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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