EntreLeadership - #108: Gary Vaynerchuk–What You Need to Succeed

Episode Date: August 17, 2015

We’re talking with one of our favorite guests: social-media genius Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary’s discussing the character qualities every person needs to win, and how you balance them with success. It��s an amazing conversation—one you don’t want to miss.  entreleadership.com/podcast 7-Day Plan to Triple Your ProductivityAnother great episode sponsored by our friends at Infusionsoft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now here is your host, Ken Coleman. We are coming to you from the Music City, and this is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, four leaders, wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Thank you for hanging out with us. We really appreciate it.

We know you have a lot of options. We take your ears very seriously. Our feature conversation. Oh, me and Eric, the producer, are a little extra excited about this one because, quite frankly, it was just a great conversation. It's none other than Gary Vaynerchuk. If you're not successful right now in this environment, you need to take a good, hard look at yourself and think about if you're an actual entrepreneur business person. I had the opportunity to first meet Gary Vaynerchuk at our BGP, Business Gets Personal Event last fall in New York City. It was a great event, and he is a treat.

The guy really does tell it like it is. We need more of that. Also coming up, I'm going to tell you the speaker lineup for Entree Leadership Summit, part dee. The second one. It was such a rousing success out in Southern California that we are coming at you again this spring in May. I'll tell you more about that at the end of the conversation, and I'm going to unveil all of the speakers except for one, because we like a little intrigue.

So stay tuned for that. That's going to be a lot of fun. All right, folks, don't forget the special offer. Seven days to triple your productivity. Who would not want to take us up on that offer? So many of you have, and we're glad you have. It's very easy. If you're just now hearing about it, we've got a plan to help you triple your productivity

in only seven days is completely free, no strings attached. Here's how you get it. Very simple. All you've got to do is text the word triple. That's right, triple. Just text it to 33444-44. 3-3-4-44-text the word triple, and you get our seven-day plan to triple your productivity. Now, if you are international, the text will not work, but you can simply go to ontreleadership.com

slash podcast, and we have a link for you to be able to get the seven-day plan. So don't worry about it. Texting, if you're international, just go to our website, entreeleadership.com slash podcast. That's entreleadership.com slash podcast. Gary Vaynerchuk is a super entrepreneur. got started, taking his family's wine business from okay to unbelievable. Since then, he's become a big-time investor. He's a social media genius, really.

And his company is now one of the most respected digital media companies in the country. This guy does it all, and he does it quickly, confidently, and he gives great advice. You know what I love about the guy? He just shoots from the hip, and he does it well. So let's get right to it. Here is my conversation with the Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary, so stoked to be with you again. Last time we were together, it was on the stage with Dave Ramsey and Seth Godin in New York City, and that was a great day. Thrill to have you with us.

I want to talk about something that you're talking about all the time, and that is self-awareness. I think, I agree with you, this is the single most important thing that anybody in the world needs to be focusing on, not just entrepreneurs or leaders. But let's talk about this self-awareness. why do you think this is the single biggest issue we should be focusing on? Because when you're not tricking yourself, you're putting yourself in a position to succeed, right? The thing that I'm most scared about when I talk about self-awareness is, can it be formed? Can you get better at it? Is it something you can learn?

Because if it is, it is literally the only thing I should spend my life talking about because it is absolutely the backbone of success. Because what happens is you keep yourself away from things that are not going to make you successful, and you're going to do the things that will make you successful and successful in life, let alone business, right? You're going to be happier and you're going to make more money. I mean, it's not super complicated. So I think when you look at the people that we kind of give accolades to in society,

I think tend to be very self-aware because they're people that had enormously interesting skills, whether athletically or artistically, business chops, and they went all in on it. There's very few people that become great, later on. They're doing all the things in the early days, and it comes actually from self-awareness. It's recognizing your talent and then honing it, putting in the work. So I just think it is one of the most important characteristics that human being can have. Self-awareness and empathy, to me, are the two sides of the coin that allow you to be great. All right, so I want to stay here

and just camp out because there's this huge cultural temptation, cultural pressure, to get us to lie to ourselves. And you're Mr. Social Media. You dive into it as deep as anybody that I've ever met. And so I want us to get real here. How much of this self-awareness journey is impeded by the social media, I want to put my best foot forward stuff that everyone's dealing with? That's a really good question.

I mean, I think, first of all, you're already excited me. That's one of the better questions I've been asked in an interview in a while. Look, I think everybody is putting out the PR version of themselves. I think every single person in the world right now is in the PR business because of their behavior on social. They are forcing the narrative to the world that they want to see whether they understand it consciously or subconsciously. I mean, there are 15-year-old girls on Instagram. This is common 15-year-old behavior. Take a picture of yourself, put it on Instagram.

it doesn't get enough likes in the first three seconds, and I mean, call it three minutes, take it down, repeat. And literally it is taking people an hour to put up a selfie because of that. And so I don't know how much it's impeding or competing or altering, but it's definitely happening. I mean, the phenomenon of everybody being a PR person is very real, and it's interesting to see how that collides with us camping out here on the self-awareness issue. I think that the one place that I see it playing itself out is you're aware of the kind of

content that you can put out if you actually want to bring value to the audience, very, you know, in tune to the kind of stuff that would work for the people that follow me versus what won't. And even though there may be things that I want to put out there, you know, and I do at times because I'm being selfish, I'm always trying to reverse engineer and bring value to the audience. There is just a certain innate, I don't want to call it a quality, it's just a fact, that humans compare ourselves to others. There's just no way around it. And what I love about your message of self-awareness,

certainly when we're in business and trying to lead people and make our mark and brand and all those things that you've been discussing so far, there is a real challenge to make sure that you aren't comparing yourself so much that you try to be something you're not. And I love this message of self-awareness because we've got to be who we are, because we will fail if we're trying to be somebody else. my outrageous weakness in the game that I play is that I actually have no idea what the hell anybody's doing when people ask me who else is doing great stuff I'm like oh crap because now

I'm stuck right because the answer is I'm not sure and I'm always not bringing value them to the question in the audience because they're looking for other examples to the cynical part of the audience thinks I'm just being a jerk and trying to act cool but the truth is it takes so much time for me to just do what I'm doing. I'm not super focused or even aware of what my contemporaries. I don't know what Seth Godin is doing on social or not. I just don't. And I love Seth, and I think he's brilliant. And, you know, I just don't know what Dave Ramsey's doing. I don't know what Zucks or Simons or I just don't know what anybody's doing because I'm more reacting to my audience than worrying about trying to pick up tactics from anybody else because I know I always do

my best work when I use my naive eyes and I stay in my zone. That is brilliant. Right there. That is absolutely brilliant. Focus on what you have to focus on. I've been dying to ask you this question since I first met you and I didn't have time in New York. This is the perfect place to do it. I'm a big fan of what Gallup, Tom Rath, Marcus Buckingham are doing on the Strengths Revolution. And I'm curious to know what you think about that, especially when we're talking about self-awareness. Do we need to focus on our weaknesses at all? Or are you a guy? I happen to be this one and says, let's just be aware of my weaknesses so I can mitigate those and totally play to my strengths. Do you agree with that?

100%. It is absolutely what I've been preaching my whole life, even as a kid to my friends. Even to, like, my nerdy, I remember giving advice in fifth grade to my nerdy neighbor, Michael Bronfman. Sorry, Michael, if you're listening. He was in love with Sylvia, the prettiest girl in fifth grade. And I was like, hey, man, you know, you're not going to win on being the coolest. kid or things of nature, you just need to go all in on nerdiness and hope that she thinks that

algebra is cool. And I've just literally been there my whole life, right? It's why I was a DNF student. I just knew that that game wasn't for me, and I was willing to take on the social pressure and feedback that pigeonholed me as not a winning player because I knew I was because I was only betting on my strengths. I think the American economy is enormously affected by people selling people on their weaknesses. Take these pills. Take, you know, do this. Get prettier, get thinner, get smarter, get richer. People are prying on weaknesses, and I really like to think about it the other way. So I've heard you tell your story about how your mother gave you huge self-esteem. I want to talk about that some more, but I wanted to give that contextual statement for folks who

may not know your story as well. But you said just a minute ago you were a DNF student. Just curious, Were you a DNF student because you just weren't engaged? It was just boring to you. You didn't enjoy it. What was the reason that you were a DNF student? I'd really like to think it's the cliche thing of somebody that was massively successful and sucked at school, which was it wasn't interesting. I knew this.

You know, I think so. I mean, look, it's weird. Me and my mom had an interesting debate. I was at my parents for a whole week with my family. And my mom's like, no, like my mom's even trying. to change the script. I got really mad at my mom. I'm like, Mom, you were there.

You were the one punishing me where she was like, it wasn't all DNF. And I was like, you're right. I got to be in history. So, look, I stopped doing homework in sixth grade. From sixth grade on, I never did homework. I literally went years without opening books. Like literally you'd get your book the first day of school,

and it would literally sit in my book bag the whole year, the entire year. So I wasn't engaged. I wasn't interested, but the classes that I was, the only one I can really think of, which is history, you know, I got a B because I really listened to the story that the teacher was telling. And then when the test came, I would remember it and I would regurgitate it. But I didn't do any homework, so that probably is why I didn't get an A. And that's it.

So I think so. The reason I ask that is it leads to this, because we're talking to leaders today, but there are also, a lot of them are parents. And a lot of this applies to leading people, how you hire. people and what you're looking for. And I think this is such a fascinating and important discussion. So your mother gave you huge self-esteem. What I'm curious about is how you balance that, because you have been successful. You are an extreme hustler. And I just worry about all these parents that tell their kids they're great and they can do anything they want. And we've got

kids getting trophies just for showing up and playing. And we've got the American Idol generation that they go in an audition. And Simon Cowell, tells them that they suck and they're just obliterated. They're just devastated. They've never heard anybody tell them that they're not good at anything. So how did your mom build your self-esteem, but not build this fantasy that you didn't just die when the real world hit you? Well, that's a awesome question, mainly because I told my wife the other day, go, look, we're going to have rich kids. I already disrespect them. Two, I really don't care about school. I think the school system is broken. We're paying a lot of money for private.

private schools for something that they have on their fingertips, which is regurgitate to us and memorize information, which is on their phone. But I said the one thing I care about in the world is if you put them in any sports, if we put them in any sports or camps that give eighth place trophies, I'm going to go ballistic. So here's what my mom did. The answer to your question is my mom kept it awfully real, meaning she gave me accolades on the things that she thought I was good at, being a good guy, being charismatic, being a good salesman, being a good young businessman. And any time I did anything that she didn't think was the right thing, she punched me in the mouth. And when I say she punched me in the mouth, I just want everybody to hear this.

And sorry, Mom, she literally slapped me in the mouth. Like, literally physically. Like, I know that's not politically correct in today's society, but I just need everybody understand what happened. If I lied to her, I got smacked in the mouth. You know, luckily I really love people, so I wasn't disrespectful, but in my adolescence, if I ever didn't say thank you or please, or was rude or condescending because I was emotional because I just lost at something. You know, when I went crazy in a tennis match and John Macon wrote it out, she literally grabbed my sister and brother and drove away. I have no way to get home. She was out.

So my mom played the game that I believe in, which is the full extremes in the things that she thought I was good at. She was a judge and jury of this. At the things that she thought I was good at, she made me know and feel like I was the best at it. For the things that she didn't believe, she made me pay the consequences physically and emotionally. You know that my mom punished me? No TV, no Sega Genesis, no hanging out with friends for three to six weeks, depending on her mood, every time I got a report card. even though she knew that it had no impact, even though she knew that I was going to be fine and great, she made me feel the consequences of the actions of the game that I was playing at the moment in the short term

to make me know that there was consequences for not being good at something. Oh, that's so good. So this leads me to something I know you feel strongly about, and that's this idea that everybody wants to be the top dog leader, Everybody wants to start their own company, be in charge. And if we're being honest, and you and I certainly always are, Gary, well, that's just not realistic. And there's some people who are going to spend the majority, if not all of their lives, banging their

head against the wall and frustration because they didn't have the courage to ask somebody to tell them the truth, to tell themselves the truth, that, hey, I may not be a top dog. How do you tell young people that I saw you recently taught a class out at USC? how do you get that message across to a lot of kids who've never heard that before, ever? I think this is one of the better messages that I'm putting into the world, the thought of embracing the number two, number three, number four, number five status. And I've been getting a lot of emails from a lot of different characters who've really benefited from it in the short term and have been really happy with me

and very thankful and it's brought them a lot of success. I mean, the way I do it is by being very real about it. I mean, you saw the USC talk. I go to the University of Southern California, USC, entrepreneur school, I go into a class of 200 kids that are in this class paying money, their parents or them or they're collecting debt, to be in this entrepreneurial class. And I think you saw it. My opening line is, hey, I don't think you can teach entrepreneurship.

So that's awkward, right? And then you get the big laugh and it's super interesting. But if you really think about it, it's an interesting game, right? And so to me, I think I'm playing for legacy. I'm being selfish. I'm trying to be historically correct. and to be historically correct, you have to be honest. I think I just pound it home, right?

I say it in those talks. Smart people pick up on the narrative and ask me these kind of questions in an interview like you're doing right now. I get to say it again. You know, it's just constant suffocation around the subject matter, which is I really think the far majority of people

that are listening to this right now are number two's reason fours is that want to be number ones, and in that lack of self-awareness, they will have limited upside. How many millennials work for you right now? 525 employees at Vayner. I would say 500 of them are millennials.

80 at Wine Library. That's probably about 70. So maybe close to 600. Yeah. All right. The reason I ask that is everything we've been talking about as the leader of your company, how are you handling some of these type situations when you hire bright millennials who have a lot to offer, but they haven't heard this message before.

I'm just curious how you're handling that personally within your organization, leader to team member. How do you handle that? Well, one thing I'm doing is, if you think about it, if we were just talking about, my big attack is on this number one versus number two, three, and four. And the farmer, you know, if somebody's coming to work at VaynerMedia in the age of any 23-year-olds can start an internet company, that means that they have either had the self-awareness

or they lack the self-awareness to know they're number one because they've come into my organization. So the issue of you're not a number one is not a problem for me at VaynerMedia, specifically, because they've come to work here. Now, a lot of them have come to work here to learn from me and then go out and do their thing, and that's great. I'll be honest with you.

This company lacks any issues of the hustle or eighth-place trophies because we have meritocracy and I'm a dictator on the culture that I want here, and so it's warm and fuzzy and soft like my mom was about my strengths, but it's very real about its weaknesses. And so, you know, we handle it by allowing people six months to calibrate this extremism and culture. And then we really audit them and start getting really, you know, focused on are they the right kind of character to win in this environment? And they do the same for themselves, and that's how it works out. For many women that are listening right now, and they're beginning to be honest or they've already been honest with themselves,

and they realize, I don't know that I'm 100% self-aware. Curious to know what you would say to them if you were having lunch with them right now to get self-aware quick. What would you tell them to do? Ask 10 people around them what they think of them and spend, you did something in this interview that I loved. You contacted before you asked me the question when you brought up my mom, right? I love that. I think everybody should take your lead and what you just did and do it in real life. They should go to their mom, their brother, their sister, their best friend, their ball.

the people that work for them and say, listen, I'm about to ask you a question, but before I ask you the question, and this is literally verbatim what I think people should do if they want to figure out of self-worthiness, I'm about to ask you a question, but before I ask you a question, you need to understand that I 100% need the truth, and it's going to be so hard for you to tell me the truth because either you admire me, you fear me, you love me, but I'm begging you for the truth, no matter what you think I want to hear, just tell me exactly what you actually think, and that will bring me the most value in the world.

I may cry, I may be stunned, I may be upset for five seconds, but net net, I promise you I won't. I am asking you to tell me what you think, and then you ask the question, do you think I can sing? Do you think I can make money? Do you think, do you think, like ask them,

what do they think your strengths are and what do they think your weaknesses are? I laid this out in a blog post that has brought huge value to a couple of people recently, and it's been game-changing. So I'm very glad you asked this question, because I almost kind of already, it's not top of mind right this second,

even though it just happened a couple of weeks ago. So that's what I would do. I'd go to the 7th time people that know you the best, create protection for them to tell you the truth, and try to get the answer. I love that. I want to switch gears for a second because I get to travel with Dave all over the country when we do our entree leadership one-day events,

and we hear thousands and thousands of leaders tell us, hey, they're winning, and they're winning on different levels, but they're winning. And then you get the media that's talking about. about how poor the economy is and all that. I want you to speak directly to entrepreneurs and leaders that are listening in here. What you think the environment is for entrepreneurs and small businesses in America today. Despite what we hear in the media, do you see something different on Main Street?

I think the game is the same forever. I think that when the economy is good, B&C players get disproportional winnings that they don't deserve in an even-keel environment. I think that when the economy is macro-level bad, the best players succeed. I think the market is fair. And so what I think is if you're good, you're doing well, and if you're bad, I mean, I'll say this. If you're not successful right now in this environment, you need to take a good, hard look at

yourself and think about if you're an actual entrepreneur or business person, because it's so frothy and so much money being thrown around and so good that I think you need to really check yourself. And the economy has a lot less to do with entrepreneurship than people realize, meaning a lot of it has to do with job and Wall Street, which have nothing to do with being self-starter and making money. And I think it's never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. The Internet has cut down the costs of entry at a level we've never seen before. And so that's kind of how I see it. I want to talk about creativity for a bit. There are creative, I'm a creative, you're creative. And there are people who say, well, I'm not naturally creative,

but I still think that they have the ability to be creative. And I think it's such a huge, huge factor in winning in business. How do you channel, how do you inspire creativity in your brain and in your world? By recognizing that it is a subjective process when it's put out to the world and not being crippled by any one person's point of view on the creative. meaning VaynerMedia is a creative shop. We produce creative rates for clients every day. And many people within my organization and many of my clients want to say that they know that this is a bad picture or a bad video or not.

And I think that's ludicrous because some people think that my content is good. Some people think it's bad. Some think the Kardashians is entertaining and good content. Some people think it's trash and on and on and on. Some people like David Letterman, some like Jay Leno. I mean, it's just the way it is. And so I think the way I inspire it, and then what inspires me, is recognizing that it is absolutely subjective until it hits the end consumer. And then it is absolutely the variable of success one way or another.

So I think it's actually a completely broken game before it sees the real world. And then it's the most fair game once it actually goes into play. Gary, one of the most interesting things I ever read. It was from the executive producer for Jimmy Fallon. It's probably a year or too old now, and I'll just summarize it for you. But they were talking about this... Gavin Purcell? Yeah, yeah.

And they were talking about the success of Fallon. And I want to get your thoughts on what he said, because I thought it was brilliant. I want you to contextualize it for our listeners. Basically what he said was he said, we figured out that we needed to create things, content pieces on the show, that a few people loved versus creating things that a lot of people liked. And that's been the reason for his success because of so much of his television content before he was on the Tonight Show went viral online. So that's the thought.

Create content that a few people love, and thus they share it like crazy, versus trying to please more people with something they like. What are your thoughts on that? Yes, and then you have to have talent, right? Right, right. Jimmy's talented, and so that matters. But the answer is I do believe in that. I do believe that too many people try to go vanilla in today's world.

I actually think vanilla is a very TV-centric world, because I think we can all recognize this is kind of a fun thing to be in New York and to be where you are. You know, there's a big difference between New York, L.A. San Francisco, and let's say a lot of the rest of America, right? I think people recognize that there's almost like two Americas. There's a coast and then there's the middle. And I think that what that led to in a TV environment was people trying to find a common ground to get ratings in all markets.

And so they went to the lowest common kind of vanilla place. I think now with fragmentation, it's better off to find those audiences and let it spread. And so I think that's what they figured out. And I think that's what it has to speak to, which is be comfortable with – I mean, look, I curse like a sailor in a lot of public environments. As you know, a huge part of the audience that's listening right now, would absolutely be turned off by that, right? And so I recognize that. I recognize that I would have a lot more fans and make more money and have bigger impact

if I did not curse. My problem is it just comes natural to me in that environment. It doesn't come natural to me here in this interview. It doesn't come natural to me in a lot of places. But at a New York Jets game and on stage, it comes natural. And that's, I just let my natural being always, always, always take over. All right, we're going to ask you a series of quick questions just because I think our audience would love to hear some of this from you. So first one up, best book that you have read in the last year?

I have not read a book in two years. Okay. Follow-up question. And I've only just, I just want to be authentic here, and I've only read six or seven books. And it puts me in a huge minority, and I apologize for the people that just got turned off by that. And I think that there's a lot of audacity that comes along with writing. a lot of books and not reading them, it's just not how I consume information. It's totally fine. I don't think you have to apologize for anything. How do you consume? If you

don't read books? I'm just going to say, do you know how many people have a visceral reaction to that answer? Well, I'm sure, because, you know, Gary, we get offended by everything in 2015. Consume information by watching people's actions. I literally, check this out. Somebody in my own company just said this, and it was a huge comp. They were saying it as a compliment. They go, You know, I was like being self-deprecating of like, hey, man, like, don't write me emails because I'm not good at reading and I don't retain it. And he's like, yeah, but then we have a one-minute meeting where I'm about to talk and you already know what I'm about to say and you cut me off and it could seem rude, but you're just saving time. So I learned by feeling, by actions, by watching people's behaviors. That's how I learned.

See, I point this out to the audience. Folks, this is a man who's comfortable in his own skin. And you may not like it. But see, this is huge. You know, we don't have to because one successful man said that you've got to read a ton of books doesn't mean that Gary V has to read a ton of books. This is a very important conversation, Gary. And I'm glad you said that. I don't think it's that big of a deal.

You learn how you learn. All right. So you said you loved history. Is there a leader from history that you have a particular admiration for? You know who I associate with a lot, Walt Disney and Vince McMahon, because they're storytellers. and I think I'm going to win because I'm a great all-time great storyteller and I've still not even

been positioned that way in the world because my actions haven't it's not because nobody gets it yet because I haven't executed to allow myself to be that person yet but I know I have it in me and I'm subtly using it at this point but I have a funny feeling

it's going to be where I end up in the prime of my business career which I would call 40 to 60 which is just about to start I think I know how to paint pictures, I think I know how to do things that allow people to be entertained and educated. And I think I'm getting close to figuring it out eventually. I just know it's there.

And for some reason, I have an affinity to Disney and to McMahon because they were storytellers in a business environment. I love that. And by the way, I can't wait for this. I can't wait for this phase of your career. I think you're a fantastic storyteller. Let me ask you, favorite story. Is there a favorite?

I know that's a broad question, but just, just top of mind, favorite story. You know, you're doing a good job here. It's an interesting insight into myself. Again, nothing. It's almost like nothing and everything, right? Like, favorite leader, all of them. You know, like, favorite story.

I love rags to riches, underdog, right? Underdog stories, right? I love, ah, you know what, Star Wars? This whole good and evil thing? I'm really into that. I'm into the good and evil. I'm into the underdog, right? Like Rocky, you know, like I'm that, right?

Immigrant, didn't start with much. I love the. The rags to riches story. The rags to riches and the kind of good versus evil have been the two thematics that really work on me. Love it. Well, man, you've been such a great sport. We love what you're doing here. We love your energy.

We love how you're pushing and always helping folks. I must tell you that I want to let you know that your communication with your tribe every day on social media to me is a great piece of your professional integrity. And it comes from who you are. I love the transparency. I think we need to see more of that across. the board and every sector of leadership from our culture. We're big fans, Gary, and we appreciate you hanging out with us. Thanks for having me, guys. Take care of everyone. Hey, if you want to connect and learn more about Gary Vaynerchuk, very simple, Gary Vaynerchuk.com,

Gary Vaynerchuk.com. Just start typing it the way you think it sounds. Trust me, it'll come up. On Twitter, he's an easy follow at Gary V. That's at Gary V. And again, easy to find on Facebook, Twitter. He's all over the place. Instagram. The guy is Mr. Social Media. so do check him out. He's a good friend of Dave's and thus a good friend of our organizations. You can get a free copy of the small business icon playbook from InfusionSoft. This has case studies and campaigns from their top performing customers, which by the way, Entree leadership is a customer. We love InfusionSoft. You need to check this out. It's absolutely free. $3.99 value. Free. Go to infusionsoft.com slash entree.

infusionsoft.com slash entree. Well, I love Clayte and his brother, Jeff Mask. Had him in the studio recently and asked him a ton of questions, and it's bringing value to you. These guys are doing it every day. They're winning big like you want to win. Here we go, another installment of one question with Jeff Mask.

Because the entrepreneurial brain is all consuming, just by the nature of the size of the business, all the different hatch you wear, so on and so forth, there is this kind of natural, function of closing yourself off and know what community is, but it's so hard to kind of pick up the phone and call somebody and say, hey, have you gone through this? And what's the best practice? Or, hey, I just feel like I'm failing and I need some perspective. All those kinds of things are just very, very uncomfortable. We see this with all access. We hear all the time. The number one takeaway from these folks is just community. They can hop on the phone with other people and go, oh, I'm not the only one that feels this way. This is big, and Infusionsoft is very intentional about community within your walls, but also you understand why it's so important. What goes on inside the brain where we kind of naturally just stiff-arm community?

Ego. Oh, hello. It's all about ego. Hold on one second. I need to put the steel-toed boots on. You're going to step on some toes here. I am. Because, you know, you start your business because you either want to stick it to the man, you want to.

autonomy, you want freedom, you want that ability to stand up tall and strong and be successful. And when reality comes and smacks you in the face that it's that hard and that not only do you have to have a sales hat on, but a marketing hat on, and a finance hat on, and a janitorial hat on, and you name it, all kinds of hats trying to do all that all, oh, and by the way, then going home and having a normal, quote-unquote life, it's enough to drive you mad. And so when you don't succeed or when you hit a brick wall, because you started that entrepreneurial venture on your own and you wanted to be successful, there's just a conflict internally commonly if we allow it of ego that just doesn't enable us to ask for help,

to reach out to other people. But the beauty of it is when you check that ego and you seek out for help and you reach out to other people, that's where the magic can happen. But if we choose to, if we keep thinking I've got this alone, I can make it happen, it just doesn't happen that way. In fact, one of the key things that helped us back in 2006, it's funny, I'm talking like the glory days as if they're the glory days, but they were because that's what enabled us to become where we are today

and where we're going. A key component to our community was partnering with Michael Gerber, the author of the E-Mith. If you haven't read that one, that's a great one. I know you've mentioned that. He's been a guest on this podcast. He's amazing. He had something in this community feel where we dream together in his dreaming room. that enabled us to get out of our own minds, to get to overcome our fear,

and to connect with why we were doing what we were doing in the first place, and therefore find like-minded people that could support us in that journey, that could challenge us, and put our arms around us and kick us on the butt where necessary, a nice little balance there, to enable us to get out of our own minds and to think bigger, to check our ego, to ask for help, so that why we could serve other people? When you get stuck, it's because you're selfish, you're fearful, you're worried about what you're doing versus,

being selfless and thinking outside versus thinking inside. I'm telling you, folks, Infusionsoft will help you grow yourself, your team, and your profits. That's what we believe in. Check them out. Infusionsoft.com slash entre. That's infusionsoft.com slash entree. Okay, folks, I told you at the top of the podcast that we were going to tell you the speaker lineup for our next Entree Leadership Summit, the second one. And my goodness, it is going to be great. Dave Ramsey, Seth Godin, Jim Collins, Patrick Lincione, Dr. Henry Clems.

in our very own Chris Hogan and Christy Wright. And there's one other speaker. Well, there's some rules sometimes that you don't understand. Yet you must follow. I have to tell my kids this all the time. And this is one of those. I don't understand why. But mine is not to reason why, but to do or die.

I cannot tell you, because of the specificity of the contract, requires that we can't tell you over a microphone who this other speaker is. But I want to add, this speaker is confirmed. We have a contract that proves it. And we can tell you who it is on our website, but not over the mic. Again, see leaders? Sometimes we have to do things that don't make sense. There you go.

Weirdest promo I've ever done. But hey, this is going to be phenomenal. Dallas, Texas, everything's bigger and better in Texas, they say. And our second summit is certainly going to be that. Again, Dave Ramsey, mystery speaker, which, by the way, you can find out at Dave Ramsey. and click on events. Dave Ramsey.com, click on events, and you can see who the mystery speaker is. And Eric, the producer, I am a little excited about this.

That's about all I can say. I'm a little excited about our mystery speaker. And how do you not get excited about Seth Godin, Jim Collins, Pat Lynchioni, Dr. Henry Cloud? And I always love hanging out with Chris Hogan and Chrissy Wright on the road, as we do every season, spring and fall, for Entree Leadership One Day. So it's going to be a great event, and it is going to sell out. May 22 through 25, 2016, May 22 through 25 at the gorgeous Omni Dallas Hotel. Entree Leadership Summit, again, everything you need to know, how to register, what it's going to look like, feel like, sound like it's all there. Dave Ramsey.com, click on events, and you can see who the mystery speaker is.

Well, that is it for this edition of the Entree Leadership podcast. And while I'm sad that we must leave you, always excited because we're coming to you weekly. We want you to subscribe. We want you to share it. We're growing, folks, and we're growing because you are loving what we're giving you in the valued content that comes to you in these conversations and beyond. So we're grateful, and we're here to serve you. So, hey, we love your feedback. Don't ever forget.

We want to hear from you podcast at entreleadership.com. On behalf of Eric, the producer and everyone on the Entree Leadership team, thank you so very much for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon.