This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jonathan Horton. Jonathan is a 2-time Olympian in gymnastics, winning a silver and bronze medal at the 2008 and 2012 games, he’s a 2 time U.S. national all-around champion, and a 17-time medalist at the U.S. national championships. And if that wasn’t enough, in recent years, he also took on American Ninja Warrior and became a perennial finalist there as well.

Additionally, Jonathan is a successful entrepreneur, speaker and author starting multiple businesses, including the Ninja Coalition, a traveling Ninja Warrior experience company.

Jonathan wasn’t the most talented kid to walk through doors of a training facility, but was one of the most driven and dedicated, so much that he spent 28 years of his life in pursuit of excellence in gymnastics.

It’s the relentless pursuit and everything he’s learned along the way that I want to explore with him and share with you in this episode.

www.JonathanHorton.net

@JHorton11 on Instagram

jonathanhorton@att.net

Jonathan’s journey is full of ups, downs, twists, and turns. When most people see an Olympian, a lot of times they think that they are just that talented or gifted and while some are, Jonathan was not. He struggled from the start and wasn’t quick to succeed. As he says, he is a slow learner and things took him longer.

He was passed up by a lot of kids early on. What he did have was a lot of energy and the ability to outlast. By the time he was 20 years old, he was #1 in the country and by 22, he was going to his first Olympics.

“You don’t need to have a lot of talent to be successful in this world.”

Jonathan shares that the one thing he was gifted with was a lack of fear. He took off when he was 4 years old in a Target with his mom, and he climbed to the rafters of the store. The next day his parents enrolled him in gymnastics.

Tell us about the pursuit. What is it that drives someone like you from an early age to stick with something to its pinnacle?

• It was a specific moment that did it for Jonathan.
• When he was 10 years old, he watched his first Olympics.
• It was the 1996 Olympics and it was the moment when an injured Keri Strugg had to win the vault to secure the gold for the entire women’s team. She had a broken ankle.
• She went for it anyway and landed on 1 foot and the women’s team won the gold.
• He decided that he wanted that moment for himself.
• From then on, everything changed. His work ethic, his focus, his ability to keep going, etc. all became about getting to that moment.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have challenges. He wanted to quick almost every single, but told himself he would come back the next day.

Everyone needs to find their “Olympic moment” in their lives….

What is it that makes someone finally decide to go for true greatness and not turn back? How does find that point and make the decision and do it?

• All of the above.
• We all have different lives and thus our “switch to flip” is different.
• You have to actively search for it, you can’t wait for it to come to you. You have to search for it and go after it.

At the 13:30 mark, Jonathan gives an example using the High Bar where he talks about “waiting for the bar to come to him vs. coming to the bar.”

• You have try a number of different things, even if you don’t know if that is your thing or not. That is how you find your true calling.

At the 19 min mark, we talk about how when you are able to go through failures and keep going, it gets easier.

• You have to not be afraid to try something that may not work.
• You train yourself over time to cope with that fear each time differently.
• It is an up and down roller coaster that you get used to and become less fazed by.

Tell us about the mental side and how you mentally prepare for success….

Jonathan would look calm on the outside, but had tremendous anxiety on the inside.

Jonathan tried to eliminate, but over time realized he couldn’t do it….so he embraced it.

Embracing it shifted his ability to perform.

He embraced being nervous and anxious and made it part of his routine. He turned it into adrenaline.

This was the game changer for him. He began to train every day trying to make himself nervous to prepare himself for the real compensation.

“Practice like you compete and compete like you practice.”

At the 27:30 mark, I share a story of a discussion I had with an Olympic hopeful for this year and relate it to the mental game. Jonathan talks about his coach used to deliberately try to distract him while practicing as a technique to help him focus better and overcome anxiety.

Tell us about the importance of the “little things” and the difference they can make…

• Fundamentals are key and underpin everything you do.
• Even in his last days, Jonathan would still spend 30 mins before every session working on the fundamentals of forward and backward rolls, hand positions, etc.
• This separated the good Olympians from the great Olympians.
• Do a little bit every day, focusing on the details/fundamentals and it is amazing the difference it makes.

What are some of the key takeaways from your book Falling Forward?

• It’s Jonathan’s autobiography.
• The discipline it takes to rise to the top is the hardest part. Doing the same routine over and over and over again every day and doing it at your very best, 6 days a week, every week, for years – that is what it takes.
• There are days where you don’t want to do anything, anything! You have to get up and go.

How did the lessons you learned about succeeding at the Olympic translate to Entrepreneurship?

The biggest one is to learn is to stay in your own lane and not compromise your own game plan.

You have stick with your game plan and not worry about the others.

You are going to have great moments and bad moments, but eventually you will get to the end of your race. ​

Final thoughts?

For younger entrepreneurs – Stop Trying to Be Cool!

You can cool yourself all the way to nothing.

If you want to be successful, throw out being cool, and be laser focused on what you want. Don’t let trying to fit in get in your way, even if people make fun of you or give you crap because of it.

Best Quote: Practice like you compete and compete like you practice.

Jonathan's Misfit 3:

1. Nothing worth doing will be easy. Stick with it.
2. You don’t need to be the most gifted or talented to succeed.
3. You need a will, desire, and faith in yourself. If you want to be great at something, you have to be willing to do what others are not.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Adam and Kerry Anderson. Adam and Kerry are at the forefront of helping with one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs’ face - how to create a successful relationship with your spouse and family while devoting yourself to and building a business. In fact, their business is called Whole Life Entrepreneurship, because that is what it takes to succeed on all these fronts, a whole life approach.

Adam and Kerry help entrepreneurs and their families work through the side of entrepreneurship and family relationships that most don’t want to talk about or deal with that eventually causes major issues in their lives.

In fact, they started Whole Life Entrepreneurship because they went through major challenges with Adam building his global business and eventually selling it. Everything looked good on the surface, but it really wasn’t. Their journey to regain their relationship and learn to thrive as an entrepreneur family is full of amazing lessons that I can’t wait for them to share with you.

www.WLEMission.com ​​

The journey for Adam and Kerry started when Adam was building an amazing company that he was desperately in love with. And unbeknownst to him, at the end of the day, it was causing a number of ripples across his life that he wasn’t aware of until he and Kerry reached a breaking point. He didn’t realize that he had been a whirlwind of destruction. His years of building the business took him away from the business.

This focus on the business created anger and resentment with Kerry. The business was the sun and the other things, like family, revolved around it. Their marriage began to fall apart. Adam was traveling a lot and they couldn’t work on themselves until Adam had a breaking point and after a few years of working deeply on themselves together, they made their ways through and created the life they really wanted.

What was the darkest point of your journey that you had to overcome and what kept you together through all of this?

• Things were spread out. There was a time Kerry was ready to leave and had a plan (which is a bad sign).
• She had a friend take her to task and call her out. It was jarring to have someone ask her, “Are you sure you don’t have something to do with this?
• Kerry realized that the hateful, bitter person she had become was on her and she needed to do self-work.
• Kerry realized, she may not be able to change Adam, but she could change herself.
• After a couple of years of working on herself.
• Then one night, Adam got a little out of control drinking and Kerry got a call from a cop that told her if she came and got him, he wouldn’t got to jail.
• The fact that she showed up and helped – not scream or get angry, was a turning point for Adam.
• He was a successful entrepreneur and had begun to believe his own hype on his success and thought he was invincible. He was wrong and it was a big reality check.
• They both decided that if there was a problem in the family, that they both start with self-reflection, instead of blaming. They were not going to be victims of each other. When you are the problem – you are the solution.
• They decided to be “All in” together.

What is Whole Life Entrepreneurship?

• A community that is built around encouraging, supporting, and holding people accountable to building a life of success without regrets that is powered by business and directed by the family.
• You are called to make an impact through entrepreneurship, but it cannot be done alone.
• You have to look at how you measure success and make sure you do so holistically in your life.

What are the different challenges that entrepreneur families face?

• It’s almost like a military family.
• You have risky lives.
• You are expected to get up and take action as an entrepreneur and family.
• There is no “base” to live on, you are more alone.
• Entrepreneurial lifestyle for many is “Alone, Stressed, and Scared.”
• You don’t’ have predictability, you have financials strain; entrepreneurship is a high impact, high burnout occupation.
• And many times, everything on the outside looks good, but on the inside you are screaming and that comes home if you are not intention with dealing with it.

What are the things entrepreneurs should be sharing with their family?

• If you are not on the same page with your spouse, it is very difficult to succeed. You have to share the vision and build your business and family goals together.
• Do a standing “Family Business Meeting” every week.
  • Talk about time – sync calendars
  • Talk about money
  • Talk about home, family, the kids
  • Tell each other what you need help with and ask for help

What should the spouse or significant other be sharing with the entrepreneur?

• You need to break down the walls between your roles.
• You have to discuss how to share lives.
• Ask them how you can help them.
• Remember, you as the spouse are responsible for the same things that the entrepreneur is. If they were gone tomorrow, you are on the hook for everything they are. You have have to be an active participant and take responsibility.

At the 23 minute mark, Adam and Kerry talk about the board of directors for Family Inc.

• Adam is the Chief Energy Officer
• Kerry is the Chief Family Officer

What are the 3 C’s?

• Chill: How do you learn to connect with yourself again and love yourself. It’s all about rediscovering yourself and bringing it to your partner so you both can fill each other up.
• Communication: All of the skills necessary to make Chill happen without killing each other.
• Community: How do you get a group together to support you when you get tired and keep you going.

If an entrepreneur wants to implement Whole Life Entrepreneurship, where should they start?

• Check in with your mindset on what you believe and how you are showing up.
• Adam and Kerry have assessments that you can use to see where you are.
• You can join Adam and Kerry’s community
• Kerry has written a great book, In Bed with Business.
• Dip your toe and don’t go full in all at once, take your time.

Kerry, what are a few of the biggest takeaways from your book that could share with us?

• Awareness. You’re lifestyle is unique and you are feeling alone and others can’t relate – you have probably outgrown your current community. You need to get one that reflects where you are now.
• There is a huge iceberg of the entrepreneur’s life under the water. And you don’t see it. There is so much going on to build, create, and maintain a business that most don’t understand unless they do it. Be careful throwing shade on someone if you don’t know what that is lie.

Tell us about A.S.S.

• Alone - Entrepreneur life can be lonely, but it can be just lonely or more for the spouse.
• The isolation is very important to understand and work through.
• Stressed – Make no mistake, entrepreneurship is and can be stressful. If you don’t open yourself up and work through the stress together, it is much higher.
• Scared – Entrepreneurship is a riskier lifestyle and it does have times of fear and scared times.

What is the one thing someone can do today to get on the right path?

• Forgive yourself.
• Then give yourself the permission to take the next steps.

Best Quote: "If you are not on the same page with your spouse, it is very difficult to succeed. You have to share the vision and build your business and family goals together."

Adam and Kerry's Misfit 3:

1:  Adam: Take care of yourself.

1:  Kerry: ​Let it go. Stop blaming. Learn to let it go. You cannot move forward carrying the burden.

2:  Adam: Take care of others. ​

2:  Kerry: ​Look up from what you are doing. Look at how you show up and how you are working with those around you

3:  Adam: Change the world.

3:  Kerry: Be willing to share and be authentically yourself for you person, yourself, your people, and your business.

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Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.

"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.

This week’s Lesson for Hannah

Hannah, ​ I want to talk to you about 5 very important financial lessons that I wish I learned earlier in life. I’ve done my best and will continue to do my best to teach these and others to you as you grow, but I wanted to put them all in one place for you in this episode.

Your financial education is probably the most important piece of your learning journey. Understanding the language of finance and how taxes, income structures, debt, and how a host of other financial areas work is something that most people never put much time into. This may be because our school system doesn’t really teach these things, unless as an elective or unless you make your career in finance. But, even then, much of the financial education required to thrive in the real world is not taught. There is so much I can share with you about financial education that I could spend months just doing episodes on it. Thankfully, I’ve got years to teach you, but here are 5 very key lessons that are at the heart of what you need to learn.

#1. How You Make Money is Much More Important Than How Much Money You Make

Most people just focus on “making more money” in their lives when, it is never how much you make, but how much you keep that matters. And because most people make their money as employees, there is not much they can do about this because they don’t have any control. A W2 is the highest taxed form of making money. And not only is it the highest taxed, but you must pay the government before you get any of your money.

Let’s contrast that with being an owner of a business and deriving your income from that business. Now, there are a lot of different business structures that differ by country around the world, but as I teach you this, there a few predominant ones for small business owners in the U.S.. These are an LLC, closely held S-Corporation with 1 or 2 owners, and a partnership or limited partnership. These entities all have about the same tax benefits, but from a legal standpoint can be used in different ways. When you are an owner in one of these entities, the tax laws favor you. First, you don’t have to take all your income as a W2 type income. In fact, in the case of the S-corp, you take what is called a reasonable salary as a W2 and then the other income you earn from the profits of the business are taxed differently – effectively almost 15% less.

More importantly, the business allows you to deduct expenses and items that you use for it. So, for example, if you are a W2 and you want to buy a computer for your work at home, you really can’t deduct that, or maybe only a small portion on your taxes. As a business owner, you can deduct the full amount.

On top of that, you get paid first – not the government. For the profits your business earns through the year, you get to utilize that money as you see fit and then at the end of the year, you pay tax on the amount left after investing in and paying for your business. This allows you to have your money work for you instead of being taken every paycheck.

I know this is a very simplistic example of the difference between a W2 vs. deriving income as an owner of a business, and there are actually many other benefits to creating income as a business owner- what I most want you to understand is that it is not how much you make, it’s how you make it that matters. If I make $100,000 from my business, I will take home a lot more than if I make $100,000 as a W2 employee.

#2: The Super Wealthy Make their Money Predominantly Using 3 Mediums: Owning Businesses, Real Estate, Stock Market

Following on our last example, if you study the Forbes 400 wealthiest that is listed each year, you will see they overwhelmingly make their money in either being a business owner, investing in real estate, or investing the stock market. Most do all three to some degree.

As I got into my career, it dawned on me that if that’s how the super wealthy make their money, I might want to pay attention to it. I was already on the path of entrepreneurship, but It was then that I started to study real estate and the stock markets. And what I learned about these areas was shocking. There are so many opportunities and ways to create wealth. In real estate, you can purchase rental real estate, or buy tax lien certificates, invest in developer projects, flip houses, and host of other types of transactions. In the stock market, you don’t just have to buy a stock or mutual fund, you can use options or sell and write option contracts. You can do all kinds of different trades, including my favorite, selling naked puts and credit spreads, which pay you up front for even taking a risk with your money in the market, as well as put the odds of winning in your favor. Buying a stock or mutual fund gives you none of that.

It literally pays to learn about these different areas of finance and business, so learn all you can.

#3: Rental Real Estate Offers the Best Tax Benefits

Owning businesses and investing through tax advantaged business owner specific IRAs gives you some great tax advantages and leverage, but unless you have an army of lawyers to pour through the tax code each year and find every little thing you can do to maximize your wealth, the best tax advantages I’ve found are in rental real estate.

Real estate has incredible advantages as long as you are willing look at things long term and are willing to hold. That doesn’t mean you don’t get a benefit in the short term in creating cashflow from rents, it just means that the biggest benefits come over time. For example, rental real estate allows you to deduct an expense each year called “depreciation.” Basically, what it means is that you can deduct 1/27 of the value of your property each year for 27 years. Now, why does this matter, first, it is an expense you get to take without actually paying money from your pocket. You are essentially taking a deduction for your property getting older each year. This will then act like an expense against your rental income alongside your mortgage (if you have one), taxes, other expenses, etc. And like a business you get paid first and take deductions and expenses before you pay the government. Depreciation is almost like phantom income as it allows you to keep more of your rent tax free. Now, there are rules that when you go to sell a property, depreciation comes back to be taxed as part of your profits, but even then there are things like carryover than can go against it and one of the biggest tax benefits of real estate, the 1031 exchange.

1031 is an area of the tax code that basically says, if you sell a property and take the proceeds and invest them into a new property of greater value, the proceeds or profits can roll into that property tax free. In fact, many investors just keep using the 1031 laws to roll their gains over and over into new and larger properties over time.

Now, why does the government allow this with rental real estate? Because people need a place to live and the government incentivizes investors to help make that a possibility.

Again, these are simplistic examples and there are a ton of other tax advantages to real estate, but these two alone make it one of the best investments out there.

#4: 401k’s Are Not as Good of an Investment as You Think

If you are a W2 employee, you pretty much have no other choice but to invest in a $401k for retirement and when the market is good, then your 401k is good, but have you ever looked at how broker fees and expense ratios eat away at your profits over time? Tony Robbins did a great job exposing this in his book, “Money, Master the Game.” A good read for those wanting to improve their financial education. But, did you know as a business owner, you have a lot more options. You could do what’s called a Solo 401k in which you can choose the investment choices, lowering the fees, and put over $50k per year away tax free? Or you can do a Simple or SEP IRA that allow you to have total control over how you invest and what you invest in including things like real estate or physical gold. And these IRA’s allow you to invest 10’s of thousands as well each year.

What I want you to understand is that when it comes to your retirement, there are much better ways to save and grow your money than a 401k, but you need to be a business owner to use them.

#5: Keep Your Cash Working for You, Otherwise, It’s Basically Worthless

We’ve all heard the phrase “Cash is king,” and while yes, in rough times, cash can be very useful in a number of ways, the realty though, is that if you are not putting your cash to work for you, it is losing its value every day. It’s called time value of money and every day; money is worth less than it was the day before if it is not generating enough to keep up with inflation. In fact, since 1913, the dollar has lost 96% of its value. That’s right one dollar in today’s dollars is worth $.04 priced in 1913’s dollars.

So, if you are stashing a ton of money in the bank at effectively 0% interest, each day it loses some of its value.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hold some cash. I advocate having a “rainy day fund” that you don’t touch unless for emergencies that is at least 6 months’ living expenses, preferably one year if you can do it. But, once you have your rainy-day fund in place, you should look to put your money to work for you.

And you must be diligent about it. I’ve shared a number of concepts in this episode, but each one of them takes knowledge, skill, and good judgment to execute successfully. Just because you have been able to make and save some money, doesn’t mean you can’t lose it. And there are always those out there looking to separate you from your money – so make sure you keep up on your financial education.

Hannah, If I had learned these lessons even one year earlier in my life, they would have made an even bigger difference for me than they already have. It’s important that you commit to your financial education and learn all you can starting as young as possible. The lessons you learn, whether you use them immediately, or at all, will still prove to be invaluable for you and help you throughout your life. And I’ll be there to help you and teach you as your grow.

I love you, ​

Daddy

Best Quote: Most people just focus on “making more money” in their lives, when, it is never how much you make, but how much you keep that matters.

Misfit 3:

1. Your financial education is probably the most important piece of your learning journey.
2. If you study the Forbes 400 wealthiest that is listed each year, you will see they overwhelmingly make their money in either being a business owner, investing in real estate, or investing the stock market.
3. Resolve to financially educate yourself starting today. It literally "pays" to do so.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Mitchell Levy. Mitchell is a global Credibility Expert, TEDx speaker and international best-selling author of over 60 books. He is a serial entrepreneur who has created twenty businesses in Silicon Valley including four publishing companies that have published over 800 books. Mitchell and his teams help clients with positioning, establishing their credibility, marketing themselves, and creating best-selling books.

He’s provided strategic consulting to over one hundred companies and has been chairman of the board of a NASDAQ-listed company.

Needless to say, Mitchell knows a thing or two about how to stand out and share your value in the world. And that is exactly what I’ve asked him to come on the show and teach you how to do.

www.MitchellLevy360.com ​ ​

Mitchell starts by talking about what he does today. He works with busy professionals that want to increase their credibility with a book, but don’t have time. His firm makes you a best-selling author and does everything for your book with you putting in 8-10 hours of work.

Before he got into publishing, he was an e-commerce/business strategist in the Dotcom boom. In fact, he was labeled “Mr. E-commerce” during that time. It was great during the boom and not great when everything went under. Almost overnight, he lost a lot of revenue streams. In the early 2000’s, he saw the democratization of book publishing on the horizon and capitalized on it. His firms published over 800 books from 2005-2017. But he says that he was serving the wrong audience. He wanted to change the world, but was doing it in the wrong way.

He did a Ted Talk and a Kickstarter to fund a company that was not serving people who wanted to write a book, but for people that wanted a book and had great ideas, but didn’t have the time.

During this time, he started to become a thought leader on global credibility. He currently has a initiative to interview over 500 top minds on credibility. The information being gained on this initiative is driving his next decade of business solutions.

What’s your process for finding a market and maximizing how you succeed in it?

• You have to solve a problem.
• Look at what friends you have that can be a credibility, financial, or awareness sponsor for you.
• What friends do you have that you can offer to provide a service for that will solve a problem.
• First, you have to determine if there is a value to the problem that you want to solve. See if someone will pay you, even $1 or a discounted rate.
• Then, ask yourself “Do I want to do this again?” once you’ve solved it.
• If the answer is “no” drop it, if it is “yes,” then start to ask what you can be focused on as the expert and then outsource the rest.
• You may need to do the process once and then document and put a structure in place…but once it is done, you can hand it off and outsource it.

At the 14 min mark, Mitchell and I discuss partnerships…

What is the #1 thing an individual or business can do to cement credibility?

• For individuals – Having a book
• The book that you should have that cements your credibility is the book that demonstrates you are an expert of what you want to do tomorrow.
• You need to write your book for your customer base to solve their main point of pain.
• The title should be the pain point you solve for your customers.
• Being the author of a book that is easy to consume and easy to share is the best way to cement credibility.

What is a book?

• In the old days, it was typically something a multi-year project with the content needed.
• People don’t consume books that way anymore.
• Now people go to Youtube to learn or google things
• A book in today’s age should have 7-8 sections, color on the inside, each section having a summary and a QR code to video on the subject with the author talking about it, etc. It’s an interactive experience.
• It needs to have many “aha” messages that help your credibility.
• A book is a vehicle that shows you have expertise in an area that summarizes the aha moments and messages. It’s an asset.

What is an “Aha” message?

• An aha is that moment of time when you hear something that reinforces something you know or changes your thought process about something.
• It makes you think in a new or different way.

Are there specific sections that every book should have or does it vary by author?

• It does depend.
• It depends on the major themes or messages/problem you are trying to solve, but 8-10 sections should be max.
• You should repurpose your content in different ways throughout the book for people to consume.
• You want to make a book as 3-dimensional as possible.

What has to be done to become a best-seller?

• It’s a multi-pronged approach utilizing all types of media and mediums.
• When you elect to go into the kindle program exclusively to sell your book for 90 days.
• You can give your book away for free for 5 days with this program.
• If you can get 300-400 people to buy your book for free and this can get you onto the best-seller list on Amazon, maybe #1.

What is a CPOP?

• It stands for Customer Point of Pain.
• It’s not selling pain…it’s solving pain.
• It’s 3-5 seconds of you describing the pain point you solve from the viewpoint of your customer.
• It’s different than a value proposition.
• Most people don’t care about what you do, they care about how you can help them.
• It should know who you customers are, how you solve their problem, and your solution.
• Mitchell uses his CPOP as an example
• Thoughtleaderlife.com for examples
• 3 Steps to do it
  • Narrowly define your customer.
  • What is the overarching issue/pain that you solve for them?
  • Say it without leading with “I do this” or “We do that.” ​

At the 44-minute mark, I dig one of Mitchell’s old principles, the HELP principle and we have some fun with him remembering it…

• Healthy Following in the particular market you serve.
• Execute well. If you execute well, people will recommend you.
• Leadership. What are you sharing that helps people know that you are the expert at what you do and driving success?
• Platform. This is where you share your thought-leadership. You should play on the platforms where your prospects are.

At the 47 min mark, Mitchell talks about other patterns/thing he’s learned from the hundreds of interviews on credibility he’s done.

• Show up. And when you show up, come early, be prepared, and show your heart.
• Of his interview 7% come early and 6% show up after the 30 min window for the meeting.
• 98% of people cannot answer their CPOP, even with a 4 min video Mitchell sends prior.
• Show your heart – be open, be honest, be vulnerable. That is how people know, like, and trust you.

Best Quote: "Develop your CPOP - A 3-5 second answer on how you solve your "customer's point of pain."

Mitchell's Misfit 3:

1. Show up when you show up. Come early, be prepared, show your heart.
2. Go through life with 5 sponsors: Financial, Accountability, Content, Awareness, Credibility
3. When you find someone, who is a friend that fits you well, do the work necessary to keep them in your life.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jay Abraham. Jay needs no introduction as the world’s top marketing and business growth expert and founder of the Abraham Group. Jay has worked with most of the Fortune 500, been featured just about everywhere on TV throughout the world to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Investor’s Business Daily and he’s helped increase the bottom lines of over 10,000 clients working across a 1000 plus industries.

Jay’s become who he is because he looks at things in a totally different way. He has an uncanny ability to find overlooked opportunities and create significant profits where not else can see them.

Jay has probably forgotten more about how to succeed in growing a business than most of us will ever learn in a lifetime and I’m going to do my best to squeeze every ounce of wisdom I can from him in today’s episode. 

www.Abraham.com ​

Jay got started in an unusual way. He was married at 18, had two children by the time he was 20 which meant he had the needs of a 40 year old in his life. He was fortunate and challenged enough that a bunch of entrepreneurs found him interesting and gave him commission only positions. As Jay says, “When you only eat when you earn, you find out very quickly what works and what doesn’t.”

That experience was his “trial by fire.” He began to jump around from industry to different industry over the next 4 years taking things he had learned in one industry and bringing them to other industries where the strategies were unfamiliar. Jay notes that he was sort of the one-eyed man in the land of the blind. He imported ideas from outside industries and combine them with other ideas to turbocharge results. It wasn’t that Jay was that great, but he had an uncanny ability to bring different strategies together in new and never before-seen ways.

At the 8:30 mark, Jay talks about “best practices” in the context of seeing beyond “best-practices” in your industry to create new ways of generating and growing revenue.

• Studying other industries and what succeeds in them is like when you travel around the world to other countries.
• It opens your eyes to ways of doing things and ideas you never thought of.

What is Pre-Imminence? Why is it so important?

• It is the ultimate strategic philosophy that guides and governs your business.
• It is a way of living.
• It is the foundation on which a business, culture, philosophy is built.
• It is based on premise that you want to be seen in the eyes of your audience as the most trusted adviser they could ever turn to in the category that your business serves – for life.
• You want to be seen as the only viable choice for your solution/service.
• Second to that is being able to provide people with authentic advice in their best interest – not in yours. Sometimes your product or service is not the best fit.
• Your role is not transactional, but transformative. Making clients lives better, safer, happier, more enriched, etc.
• Look at your prospects like clients, not customers. Customer is a someone who buys a commodity. When you approach things for “customers” you commoditize yourself.
• A client is defined as someone who is under the care, well-being, and protection of another.
• Clients are 3 categories:
  • People you transact business with
  • People you employ
  • People who provide products/services to you
• You must strive to examine and explore and understand these people in every way possible so you can serve them in the best way.
• People should be better off every time they interact with you.
• Then it is translated into your foundation.

Patterns of success you’ve seen throughout your career?

• The ability of the entrepreneur to understand and appreciate the dynamic that their target audience is experience.
• The best ones are the ones that have been there and done and suffered through the challenges they set out to solve.
• Intention and attention – external focus is important.
• The ability to listen. To listen to the market. Ask questions and utilize the answers.
• Passion, purpose, and a sense of possibility
  • Passion for the people the product or service will help.
  • The greatest can genuinely rally people together for the purpose and give them the sense of possibility.

Biggest problem with business growth?

• The more success entrepreneurs get, the more distant they become from the initial purpose.
• Money is interesting. We are rewarded in our lives for the quantity, quality, consistency of the problems we solve for others and opportunities we make possible for others.
• When we stop doing that, the rewards diminish.
• The biggest mistake people make is trying to make money first vs. trying to solve problems.
• Value is the key to everything. If you know how to create value, you’ll never truly fail. There will be setbacks, but you’ll win long-term.
• You are playing a long game in life, even if you don’t know it, you are accumulating your whole life. It compounds one way or the other, good or bad.
• If you build something solid, it will serve you for years to come.
• There is much joy in playing the long game, it is much more fulfilling.
• You have to constantly look to make things better, but if it’s built solid with the right intentions, it serve you well.

How can someone use the Socratic method to close more deals and grow their business better?

• If you want to ethically own relationships, you want to ask a lot of questions and listen deeply to the responses. You can then build on every answer
• This build trust
• You’ll understand their needs very well.
• They will feel understood and appreciated.
• Anyone that interacts with those who transact business with you, should practice this method.
• When you ask the right question, you uncover better ways to add value, create more need, and better serve.
• Assumptive thinking is the kiss of death.
• Assessing is the process of question – most salespeople don’t do this. The dialogue should be about adding value, not manipulating.
• By mastering soft skills, you can 3-4x outcomes. It’s geometric.

The first thing Jay does with a new client is look at how a client is performing in all areas of their business because most of the time, they are not optimized in any of the areas.

At the 46 min mark, Jay talks about how to sell better.

It’s best to just listen.

One thing you can do now to grow your business?

• Create a serious, focused referral strategy.
• Referrals are the easiest and best way to grow your business.
• There are hundreds of ways to get referrals – stop and think deeply on how you can do it in your business.
• Doing nothing is much more dangerous than experimentation. You must start trying strategies.

One way to improve your processes is to look at the people doing the work in your business, see how the best is at certain things, and then take what they do and teach it to the others doing the role, the whole group will improve. When you find who is better what, you can take all the best practices, put them together and teach everyone making them better.

At the end of the day, there are 3 ways to grow a business:

• Increase the number of buyers
• Increase the size of the transaction
• Increase the number of transactions

Working on one will make a big difference, but you get geometric increases by improving all 3 together.

Best Quote: When you only eat when you earn, you find out very quickly what works and what doesn’t.

Jay's Misfit 3:

1. Every human being has value. You can’t appreciate the value if you don’t take the time to examine and explore it. How they see life is a denominator in how you impact them.
2. Every time you interact with anyone for any reason in your life, you need to make them better off for interacting with you.
3. Listening is more powerful than talking. And listening can help you learn to grow outside your comfort zone and understand in new ways.

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

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

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

www.TheOccasionalCEO.com

LinkedIn – Eric B. Schultz ​

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are the 3 lessons of entrepreneurship?

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

What are the elements of a great business model?

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

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

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

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

Which entrepreneur is your favorite and why?

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

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

Eric's Misfit 3:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clay:

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

Dr. Zoellner

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

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

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

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

Josh example – 3 things that are always going:

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

Get reviews – studies show people read reviews.

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

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

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

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

Sales

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misfit 3:

#1

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

#2

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

#3

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

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Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.

"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.

This week’s Lesson for Hannah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I love you,

Daddy

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

Misfit 3:

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

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

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

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

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

www.JohnBerardi.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John's Misfit 3:

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

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

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

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

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