This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Zach Benson. Zach is the CEO and founder of one of my favorite services and sponsor of the show, Assistagram. Assitagram creates campaigns that helps people get their message out to millions on a daily basis. I have to say, as a client, their teams are amazing.

Zach is also a TEDX speaker and world renowned, award winning dancer. The thing that I absolutely love most about Zach is how he has designed his life. Zach travels the world living where he wants when he wants helping people grow their business and message with Assistagram and also teaching dance workshops. In today’s episode, I not only want him to share his best Instagram success hacks, but also teach how you can design the life you deserve.

www.assistagram.com

Benson.zach@gmail.com

www.MisfitEtnrepreneur.com/Assitagram

It all started with dance. In high school, Zach got a DVD on breakdancing and started practicing. He began to win competitions and made it on So You Think it Can Dance. Now, he teaches dance clinics all over the world.

How did you design your life and make it possible?

• He saw other dancers that tried out multiple times for things So You Think You Can Dance and over time make it. He took a lesson to never give up from them.
• He also dreamed big as a kid and put together what he wanted his life to be.
• A producer for SYTYCD gave him the idea and advice on how to go teach dance clinics around the world and leverage his stardom that way.

What did you have to do to make it happen?

• Zach is more impulsive
• He takes action on things he wants to do and doesn’t think too much about it
• But he also seeks and finds people who have been there and done that- and listened to them, taking their best advice and putting it to use.
• In the beginning, he got a lot of no’s before getting to his first yes on teaching a dance clinic.
• He changed his business model to start offering really cheap rates to get in the door at places.
• From there, he used his experience and relationships to build great relationships that could reference him and grew from there – upping his rates as he got more consistent.
• Playing the long game is important.

You mentioned being more impulsive in your younger years. Are you still that way today?

• Things have changed. He still embraces taking initiative.
• “I’d rather burnout than restout and take advantage of opportunities when they come up…”

What advice would give people to go out and create the life they deserve?

• You need to know what you need to be happy. Zach volunteered to live on $2 a day for food to help a cause and learn what really matters to be happy.
• Whatever it is that fulfills you – you need to know. If it is a lot of money, great. If not, ok too. But know what it is.
• Self-educate and keep going
• Play the long game and outlast
• People give up to close to their success

What have you learned about life and success by traveling abroad and working throughout the world?

• That people matter most and to put them first. 
• For Zach, traveling helps him grow. He gets to expand his network, see how others live, learn other cultures, and network with other entrepreneurs.
• Life is all about people and relationships. All it takes is a simple question or compliment to create a conversation that turn into a huge opportunity.
• Be curious

How do you travel and get to stay at 5-Star hotel for free?

• Through the power of Instagram
• 5 years ago, he bought an Instagram account with 400,000 followers
• From there, he started to grow it and build up the empire
• Businesses don’t know that much about social media marketing on platforms such as Instagram.
• Instead of negotiating a free to stay by just posting about it to his following, Zach offers to teach them how to improve their Instagram accounts and their footprint.

What is the process of how you do it? Do you need to have a massive following?

• Zach has a step by step process in his Tribe Influencer academy
• You don’t need a big personal brand
• You don’t need a huge network
• Think of something you have of value that a hotel can use such as a specific skill or process
• Use that as an offering and do a barter with them
• Make sure to have a clear offer of what you will do and what it will do for them
• You can do this with all hotels.
• It starts with an email to the reservations department
• Then follow up with phone call and ask to speak to the sales and marketing director for the property
• Then pitch them
• Usually the training last about 1 hour

At the 23 min mark, Zach talks about why Instagram is such an important medium to use for business in today’s age.

• The attention shift from Facebook to Instagram is happening faster than ever.
• It is the fastest growing and most engaging platform in the world with almost 1 billion users
• Twitter and Snapchat are dead
• Instagram gives you more organic reach than Facebook
• Now is the time to get on the platform.

Top 3 things people need to do to succeed on Instagram?

• If you are going to start – build a page/account around passions, something you are really into and interested in.
• By looking at what other accounts do in your focus, you can learn what they do to be successful and even reach out to them.
• You can also buy an Instagram account, a niche page. You can growth hack your business with it.

What is the best way to grow a following on Instagram?

• Utilizing engagement groups is one of the best ways
• Engagement groups should be larger and have high quality
• Doing manual follow and unfollow is another, but can be damaging if you don’t know what you are doing.
• Post 4-6 times per day

How do you get people to go from following and engaging to buying?

• First, you need to become a legit brand which is a minimum of 10k followers o This gives you credibility
• In looking legit, it will attract more followers and engagement
• This helps you rank higher and helps you to show more in key words and top posts
• Once you have a larger following – you can collaborate with other influencers
• Then you need to make sure you have your online and offline sales process in place and dialed in.

At the 32 min mark, Zach gives some hacks for optimizing your profile and his free Growth Hacking Guide which you can get at www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Assistagram

• An easy SEO hack is putting key words in your short bio that when searched for will lead to your profile
• Research your hashtags very well. Look for hashtags that don’t have millions of posts. Instead focus on hashtags that have smaller amounts of posts.
• Look for ones with 10-20k posts which will allow you to get noticed more often

What is your best advice for entrepreneurs to be successful in business today?

• You need to remember that it is all about timing
• Knowing and respecting people’s timing and make sure you are there when the timing is right.

Best Quote: “I’d rather burn-out than rest-out and take advantage of opportunities when they come up….”

Zach's Misfit 3:

1. Read books and find mentors. Grow yourself.

2. The ones who make the most mistakes grows the fastest

3. Stay consistent in every area of your life you can. The small things add up to big results.

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Ben and Laura Harrison. Ben and Laura are the founders of Jonas Paul Eyewear. The company has been featured everywhere from the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Harvard Business Review, to even a full segment about the company on NBC news.

Jonas Paul specializes in fashionable and stylish glasses for children…

Like a lot of Misfit Entrepreneurs, we’ve had on the show, Ben and Laura didn’t start out as eyewear entrepreneurs. Instead they encountered a problem and endeavored to find a solution to help their son, Jonas Paul. Through this - a mission and a company were born.

Nowadays, Jonas Paul helps children all over the world feel beautiful in their glass and gives a portion of every sale to help provide sight to children in need. Ben and Laura have a truly remarkable story and an incredible amount of useful experience and wisdom to share.

www.jonaspauleyewear.com

Ben and Laura call themselves “recovering serial entrepreneurs.” Ben and Laura met in college. Ben was focused on work as a photographer and Laura on communications. They decided to grow the photography business to become destination photographers. In addition, the launched resources online for other photographers. Things were good. After 7 years of marriage, they decided to have a child. Everything seemed fine up until their child, Jonas Paul was born.

Laura ended up having to have an emergency c-section. When they brought Jonas over to her, the first words out of her mouth were, “Does he have pupils?” Since he was just born, they dismissed it. But over the next few days reality began to set in. Jonas was born blind and was diagnosed with Peter’s anomaly, a very rare sight condition. It was very overwhelming as new parents to come to grips with how their child will not be able to see or even see their faces.

They went on an extensive journey in which by the age of 5, Jonas has had 22 eye surgeries to give him some aspect of sight and 4 cornea transplants that have all failed.

As this went on, Ben started searching for stylish eyewear for Jonas, so he could look cool in the glasses he needed to see what he could. Jonas was only 2 weeks old, but Ben was searching for something to combat his helplessness. The search became an outlet and a mission that morphed into creating stylish eyewear for kids because there was nothing out there. They started on Alibaba with some designs and found a manufacturer.

How did you launch the business?

• They had always been in the digital download space, so going into selling a productive with FDA restrictions and everything else was an unknown.
• They hacked together a WordPress site to get something up to have a brand.
• They used their photography background to help in crafting the image for the brand and also creating the right design.
• They went through 3 different rounds of samples before they got one right.
• Once the found some frames that seemed right, they moved to launch.
• They just sold through their website and used their SEO experience to help organic traffic.
• It didn’t take off right away. It has been a grind.
• They used the feedback to start tweaking things and were OK taking it slow.

What was your tipping point where you started to see massive growth?

• There hasn’t been one major tipping point…it has been a lot of little things that have combined.
• The one big thing was when they made the decision to focus on one thing – Jonas Paul.
• They gave up their other businesses to focus on it full time. They became part of a business accelerator called Praxis and this gave them opportunities to pitch to potential partners/investors.
• At one of the pitches they were introduced to a former CEO of Luxotica which led to their first seed round.

What is working for you when it comes to digital marketing? What is driving sales online?

• You need a holistic approach.
• Facebook is needed, but is all about disrupting things to create interest in your product.
• Google AdWords is important because people are searching for the need.
• Instagram is also very important for a product like eyewear.
• The messages on the mediums are very different.
• Retargeting and lead capturing are important, so you can nurture people and teach them about your product.
• For a lot of solutions, there is a big education piece needed which the mediums allow you to do.
• Authenticity of your brand and who you are is the most critical part of the equation. Stay to true to who you really are.

Anything outside digital?

• They have a brand ambassador program with micro-influencers
• They have affiliate programs

Talk to us about building a culture with your business and what that means to the brand…

• The best part is being able to surround yourself with a team that has passion for the business like they do.
• Making sure the team knows the mission and vision and why is really important.
• But, you must be open to change to feedback from your team to grow.
• Giving your employees a voice is very important. Everyone should feel like it is a part of them as much as you as an owner/leader.

What advice do you have other husband and wife teams running a business or thinking about starting a business together?

• Early on – you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses and learn how to let each other run with the strengths.
• Trust each other where your skills sets are and find all the ways they can complement each other.
• Put a plan together on how to run things for your work life together.
• Using a personality tool like a Strengthfinder or DISC can give you really great insight into each other.
• Be willing and outspoken on your encouragement to each other. Don’t take it for granted just because you work together every day.
• Have fun with it. Reward each other. Surprise each other.
• You cannot separate your home life and work life – it all blends together. Embrace it, don’t fight it.
• Celebrate together when you win and come together when you lose
• It is a true privilege to be able to be a team and share the journey of a business together.

What has surprised you most on your entrepreneurial journey together?

• That you can pull things off and pull them off well, even when it doesn’t look like it can happen.
• Everybody has this entrepreneurial spirit inside them, but so many are afraid to unleash it.
• When you find what you are called and meant to be doing it gives you such a more meaningful life.
• How much you gain by taking the leap of faith…

How has social entrepreneurship made an impact for the business and for you?

It allows you to truly help people in need, make the world a better place, and be part of something bigger.

Best Quote: As an entrepreneur, you cannot separate your home life and work life – it all blends together. Embrace it, don’t fight it.”

Ben and Laura's Misfit 3

1. Don’t suffer from failure to launch syndrome. Get a minimum viable product, get it out there, get feedback and go from there.
2. Make a name for yourself in your market by trying everything to get yourself out there. You’ll then be able to hone in and find what really works. Have patience here.
3. Fearing hardship with starting your own thing can keep you from living your life to the fullest. Hardship and suffering help you recognize life in a different way. Be open to it and be ok with it.

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Iain Grae. Iian went from broke to mult-millionaire in less than 3 years and has been featured as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s hot 100 for the past few years.

Iain has an incredible story of how he got to where he is now as the founder of Evolved Lyfe and Millionaire Prowess. Millionaire Prowess is training firm that teaches the principles Iain has used to consistently build million dollar companies. Evolved Lyfe a purpose driven leadership activation firm that helps people learn how to tap into their higher consciousness and usher in what Iain calls Heaven on Earth. The company helps high achievers, entrepreneurs, and leaders to effortlessly create wealth while making a larger impact on the world.

When I first spoke to Iain, one of the things that impressed me most was the philosophy he has developed and teaches on how to succeed and thrive. He used it to create multiple successful million dollar entities. It is different than what most are teaching today and I knew that I had to share it with you in Misfit Nation.

www.EvolvedLyfe.com

www.EvolvedLyfe.com/Misfit

Iain grew up poor and his parents never seemed to have any money. When he was 8 years old he begged his father for a motocross bike. His father told him that when he earned the money, he could have one. So, he started doing any work he could at 8 years old that he could – raking leaves, shoveling snow, etc. 3 years later, he bought his first dirt bike. This led to him starting in motocross and became a pro. And he was good. Up until about 22, he seemingly won just about everything he did in motocross, but then he took a huge dip.

Tell us about the dip?

Iain was living in his parent’s basement making $14,000/mo at 21 years old. He decided to travel throughout the world. He traveled around Europe and met a Swedish girl and subsequently moved to Sweden to be with her. He started running out of money, even though he has gotten a job. He wasn’t making enough to pay his bills. He had to go on welfare and could not afford to even go out for a bite to eat.

This began to wear on his self-esteem and he developed a bad attitude which became pervasive in his life and his relationship. It wasn’t long before he was on plane back to the states to live in his parents basement because he had to, not because he wanted to. He felt like a complete failure.

He borrowed money and was able to get a job in sales in NYC. He began to excel, but he knew that he didn’t have control over what he was selling, so he started a company with a partner called Innovation Ads in 2002-2003. The original intention was to sell ad space in taxis. Iain locked down some of the minor cities and was working on NYC, but Clearchannel was locking it up. To supplement while he was doing this, he started in online advertising. He started brokering online ad buys and developed a whole new way of doing lead generation with autoresponders.

He ended up getting involved with a bunch of universities and got so good at generating leads for universities that he took over the lead management/enrollment process as well on behalf of them. Ultimately, he was able to sell the business and that propelled him into what he is doing today.

At the 14 min mark, Iain answers the question, What is the Evolved Life Philosophy?

• It is a way of living, being, and practicing
• It is taking responsibility for everything that comes into your awareness
• Then it is reconstructing your life to suit your intention and live in divine order

How does someone implement it into their life?

• It starts with a commitment to take the responsibility for everything that comes into your awareness
• Once you do that, you have the power and can use it to your advantage
• You must understand how important your intentions are when working with others and make sure they are aligned with yours to produce the best ideal outcomes
• Life is about practice. Anything you want to be intentionally great at takes practice. You cannot just make a decision and all the sudden everything will happen – you have to work at it every day. This is where the greatness is found.

Changes you can make to help you re-program yourself?

• Stop making long “to do” lists. It is overwhelming when you cannot get things done.
• Instead, make an “intentions list” of what you truly intend to get done for the day
• Write it before you go to bed so your brain can work on ideas while you are sleeping
• Your intentions should be focused on the different areas of your life
• Break out your doubts and concerns. They are like a virus. Deliberately remove them to find the truth.
  • One great way to do this is to be at peace in nature and let it surround you

What does it mean when you talk about achieving “Heaven on Earth?”

• The truth is that you don’t have to achieve it, it already exists – it just matters where you place your attention. You just need to place your attention on your intention.
• If you are going to spend your life here, then why not live in heaven on earth?

What role does faith play in your success? What is the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself and life?

Divine order exists

• You are not your body, you have a body
• You are not a life, you are life.
• You are local host for god and can manifest through aligning the thoughts from your head to your heart and your gut.
• It all stems from your mind and you know when you are out of alignment – stop and get yourself realigned.
• Additionally, utilize others and coaches to help yourself be more aligned.

At the 34 min mark, Iain talks about the principles in his book, “the 10 Principles That Made Me Millions…”

• Purpose: Look at this not from the “one thing I should be doing,” but instead “who am I being?” Iain gives some great examples on this.
  • When you see how you can impact the world by creating wealth, you can see how to create that wealth and see a much bigger picture of how it comes together.
• Create a Statement of Desire: Fuzzy targets don’t get hit. Clearer goals do. Set the goal, but then ask “What I am willing to give up to do it?” and “What I am willing to give of myself to do it?”
• Do it only if you are willing to be fearless
• Your support system is critical and you must make the right adjustments in this area for your life and goals to thrive. Modeling greatness is a key part of this.
• Actively listening. The more silence that is created the louder the noise that is heard.

There is so much gold to be found in the nuances of things, the small things, that makes a huge difference

Your greatness is locked in where your errors are…

At the 47 min mark, Iain talks about the gifts we have and how we can and should maximize them.

Best Quote: “Your greatness is locked in where your errors are…”

Iain's Misfit 3:

1. Make a clear intention about an outcome no matter how small or large and make sure everyone is on board.
2. Listen to the voice that comes in your head and look for doubt. This is where you find where you may have limiting beliefs.
3. It’s not about what you are doing, it is about who you are being.

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 perspective. It is very important to keep perspective in your life as you grow and as you find more success. It is even more important to keep perspective in the rough times. Do you know what the chances of you being alive in this world are? They are 10 to the 2,685, 000th power.

To put that in perspective (ha!), that is the same as if about 2.5 million people, or approximately the population of Chicago, all got together to play a game of dice with trillion-sided dice. And they each roll the dice — and they all come up the exact same number. It is an absolute miracle.

In fact, for you to be here, trillions probably never were. Now take it a step further. Think about what the chances are of mommy and I finding you and us becoming a family – it is almost unfathomable.

You, we and everybody listening to this episode are a miracle. No matter where you are in your life or what life has dealt you – cherish the gift that you have been given of this life.

Recently, a good friend of your mother and I’s, Adam, passed away. He was 39 years old. He left behind an amazing family with 4 beautiful kids (all under 10) and a devoted wife, Grace. It wasn’t a freak accident or anything like that. He was swimming. Simple swimming. He was doing the same swimming workout he regularly did on a Saturday morning and bam, a cardiac event took him.

As a fitness enthusiast and endurance athlete, this really hit home. Adam wasn’t in bad shape. He had a vibrant life. He was an MBA, entrepreneur, and professor at not one, but two colleges. He had a good life. And just like that, at 39 years old, it was over. This hit home with me because you just never know when it is your time. And as I heard about when this happened on that Saturday, I realized that it was at the exact same time that I was riding my bike in preparation for my next Ironman and was about 3 miles from home when I got smacked in the face with the biggest bug I had ever seen.

This caused me to immediately swerve and react taking my eyes off the road. I started to veer into the road, but at the last second pulled it back and ran off the road into a side yard. I was able to look up just in time to see I was about to smack a mailbox, at 20 miles an hour, and at the last second, I dropped down and let the bike skid out from under me with the side of my thigh hitting the mailbox. The bruise was there for about 3 weeks after and covered an area about the size of an iphone. I got myself up, dusted off, got back on the bike and headed home not really thinking anything of it. But, as I heard the news later that weekend about Adam, It quickly brought me back to that moment. Damn was I lucky. I mean, if there had been a car next to me at the time, what could have happened? If I didn’t see the mailbox at the last possible second and make the move I did, who knows.

The point is that you do never really know when it is your time. Adam was an amazing father, friend, and just a great person in this world. We all should. No, we all must - Strive to be the best we can be for ourselves and to the world and realize the amazing miracle that we are even alive – and cherish it because, it can be gone in the blink of an eye. To me that is perspective and it is a good thing to keep with you as you go through life.

Adam, you will be missed, my friend, and I know that your family will cherish the memories and all of the light you brought into their lives. You will always be with them. It was incredible to see the hundreds upon hundreds celebrate your life and realize your impact at your memorial. I can only hope that I am able to have one-hundredth of the impact you had. I love you, buddy. Rest in peace.

And Hannah, I hope that you can use this lesson to keep you going in good times and in bad and use it to remind yourself to always be your best no matter where you are in life or what happens to you. Always remember to keep your perspective and be thankful for and cherish your life.

I love you,

Daddy

Best Quote: “You, we and everybody listening to this episode are a miracle. No matter where you are in your life or what life has dealt you – cherish the gift that you have been given of this life."

1. It is an absolute miracle that you are alive. For you to be here, trillions were not. Cherish it.
2. Keep perspective. No matter what stage you are in your life and what level of success you reach. Make sure that you find a way to remind yourself how lucky you are to be alive and have an impact on this world. Never take it for granted.
3. You never know when it is your time, so be sure to live your life in the best way you can, so when it is your time, you leave this world with relatively few regrets.

This week we have a very special episode for you in that we are having a Misfit Entrepreneur on for a second time. This is rarity and not something I would typically do, but when I saw what he was doing and the message that he’s created, I had to have him back on to discuss it. Misfit Nation, this week’s Misfit Entrepreneur, the only two time guest at this point, is Bedros Keuillian.

So, let me tell you why I am having Bedros back on and for those of you that don’t know who Bedros is…Bedros escaped communism, came to the US with nothing and now He is a high performance coach, speaker, and business consultant. He's the founder and CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp, a two time Inc. 5000 listed business and one of the nation’s fastest-growing franchises, and an investor in over a dozen companies ranging from software, digital media agencies, and educational and consulting services. He's known as the hidden genius that entrepreneurs, best-selling authors, and thought leaders turn to when they want to quickly scale their businesses and build impact-focused brands.

Bedros has just released a new book with a message that I think is incredibly timely and society needs to hear. It’s called “Man Up: How to Cut the Bullshit and Kick Ass in Business and in Life.”

After hearing that title you can probably guess why I brought him back on…but what is most important is not just the message of the book, but the real, tried and tested actions Bedros will teach you that you can start using now to reach your full potential now.

www.Manup.com

Bedros calls himself the “Immigrant Edge” and the “American Dream.” His family escaped the Soviet Union when he was 5 with 2 suitcases to their names and no one spoke English. He grew up with nothing and very poor. He had a lot of anxiety and pain about not being able to fit in and numbed his pain with eating.

In 11th grade, he wanted to ask a girl to the prom. He knew he had to lose some weight. He was very overweight with low self-esteem. He spent the summer between junior and senior year working out and came back to school losing over 30 lbs with a little more self-esteem, but still didn’t have the confidence to ask a girl out. But that summer made a difference for him. He originally had planned to leave school and go to technical school, but after seeing the difference he made in himself, he decided he wanted to help other have and feel the same transformation.

He decided to become a personal trainer instead. He got certified, but had not clients and even the few he got weren’t paying him much. He got two side jobs, one as a bouncer and one as a fry cook at Disneyland. He was always tired. One of his clients asked him about it and pointed out how he was poor at marketing and sales. The client brought him a sales tape on how to sell better. That lead to Bedros diving into personal growth. Before long, he was having more success and then creating personal training studios. He was able to sell those in the early 2000’s and then started coaching and consulting personal trainers on how to do what he had done.

That became the base of what he has done today in coaching and consulting, and the creation of Fit Body Bootcamp a franchise that now has over 700 locations worldwide and opening up dozens per month.

At the 12 min mark, Bedros explains what the most important message he wants to teach people with Man Up…

• Entrepreneurs are islands. We suffer in silence.
• Bedros went through this when he started to build the business around Fit Body Bootcamp
• As he grew a larger organization, he found he was missing something. He had good control a solopreneur or with a few employees, but as the business grew, he knew he was not equipped for the task.
• He was a poor communicator and started to have a bad relationship with employees. He was passive aggressive and had animosity.
• He was unclear in his vision and in explaining it to employees He realized he was not equipped to “win the game.”
• He actually gave up on things, but after self-reflection realized everything came down to his leadership and he hadn’t “manned up” to take responsibility.
• The book is designed to teach people how to be a better leader through taking ownership, learning to communicate better, becoming better at decision making, emotional resilience, and how to be clearer on your mission and vision.

After everything you’ve learned and done to this point, what’s the #1 thing you’ve seen that holds other back from reaching their fullest potential?

• Everyone is afraid to take full ownership
• They must stop making excuses, take control of the situation, and rise to the challenges.
• The most effective thing you can to control your outcome is the become a “Control King or Queen.”

You start the book by taking about leading self. Explain that.

• Lead from the front. It starts with self-discipline.
• You cannot expect others to do things you haven’t done or demonstrated the discipline to do.
• Practice tell, show do. Tell your team what you are looking for them to do. Show them exactly what it is. Then ask them to do it. Don’t assume that people just get it.

Tell us about the 5% rule…

• It is critical for anyone leading anything
• The leader must focus on their 5%. The 5% of things that they are extraordinary at.
• The 5% are the biggest levers a leader can only do
• The leader must then delegate the 95% of things they are not the best at

How can someone uncover their purpose, vision, and path – and then make it a reality?

• It more about developing your purpose, developing a skill.
• Most don’t take the time to get introspective and ask, “What do I really want?”
• What are your drivers? Money, meaning, possessions?
• You can have all 3, but you must create meaning alongside what you want.
• Don’t’ jump around other people’s purposes and desires – you must develop your own.

At the 38 min mark, Bedros shares the practices and habits that leaders must do to build great, high-performing teams…

• Reading about the Navy SEALs gave Bedros some of his best advice for building a team.
• If you notice, the are called “SEAL Teams” not SEAL individuals.
• A team is a group of individuals brought together to compete against an opponent and win.
• There is a difference between having a true team and having employees
• Teams are outcome driven and obsessed with beating the opponent together doing what it takes.
• As a leader, it is your responsibility to get our team members to play up to their highest potential.
• A great example is if you find a book or message that helps you as a leader, you should share it with your team and engage them to learn the material.
• Or send them to a training or event to teach them more

Outside teams vs. Inside Teams

• Outside teams are friends, consultants, and coaches you work within your industry.
• Your inside team are the people on your teams in your business that you lead on a daily basis.
• Your outside team holds you accountable. You hold your inside team accountable.

We all have this book of our life and unfortunately most people hand the pen over to others to write the book, when they are the ones that should be writing it. Take the pen back and decide for yourself what the pages really look like.

Best Quote: “We all have this book of our life and unfortunately most people hand the pen over to others to write the book, when they are the ones that should be writing it. Take the pen back and decide for yourself what the pages really look like.”

Bedros's Misfit 3:

Leadership is critical. It is the problem and the solution

Leadership starts with self-discipline. Work on yourself first. Lead from the front and then set high expectations.

You do hold the pen. Take back control of your life and your story.

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Noah St. John. Noah St. John is known by many as “The World’s Most Trusted Peak Performance Coach” and is famous for helping entrepreneurs get rid of their head trash and make more money.

He has been featured worldwide, everywhere from ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Parade Magazine, Forbes.com, and The Huffington Post. He’s also the only author in history to have works published by Hay House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Mindvalley, Nightingale-Conant, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher.

You no doubt can probably guess why I decided to have Noah on the show. Money is one of the most emotional and challenging things in life for most people to manage. It can create problems or when you learn take control of it mentally and emotionally, used to do incredible things and help leave an impact on the world.

I’ve asked Noah to come today to help you learn how to do the latter with your money

NoahStJohn.com

SendMeaBookNoah.com

Noah “grew up poor in a rich neighborhood.” He was born in Kennebunkport, MA, lived at the end of a dirt road his parents ultimately lost the house to foreclosure. Noah hated the life of poverty and fear and lack as he stared at the abundance around him. He wanted to get out, but he didn’t know how to do it.

He went to the library and started reading about personal and spiritual growth, but just couldn’t seem to put was he was learning together and was living in a feeling of desperation. At the age of 25, he decided to commit suicide. At the very last moment, his life was spared – so he committed his life to serving. But, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. It took another 5 years before he truly discovered his mission, in 1997.

He had 2 epiphanies. One was how to change his thought patterns and conditioning by asking powerful questions and the other is something Noah has come to call, Success Anorexia.

At the 7 min mark, I ask Noah, What is “Head Trash” and how to we get rid of it? How do we get un-stuck? The answer is a must listen.

• Noah asks, “What does it mean to be stuck? What is causing it? And how can we get rid of it?”
• People have a feeling of being overwhelmed.
• Being stuck happened because of your “head trash.” The voice in your head that says, I can’t do it, because…(fill in the blank)
• The damaging about head trash is that you always make yourself right…what you tell yourself becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• It keeps you stuck for the very reason that you’re telling yourself it’s true.
• You must learn to recognize it and get rid of it.

What is the process that someone needs to start to become aware to their head trash and begin to make real change to it?

• First, write down where your head trash is affecting you. What is your “I can’t do it, because…” Write them down.
• Do you consciously want to hold yourself back from succeeding? No
• You have to fight the impulses and urges to sabotage yourself by recognizing your negative thought patterns and stop them.

How does someone go about changing their automatic responses and habits from their conditioned mind?

At the 17 min mark, Noah explains the Power Habits of Unconsciously Successful People…

• There are the naturals of success, 1-2% of people who are unconsciously competent in allowing themselves to succeed.
• The problem is that they are not helpful to the 99% of people that have real head trash that they don’t.
• One of the foundational power habits is afformations – NOT and affirmation.
• The human brain operates using questions not statements – it searches for answers.
• Telling yourself “I am rich” does not activate the brain.” Instead ask yourself, “Why am I so rich?” This makes your brain start to search for the answer. This is the law of sowing and reaping. You are sowing seeds of thought. Most are sowing lousy thoughts seeds. When you ask lousy questions, you get lousy answers and a lousy life.
• You must ask phenomenal questions which give you phenomenal answers which give you a phenomenal life.
• www.Afformations.com to learn more

Outside of understanding their thinking and how it relates to money, what are the other two money mistakes that people make?

• Not having a mentor and trying to do everything yourself
• A true mentor has to have 3 elements:
  • They must be where you want to be
  • Do they have a system that has helped anybody else?
  • Do they actually help you get there?
• The 3rd money mistake people make is gathering too much information without giving yourself permission to succeed.
• We are overloaded with information and if you gather too much information without taking action, it doesn’t matter.
• There is no lack of information, but a lack of transformation. Knowledge is no longer power, because access to information is everywhere.
• Knowledge into action is power.
• Yes, you will make mistakes. It doesn’t matter – get going.

What are the other Power Habits?

• Systems of support. You must put in place systems of support with people, activities, environment, introspection, and simplify.
• Goal-free zones. Give yourself permission to stop setting goals. Give yourself the ability to stop and recharge.
• Find your “Because.” There are “why tos” and “why not tos.” One is the foot on the gas and one is on the break. But, more importantly is finding your because – your mission.

What are the top things entrepreneurs need to be focused on in today’s world to succeed?

• You have to understand the incredible importance of your inner game.
• You still have to focus on your outer game but balance it with the inner game. You succeed from the inside out.

Who do you go to for mentorship?

Dr. Steven Covey

Best Quote: “You must ask phenomenal questions which give you phenomenal answers which give you a phenomenal life..”

Noah's Misfit 3:

• Use “Afformations”, the empowering questions to help you succeed.
• Focus a big part of your effort on mastering your inner game and removing head trash.
• Give yourself permission to succeed!

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Tofe Evans. Tofe’s story is incredible. First off, he wrote the runaway best-seller, Everyone Has a Plan Until Shit Hits the Fan – if that tells you anything. But, Tofe has been to hell and back and what he has learned about life, resilience, and the human spirit is remarkable.

Tofe came back from literally almost losing his life. He dedicated everything to teaching people what he has learned and raising awareness for various causes. Tofe pushes every limit and boundary he can find through being a top endurance athlete. In fact, he completed over 40 endurance events in one year just to raise awareness for cancer research, as well as a 60-kilometer ultramarathon on Mt. Everest – yes, that mt. Everest, for Cystic Fibrosis.

As he says, he is on a mission to help transform those who are feeling week or worthless into warriors and I can’t wait for him his to share everything he’s got for you today. Word to the wise, this will be a raw unfiltered episode, because that is who Tofe is, so get ready for a wild ride!

www.tofe-evans.com

Tofe’s journey started when he was a kid and fell in love with traveling. He tried a number of businesses to fund the life he wanted – but he failed and it wore on him to the point where adversity seemed to be his normal state of life. He started to become something different, self-destructive. He would put on masks, so people didn’t see what he really was, but it didn’t work. He became a terrible person to people.

He finally couldn’t take the loneliness and disconnect from being human and even attempted to kill himself by taking enough drugs where he thought her would overdose. For some reason, it didn’t work. He had to get help to work on his mental health. And in starting to open up and going through the process of re-finding himself, he started to learn how adversity could be a blessing and how he could use it to fuel his recovery.

He also started to self-educate and that is when he came up with the idea that he would run his first marathon. For him, once he made the decision, he realized that it was like life super condensed. Training and do the race was a great metaphor for life.

At the 9:30 mark, Tofe shares how a marathon is a great metaphor for life.

After completing the marathon. He was hooked and asked the question “How can we make a difference through doing this?”

So, he connected with a friend and they started on a journey where they did over 40 different events in one year to raise money for various causes.

After everything you’ve been through and done, what have you found that matters most?

• The fundamentals of life: Food, water, shelter, family
• Family can be your close friends and family, your inner circle

At the 11 min mark, Tofe talks about the differences he has noticed between developing countries and first world countries.

• The people are very poor so they focus on the fundamentals
• In 1st world countries, we have everything so easily accessible, which makes us shy away from adversity and not embrace it and use it to better ourselves as human beings
• People won’t remember you for the material items, but for the impact you bring
• Ask anyone who’s run a marathon, they don’t care what kind of food they have after, even it’s just banana. They really care what kind of bed they have if they have a place to rest. The fundamentals are what matter when they strip everything away.

Explain Adversity x Mindset x Gratitude

• It’s the Practical Resilience Framework. Once you have all 3 working in play, it gives an exponential effect.
• It starts with adversity of any kind. It is the fuel that is needed to grow. It teaches you how to have a “6 pack mind” as a 6-pack mind is much better to have than a 6-pack body.
• Overcoming adversity teaches you a mindset of grit and how to push through your limitation.
• Once you’ve been through things and have had the experience both good and bad, you feel the gratitude and are more likely to give back and help others.
• We are made of the same elements (carbon, water, etc.) and the average human uses only 1/20 of the their potential. We are destined to be far greater than we realize.

“You can’t compare yourself to others. Comparing is a cancer.”

What have you learned about the capabilities of the human spirit…

• It comes down to compassion and empathy
• You truly understand the value of something when it is taken away from you
• The human spirit relays back to community and family.

How can people practice practical resilience in their lives? Listen at the 25 min mark as Tofe goes into more detail on the items below.

• It comes back to Adversity x Mindset x Gratitude
• Think of it like a Ven- Diagram where the sweet spot is in the middle
• The first step is to acknowledge what you have been through and gone through
• Ask yourself what the mindset was that go you through it?
• Since you have been through it, do you have more wisdom and knowledge?Do you see how you can be grateful for it?

How can we get rid of the barriers keeping us from our greatness?

• Remove the negative people from your life
• Be around people of action and that are striving for something
• Try not to be idle
• Dream of the impossible
• Tap into your creativity – remember the world you would create for yourself when you were a kid where anything was possible
• We have the world at our fingertips – What do you want to do before you die? Start small and work your way up to bigger things.
  • Focus on the small victories that are on the pathway to the larger goal
• If it’s not illegal, immoral, or unethical, just do it! Say yes.

At the 36 min mark, Tofe explains what to do when “shit hits the fan”

It comes down to 2 things…

• Adapting
• Bouncing Back

Don’t be too attached to the outcome, instead focus on the process of what it takes to get there as that is the real work and where the real effort is needed.

Pay close attention to your habits because “The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken”

How does all of this that we’ve discussed translate to entrepreneurship?

• Use the Practical Resilience Framework
• Adaptation is critical
• You have to take care of your mental health at the same level you take care of the rest of your health
• Embrace the process and small victories
• Don’t go it alone

At the 46 min mark, Tofe talks about what it is like to run 0ver 60 KM’s on Mount Everest…

Best Quote: “Practice “Present Focused Living.” Depression is when you are living too much in the past and anxiety is when you are living too far in the future.”

Tofe's Misfit 3:

1. Understand that whatever adversity you are going through will make you who you are as a person.
2. Do something scary every day. List your 10 top fears and start with your easiest one.
3. Practice gratitude so that it becomes one of your primary traits. List the top 100 things you are grateful for.

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Pejmon Ghadimi or PJ for note. PJ is a self-made entrepreneur and bestselling author, with over 10 books to his name. He was born in 1982 in the middle of a revolution in Iran and was raised by a single mom in France for the majority of his childhood, and eventually migrated to the United States in 1997.

PJ has a number of businesses, most notably Secret Entourage and it's affiliate businesses which have grossed over $40 million in revenue annually. He’s been featured everywhere from Forbes to Fox Business and also has interests in real estate and exotic cars – all of which we will touch on today.

But, the big reason I wanted to have PJ on the show is for him to teach you the systems and processes that he has learned and used to grow multi-million dollar businesses from scratch.

www.learnfromPJ.com

PJ says he’s been able to do what he has done with a LOT of hard work. He spent his childhood fleeing from country to country until they could make it to the US. But when they made it, they didn’t have a green card which made the only way to make money being an entrepreneur. But, PJ did find a loophole that allowed him to get a job at the age of 14 as a telemarketer.

He worked his way up from there to become the director of a remodeling company until he was 18. He then became one of the youngest bank managers in the US and had a successful career in banking until age 25 where he “fired himself” and found himself without purpose. He was 25 and had money. He took time to figure out what he really wanted to do.

He started the world’s first alternative asset investment fund called VIP Motoring and that became his largest business. Through that business, he made a number of great connections and was able to retire as CEO in 2011 and put in place a management team to keep running the business.

He then transitioned his focus to legacy and training and educating people to help them succeed including Secret Entourage and other ventures.

You’ve been through an incredible life journey – what is the most important thing you’ve learned at this point?

The biggest enemy to success is entitlement. You should never feel entitled to anything. Earn it.

You wrote “The 3rd Circle Theory,” take us through the 3 circles and what they mean…

• PJ goes through this in detail at the 9 min mark with advice, so make sure to listen
• Every human being goes through 3 different stages or circles as they progress through life
• The first is “Acceptance and Mastery of Circumstance”
• The second is “Acceptance and Mastery of Society”
• The third is “Mastery of Life”
• A high state of self-awareness leads you to true self-actualization

Examples and the lesson of each circle?

• Circle 1 is anyone who finds themselves where they are unhappy with life and don’t have an answer on how to turn it around or are not taking steps to do so. People in this circle do not understand how to take ownership of their circumstances
• Circle 2 are individuals in their careers who understand what they need to do but are still striving to prove their worth in society. They understand that money does play a big factor. People have to learn in this stage how not only to live in society but learn how to impact it.
• Circle 3 are individuals that have found massive success and now understand how the world does not revolve around them, but instead how they can make a true impact on the world.

Don’t look outward for blame, instead look inward for change…Take responsibility and take back control. You are the cause of your own happiness or misery.

The difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur?

• A business owner’s job is to create profit. The goal of an entrepreneur is to create social change.
• A business is a vehicle that an entrepreneur uses to create the chance
• A business’s job is to facilitate transactions. An entrepreneur’s job is to create non-existent transactions.

You should first master the art of business before becoming an entrepreneur

At the 19 min mark, we get into a really fascinating discussion on these topics using the example of Tesla.

What are the steps you teach on how to create your 1st million-dollar business?

• A million dollars in revenue for a business enables processes that allow it to survive and scale and grow from there.
• Reaching a million changes the paradigm from creating a “job” that is a business to really becoming a business that can continue to grow and work for you.
• You must first understand the difference between awareness and self-awareness
• Then you can understand the 5 pillars of entrepreneurship
  • It begins with the idea
  • Ideas transition to products
  • Products transition to businesses
  • Businesses transition to brands
  • Brands transition to empire
• In the early stages, you must be keenly focused on creating transactions. Nothing happens until something gets sold.

Good business is simple, but it is not easy…Good things happen, bad things happen, but you must be consistent in your efforts and adaptive to the market

Talk about the systems that are critical to free an owner from a business so that it can keep running and paying them, but without them.

• You will get to a point where the best use of your time is not in “managing” a business
• Hire those to management it for you
• Create a business that recycles resources and companies – as a result, you never do more work than you have done in the business
• An example is creating new business that current customers in one venture would buy in the another
• Leveraging resources is important across businesses which reduces costs and benefits your profitability.

Are there any critical habits that you think entrepreneurs should practice?

• Waking up early – the more of the day you have, the more damage you can do
• Plan and put your agendas down on paper

How can own exotic and luxury cars for amazing deals or even for free?

• It’s more math than a car thing
• It’s not how much car can you afford, but the formula that allows you to get the car at fraction of the cost, save on tax, insurance, etc.
• It’s cheaper to fix a Lamborghini than a base model c-class
• www.Exoticcarhacks.com gives the different formulas on how to do this

Best Quote: “The biggest enemy to success is entitlement. Don’t look outward for blame, instead look inward for change…Take responsibility and take back control. You are the cause of your own happiness or misery. ”

Misfit 3:

1. Do the work, don’t question the work. Focus on getting it done however you need to.

2. Become a master at everything you do. The better you get at something, the less you chase the money, but the more the money chases you.

3. No one can take away your character. Every victory or failure you have builds this in you. All the choices you make define you and your character.

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 some lessons I learned for life and business from completing my first half Ironman Triathlon. First off, I cannot tell you how much you and mommy’s support means to me as I go after goals like this. Seeing you cheering for me is a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life.

As you grow up, you will have more and more opportunities to accomplish big goals or bucket list items and get to experience how it feels. It is a big achievement. And probably like me, you will feel, once you've done it, that you can go to even higher levels or push yourself further. Even more important are the lessons you learn in going through the experience. Now that I have done a Half Ironman, I am already planning my second one as well as preparing to do a full. A Half Ironman is a 1.25 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a half marathon (13.1 miles) - 70.3 miles in total. A full Ironman is 140.6.

As I reflected on the experience, some great lessons for life and business stood out to me and I wanted to share them with you.

7 Lessons Learned from My First Ironman:

Planning and preparation makes a huge difference

• You have to think through every scenario and know what you will do, as best as you can before getting into the race.
• Once in the race, things will happen that you cannot plan for, but if you are prepared and ready, it is much easier to deal with.
• Life and business are like this as well. They are like an endurance race.You have to plan and prepare, get the direction you want to go right, but understand and be ready for the unknowns and challenges that will come.

Expect the unexpected (good and bad)

• One big lesson I learned was around salt. I was ahead of my planned time after getting off the bike, but halfway through the run, I started to cramp up and my legs starting locking up. I was well hydrated and had plenty of Gatorade, etc. and was really puzzled. It was then that I asked someone about it an aid station and then said I needed salt - even more than what Gatorade was providing. So, I got some pure salt from another racer (who was prepared) and over the next few miles I was able to get back to running and finish things out. If I had planned for salt intake, I probably could have finished at least 20-30 mins earlier. It is amazing how something so small makes a huge difference.
• This translates well to life and business in that things will hardly ever go as planned and you have to be ready for the unexpected, but not get emotionally wrapped up in things and let yourself be derailed. Focus on what you can control and what you need to do to finish/win/reach the desired outcome – and then execute.
• Always be ready and think logically – not emotionally. I could have stopped the race, but instead, I asked what I needed to do and then implemented it allowing me to finish.

Training is not the same as the real thing

• I think we all know this, but a race like the Ironman really shows it.
• Practice is not the same as the real thing. Practice is great, but the best way to learn is to get out there and figure it out, fail, succeed, learn, and keep going.
• You learn best by doing and going through the experience. (see above on my salt lesson)

You can always do better - Perfection is unattainable, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive for it

• Every one of us can succeed at higher levels than we are now. We know it deep down, Hannah, you know it deep down and we feel it. Embrace it and go for it.
• Based on what I learned in the race and properly preparing for salt intake, etc. I know I can shave 30 mins off my time next time.

You find allies and partners in the most unexpected places

• My Apple watch died halfway through the bike course, so I was flying blind in knowing my pace, time, etc.
• I found an ally and it made a huge difference. I was able to find someone who was going the pace I know I needed to ride at and asked for their help in allowing me to pace off them. They would update me every so many miles, so I knew I was hitting the targets for the ride.
• In life and business, there are partners and allies in the most unexpected places - always be open to finding them. And don’t be afraid to ask for help!

You win in your mind before you win anywhere else

• I finished my race around 1pm, got my stuff, went home, and slept for a hour. I got up and realized that I forgot to get my morning clothes bag and went back over at about 4:30 pm to get it.
• Everyone was gone – there were maybe 10-15 people still around, cleaning up and taking everything down.
• That is when I saw it – 3 bikers and a heavyset woman – 250+ lbs. She was running toward me and the finish. She was the last one. It took her 10 hours, but she finished. I watched and couldn’t do anything, but cheer and clap for her. I was one of only a few in an empty stadium – but she finished. She finished because she won first in her mind and that was no match for her physical limitations.
• If you do not fully believe you can accomplish or reach your goal, it will not happen

Having a big goal that you are devoted and so committed to, that there is no option but to reach, it is one of the best drivers for success

• What is your big goal? Are you doing everything possible that you know you can to reach it? It if doesn’t feel almost like an obsession, it’s not big enough.

So there you have it. 7 very important and useful lessons for anyone on their journey to success. They work across all areas of your life, and sweetie, I hope you can put them to use for you!

I love you, Daddy

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Michelle Wienstein. Michelle is “the Pitch Queen.” Michelle is a sales superstar and has done everything from advising CEO’s at billion dollar companies to landing contracts with companies like Costco and pitching her way on to Shark Tank. She is also the host of the Success Unfiltered Podcast and the Saturday morning Facebook Live show Coffee is for Closers.

Michelle’s mission is to help entrepreneurs sell high-value services to their clients without feeling pushy or desperate and to show them how to have empowered sales conversations and skyrocket their top-line revenue.

What I like about Michelle is that she has been through it all. She has been on top of the world in business only to have it all come crashing down on her, but then fought her way back. The lessons she has learned on her journey are priceless and what she can teach you about how to sell yourself and your business will help you grow your business and earn more money.

www.successunfiltered.com

www.thepitchqueen.com

www.sellwithoutsleaze.com

Out of college, Michelle was a financial analyst. She followed the mantra of go to school, get a secure job, and plan for retirement. After a few years, she couldn’t take it. She left and went into sales at Nordstroms. It was there she learned a lot of skills.

She got thinking what she could do with her analyst background and sales, so she got into the real estate and mortgage businesses. She was working a lot and started to have an unhealthy lifestyle – and she was a health enthusiast. She hated to cook, but wanted to find a way to eat healthier. She came up with an idea for healthy prepared meals to sell. She started Fitzee Foods.

She had initial success. She raised over million dollars for the business. She got into Costco and the Vitamin shop and even got to pitch the idea on Shark Tank, but ultimately had to close the business down in 2017.

As she says, “It was a really expensive MBA program…”

The lessons learned with Fitzee were really the stepping stone to becoming the “Pitch Queen.”

What were the most important things you learned going through the experience with Fitzee? Why didn’t it survive? And How did you claw your way back?

• She’s still paying things back over a year later
• One lesson she learned was that although she had a passion for health, she wasn’t a chef, and didn’t have the real experience needed.
• You should have an expertise in the product or service you are selling
• You have to interview your investors as much as they are interviewing you. Interview at least 3 companies that they have invested in. Michelle made the mistake of taking investment money from the wrong group.
• Make sure every single investor is an “accredited investor.”
• Remember, you are getting “married” to those investing in you.

How important is timing?

• It is very important
• Fitzee came before the “boxed meal” craze and was early on the trend
• capitalization is very important – you have to be well-capitalized to whether the storms and get through the startup phase to really make it. If you are underfunded, it makes it even harder.
• Some businesses are more capital intensive to get going than others – you must understand this

At the 24 min mark, Michelle shares why learning to sell is so important for success…

• No matter who you are, you are having sales conversations all of the time.
• Sales is really about how you are helping people
• Sales is the foundation of your business. The first number on your P&L is sales (income)
• Selling does not have to be stressful. We make it stressful.
• The core of sales is building a great relationship and focusing on building a great relationship with your prospect makes it easier to ask them to buy – not “sell” them.

Michelle’s 5 Step PITCH Queen System (www.sellwithoutsleaze.com)

• Problem solve: Figure out what your client’s problem is and make sure to help them solve it in your pitch.
• It’s not about you: It is about what is important to them
• Talk less: Use the 80/20 rule. They talk 80% of the time, you talk 20% of the time.
• Cues: Buying signals. Look for the cues (verbal, non-verbal) that they want to buy
• Hit the ask the button: Ask them for the business

At the 37-min mark, Michelle talks about what it means to be “professionally annoying” and gives examples.

How did you pitch your way on to Shark Tank?

You have to be professionally annoying.

It is a better place to pitch for a product based business or tech business.

Michelle reached out to every producer and followed almost 2 times per week.

They send people home all the time if you are not on point for your pitch at all times – you have to be on your game.

Know which Shark you are pitching to because one of them will be the best fit for your pitch and solution.

Shark Tank is the Olympics for entrepreneurs

Best Quote: “When you are always showing up, you become “professionally annoying” and get business”

Misfit 3:

1. If you stay in the game, success is inevitable.
2. Embrace the selling process with confidence. It’s the only way you are really going to help people.
3. Live every single day with passion and be true to your “why.”