Misfit Nation! Welcome to the Misfit Entrepreneur 2017 year in review where each year I attempt to boil down all of the incredible, useful information, strategies, and tips that our guests have given on the show into less than one hour for you…with a few surprises thrown in.

It’s impossible for me to go over every single best piece of advice from these amazing people and that is why I urge you to take some time and go through the Misfit Archives to see which episodes resonate most with you. In doing this episode, my goal is to spur ideas – to give you a lightning strike that propels you down a path of action to better improve yourself, your life, and your business or career in 2018!

But, before listening, I want to tell you something. I want to say “Thank YOU.” Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support of the show and thank you for sharing our message. Without you and the amazing feedback members of this audience give me every week, it would not be half of what it is. Because of you, in just over a year, this show has reached hundreds of thousands of people in over 70 countries. I am truly humbled and in awe of what we’ve done together and I am excited about having an even bigger impact with your help in 2018.

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

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Thom Singer. Thom is the host of the Cool Things Entrepreneurs Do Podcast, a renowned professional keynote speaker, and MC, and is a 12-time author of books on everything from business relationships to presentation skills.

Thom is one of only a few in the world, who is a certified speaking professional or CSP. He has spoken to audiences such as Fortune 500 companies, global organizations, and everything in-between and has presented to over 600 audiences in his career.

As Thom says, “in today’s distracted business environment, there is a disconnect between social media likes, links, shares, and follows – and real meaningful business connections. My work centers around helping people get back to the basics of relationships that lead to better opportunities, more sales, and realizing their true potential.” The ability to speak clearly, effectively, and deliver a message is one of the most important skills you can have in life and I’ve brought Thom on today to give you his best advice on how to set yourself up for success.

www.ThomSinger.com

Thom spent over 20 years in corporate America working for Fortune 500 companies, law firms, and even startup ventures doing sales, marketing, and business development. As he says, he always felt like his ladder was against the wrong wall. He did well, but he felt something was missing. Thom would go to different conferences and see speakers and started to see an opportunity for himself. Thom joined Toastmasters and had a knack for things. He even placed in the Top 18 in the world for their global speaking contest (out of 20,000).

He started using his speaking ability to create educational forums and classes for the law firm he worked for at the time. Thom loved teaching through speaking and started travel doing his speaking and teachings. It was during the 2008 downturn that he made his move and now is a full time speaker and MC and is much happier having his “ladder against the right wall.”

How does someone overcome the fear of public speaking?

• Learning to clearly communicate is one of the greatest things you can do for your career
• One of the best ways to overcome fear is to join Toastmasters which will give a warm environment to practice and get better. It will also give you confidence.
• You must practice – it takes many professional speeches to make it “2nd nature” and to feel comfortable with all of the twists and turns that can happen while on stage. The magic number is 300 speeches.
• You don’t have to prove you are the smartest one in the room. If you are speaking, the audience is on your side and wants you to do well. You automatically have the credibility.
• You cannot under any circumstances “wing it.”

One other tip…

Create “Speaker’s College” in your mind. It’s free to enroll. Every time you see anyone give a speech, remind yourself that they are the professor and you are the student. Watch for what you like, what you don’t – figure out what resonates and learn from them. Ultimately, you will do in your own way, but it will help you figure out what your style is. And then every time you give a speech, your goal is to get a little bit better. And…SMILE!

At the 18 min mark, Thom talks about what makes a great speech?

There is no “true outline”

• A speaker is not a commodity item, everyone is unique
• A great speech has to do with how you tell a story
  • The human brain is wired for story
• It has to be a unique story – something you have experienced or someone you know has experienced
• Don’t tell “canned” stories that other speakers are telling
• You need to tell stories that relate to your experiences and tie them back to usable content and tell it in a way that inspires – you will win over your audience.

Speaking Do’s and Don’ts?

• Don’t get up and recite your own bio just after the MC or announcer gave your bio!
  • You are already established as an expert.
• The most valuable real estate is the first 3-5 minutes. You only have a short time in which people will make a decision about you. Don’t waste it.
• Instead, have a story that makes a point of where you are going to take them…
  • Think of this like your “opening ceremony” where everybody watches and then goes their separate ways – that is your first 3-5 mins.
  • The same thing is true for your “closing ceremony” – your last 3-5 mins must be spectacular as well.

Great speakers to study and learn from?

• Politicians are one group (whether you like them or not you can learn)
  • Ronald Reagan was a great storyteller
  • Bill Clinton was very captivating
  • “Candidate” Barrack Obama was mesmerizing and captivating
  • Sarah Palin knows how to give a presentation (Thom uses the teleprompter example of it failing and her continuing on without fail just riffing)
• Mark Scharenbroich author of “Nice Bike”
  • He is a legend in the speaking business and weaves story in better than anyone

What advice do you have for speakers on how to get clients and engagements?

• If you want to have a career as a speaker, you need to hang out with other speakers. How many speaker friends do you have?
  • Joining speaker groups or associations and networking is important
• You have to be really good on stage. You have to care about the craft and giving the audience an experience.
• Realize that you are taking the audience on a journey
• If you can do the above, you’ll get offers to speak – word of mouth is one of, if not the best ways to get engagements.
• Don’t be afraid to speak for free before you speak for a fee. It helps you hone the craft

At the 40 min mark, Thom talks about his biggest challenge as an entrepreneur – overcoming the plateau.

Most unique thing you’ve learned from interview so many entrepreneurs on your Cool Things Entrepreneurs Do Podcast?

Entrepreneurs are more than wanting to make money, they want to give back and serve the greater good.

Best Quote: “It’s up to you to bridge your gaps. There is no substitute for experience and experience will help you get better and better.”

Thom's Misfit 3:

1. Be slow to anger and fast forgive. Give people the benefit of the doubt – unless they are truly evil.
2. All opportunities in life come from people. Be open, say hello, and choose the people instead of the gadget. Connect!
3. Don’t be jealous of your competition. Turn your competition into your professors. Success leaves clues – follow them.

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Scott Lopez. Scott has an interesting background. He is a former Marine Corps fighter pilot turned Investment banker who works with early stage tech companies that need financing. He helps to get investments typically in the range of $1 million to $100 hundred million…oh, and on top of that, he is a world champion in Brazilian Ju-jitsu and the host of his own podcast, the Disruptive Investor Radio show which highlights disruptive technology companies that could potentially change the world, as well as the professional investors that invest in those companies.

Scott has a unique perspective on what is on the cutting edge of tech and what investors are looking for in an investment pitch, so I wanted to have him on to share this with you for you to know which technology to look out for - as well as what you can do to wow investors if you are pitching your startup or company.

www.ScottLopez.com

Scott started from humble beginnings as a welfare kid. He didn’t have much growing up. He moved around a lot. He admits he had some issues with self-esteem. What helped him overcome this was joining the Marines. He spent 10 years in the Marine Corp as a fighter pilot and says that this helped him to find who he was and gain confidence in himself.

He then went on to get his MBA and worked with Starz and Charter Communications. He opened up a business in health care. Scott also started speaking and consulting. Because of his background in healthcare and success, he was able to start in investing in companies, such as medical device and others. This lead him to working with a hedge fund and ultimately to investment banking.

What have you learned about how to overcome obstacles and become mentally tough?

Your perspectives, beliefs, and consciousness (how you see yourself and your interactions with others) all impact who you are and your ability to succeed in life. Scott says that he as fortunate to attract great mentors into his life. He learned about modeling and the fact that “success leaves clues” from Brian Tracy. Simply put, if you want to do something or learn something, you can find someone either in person, a book, video, or any other medium doing it and learn from them.

Scott recommends the book, “Psychological Foundations of Success by Steve J. Krauss” that is a scientific process of mapping out a system to succeed.

What is the system/process?

5 Principles:

1. Vision: Clarifying what you really want from life
2. Strategy: Taking action and turning lofty ambitions into consistent actions
3. Belief: Minimizing FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt)
4. Persistence: Drive and determination
5. Learning: Learning from mistakes and truly making course corrections in life

Other advice to overcome and succeed in life?

• Don’t let “Best” get in the way of “good enough” when it comes to starting on your dreams. Nothing needs to be perfect. Don’t be stopped by the “it has to be perfect” curse.
• Sometimes you just gotta go for it and ready, fire, aim, and course correct from there

How do you get rich?

If there is a problem, someone is going to find a solution and the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity – and money you can make.

What trends are important in technology that we should be watching?

• More disruption is happening today than at any other time AI/Machine learning is here and growing and we are still trying to figure out whether it will be bad or good.
  • AI/Machine learning can really help figure out the patterns and usefulness out of pebibytes of unstructured data which is a huge benefit
• Cryptocurrency – more importantly, the use of blockchain as a whole is game-changing
• Nano-tech
• Cannabis
• Augmented Reality
• Autonomous vehicles

At the 21 min mark, Scott talks about a good strategy to decide if your idea will work before you ever start a company and then how to go forward with an exit strategy already in place.

At the 27 min mark, Scott discusses the investor side of things such as how investors and capital groups choose to invest and what you should know if you plan to seek investment or sale of your own business or startup.

• Financing is typically either debt (loan) or equity or even a combination of both
• Two questions any potential investor should ask an entrepreneur (and for entrepreneurs – two questions you should have a ready answer for)
  • How much have you raised to date?
  • What have you done with it?
  • The answers to these question will give you 90% of what you need to know about the potential investment.
• Results rule – if you can prove that you can execute with the money you have or money you’ve received. That helps to prove you are worth investing in.
• Most investors are looking for at least 3x return on investment on their money.

Anything else we should know about the tech space?

• No matter who you are or where you are, stay up to date and pay attention
• There are so many opportunities happening every day. Scott uses “E-sports” as an example

What have you learned in all your work with Jujitsu and being a Marine Corps fighter pilot that translates well to entrepreneurship?

• Entrepreneurship is a never-ending journey that is always evolving
• You have to learn to make adjustments to adverse situations
• You have to keep calm under pressure because you will always face some sort of adversity
• It is not about getting “tapped out” or losing, but constantly improving and getting incrementally better every day.
• It is about performance and results and those come as you incrementally get better Anticipate challenges, prepare, and be ready when they arise
• Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good, but you have to put yourself in a position to capitalize when opportunities arise – which happens when you are prepared.
• Don’t be afraid to act – ask yourself “Am I ready when my moment comes…”

Advice for young or new entrepreneurs?

• Locate yourself in the area that has the resources, contacts, environment, and ecosystem that will support what you are trying to accomplish
• Building your network strategically is so important. Be smart, but make the connections you know you need.
• Be where the action is.

Best Quote: “Don’t let “Best” get in the way of “good enough” when it comes to starting on your dreams.”

Scott's Misfit 3:

1. Know the two questions as either an investor or entrepreneur: How much have you raised to date? What did you do with it?
2. We compete in life to improve, not to prove. It is a continuous journey.
3. Remember the success formula and its 5 principles: Vision, Strategy, Belief, Persistence, Learning

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Scott Alan Turner. Scott is the Financial Rock Star, who went from what he calls a “money moron” at age 22 to self-made millionaire 13 years later. He sold a business he started with his wife that allowed them to do whatever they wanted for the rest of their lives. Additionally, he’s been a partner and owner in 8 companies and even took one from with $7 to 7-figures in sales in 18 months.

Scott is the author of best-selling book, the 99 Minute Millionaire, the host of the Live Like a Financial Rockstar podcast and his mission is helping people get out of debt faster, save more money, and retire rich.

Successful entrepreneurs know that it is not just success in business, but also a good solid financial strategy that helps them win and Scott is going to share is best rockstar advice to help you get ahead and attain financial freedom today.

www.ScottAlanTurner.com

Scott became a self-made millionaire and was retired in 13 years, but he had a rocky start. Scott came out of college with what he says is huge lack of financial education. He got into financial difficulties right off the bat. He over-leveraged and bought too big of a house and too much car, had no savings, and a ton of debt.

He started to self-educate on finance and started learning to save and used his savings to start paying down his large mortgage. He was working in IT with a decent job and was approached about starting a side business which grew into business that he eventually started working at full time. He took a 65% pay cut but says it was the right decision.

Scott attributes his success in becoming a millionaire to what he calls, the “3 Legged Stool.”

• Being very frugal in the area of large purchases such as homes, cars, vacations, etc.
• He had a decent income and managed his debt and expenses so he could save every penny possible from it
• He invested wisely (after making some large mistakes and learning from them)

Most important thing you’ve learned about finances in life to this point?

Money is just a tool to use. What people really want is the lifestyle that they think money can give them and thus money is not the end goal, but the tool you can use to get you there.

At the 8 min mark, Scott talks about the reality of having an awesome lifestyle for very little money. The key is really to take the time to get clear on what you want in your lifestyle as it might take a lot less than you think.

What are the steps every entrepreneur should be taking to maximize their wealth?

#1 Piece of Advice to Get Out of Debt?

• Sell your car – there is a million dollars right there
  • If you took all the money people typically spend on new car payments, interest, insurance, etc. and compounded it over 40 years, in most cases it is more than $1 million.
• If you need a car, buy a used one for half the price

But what if you have a car or need a car, what is the #1 Piece of Advice to Save Money?

• Renegotiate stuff you are already paying for such as your car insurance, home insurance, cell phone, utilities – anything you have a monthly bill for.
• Most people can save $1000 or more in 30 days doing this with no change in lifestyle
• Other ways is having a side hustle or if you are dual income, setting things up to live off one and save the other, etc.

#1 Piece of Advice to Retire Early?

• The earlier you can start saving and the greater percentage of your income you can save over a long period of time – the faster you can retire.
• Target to save at least 30%, but in truth in order to do this financial independence has to be your bigger goal. You will have to make sacrifices to make this happen.

At the 16 min mark, Scott talks about what you can do as an entrepreneur and business owner to help yourself be more profitable and create more wealth.

Tips for transitioning from employee to entrepreneur and entrepreneurship in general?

• First, if you are going to do a side gig – you have to believe deeply in it because you will have to make sacrifices such as spending evenings and weekends working on the business while keeping a job and maybe not making any money from your efforts in the side-gig for a while
• You will face burn-out and will need to manage it and at some point, you will have to make the leap if the side gig is taking off – probably taking a pay cut
• Make sure you have at least 6 months of expenses saved up before making the leap
• Whatever you can do to not be in “bad debt” is important. If you can use debt to produce more than the debt and payments, then consider it.
• If you can bootstrap without debt, do it and do it as long as you can.

Knowing what you know today if you were going to start a business, what would be the “go to” strategies you would use to get it going?

• Partnerships help you grow and succeed much faster. Find partners that have domain experiences in the areas you do not. Get the best minds in each area together and create the business together.
• The caveat is that you have a business partner(s) so you need to have a very well thought out, well defined contract of how you will operate together
• You never know where you will find partners, so be open and remember that relationships from years ago can pay off – opportunity is always around you and never know where it might come from.

At the 28 min mark, Scott talks about tips for building a good web presence

Advice for young entrepreneurs?

• Go big or go home
• When you are younger, you can afford bigger risks – take them
• This is the time to make your mistakes and learn great lessons from them
• Build your network
• Look for problems to solve and get your brain used to looking for and solving them

Thoughts on the future of the financial system and what people should be thinking about?

• Have a 6-9-month emergency fund
• When the economy is down, cash is king
• Downturns offer great opportunities to build wealth because people are selling, usually at a deep discount – whether it be stocks, real estate, etc. Being prepared with cash is a huge advantage
• Plan to and put steps in place to pay down your bad debt as much as possible
• We are due for a downturn and you have to be ready – you should always be ready
• Check out and google “Debt snowball vs. Debt avalanche”

Final thoughts?

• Understand the role emotions and emotional decisions play in your financial success
• Understanding your behavioral tendencies around impulses and finance will help you to be much more successful
• Turn the news off
• Use the set it and forget philosophy when investing for retirement in a 401k or IRA
• Studies how passive investors make more money over time

Best Quote:  “Most people think they need more money than they really do, but they don’t take the time to sit down and ask themselves what they really want, when do they want it, and what it will really cost to have it. Financial independence is something anyone can have – it truly is..”

Scott's Misfit 3:

1. Set your alarm 5 minutes earlier and get 35 minutes more in each week. It is amazing what a little more time can do for you.
2. Do something today for your significant other, get them a gift or card and hide it somewhere where they can find it. Show your appreciation.
3. Think about the one thing that looking back 2, 5 or 10 years ago that you wished you started – and go start it. Do it now.