🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

That is what I will go over with people in the flirt coaching. If you know how to really read your partners, whether it's your business partner or life partner or potential life partner, you know how to read what lights them up and what doesn't. Then you can go with that and choose better partners.

So I say go with something you are passionate about. Go with your strengths. Go with Something, that as I joked about earlier about looking around. Look at the things in front of you. Look at your actions and habits. What are those things that you are doing that you don't mind doing and that you could translate into a business? If you like talking to people all day, maybe being a counselor or open...

Spend as much time on understanding the marketing and sales of your business early on. Marketing can generate demand, but you also have to be able to close the business that comes through the door. That can be investors, customers, or employees. Whatever it is, as a founder, you are selling your ideas, solutions, and vision. The reason why it is really important to get good at that it's just somet...

If you have a passion, and you're super passionate about it, and you believe in yourself, don't allow anyone to ever minimize or diminish what you are trying to accomplish and what your overall goal is. Even though that partnership may end your passion and your drive, you will find yourself along the way. It took me five years to get to the point of just filming a documentary. But there will be so...

One, the biggest piece of advice is you are not alone. This is where I found myself after going there. So many entrepreneurs feel they carry this weight on them. I made myself alone, feeling I had to carry this weight so much that it made me contemplate my own life. Don't do that. You are surrounded by amazing individuals, especially in so many cities. When you find your tribe and, people reach ou...

Maybe not have the dream crusher in your life. But someone that is going to be real with you and honest about your idea. Not in a negative way but a good sounding board. Looking for that person in your life. I have been incredibly blessed. Because I have a couple of founders that I reached out to on LinkedIn and said: hey, you are where I want to be in the auto space. Can we chat? And they have be...

Depends on what problem you are solving. Before thinking about money or investors, what's the product you really want to solve? Make sure there is demand there. At the end of the day, we want to make sure the product is there and there's a market for it. Get that nailed down. Have everything researched and be prepared and, I think you will do well from there.

One of the things I have done consistently in my business and the last twenty years is I have always had a mastermind group. And so, I have always had buddies. These are people who are either at the same level as me or maybe one or two notches ahead of me in business. We meet regularly to support each other and to learn and grow from each other. It's a bit like Devin, you've done this. What did yo...

I'll advise that person to set really high standards for their team and keep it consistent. It's not the product that matters cause businesses and startups change their products and business model a lot and they experiment with that. But having a great team is key to success.

Rely on other people. Figure out what you are putting into your brain that is going to create the actions you are going to break. Surround yourself with good counsel. With people that you trust. With people that will give you good information. People who are not looking to try and profit from you, but people who are really looking who will build you up and support you. You need a village to make a...

Just go out and do it with as minimum investment, both monetary and time, as possible. I think a lot of new entrepreneurs that I see are infatuated with starting the next Facebook. To do that, what they do is they build out this huge idea with all these different layers that they don't know anything about actually doing. But it all sounds great to them so, they pitch that to people. And people may...

Stick with it. I mean, it is a two to four to five-year process. First of all, I would say today is the day to start a business. Tomorrow is not as good as today. The reason being; I know everybody stuff on their plate but, the older you get, the more responsibilities you have. You have a wife. You have kids. You have all these new responsibilities that are going to make it harder and harder to st...

Take a deep breath, sit back, and think about your brand. Think about your product. Are you communicating the way you think you are communicating? You may be thinking you are doing everything a hundred percent. Or even if you are a start-up, and you are trying to figure things out. Take that same deep breath, think about your business. Think about your brand. Are you communicating or, have you cre...

Try to get something out as quickly as possible, even if you don't focus on getting the right pricing right out of the race; that's fine. What you want with an idea is you want to understand. are people going to pay for it? And are you solving a real problem? It's very hard for people to project themselves with something that you say. Try to give them something tangible. I would say get it out as...

Really research your market and craft because a lot of times I think we see someone that is successful and, we want that success. But we don't do our due diligence to research. Can I really do this? One of the things I really love to ask people is, would you do it if you had to do it for free? A lot of times people don't realize when you're an entrepreneur the money does not immediately come. Then...

Follow the structure of things because you do need the systems and processes and everything else. But don't be afraid to go in your own direction with things. I actually saw someone who posted on an entrepreneur board of I am just too nice; how do I learn to be that bolder, stronger, meaner type of boss or employee? The first thing and, no one ever responded when I commented this but, I said you d...

It's finding a balance between confidence and humility. You need supreme confidence in your idea and your unique ability to make this idea a reality whether is a product or service or whatever. At the same time, you need humility to know not only what you don't know. I knew I am not good at marketing and sales. I need to also recognize there is other stuff I don't even know I don't know having the...

Don't be a control freak and give up control earlier. Not give up control as in I have seen people who go: oh, I am going to employ somebody who is an expert and just let them do it, no, that is not what I mean. I mean, any entrepreneur starting a business does everything. We stand at the front of the copier and make the copies. We make the coffee, etc. We tend to do all of that. The key to being...

What the research shows is that diversity of start-up teams is super important. Start-up teams with a single member with hyperactive-impulsive ADHD outperform. Start-up teams with two members with hyperactive-impulsive ADHD tend to suffer, and they don't perform so well. You probably have examples in your own experience where you see that dynamic play out. So if you are on a team like that, it's r...

Being open to wearing many hats and being creative and not thinking of it. It's a very different mindset. Working for a larger company, even coming from GM, honestly moved too slow for me. I loved what we were doing but, it probably would have taken five years to do what we're going to accomplish in one year. I think you have to be ready for that coming to a start-up. Even if you have come from a...

Make sure you are scratching an itch that you are actually interested in and not just chasing something. It's really competitive out there. It's hard enough to start a business, so try and find a place where you are going to provide some sort of unique value.

Obsess over your customers in ways that you really understand their job to be done. And here I reference the Clayton Christensen model of; what are people actually looking to hire somebody or something for?

Start do and go for it. People are very I would stay informationally driven. They are reading, and writing blogs, watching videos but, they never are action takers. I would rather people go for it and learn from their mistakes. At least you won't live with regret.

So I really think the idea is to understand your financials more than anything. I think that is going to be the key. When you start talking to people who are going to want to back you, they are going to want to know that you know what you are talking about. It's great to know your idea. It's great that you have a passion for your idea but, if you don't understand the long-term effects of what you'...

Number one is to pick up the phone and have a consultation with an attorney. Most attorneys, including my firm, probably yours too, will have an initial consultation of a certain duration at no cost to the client. To kinda walk them through and ask the right questions and see if a further consultation or services and warrant. A lot of people have the I can do it myself mentality and, that's good u...