[00:00:02] Speaker A: Ramping up your business. The time is near. You've given it hard, now get it in gear. It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law and I have my own startups and podcasts.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Welcome to Passage to Profit, the Road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities who tell their stories about their businesses and their solutions.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Now it is time for Secrets of the entrepreneurial Mind. I'm going to ask each of our presenters for a secret that has helped them or hurt them. Their choice. So I'm going to start with Brian, Seth Hurst. Brian, what is a secret you can share?
[00:00:49] Speaker C: I think it's twofold. Number one, get great mentors and don't be afraid. I know a lot of times they say fake it till you make it, but I think you must admit to yourself what you don't know. And then the other thing is being purpose driven. I mean, being very, very clear. That's the main thrust of the books and the coaching program. Just being very, very clear about what your purpose is. And then using that statement, not a mission statement, because purpose is the context for what you do, not what you do, but using that statement as a filter to help you decide the decisions that you make that are on purpose or not on purpose.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Wow, I love that. Ryan Sobel, what is your secret?
[00:01:35] Speaker D: Well, let's see here. There's two things I was thinking about sharing. I would say that the one that's having the biggest effect right now is being generous with ownership interests. I'm working on another venture called Flowmaster Chef, which is Flow state in the kitchen. It's all about cooking. I'm not going to get too into that, but I had a software developer who's very talented starting to help me build the app. And we were talking about an ownership split or a revenue share. And he was saying, hey, I think maybe I deserve between 15 and 40%. And I'm thinking in my head, okay, well, I don't know what's fair here. And I went and talked to a friend of mine's father who is a very successful businessman. I basically talked to him about this arrangement and I'm thinking, how do I negotiate? He never split the difference. How do I get the most and give them the least? And he's like, how about you do this? Give him more than he thinks he deserves. How about 50%? I'm like, and if you do that, do you know how hard this guy's going to work compared to if you give him a sliver? And he's like, his belief was someone's going to work harder for themselves than they'll ever work for me. And I'm like, you know what, I never thought to do that. And then it totally changed my perspective. So I did that in that business and also in my other business. The key though is that make sure you do this with the right person. They can't be a schlub, obviously, basically, but it's been great. Things are going unbelievably well. Things are accelerating at a rate I didn't think was possible. They're working unbelievably hard. They're very talented. And that's not something that was not intuitive to me at all.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Wow, me neither. But that's really impressive.
[00:02:58] Speaker E: Yeah. I remember reading a book about management. I can't remember the name of the author, but one of the things that he said was overpay your people. And a lot of businesses try to underpay their people because it saves costs, but it's also demotivating, like you said. And I think sharing more creates more abundance in the long run.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: So, Joshua Lee, what is your secret?
[00:03:22] Speaker F: I think this is something that I had wish I had realized earlier when I started this business. And it's maybe something that we had talked about a little bit earlier before too. And you know, with investors we've worked with as well, they've said the same thing, but for new founders and new entrepreneurs, I think that, you know, we have a lot of good ideas and I think that folks, first time founders and entrepreneurs really focus on building this wonderful product. But second time founders learn and they know that the most important thing isn't the product itself, but it's distribution. You know, really knowing who you're going to serve. Right? Who needs this, this product, right? It's not just a nice to have, but a need to have. And how are you going to get it out there? Right? There might be people who need your product, but if you can't get it out there, then you built this amazing thing for nothing. And it's one of those things that, you know, I wish I had learned a little bit earlier. When I first started my journey, I was, I spent so much time just trying to build this product, right. I could help people. But eventually we came to a point is just thinking, how are we going to get it to the Hands of the People now and again as something that we did discuss earlier, but it's absolutely something that I wish I had focused on a little bit earlier as well.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah, marketing is. Is that devil in the details, right? So, Richard Gerhardt, what is your secret?
[00:04:22] Speaker E: My secret is to never underestimate the value of going unplugged for a week. Elizabeth and I just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We went to Costa Rica. I turned off the cell phone. I do have to admit I looked at it twice, but for me, that's pretty good. And I came back with just a whole new perspective on so many things. It was so refreshing. And it's the first time I'd done that in a long time. So I think I'm going to try to do it more often because everybody needs a break.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: And mine is if you're trying to figure out how to do stuff and pay the bills, you can take advantage of the gig economy. So, for instance, I love Canva. It helps you create images and, well, it started helping you create images years ago when it first started. And that's when I started using it before COVID and now it's just exploding. You can do so much with it. It's a program. You can do presentations, you can do videos, all sorts of things. It's very powerful platform. And I am like, I've been using Canva for years and I've been researching it and I talk to people and they don't know how to use it. And so I'm thinking while I'm getting this podcast studio up and running, maybe if I want a little bit of money for some other things, I could go and help people use Canva and not necessarily teach them. Because then I would do a Udemy course, which is another good thing. If you know something really well, you could do a Udemy course for added income. But to actually sit down and teach them one on one, which is kind of not happening so much anymore because everybody expects you to just be able to learn stuff, and that's hard if you don't have that kind of brain.
[00:05:59] Speaker F: So.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: So take advantage of the gig economy if you need some extra money while you're building your business.
[00:06:03] Speaker E: Good advice.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer Noah Fleishman and program coordinator Alicia Morrissey, and our studio assistant, Rissi Kat Bussari look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcast. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
