Founder's Story - Do You Have What it Takes to Be an Entrepreneur? | Ep. 56 Take the Entrepreneurial Leap with Gino Wickman

Episode Date: October 8, 2021

Gino Wickman has been an entrepreneur since the age of 21, Gino has had an obsession for learning what makes businesses and entrepreneurs thrive.  At 25 he took over the family business, which was de...eply in debt and in need of help. After turning the company around and running it for seven years, he and his partners successfully sold the company. Gino then set out to help entrepreneurs and leaders get what they want from their businesses. Based on his years of real-world experience, he created the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®), a practical method for helping companies achieve greatness. He has personally delivered more than 1,900 full-day sessions for more than 135 companies, helping them implement EOS.  He is also the author of the award-winning, best-selling book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, as well as Get a Grip, Rocket Fuel, How to Be a Great Boss, What the Heck is EOS?, and The EOS Life. Gino is the founder of EOS Worldwide, an organization that helps thousands of businesses implement EOS with the aid of an international team of over 400 professional and certified EOS Implementers and online support. There are more than 130,000 companies using the EOS tools worldwide. Gino is now devoting time and energy toward helping entrepreneurs-in-the-making get a huge jump-start on taking their entrepreneurial leap, which is why he created Entrepreneurial Leap. Learn more about him and take his entrepreneur quiz: https://www.e-leap.com/ For more info on guests and future episodes visit pix11.com/impact  Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Inspired by Her, the podcast that will give you the inspiration, motivation, and tips for success from some of the top executives, CEOs, and influencers from around the globe. With your host, serial entrepreneur, and named one of the most influential Filipina in the world, Kate Hancock. We are fired up. How are you feeling today, Gino? I am feeling great great and I am very much looking forward to this. Awesome, awesome. So everybody knows we're here live on Clubhouse. We are also live using StreamYard across multiple social media so you can actually watch this live at the same time. But before we go into the intro, I think it's important that everybody takes the assessment. e-leap.com. e-leap.com. Go take that assessment because I think you're going to have a lot of questions as we go here. So I am going to read Gino's bio for those that don't know.
Starting point is 00:01:01 And just a reminder, today we are focusing on the Entrepreneurial Leap, which is Gino's new book. So if you have questions, which I know you will after he goes through some information, he'll talk about the Entrepreneurial Leap, which is something we all need to hear, by the way. We will open it up for Q&A afterwards. But entrepreneurialeap, e-leap.com, take the assessment right now, and we can talk about it as we go. I think I failed at 77, but I'm sure he'll talk about that later. Gino is an entrepreneur since the age of 21. He's had an obsession for learning what makes entrepreneurs and businesses thrive. At 25, he took the family business, which was deeply in debt
Starting point is 00:01:44 and in need of help. After turning the company around and running it for seven years, he and his partner successfully sold the company. Gino then set out to help entrepreneurs get what they want from their businesses. Based on his years of real world experience, he created the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or many of us know that as EOS, which I know tons of people use, a practical method for helping companies achieve greatness. He has personally delivered more than 1,900 full-day sessions for more than 135 companies, helping them implement EOS.
Starting point is 00:02:21 He is also the author of the award-winning bestselling book, Traction. I think we've read that book five times. Get a grip on your business, as well as five other books that have sold over 1 million copies. Gino founded and built EOS Worldwide, one of the largest business coaching companies in the world. The organization helps tens of thousands of businesses implement EOS with the aid of an international team of over 400 professional and certified EOS implementers. There are over 130,000, that's 130,000 companies using the EOS tools worldwide. Gino is now devoting time and energy towards helping entrepreneurs in the making
Starting point is 00:03:00 get a huge jumpstart on taking their entrepreneurial leap, which is why he wrote the book Entrepreneurial Leap. And it's a question we ask all the time. What would you tell your younger self? So he is here today to help you get a huge jumpstart on taking your entrepreneurial leap. So go to e-leap.com, take the assessment. Please help me welcome Gino Wickman. Sorry about that. It's a tongue twister. Thank you, Daniel. I appreciate that wonderful introduction. And I always start every meeting with clients with good news. And you shared how the Traction Library has sold over a million copies. I'm proud to say that last week, Traction actually sold its millionth copy. So that's not to toot my own horn, but that's to say that we are helping a lot of entrepreneurs out there. And I'm very hopeful we are going to help a lot of entrepreneurs today.
Starting point is 00:03:54 So what I'd love to do and where I'd like to start is I want to start by creating context for this conversation we're going to have. And I'm going to do everything in my power to create this context fast so we can get to Q&A. My favorite part of this stuff is Q&A, but I think it's so important to set the stage. And in this context that I'm going to create, it's designed to get your gears turning out there and get you to think of all the right questions that you need to ask for you. And so here's the context. Entrepreneurial Leap is a book I wrote and published two years ago, and it is a passion project. And so my life has been spent on helping successful entrepreneurs become even more successful. And what I decided to do is invest in a passion project to go to the front end of
Starting point is 00:04:43 the entrepreneurial journey and help entrepreneurs in the making, people who think they might be entrepreneurs, people who are thinking about starting a business, people who just started their business, and helping them to start a better startup. And so that's what this content is all about today. That's what this topic is all about today. And I beg you, there is no question you can't ask. So please be bold, let down your guard, ask your questions. We're all a little scared. Taking the entrepreneur leap is scary. So the context is this.
Starting point is 00:05:16 The book is written in three parts and there is a very specific psychology, philosophy, reason behind these three parts. And the three parts are confirm, glimpse, and path. And very purposefully, I'm starting with confirm, because we have to first confirm if you even have what it takes to become an entrepreneur. Because to teach you how to be one, to talk about the path, to give you a glimpse is a gross waste of time if you don't have what it takes, if being an entrepreneur isn't right for you. And so in this context, I'm going to spend a few minutes talking
Starting point is 00:05:58 to you about what confirm means and how you confirm. And that should prompt a lot of questions. From there, I'm then going to share a few minutes on glimpse. And that should prompt a lot of questions. From there, I'm then gonna share a few minutes on glimpse. And glimpse is designed, once you know that you are one, glimpse is designed to show you the life. I'm gonna help you see it before it happens because I believe if I can do that, I will greatly increase your odds of success. And then in path, same thing.
Starting point is 00:06:24 I'm gonna spend a few minutes on path. And what path is all about. And then in path, same thing. I'm going to spend a few minutes on path. And what path is all about is showing you a path, a way, a set of milestones that will greatly increase your odds of success and help you eliminate and avoid half the mistakes you are about to make. The other half you have to make them. Sorry, I can't solve them all, but they're all part of the learning process. So anyway, here we go. Let's start with confirm. In confirm, again, we have to first confirm if you have what it takes. So to Daniel's point, this is not a pass fail. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. It is not some pinnacle in life that we're all put on this earth to arrive at being an entrepreneur. It is not some pinnacle in life that we're all put on this earth
Starting point is 00:07:06 to arrive at being an entrepreneur. It's only for 4% of the population. And for the 96%, there are a thousand other amazing career choices. So please don't be bummed if you realize you don't have what it takes. But here's the other beauty. Just like Daniel did, Daniel scored low and realized that he's not a true entrepreneur, but he has certainly joined forces with Kate, who is a true red line entrepreneur scoring a 96 or 97. And so for those of you that love entrepreneurship, but don't have everything it takes, you can certainly join forces with a true entrepreneur and go build great things as Daniel and Kate are doing. So first thing is, I believe, get ready for this, you are born with six essential traits if you are a true entrepreneur.
Starting point is 00:07:56 These six essential traits, they cannot be taught. You cannot learn them. They are traits. And so with that, the good news is half the world agrees with me. Bad news is for me, half the world does not agree with me and believes you can actually learn these traits. I hope I'm wrong. Okay. I'll go on record. I hope I'm wrong. Please prove me wrong. But these are the six essential traits that every true entrepreneur has in my 30 years of experience. And so I'd love for you to play along. Please have something to write with and on.
Starting point is 00:08:31 I'm a teacher at heart. And so what I'm going to do is two passes. I'm going to first just give you the six essential traits at a high level. And I just want you to do a little checkup on yourself. And then I'm going to go into a little deeper into each one. As Daniel mentioned, the assessment, the entrepreneur in the making assessment is on the website e-leap.com. And you can go ahead and take that assessment. It literally takes five or 10 minutes. You'll get a score rule-a-thon. If you score 90 or higher, odds are pretty darn good that you have these six essential traits. And so here they are. They are visionary, passionate, problem solver, driven, risk taker, and responsible. Second pass, little deeper dive. If you are visionary, somebody with the visionary trait, you have lots of ideas. You connect the
Starting point is 00:09:23 dots. You have a sixth sense. You see things others don't. You're able to see around corners. You put things together. Passionate means that you have passion for your thing, your product, your service, the dent you want to put in the universe. You have strong belief. You couldn't beat it out of you if you tried. And so you want to fill a void in the world. Problem solver means that you are a creative problem solver. When you get hit with setbacks in life, you push through them. You lean into them.
Starting point is 00:09:54 You're an optimist by nature. Every cloud has a silver lining. You see solutions where most of the world sees problems. Number four, driven means that you have an internal fire, a sense of urgency, you're competitive, you want to succeed, you're self-motivated, you hustle, you love working hard. Number five, risk taker means that you don't freeze when it's time to make a tough decision. You're rebellious, you're willing to fail, you don't want to fail, but you're willing to fail. And you tend to beg for forgiveness instead of ask for permission. You're able to make tough decisions. And responsible means that you blame no one. There are two types of people
Starting point is 00:10:36 walking the earth. And you can look at all the people in your life, and you can put each one in one of these two categories. There are people that take responsibility when something bad happens. And there are people that blame everyone else when something bad happens. And so just decide which one you are. But nonetheless, a true entrepreneur takes responsibility for the outcome, no entitlement. And anyway, so there you go. So there they are. That's where I want you to do a little scan, check up from the neck up, take the assessment. Do you score high, 90 or higher? You probably have these six essential traits. Now, second point in this context is I created something called the entrepreneurial range
Starting point is 00:11:14 because scoring low does not mean a death sentence, doesn't mean you failed. Again, the same thing that we've been talking about, but what it might mean is that maybe there's a different option for you with being self-employed. And so the entrepreneurial range works like this. If you picture this arc in your mind, you can even draw it on whatever is in front of you. And if you picture that arc and picture the words entrepreneurial range at the top, to the far left end of the range,
Starting point is 00:11:41 imagine the words self-employed. To the far right end of the range, imagine the words self-employed. To the far right end of the range, picture the words true entrepreneur. Any person that owns their own business is self-employed, is somewhere on that entrepreneurial range. And all I'm simply teaching the world is that the people that have the six essential traits are true entrepreneurs, build organizations, are on the right half of that range. And so what that means is you could be all the way to the left side of that range. You could be a sole proprietor. You could be a one-person show. You could be a person with a side hustle. You could be a freelancer. That's all okay. You're self-employed. And I always like to say, if you're a handy person and you have handy skills, you could go
Starting point is 00:12:31 become a handyman or a handywoman, charge 60 bucks an hour, make six figures a year. And if you're good, you'll be busy for the rest of your life. Man, that's total freedom. But the reality is, if you do that and you have the six essential traits, you will not be able to stop your brain from thinking, wow, if I hire somebody for 25 bucks an hour and go get another job and have them do the work, I can grow the business. And all of a sudden you're going to end up with a construction company. So no shame in being a one person show. And so there's the context for confirm. Now let's go to glimpse, because if you have what it takes, glimpse then lights you up. And then I've got to rein you in with path. But glimpse, I do three things in glimpse.
Starting point is 00:13:14 First of all, I share countless real world stories of people who were right where you are. And I show you exactly how they built, share their stories, how they built what they built. Number two, what I share is the eight critical mistakes that almost every entrepreneur makes when they start their business. And I'm just going to quickly share them with you. And so if one of these catches your ear, jot it down and ask me more about it. But these are the eight most common mistakes every entrepreneur makes in their startup phase to end up in what I call the nightmare. And so I teach you both the dream and the nightmare, and I'm showing you how to live the dream. These are the eight most common mistakes. Number one, not having a vision. Number two, hiring the wrong people. Number three, not spending time with your people. Number four,
Starting point is 00:14:02 not knowing who your customer is. Number five, not charging enough. Number six, not staying true to your core. Number seven, not knowing your numbers. And number eight, not crystallizing roles and responsibilities. And then the third thing I do in Glimpse is I help you understand all of your options as an entrepreneur, because every entrepreneur is not cut out to build every business. We entrepreneurs, we are built for something. We are drawn to something. And so there's another tool on the website called My Biz Match. These tools are all free. Takes about 20 minutes. So don't do it now. Focus on this conversation, but do it at the end of this conversation.
Starting point is 00:14:47 And what I'm helping you do is figure out what business you are drawn to. And there are three categories. It's choosing the industry, the type, and the size. Industry, there are hundreds of industries to choose from. I show them all to you. You click a bunch of buttons, out pops the perfect answer. Type means you have to decide, are you a product entrepreneur or a service entrepreneur? We're typically one or the other. Inside of type, you have to decide,
Starting point is 00:15:16 are you a B2B, business to business entrepreneur, or a B2C, business to consumer entrepreneur? You're typically one or the other, rarely both. And then number three, you're either a high price, low volume, high quality entrepreneur, or you're low cost, commodity based, high volume. Rarely can you be both. No bad answer. You got to decide what you're drawn to. And then size says, how big of a company are you cut out to build? Every entrepreneur cannot build a billion dollar company. Sorry to break your hearts out there. And it's not the end all be all. It ain't all that fun with all due love and respect. And so we're all built to build something. And so a 10 person million dollar company might be perfect for
Starting point is 00:16:04 you. Or a 10,000 person billion dollar company might be perfect for you, or a 10,000 person, billion dollar company might be right for you, or something in between. And so you just have to decide what you're drawn to. And so very quickly on that note, I, the industry I choose is training and education. That's where I live. That's where I've lived for 35 years. I am a service entrepreneur, so I always choose service businesses. I have utter disdain for products. Inventory gives me the heebie-jeebies. Again, does it make me right or wrong? Does it make you right or wrong? I have lots of clients that have product businesses. I am a B2B entrepreneur. I love selling to businesses. I love selling to CEOs. You got to decide what you like.
Starting point is 00:16:46 And then for me, I want to be the highest price, highest quality, biggest value. And so I always err on that side. Again, that's what's right for me. And then for me in a business, I tap out at 50 to 200 employees. It's just not fun to me when you get into hundreds of employees. I need to touch and feel and see the people. I need to connect. And so for me, that's one of the reasons I sold EOS Worldwide. Once we started to close in on 200 people, they now have 500 people. Too much, too big for me, not fun. And so for what it's worth, I know me as an entrepreneur. Now I want you to know you as an entrepreneur. What are you built for? And that
Starting point is 00:17:25 tool will help you decide. And then number three is path. And in path, what I do, again, is I show you all the milestones. I show you the roadmap so that you can be prepared. And so real high level, again, the chapters and the outlines to prompt questions for you out there as I'm almost done. I start with a chapter called college or not. And so if you are at an age, you're trying to decide whether you're going to go to college or not as an entrepreneur, I present all the facts. It is not an anti-college message. I did not go to college, wasn't for me, but you decide. And so what you're going to find at the end of it is half of the entrepreneurs probably should go to college and half shouldn't.
Starting point is 00:18:06 You have to decide for yourself. Second chapter is all about discovering your passion. Passion is the number one reason you will succeed. And I give seven exercises for how to do that. The next chapter is how to find a mentor. Having a mentor will greatly increase your odds of success. The next chapter is the power of tenure thinking. The next chapter is the eight disciplines for increasing your odds of success. The next chapter is the power of 10-year thinking. The next chapter is the eight disciplines for increasing your odds of success. And then I finish by sharing the nine stages of building your business. And at the end of all of that, you are equipped to start a better startup. And the last little tool and path that I will share that you'll find on the website is called My Vision Clarifier. You're going to find one of the key reasons entrepreneurs fail
Starting point is 00:18:50 is they do not capture, crystallize their vision and convey it often to their people. And so it's a tool that helps you pin down your vision in a very simple way. And so there we go. The stage is set. Please, I hope there's a question or two or a hundred out there. Let's help a bunch of people, Daniel. So I am all ears and ready to roll. Yeah, that was incredible. Thank you, Gino. I loved so many takeaways here. There's just so much to process here. And it really got me thinking about a lot. And it's such an incredible way to think about how one person should do the product versus the service. So I think there's a lot of questions. I got a lot of messages already. So people have a ton of questions here. But I think you're going to help a ton of people, which is part of our mission to impact 100 million. So maybe today we can help a million people. Who knows, right? It's going to be amplified. So I know, Kate, did you want to start with the first question?
Starting point is 00:19:55 Yes. So it's fascinating. How did you come up? Kate, I think we can't hear you. All right. So sorry. So Gina, it's fascinating. Is this because of the 35 years of working, building? I mean, you got it clear and everything that a company can screwed up, you have all the answer. Is this from your experience and coaching companies? Tell me how did this come up? For sure. Yeah. So, you know, I will start by saying there is not one ounce of theory in this book or what's about to come out of my mouth for the next hour.
Starting point is 00:20:32 So 100%, it's all experience-based. Number two, there's an old quote by Daniel Kennedy that says, we teach what we needed the most. And so, you know, I'm teaching my 18 year old self. I wish I could go back in time and teach myself this stuff because it took me until I was 29 to realize I was a true entrepreneur. And so I bumped along and fumbled along for 11 years. At 18, I was this mislabeled derelict. I was insecure. I had no idea what I was going to do. I knew I wanted to make a lot of money. I knew I was different than most of my friends. So absolutely. And then shoot forward in time after 30 years of being obsessed about entrepreneurs. That is my life. That is what I
Starting point is 00:21:17 live and die for. My work life, my business life. And so, yes, I've seen this thousands and thousands of time. I have personally worked with 135 companies, very intimate two to five year relationships, working with leadership teams. And then again, indirectly, the thousands and thousands that we've touched. And so, you know, my mind has this way of just seeing all the data points, seeing all the patterns and trends. That's what helped me create EOS. But yes, that's also is what has helped me look at the entrepreneurs that succeed really well and the ones that don't, the ones that have what it takes and the ones that don't. So all of this is years, decades of experience, honing, testing, trying, learning. Hopefully that answers your question, Kate.
Starting point is 00:22:18 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, welcome to 2021 because, you know, the whole world wants to be an entrepreneur. Okay. And in the seventies and eighties, everyone wanted to be a rock star. Okay. But most could not carry a tune or play a guitar. And sadly, most cannot, you know, do not have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. And I, and I know that breaks hearts and I don't take great pride in breaking hearts, but I'm trying to save lives because there is a person out there that was sold a bill of goods, that entrepreneurship is the one and only and ultimate pinnacle in life. They don't have what it takes. And yet somebody in their life keeps motivating them, go start a business, go start a business, go start a business. That person is going to go through 10 years of
Starting point is 00:23:02 hell. And so I'm trying to save lives. So just as quickly, I'm trying to help the people that don't have what it takes. Be prepared. And I repeat, I hope you prove me wrong out there. But what else is nice is that person may realize, you know what, it's okay to have a side hustle. It's okay to just be a one person show. So I don't have to go build what mom built. I don't have to have 50 employees. And so again, it's just, in my opinion, creating peace of mind that this just isn't the path for you. And so now you just get to now check the box and say, that's not it. What is the other path? So there's a thousand other paths. Wish I could tell you all of them, but hopefully that answers the question.
Starting point is 00:23:49 Yep. So just so everybody knows, we are talking with Gino Wickman, the incredible Gino Wickman. We're just so honored that you are here. His book, The Entrepreneurial Leap, he's helped thousands and thousands of people over the years, like he said.
Starting point is 00:24:06 And he's put all of that information into one book to help you if you should or should not be an entrepreneur, which, hey, like you mentioned, you don't have to be an entrepreneur. You could be all different things. So there's no right or wrong here. There's no pass or fail. I got a lot of questions about people that are saying maybe they failed, but there's no pass or fail. So we appreciate that. We hope you enjoyed the show. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe and visit katehancock.com so you don't miss out on the next episode.

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