Vision to Venture

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The topics and opinions expressed on the
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W four WN Radio. This is
Beyond Confidence with your host w park.

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Do you want to live a more
fulfilling life? Do you want to live

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your legacy and achieve your personal,
professional, and financial goals? Well?

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Coming up on dvparks Beyond Confidence,
you will hear real stories of leaders,

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entrepreneurs, and achievers who have stepped
into discomfort, shattered their status quo,

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and are living the life they want. You will learn how relationships are the

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key to achieving your aspirations and financial
goals. Moving your career business forward does

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not have to happen at the expense
of your personal or family life or vice

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versa. Learn more at wwdas don't
divpork dot com and you can connect with

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vant contact at divpark dot com.
This is beyond confidence and now here's your

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host, div Park. Good morning, listeners, It's Tuesday morning and wonderful

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to be here with you. So
I was in Washington, DC for past

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few days, and this is something
very interesting happened as we talk about the

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circle of kindness. So what I
saw was I was at a gas station

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filling up the gas and there was
this one probably like a senior citizen and

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eighties something like that, and it
seemed like her cordor was stuck. And

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then there was a young kid,
probably twelve or thirteen years old, and

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he was also standing while his dad
was filling up the gas. So he

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went up to the ladies cordoor and
gently helped her pull it open. And

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when she stepped out, and the
smile on her face and the interaction between

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the two was such a beautiful sight
to see. So keep the kind of

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circle going. And if you have
not purchased our books, be sure to

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get either the Entrepreneur's Garden or expert
to influence her, because I can promise

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you those books will add a whole
lot of value to your lives. And

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also it's a situation because you can
increase your influence, you can build meaningful

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relationships. And also the partial profits
from the book go to keep it dot

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org. So let's bring in our
guests. Welcome David, Hey Devia,

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how are you doing today? How
are you? It's good to have you

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on the show. It's nice to
be here. Thank you for having me

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absolutely. So tell us do you
recall any happy moments from your childhood.

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I had lots of happy moments from
my childhood. I tend to be a

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happy person to begin with, and
so I tend to be optimistic, and

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childhood was wonderful. I remember like
playing with my sister's dog. It was

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so wonderful. When she went off
to college, the dog stayed with her

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in laws, and so I would
go down there and walk and play with

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I walk to their house and play
with the dog, and I was really

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wonderful. But maybe one that's relevant
for entrepreneurship is the story of the lemonade

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stand. And I can tell that
now or later if you'd like, Oh,

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please go ahead. Okay, So
I'll start with a not happy moment,

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which is I just failed second grade
and I wasn't the kid done all

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the sports teams, so you can
imagine my confidence was not really feeling great.

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You know, Layd in school wasn't
doing great in sports. And then

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one summer day, my mom said, why don't you set up a lemonade

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stand on the street corner. And
we lived on a really busy street corner.

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So I'm like, okay, I'll
try that, and you know what,

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I had my first angel investor woo. My mom bought the es and

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she bought sugar, so she bought
the supplies that I needed to start my

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first business. And you know what, I sold gallons and gallons of lemonade.

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Why not because I was the best
entrepreneur at seven or eight years old,

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but because I was on a busy
street corner, and so that made

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me happy. And it also all
these people were coming to see me,

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which was I know, part of
what you talked about on your program is

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networking and getting to know people,
and people were stopping by to buy lemonade

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and it felt really really nice.
So that set me up on a career

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for entrepreneurs because I was having success, even though it didn't really have to

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do with me. It had to
do with the right location, which I

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hadn't chosen. It gave me happiness
and fulfillment. So I went on to

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have multiple childhood businesses after that,
and they also did well sometimes because of

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luck as well. Well. Tell
us about those childhood businesses because there are

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so many parents out there who are
thinking, oh, you know, we

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need to get our kids in sports, we need to get our kids in

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these all these extracurricular activities. And
it's important that you know, recognizing where

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your interests and strengths of your child
are. And look at you. You're

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a driving entrepreneur right now, and
just that support from your mom set you

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up for success. So tell us
about those It really did, you know,

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because she was supportive of it,
and then she saw I was succeeding,

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she encouraged more of it. So
I had multiple women ade sands that

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summer. I went on to sell
other things like Wacky pass If. Many

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people won't know what those were,
but they were like trading cards and things

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at the time. And I did
well at that and it was fun,

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it was thrilling. It was like
a strategy of how do I sell more?

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Whims do I buy more of it'll
sell in the marketplace, and that

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begins to actually to develop some entrepreneurial
skills. Which thing is going to do

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better, which thing isn't. And
even in the lemonade stand, I was

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learning things like marketing, like if
I put a big sign up, you

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know it's a fresh lemonade, I
sold more than if I didn't have a

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lemonade stand, if I gissed have
the stand and not a sign. So

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I learned things about it. Other
childhood businesses will tell one other story.

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When I was in junior high,
we lived with a family from Sri Lanka

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and the man worked at the store
called seven to eleven. I guess I

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can say the brand names the stores
here. And they had excess candy.

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It had been dented, it was
near the expiration point or whatever. Brought

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home these big, big boxes of
candy. They were as big as I

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was near, like I was a
small kid, and you know, eventually

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it's like, what are you going
to do with these huge crates of candy?

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Well, the answer was bring it
to school and give it away.

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And so I would bring this candy
to school and give it away. Well

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you know what that does. That
begins to get you known in the marketplace

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as you're the kid that has candy, so I was known as the candy

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Man. Well, eventually, even
though these carts were huge, I ended

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up selling out. Now I didn't
have an unlimited supply because seven eleven wasn't

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willing to give us free candy forever. And so what I did is I

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went to the local store and I
had a high enough volume of several hundred

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pieces a week, but I said, can I get a discount of my

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candy again, beginning to show entrepreneurial
skills. And you know what they did.

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First, you know, they liked
supporting a young kid trying to sell

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something or whatever. And second way, I did have enough high enough volume

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with a few hunder pieces, so
I don't remember what they gave me,

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you know, like five cents of
for ten cents off piece of candy.

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But then I went to the ice
cream truck and got a bigger percentage off,

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so I was almost thirty or forty
percent off by candy. Went back

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to school and sold it and was
selling lots and I had generated other kids

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starting businesses because they're like, wow, David's making lots of money selling candy.

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They tried doing it and eventually I
learned about government regulation. When the

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school put me down, he accused
me of stealing it, but I wasn't.

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I was actually negotiating better than the
other kids, and that's why I

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was able to undercut the other competition. And so again early days of entrepreneurship.

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But that's kind of how it starts
again, the luck of the draw

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of getting free candy, which had
me bring it to school, and then

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I developed a market, which again
it was luck, but I began to

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see that there was a market there
and began to learn how to negotiate that

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and sell more products. Wow.
So that is very powerful because you know,

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it teaches us so many different lessons. And there are a lot of

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entrepreneurial programs for young kids as well
nowadays, and back in the day they

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were not. So it's so important
that if you see, again kind of

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stressing the point that if you see
that your child is into it, then

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let them develop those muscles. So
it sounds like, you know, you

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were developing already emotiating skills. You
were developing what is it called the marketing

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skills and sales skills. So as
you grew up, what made you stay

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with entrepreneurship. Well, again,
it was giving me confidence at a time

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I didn't have it, and that
actually did develop my confidence further. So

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eventually I actually did okay in school, went on for my MBA finance accounting

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in new venture creation because I had
had an successes as a kid in this

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and there was a strategic aspect that
fit with my innate ability. It's like

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what you said, parents begin to
develop the kid's abilities, right, And

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I did have some things for analyzing
and problem solving, and I knew I

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kind of had interest in this space
of how money worked and things like that.

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So that's when I went on for
you know, the degree. And

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then when I came out of there, I wanted to work for really big

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companies because I figured, well,
I need to see how big companies do

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it, what they do well,
and what they don't do well. And

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then as I learned more about that, I became more interested in it.

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And then eventually about ten years later, I set up my first professional business

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and it did well as also.
That's powerful. So you had lessons from

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the real life business from childhood,
and then when you went to school,

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what would you say, like,
you know, I'm going to school and

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getting a degree. How did it
enhance your learning and your skill sets?

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So interestingly, I think as you
advance more in your education, it becomes

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more focused on the things that you
need to do in that field. And

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so when I went on for my
MBA financ acounting a new venture creation,

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I found that I learned I used
all the skills I learned over the next

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ten years of my career. And
that was interesting because when you're learning about

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operations or you're learning about logistics,
you know, I had never heard of

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logistics when I was, you know, fifteen years old or twenty years old

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even, but you begin to learn
about these things and it's like, okay,

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it's the transportation of products or services, and how has that happen?

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So over those years I did use
things and even I'll give a story from

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a marketing class that I had an
NBA school. I was I wanted to

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do really really well. I wanted
to get straight a's, wanted to be,

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you know, like one of the
top students, and this marketing class

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kept giving me trouble. I would
work so hard. I would stay up

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until three or four a m.
Writing the paper and trying to come up

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with the right strategy, and I
was confident I had the right strategies,

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and I did a be on the
paper, and I was so let down.

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It's like, what did I want? I spent all this time trying

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to figure it out. I would
submit the next paper a bet again,

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and I'm like, what happened here? And so I ended up having one

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of the other students in my one
of my groups was a woman that was

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getting straight a's in this class,
and so eventually I said to her,

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what are you doing? Can I
see one of your papers to see how

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you're doing it? The interesting thing
was she didn't have these long written narratives.

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She had beautiful images and very short, concise points. And what I

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learned is that marketing isn't about writing
a twelve page story necessarily. It's about

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really delivering the point in a very
crisp and concise way. And that's what

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you with skill that And so my
next paper I emulated some of the things

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I learned from there. I had
more graphics and imagery so that the teacher

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could see things, and sure enough
I was able to get an A.

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I didn't ace that class overall,
because I'd had enough things where I wasn't

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succeeding in it, but I did
okay in it. I did decent and

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I definitely learned that lesson that's become
successful and useful for me as I build

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companies. You know, as I've
built companies later, is that marketing really

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needs to clearly and concisely explain what
it is that the product is about.

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Mm hmm. So tell us a
little bit about your Johnny. You know,

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you have been in management. There
are a lot of people who are

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in the corporate world and they're very
hesitant as they want to transition out of

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the corporate world into entrepreneurship. So
did you have a job or did you

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continue straight into the entrepreneurship So great
question. So I mentioned earlier that I

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did work at some of the big
corporates and I did well actually at the

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big corporations because I understood how to
use my analytics skills to solve problems that

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sometimes other people weren't able to solve. That did multiple things for me.

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One is it built some financial reserves
because I was earning good income as an

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employee of a company. But it
also built some of the confidence in skills

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and what it takes to succeed,
and it did help me to see what

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worked and didn't work in larger companies. So eventually I decided to start my

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own business, which was a management
consulting business, because that's the space I

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knew. I'd worked with pricewaterhouse and
KPMNG in their management consulting division, but

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when I started that business, I
didn't know how to BacT customers in the

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same way because my role wasn't primarily
sales in the past. It was doing

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the consulting work in leading teams,
and so I had to develop new skill

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sets as an entrepreneur. And one
of the things I did is I talked

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to people. You know, it's
a kind of a novel concept, right,

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learned by learning from those that know. So one of the first things

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I did when I set up that
first business is I knew I wanted to

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work with banks because that's what I
had done for the last ten years,

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helped banks perform better, large banks
like Wells Fargo and Bank of America and

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American Express. And so what I
did is I reached out to smaller banks

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because I knew the big banks wouldn't
hire me, and I happened to have

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a good friend of mine that was
a CFO of a community bank, and

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I said, how would I go
about developing business with someone like you?

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And he said, oh, that's
easy. You hang out where we hang

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out? And I'm like, Okay, where do comity bank CFOs hang out?

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Believe it or not, there's an
answer to that. Community bank CFOs

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hang out at community bank associations.
So that's exactly what I did. So

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I went to a community bank association
and I ended up meeting a lot of

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people, and I ended up selling. At the first one I went to,

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I sold, but ended up being
my next couple of projects, and

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that really launched my business and do
success ultimately by building those relationships and understanding

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how those things work. I really
like that what you mentioned is that where

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do they hang out? Because so
many people think that you have to have

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so many irons in the fire to
connect with the right people, and a

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lot of people forget that ultimately,
you're working with people. So it's about

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the building the relationships and asking the
right questions. So if somebody is thinking

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about becoming an entrepreneur from the corporate, what would you say are two to

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three things that they need to keep
in mind? Before they jump into it.

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So the first thing is something that
I kind of deal with every day

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or work with every day, is
many times entrepreneurs have a good skill right

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They've come from corporate. They've been
helping corporate with HR services, let's say

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as an example, and they're really
really good at HR serviss so they decided

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to go out on their own and
set up an HR consulting company. However,

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one of the things they haven't thought
about is that when you're an entrepreneur,

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knowing the service is important, but
knowing how to develop business is maybe

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even more important. So they may
not have a good sales and marketing plan,

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and they may not have thought of
how much money they need to invest

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in branding and marketing. I think
I mentioned earlier that I actually built and

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sold multiple businesses. Maybe we haven't
actually gotten to that part yet, but

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I built and sold multiple businesses,
and part of the reason why is because

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I invested in the brand up front. So when I built that first consulting

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business, not only did I know
where to hang out and how to find

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the people that were my target audience, but I also built a professional brand.

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I didn't say this is David's consulting
shop. Like many people do nothing

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wrong with that if your ambitions are
to just run a business, a lifestyle

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business for a few years. So
the second lesson is know where you're going.

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So one of the things many people
don't think about is they leave corporate

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and they're like, hey, I'm
going to start my new business yay,

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But they don't think about what's their
exit plan. They're like, well,

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why would I have an exit plan? I haven't even started yet. So

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what I often advise people to do
is develop the exit plan before you start.

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Why does that even make sense?
Well, if you think about if

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you got on the car and you
turn down the GPS, but you didn't

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tell it where to go, Well, any path will get you there,

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right, So by knowing where you're
going, it makes a difference. Now,

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what do I mean knowing where you're
going in your exit plan? What

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that actually means is having a sense
are you going to try to sell this

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business to another company eventually? Are
you going to run it until you retire

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and then maybe give it to your
kids or maybe sell it to your kids.

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Know what is that plan? If
you have a sense for that,

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it makes a tremendous difference on how
you set it up. Are you running

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it as a lifestyle business and you
just want to do it on the side,

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Maybe you want to earn a few
thousand bucks extra a year and that

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would be a success for you.
Whatever your plan is, whatever your ambition

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is fine, But to me,
that's part of thinking about the exit plan.

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So where are you going long term? Maybe you plan to have it

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that twenty years I want to run
it. Okay, that's fine, but

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you want to think about how are
you going to get there. Are youre

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going to have team members and teammates
and things along that line. So that's

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the second key lesson. So you
said a couple of points. First one

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is think about the branding, marketing
and selling, and the second one is

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think about what your long term ambitions
are because it'll help guide your path and

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it did help me succel. So
what I'll say, and just as I

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wrap that part up, is the
second business I started. The first one

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I did successfully sell, but I
hadn't had a clear exit plan in mind.

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The second consulting business I started.
Before I started it, I decided

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I was going to sell to a
midsized CPA firm. Okay, I didn't

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have the business at all, but
I decided that was going to be my

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market to sell the business, and
sure enough, five years later, that's

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exactly what I did. I sold
it to a mid sized CPA firm within

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my market, and along the way
as part of the exit planning, I

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actually talked to the senior people at
the mid sized CPA firms. I talked

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to the managing partners, had lunch
with them, built relationship. Why because

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I knew once I had built a
successful business, they would be the most

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likely buyer for what I wanted to
sell because they would have the ability to

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buy. And I looked for firms
that didn't have consulting firms but wanted to

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have them. And so that's how
it worked out. Some very powerful lessons

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up there, and being an authority
positioning advisor, I can definitely say that

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having that branding upfront makes such a
big difference. Is kind of going back

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to one of my stories when I
had a book written before I had stepped

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into the entrepreneurial arena, it had
established my credibility. And also, as

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you're mentioning about where do you want
to go? Do you just want to

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have a lifestyle business or do you
want to have a business where you want

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to exiit. So those are some
very key lessons. So now it also

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comes is the next pot comes that? Okay, you have thought about these

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and as you believe in building the
community and a lot of people, especially

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with so many social media algorithms and
the social media jungle, you know,

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especially if you're coming from the corporate
world, it is very hard to navigate

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those and you have built a very
impressive community. So can you shed light

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on that and how can people go
about building that sort of community where you

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know you're helping each other. It's
all about impact and yet everybody's growing together,

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all right, So thanks Tavia,
I'll talk a little bit about eprinds

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and the Entrepreneurs Network. So as
I built these businesses and sold them,

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eventually I got to the point where
I felt like I probably could retire,

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but I felt too early to retire, So the question was what was next.

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I'm looking out at a lake while
you'll are looking at the background here

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of a wooden cottage on the lake. You know, if you swim a

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mile, you don't stop because you've
swum a mile, and that's your goals

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for your lifetime typically right, and
you don't stop because you reached a certain

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age. If you enjoyed doing something, you keep doing it. So that's

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how it was for me with entrepreneurship. I wanted to keep doing it because

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I loved entrepreneurship, and so I
had built a community on LinkedIn that it

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was for entrepreneurs and I had no
business intentions in mind the day I set

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it up. I was doing it
as a way to get back because entrepreneurship

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had been good for me throughout my
career, and so I built a LinkedIn

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group and I happened to be much
like the busy street corner we talked about

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on the Eliminade. I was early
days of LinkedIn, and because I was

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early days of LinkedIn, they promoted
my group for me and that helped it

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to grow. So pretty soon I
had ten members and one hundred members and

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a thousand members. I did use
some strategies to grow it, including reaching

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out to mid level influencers and inviting
them into the community, and then people

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would see they had joined my community, and then they joined They're like,

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oh, I'm interested in entrepreneurship too. So those were early days of building

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it. About five years ago,
I had fifty thousand members in the group,

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and as I said, I was
beginning to think about what was next

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for me in my career, and
I thought about volunteering with the university and

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just helping entrepreneurs succeed, maybe as
a volunteer or something like that. And

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as I looked around and I saw
I had this group of fifty thousand entrepreneurs,

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I thought, I wonder how I
can make a differ diference for them.

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So much like earlier in the story
when I talked about the CFO and

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said where do you find people?
How do you find the answers? I

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decided to do something novel and ask
the fifty thousand members what they were looking

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for, Why had they joined the
group, what was the benefit for them?

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And as I did that, I
think we had five hundred and sixty

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responses in a couple months. It's
very difficult to engage the whole community all

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the time, but we had significant
enough response to begin to understand what people

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were looking for. Some people said
they wanted to promote their brand write content.

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Other people said they wanted to read
stories of content. And I said,

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this is great. We can match
those that want to write with those

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that want to read, and we
don't have to do either. We're just

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kind of doing a matching principle in
a community other people said they had they

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were looking for advice from experienced entrepreneurs. They wanted to get advice from someone

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who had built a million dollar business, and they wanted to learn how That

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part made a lot of sense to
me that people are looking for advice,

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But interestingly, on the other side, those that had built successful businesses wanted

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to get back and share their knowledge, maybe like Udivia as well, So

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people wanted to help those that were
aspiring. That was kind of the position

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I felt like I was in as
well. But it was also nice because

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it was a two sided match,
those that wanted advice and those that wanted

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to provide it. So that principle
started us out at Eprends with fifty thousand

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members. But because my primary goal
was not just earning income, it was

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making a difference in the world,
we set our mission as making a meaningful

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difference for one hundred thousand entrepreneurs all
over the world, regardless of their differences,

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and then we've only made one change
to that mission over the last five

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years. We've added two words into
it, social impact. So now what

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we say our mission is is to
make a meaningful difference for one hundred thousand

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social impact entrepreneurs all over the world, regardless of their differences. And why

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do we want to do that Because
we're entrepreneurs and we dream big. We

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believe if we can make a meaningful
difference for one hundred thousand entrepreneurs, diverse

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entrepreneurs all over the world, regardless
of their gender, gender, identity,

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cast in society, skin color,
wealth status, anything else that could be

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an advantage or disadvantage to them,
if we can make a difference for those

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people who are making a difference in
the world, we hope to put a

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drop in the ocean of what it
means to be a human. Now we

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know that's a big, carry audacious
goal, but that's what we do as

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entrepreneurs. We set a big goal
and we dream big. And you know

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what, over the last five years, we've exceeded over one hundred thousand members

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in our group, and today I
actually think we have about one hundred and

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thirty thousand members and we grow by
roughly two to three thousand members every single

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month. And part of the reason
why I believe people join today is they

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like the inspiration of making a difference
in the world. Not every one of

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our members of the one hundred and
thirty thousand are out to make the world

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a better place, but many of
our members are, and they join because

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they're inspired by a group that wants
to help them succeed and wants to help

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make the world a better place at
the same time. So that's what we're

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doing today on eprins dot com or
Entrepreneurs Network equals e prinds on LinkedIn.

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And that's very powerful what you're doing. And so you mentioned that you had

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that social mission about social impact,
and that's what has drawn people. And

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if somebody an entrepreneur are looking to
follow your footsteps, what would be a

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few steps that they could take to
grow thriving community like yours. So I

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think one of the things I'll mention
is it not only attracts people to the

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community, which it does do,
but it also attracts really extraordinary teammates.

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So today I feel incredibly fortunate because
I have a team that believes in our

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social purpose. They want to make
the world a better place. And so

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that's a really important part because when
you talk about what does it take to

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succeed in business? It takes a
team of people. And it's really nice

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to have a team of people aligned
around values, because if they're aligned around

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values, it isn't always around you
know, me, me, me,

381
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me me. You know, Hey, if I haven't gotten a raise this

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week, I'm leaving or something like
that. Right, They're out to make

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a difference in the world as well. So these together, setting a clear

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mission for what you're about in the
world makes a difference and then attracting people

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who agree and like that mission and
are attracted to it. So this is

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really what I would call the second
social impact business I've had, and I

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am so amazed by the qualit the
talent we're able to get from all over

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the world by setting a mission it's
near and dear to my heart, and

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it's also near and dear to their
heart, and so we attract some of

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the best talent anywhere, I believe. Yeah, and that's powerful, and

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it's about people. Now, going
back to the entrepreneurship, you know,

392
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when you talked about having that exit
plan, can you tell, like,

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you know, what if someone decides
that I want to have an exit plan,

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what are the criteria that they need
to keep in mind so that they

395
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can exit. And I'm assuming that
you by exit plan you mean by selling

396
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your business to someone else, So
great question. I'll start with the end

397
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first. So an exit plan doesn't
mean you're going to sell it. The

398
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plan may mean you're going to shut
it down in ten years, having that

399
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presence and sense of where you're going, that's what I mean by an exit

400
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:03.000
pl Exit plan maybe I'm going to, you know, continue running it until

401
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I die and then I'll just go
away. Exit plan may mean I'm going

402
00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:11.279
to continue to grow it and then
I'll bring in other team members, or

403
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:14.920
I'll sell it to employees. Or
it may mean that I plan to sell

404
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it to another entrepreneur that wants to
buy a business, but when you have

405
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a clear sense of what that is. Or I intend to bring in a

406
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partner into my business and then eventually, when I'm done, I'll have someone

407
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else run it. You know,
all of those are exit plans. Does

408
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not have to mean a sale.
In my mind, that's an exit plan

409
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just means you know what's going to
happen to the business when you're done doing

410
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the things you want to do with
it. And to me, what are

411
00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:45.400
the components. It's the second part
of that that you ask. So it's

412
00:30:45.480 --> 00:30:51.119
really first getting a clarity of where
your goals are, not just in the

413
00:30:51.160 --> 00:30:53.640
short term, like here's my goal
for the next six twelve months, but

414
00:30:53.720 --> 00:30:59.079
what are your long term goals?
And frequently, most of the time I'll

415
00:30:59.079 --> 00:31:02.680
say when I talk talk with someone
about their exit plan, they do have

416
00:31:02.839 --> 00:31:06.680
some sense of where they're going,
but they may not have formalized it.

417
00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:11.400
So part of what I've done on
my entrepreneurial journey is I've actually raised kapell

418
00:31:11.480 --> 00:31:15.039
a couple of times, and that
also helped me get clarity. Because angel

419
00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:19.680
investors and private equity, etc.
They want to know how are they going

420
00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:25.759
to get their return on investment,
and so an exit plan becomes really important

421
00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:30.440
in those models of what's going to
happen. But it doesn't have to mean

422
00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:33.960
that you're going to sell it to
someone eventually, but if you are,

423
00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:36.920
what they want to know is that
you have a clear plan to get there

424
00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:40.720
and that you have some sense.
So when I set up a business it

425
00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:45.559
was Airbnb for the garden, it
was called Alfrea. We decided that the

426
00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:49.920
ideal exit partners would be a company
like Campbell Soup that was in the food

427
00:31:49.960 --> 00:31:55.200
business but might want to have something
like this. And so then the impact

428
00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:59.279
that had along the way is we
built a relationship with Campbell Soup and we

429
00:31:59.400 --> 00:32:02.640
ended up eating Campbell Super employees,
which I thought was just crazy and interesting.

430
00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:07.599
Here's one of the largest food companies
in the world, and yet we're

431
00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:10.200
providing food for their employees. So
what we did is we brought food in

432
00:32:10.279 --> 00:32:15.440
from local farms. We packaged it
so that they could customize what each employee

433
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:20.599
wanted. They wanted carrots and cabbages, the other one wanted kale and carrots.

434
00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:24.440
We would put that box and then
provide it to the Campbell Super employees.

435
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:28.799
And that allowed us to get to
know lots of people at the company

436
00:32:29.039 --> 00:32:34.960
where we thought we might eventually sell
the business. Yeah, and that's powerful.

437
00:32:35.160 --> 00:32:38.359
And in addition to what you have
shed is a couple of other things

438
00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:44.799
to kind of keep in mind and
exit plan is also is that, especially

439
00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:49.039
if you're a service provider or if
you have a community, to kind of

440
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:52.000
thinking about it that if you have
built that driving community, you know what

441
00:32:52.039 --> 00:32:57.720
you're going to do with them?
Is that going to be continued as you

442
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:01.759
mentioned, you know, bringing in
partner and all that. And also if

443
00:33:01.799 --> 00:33:06.319
you are in a business where you
want to leave a legacy, how do

444
00:33:06.359 --> 00:33:10.200
you want to do it? So
having those things in place, and then

445
00:33:10.279 --> 00:33:15.319
that can again kind of go into
the financial status of the company. It

446
00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:20.880
can be what type of company do
you have. Do you have llc Escorp,

447
00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:27.359
Inc? Or you know, if
you're thinking about having a legacy company,

448
00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:30.680
then are you building a trust?
So keeping all those things in mind,

449
00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:35.720
in addition to what you have said, also help out the entrepreneurs.

450
00:33:36.200 --> 00:33:42.440
So now let's say entrepreneurs have all
of this done and so many times what

451
00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:46.359
happens is a lot of entrepreneurs are
so enthusiastic, they start the company,

452
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:52.519
they grow, but then it becomes
very hard for them to sustain their companies

453
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:59.440
or their business. Any advice on
that, Okay, So I'm going to

454
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:02.640
comment first. Then you talked about
entity type, and most people do think

455
00:34:02.680 --> 00:34:09.119
about LLC's C corp. I'm a
huge advocate for B corps public benefit corporations.

456
00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:13.679
Many people in the United States,
many people around the world don't know

457
00:34:13.719 --> 00:34:19.719
what that is. It is a
legal business entity type that balances purpose and

458
00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:24.079
profit. So if we think of
a typical C corp or LLC. Primary

459
00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:30.719
goal of those businesses is profitability.
Now, a B corp is not a

460
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:34.519
nonprofit. Sometimes people get confused and
say, well, if your primary goal

461
00:34:34.599 --> 00:34:39.320
isn't money, you must be a
nonprofit. That's not true. Nonprofits really

462
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:44.840
have to get funding from someone else. They ask for money, typically not

463
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:49.679
always, but they're asking for a
donation or something like that. In a

464
00:34:49.760 --> 00:34:53.079
B corp, we balance purpose and
profit. So our goal is to make

465
00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:58.840
a meaningful difference for one hundred thousand
entrepreneurs, and we intend to do that

466
00:34:59.239 --> 00:35:04.840
profitably. But we balance the tool
so our shareholders can hold us accountable for

467
00:35:05.199 --> 00:35:08.840
profitability, but they can also hold
us accountable for making a difference in the

468
00:35:08.840 --> 00:35:14.400
world. And our shareholders tend to
be employees or people that have been associated

469
00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:19.119
like advisors to our business. So
to me, that's an important thing when

470
00:35:19.159 --> 00:35:23.239
we think about business. Setting up
the right structures important part of where you

471
00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:29.960
go as well, because it aligns
what you're doing. And I forgot the

472
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:32.119
second part of what you ask.
Because I got that's okay, I can

473
00:35:32.199 --> 00:35:37.840
share it, so I want to
share that. And it's also important to

474
00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:39.800
recognize what you know. What you
know what you don't know, you don't

475
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:45.400
know, so thank you for sharing
that because I wasn't aware of that the

476
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:52.760
public when you mentioned the PBC.
Because again, you rely upon your team

477
00:35:52.920 --> 00:35:55.039
to let you know you know what
is available, So thank you for sharing.

478
00:35:55.079 --> 00:36:00.719
And also it's important to knowledge what
you don't know because sometimes what happens

479
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:09.239
is that when you're open to admitting
your knowledge or the lack of it creates

480
00:36:09.280 --> 00:36:13.920
the room for growth. So the
second part was that, Okay, somebody

481
00:36:14.119 --> 00:36:19.599
has a great business foundation, they
are growing, and sometimes what happens is

482
00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:23.159
companies grow so fast that they're not
able to sustain their business. So what

483
00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:28.400
are few things that they can think
ahead of time to be able to sustain

484
00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:31.840
their business? Okay, thanks for
that question. So there are a few

485
00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:36.079
things. One is, depending upon
the size of the business. When they

486
00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:40.400
feel they're getting out growing is sometimes
it's looking for an expert in the marketplace

487
00:36:40.440 --> 00:36:45.159
that can help them. It might
be a part time CFO that's a common

488
00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:51.440
service these days, might be a
part time ch r SO chief human resources

489
00:36:51.480 --> 00:36:57.039
officer. So there are resources that
can supplement as the business is growing.

490
00:36:57.559 --> 00:37:05.599
I also recommend that the entrerepreneur always
build the team to think about replacing themselves.

491
00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:08.239
So you know, there's a saying
that you try to hire better than

492
00:37:08.280 --> 00:37:14.239
yourself, smarter than yourself. I
love that concept because it's not a threat

493
00:37:14.280 --> 00:37:19.000
to the entrepreneur. It will help
them get better along the way. And

494
00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:22.800
so as you're building their steps you
want to do make sure you have good

495
00:37:22.840 --> 00:37:27.360
people on your team that will help
support you as you grow and they can

496
00:37:27.480 --> 00:37:31.760
help you figure out the next steps. So it isn't just one person deciding

497
00:37:32.119 --> 00:37:37.119
what needs to happen next, but
rather a team. I have also used

498
00:37:37.159 --> 00:37:42.159
advisors in my businesses. Even when
I set up my very first consulting company

499
00:37:42.159 --> 00:37:45.920
and I had no revenue and didn't
want to spend tons of money on advisors.

500
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:49.800
What I did is I reached out
to my friends that I respected their

501
00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:52.840
business knowledge, and I said,
would you hold me accountable? Would you

502
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:57.639
show up each month I'd like an
hour and a half of your time,

503
00:37:57.760 --> 00:38:02.000
one hour and a meeting, half
an hour prep ben debriathing to just help

504
00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:07.440
guide me. And it was actually
extremely helpful. Here. I was a

505
00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:12.000
single shingle, just set up my
first business, and every month I know

506
00:38:12.119 --> 00:38:15.280
I have to report out to my
friends who are my advisors, And it

507
00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:21.519
was powerful because I knew I wanted
to go ahead and report out that I'd

508
00:38:21.519 --> 00:38:24.119
made a hundred sales calls this month. If it was just me, I

509
00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:28.800
might have let go some of those
things. But because I knew I was

510
00:38:28.920 --> 00:38:32.559
reporting out to other people that held
me accountable. But it also gave me

511
00:38:32.599 --> 00:38:37.960
advice. So you can have mentors, advisors, coaches that can all help

512
00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:43.960
you reach the next level. I've
helped many businesses that have had a lot

513
00:38:44.000 --> 00:38:46.599
of success early days, and then, just like you talked about Dadya,

514
00:38:46.840 --> 00:38:52.119
they're beginning to get some concern about
reaching the next level. For instance,

515
00:38:52.119 --> 00:38:54.920
a few years ago, I had
a pool services company. It was a

516
00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:00.360
husband and wife. They'd grown a
business from zero fifty thousand and one hundred

517
00:39:00.360 --> 00:39:02.360
and fifty thousand and a half million, and they knew they were going to

518
00:39:02.440 --> 00:39:07.920
hit a million the next year.
They had no problems in growth, but

519
00:39:07.960 --> 00:39:12.480
they didn't have the infrastructure to help
support it, and they were running wild

520
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:16.159
with so many activities to do.
And so over a period of months,

521
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:22.480
we ended up helping them to find
some other senior level talent that were that

522
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:27.239
could be added to the team to
help manage things like operations. They were

523
00:39:27.320 --> 00:39:32.039
hiring one hundred lifeguards each summer.
Imagine that just a couple person team hiring

524
00:39:32.039 --> 00:39:37.440
one hundred people and then needing to
succeed, so they needed to be trained.

525
00:39:37.960 --> 00:39:40.679
So having an extra person on the
team and figuring out when in the

526
00:39:40.719 --> 00:39:45.880
business is it right that on a
full time person or a part time person

527
00:39:45.280 --> 00:39:50.199
is an important part of it as
well. Agreed, And I think so

528
00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:53.800
that's a very very sound advice about
sharing that. You know, there are

529
00:39:53.880 --> 00:40:01.679
so many fractional cmos or CFOs or
hrs, you know, human resources.

530
00:40:01.719 --> 00:40:10.559
You can bring in folks for part
time as you mentioned, and then having

531
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:17.039
a fractional getting your business online and
once your business has jumped through hoops or

532
00:40:17.039 --> 00:40:21.760
whatever like, you know, whatever
challenges that has been going through, you

533
00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:25.400
can have them on a very partial
retaining basis or not. So that's a

534
00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:34.599
very very powerful advice. So thank
you for sharing openly your nuggets of wisdom.

535
00:40:35.079 --> 00:40:37.440
So if people wanted to connect with
you, where could they connect and

536
00:40:37.880 --> 00:40:46.679
if you have a gift to offer, tell us about that. Okay,

537
00:40:46.719 --> 00:40:52.079
great, So where to connect?
So our company is eprins E p R

538
00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:57.360
e n Z dot com. You
can find us easily hopefully. Yep,

539
00:40:57.400 --> 00:41:01.119
thanks for sharing that with us,
e prins and you can also find us

540
00:41:01.159 --> 00:41:07.119
on LinkedIn at entrepreneurs Network equals e
Prinds. I tend to not respond much

541
00:41:07.159 --> 00:41:12.440
to emails, so the best way
to reach me is probably through LinkedIn.

542
00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:15.800
It's something that I tend to see
and notice. You can also pick up

543
00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:22.159
a phone and call I guess you
can find that on the website if you're

544
00:41:22.199 --> 00:41:25.559
looking for it. But that's that's
a way to reach out. And then

545
00:41:25.639 --> 00:41:30.079
you said, you know, how
do they connect and how do they make

546
00:41:30.480 --> 00:41:34.880
sorry see the second product lost to
get on me? How to connect them?

547
00:41:34.880 --> 00:41:37.079
Then the phone number threw me off
as I was thinking about it.

548
00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:40.119
No, I mean, if there's
a gift or something that you want to

549
00:41:40.119 --> 00:41:45.719
share with the audience. Okay,
so gifts for the audience. So it

550
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:50.599
depends upon where they are in their
entrepreneurial journey. So if they're an aspiring

551
00:41:50.760 --> 00:41:55.119
entrepreneur, let me know. You're
interested in having a package of services that

552
00:41:55.159 --> 00:42:00.800
we have that we will do for
free on helping you you learn how to

553
00:42:00.840 --> 00:42:06.840
start your business. So we have
a whole series of programs or education based

554
00:42:07.079 --> 00:42:10.960
They include videos, not always our
videos sometimes we refer you to best in

555
00:42:12.039 --> 00:42:16.760
class on YouTube, but we will
help you make those decisions through a preset

556
00:42:16.840 --> 00:42:22.320
program. You can get that through
on for free. Go to eprinds dot

557
00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:25.840
com and then click on the registration
link and you'll find how to get to

558
00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:29.880
that. And if you don't see
it for free, just let me know

559
00:42:30.360 --> 00:42:32.440
again. You can find me on
LinkedIn and we'll make sure you get that.

560
00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:37.079
If you're an accomplished entrepreneur. One
of the things I absolutely love to

561
00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:40.400
do at this point in my career, it's a passion, is how to

562
00:42:40.480 --> 00:42:45.079
help businesses really get to that next
level. Devia talked about what do you

563
00:42:45.119 --> 00:42:49.639
do if you've grown and you've succeeded
for a bit. So we'll do a

564
00:42:49.719 --> 00:42:54.239
free business audit that we can do
in about forty five minutes online and produce

565
00:42:54.599 --> 00:43:02.360
typically tremendous opportunities for value for you. I hate to throw numbers out there

566
00:43:02.360 --> 00:43:07.119
because they're so big they may scare
you off. But in a forty bus

567
00:43:07.159 --> 00:43:09.639
five minute session, if you're a
half million or a million dollar business,

568
00:43:10.039 --> 00:43:14.800
it's well worth your time. I'll
just say that, and it's it's free.

569
00:43:14.840 --> 00:43:17.480
We'll just do the analysis for you
and then if you choose to,

570
00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:22.880
you can choose to work with us
on an ongoing basis as well on helping

571
00:43:22.920 --> 00:43:25.119
to reach the next level, but
you don't have to. The free assessment

572
00:43:25.159 --> 00:43:30.559
is truly a free assessment looking at
your business figuring out how to reach the

573
00:43:30.599 --> 00:43:35.760
next level, and if you're a
coach or consultant, also reach out to

574
00:43:35.800 --> 00:43:37.719
me if you're looking at setting up
that business and how to do that.

575
00:43:38.119 --> 00:43:42.760
We have services to help you get
set up and running, and we know

576
00:43:43.079 --> 00:43:45.599
there's a lot of aspects to it. We talked today about marketing and sales,

577
00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:50.039
but a lot of times it's having
a good tech system in place as

578
00:43:50.079 --> 00:43:53.280
well, whether it's a CRM so
you know who you've contacted and what's next.

579
00:43:53.679 --> 00:43:59.280
We're skilled at those systems and processes
to help you reach your dreams.

580
00:44:00.119 --> 00:44:04.800
Nothing to me is more satisfying than
helping entrepreneurs do what they love to do

581
00:44:05.199 --> 00:44:08.679
and having them succeed at it.
Well, thank you for sharing, David,

582
00:44:09.280 --> 00:44:14.800
and thank you for joining us,
and thank you audience for joining us

583
00:44:14.840 --> 00:44:17.519
because you are the life of the
show. Reach out to us and let

584
00:44:17.639 --> 00:44:22.199
us know how can we serve and
support you, because our primary goal is

585
00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:27.239
to help you live the life you
want and you deserve, and thank you

586
00:44:27.320 --> 00:44:31.559
on for making the show technically possible. Be well and take care. Thank

587
00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:35.719
you for being part of Beyond Confidence. With your host, v Park,

588
00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:38.119
we hope you have learned more about
how to start living the life you want.

589
00:44:38.559 --> 00:44:43.679
Each week on Beyond Confidence, you
hear stories of real people who've experienced

590
00:44:43.719 --> 00:44:49.519
growth by overcoming their fears and building
meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Vapark

591
00:44:49.599 --> 00:44:52.039
shares what happened to her when she
stepped out of her comfort zone to work

592
00:44:52.079 --> 00:44:57.239
directly with people across the globe.
She not only coaches people how to form

593
00:44:57.239 --> 00:45:01.880
herd connections, but also transform relationships
the mutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to

594
00:45:01.960 --> 00:45:06.079
live the life they want. If
you are ready to live the life you

595
00:45:06.159 --> 00:45:12.119
want and leverage your strengths, learn
more at www dotwpark dot com and you

596
00:45:12.159 --> 00:45:16.320
can connect with Vats contact at dwpark
dot com. We look forward to you

597
00:45:16.400 --> 00:45:17.519
joining us next week.