This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Martin Sawa. Martin was the son of penniless Ukrainian immigrants and was on a path for the same kind of life when he made a decision. At almost 30, he quit his dead-end job to go into real estate and compete in the high stakes commercial real estate market in San Francisco. He struggled, but eventually found enormous success culminating in a $400 million deal that basically allowed him to retire and pursue his passions for writing. He had it all – but he had to confront the true cost of the sacrifices he made to get there.

He wrote about his story and incredible lessons learned in The Other Side of Success: Money and Meaning in the Golden State. Martin came from nothing, sacrificed everything and went through tragedy to find success, and ultimately learned what really matters on his entrepreneur journey and I’m excited to have him share it with you in this episode.

​www.martinsawa.com

Martin’s parents lived under both Hitler and Stalin. They made it through the war and were put in a displaced person’s camp in Austria for several years and finally made it to the US. They were resettled in rural Wisconsin. Martin was sort of an outsider in that he had trouble with the language, etc. He was able to go to and work to pay for a Jesuit boarding school and this helped him. He then went to college in the mid-west and after headed out to California.

He got a job in Oakland, got married, and as he approached 30 years old was dead broke and hating his job with another kid on the way. He had his “aha” moment when he was working at zoning counter for his job in the city planner’s office. A developer came in and started screaming at him to process his project. In that moment, Martin just walked away and continued out the door – vowing never to have a job again and would work for himself from then on.

He was driven by necessity. He had some sales experience from when he was younger doing door to door sales. He chose commercial real estate as the biggest things he could sell that would pay the biggest commissions. It took him a year before he made any money. Eventually, he worked for a broker and climbed up the ladder. He was divorced by this time and he and his new wife moved to Los Angeles. He was traveling and doing mega-deal internationally. He reached a point where he felt he was done and quit. He later went back when invited to do a deal with an old colleague. They bought a building in San Francisco. His wife, who was everything in his life, dropped dead one night from a heart attack. He had to work through that and did so. He did a large deal that gave him the ability to do what he wanted to do and that was how he got into writing and consulting.

Can you give perspective on why the US is such a great place to reach one’s dreams?

• The worst possible situation for his parents was nothing compared to the worst possible scenario in the US.
• Just living in the US was better for them and is for many.
• In the US, the children could do better than the parents and his parents instilled this in him.
• The US gives the opportunity, not the guarantee – in many places there is no opportunity.

What went through your mind when you walked out on your job?

• Martin had a big fight with his wife that night.
• The mindset became one of necessity
• He knew that he had to put skin in the game to really achieve great things, so he did.
• You have to figure out a way and it makes you have to get up early and go to bed late to make it happen.

Advice for those looking to make the leap to entrepreneurship?

• Just do it.
• You’ll never know all you’ll need to know.
• Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face and you just have to understand that the majority of the time, plans do not work out the way you thought. It’s the ability to keep going that matters.

What was your mindset as you went through this journey?

• In the first year, it was necessity. He had to take care of his family some way, somehow. He even played the credit card game to make things work.
• He kept putting more skin in the game and growing the size of his deals because he knew that the reward was greater, even with the risk.

At the 24 min mark, Martin talks about the other side of success and he you overcame the tragedy and challenges…

• It’s hard to find meaning in the material world.
• Meaning is found in the world of the unseen (spiritual, etc.)

Where do you get the willpower that you’ve used to overcome and keep going?

• You have to develop the skill to figure out what works best for you.
• You can read every personal growth book out there, but in the end what works for you will be specific to you and you have to synthesize it and make it work.
• It is easier to do something when it is specific to you and you’ve created it. ​

Other advice on how to success?

• Put skin in the game.
• Rely on your experience whenever possible.

Thoughts on truly finding meaning?

• Ask what you believe to be true?
• What you believe will govern and guide your life, so make sure what you believe is true for you.
• Next ask, who do you admire? What are their qualities?
• Align what you believe (core values) with what you do in the material world.
• When the alignment is there, you find meaning.

Best Quote: Put skin in the Game!

Martin's Misfit 3:

1. Have you put skin in the game? No risk, no reward and skin in the game is the best motivator.
2. What do you believe to be from the top down?
3. Are you living true to yourself? Is you pursuit of material success in alignment with your core values?

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jennifer Justice. Jennifer, also known as JJ, is an entertainment and live experience executive known for her expertise in building artists’ careers and business portfolios by marrying art with commerce. She made her mark as an entertainment attorney with a roster of clients that included Jay-Z, Outkast, Slipknot and Mark Ronson, and negotiated massive joint venture agreements including the partnerships of Jay-Z and Roc Nation with Live Nation. She then parlayed her experience to join Jay-Z to build Roc Nation in 2010 and served as his personal attorney for 17 years as well as Beyonce’s at times, during that time.

Today, JJ’s focus is on accelerating the success of women, women owned businesses, and women focused brands to help them succeed and achieve equality and diversity in the market and workforce.

I’m excited to have her on to talk about this topic, her experience, and the power of entrepreneurship.

www.TheJusticeDept.com

@JenniferJusticeLeague on Instagram

JJ’s family never went to college or in some cases never graduated high school, so she didn’t have any success mentors. She was passionate about music and when she did get the chance to go to law school, she decided that she was going to be a music entertainment attorney. She didn’t realize how hard it was to get into doing that type of law – it was very small market. She started off a big Wall Street law firm and networked to meet some in the entertainment space. She had some success and ended up as a partner at a firm that specialized in music entertainment law. She found a lot of common ground with her clients and being an advocate for them as many came from the same type of background as her.

One of her first clients was a very then, unknown, Jay Z. They grew up in the business together and she started growing her roster of clients. She then grew into all the other areas of the business for her clients with Live Nation, Roc Nation, etc.

After 17 years, she had twins that were 2 and half and felt it was time to move on. She was single mom and took 6 months off. She took the time to find out what she really wanted to do and became the President of Suyperfly, a live experience company that started festivals like Bonnaroo and others. She was there for 3 years and pushed herself.

Through it all, she has always had a really big passion for gender equality and started her own firm called the Justice Department to help women in this area. She also invests in companies and consults for general business needs.

What was it like taking 6 months off?

• It was foreign to her.
• It was actually stressful because of her being used to going all the time.
• She felt discombobulated. It was eye-opening. She needed a purpose – just a bigger one.

Tell us more about your mission for equality and the state of things…

• JJ went in bright eyed and thinking that success was equal.
• She found through her work with clients that there was a big discrepancy in wages between men/women for the same roles and types of contracts.
• She started questioning why this was happening and looking into it deeper.
• Me Too and Covid really brought this into the forefront and showed a lot of examples on a larger scale.
• We haven’t made a lot of strides in the area of equal pay and people are fed up with it.

Do you see entrepreneurship as the best opportunity to level the playing field?

• Yes, but there are issues there too.
• Women get funded 90% less than men.
• You do get to set your own rules and solve your own issues as an entrepreneur
• It is a great opportunity.

What you best advice to help women succeed in their careers?

• In a traditional job or system, do it with open eyes.
• Understand that biases exist and educate yourself on them.
• Know what other people make. Legally, other employees can share this with you. Find your tribe.
• Be armed with the information.
• Make sure when you are negotiating a new role or salary, you hire an attorney to review the documents and negotiate on your behalf – you can do this.
• For more of an entry level role, you should still hire an attorney to give advice.
• Let them give you the first offer and take it into consideration before any agreement or negotiation.
• Ask for 20-25% than you think you deserve because you never know. If you don’t get what you want – ask how you can and decide on what needs to be done to get there that you and the company agree to.

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want and believe in your worth.

What are the principles that you’ve used to build great companies and what do you look for when you invest in companies?

• It comes down to the founder. They lead the business.
• There is something to be said about the product but investing in areas you know is important as an investor or when deciding to build a company.
• Founders needs to understand when it may be time for them to step aside and let someone with the right experience for that level come in to run the company.

What are some of the best lessons you learned from working with Jay-Z?

• He really knows who he is.
• He had never had an agent because he doesn’t like a middleman.
• He took what was passion and built businesses around them doing them himself.
• He was/is focused on enterprise level opportunities.
• Jay-Z was/is very good at using joint ventures to grow and increase the value of his companies. 1+1 could equal 1000.
• Lastly, the willingness to walk away from a bad deal.

You should always be willing to walk away from a bad deal. Many times, walking away will turn it in your favor and if doesn’t, it wasn’t mean to be.

Best advice for an entrepreneur just starting out?

• Go through the MVP process
• Get a lawyer from the beginning
• Find your right team that will support you internally and externally.
• Build the core business and expand from there.

​Craziest thing you’ve ever seen happen in your career in the entertainment industry?

• A lot of it JJ cannot say because of attorney client privilege.
• She had her life threatened a few times.
• If you’ve watched the show Empire, it pretty much nails how it is.
• It’s just as crazy as you think it is.

Best Quote: Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want and believe in your worth.

Jennifer's Misfit 3:

1. Before taking advice, take a moment to think about if the person giving you that advice has ever been in your shoes.
2. Don’t worry about the traditional way of doing things. Be un-conventional.
3. Hire outside of what is traditional. Give those that need a hand up a chance.
4.  

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Steven S. Hoffman. Steve is the CEO of Founders Space. Founders Space is one of the leading startup accelerators in the world, with over 50 partners in 22 countries. In fact, Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines ranked it as the #1 incubator for overseas startups.

Steve is also a venture investor, a successful entrepreneur multiple times over and the author of several best-sellers including his latest Surviving a Startup. He’s found success everywhere from Hollywood to Silicon Valley, but his biggest passion is helping other entrepreneurs succeed.

My goal is to squeeze as much wisdom and advice as I can from him and his experience in our time together in this episode.

https://www.foundersspace.com/

Steven has had more careers than cats have had lives. He began as an electrical computer engineer. His real passion was film, entertainment, and games. He went to graduate school for film and then went to Hollywood. He worked his way up the ladder and began a television development executive at a large TV production company. While there, he started to see the future of video games and the growth they would have. He’s made over 100 games in his career. He met the founder of Sega and was offered a position at their Japanese headquarters coming up with new ideas for games, specifically for the US market.

He then came back to the US and launched his first company, LavaMind. The first product he launched was a game that taught people how to become entrepreneurs called Gazillionaire. He did it all himself and put all his money into it. It took off. After that, he saw the opportunity for gaming on the internet. He partnered and launched another business that was an interactive TV/Gaming product with MTV. He then did 2 other ventured startups and took a break.

During the break, friends that were starting their entrepreneur journey would come to him for help and advice and out of that grew his incubator, FoundersSpace.

You’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs in you career, alongside your own experience, what would you say is the main ingredient needed to succeed as an entrepreneur?

• Most entrepreneurs never make it.
• Ideas don’t matter. Where you start doesn’t matter. Just start.
• The most important thing is that you don’t lock onto your idea. More startups fail because entrepreneurs fall in love with the idea and their passion for it.
• Go out into the world and start exploring. You may not have the magic idea in the beginning.
• Google started out as non-profit to allow academics to search for peer papers.
• Yelp didn’t think reviews would be a big part of their product. It was just an add on.
• YouTube started out as an online dating site.
• Many of the biggest companies you know are far different that the idea that started them.

What is the process that people should go through to find the right version of the idea?

• It’s best to pick a direction vs. picking an idea and holding to it.
• Try a number of things in that direction
• Engage deeply in that area and figure out who your customer is.
• An entrepreneur’s job is not to sell a customer on your idea; it is listening to them. The best ideas come from the customer. What do they really need that they are not getting?
• Your job as entrepreneur is help solve the customer’s problems.
• Entrepreneurs are demand hunters. They cannot create demand, but they can find it and fill it.

How important is it to focus before branching out?

• Think small. The majority of entrepreneurs succeed with very small ideas.
• A small idea that can tap into a big pool of demand is powerful.
• YouTube was a great example of this.

What is it that you look for in a company you invest in?

• Venture capital is like rocket fuel for a business.
• But the rocket needs to already exist and be pointed at the right target.
• Is the business solving a real-world problem and is there demand?
• For a startup, the potential is in the team. A great team can help even a poor idea get off the ground and improve it from there.
• The CEO must have great leadership qualities. They need to be able bring together the right people, motivate them and lead them.

“An entrepreneur/CEO, put 80-90% of your time into finding an amazing team.”

What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned and put into practice?

• Small businesses are not a good fit for venture capital.
• A business with linear, steady growth is not a good fit either.
• If you are growing exponentially and can prove you can sustain it, then you have a shot with venture capital.
• The business model that produces more “unicorns” than any other is a recurring revenue business.
• A business where the customer comes back over and over again or needs a subscription to keep the service is key.

What are principles that you’ve developed to help guide you and build your businesses?

• How you communicate to your employees is critical.
• Culture is not ping pong tables and plush couches – building a great culture comes down to one word – Trust.
• Your need to trust you and trust everyone else on their team.
• If they know you have their back and everyone else on the team has each other’s, then they will own it together.
• The way you get it is by, duh, trusting your employees to do their job and helping them be part of the success by engaging them and giving them a say.

You wrote a book called “The Five Forces.” Tell us about it and what are the 5 forces?

• The Five Forces shows where we are headed in the future.
• These forces will change all of our lives.
• They are as follows:
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Brain Computer Interfaces
  • Genetics
  • Space Technology
  • Human Computer Intelligence (AGI/ASI)

Best Quote: Entrepreneurs are demand hunters. They cannot create demand, but they can find it and fill it.

Steven's Misfit 3:

1. If you fail, don’t internalize the failure. You are not your failures.
2. Don’t settle for what you think is possible. Growth comes from pushing yourself a little further.
3. Listen to what you say to yourself. Are you talking to yourself in a negative or positive way? If it is negative, you have the power to change it and it will transform your life.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is JJ Virgin. Where to start with JJ? You’ve no doubt heard of her before. JJ, in many ways redefined fitness and nutrition for people world-wide. She is a 4-time New York Times Best-Selling author and prominent TV and Media personality including the on-camera nutritionist for Weight Loss Challenges on Dr. Phil, and numerous appearances on PBS, Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray, Access Hollywood, and the TODAY Show. She also speaks regularly and has shared the stage with notables including Seth Godin, Lisa Nichols, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mark Hyman, and many others.

And if that isn’t enough, she host her own podcast, Ask the Health Expert and is the founder of the premier health entrepreneur event and community, the Mindshare Summit. ​

But a lot of people don’t know that JJ’s biggest challenge and biggest success didn’t come in her businesses – it came from an event – her worst nightmare that she was able to turn into her biggest opportunity to grow and thrive.

www.JJVirgin.com

JJ has always been fascinated by nutrition and fitness all the way back to high school. She went to college and on a theatre scholarship. But she catered her way through college using it to pay for things. She dropped out of the theatre program and starting personal training people – being one of the first alongside Body by Jake. She switched to be an English major. She graduated from college with a full-blown personal training business doing 6-figures +. She went to grad school for health and nutrition.

She kept looking at the next things that people wanted and needed and creating them. All of what she did ended up helping her. Her theatre work helped her in promoting and showcasing her services and products on TV and stage. Her English degree helped her in writing her books, etc. And her catering work helped her to better understand foods to help with nutrition and her cookbooks.

You wrote Warrior Mom to document the story of your son and what you learned going through this traumatic time in your life – tell us about it.

• Success is living on your own terms and helping others and making a difference. Success typically comes through some very hard challenges and sacrifices.
• JJ was in the process of releasing her second book and was going BIG with it.
• She went all in. She had 2 children, 15 and 16. The financial responsibilities were on her.
• All of her money was tied up in the book launch and she even borrowed some for it.
• She came home one day and her son, Grant, was agitated and they got into a little fight and Grant stormed out of the house.
• The next thing she knows, her ex-husband and other son come in and tell her that Grant got hit by car and was airlifted to a local hospital.
• She rushed to the hospital, and they ushered her into a conference room. She was told that her son was going to die. He had a torn aorta, and he had a deep coma with multiple brain bleeds, and they could not do that type of surgery there.
• They also told her that he could not be airlifted because he would die during transport.
• She had taught her kids that the only limitations are the ones in your mind and her other son looked at the doctor and said, they would take the chance.
• The airlift worked and the other trauma center was ready and the exact opposite. They saved her son.
• They fixed his heart, but they did not know if he would wake up. Additionally, he had 15 compound fractures that needed fixed.

At the 17 min mark, talks about her talking to him while in a coma and he would squeeze her hand. She committed right there to get him better than he was before the accident.

• JJ committed everything to him and even got the hospital to give her an office so she could work as he was still on the hook for the book launch.
• She realized that she had to take care of herself first and be in the best shape physically and mentally as she could to do everything and not risk being sick around her son.
• She put the time in and did the work for him and the business and she broke her first million in business while working from the hospital.
• Her son later told her than he saw “over there”, and it was wonderful, but he kept hearing her voice and decided to stay and no go.
• The first 2-3 years of coming back were brutal, but after 8 years he is better than before the accident.

We are capable of so much more than we think we are, and your story shows that. Can you give more insight into this area?

• You have no idea what you are capable of.
• JJ said the lessons she shared in the book where already in her, but they were revealed going through the process.
• When she was 30, she had a mentor – a personal training client. In a conversation, the client asked why she was in grad school and why she wanted to get her PhD. And the reason was that “I want to be more successful.” The lady just said “huh.”
• It turns out the lady, Kay Smith, was a mindset trainer who never went to college. Kay told that if she ever wanted to be more successful, she would teach her.
• Kay taught her a few things that made a huge breakthrough – so big, that she dropped out of school, drove all the way to Florida and moved in with her to “be taught.”
• The first thing Kay did was put a rubber band on her wrist and tell her every time she had a negative thought to snap it. Kay taught her to tightly control her environment.
• One of the key things she taught her were that “the only limitations were the ones in your mind.”

“If you want to learn something, teach it.”

2 Lessons really stood out - “Your limitations become your life.” And “Forgiveness will set you free.”

• Forgiveness is tough. JJ used to be more resentful and hold grudges. She didn’t like it about herself and needed to change it.
• She started choosing where to put her energy. Putting energy into negative things is not worth it.
• It is harder than it seems. She thought she had forgiven the lady who did the “hit and run” on her son until they found her. JJ still had rage.
• She learned a process from Dave Asprey on how to forgive.
• Most often the biggest person you need to forgive is yourself. It is freeing.

What is your best advice for entrepreneurs to remain healthy and perform at their best?

• This is the single more important thing to help your success.
• We are the most important tool we have in our business.
• Prioritizing self-care is one of the things that separates the most successful.
• You have to move every single day. Do not skip this. It not only helps you body, but your brain.
• You also have to prioritize sleep. Don’t steal from it. It helps in all areas.
• When you wake up in the morning, you want to do some form of meditation. Even 10-20 mins.
• Make sure the diet is right:
  • Figure out your food intolerances
  • Lower your sugar intake
  • Hire a coach to help you if need
  • Take supplements – you cannot get all you should have without them. A good multi-vitamin.
  • Extra magnesium
  • Fish oil
  • Optimize your vitamin D and take it with K
  • Take some extra vitamin C as stress blows it out
  • Get some Zinc
  • Take Quercetin

Best Quote: The only limitations are the ones in your mind...

JJ's Misfit 3: ​

1. Find and always have an amazing mentor. Have a great community.
2. Choose people that elevate you.
3. Self-care. Good sleep, daily exercise, healthy diet, take supplements, and reduce stress.

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Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" Many years ago, I introduced a new format that 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 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, This episode is going to deal with a little heavier subject. I want to talk to you about death and dying. This past year, we lost both of your great Grandmothers – amazing women, Matriarchs in our family. And over the last few years, others, including another great Grandmother have passed on.

Death is a natural part of life. It is inevitable and is not something we escape. But I want you to understand that it is only the beginning of something greater. It is the final step toward our real home – our eternity with God in Heaven. In death, all our imperfections are righted on our way into Heaven and the best versions of ourselves are created.

It is amazing to think about this life in the context of eternity. Eternity is forever. Our time in this life is truly a blink of an eye in those terms. It goes by so fast. And while we are just passing through to a greater place and greater existence, this life that we have is special. As I’ve noted before, the odds of being born into this life are 1 in 4 trillion. So, while it goes by fast, we must cherish it. We must cherish the gifts we have been given and share them with the world and those around us. We must cherish the time we have with family and friends in this human form. We must cherish the amazing world that is around us and all that it has. We must maximize our potential and who we are capable of being. It is by God’s amazing grace that we have this opportunity. We must not waste it. We must not put too much energy into trivial things but reserve the best of ourselves for the best around us.

I will not deny that the passing of a loved one is sad and painful. We honor them through our grieving and through our memories of them. We also honor them by putting into practice what we’ve learned from them and by being our best selves. But, Hannah, I want you to understand that one day, we will be reunited with them in eternity. What a glorious and magnificent time that will be.

So, in the end, death is bittersweet. We lose our loved ones in this life, and we grieve them, but we gain an even greater life with them in eternity. And on our way to this future reunion, we get to make the most out of this life and all that it has to offer.

Hannah, you are so loved, and you give so much love. All those that have gone before you love you dearly and look down upon you with a smile and amazement at how wonderful you are. Honor them by living into and being your best self. And honor those around you by making sure they are better off for having known you and give to them in the ways in which you can make the most difference in their lives. On that note, I’ll leave you with this final thought…make the most out of every second of this life and cherish it while preparing yourself for eternity by living a good and just life.

I love you, ​

Daddy

Best Quote: All those that have gone before you love you dearly and look down upon you with a smile and amazement at how wonderful you are. Honor them by living into and being your best self. ​

Misfit 3:

1. Death is a natural part of life. It is inevitable and is not something we escape. But I want you to understand that it is only the beginning of something greater.
2. So, in the end, death is bittersweet. We lose our loved ones in this life, and we grieve them, but we gain an even greater life with them in eternity.
3. Make the most out of every second of this life and cherish it while preparing yourself for eternity by living a good and just life.

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Misfit 3: