Is it worth it to have your own business? Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? On this Feature Friday episode of the ROI Online Podcast, Steve talks with entrepreneur and author Gino Wickman about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how to find your true passion, and what the benefits are of owning your business.
Gino has been an entrepreneur since the age of 21. He’s always had an obsession for learning what makes businesses and entrepreneurs thrive. Gino is the founder of EOS Worldwide, an organization that helps thousands of businesses implement EOS(R), the Entrepreneurial Operating System. There are more than 100,000 companies using the EOS tools worldwide. Now, Gino devotes his time and energy toward helping entrepreneurs-in-the-making take their own entrepreneurial leap.
It’s totally normal to have second thoughts about leaving your monthly salary and starting a business of your own. There’s a lot at risk involved, but it is also very rewarding. And in these uncertain times, who better than to trust but yourself to create something incredible?
Among other things, Gino and Steve discussed:
- The essential characteristics of an entrepreneur
- Whether entrepreneurs are born or made
- Strengths and weaknesses of an entrepreneur
- The benefits of an entrepreneur
- How you can find your passion
- Whether or not entrepreneurs need a strategy
- The main reasons entrepreneurs experience daily stress
- How to stay positive as an entrepreneur
You can learn more about Gino here:
Follow Gino on LinkedIn
Visit https://e-leap.com/ to Take the Free Entrepreneur-in-the-Making Assessment!
Visit and Subscribe to the Entrepreneurial Leap YouTube Channel
Read the books mentioned in this podcast:
The Golden Toilet by Steve Brown
Entrepreneurial Leap by Gino Wickman
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Gino Wickman (00:04):
the industry that you're best suited for the type
of business or your product oryour service are you b2b or b2c
are you high price low cost areyou someone who's going to build
a 10 person company are yousomeone who's going to build a
10,000 person company everyentrepreneur is now not cut out
to build every business and sothere's there's a genetic
encoding you have there'ssomething you're drawn to
(00:27):
there's something you're builtfor and this kind of helps you
chisel away you are a block ofmarble and i'm helping you see
the sculpture that you areinside of that block of marble
and chip away all thesuperfluous material so you
clearly know what you're billedfor the world is preaching and
teaching billion dollar techunicorns is what you know it's
(00:48):
the ultimate destination for anentrepreneur and it's just not
true
Steve Brown (00:52):
hi everybody welcome to the roi online
podcast where we believe you thecourageous entrepreneurs of our
day are the invisible heroes ofour economy you not only improve
our world with your ideas yourgrit and your passion but you
make our world better i'm SteveBrown and this is the place
(01:12):
where we have greatconversations with winners just
like you while we laugh andlearn together gino wickman
welcome to the roi onlinepodcast
Unknown (01:26):
thank you steve
Gino Wickman (01:27):
i'm thrilled to be here and look forward to helping
some people today
Steve Brown (01:31):
so i'm excited because i have a little story
that that happens to be aboutyour book and where the idea for
my book and i'm like you ibelieve the invisible heroes of
our economy or are theentrepreneurs those people that
risk everything their futuretheir family's future on some
(01:52):
some hope that they're they'regoing to create a business that
provides us the services thatchange our lives and actually in
aggregate employ all thesepeople in the workforce and
they're so important so i'm on aplane and i'm flying to san
francisco to go to a googleconference at google next
conference and i'm i'm readingone of your books and you can
(02:13):
see right here on my shelfthey're there they've been that
way for a while but i'm readingwhat what the heck is he oh s
right and eos is for those thatdon't know what you're not that
many people eos is theentrepreneurial operating system
and it's a beautiful book thatyou wrote to help empower an
(02:36):
organization to share with theirteam this is what we're
implementing and i was marvelingat how simple it was but i was
hit with this epiphany that ihad a version of the
entrepreneurial businessmarketing and sale system and
that was the confirmation that igot on what my book should be
(02:57):
about and what i should do iwould just wasn't calling it
that so gino thank you forhelping me work through that
yeah that challenge
Gino Wickman (03:07):
yeah my pleasure that's makes my day and music to
my ears so happy that thatinspired you
Steve Brown (03:13):
so your book entrepreneurial leap i have a
right here so this book yourmission is to to help a million
entrepreneurs figure out whetherthis gig is what they should be
doing or not and i love it butbut here's the thing it's so
(03:33):
sexy every instagram post thatwe see is telling us you need to
be an entrepreneur because it'swhat everybody's doing it sexy
and you just work hard enoughyou can make it happen but
that's not really the truth
Gino Wickman (03:50):
yeah unfortunately is not and so i've got bad news
and the bad news is only 4% ofus are entrepreneurs true
entrepreneurs and and so i saythat to start with because you
know this passion project andthis book that i wrote is
designed to find all of the trueentrepreneurs in the world and
(04:12):
show them the life that theywere born to live and and in
provide them that freedom and isay the bad news is you know the
subtitle of the book is do youhave what it takes to become an
entrepreneur and you said itthere's so much hype and media
and promotion about becoming anentrepreneur and be an
(04:33):
entrepreneur in the 70s and 80severybody wanted to be a rock
star you know and now everybodywants to be an entrepreneur and
it's dangerous because everybodyshouldn't be an entrepreneur 4%
i said here's the reality mostentrepreneurs die broke okay it
is a tough life the the risk ishigh the odds are slim and it's
(04:54):
not for everybody it's a boardit's it's borderline crazy
becoming an entrepreneur but iwould trade it for anything. And
what I believe as a trueentrepreneur has six essential
traits, and we can get intothose later, but you're born
with them, or you're not. Andyou either have them or you
don't. And so entrepreneurshipis not this Pinnacle, this
ultimate destination, the onlycareer choice in life, it's one
(05:18):
of 1000, and that everyone's cutout for it. And it's not as
glamorous as everyone thinks. Sofor the crazy ones that are I'm
showing them a path to becomevery successful. And for the
ones that aren't, I'm providingthem clarity and saving them 10
years of hell, because there'ssome other purpose for you,
that's going to be amazing. Andthis may not be it.
Steve Brown (05:41):
I love it, you have some great stories in your book.
But you know, in chapter one, Iwanted that. And so these are
questions that I get. And so Iwant, you know, I'm looking for
your answers. But what are theessential characteristics of an
entrepreneur? It seems like it'dbe obvious I'm a risk taker. But
there's there several more.
Gino Wickman (06:01):
Yeah. So I actually call them essential
traits, but characteristicstraits, Potato, potato, I
actually do a riff in one of thechapters in the book about all
of the characteristics, Ibelieve there's, you know, 20,
or 30 characteristics. But thereare six essential traits. And
like I said, I believe you'reborn with these, I don't believe
they can be taught. And listen,I hope I'm wrong. Hopefully,
(06:23):
they can be taught because thenwe'll have even more
entrepreneurs. But let's pretendI'm right, and that you're born
with them. I'm going to sharethem with you right now. And
what I love for your listener todo is to just do a checkup on
themselves, do they have all sixof these things? And so these
are the six essential traits.
They are visionary, passionate,problem solver, driven, risk
(06:43):
taker and responsible. And sothose are the six
Steve Brown (06:51):
responsible? That seems like what do you mean by
responsible,
Gino Wickman (06:58):
I love it. That's always my favorite one to talk
about. Because that one makesthe point the best that you're
born with these and they can'tbe taught. So responsible. This
trait is a person who blames noone, there are two types of
people in the world. And sothere's people that when
something goes wrong, they blameeveryone else. And then there's
(07:20):
another type of person thatlooks to themselves blames
themselves take responsibility,they look into the mirror, when
something goes wrong, they'rewilling to take and run with the
ball. They don't believe inentitlement. And and so two
things. One, as I heard thisdescribed best as to a person
who takes responsibility and isresponsible. If it's an
(07:41):
entrepreneur who owns abuilding, if they're building
gets hit with a meteor, theybelieve that's their fault. They
chose the building, they builtthe building, they chose to move
there, they are responsible,where the rest of the world
blames everyone else for thathappening or blames other
things. And the second point is,here's how I know you're born
with it. You know, it's pick afamily of four children, okay.
(08:05):
And so now those of you outthere listening, think about
your siblings, and brothers andsisters and people you know, in
the world. But if you thinkabout each one of them, when
something goes wrong for them,you can put them in one of two
camps. They either take totalresponsibility, or they blame it
blame everyone else. Well, howis it that in a family of four
And so again, think about yourfamily, whatever the number of
(08:26):
siblings, some takeresponsibility, and some don't,
same parents, same upbringing,same everything. Why is it so
different? And so to me, it'sbecause you're either born with
this responsible trait, oryou're not?
Steve Brown (08:40):
Yeah, that's tough.
And so these are questions thatyou have to ask yourself and be
really honest about becausebeing an entrepreneur is really
a serious gig, you have people'stheir jobs are depending upon
you the end, if you just decideone day, this is just too hard.
I don't want to do this anymore.
It's so well for them,
Gino Wickman (09:00):
you got it in you know, I'm so passionate about
this, again, it's a cautionarytale, I'm trying to make sure
you have them so you can becomean entrepreneur or you don't so
to save you those 10 years ofhell. So I actually created an
assessment that you can takeonline at the website at E dash
lead. com, it's free in 10minutes, you score 90 or higher
odds are you possess these sixessential traits, and anything
(09:23):
lower, you may be missing some.
And again, it's just my cautionto you that maybe you shouldn't
take the leap at the end of theday. It's a decision that you
have to make for yourself.
Steve Brown (09:32):
So Gina, why do you say that entrepreneurs are born,
not made? Well, again, it
Gino Wickman (09:37):
goes back to these six essential traits. I believe
you are born with these traits,you know, it's in your makeup,
it's in your genes. And so wecould go through each one and it
would take us 30 minutes to godeep into each one, just like I
explained responsible. But whenyou think about the visionary
trait as an example, again, wecan pick any one of the people
that are visionary have thisinitiative credible ability to
(10:01):
connect the dots, they putthings together, they just see
things in a way that othersdon't, they're literally able to
see around corners. And thenthere's some people that just
don't, and it's okay. And you'renever going to learn that it's,
it's it is truly a gift that youare born with. And so that's
just another example. And Icould keep going with all six,
but you just, you know, myexperience is you don't learn
(10:23):
these things,
Steve Brown (10:24):
the frustration with seeing the things that
others is like, it's hard onyou. And you're going what I
don't understand why you guysare pushing back, or why you're
asking all these stupidquestions, because Can't you
see, it's going them, it's goingto happen, but it's hard for
them. And it does, it feels likethey're being critical or not
(10:45):
believing you.
Gino Wickman (10:46):
Yeah. And it's and it's a blessing and a curse. It
is a strength and a weakness.
Because people with thisvisionary trait, you know, they
typically have ADD, they'rehyper, hyperactive, lots of
ideas, their brains are alwaysgoing and so they're distracted.
They're seeing things they'retrying to focus, it's one of the
biggest entrepreneurialchallenges is to not get
distracted by all the shinystuff and all the opportunities
(11:07):
that you see in the world,because success comes from
picking one thing focusing andexecuting that well. And so it's
as much a blessing as it is acurse. The discussion about
passion in that chapter reallyresonated with me. And I love
the line in there. It's likeyour passion is what's going to
give you this energy to plowthrough when it feels like
(11:30):
you're losing when you'refailing, and you're still going
to stick to it. And I alwaystalk about you know, it's it's
passion, I believe it's thenumber one reason entrepreneurs
succeed, because having deeppassion for something is the
only reason you're going to getup every time you get knocked
down. And being an entrepreneurand building a business, you get
(11:51):
knocked down constantly. Andit's borderline insanity to keep
getting up and trying to createthis thing that you're creating.
But that's what we do. And we'rewe're relentless in wanting to
pursue that passion.
Steve Brown (12:06):
We talk about the strengths of a entrepreneur, but
there's also these weaknesses.
So let's talk a little bit aboutwhat what are those that it
seems sexy that I'm anentrepreneur, but the there's a
flip side of that, that there'sa lot of baggage that comes with
that.
Gino Wickman (12:21):
Yeah. And so with that, you know, we're
glamorizing all of thesewonderful traits. But every one
of these trades has an equaldownside. And I do a riff in the
book, and I share all of thesedownsides. So there are probably
20 of them, but I'm gonna giveyou some high level ones.
Because as I already mentioned,you know, a true entrepreneur
(12:42):
almost always has a DD or ADHD,and I believe it's a gift. But
it is challenging, becauseyou're always so distracted. A
lot of them have OCD, a lot ofthem have dyslexia. And with
this challenge, though, withthis driven trait, you're
sometimes very dominant, you'reoff putting to people around
(13:05):
you, you're intimidating topeople around you, because
you're so freaking intense. Andpeople just want you to like
back off, slow down, calm down.
And so that comes off as as offputting, you know, a true
entrepreneur. Ironically, peopleare surprised by this. But
they're actually not great atfinances, and bookkeeping and
the p&l, I still can't read ap&l and a financial statement.
(13:27):
I've been doing this for 30years. They're great at making
money. That's not what we'retalking about. It's the keeping
the money that they arechallenged with. And as I
mentioned earlier, allentrepreneur not all most
entrepreneurs die broke, becauseit's a it's a weakness, and I
could keep going, but those aresome of the high level ones.
Steve Brown (13:46):
Yeah, that's them, keeping an eye on the numbers.
And then they they're alwaysjustifying that this new thing
is going to be the next upgradethe next level. And it puts you
at risk every time you do that.
You're putting yourself at risk.
And yet that's what you don'tmind putting things at risk.
Gino Wickman (14:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Right. You know, and I can'thelp but now sudden, my mind's
racing because, you know,they're not great at managing
people. They're not great atholding people accountable.
They're not great with details.
They're so I mean, it's, it'snot all great, man. It's not all
great. But it's I wouldn't tradeit for anything. When you
Steve Brown (14:23):
wait. When you're, you're in this decision. Stage
like you're deciding, am I am Ian entrepreneur, those around
you that love you, they're goingto point those negative things
out to you, which makes you feellike oh, I could be making a big
mistake. You're almost never ina position of confidence because
(14:45):
everyone around you is seeingall the things from their
perspective, which is generallynon entrepreneurial.
Gino Wickman (14:52):
Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, I talked aboutDaniel Kennedy's quote, that is
we teach what we needed the mostand so the reason I created it
neuro leap. And the reason forthis passion project to impact a
million entrepreneurs in themaking over the next 10 years is
because of my 18 year old self.
When I was 18. As anentrepreneur in the making, I
didn't know I was anentrepreneur back then. So I was
(15:14):
this mislabeled, derelict,insecure kid confused, because I
was so different from everybodyelse. I didn't get what I was.
And that's so challenging. Andit makes me think of, you know,
the entrepreneur in the making,you know, the 13 year old kid,
be at a boy or a girl, in afamily of, you know, whatever it
(15:35):
is doctors, teachers, whatever,but a non entrepreneurial
family, that poor kid is analien, that poor kid is on Mars,
and they just feel so out ofplace. And so yes, absolutely,
you can and do feel lost. Andthis book is designed to give
hope to both those parents, sothey know what the heck it
Unknown (15:57):
is that they have
Gino Wickman (15:58):
here. And for that kid that realizes, here's what I
am. And here's why I'm sodifferent than all of these
other career choices.
Steve Brown (16:07):
Yeah, so you're listening to or you're watching
the ROI online Podcast, whereinterviewing Gino Whitman, his
book, his entrepreneurial leap,he's written six books sold over
a million copies. And he didn'tsell all of those out of the
back of his car. He's sold it bypure hustle. He's built and sold
(16:28):
two companies. One was he tookover his dad's company, and then
his other his entrepreneurialoperating system. And so we're
talking about how you can findout whether you have the chops
to be an entrepreneur or notwith his new book,
entrepreneurial leap. So Gino,this passion conversation where
(16:50):
we can get tripped up on ourpassion, and maybe it's not our
real passion. But is there apassion test that you can take?
Gino Wickman (16:59):
Yeah, and I wouldn't call it a passion test
this I don't know why this topicis so hot. Like in this last 30
days. You I can't tell you, mepeople I've asked zeroed in on
this question as of late. And soI love it. I'm very passionate
about the topic of passion. Andso I write an entire chapter on
this. And so high level context,the book is written in three
(17:21):
parts confirm glimpse path. Andthere's a very important science
behind that linear flow. Becausefirst we want to confirm whether
you are or aren't. And thatentrepreneur in the making
assessment on the website willhelp you determine that glimpse
is to show all the possibilitiespath is to show a path to
greatly increase your odds ofsuccess. But what I write an
(17:41):
entire chapter in path ondiscovering your passion,
because this is so important.
And I offer seven tools todiscover your passion. So
literally seven exercises andtools to help you get there. So
it's not so much about a test,as it is a soul searching
journey to find your passion. Weall have one. And what's
(18:02):
interesting about the way thishas been asked as of late is,
there's confusion out therebecause there's talk about how
you know what if I'm notpassionate about my product or
service, how can I succeed. Andthe truth of the matter is, it's
not always a passion about theproduct or service. And I would
suggest to you it's rarelypassionate about the product or
(18:23):
service. And the passion tendsto fall in one of four
categories. It's either apassion about the end user, the
customer, the client, who you'retrying to impact. I am
passionate about entrepreneursand impacting their lives, and
giving them the ideal life. Sothat's where my passion lies.
The second is a passion for theorganization, you're building,
you want to build somethinggreat a culture, that's
(18:44):
incredible. The third is aboutinnovation and ideas and
creativity. And then the fourthis about winning, crushing
competitors being the best beingnumber one, that's where I find
most of the passions lie. Sojust know that you can build
something great. And it doesn'thave to be passion for your
product. I've got a client thatsells lightbulbs, you're not
(19:06):
entirely passionate about lightbulbs, but they're passionate
about building an incredibleorganization. Again, another
client, they sell tonercartridges, so they're not
passionate about tonercartridges. for them. It's about
building an incredible culturethat is second to none. And so
those are all the differenttypes of passions. So don't feel
like it's, you know, let's see.
(19:28):
So maybe it needs to be aboutyou know, window washing. It's
not about that. It's somethingdeeper in your passion typically
always stems from a wound, or apain or a past experience or
something from your past. That'swhat's typical. And I give
again, a bunch of exercises tohelp you discover it.
Steve Brown (19:47):
Hey, I wanted to pause right here and tell you
about a book that you need toget today. It's the funniest
book on marketing. It's calledthe Golden toilet. Stop flushing
your marketing budget into yourwebsite. Buy and build a system
that grows your business. Andguess who wrote it? That's
right. I wrote it. And I wroteit just for you. Because I want
(20:09):
to help you get past the lasthurdles of setting up your
business and getting it squaredaway. I wrote it so that you can
avoid time wasting time wastingmoney, wasting frustration, get
the book on Audible. You can getit on Kindle. You can get it on
Amazon, but get the book, takeadvantage of the insights in
(20:31):
there. And let me know what youthink. And now back to this
excellent episode. Yeah, I thinkthat's really important because
you think about entrepreneursgetting ready to, to take the
leap to step out, holdthemselves accountable. But it's
like you don't know where tostart necessarily. And you're
(20:52):
wondering, and you're in thissystem, or this process, the way
to think it through can be soempowering.
Here, here.
So do you know, do entrepreneursneed a strategy? That's
obviously the answer is going tobe yes. But what kind of
strategy? Gino?
Gino Wickman (21:13):
Yeah. So I don't call it strategy, I call it
vision, but potato potahto.
Okay, it's all in the same plan,vision, a strategy, call it what
you want to call it. And I'mgonna pull a couple things
together that we're talkingabout, because when I talked
about confirm glimpse path arethe three parts to the book. And
each one of those parts of thebook, they offer a free tool
that's going to help you createcrystal clear clarity around
(21:36):
what you want to create. And wecall it the 123 roadmap. And so
in confirm, it's filling outthat assessment, and glimpse,
it's filling out somethingcalled my biz match. Again, each
tool is free at the website, hedefinitely calm and so my biz
match is going to help youdecide the perfect business for
you. The business, you're drawnto the business, you're built
(22:00):
for type size industry, all ofit. And then the third tool is
called my vision clarifier. Andthis gets to the answer to your
question, because my visionclarifier is getting you to
think of eight aspects of yourvision and get really clear on
those things. Who is yourcustomer? What is your message?
(22:21):
What is your pricing structure?
What is the 10 year goal? Whatis the three year picture, what
is the one year plan in boilingit all the way down to a 90 day
actionable plan. And so for me,I call that a vision, not a
strategy. But a strategy expertwould call that a strategy. But
(22:41):
what I teach is that you have toget that vision out of your
head, on paper, and into theheads and minds of others if
you're going to build somethinggreat. And all of that combined.
Again, it's called 123 roadmapin that you can do those three
exercises in an hour, you go tothe website, you'll click on the
one to three roadmap button. Andout of that will give you a
(23:04):
clear plan to start a betterstartup, as I like to call it.
Steve Brown (23:09):
I didn't have the luxury of having your book, when
I began my entrepreneurialjourney. And then I'm wasted
years because there's thisthought process of Can I make
money doing this? I need tostart a business. And so I was
looking at it What can make memoney? Not what am I best suited
(23:30):
for. So I really enjoyed that.
That section of your book thathelps you look at different
businesses and start to see thecategories and then start to
figure out where your best useof your time is. You're here.
And so that's
Gino Wickman (23:46):
it. I really appreciate you saying that
because I'm going to try andarticulate the goal because at
the end of the day, the goal isclarity. And the clarity is
about once you realize you hadthe six essential trades, I want
you to understand that you aregenetically encoded to build
something. And my biz matchhelps you decide the industry
(24:06):
that you're best suited for thetype of business or your product
or your service or your b2b orb2c or your high price, low
cost. Are you someone who'sgoing to build a 10 person
company? Are you someone who'sgoing to build a 10,000 person
company, every entrepreneur isnow not cut out to build every
business. And so there's there'sa genetic encoding you have.
(24:27):
There's something you're drawnto there's something you're
built for. And this kind ofhelps you chisel away You are a
block of marble, and I'm helpingyou see the sculpture that you
are inside of that block ofmarble and chip away all the
superfluous material. So youclearly know what you're built
for the world is preaching andteaching billion dollar tech
(24:48):
unicorns is what you know, it'sthe ultimate destination for an
entrepreneur and it's just nottrue. There's no shame in
building a $5 million heatingand cooling company with 50
people that makes an impactPacked on that community.
Steve Brown (25:02):
That was one part of the book I really liked.
Because you're right, everyone'ssetting up. Steve Jobs, you need
to be put a dent in theuniverse. And that's what
everyone's thinks. They're beingprogrammed. That's what you the
expectation of yourentrepreneurial journey is
supposed to be, but it's nottheirs. I call them invisible
heroes, because there's 1000s ofthose that are non obvious. And
(25:24):
yet they're successful. And youtalk about them in your book.
Gino Wickman (25:28):
Yeah. And you know, there's a quote that Jim
Collins shares in Good to Great,and it literally gives me chills
up my spine, when I read thatbook for the first time. 20
years ago, I read that quote,and the quote is the greatest
company in America, we willnever find, because it's some
$10 million company that doesn'twant to be known. It's this
(25:49):
great little company thatdoesn't care about the
recognition and the accolades.
They just care about making animpact in their community. And
and so when I read that, I said,I want to build that company.
And I really believe that I didwith EOS worldwide. And then I
sold it when it got there.
Because it's no fun to me afterthat, but but to me, that's what
it's all about, is you decidingwhat you want to build, and who
(26:13):
gives a shit what anybody elseon the planet thinks build your
business and no one else's,
Steve Brown (26:20):
I love that you build your business and no one
else's. So how do I staypositive as an entrepreneur, you
have a great chapter that talksabout that.
Gino Wickman (26:31):
So in what I talked about is it's about how
to stay motivated, educated,keep learning. And so there are
hundreds of ways to do it. Andwhat I offer in the book are all
the different ways to do it,because we all have our own
formula. And so for some, it'swatching YouTube videos, there
is now there, you know, there'swhat a million hours of
(26:51):
motivational material, there's amillion hours of educational
materials for entrepreneursabout building businesses. And
so if that's your thing,watching videos, that's a great
way for you to stay educated,stay motivated. Reading books, I
give a list of my recommendedreading, it's also on the
website. So you can look at thatfor free on the website. E dash
(27:13):
lead calm, but reading books. SoI've always been a book reader
what? I'm amazed that when Ilook back at my last 30 years,
and the hundreds and hundreds ofbooks that I read, how they've
shaped my thinking, my myphilosophies, they keep me
motivated, they give me ideas,just like you read my book, and
you had an aha moment, you'rereading this book about a
(27:33):
completely different topic. Andyou got an aha moment. Well,
that's what happens. And so I doit through reading. Mentors can
help keep you motivated,masterminds can keep you
motivated, taking classes. Soagain, there's so many different
ways listening to motivationalspeakers, you just have to
decide your formula for stayingmotivated. Then the other thing
too, in my 20s. Back then it wascassette tapes to aid to date
(27:57):
myself, but you know, it's like,Earl Nightingale was the
strangest secret, okay, and lesBrowns you deserve. I listened
to those two cassette tapeshundreds of times, and you can
listen to them now for free onYouTube. So I strongly urge
every listener to go listen toEarl Nightingale the Strangest
Secret. Earl Nightingale is thegodfather of motivation. He's
(28:19):
the original motivator and thattape the Strangest Secret, which
is now that content is beingretaught and reproduced many
different ways. That's theoriginal source material other
than like the Bible orsomething, but it is so powerful
about how we become what wethink about. And so there's just
so much information out there,you just got to go out and
(28:40):
access it.
Steve Brown (28:41):
So one of your books really helped me feel
better about what I was feeling.
And that's when forgetting themthe exact book. Didn't want to
say it wrong, but it talks aboutthe visionary. Yeah, the rocket.
Gino Wickman (28:56):
rocket fuel is what you're talking about
Steve Brown (28:58):
rocket fuel. Yeah.
And so when I read, it was like,This relief came over me because
everyone in the organizationfelt it was weird. And I was
dealing with this. I my Should Itry to be more like them. But
when I read that as like, Oh,it's okay to be me. Here here.
And and
Gino Wickman (29:17):
that, you know, so again, that book is called
rocket fuel. And what that bookis teaching is this concept that
if you score 90 or higher on theentrepreneur in the making
assessment, and you take yourleap and you start your
business, as you build yourbusiness as an entrepreneur, I
consider your role what I call avisionary, okay? And so I've
(29:38):
coined this term, visionary, andintegrator, okay. And so as a
visionary entrepreneur, you arewild and crazy and you have all
those strengths and all thoseweaknesses we've talked about.
Well, in the chapter on the ninestages of building your business
in this book, I talk about howevery visionary and At some
(30:00):
point on their journey of growthneeds to find and counterbalance
themselves with what I call anintegrator. And an integrator is
a very different role sometimesknown as General Manager, CEO,
President. But this is someonewho's the Yin to your Yang. And
they are basically the personthat harmoniously integrates the
business and executes the planfor you to free you up to
(30:22):
continue to grow theorganization. And so you're the
visionary. If you score 90 orhigher, you need an integrator
at some point, your journey, andthat's what rocket fuel teaches,
is the A to Z and understandingthat assessing that how to find
that ultimately how to buildthat. And then I teach a little
bit of it in this book,entrepreneurial leap.
Steve Brown (30:42):
Yeah. So that integrator is like one of your
most important decisions, it canbe a make or break for you. And
so it's like something that isso important, but for you to
realize it first, then start toposition yourself to take
advantage of that that's a realkey to success. I met those
(31:02):
invisible success stories, thatin some part of their story that
day that they identified theirintegrator, the right one was
one of the days that they reallystarted to take off and get
Gino Wickman (31:15):
going. And you know, we have 100,000 companies
running on EOS and we EOSimplementers have taken 10,000
companies through the process. Ican assure you there's at least
8000 stories like that, and wehear them every single day. It
is transformative for avisionary the day they put their
integrator in place.
Steve Brown (31:36):
So Gino, this has been an awesome conversation.
And so just so everybody knows Ihave an exclusive that YouTube
part where we talked with Ginoand we got his answer to how to
be taken seriously as a youngentrepreneur. That's a big
thing. There's a lot going onthere. So to learn what Geno's
(31:57):
answer is, you need to go to ourYouTube channel and hear that so
Gino? You've got six books,she's sold over a million
copies. Your latest one isentrepreneurial leap. You're
helping your mission is to get amillion entrepreneurs teed up
and heading in the rightdirection. But what's the one
question that in all theseinterviews you do? You never get
(32:21):
asked? But you want to answer?
Unknown (32:23):
Hmm, wow, that's a good one. Um, oh.
Gino Wickman (32:32):
which one to pick, you know, I guess I'll pick
something that I'm quitepassionate about. And, you know,
my wish for everyone is that isas soon as possible in life, you
(32:54):
get comfortable in your own skinand let your freak flag fly.
Okay, and so it's, it's, it's, Igot to come up with the right
word here so that I can makesense, but it's, it's palatable.
The insecurity that exists inthe world. And it's, it's, it's
(33:15):
a shame, and it's sad. And it'sheartbreaking. Because it's a
bunch of people being judged andfeeling judged and not truly
being themselves. And for me, Imean, it took me to like 42 I'm
53 and I don't give two shitswhat anybody thinks about me,
and it is fucking freeing. Soyou can edit out all the
(33:35):
swearing I love to swear. ButBut, you know, I think of my
insecure self at 18 I think ofall these people, but man the
day you give yourself thefreedom to just be yourself,
Know thyself, go on a journey ofself discovery, take assessment
tools, read books, know who youare top to bottom and just
freely be that in the world,you'll be happier, you'll
(33:56):
accomplish more, you'll attractmore of the people that you want
to attract to you. And you'llrepel all the ones that you
don't want around you. Becausewhat you're doing in most cases
is you're trying to be allthings to all people and and
you're gonna die miserable inthat formula. So that's the
question. I wish
Steve Brown (34:18):
everybody would ask me. And as you're talking, as
you're saying that I'm thinkingabout, you know, your book is
perfect for all these peoplethat have been in a job. They've
been doing their best to paytheir bills, take care of their
family, but they've had thisentrepreneur desire lurking in
them and then all of a suddenthis past year, things change.
(34:40):
They lost their job. They theyrealize that this, the writing's
on the wall that they can'tcontinue on in this certain
position. And this is apotential solution for them that
maybe they've not considered orbeen avoiding.
Gino Wickman (34:56):
Yeah, and when I save that, you know, let your
freak flag fly and be yourselfi'm talking to the accountant
the police officer the nurse themom the dad in other words this
isn't about entrepreneurshipthis is about be you and imagine
if everyone was just freely 100%themselves i just think it'd be
(35:18):
a better world and so you'reasking what question do i wish
people would ask you know it'slike what is the great greatest
piece of advice you would give aperson you know so if that was
the question i would ask if iwere asked that's the that's the
answer i
Steve Brown (35:32):
would give i love it thank you gino gino you've
been an awesome guest on the roionline podcast where where do
people need to connect with youwhat do they need where can they
get the book tell us all thatinformation
Gino Wickman (35:46):
please yeah you bet so the epicenter of all
things entrepreneurial leap isthe website e dash leap calm
there you will find that freeassessment you can download a
free chapter of the book icertainly hope you buy the book
but everything is there 123roadmap the my biz match the my
vision clarifier and a wholebunch of other tools and
(36:06):
resources we put out a videoevery single week i write an
article every other week but theother thing i would suggest to
and offer up is the way i'mbuilding this model it's a
passion project and so themission is to impact a million
entrepreneurs in the making andso what i'm doing is i'm joining
forces with what i callcollaborators and collaborators
or anyone out there in the worldthat are teaching coaching
(36:29):
guiding helping mentoringentrepreneurs in the making and
what i do is i give them all ofmy content for free to freely
teach in the world no moneyexchanges hands no content no
contracts and all i ask inreturn is you give credit where
credit is due and so if anyoneout there is interested in
becoming a collaborator click onthe click on the become a
(36:51):
collaborator button on thewebsite and you'll learn all
about what that means if that'ssomething that you know is in
your area of passion other thanthat everything's there at the
website
Steve Brown (37:02):
well that's in our area of passion and this is kind
of our first little mini revealwe're spinning up what's called
the roi university and it's aplace for entrepreneurs to come
connect with other like mindedpeople and find their resources
like the eally material i didfill out the information and
become a collaborator and that'ssome stuff that we would like to
(37:25):
share as well so you know we'reon the same page brother
Unknown (37:29):
love it steve love it
Steve Brown (37:31):
all right and that's a wrap thanks for
listening to another fun episodeof the roi online podcast for
more be sure to check out theshow notes of this episode and
feel free to connect with me onlinkedin where we can chat and i
can help direct you to theresources you're searching for
(37:52):
to learn more about how you cangrow your business better be
sure to pick up your copy of mybook the golden toilet at
surprise that golden toilet.comi'm Steve Brown and we'll see
you next week on another funepisode of the roi online
podcast
the industry that you're best suited for the type
of business or your product oryour service are you b2b or b2c
are you high price low cost areyou someone who's going to build
a 10 person company are yousomeone who's going to build a
10,000 person company everyentrepreneur is now not cut out
to build every business and sothere's there's a genetic
encoding you have there'ssomething you're drawn to
(00:27):
there's something you're builtfor and this kind of helps you
chisel away you are a block ofmarble and i'm helping you see
the sculpture that you areinside of that block of marble
and chip away all thesuperfluous material so you
clearly know what you're billedfor the world is preaching and
teaching billion dollar techunicorns is what you know it's
(00:48):
the ultimate destination for anentrepreneur and it's just not
true
Steve Brown (00:52):
hi everybody welcome to the roi online
podcast where we believe you thecourageous entrepreneurs of our
day are the invisible heroes ofour economy you not only improve
our world with your ideas yourgrit and your passion but you
make our world better i'm SteveBrown and this is the place
(01:12):
where we have greatconversations with winners just
like you while we laugh andlearn together gino wickman
welcome to the roi onlinepodcast
Unknown (01:26):
thank you steve
Gino Wickman (01:27):
i'm thrilled to be here and look forward to helping
some people today
Steve Brown (01:31):
so i'm excited because i have a little story
that that happens to be aboutyour book and where the idea for
my book and i'm like you ibelieve the invisible heroes of
our economy or are theentrepreneurs those people that
risk everything their futuretheir family's future on some
(01:52):
some hope that they're they'regoing to create a business that
provides us the services thatchange our lives and actually in
aggregate employ all thesepeople in the workforce and
they're so important so i'm on aplane and i'm flying to san
francisco to go to a googleconference at google next
conference and i'm i'm readingone of your books and you can
(02:13):
see right here on my shelfthey're there they've been that
way for a while but i'm readingwhat what the heck is he oh s
right and eos is for those thatdon't know what you're not that
many people eos is theentrepreneurial operating system
and it's a beautiful book thatyou wrote to help empower an
(02:36):
organization to share with theirteam this is what we're
implementing and i was marvelingat how simple it was but i was
hit with this epiphany that ihad a version of the
entrepreneurial businessmarketing and sale system and
that was the confirmation that igot on what my book should be
(02:57):
about and what i should do iwould just wasn't calling it
that so gino thank you forhelping me work through that
yeah that challenge
Gino Wickman (03:07):
yeah my pleasure that's makes my day and music to
my ears so happy that thatinspired you
Steve Brown (03:13):
so your book entrepreneurial leap i have a
right here so this book yourmission is to to help a million
entrepreneurs figure out whetherthis gig is what they should be
doing or not and i love it butbut here's the thing it's so
(03:33):
sexy every instagram post thatwe see is telling us you need to
be an entrepreneur because it'swhat everybody's doing it sexy
and you just work hard enoughyou can make it happen but
that's not really the truth
Gino Wickman (03:50):
yeah unfortunately is not and so i've got bad news
and the bad news is only 4% ofus are entrepreneurs true
entrepreneurs and and so i saythat to start with because you
know this passion project andthis book that i wrote is
designed to find all of the trueentrepreneurs in the world and
(04:12):
show them the life that theywere born to live and and in
provide them that freedom and isay the bad news is you know the
subtitle of the book is do youhave what it takes to become an
entrepreneur and you said itthere's so much hype and media
and promotion about becoming anentrepreneur and be an
(04:33):
entrepreneur in the 70s and 80severybody wanted to be a rock
star you know and now everybodywants to be an entrepreneur and
it's dangerous because everybodyshouldn't be an entrepreneur 4%
i said here's the reality mostentrepreneurs die broke okay it
is a tough life the the risk ishigh the odds are slim and it's
(04:54):
not for everybody it's a boardit's it's borderline crazy
becoming an entrepreneur but iwould trade it for anything. And
what I believe as a trueentrepreneur has six essential
traits, and we can get intothose later, but you're born
with them, or you're not. Andyou either have them or you
don't. And so entrepreneurshipis not this Pinnacle, this
ultimate destination, the onlycareer choice in life, it's one
(05:18):
of 1000, and that everyone's cutout for it. And it's not as
glamorous as everyone thinks. Sofor the crazy ones that are I'm
showing them a path to becomevery successful. And for the
ones that aren't, I'm providingthem clarity and saving them 10
years of hell, because there'ssome other purpose for you,
that's going to be amazing. Andthis may not be it.
Steve Brown (05:41):
I love it, you have some great stories in your book.
But you know, in chapter one, Iwanted that. And so these are
questions that I get. And so Iwant, you know, I'm looking for
your answers. But what are theessential characteristics of an
entrepreneur? It seems like it'dbe obvious I'm a risk taker. But
there's there several more.
Gino Wickman (06:01):
Yeah. So I actually call them essential
traits, but characteristicstraits, Potato, potato, I
actually do a riff in one of thechapters in the book about all
of the characteristics, Ibelieve there's, you know, 20,
or 30 characteristics. But thereare six essential traits. And
like I said, I believe you'reborn with these, I don't believe
they can be taught. And listen,I hope I'm wrong. Hopefully,
(06:23):
they can be taught because thenwe'll have even more
entrepreneurs. But let's pretendI'm right, and that you're born
with them. I'm going to sharethem with you right now. And
what I love for your listener todo is to just do a checkup on
themselves, do they have all sixof these things? And so these
are the six essential traits.
They are visionary, passionate,problem solver, driven, risk
(06:43):
taker and responsible. And sothose are the six
Steve Brown (06:51):
responsible? That seems like what do you mean by
responsible,
Gino Wickman (06:58):
I love it. That's always my favorite one to talk
about. Because that one makesthe point the best that you're
born with these and they can'tbe taught. So responsible. This
trait is a person who blames noone, there are two types of
people in the world. And sothere's people that when
something goes wrong, they blameeveryone else. And then there's
(07:20):
another type of person thatlooks to themselves blames
themselves take responsibility,they look into the mirror, when
something goes wrong, they'rewilling to take and run with the
ball. They don't believe inentitlement. And and so two
things. One, as I heard thisdescribed best as to a person
who takes responsibility and isresponsible. If it's an
(07:41):
entrepreneur who owns abuilding, if they're building
gets hit with a meteor, theybelieve that's their fault. They
chose the building, they builtthe building, they chose to move
there, they are responsible,where the rest of the world
blames everyone else for thathappening or blames other
things. And the second point is,here's how I know you're born
with it. You know, it's pick afamily of four children, okay.
(08:05):
And so now those of you outthere listening, think about
your siblings, and brothers andsisters and people you know, in
the world. But if you thinkabout each one of them, when
something goes wrong for them,you can put them in one of two
camps. They either take totalresponsibility, or they blame it
blame everyone else. Well, howis it that in a family of four
And so again, think about yourfamily, whatever the number of
(08:26):
siblings, some takeresponsibility, and some don't,
same parents, same upbringing,same everything. Why is it so
different? And so to me, it'sbecause you're either born with
this responsible trait, oryou're not?
Steve Brown (08:40):
Yeah, that's tough.
And so these are questions thatyou have to ask yourself and be
really honest about becausebeing an entrepreneur is really
a serious gig, you have people'stheir jobs are depending upon
you the end, if you just decideone day, this is just too hard.
I don't want to do this anymore.
It's so well for them,
Gino Wickman (09:00):
you got it in you know, I'm so passionate about
this, again, it's a cautionarytale, I'm trying to make sure
you have them so you can becomean entrepreneur or you don't so
to save you those 10 years ofhell. So I actually created an
assessment that you can takeonline at the website at E dash
lead. com, it's free in 10minutes, you score 90 or higher
odds are you possess these sixessential traits, and anything
(09:23):
lower, you may be missing some.
And again, it's just my cautionto you that maybe you shouldn't
take the leap at the end of theday. It's a decision that you
have to make for yourself.
Steve Brown (09:32):
So Gina, why do you say that entrepreneurs are born,
not made? Well, again, it
Gino Wickman (09:37):
goes back to these six essential traits. I believe
you are born with these traits,you know, it's in your makeup,
it's in your genes. And so wecould go through each one and it
would take us 30 minutes to godeep into each one, just like I
explained responsible. But whenyou think about the visionary
trait as an example, again, wecan pick any one of the people
that are visionary have thisinitiative credible ability to
(10:01):
connect the dots, they putthings together, they just see
things in a way that othersdon't, they're literally able to
see around corners. And thenthere's some people that just
don't, and it's okay. And you'renever going to learn that it's,
it's it is truly a gift that youare born with. And so that's
just another example. And Icould keep going with all six,
but you just, you know, myexperience is you don't learn
(10:23):
these things,
Steve Brown (10:24):
the frustration with seeing the things that
others is like, it's hard onyou. And you're going what I
don't understand why you guysare pushing back, or why you're
asking all these stupidquestions, because Can't you
see, it's going them, it's goingto happen, but it's hard for
them. And it does, it feels likethey're being critical or not
(10:45):
believing you.
Gino Wickman (10:46):
Yeah. And it's and it's a blessing and a curse. It
is a strength and a weakness.
Because people with thisvisionary trait, you know, they
typically have ADD, they'rehyper, hyperactive, lots of
ideas, their brains are alwaysgoing and so they're distracted.
They're seeing things they'retrying to focus, it's one of the
biggest entrepreneurialchallenges is to not get
distracted by all the shinystuff and all the opportunities
(11:07):
that you see in the world,because success comes from
picking one thing focusing andexecuting that well. And so it's
as much a blessing as it is acurse. The discussion about
passion in that chapter reallyresonated with me. And I love
the line in there. It's likeyour passion is what's going to
give you this energy to plowthrough when it feels like
(11:30):
you're losing when you'refailing, and you're still going
to stick to it. And I alwaystalk about you know, it's it's
passion, I believe it's thenumber one reason entrepreneurs
succeed, because having deeppassion for something is the
only reason you're going to getup every time you get knocked
down. And being an entrepreneurand building a business, you get
(11:51):
knocked down constantly. Andit's borderline insanity to keep
getting up and trying to createthis thing that you're creating.
But that's what we do. And we'rewe're relentless in wanting to
pursue that passion.
Steve Brown (12:06):
We talk about the strengths of a entrepreneur, but
there's also these weaknesses.
So let's talk a little bit aboutwhat what are those that it
seems sexy that I'm anentrepreneur, but the there's a
flip side of that, that there'sa lot of baggage that comes with
that.
Gino Wickman (12:21):
Yeah. And so with that, you know, we're
glamorizing all of thesewonderful traits. But every one
of these trades has an equaldownside. And I do a riff in the
book, and I share all of thesedownsides. So there are probably
20 of them, but I'm gonna giveyou some high level ones.
Because as I already mentioned,you know, a true entrepreneur
(12:42):
almost always has a DD or ADHD,and I believe it's a gift. But
it is challenging, becauseyou're always so distracted. A
lot of them have OCD, a lot ofthem have dyslexia. And with
this challenge, though, withthis driven trait, you're
sometimes very dominant, you'reoff putting to people around
(13:05):
you, you're intimidating topeople around you, because
you're so freaking intense. Andpeople just want you to like
back off, slow down, calm down.
And so that comes off as as offputting, you know, a true
entrepreneur. Ironically, peopleare surprised by this. But
they're actually not great atfinances, and bookkeeping and
the p&l, I still can't read ap&l and a financial statement.
(13:27):
I've been doing this for 30years. They're great at making
money. That's not what we'retalking about. It's the keeping
the money that they arechallenged with. And as I
mentioned earlier, allentrepreneur not all most
entrepreneurs die broke, becauseit's a it's a weakness, and I
could keep going, but those aresome of the high level ones.
Steve Brown (13:46):
Yeah, that's them, keeping an eye on the numbers.
And then they they're alwaysjustifying that this new thing
is going to be the next upgradethe next level. And it puts you
at risk every time you do that.
You're putting yourself at risk.
And yet that's what you don'tmind putting things at risk.
Gino Wickman (14:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Right. You know, and I can'thelp but now sudden, my mind's
racing because, you know,they're not great at managing
people. They're not great atholding people accountable.
They're not great with details.
They're so I mean, it's, it'snot all great, man. It's not all
great. But it's I wouldn't tradeit for anything. When you
Steve Brown (14:23):
wait. When you're, you're in this decision. Stage
like you're deciding, am I am Ian entrepreneur, those around
you that love you, they're goingto point those negative things
out to you, which makes you feellike oh, I could be making a big
mistake. You're almost never ina position of confidence because
(14:45):
everyone around you is seeingall the things from their
perspective, which is generallynon entrepreneurial.
Gino Wickman (14:52):
Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, I talked aboutDaniel Kennedy's quote, that is
we teach what we needed the mostand so the reason I created it
neuro leap. And the reason forthis passion project to impact a
million entrepreneurs in themaking over the next 10 years is
because of my 18 year old self.
When I was 18. As anentrepreneur in the making, I
didn't know I was anentrepreneur back then. So I was
(15:14):
this mislabeled, derelict,insecure kid confused, because I
was so different from everybodyelse. I didn't get what I was.
And that's so challenging. Andit makes me think of, you know,
the entrepreneur in the making,you know, the 13 year old kid,
be at a boy or a girl, in afamily of, you know, whatever it
(15:35):
is doctors, teachers, whatever,but a non entrepreneurial
family, that poor kid is analien, that poor kid is on Mars,
and they just feel so out ofplace. And so yes, absolutely,
you can and do feel lost. Andthis book is designed to give
hope to both those parents, sothey know what the heck it
Unknown (15:57):
is that they have
Gino Wickman (15:58):
here. And for that kid that realizes, here's what I
am. And here's why I'm sodifferent than all of these
other career choices.
Steve Brown (16:07):
Yeah, so you're listening to or you're watching
the ROI online Podcast, whereinterviewing Gino Whitman, his
book, his entrepreneurial leap,he's written six books sold over
a million copies. And he didn'tsell all of those out of the
back of his car. He's sold it bypure hustle. He's built and sold
(16:28):
two companies. One was he tookover his dad's company, and then
his other his entrepreneurialoperating system. And so we're
talking about how you can findout whether you have the chops
to be an entrepreneur or notwith his new book,
entrepreneurial leap. So Gino,this passion conversation where
(16:50):
we can get tripped up on ourpassion, and maybe it's not our
real passion. But is there apassion test that you can take?
Gino Wickman (16:59):
Yeah, and I wouldn't call it a passion test
this I don't know why this topicis so hot. Like in this last 30
days. You I can't tell you, mepeople I've asked zeroed in on
this question as of late. And soI love it. I'm very passionate
about the topic of passion. Andso I write an entire chapter on
this. And so high level context,the book is written in three
(17:21):
parts confirm glimpse path. Andthere's a very important science
behind that linear flow. Becausefirst we want to confirm whether
you are or aren't. And thatentrepreneur in the making
assessment on the website willhelp you determine that glimpse
is to show all the possibilitiespath is to show a path to
greatly increase your odds ofsuccess. But what I write an
(17:41):
entire chapter in path ondiscovering your passion,
because this is so important.
And I offer seven tools todiscover your passion. So
literally seven exercises andtools to help you get there. So
it's not so much about a test,as it is a soul searching
journey to find your passion. Weall have one. And what's
(18:02):
interesting about the way thishas been asked as of late is,
there's confusion out therebecause there's talk about how
you know what if I'm notpassionate about my product or
service, how can I succeed. Andthe truth of the matter is, it's
not always a passion about theproduct or service. And I would
suggest to you it's rarelypassionate about the product or
(18:23):
service. And the passion tendsto fall in one of four
categories. It's either apassion about the end user, the
customer, the client, who you'retrying to impact. I am
passionate about entrepreneursand impacting their lives, and
giving them the ideal life. Sothat's where my passion lies.
The second is a passion for theorganization, you're building,
you want to build somethinggreat a culture, that's
(18:44):
incredible. The third is aboutinnovation and ideas and
creativity. And then the fourthis about winning, crushing
competitors being the best beingnumber one, that's where I find
most of the passions lie. Sojust know that you can build
something great. And it doesn'thave to be passion for your
product. I've got a client thatsells lightbulbs, you're not
(19:06):
entirely passionate about lightbulbs, but they're passionate
about building an incredibleorganization. Again, another
client, they sell tonercartridges, so they're not
passionate about tonercartridges. for them. It's about
building an incredible culturethat is second to none. And so
those are all the differenttypes of passions. So don't feel
like it's, you know, let's see.
(19:28):
So maybe it needs to be aboutyou know, window washing. It's
not about that. It's somethingdeeper in your passion typically
always stems from a wound, or apain or a past experience or
something from your past. That'swhat's typical. And I give
again, a bunch of exercises tohelp you discover it.
Steve Brown (19:47):
Hey, I wanted to pause right here and tell you
about a book that you need toget today. It's the funniest
book on marketing. It's calledthe Golden toilet. Stop flushing
your marketing budget into yourwebsite. Buy and build a system
that grows your business. Andguess who wrote it? That's
right. I wrote it. And I wroteit just for you. Because I want
(20:09):
to help you get past the lasthurdles of setting up your
business and getting it squaredaway. I wrote it so that you can
avoid time wasting time wastingmoney, wasting frustration, get
the book on Audible. You can getit on Kindle. You can get it on
Amazon, but get the book, takeadvantage of the insights in
(20:31):
there. And let me know what youthink. And now back to this
excellent episode. Yeah, I thinkthat's really important because
you think about entrepreneursgetting ready to, to take the
leap to step out, holdthemselves accountable. But it's
like you don't know where tostart necessarily. And you're
(20:52):
wondering, and you're in thissystem, or this process, the way
to think it through can be soempowering.
Here, here.
So do you know, do entrepreneursneed a strategy? That's
obviously the answer is going tobe yes. But what kind of
strategy? Gino?
Gino Wickman (21:13):
Yeah. So I don't call it strategy, I call it
vision, but potato potahto.
Okay, it's all in the same plan,vision, a strategy, call it what
you want to call it. And I'mgonna pull a couple things
together that we're talkingabout, because when I talked
about confirm glimpse path arethe three parts to the book. And
each one of those parts of thebook, they offer a free tool
that's going to help you createcrystal clear clarity around
(21:36):
what you want to create. And wecall it the 123 roadmap. And so
in confirm, it's filling outthat assessment, and glimpse,
it's filling out somethingcalled my biz match. Again, each
tool is free at the website, hedefinitely calm and so my biz
match is going to help youdecide the perfect business for
you. The business, you're drawnto the business, you're built
(22:00):
for type size industry, all ofit. And then the third tool is
called my vision clarifier. Andthis gets to the answer to your
question, because my visionclarifier is getting you to
think of eight aspects of yourvision and get really clear on
those things. Who is yourcustomer? What is your message?
(22:21):
What is your pricing structure?
What is the 10 year goal? Whatis the three year picture, what
is the one year plan in boilingit all the way down to a 90 day
actionable plan. And so for me,I call that a vision, not a
strategy. But a strategy expertwould call that a strategy. But
(22:41):
what I teach is that you have toget that vision out of your
head, on paper, and into theheads and minds of others if
you're going to build somethinggreat. And all of that combined.
Again, it's called 123 roadmapin that you can do those three
exercises in an hour, you go tothe website, you'll click on the
one to three roadmap button. Andout of that will give you a
(23:04):
clear plan to start a betterstartup, as I like to call it.
Steve Brown (23:09):
I didn't have the luxury of having your book, when
I began my entrepreneurialjourney. And then I'm wasted
years because there's thisthought process of Can I make
money doing this? I need tostart a business. And so I was
looking at it What can make memoney? Not what am I best suited
(23:30):
for. So I really enjoyed that.
That section of your book thathelps you look at different
businesses and start to see thecategories and then start to
figure out where your best useof your time is. You're here.
And so that's
Gino Wickman (23:46):
it. I really appreciate you saying that
because I'm going to try andarticulate the goal because at
the end of the day, the goal isclarity. And the clarity is
about once you realize you hadthe six essential trades, I want
you to understand that you aregenetically encoded to build
something. And my biz matchhelps you decide the industry
(24:06):
that you're best suited for thetype of business or your product
or your service or your b2b orb2c or your high price, low
cost. Are you someone who'sgoing to build a 10 person
company? Are you someone who'sgoing to build a 10,000 person
company, every entrepreneur isnow not cut out to build every
business. And so there's there'sa genetic encoding you have.
(24:27):
There's something you're drawnto there's something you're
built for. And this kind ofhelps you chisel away You are a
block of marble, and I'm helpingyou see the sculpture that you
are inside of that block ofmarble and chip away all the
superfluous material. So youclearly know what you're built
for the world is preaching andteaching billion dollar tech
(24:48):
unicorns is what you know, it'sthe ultimate destination for an
entrepreneur and it's just nottrue. There's no shame in
building a $5 million heatingand cooling company with 50
people that makes an impactPacked on that community.
Steve Brown (25:02):
That was one part of the book I really liked.
Because you're right, everyone'ssetting up. Steve Jobs, you need
to be put a dent in theuniverse. And that's what
everyone's thinks. They're beingprogrammed. That's what you the
expectation of yourentrepreneurial journey is
supposed to be, but it's nottheirs. I call them invisible
heroes, because there's 1000s ofthose that are non obvious. And
(25:24):
yet they're successful. And youtalk about them in your book.
Gino Wickman (25:28):
Yeah. And you know, there's a quote that Jim
Collins shares in Good to Great,and it literally gives me chills
up my spine, when I read thatbook for the first time. 20
years ago, I read that quote,and the quote is the greatest
company in America, we willnever find, because it's some
$10 million company that doesn'twant to be known. It's this
(25:49):
great little company thatdoesn't care about the
recognition and the accolades.
They just care about making animpact in their community. And
and so when I read that, I said,I want to build that company.
And I really believe that I didwith EOS worldwide. And then I
sold it when it got there.
Because it's no fun to me afterthat, but but to me, that's what
it's all about, is you decidingwhat you want to build, and who
(26:13):
gives a shit what anybody elseon the planet thinks build your
business and no one else's,
Steve Brown (26:20):
I love that you build your business and no one
else's. So how do I staypositive as an entrepreneur, you
have a great chapter that talksabout that.
Gino Wickman (26:31):
So in what I talked about is it's about how
to stay motivated, educated,keep learning. And so there are
hundreds of ways to do it. Andwhat I offer in the book are all
the different ways to do it,because we all have our own
formula. And so for some, it'swatching YouTube videos, there
is now there, you know, there'swhat a million hours of
(26:51):
motivational material, there's amillion hours of educational
materials for entrepreneursabout building businesses. And
so if that's your thing,watching videos, that's a great
way for you to stay educated,stay motivated. Reading books, I
give a list of my recommendedreading, it's also on the
website. So you can look at thatfor free on the website. E dash
(27:13):
lead calm, but reading books. SoI've always been a book reader
what? I'm amazed that when Ilook back at my last 30 years,
and the hundreds and hundreds ofbooks that I read, how they've
shaped my thinking, my myphilosophies, they keep me
motivated, they give me ideas,just like you read my book, and
you had an aha moment, you'rereading this book about a
(27:33):
completely different topic. Andyou got an aha moment. Well,
that's what happens. And so I doit through reading. Mentors can
help keep you motivated,masterminds can keep you
motivated, taking classes. Soagain, there's so many different
ways listening to motivationalspeakers, you just have to
decide your formula for stayingmotivated. Then the other thing
too, in my 20s. Back then it wascassette tapes to aid to date
(27:57):
myself, but you know, it's like,Earl Nightingale was the
strangest secret, okay, and lesBrowns you deserve. I listened
to those two cassette tapeshundreds of times, and you can
listen to them now for free onYouTube. So I strongly urge
every listener to go listen toEarl Nightingale the Strangest
Secret. Earl Nightingale is thegodfather of motivation. He's
(28:19):
the original motivator and thattape the Strangest Secret, which
is now that content is beingretaught and reproduced many
different ways. That's theoriginal source material other
than like the Bible orsomething, but it is so powerful
about how we become what wethink about. And so there's just
so much information out there,you just got to go out and
(28:40):
access it.
Steve Brown (28:41):
So one of your books really helped me feel
better about what I was feeling.
And that's when forgetting themthe exact book. Didn't want to
say it wrong, but it talks aboutthe visionary. Yeah, the rocket.
Gino Wickman (28:56):
rocket fuel is what you're talking about
Steve Brown (28:58):
rocket fuel. Yeah.
And so when I read, it was like,This relief came over me because
everyone in the organizationfelt it was weird. And I was
dealing with this. I my Should Itry to be more like them. But
when I read that as like, Oh,it's okay to be me. Here here.
And and
Gino Wickman (29:17):
that, you know, so again, that book is called
rocket fuel. And what that bookis teaching is this concept that
if you score 90 or higher on theentrepreneur in the making
assessment, and you take yourleap and you start your
business, as you build yourbusiness as an entrepreneur, I
consider your role what I call avisionary, okay? And so I've
(29:38):
coined this term, visionary, andintegrator, okay. And so as a
visionary entrepreneur, you arewild and crazy and you have all
those strengths and all thoseweaknesses we've talked about.
Well, in the chapter on the ninestages of building your business
in this book, I talk about howevery visionary and At some
(30:00):
point on their journey of growthneeds to find and counterbalance
themselves with what I call anintegrator. And an integrator is
a very different role sometimesknown as General Manager, CEO,
President. But this is someonewho's the Yin to your Yang. And
they are basically the personthat harmoniously integrates the
business and executes the planfor you to free you up to
(30:22):
continue to grow theorganization. And so you're the
visionary. If you score 90 orhigher, you need an integrator
at some point, your journey, andthat's what rocket fuel teaches,
is the A to Z and understandingthat assessing that how to find
that ultimately how to buildthat. And then I teach a little
bit of it in this book,entrepreneurial leap.
Steve Brown (30:42):
Yeah. So that integrator is like one of your
most important decisions, it canbe a make or break for you. And
so it's like something that isso important, but for you to
realize it first, then start toposition yourself to take
advantage of that that's a realkey to success. I met those
(31:02):
invisible success stories, thatin some part of their story that
day that they identified theirintegrator, the right one was
one of the days that they reallystarted to take off and get
Gino Wickman (31:15):
going. And you know, we have 100,000 companies
running on EOS and we EOSimplementers have taken 10,000
companies through the process. Ican assure you there's at least
8000 stories like that, and wehear them every single day. It
is transformative for avisionary the day they put their
integrator in place.
Steve Brown (31:36):
So Gino, this has been an awesome conversation.
And so just so everybody knows Ihave an exclusive that YouTube
part where we talked with Ginoand we got his answer to how to
be taken seriously as a youngentrepreneur. That's a big
thing. There's a lot going onthere. So to learn what Geno's
(31:57):
answer is, you need to go to ourYouTube channel and hear that so
Gino? You've got six books,she's sold over a million
copies. Your latest one isentrepreneurial leap. You're
helping your mission is to get amillion entrepreneurs teed up
and heading in the rightdirection. But what's the one
question that in all theseinterviews you do? You never get
(32:21):
asked? But you want to answer?
Unknown (32:23):
Hmm, wow, that's a good one. Um, oh.
Gino Wickman (32:32):
which one to pick, you know, I guess I'll pick
something that I'm quitepassionate about. And, you know,
my wish for everyone is that isas soon as possible in life, you
(32:54):
get comfortable in your own skinand let your freak flag fly.
Okay, and so it's, it's, it's, Igot to come up with the right
word here so that I can makesense, but it's, it's palatable.
The insecurity that exists inthe world. And it's, it's, it's
(33:15):
a shame, and it's sad. And it'sheartbreaking. Because it's a
bunch of people being judged andfeeling judged and not truly
being themselves. And for me, Imean, it took me to like 42 I'm
53 and I don't give two shitswhat anybody thinks about me,
and it is fucking freeing. Soyou can edit out all the
(33:35):
swearing I love to swear. ButBut, you know, I think of my
insecure self at 18 I think ofall these people, but man the
day you give yourself thefreedom to just be yourself,
Know thyself, go on a journey ofself discovery, take assessment
tools, read books, know who youare top to bottom and just
freely be that in the world,you'll be happier, you'll
(33:56):
accomplish more, you'll attractmore of the people that you want
to attract to you. And you'llrepel all the ones that you
don't want around you. Becausewhat you're doing in most cases
is you're trying to be allthings to all people and and
you're gonna die miserable inthat formula. So that's the
question. I wish
Steve Brown (34:18):
everybody would ask me. And as you're talking, as
you're saying that I'm thinkingabout, you know, your book is
perfect for all these peoplethat have been in a job. They've
been doing their best to paytheir bills, take care of their
family, but they've had thisentrepreneur desire lurking in
them and then all of a suddenthis past year, things change.
(34:40):
They lost their job. They theyrealize that this, the writing's
on the wall that they can'tcontinue on in this certain
position. And this is apotential solution for them that
maybe they've not considered orbeen avoiding.
Gino Wickman (34:56):
Yeah, and when I save that, you know, let your
freak flag fly and be yourselfi'm talking to the accountant
the police officer the nurse themom the dad in other words this
isn't about entrepreneurshipthis is about be you and imagine
if everyone was just freely 100%themselves i just think it'd be
(35:18):
a better world and so you'reasking what question do i wish
people would ask you know it'slike what is the great greatest
piece of advice you would give aperson you know so if that was
the question i would ask if iwere asked that's the that's the
answer i
Steve Brown (35:32):
would give i love it thank you gino gino you've
been an awesome guest on the roionline podcast where where do
people need to connect with youwhat do they need where can they
get the book tell us all thatinformation
Gino Wickman (35:46):
please yeah you bet so the epicenter of all
things entrepreneurial leap isthe website e dash leap calm
there you will find that freeassessment you can download a
free chapter of the book icertainly hope you buy the book
but everything is there 123roadmap the my biz match the my
vision clarifier and a wholebunch of other tools and
(36:06):
resources we put out a videoevery single week i write an
article every other week but theother thing i would suggest to
and offer up is the way i'mbuilding this model it's a
passion project and so themission is to impact a million
entrepreneurs in the making andso what i'm doing is i'm joining
forces with what i callcollaborators and collaborators
or anyone out there in the worldthat are teaching coaching
(36:29):
guiding helping mentoringentrepreneurs in the making and
what i do is i give them all ofmy content for free to freely
teach in the world no moneyexchanges hands no content no
contracts and all i ask inreturn is you give credit where
credit is due and so if anyoneout there is interested in
becoming a collaborator click onthe click on the become a
(36:51):
collaborator button on thewebsite and you'll learn all
about what that means if that'ssomething that you know is in
your area of passion other thanthat everything's there at the
website
Steve Brown (37:02):
well that's in our area of passion and this is kind
of our first little mini revealwe're spinning up what's called
the roi university and it's aplace for entrepreneurs to come
connect with other like mindedpeople and find their resources
like the eally material i didfill out the information and
become a collaborator and that'ssome stuff that we would like to
(37:25):
share as well so you know we'reon the same page brother
Unknown (37:29):
love it steve love it
Steve Brown (37:31):
all right and that's a wrap thanks for
listening to another fun episodeof the roi online podcast for
more be sure to check out theshow notes of this episode and
feel free to connect with me onlinkedin where we can chat and i
can help direct you to theresources you're searching for
(37:52):
to learn more about how you cangrow your business better be
sure to pick up your copy of mybook the golden toilet at
surprise that golden toilet.comi'm Steve Brown and we'll see
you next week on another funepisode of the roi online
podcast
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