cease and desist letter from the college!
He then pivoted and started selling on Amazon. He then branched out selling other items and ironically found a niche in baby products. Before he knew it, he had a multi-million dollar business selling baby products from his college dorm room and needed to start hiring because he was overwhelmed. He tried college kids and then outsourced VA’s, and through managing them learned how to put processes in place that he no teaches today to outsource.
He found a lot of holes in the VA process and it took forever to find good ones, so he had an idea to create a company that did that for people, pre-vetting VA’s and taking all the guess work or out of it. That company was Freeup.com. In 4 years, it went from a $5000 investment to $12 mil in sales with everything outsourced and done with 35 VA’s. They sold it in 2019.
At this point, people were approaching Nathan for his experience and knowledge, so he created Outsource School to give people what they need.
What are the do’s and don’ts of growing a good e-commerce brand?
Why do you think outsourcing is the best way to scale a business?
Take us through how your build a business using outsourcing…what are the steps?
2 parts: The idea and MVP and outsourcing.
“A MVP (minimum viable product) is important in any venture. Just because we sold a couple companies, doesn’t mean every idea is going to be good. So, you have to test the waters with low risk using an MVP.”
At the 14 min mark, Nathan goes into detail about how they built Outsource School.
What are the “got to” tasks or roles that should always be outsourced?
At the 19:45 mark, Nathan talks about the SOP process (Standard Operating Procedure) and why it is so important to focus on.
What’s the most important thing entrepreneurs need to get right from the beginning and why?
Anything else we should know on outsourcing?
What has surprised you most on your entrepreneur journey?
Who do you go to for mentorship and why do you choose them?
Best advice for an entrepreneur starting out today?
Best Quote: “A MVP (minimum viable product) is important in any venture. Just because we sold a couple companies, doesn’t mean every idea is going to be good. So, you have to test the waters with low risk using an MVP."
Nathan's Misfit 3:
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