Young Grit Podcast Episode 16 Transcript (Formatted PDF)

GW  0:04

Good one. So the first place that my brain is going is, at the end of the day entrepreneurship is really simple. Okay? And I’m going to say it from this standpoint, and then I’m going to add something to it that might start to sound complex. But oh my goodness, if your audience gets this look out baby, they’re set for the next eight decades. So so the simplicity is, you know, an entrepreneur is someone who has an idea takes a risk to start a business to bring that idea to the world that’s in its simplest form. But to keep it that simple, it’s an entrepreneur is someone who simply understands their customer and their needs, and sells them something to solve a problem. And so Hey,

 

SD  0:53

everybody, welcome back to the young grit podcast. We are so excited for our guests today. Mr. Gino wickman Gino, welcome to the show.

 

GW  1:02

It is a pleasure to be here guys. Looking forward to this.

 

SD  1:05

For all of you listening. This is going to be an amazing day. Gino is one of our heroes. He is an entrepreneur through and through. And he is the author of several books, including his newest the entrepreneurial leap, entrepreneurial leap, a fascinating book about what it means to be an entrepreneur is that you is that you. He’s also the creator of the entrepreneurial operating system which has served over 80,000 businesses now and how they run their businesses day to day I use it Travis and I use it every week with our level 10 meetings. His book traction is known worldwide. It is a best seller. It’s an amazing book. I read it in one night, Gino. I was in a moment of desperation. And I could not figure out my ops and I was just having a breakdown. Someone said you got to talk about Geno’s book, you got to pick it up. I picked it up and I read it in six hours non stop. And I had notes on every page. So this book is the same. So thanks for being here. I hope that’s a does enough of an intro to let people know who we’re talking to today.

 

GW  2:17

I’ll take that that’s like an intro plus, so I’m good with that.

 

GW  2:24

I’m traveling trav and

 

SD  2:26

I were going to go back and forth. We’re going to ask you some awesome questions. But we always start with your first sale. Right? We want to talk about Geno’s stories from entrepreneurship as a kid. How did you know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur when you were a kid? What was one of the craziest stories that you learned about entrepreneurship as a kid?

 

GW  2:48

Yeah, well, here’s what’s interesting about that, I don’t think I realized I was an entrepreneur until I was 29 years old. But I exhibited all the traits of an entrepreneur, since I was like six. And so when you asked about, you know the first sale, starting at six, I remember washing cars, then shoveling snow, then cutting lawns, then a paper route, then selling candy. Then I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but selling fireworks and when I got into high school, so that’s illegal. Don’t do that. You can edit that out, certainly. But what the point was, I just loved making money. And I loved trying to figure out how to make money. And I loved figuring out what people needed. And just providing that service. And I remember it nine sitting and counting my money. And I just loved counting it and holding it. And so, you know, it’s whatever that means. That’s, that is what I just obsessed about and spent a lot of time doing.

 

SD  3:52

batteries included. That’s how I would identify you here. So what is it? was it was it caught? Was it taught? Were you just somebody who ingrained in you like find a way to serve other people and make some extra money? Or?

 

GW  4:07

It’s so that’s a great question, because like I said, it was 29 when I realized what I really was. And that’s exactly the reason I wrote this book that we’re going to talk about is it’s there’s an old saying that says we teach what we needed the most. Okay, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m trying to find all of the entrepreneurs in the making the people that were put on the face of this earth to be entrepreneurs, the 4%, as I call them, yeah, and I want to I want to find them as young as possible and help them realize what they are because if I knew what I was a lot sooner I’d be a lot further ahead. So again, I didn’t know what to call it because the other reality is, by the time I got through high school, barely graduated with a 2.3 GPA, I could not wait to get out of academia. I did not go to college. I just wanted to go to work so that so I felt like this mislabeled, derelict, I was lost, I was confused. So at 18 Here I am this person that’s just and I just wanted to go make money. And so I didn’t know what you called that back then. And it would have been so nice to know that there’s a name for this, and that this is a career choice, you know, so that’s so I didn’t know to call it back then I just followed my gut instinct, and that led me to providing people services for money. Yeah, I

 

SD  5:25

think it’s like the Island of Misfit Toys. They need a they need a job for those people. That’s that’s definitely us.

 

TA  5:32

I was it’s funny to Gino, my kid. My oldest six was selling watermelons and sticks in our front yard a few weeks ago. And it’s like he’s got I was just when you’re saying that I was thinking about, you know, berries. He’s out selling he actually sold a stick for like three bucks to our neighbor. I love it.

 

GW  5:50

you have an entrepreneur in the making there?

 

TA  5:52

I think so. Yeah.

 

SD  5:54

That’s so awesome. And I I think about this all the time, because I was derelict as well. I, I was they didn’t think I should pass kindra first or second grade. I hated reading. My twin sister had all the brains and beauty and everything else. And they just thought that I didn’t I didn’t get any of it. Yeah,

 

 

SD  6:18

And I was always thinking outside the box. I didn’t speak until I was four. Wow. And in third grade the year I started my first business the bead geckos Belen key chain, smell my breath, friends, were making them and I’d sell them door to door and I realized how fun it would be. And then I got suspended because all my friends are working for me. Anyways, I that was the first time I sort of came out of my shell, I beat my teacher in chess. And I’d never played chess.

 

TA  6:46

Wow, wow. And, and

 

SD  6:47

I, and they, everyone sort of realized, Oh, my gosh, he’s thinking he’s got something in there. He’s just not the normal way. And I think so many kids are in that boat, right. And I’m the same as you. I didn’t realize what it was until much later on. I wish I’d had some of the tools that we use, you know, with my first sale and this book, getting people to think this way early on. I wish more people had resources like this, because you never know, the kid sitting there in the classroom who’s just bored. who’s struggling, who has a vision for something else outside of school to build something to make something they’re just wired differently? giving those kids an outlet? Younger would let them run so much faster.

 

GW  7:29

Yeah, that prompts a couple thoughts. You know, the first is, you know, I definitely have a DD and had a DD and probably ADHD, which is a classic entrepreneurial trait, I know that you have parents listening. And so when you see that in a child, that’s an indicator that they’re an entrepreneur, I believe it’s a gift. Number two, this book and this conversation we’re having in the amazing work that you guys do. It’s all about harnessing that entrepreneurial energy, it’s about, you know, just giving direction and clarity so that energy can be put in the right direction. And I can’t help you know, we’re sharing all these ideas of when we were young and the things that we sold. The best story I ever heard when I was writing this book and interviewing lots of entrepreneurs, and lots of entrepreneurs in the making. So I interviewed a lot of pre entrepreneurs budding entrepreneurs is 117 year old shared how when he was six years old, you know, I never did a lemonade stand. You hear about lots of kids that do lemonade stands. Well, not only did he do a lemonade stand six years old, but he franchise his his concept, and he would take a percentage of all these lemonade stands that would copy his motto. And so there’s one on every corner, and he’s getting a percentage of all of them. I mean, so that’s, that’s, you know, that’s right up there with beating your teacher in chess. Okay, that’s like, that’s another level of young entrepreneurship.

 

SD  8:49

I wonder what the barrier of entry is to a lemonade stand.

 

TA  8:51

Right. Exactly. Exactly. That’s wonderful.

 

SD  8:54

Oh, my gosh. I want to meet this person. Finally, this kid I want to interview them next.

 

GW  9:02

Like what is he now he’s now about 21 years old and he’s just a dynamo. Ironically, he’s the son of one of my clients and ironically works for one of my best friends so I actually get to keep track of what this kids doing.

 

SD  9:15

That’s Oh my gosh. So okay, go ahead travel.

 

TA  9:17

That’s an excellent thing. You’re talking about clarity Gino, and just the ADH, dd or ADHD, like our kid is totally that. So I love I love hearing that. Because Yeah, I mean, some of the brightest minds even that my wife and I talked about our they had ADHD, and it’s a gift. So I love that. But one of the things you’re into my clarity, and then I love about like traction, and I need to read the new book, which I haven’t is how you kind of distill and make entrepreneurship very simple. So you know, the dashboard, the POS system, all that stuff. So you know, we’ve got parents and kids on this call. If you had to give one piece of advice when you talk about clarity and making things simpler What would you say to parents? And then what would you also say to kids that are really to make them understand that entrepreneurship is very simple and they can do it?

 

GW  10:09

Yeah, that’s interesting, because I was going to ask you, what context Are you in, because there’s lots of ways to simplify things. And so in the context of an entrepreneur, Ooh, that’s a good one. So the first place that my brain is going, is, at the end of the day, entrepreneurship is really simple, okay, and I’m going to say it from this standpoint, and then I’m going to add something to it that might start to sound complex, but oh, my goodness, if your audience gets this look out, baby, they’re set for the next eight decades. So so the simplicity is, you know, an entrepreneur is someone who has an idea takes a risk to start a business to bring that idea to the world. That’s it in its simplest form, but to keep it that simple, it’s an entrepreneur is someone who simply understands their customer and their needs, and sells them something to solve a problem. And so it’s literally that simple. You’re not you do that, and you’re an entrepreneur. Now, I believe, a true entrepreneur adds people to their enterprise and turns that into a business. But it’s but it’s that simple. The part that’s a little more complex, if you understand that first basic premise, if you look at the last thousand years of entrepreneurial history, which is probably going to hold true for the next thousand years, is that there are two things that are ever changing in entrepreneurial history. And two things that never change. And again, oh, if you get this you’re set for life as an entrepreneur. So the two things that are ever changing our products and services, always in ever changing. The second thing that’s ever changing is methods of communication. And so the point in that is, whatever you’re selling today, it’s going to change, okay, and so you know, just like in a pandemic, here, a lot of businesses and services change it so but as an entrepreneur, if you know this thing I’ve created, this thing that I’m selling is going to change, you’re always on your toes and ready for the change. And sometimes you’re fortunate enough that it won’t change for 10 years or 20 years. And sometimes it changes every day and you got to be on your toes. methods of communication means you know, so again with products and services 150 years ago, we were selling buggy whips and beaver pelts. Okay, so methods of communication, if we look at history, it was smoke signals, pony, express, Telegraph, telegram, fax machine, I mean, it’s always changing pigeons. There you go. And in the future, you know, who knows, but we’re going to be beaming into our brains to communicate. But the method of communication, though, the way we were communicating in business, even 10 years ago, is different today. And so if you’re always ahead of the curve, on those changing methods of communication, you’ll stay one step ahead of everyone else. The things that never change is that human beings will always have wants and needs, always and forever. And number two, you always have to persuade them. And so what that means is, if you keep your ear to the ground, this brings that first simple point together, if you always keep your ear to the ground, stay close to your customer client, keep asking what they want, you will always know their needs, and you’ll be able to fill those needs. And by doing so, um, that I lost my train of thought there, sorry. And by doing so, you need to persuade, and so you’re always going to have to persuade people, so their wants and needs change, you also have to be able to persuade, you have to be able to sell and market these people, you have to have selling and marketing skills. You’ve got to persuade people to buy what you’re selling. And if you know those two things, you’ll continue to be an amazingly great entrepreneur.

 

SD  13:56

So that’s actually great evidence on as to why kids and parents, any entrepreneur should learn their pitch, they should learn marketing, they should learn storytelling, they should have a well crafted argument and a story as to why they’re doing their business. Right? Why do you care about this as it helped people? How does it benefit their lives? What are stories of your top clients, right, that are being transformed by this product or service that you offer? You’re right, that translates to anything that you’re going to do throughout your life. So is that one of the things that you’d advocate is, is learn sales and marketing and persuasion? Absolutely.

 

GW  14:37

And I recommend you go out and hear the word no 100 times, that’s the best thing you can do for yourself is get rejected 100 times. It’ll help build Teflon skin and increase your ability to persuade. And so again, if those two points made sense, look out baby you’re set for life as an entrepreneur.

 

SD  14:58

That’s so good. So with that, That brings, we got to talk about these six. All right, we I would love to talk about this in the book because this is so good. What talk well first, tell us the point of this, tell us the point of entrepreneurial leap, why you wrote it, why it’s taken off so much, and people care so much about it.

 

GW  15:16

Yeah. So it’s, it’s very simple. It’s designed to help you decide if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur. And then assuming you do show you a path to get there. And so the goal is to impact a million entrepreneurs over the next 10 years and just give them a huge jumpstart on taking their entrepreneurial leap. And so it’s written in three parts, which we’ll get to the answer to your question. Part one is called confirm. Part two is called glimpse. Part Three is called path. And so if you play those out, they’re in a very specific order. Because first we have to confirm if you truly have what it takes to become an entrepreneur, if you have the six essential traits, and then we get into glimpse and paths from there. And so what are those six essential traits, but the

 

Unknown Speaker  16:00

over here,

 

GW  16:02

they are visionary, passionate, problem solver, driven, risk taker and responsible. And I want to say a couple of things on this, because the first thing might break a few hearts. But the second thing, I hope, you’re going to realize why that’s important at this point, because what I believe is you are born with these six essential traits, they cannot be taught. And so it’s about discovering them within yourself. And that’s the beauty of the parents listening. And the young people listening, the sooner they understand this, the bigger the jumpstart they’re going to have on life. And so there’s an assessment I’ve created that they can take on the website, EAD dash leap calm, if you scored 90 or higher, you’re an entrepreneur in the making you have these central traits. But just as quickly, if you don’t, you know, it doesn’t mean that life is over. It just means that entrepreneurship maybe isn’t for you. But I want to give you this one last little heady context that will maybe take some of the sting off if you don’t have the six essential traits, because I created something called the entrepreneurial range. And I teach this in the book. And if you picture in your mind, this arc, this range, where on the right side of the range, it says true entrepreneur. And on the left side of the range, it says self employed, well, every business owner is somewhere on that entrepreneurial range, right. And the people that I’m speaking to when I say six essential traits, the true entrepreneurs are simply people on the right side of that entrepreneurial range, the people that go off and build organizations with people. And if you think of the entrepreneurs that redline that model in context, Elan, Musk, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Blakely, and just as quickly on the far left side of that, these are people that just have a one person show a side hustle, they’re up, they’re a freelancer, they’re a consultant, they have a lifestyle business. And the beauty here is there’s no bad answer, because it’s okay at the end of the day to just have a one man show, if you’re not cut out to build an organization and an empire. And I always like to say, if you have handy skills, you can go out and be a handyman or a woman for 60 bucks an hour and make 100 grand a year and be busy for the rest of your life. And that’s not so bad. You’re self employed, you have your own business, you’re totally free. So just know that it’s not like a sentence that it’s over if you don’t have the six essential traits, so

 

SD  18:28

my lawyers do my lawyers do really well, though it

 

GW  18:33

is actually right. Exactly. Right. So hopefully that made sense. That makes

 

SD  18:39

sense. Yeah. And I think, you know, as I think about the gig economy, and you know, we had Tim Chang talk a few days ago at the consumer health summit, and he talked about a lot of shifts that are going to happen due to this pandemic, and investing in the way people live and pod living and edging, the way education is happening is going to check transform, there are just so you know, there’s like 10,000 families that have already pulled their kids out and hired like a private teacher for the seven kids in their neighborhood of just one teacher, seven kids. They’re doing that all over the place. So just the light, the world is changing. And one of the things he talked about is this gig economy. The Zoom economy he called it is it actually prepares and allows more of a virtual business environment. It allows people to talk just like this face to face over video and they can live anywhere. It allows people to you know, whether you’re a counselor or a trainer or telehealth, it allows them to work from anywhere and have more of their own business, whether they’re on one end of the spectrum or the other. Right. And so give us a thought on that just just since you know, the pandemic hit. Are you seeing more and more people explore this idea of entrepreneurship, is this right for me? Am I a fit? What have you seen in the last? You know, eight, nine months? Yeah, well,

 

GW  20:04

for sure. And what’s interesting, though, it’s not that I’ve seen this flurry of entrepreneurs coming out of the woodwork because I don’t know that I would necessarily see that. And I not that close to the ground. But here’s what my instincts tell me. out of every crisis, you know, let’s go back to 2008 and 2009. Those two years spawned an incredible number of incredibly successful entrepreneurs. Many of them are EOS clients. Now, yeah, that’s what’s about to happen here. And so what happens is, whenever people are displaced, they lose their job, whatever happened that altered their life, and they need to go figure out how to wait to make a buck, the entrepreneurs rise up and come out of the woodwork. So we are absolutely over this next 12 months, you know, the last six months, the next six months, we’re going to spawn a whole bunch of incredibly new successful entrepreneurs, I have no doubt in my mind,

 

SD  20:58

I agree. Hundred percent irritated oysters create pearls, excess happens, man, and if you can make it in a downturn, and you can figure it out the upturns that much more fun. So we’re

 

GW  21:10

here and you know, I love your that, you know, that education model you talked about, because it’s the perfect example of the things that change and the things that don’t change, you know, the product or service changed. They still had wants and needs and great entrepreneur figured out that niche. So Amen. Hallelujah. That’s a perfect example of it. Awesome.

 

SD  21:29

Yeah. And I think it’s going to happen in way more places. And one of the things when we teach young entrepreneurs with my first sale, one of the big things we want to get them to think about is put your creative hat on, put your problem solving hat on what around you can be better, what around you can be done cheaper, faster, you know, better, higher quality, you know, what could you do? What’s the need, that you can solve? Right? And yeah, there’s the profit motive, kids love having some extra spending money, they love making a buck and not having to do all the allowance stuff all the time, and save for college, save for Disneyland, save for a bike, save for whatever you want to do give them the keys, but you have to put your problem solving hat on and you have to think about that. And when when the norm goes away when the normalcy and you know, the whole world was doing great, and then things change. That’s where entrepreneurship really can come in strong and help the most people here are exactly

 

GW  22:25

and what I would add to that is, you know, not only look for the opportunities, but just try a bunch of stuff. Don’t wait till you have it perfect. Once you have something of an idea, just go try and sell it. Because that’s where you need to get rejected a few times. And you’re going to learn how to evolve your product or service very quickly, because you’ll get feedback. And if they’re not buying it, you just got to make a change or if they bought some of it and didn’t like so. So that’s how you’re going to evolve faster. Just try something don’t wait around to get it perfect.

 

TA  22:54

Gina on that topic. So thinking about just failure and thinking about some of your more successful ventures. Can you remember a time specifically when you right before you had a big, you know, jump in business where you’re like, man, we we messed up, we failed. As soon as we learn that one thing, then it was off to the races? Yeah, it’s kind of mine.

 

GW  23:15

Yeah, EOS worldwide is a perfect example of that, because we really floundered for the first year and a half building that model out. So what I did over five years, is I created EOS working directly with my clients. And then I partnered with my partner Don tinny to then leverage that and bring on EOS implementers. And for a year and a half, the model just was not working. And so I completely turned the model on its ear, we were borderline just going to have to throw the towel in on it and do something completely different. And when we change that model, oh my god, it absolutely exploded from there, because we figured out the perfect way to create value for our clients who were the EOS implementer. So we just figured out how to dial it in make make it make sense economically and boom, it took off from there. We were right on the edge of the cliff.

 

SD  24:06

Yeah, Todd, you got to talk about that more moment more because I know so many entrepreneurs are in the same boat there. They feel like they’re just one tweak away from their funnel working there one conversion away or they’re one switch and an employee there one tweak and listening. What go back to that moment where you said, you know, took the first year and a half year spinning. Right? What what happened during that time? Did you just say, Okay, I’m going to do this do or die? Or did you say oh no, every week I’m going to live listen to my customer more. I’m going to throw things in the air every month. Go back to that time. What What did you learn that was so crucial during those huge pivots? Because I think a lot of entrepreneurs are sitting here thinking okay, this business is a frustrating business right now. It was working, it’s not working. What do I do? Or it’s never worked. You know, what, what kind of tips do you have for those entrepreneurs?

 

GW  24:59

Yeah. For sure, and it’s I’m gonna go back to the moment like you asked. And again, we’re a year and a half into leveraging this, we probably had recruited about 20 EOS implementers. But we were making no money, okay, and so we’re a year and a half into this thing, the luxury that Don and I had is we were both being EOS implementer. So we had a source of revenue, but we were putting half of our life into our done was at least I committed a little bit less time to it, but we were putting our lives into this thing and pulling nothing out for a year and a half. So we had these 20 implementers, we were making no money, the economic model was not working. And I tend to obsess you know, so I’m thinking about everything. And so the exact moment was, you know, we’re a year and a half in, I made the decision that this isn’t working, and something has to change, or we are throwing this whole model out. And I don’t know what we’re gonna do. Because worst case, we can just go off and be to EOS implementers. And we would have been fine, we would have retired off that. But I really wanted to leverage this and get it to the world. So I went into a Starbucks, I went into a coffee shop, and I hunkered down all day. And I read two books, I read the starfish and the spider and I read tribes by Seth golden, in addition to poring over what I call all the data, pote data points, and so we definitely had something valuable, we were definitely making an impact on companies, there was definitely money to be made. And, and what I did is I just decided to flip the whole model on its ear and turn it into an open source abundant space, everyone has access to the content, and every one of these 20 implementers need to pay us to play. So I don’t want a percentage of the revenue they generate. Because you know 15% is zero is zero. And so all of a sudden it put all the accountability on them to go produce. And and and we would generate the revenue for all the work we were doing. And it I mean, it literally exploded and grew 40% a year for 10 straight years from that point on. And here we are, you know, so many years later, what 17 years later, 375 EOS implementers all over the world, making incredible incomes. It’s it’s a great gig and making a huge impact on entrepreneurs lives. So Scott, I don’t know if that’s going deep enough for you. But that’s what and when I left that Starbucks, and when I saw it so clear, I called my part and I said, Don, I’m about to turn our business model on its ear Get ready. And then I rambled for about 20 minutes and told him the picture. And he goes, I love it. And then it was about two weeks later, we had our implementers in a room for a quarterly meeting. And I hit them with it and, and they loved it. Some of them loved it. Some of them hated it because they weren’t producing and they needed to generate, you know, they need to start paying so yeah, but it worked. Well,

 

SD  27:53

what I love about that you literally hit all six, in the book, visionary, you knew you needed to change you saw there was money in it passionate, you knew that this thing was going to go You were helping your 20 clients, the problem solver, you sat down at the Starbucks with all the data points saying Okay, do or die, I gotta fix this problem. You were driven, you said I’m not going to stop to like find a way to make this thing work the right way and not leave me hanging without any money. Because if you don’t make profit, you got nothing. Yeah, I miss risk risk taker, you turn turn your entire business on its ear is something that requires guts, it requires grit, it requires you to have to put it all on black to a certain degree. So you took a risk. And then you were responsible. No one was going to fix this problem except you that is something that I think is so difficult that for entrepreneurs to do. All six of those things together require a level of resourcefulness and responsibility and character that I think is very, very hard to pinpoint until you’re right in the middle of it. Yeah,

 

Unknown Speaker  28:59

you know, right.

 

GW  29:00

I get a great, great observation that’s never really thought about it like that, but that’s spot on.

 

SD  29:07

It’s funny, we tell people they’re like, Yeah, well, I just, you know, after a while, it just didn’t work out. And I went over to did this and I, you know, took this job here and I’m like, okay, that’s just not an entrepreneur. I mean, exactly, the entrepreneur goes, I’m gonna burn my ships. I’m not going back to Europe. I’m staying in the new land and I’m gonna figure it out even if you have to pivot. So this is this. This is what I love about how you think Gino? You You almost set you basically sacrificed business 1.0 for 2.0

 

TA  29:37

Yeah, this

 

SD  29:38

is this is what people don’t understand. Like you can fail in a business and not have the business fail. That is a mindset thing. Right? You know, when you really talk to an entrepreneur who’s been through it, I like Keith Cunningham, right? The author of the the road less stupid, one of the best thinking books in the world that I’ve ever seen. He is the king of saying fail fast, fail cheap, right, like, way better to do it early and get the info, then try to save your ego and be expensively failing later, fail all the time in your business, you know, do little failures so that you can iterate and get better and better and better. And what

 

GW  30:20

I would add to that is, you know, not only everything you said, but you’re going to fail. In other words, it’s a mindset, you’ve got to know you’re going to fail. And so one of the disciplines I teach in this book is that your first plan will not be your final plan. That is, that’s like business 101. And as long as you know that going in, because that’s what this is all about is helping you see the future before it happens, you’ll make better decisions, you won’t be surprised. So your first plan will not be your final plan. Always have a plan B.

 

TA  30:52

Great. A great example of that is Instagram, right? There was a there was a medium article that came out recently where you know, Instagram did not start off as a picture sharing, you know, app, and then they stumbled upon the needs. And then yeah, now, obviously, not everybody knows who that is now. So that’s

 

SD  31:08

Elon Musk, he he is famous for saying he knew that his first two rockets were going to blow up. And how much did he spend on the first 190 million dollars. Like that is that is an entrepreneurial thinking right there, you have to know that you’re gonna have to tweak and iterate and test. I mean, Facebook does 10,000 iterations per day with their AV testing, which means that 9999 failures every day to get that one essential win to the business, and look at them, right, like so I think that’s the right mindset. But I know full well that talking this way, make some people in the back of their minds listening to this go.

 

GW  31:49

For sure in my life. So let’s then grab that, because that’s the point here, you don’t have the six essential traits. This is probably not for you. And it’s a cautionary tale, the whole idea here is to then prevent you from taking this leap. Because you’re going to be miserable for 10 years if it’s not for you. And so I really, it’s a service that I’m providing. And then suddenly, if you do have those six essential traits, look out, baby. And now we take you to glimpse because you’re ready to run and you are typically fired up and ready to hear about the next step.

 

SD  32:23

Yeah, man, that’s so good. I love it. So I want to get more into mindset here before we finish up. Yeah, I can tell as I was reading traction, I can tell as I was looking at entrepreneurial leap that you have you are writing these books as an entrepreneur, you’re writing these books from an entrepreneurial mindset. What would you say to somebody who’s like, I don’t know, I don’t know about the book. I don’t know about traction. I don’t know about this whole business thing. What do you have any clues to somebody who it? Can you give them examples of maybe you’re an entrepreneur, if you know what I mean? Maybe Maybe you think this way if maybe you need to pick up the book, if I think people should pick up the book anyway, just to see if but what if they’re What if they’re in their minds right now thinking? I don’t know. Like, what, what are some of the guideposts?

 

Unknown Speaker  33:17

Yeah, so I think

 

GW  33:19

if you read those books, and again, certainly more entrepreneurial leap than traction, because traction is written for an entrepreneur that already started their business, and they’ve got employees, and now they’re trying to organize all of that human energy. So this is really about entrepreneurial leap. And when you read it, and you go, I don’t know, I think you have your answer, okay? Because Honest to God, you’re if you are an entrepreneur in the making, you’re going to read this, it is going to light you up. In other words, I just gave you pre med, if you want to be a doctor pre law, if you want to be an attorney, this is pre entrepreneurship, if you want to be an entrepreneur, it’s designed, it’s this soul searching journey of self discovery, where you’re going to go wow, this is it. But if you read it and go, I don’t know, I don’t think this is for you. I mean, I think there’s nothing more there is no other litmus test to share. The only thing I would suggest, if you say, I don’t know, maybe you’re more suitable for the left end of that entrepreneurial range. Or if you’re still excited about entrepreneurship, maybe you can go partner with an entrepreneur, be their integrator join forces with them, because you’re just really never going to be that visionary, but at least you’ll be surrounded by that entrepreneurial energy. But if you go I don’t know. I don’t think it’s for you.

 

SD  34:43

Doubt doubt means don’t. I was always taught Well, that’s good. And I think this is why they have pre everything in school, but they don’t have pre entrepreneur. They this this is a very valuable resource because you know, If you’re if you’re right and 4%, maybe six 7% of, of the world’s population is born to be entrepreneurs, yet we don’t have a real pre entrepreneurship route. I mean, business majors is not an entrepreneurship route. Every school in America in the world has a business sector, they have a business, you know, Major, whether it’s economics or finance or business management or business law. Very rarely Are they really going after that entrepreneur? So this what you’ve built here I love because it’s almost like a feeder program. It’s like, not everyone’s supposed to do law. Not everyone’s supposed to be an accountant. Not everyone’s supposed to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, it’s idolized. Yeah, everyone, like, has this dream, I’m gonna make billions and start my own company. That is, it’s a false reality, because I’ve never met anybody who overnight became a billionaire. Nobody. That’s a joke.

 

GW  35:56

That’s why I called the 4%. It’s, it’s 4% of the population. The good news is the other 96% there are 10,000 other career choices. So it’s, again, it’s just one of the many career choices. And I’m not sure if we’re going to get into glimpse and path you guys are obviously the gauge on that. But there is one tool I want to share within glimpse, if we have time to go there. Right? Yes, you should. Because if you understand this journey of confirm glimpse path, that confirm is first and foremost, we got to make sure you have the six essential traits glimpse the psychology behind glimpses to show you all of the possibilities. But with confirming, we just increased your odds of success now that you’ve confirmed and I want to give you one other tool that will increase your odds of success, because I have a very strong belief that not every entrepreneur is intended. For every business. every entrepreneur is equipped for something very specific, you’re built for something, you’re drawn to something you’re genetically encoded for something. And so I created another free tool called my biz match, and you literally go online, you spend 20 minutes, and you click away, it’s at E dash leap calm. And this tool helps you figure out the type of business you’re drawn to. Because as an entrepreneur, you have hundreds of industries to choose from. And so I get concerned about all the hype around tech, billionaire unicorn startups, okay. One in a million. And I want you to be aware out there that there are 10,000 other options for a business. And so it helps you whittle down the hundreds of industries. Yep. And from there, you decide the type of business you’re drawn to. And in type, it’s one of three things you are either a product entrepreneur or a service entrepreneur. I have utter disdain for product businesses. When I look at inventory, I get the heebie jeebies. I’m a service entrepreneur, I sell services, those two businesses are very different. You got to know which one you’re drawn to, and you’ll increase your odds of success. Next is understanding if you’re a b2b, or a b2c entrepreneur, do you love selling to businesses? Or do you love selling to consumers? Two very different sales and marketing cycles, right? That’s a persuasion thing we talked about earlier. And then lastly, Are you high cost, high value, low value? Or are you low cost commodity based high volume? both work phenomenally, but which one? Are you for me, I always want to be the highest price in town highest value. Once you get clear on that, then it’s about deciding, deciding size of business, because again, not every business is supposed to become a billion dollar business. And not every entrepreneur is equipped to build a billion dollar business. So do you want to build a $1 million company a 2 million a 10 100, you decide, but it’s about deciding because there’s no shame. And I always like to say this, and building a $3 million heating and cooling company that generates a 20% profit. Again, there’s so many different businesses out there, there’s more than just billion dollar tech unicorns. And so that tool will increase your odds of success, because you’ll know what you’re drawn to. And worst case, go work for one of those when you’re at a working age to work and go see how that business works. Yeah, that’s what I did with the travel agent business and realize Holy crap, there’s no way I want to be in this business. You You got to play around with it a little bit. So hopefully that will help your audience.

 

TA  39:31

Geno, you realize you just you just circumvented a lot of time and money for anybody thinking about college. Right? That that’s the idea. And

 

GW  39:39

again, I’m not knocking college because I read an entire chapter on college or not. And so it’s very powerful, because I present all the data. And at the end of the day, it’s a choice because there are a lot of great reasons to go as an entrepreneur. And there are a lot of reasons you maybe shouldn’t go but you have to decide for yourself and so I present all the facts at the end of the day as you probably go to college if you’re not sure, but all the facts are there waiting for you. That’s,

 

SD  40:04

I’m in the same boat, I think what you what you just presented is so simple. You know, and we always talk about this when we’re you know, we’ve, we’ve launched personally 1200 kids, their own businesses just personally, us. And then our fares that we do have done. I think it’s 28,000 Kids Worldwide. But that’s the beauty of it, test. Try it if you’re an entrepreneur for a day in my first sale. And so the kids create a product, they can create a service, they can do something that’s $20, they can do something that’s $3, we have a kid that just hit the $500 mark doing $3 bookmarks. We have a T shirt, two brothers that have a T shirt company called creator complain, well, they’re selling $25 t shirts, and they’re at 30 $800 in sales, 10 years old and 13 years old. But it’s amazing to think, okay, test and you can do more than one store page, right? Like, this is what we want people to think through right? What’s your sweet spot? What do you love? What do you good at? What are the needs of the world from your eyes? Right? Your need is different than mine, my need my wants different than your one? This is what kids should be thinking of? Not this idea of oh my gosh, I got to start in fourth grade because I’m going to be pre med or I’m going to be an astronaut. That’d be great if that were the case, but why not just try different things and see what you fall in love with?

 

GW  41:26

Exactly right.

 

SD  41:28

Yeah. All right. Well, that’s good. I’m so glad we got into glimpse. Can we talk about the third one real quick for those that are still listening right now.

 

GW  41:37

So so in path, you know, now let’s pull it together. Okay, so in confirm you now confirm, and there’s a great assessment free tool, go ahead and do that and find out for yourself, you score 90 or higher, you’re probably an entrepreneur and making glympse. Now that you’ve confirmed you see the future that includes countless stories shows you a day in the life both good and bad, how to avoid some mistakes, and then shows you my biz match and business, my biz matches a free tool for you there. As we go to path. There is another free tool there called my vision clarifier. And I share that because those three tools we call 123 roadmap. And if you just fill out those three tools, it’s going to give you absolute clarity, clarity is the most common word we hear when somebody fills out those three tools and does the 123 roadmap. But my point in this is high level path, that chapter, I do several things, and I want to quickly share them all. And you tell me the one that maybe is most interesting to your audience. Because what I do there, that’s where the chapter the first chapter is called college or not. So you can make the decision for yourself. From there, I help you discover how to discover your passion. From there, I show you how to find a mentor, then I share the power of 10 year thinking if I can get every entrepreneur to shift to 10 year thinking, Oh, what a world that would be, then I share eight disciplines to greatly increase your odds of success. And then I share the nine stages of building your business. Okay. And so that’s what goes on in path. And it’s not so much about showing you this perfect process to build a business because there isn’t one, it doesn’t exist. Okay? It’s a very messy, messy thing. But what those things I just shared with you will greatly increase your odds and kind of show you the milestones and give you clarity, so you know what’s coming. So again, you can eliminate half the mistakes and get there a lot faster. And so if any of that appeals to you, let’s drill down on it. I have no idea how much time we have left. I could go forever. But we don’t want to do that to your audience. So where do you want to go from here?

SD  43:42

I like travel. You tell me but I love the the 10 year thinking and the passion? Yeah, I think the college one’s an interesting one. But I think for finding your passion is something that’s very interesting to me, especially with kids. So can we let’s talk about that one real quick.

GW  43:58

Yeah. And so it’s so interesting with kids because I’ll admit, what would you say the average age is of the kids that are listening to this just give me kind of a range so I know

SD  44:08

the my first sale kids are ages if we can start early as seven we have like younger seven to 11 and then we have like 12 to 15 some even 1617 year olds but families listening Yeah, entrepreneurial families are all listening worse. And

GW  44:23

the reason I asked that is because I will admit I think I feel a little inadequate about helping a six year old figure out their passion. So I think you’re probably better at that than I am but I literally in that chapter give like eight ways to discover your passion and it’s this wonderful thought acts experience to just get it to bubble to the surface. And so the the the exercise I always share I’m going to share that with you now and I just sit here going huh? Could a six year old do that. You know maybe a 16 year old could do it but but passion when you discover your passion I really believe it almost always stems from a wound, a pain, a challenge, something that really had an impact on your life. And so for me, it was the family business around and three years of the most excruciating pain. But it was all about saving my dad’s company, and so that from there, I was going to help entrepreneurs for the rest of my life.

GW  45:26

I don’t know how many wounds a six year old has. And so but here’s the exercise, okay, it’s a 30 minute exercise, you sit in a quiet place with no interruptions, and you answer three questions about your life. And the first question you answer is, what are my three greatest successes? Second question you answer is what are my three greatest failures? And then the third question you answer is what has life prepared me for? And and I did that in my mid 30s. And it was early 30s. It was transformative. It was like it came so clear to me. And so that’s one of like, eight exercises and ideas I offer up. So again, I don’t know how that would apply it when I share that with a 30 year old boom, that’s an aha moment. six

TA  46:11

year old. I

GW  46:12

don’t know. So that that’s what I would share there. I don’t know if you want to add anything for the audio.

SD  46:18

I think I think that’s beautiful. It’s the right way to think as a kid too. They don’t have to figure out what their wounds are, they can figure out what their successes and failures are.

TA  46:26

Yeah. for parents to specifically on that one stop. You know, we’ve looked at my wife and I talked about bears get our oldest all the time, like, what does he enjoy? And you know, we just finished a soccer season where there were moments of awesomeness. And there were some other moments where he wasn’t that interested. And so we went back to what you’re saying earlier is, let him try new things. We know that he likes to take apart like toys and robots. He likes to take things apart, put them back together. He loves to draw, he’s a really phenomenal artist. So we’re just saying, okay, we’re looking at Taekwondo. What are the other things he can try? I think for kids, I think that’s what that’s what it is right now. For our stage. You know, for elementary, middle school, kids try something new, right?

GW  47:10

Try when I hear it, when I hear that description, I’m going a little tangent and come right back. But when somebody’s doing stuff with their hands like that, I mean, that’s like a product entrepreneur in the making. Like, if that’s true, if that poor kid got pushed into a service business, he’d probably be miserable, you know. So that’s an indicator that they’re probably more of a product type of an entrepreneur. So anyway, so that’s what I have for you in the way of discovering passion. And then you mentioned 10 year thinking, let’s do that. Yep. And I and I love a six year old learning 10 year thinking, because that’s going to be life changing for the next 80 plus years of that person’s life. And what this is all about is shifting your thinking, because most hard charging entrepreneurs they’re thinking about today and this week, and maybe this year, if they’re lucky. And it said they want everything now Now. Now. Now Now, and they have such urgency, what to get yourself to slow down and shifted 10 year thinking and thinking 10 year timeframes. I learned this at 3518 years ago, and it changed my life. Because if you shift to 10 year thinking, all the sudden you start making 10 year decisions, all of a sudden, you start making better decisions, all of a sudden, time slows down, there’s a peace that comes over you and then the irony is you literally get there faster. So when you know if I’m talking to a six year old, eight year old, 10 year old, and in my case, it’s a lot of 18 to 22 year olds, I did a fun little talk yesterday for 18 to 22 year old. But if they can grasp that at 18 to 22. And for many of them,

TA  48:45

you know, they may not take

GW  48:46

their entrepreneurial leap next year or the year after. But to know that 10 years from now, excuse me to know that 10 years from now, you’re going to be an entrepreneur, oh man that just created some patients that just gave you some time that just so all of a sudden it just changes your whole energy, your whole perspective, your whole everything. And everything for me started coming faster once I shifted to

SD  49:12

10 year thinking, you know, 10 years ago, I had just finished school, really a year of entrepreneurial school after grad school. I was broke. I had just decided not to marry the girl that I was dating. And I had no idea what was coming. And I met my wife. Three months after the right now 10 years ago, started my Apex kids business six months after this happened and travel was there and we now that business has 100 plus franchises, 3 million kids, it serves schools all over America. 100 million dollars raised. And I’ve got we’ve got my first sale now that came out of this pandemic teaching Kids entrepreneurship, they make tons of money on their store page. Now we’ve got the biotech company happy out of nowhere, because I’ve learned these skills 10 years, if you told me I was going public tomorrow, which I am in Toronto with the biotech company, I would have looked at you and laughed in your face. Do you know, I would have been like, absolutely not. That is crazy thinking, I, there’s no way that would happen. But I would have had way less stress, way less anxiety, way more peace. If I would have thought that way. Then, instead of spinning and thinking, I missing it, I’m failing, I’m never going to get there, I have to have everything tomorrow, I found that you can’t really push people faster than they want to go.

GW  50:45

Exactly. You know, any and two things, a couple of great teaching opportunities for the audience on that point, because look at what you did in 10 years. Now, all of a sudden, here you are with all of those successes. And if you shift your thinking to 10 years, imagine what you can do in the next 10 years. And then the next 10 years after that. And so for the you know, 10 year old listening right now, I mean, you have at least 710 year periods to build whatever you want to build. And so imagine if you just say, you know, so by 20 years old, I know I’m going to be an entrepreneur, and I’m gonna have a million dollar business. And then at that point between 20 and 30, oh, my God, and then 30 and 40, and then 40, and 50, oh, my God, you’ll be a trillionaire if you want to, with that kind of thinking, but you’re going to, you’ll get whatever you want out of life with that kind of thinking, as opposed to saying, I kind of have it all. Now I got to have all my answers. Now, I don’t know everything. Now. It freezes your brain, you just don’t think as well and you just don’t make as good decisions.

SD  51:46

Yeah, that’s the perfect thing to end on. In fact, I’m sure that’s going to be our hook, by the way, because that’s the best. That’s probably the best advice. Anyone could give a kid. Nice, it’s gonna be okay. And their families. By the way, if you’re a parent listening this, it’s gonna be okay. Your kids are fine, they’re gonna figure it out, you’re gonna figure it out. It’s not as bad. If you take that 30,000 foot 10 year viewpoint. It’s not as bad as you think it is today.

GW  52:14

Yeah, and for what this is worth, and you can edit this out, but in a pandemic, 10 year thinking, it’s a lot less stressful. It’s in the grand scheme of life, this is a blip, that, oh, 809 crash, you know that, that it’s a boy. So every 10 years, something really bad is gonna happen. That’s just life. And it lasts about two years. So with that, you’re a little more peaceful knowing that it’s coming and you got 10 years to fix it and get out of it. So anyway, for what that thought is worth

SD  52:42

and every 10 years, every 10 years, I’m just going to go to Hawaii for two years.

GW  52:45

There you go start

SD  52:48

there. So Gino, this is awesome. Thank you, man so much for this. We really appreciate your time. We know it’s super valuable. And we’ve I learned a ton too as a dad as an entrepreneur. I hope this book entrepreneur leap, we will put it on our show notes. We’ll make sure everybody can get it and then we’ll put a dash cam on there as well so that people can get your all of the tools, the three phases that people want to go through and all of the little pieces of each of those that people can take their free tests, and they’re free scorecard surveys with so thanks again for this. It was wonderful.

TA  53:25

My pleasure. had a blast, guys. Thanks, Gina. Thank you