This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Eric B. Schultz. Eric is the author one of my new favorite books, Innovation on Tap, Stories of Entrepreneurship from the Cotton Gin to Broadway’s Hamilton. As a lover of history and entrepreneurship, this book was made for me.

Aside from the book, Eric has spent his career in entrepreneurial and leadership roles, including senior vice president of Midwest operations for American Cablesystems, co-founder and president of Atlantic Ventures, and chairman and CEO of Sensitech, a venture-backed business twice named to the Inc. 500 before being acquired by Carrier Corporation. He has also served as a CEO and partner with Ascent Ventures, executive chairman of HubCast, on the board of advisors of multiple other companies, and as a mentor for student start-up teams in the Brown University B-Lab.

Eric’s not only written an incredible book that I think every entrepreneur should read, but he has a wealth of experience and wisdom we can all learn from to help us on our journey.

www.TheOccasionalCEO.com

LinkedIn – Eric B. Schultz ​

Eric has a degree in history and liberal arts background. He then went on to get an MBA in 1983. He then made the decision to go into entrepreneurship which wasn’t the thing it is today. His path took him through a number of entrepreneurial pursuits. His last position was at Sensitech where he helped move the company into a digital company and develop a data strategy. Eventually, they were acquired by Carrier Corp and he started doing some consulting. It also gave him some time to write. He had written a few books, but really wanted to write a book about entrepreneurship. In doing a further consulting engagement for Carrier and UTX, he found inspiration in the founders’ stories.

His goal with Innovation on Tap was to write a history of innovation for America across 3 centuries. It was almost overwhelming. He found his inspiration in an afterhours event from a venture firm’s pitch session. The idea was to bring all of these incredible entrepreneurs together in “a bar” and have them tell their stories. Just like the stories being told at afterhours events he had attended.

Who is Steve Dodge and why is the book dedicated to him?

• If Eric had a mentor, it would have been Steve.
• Steve passed away unexpectedly before his time.
• Steve was the guy who gave him his first managerial role.
• Steve also advised in his first CEO role and helped him.
• He taught him to build credibility with the board, investors, and gave him specific advice of “Make your numbers.” Which really means do what you say you will.

Define Innovation as you see it in today’s world…

• Eric used Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter as “the bouncer” for the bar in making his definition of Innovation the key to what got an entrepreneur through history in.
• He said the most important thing for capitalism is for it to continue to grow. The way it can grow is by an agent called an entrepreneur.
• An entrepreneur has two functions.
  • They have to put together a novel combination.
  • They have to disrupt an economic flow.
• The new combinations are innovations.

What advice can give entrepreneurs on how to better develop their skill of innovation?

• Think about how we define innovation.
• We focus on too much technological innovation when there are many major innovation opportunities outside of it.
• Get out of the technology box and think as broadly as you can about innovation.

At the 21 min mark, Eric tell us about the 6 themes of entrepreneurship…

• Mechanization – Taking something done by human labor and automate it with machinery. Eli Whitney and the cotton gin is good example of mechanization.
• Mass Production – Once things are mechanized, things can scale. An example of this would be King Gillette and razor blades.
• Consumerism – Continuing to create customer demand for increased supply. Alfred Sloan and GM is a great example of this.
• Sustainability – How do we make sure that we don’t ruin our ecosystem while remaining good capitalists.
• Digitization – How do we use digital platforms to change the way we innovate and use products/services.
• Social/Cultural - At any given time, there are people that conform to traditional things. The play Hamilton is good example of this.

At the 26 min mark, we have a great discussion on Consumerism being one of the biggest shifts in entrepreneurship.

“Consumerism is a fundamental change where America went from a land of sober and frugal citizens defined by what they produced, to a land of ravenous consumers defined by what they purchased.”

What are the 3 lessons of entrepreneurship?

• Entrepreneurs are given 3 gifts.
• First is your talent.
• Second is your community or your network.
• Third is your business model. This is where the rubber meats the road. You can still win without much talent or community if you have a great business model.
• You work on your talent and your community/network long before you get to your business model.

What are the elements of a great business model?

• Using Eli Whitney as example.
• Whitney was around at a time where the south was hurting and needed a solid crop. This crop became short, stable cotton. But it had a challenge in getting the cotton to a usable state that was very laborious and time consuming.
• Whitney created a machine that could “gin” 50x the cotton in one day than the standard that was happening.
• He then created business model where he told people to bring the cotton to him, he would “gin” it and then keep some for himself.
• His biggest issue was that they had not created enough machines to keep up with the supply coming from the fields.
• Instead of pivoting his model to building and selling machines. He kept it to themselves and didn’t deliver. This caused people to steal his machine and make their own. This resulted in years of litigation on patents.
• You can see what even technological innovation that big needed the right business model to go with it.
• The model is not about the product as much as it fits into the customer needs. Think about that.
• Figure out how you can focus on best fulfilling the customer need.
• Don’t fall in love with the product.

What lessons didn’t make the list of Top 3?

• It’s OK to think small.
• You have choice over how you think.
• It’s very hard to predict the future. If you can improve the lives of the people around you today, that is the best place to focus.

Not everything you learn today is not necessarily applicable today. Sample information widely. You never know when the information will make itself useful to you. ​

Which entrepreneur is your favorite and why?

• Alfred Sloan, founder of GM.
• Eric would say he was the greatest entrepreneur of them all.
• When Sloan takes over GM, Ford has 45-50% market share. When Sloan retires, GM has the 50% market share. H
• e was very effective and a great competitor.

Best Quote: Not everything you learn today is not necessarily applicable today. Sample information widely. You never know when the information will make itself useful to you.

Eric's Misfit 3:

1. Don’t be fooled by the dominant narrative. There are always other ways to succeed.
2. It’s OK to start small and solve a problem that’s right in front of you and helps those around you.
3. Be kind. It is a huge personal competitive advantage.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Clay Clark and Dr. Robert Zellner. You may have heard of them before as they are the hosts of the #1 Business Podcast The Thrivetime Show. But these two entrepreneurs are much more than that. Clay is the founder of Thrive 15 and was the U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the year. Dr. Zoellner built a massive optomology practice and is a venture capitalist.

Together, Clay and Robert have built over a dozen multi-million-dollar businesses, been featured everywhere from Forbes and Entrepreneur to Fast Company, and have interviewed and worked with some of the most compelling and successful business leaders of all time.

My goal is to squeeze every ounce of wisdom and inner misfit I can get out of them in this episode. So grab a seat and get ready…

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​Dr. Zoellner started out with an optometry practice with a goal to grow it to other practices/offices focused in the Tulsa, OK area. Along the way, he got into a number of other businesses from auto-auctions to even buying a bank. And about 4 years ago, he connected with Clay. He now has 8 businesses.

At the 6 min mark, Dr. Zoellner shares the story of how he ended up buying a bank.

Clay started out with DJ business called DJ Connection that he started out of his dorm room in college. At the time, his wife worked for Dr. Zoellner and told him that he should meet him as he was a successful entrepreneur. As Clay says, he was just a punk kid and when he met with Dr. Zoellner, he helped with understanding how to market his business and run it in the best way. Clay grew DJ Connection into the largest DJ wedding service in the U.S. He was a millionaire by 27 and hired his dad, which was a huge goal of his. As a fun anecdote, as Clay grew the business he wrote a parody song about the school’s president that got him kicked out of school.

Josh met with Clay a couple years ago when it was just him and a van and have grown the business over 6x in just a few years. He uses the systems that Clay and Dr. Zoellner teach.

What is the running theme or one thing that makes the biggest impact on success?

Clay:

• In his BOOM book, on page 4, there is a linear workflow on how to succeed.
• Your business exists to serve you. It’s comes down to math. You have to know your goals
• You have to know the hours you have to work to reach your goals (how much time is needed)

Dr. Zoellner

• Value is the key to succeeding in business
• You must figure out every way to maximize value for clients and create such an amazing deal that people can’t believe.
• You must then have great branding to go with it. Perception is reality and the goal is get perception and reality to be the same. But, you have to look great to your customer in addition to bringing the value.

You must also have your “3-Legged Marketing Stool.”

• Marketing is the gas peddle for your car (business)

What is some of the best advice on how to market?

Josh example – 3 things that are always going:

• Google ads
• Retargeting ads (Adroll.com)
• Facebook ads
• They also go out and get reviews on Google daily

Get reviews – studies show people read reviews.

• Never turn your ads off.
• Never stop adding a page of content to your website – every day add a page.
• Business Insider article reference – Google controls
• 90% of the search engine traffic. 60% is standard search. 25% is done via google images. 5% is Youtube.
• 90.8% of all consumers search via google product

Dr. Zoellner – you can play to Google game, but if you are a local company, or even national – you want to dominate the airwaves, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, etc.

• Don’t just rely on Google as it is double edged sword – a bad review can sink you and suck your time in fighting it.

You’ve built this thriving coaching and mentoring business, the most reviewed in the world – tell us more about the principles you teach in addition to what we’ve already discussed.

Sales

• Create an inbound sales script for anyone that is going to be on the phone to be consistent
• Install call recording (ClarityVoice.com) to inspect what you expect and make sure things are being done at the level you want them.
• Get a video of your best sales person doing their best sales presentation to use as a teaching aid.
• You then need to track your numbers

F6 – Design your F6 life. Define the following for yourself:

• Faith
• Family
• Finances
• Friendship
• Fun
• Fitness
• What does your perfect week look like? Your perfect life?
• If you don’t design your life, someone else will.

What has been your bigger failure and mistake as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it?

• Clay used to have F5 not F6. He was missing the Fun. Clay shares the story of how he was so successful, but all he did was work. His wife had to ask him to “schedule time with his daughter.” He changed that and brought in the fun.
• It has made all the difference in his life as he was on path to just make a ton of money and die with it. Now, he has a real life.
• There is so much more to life than just business…everyone has to figure that out.
• Dr. Zoellner, when he was younger, had a tendency to run over people and situations and nowadays that time and wisdom have helped that.
• Stop and listen. Listen to your family. They will let you know when the pendulum has swung too far away from them. The key is to spend the quality time with them. ​

At the 54 minute market, Dr. Zoellner talks about being a misfit.

Best Quote: "If don't design your life, someone else will..."

Misfit 3:

#1

1. Dr. Z: Pigs get fat, hogs get butchered. Beware of greed in your life.
2. Clay: Vision without execution is hallucination. What do you need to do today to execute and get a step closer?
3. Josh: Just go to work.

#2

1. Dr. Z: Be the pig at breakfast, not the chicken. Go all in. You have to whatever it takes.
2. Clay: Know your F6 goals: Faith, Family, Finances, Friendship, Fitness, Fun.
3. Josh: Treat people better than you want to be treated. It costs $0 to be a kind, great person.​

#3

1. Dr. Z: Know when to cook the pig. Celebrate when you have a victory. When you have a success, take time to celebrate it.
2. Clay: Implement systems that are proven to work. Quit getting advice from most people.
3. Josh: Help the next person coming up behind you.​

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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 the importance of little things in our lives. I didn’t used to pay much attention to the little details. I had been told that the little things matter, but I had never put too much stock in it because “who wants to spend time on the little tiny things when there is so much else to do.” I never realized how important they truly were until your mom and I found you.

That’s right…one tiny little choice is what is responsible for us being a family. One, miniscule, little, tiny, choice. A checkbox. You see, when your mom and I were going through the process to be able to find you and bring you home, we had to make some decisions. Some of those were hard as we had to choose if we would be willing to work with ailments or problems that our child could have. It was an emotional roller coaster ride of feelings because, as you might be able to understand, if we didn’t check the box for a certain ailment or problem, did that mean we didn’t care or worse, what if you had an ailment that we didn’t check the box for – we would miss finding you.

It all came down to one, unlikely checkbox – hyper and hypo thyroid. Your grandmother has one of these, so we knew about it and knew how to treat it. When we checked the box and reviewed it with our adoption counselor, they said, “Are you sure you want that, we rarely, if ever have had a child with that issue.” We told them we wanted to leave it on there just in case. I call this miracle #1 in our family journey.

Next, once we had done everything to be able to start looking for you, we went through a number of months where we would get our hopes up when China would release the children available for adoption, only to not even get a phone call. It was another emotional rollercoaster ride. Every month when the time came, we would get our hopes up and the time would pass and we would not get a phone call. It was discouraging to say the least. But, we held fast to our belief that you were out there and when the time was right, we would find you.

Then, on a beautiful September day, we got a call out of the blue from our adoption counselor telling us that they had found a child that fit what we were looking for. We were very confused as the children for the month had already been released by China and we had not been contacted. We asked how this was possible and our adoption counselor told us that the agency actually worked directly with one orphanage in China, just one in all of China, and that once in a great while, they had a child that fit what one of their families was looking for. When we asked our counselor what had made them think of us – they told us that when this child came up in the system, she had hyperthyroid, and that we were the only family in the system that had checked the box for that ailment, so we were the only ones they could call. That child was you.

Think about that for a second. Miracle #1 was checking that little box for hyperthyroid. Miracle #2 was the fact that no on else in the world knew about you, but us. You never were on the list to be sent out to the world from China. You were never given the chance for another family. It was us and only us from the start. We were destined to be a family and you were destined to be my daughter. They say the lord works in mysterious ways – well the lord not only worked a miracle to find you and set you apart for just us to be a family, but he also taught me and your mother the valuable lesson of the incredible importance of the littlest of things, that wonderful day in September.

And I have taken the message and used it in my life ever since. It is amazing how many things can be traced back to a small, seemingly insignificant choice or the incredible value that the littlest things can have. I have often said that “awareness is the catalyst to and of change.” Once you are aware to something, you can use it in your life. Since I have become aware to the power of little things, I can say that it has made some of the biggest impacts in my life – not just in finding you, but in business, relationships, opportunities, health and on and on.

And when you really think about it, it is the littlest of things that make the biggest differences. Olympic gold medals are won by a hundredth of second. Chance meetings by people turn into marriages. And I’ve already talked about your chances of even being alive in this world.

That brings me to Miracle #3, another little thing that made a huge difference – maybe THE difference. When we brought you home, we started taking you to the doctor for treatment, and after 6 months, your doctor looked at us and said, “You know what, I think she was mis-diagnosed. She doesn’t need the medication, she’s perfectly healthy.” Now, think about that for a second. For you to be found by us, you had to have been diagnosed with an ailment or we would not have found you, but you were actually mis-diagnosed and never should have had that ailment in your file. This little mistake by a doctor in China made everything possible.

Hannah, the biggest lesson I want you to take away from this is that there are great miracles in the littlest of things. Lifechanging miracles. And that is why, you will do well to pay close attention to the little things in life and see the miracles and opportunities they provide. Don’t overlook them or take them for granted. More importantly pay close attention and maximize them in everything you do. The littlest of things can make the biggest difference.

I love you,

Daddy

Best Quote: You will do well to pay close attention to the little things in life and see the miracles and opportunities they provide.

Misfit 3:

1. There are great miracles in the littlest of things. Lifechanging miracles.
2. The little things can have some of the biggest and most profound impacts in your life and business.
3. Don't overlook or take the little things for granted.

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is John Berardi. John is a Canadian-American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Precision Nutrition, the world’s largest nutrition coaching, education, and software company.

He's also the founder of Change Maker Academy, devoted to helping would-be change makers turn their passion for health and fitness into a powerful purpose and a wildly successful career. And he’s the author of the best-selling book Change Maker.

Over the last 15 years he's advised companies like Apple, Equinox, Nike, and Titleist, among others, as well as the San Antonio Spurs, Carolina Panthers, US Open Champ Sloane Stephens, and 2-division UFC Champ Georges St. Pierre. He's also been named one of the 20 smartest coaches in the world and 100 most influential people in health and fitness.

Regardless if your passion is in health and fitness, there is a lot you can learn from John about entrepreneurship and life and I’m excited for him to share it with you in this episode.

www.JohnBerardi.com

Health and fitness was not the likely path for John. He was born premature, had asthma and allergies, and as he grew up was very much an introvert. It wasn’t until he got to High School that he began to study health and fitness to better himself. It then that his passion for it was born.

But, it wasn’t without major challenge. Because John was more introverted and lacked self-confidence, it manifested in abusing drugs and alcohol at young age to cover up his pain. He fell in with the wrong crowd and one night was out driving around drinking with friends and got into an accident and miraculously survived without a scratch. That was his wake-up call and when he made the decision to focus on his health. He started going to the gym, found a mentor, and didn’t look back. The mentor even gave him a job at the gym.

John went onto to become personal trainer paying his way through college, but he knew he needed to learn more. He need to learn the psychological side. Combining the two disciplines is what helped to birth Precision Nutrition. Precision came about right as things were transitioning off of dial up to high-speed internet and Precision was positioned well to grow. From the start they grew the company remotely. As John said, back then, they were “weird.” They were totally remote. They didn’t have an organized management structure. Instead, they used Holocracy.

In 2017, John and his co-founder, sold the majority of the ownership in the company and John has been focused on unique projects such as Changemaker and others.

In our lives, we have moments that help define us. There is more to the car accident story where your friends actually got the wrecked car back on the road, but you decided to walk home. They ultimately got arrested. What was it that told you to walk away in the moment?

• That would have been the 3rd time John would have been arrested with these same guys.
• John shares that while the accident was happening and the car was spiraling across the road, it was like a movie scene. Everything slowed down and he saw scenes from his life.
• The last scene was watching himself get lowered into the ground as his parents wept.
• They ultimately landed between 2 trees perfectly and didn’t hit them – all perfectly fine without a scratch.
• It was this moment that he chose to go a different direct and walk home while they drove the wrecked car away and go arrested.
• The change to be better was tough. John no longer had the friends he had. He stopped using drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. So, getting better and to his next level was lonely. But, that is why he started going to the gym.

At the 17 min mark, John and I have a great conversation on how what we go through shapes us, why you should not regret, and how you should learn lessons from the past while getting perspective on the ones you are making right now.

What do you feel is most important to consistently succeed at high levels?

• Reputation. You can talk about the value of it, but you will reach a point where you see its true impact in your life.
• John gives the example of selling Precision and essentially starting from zero, but in launching Changemaker, his reputation – a history of doing great work – served him well as people know and trust him and thus supported him.
• Reputation is built by having strong standards in life that we adhere to and live by.
• Often we think that we need to come up with our standards/principles alone. You don’t. In fact, John says, “Nothing worth doing can be done alone.”
• You are going to need other people as everything from inspiration to idea generation.

At the 29 min mark, John talks about how the book Principles by Ray Dailo was a direct result of his co-founder Phil. Ray had not planned a book on what then just a sort of pdf manifesto that he had put out. “The best ideas are not in your own head.

"The best ideas live in the interface between you and others. It is when you pile ideas on top of each other that the best things emerge.”

Tell us about Changemaker. What does it mean to be a changemaker?

• The book was really a culmination of everything John has learned and done to succeed that has made a real difference.
• What someone thinks doesn’t always have a bearing on what they did.
• Watching someone in action many times will give you much better lessons than hearing what they think.
• Use “squinted eyes” to seek the truth. See things fuzzy and look at the shapes before you seek the clear version. Many things are not just black and white – you need to see the grey.
• Changemakers align what they think and what they do, but also constantly are looking at things through squinted eyes.

What do you teach people about how to find their calling?

• Every career person should go through the purpose, unique abilities exercise.
• First, come up with your origin story – how did you become the superhero you are?
• Define what led you to where you are, so you know where you are…
• Ask questions of yourself and those around you to determine this.
• Your purpose and what you do every day can have a disconnect. You may have a deep purpose, but not like what you do. So you need to understand your unique abilities.
• Your unique abilities are the things you are world-class at – the things you are great at that you can really enjoy doing. What of these moves the needle on your purpose.
• When you know your purpose and align it with your unique abilities – then you can truly find what to do to serve your purpose that is based on you and who you really are.
• The last part are your values – your guardrails that keep you aligned.
• These are all things you don’t do on your own. You have to get the feedback from others to help shape these things. You have to get “for real.”

You should have your best self, coach you and build this into your routine. Set time aside where you are in a peaceful mind set, able to think clearly, and work on a problem or set of problems. Set aside time to let your best self show up to help you.

At the 48 min mark, we talk about the importance of structure in our lives, but how it needs to be a flexible structure.

• Rigidity is the enemy of consistency.
• The more rigid the rules are and how things have to be “just so.”
• The “just so” lifestyle can lead to problems too.
• There is a fun interplay between structure and flexibility that is needed to have the success that we want.

Are there any principles from the book or thoughts you want to leave us with?

• The idea of “What is business? What is entrepreneurship?”
• It comes down to 3 things.
• First, you have to know what people want and are willing to pay for (much easier said than done)
  • Precision used the “jobs to be done” framework from Clayton Christiansen at Harvard.
• Second, create that thing in the most remarkable way.
  • You cannot possibly know this all on your own – get feedback and ask people to think aloud. Get people’s emotional reactions, not their logical.
• Third, tell everyone about it.
  • It’s more than just marketing

Best Quote: "The best ideas are not in your own head. The best ideas live in the interface between you and others. It is when you pile ideas on top of each other that the best things emerge."

John's Misfit 3:

1. Practice compassionate, active listening in your life.
2. Hunt for feedback. The most successful people collect more feedback than anyone else. They have fine tuned the practice by accepting all transmissions they can to grow their success.
3. Don’t deify action. Don’t take action for action’s sake. Strategize for your action. We need a minute of thoughtfulness before taking action.

Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to a special New Year’s edition of the Misfit Entrepreneur. Last week, we did our year in review where I attempted to boil down the best advice from our guests through 2019 for you. And I can’t thank you enough for all the comments, feedback, and sharing of the episode. A number of people sent me questions asking what my best advice was for the year and for succeeding in 2020. Well, I’m humbled that you would seek this from me and I’m honored to give it to you to kick off the New Year! So let’s jump in. ​

There is so much that I would love to share with you, and you get some of this in the Lessons for Hannah episodes that I do throughout the year, but I don’t want this episode to be hours long, so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and have narrowed everything to 10 specific things I think you should know going into 2020 to maximize your success. The things I’ve chosen are not the traditional things you would hear like “set goals” and things like this. I’ve really looked at some of the more unique things I’ve found that have made a major difference for me…My Misfit side if you will and want to share those with you. I also am going to give you one action item to take with each one.

Make sure to get your copy of the guidebook with action items that goes with this episode. As a bonus, you also get the the Top 10 Lessons to Thrive and Succeed from the Misfit Entrepreneurs. Just got to this link:

Misfit's "Inner Misfit" Advice for Success in 2020