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.

www.healingspringsranch.com

www.evolveandtransform.me

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?

• At the heart of addiction or trauma is pain.
• Unresolved emotions and pain are at the core of things that need to be confronted.
• Many times the addiction is a way to escape deep emotional pain.
• Addiction is not the issue – it is what gets people in trouble, but the issue is much deeper.

Talk about confronting pain…

• “We are sick as the secrets we keep.”
• We can only oppress things so long – but they will come out.
• It manifests differently for people, but it does come out.

What should people do to start the process of confronting pain?

• It requires a level of vulnerability.
• People shy away from being vulnerable, but it is one of the most healthy and strongest things we can do.
• It allows us to connect at a deeper level.
• Open up to someone you trust and have the conversation.
• Guilt vs. Shame. Guilt is when you feel bad. Shame is a belief that there is something bad in you and you don’t deserve your life.
• Talk to friends, counselors, and get help. Open up and learn how to be vulnerable.
• It is liberating to be your true self and let people see who you are.

Are people afraid to show their true self?

• Yes, because as a society we are conditioned to put our best foot forward and come off as perfect and in certain ways.
• Even entrepreneurs – we are supposed to be successful and when we fail it is so hard because we are not willing to admit we are not the picture society says we should be.

How important is it to find meaning and purpose? Where does it fit in?

• It fits in when you stop trying to control everything.
• We must be honest about our gifts and be real about our talents and what we are truly exceptional at.
• That is where meaning and purpose lies – in focusing on those gifts and using them to their fullest extent – you begin to fire on all cylinders.
• Don’t be something you are not or keep trying to be something you are not. It hinders your ability to succeed. Accept who you are and be clear on what you are good at and what you are not.

Talk about compulsive behavior and how we can use it for good and control it in our lives…

• We all have compulsive behaviors as human beings.
• Compulsive behaviors are there to serve a business.
• They are there to soothe us or help us with coping.
• But they can get out of hand.
• If your compulsive behavior begins to cause relationship, financial, health problems, and so on, it is becoming an issue.
• Otherwise, they can be useful to us.
• The biggest coping mechanism for entrepreneurs is “workaholism.” Sometimes it is too escape other areas of our lives, or ego, etc. it is a powerful drug that we have to be careful not to use too much.

Explain “You can’t level up if you are tethered down…”

• It can be external or internal.
• Internal is the hardest.
• When we tether ourselves down with baggage in ourselves, you cannot go to your next level.
• You have to let go and just be authentic and good with yourself.
• If you feel like you cannot get to the next level, look inside and see what is holding your back. Maybe it is a skill set to learn or something you have to confront – whatever it is, you need to overcome it and level up.
• Don’t be scared of the next level.

What is it that you see consistently in top entrepreneurs that keeps them at that top of their game?

• They remove ego. They know their self-worth and don’t fake it or use ego to mask insecurity. Be high integrity.
• They actively listen and know they aren’t always the smartest person in the room. Receive the gifts others can give you to help you.
• They have a learner mindset, not a knower mindset.

Who inspires you? Where do you get wisdom and advice?

• People. Connecting with people. That is inspiring.
• Every person you meet has something they can give you or leave you with.
• Rachel tells a great story about leaning the Tango and someone saying to her “You’ll learn more about yourself than you will about the dance.” She never saw the person again.
• During dance training, she saw how she could not let go of things and when she stopped trying to control things, she was able to Tango much better and could pick up the steps.
• Don’t miss the moment when you meet people.

Best Quote: "We are sick as the secrets we keep..."

Rachel's Misfit 3:

1. You cannot level up if you are tethered down. Look at yourself and remove what is holding you back.
2. Meaning and purpose can come out of the darkest moments. Be grateful because these moments are a big reveal for us.
3. The power to change is a mindset. You control your victim to creator mindset. Become a creator and be powerful vs. powerless. Make the world happen for you.

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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

www.joinebs.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?

• Ann looks at things differently than maybe society does today.
• As she says when she got married, she made a “covenant” and a vow that she would not break. It means that she will follow through to the end.
• Human endeavors hinge on multiple things: ability, our word, and our bond.
• The family unit with the mom and dad is critical to this – and Ann believes, critical to success.
• You have to make it work in business – and making it work in a marriage is great practice and training for that.
• One of the best predictors for happy children is that the mom and dad truly love each other and it shows.
• You have a responsibility to your children to do right by them and it begins with doing right by each other.
• Ask yourself, “Whose feet will your children sit at?” Do they carry your world view? Entrepreneurship can be fostered and taught at home – because it isn’t in school. Ann homeschooled for this reason.
• Being in tune with family and business also helps with clarity and purpose.
• She believes in giving yourself and your children permission to fail and encouraging it because that is one of the best ways to learn and foster entrepreneurship. ​

How did you get into E-commerce later in life?

• It started with her sons.
• They decided to start an EBay business selling swords.
• Ann was in the world of direct sales at the time and she needed leads, so she followed some of what her sons were doing to help generate leads online.
• Ann found an online mentor, went through the training, and then learned about how to develop a target market.
• She started doing well and partnered with her son. – who had become a top affiliate marketer. Together they were a powerhouse.
• They started with digital products and then turned into e-commerce with physical products.
• She tried doing direct sales online and found it did not do as well over time, so she pivoted to teaching E-commerce and what she had learned about how to make money online.
• She focused on Amazon and EBay as they build the sales funnel for you (the funnel is the hardest part).

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?

• Amazon and Ebay in an arbitrage model was the start.
• Then developed training method for arbitrage, wholesale, private label, self-actualization with a Shopify store, etc.
• Each has more risk because of variables that involves and her courses cover everything needed for each of them.
• Her programs focus on results and how to keep better ones.

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.

• Ann figured out the systems to give like a franchise would and also helping them set up an outsourced team.
• They key is to develop people – not just sell a course.

What does it take to create a business that generates $10k online in revenue?

• There are two types of business – You own the funnel and have to create or e-commerce where it is already created, such as at Amazon.
• Arbitrage is easiest. You take others’ products and sell them and take a cut.
• $10k/mo is about how much money you can bring to the table, you can do 28-50% profit with deal stacking on your front end.
• Amazon is the easiest way. With $4-5k in investment in product inventory using Fulfilled by Amazon, you can accomplish it. This taps you into Prime customers.
• You will need to use a prep center to make sure your products are set up correctly for Amazon’s criteria.
• An example, you can go to Walmart and scan with the Amazon app, buy the products in bulk and ship them to Walmart – such as back to school materials.
• You can do the same thing with product online. Arbitrage is just buying low and selling high. ​

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..."

Ann's Misfit 3:

1. Find your wheelhouse. This is different than finding passion. The wheelhouse is your strength where you really shine.
2. What are you called for to be in service to others?
3. Begin with the end in mind. What is the legacy? What do you want to be remembered for?

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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.

Misfit 3:

1. Most get the pursuit of greatness wrong. They make it about themselves instead of finding greatness by serving others. Often they end up alone and unfulfilled.
2. You can get everything in life you want, if you just help enough other people get what they want.
3. Look for ways to serve others every day. In doing so, you will find true greatness in your life and achieve and have more than you ever imagined.

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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.

www.OutsourceSchool.com

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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?

• Nathan didn’t create his own products – he found others and sold them and dropshipped
• Partnering is important to success in building an e-commerce company.
• Nowadays, it’s important not to be on Amazon.
• The fundamentals haven’t changed.
  • Focus on customer service
  • Focus on how you can diversify and not have all your eggs in one basket.
  • Focus on partnering to fill your gaps

Why do you think outsourcing is the best way to scale a business?

• The world has changed.
• You don’t need to be located any specific place, you don’t need office space, etc.
• The barriers and costs to entry are low because of the free tools out there and internet.
• And in today’s world, just about anything you need in a business is available at your fingertips with skilled VA’s. Accounting, graphic design, website design and management, customer service, etc. can all be outsourced.
• You can scale and grow with part time VA’s up to full time as you go.
• It makes it much easier to build a business.

Take us through how your build a business using outsourcing…what are the steps?

2 parts: The idea and MVP and outsourcing.

• Nathan’s first 2 hires are always a part-time bookkeeper and someone to get him out of his inbox and manage his email, appts., etc. T
• ake the MVP to market, get feedback and see if it has promise.
• You can then increase hours of the VA’s and add others in for other needs.

“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.

• To make your business better and grow, you need to get yourself out of the day to day so you can focus on the most important parts of growing and getting the business out there and making sure it has a market, creating brand awareness, networking, etc.
• Do that correctly and you’ll be in a good place after year one.

What are the “got to” tasks or roles that should always be outsourced?

• Everything!
• There are 3 types of VA’s
  • Followers: Non-US, $5-10 per hour and there to follower your processes and systems.
  • Doers: Graphic designers, video editors, etc.
  • Experts: High level. Think consultative and bring their own best practices, processes, etc.
• It’s important to know which type you need for a role. You will need all 3, but you need to know where to put them and hire them in at.

At the 19:45 mark, Nathan talks about the SOP process (Standard Operating Procedure) and why it is so important to focus on.

• SOPs need to be broken down into 3 parts.
• Part 1: Why. Why is this task important? Why is it needed? What does success for it look like?
• Part 2: Step by Step. Put together the exact steps needed to do the job.
• Part 3: Do NOT Do List or Important Reminder List. Put all the important stuff at the bottom to make sure it is clear to them.
• Once you have the SOP, don’t focus on 1:1 training from day one.
• Give them the SOP and a video for the first week, pay them, and let them go.
• At the end of that week, test them. If they get 80% of it, then move forward with 1:1.
• This is a way to sift through VA’s to find the best one for the role.

What’s the most important thing entrepreneurs need to get right from the beginning and why?

• If someone is newer to VA’s. It all starts with the interviewing and onboarding.
• Nathan uses the CARE method:
  • Communication: They must be able to communicate to your standards. How fast do they respond? Do they communicate in a way you understand and do they understand you?
  • Attitude: Is their attitude in line for what you want in the role.
  • Red Flags: Be on the lookout for any red flags.
  • Experience: Do they have the skill set and have proven it.
• Once you find someone, make sure you are on the same page for compensation.
• The onboarding method is called the SICC method in a 30 min meeting:
  • Schedule: Are they good with the schedule that you need? Are there conflicts?
  • Issues: Computer? Internet? Power?
  • Communication: Will they communicate in the way you need to them to?
  • Culture: Set the expectation of them having to be a culture fit and what that means.
• At the end, give them the opportunity to ask questions and back out.

Anything else we should know on outsourcing?

• When starting – just focus on getting 5 hours per week back.
• Don’t try to outsource everything at once.

What has surprised you most on your entrepreneur journey?

• Nathan gets rejected almost every day. He keeps putting himself out there and getting rejected all the time.
• You learn to focus on the successes and let the failures go and not affect you.
• Your ability to handle rejection well will help you grow a larger business.
• Nathan also shares a story of almost losing a whole business because they almost lost all the data for the company.

Who do you go to for mentorship and why do you choose them?

• Look for people that have skills you are lacking that you cannot hire for.
• Create a relationship with them before asking for mentorship.
• You can even hire them as a coach and teach you their processes.
• Look for people with your same values. For Nathan, that is honoring your work, treating people with respect, and owning up when you make mistakes. ​

Best advice for an entrepreneur starting out today?

• Get your MVP out there.
• You don’t need hardly any money to start a business right now.
• Figure out if there is actually a market for your product and experiment to make sure it is worth your investment.

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:

1. Reward those who have helped you achieve success.
2. Honor your word and be super clear on what you can and cannot do.
3. Figure out what your ideal day looks like to be your most productive and make sure you business is structured around that.

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