Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hi Gorgeous! This is episode number 241 and we have the amazing Gino Wickman back on the show today.

Gino Wickman [0:08]
Hi! This is Gino Wickman, you are listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:17]
Well, I’m just pumped to have Gino Wickman back on the show today and we had a really great conversation in the last episode about “Do you have for the takes?”. And Gino also shared eight mistakes you can make as an entrepreneur, and one of them is wrong pricing. And we’re gonna go deep on this topic in this show so that you stopped pricing too low and you are really thriving in your business. Do you know as an entrepreneur and he started being an entrepreneur at the age of 21. He has an obsession for learning what makes businesses and entrepreneurs thrive? At 25 he took over his family business, which was deeply in debt and in need of help, and after turning the company around and running it for seven years, he and his partner successfully sold the company. Gino went on to develop The Entrepreneurial Operating System, EOS, which is a practical method of helping companies achieve greatness. And so far almost 100,000 companies are using the EOS Tools worldwide, which I am super excited about. And his brand new book called The Entrepreneurial Leap just came out and Gino and I will have another conversation about what it takes to be an entrepreneur? So enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [1:39]
Well, I’m so happy to have you back on the show, Gino. Welcome.

Gino Wickman [1:43]
Happy to be back. Thank you.

Christine Schlonski [1:44]
Yeah, I loved our conversation about your brand new book, Entrepreneurial Leap, because it shows people if they have that entrepreneurial gene if they should go down that path to really taking that big leap and leaving a corporate job or leaving the traditional, you know, go to school, get good grades, go to university, college, whatever, get a good job, which a lot of people do, because that is what society most of the time teaches us. But I know so many people who’ve gone down that path and had the realization that still they checked all those boxes, and they’re not happy, something is missing. And then they wonder what that could be? And a lot of them discover that being your own boss might be a really good option. And then they take the leap. And oftentimes, it’s a big leap of faith. But with your book with the help of your book, there’s so much more clarity and we talked about the eight mistakes that you need to avoid. And in the last episode, and one I really really think is such an important one. I would love to go deeper into that, as you said, like setting the wrong pricing, pricing your services or products too low. And I’m a big believer that if you go for the high priced market, you also get those customers that are more engaged, that get better results because they have more skin in the game. And also it helps your company to grow faster. And with the money you have, you can do so many cool things that you can’t do without it. So it helps both parties. What’s your point of view and why do you think it’s so important to charge more?

Gino Wickman [3:39]
Well, I would suggest this okay, because we talked in the previous episode a little bit about the tool I created called my biz match, which helps an entrepreneur making, decide to right business and one of the criteria in deciding the right business for you is the type of entrepreneur you are and what you’re drawn to in the way of , are you a high price, high quality, highest price in town, low volume kind of an entrepreneur or you low price, high volume, you know, kind of an economics focus entrepreneur? And both work and both succeed, amazingly, but you can’t be both, you know, you can’t sell both the highest, most valuable price in town and the lowest. So the point is, I’m not necessarily saying, you know, charge the most, because even if you’re the low-cost provider, it’s the same rule of thumb that says, you know, look at your pricing, and you probably could raise your pricing assuming what you’re offering the world is valuable. And so, what we talked about is the mistakes, and the mistake is whatever we’re talking about a product or service, high end, low end, entrepreneurs had this classic mistake, and in my opinion, it stems from insecurity and a psychological disorder that you undervalue yourself. And so the point is the price that you’re thinking you probably should charge more. And so that could be if you’re selling a Lamborghini or a light bulb. So this isn’t about going sell the most expensive thing it’s about you psychologically, classically, historically are probably going to underprice yourself. And it’s literally the difference between going into business or staying in business, and being out of business. And what I would offer as a resource to your listeners, there’s an amazing TED Talk video by Casey Brown, CASEY, Casey Brown, who’s the expert on pricing, and she goes right to the root of how to price? Why you’re underpricing? Really, really powerful stuff. And as I shared in the previous expert, in the previous episode, Dan Sullivan and his pricing strategy, which is picking the number that scares you the most and add 20% so that’s what it’s about. And then one last little point is one of my early clients, that I took through my EOS process, they were charging $95 an hour for their service, they had text that provided a service, and I convinced them to raise their price to $99 a month, they didn’t lose one client. They didn’t skip a beat, and they dropped 4% of their bottom line. And so 4% is the difference between a company surviving and not surviving. And so I just urge, you know, your listener when they take their leap, look at that pricing and charge what you are worth.

Christine Schlonski [6:31]
Yeah, so why do you think people underprice so often because I see that over and over again, especially when I go through pricing strategies with my clients? They don’t see it, right? So what’s your experience? What do you think is the biggest cause or reason that people put a wrong price tag on their services or product?

Gino Wickman [6:56]
I think it’s, it’s insecurity and the root of it is fear of self-worth, they just don’t feel they’re worth it, you know. And so, let’s do something as simple as when you have to sell you to somebody, let’s pretend you’re selling a service, and you’re a consultant and whatever it is, you know, you’re going to go into somebody’s house and help them organize their house, you can build an empire around that and one simple strategy, but you go in there, and you are the best, let’s pretend you’re the best. Psychologically, human beings are a little screwed up and you should be charging $100 an hour because you’re the best in town and you charge $40 an hour because you’re afraid that they won’t say yes, you don’t feel you’re worth it. How are you? Who are you to dare to charge $100 an hour? Well, listen, you’re worth it. I promise you, there are people walking this earth that will pay you that. So it’s all psychological insecurity, fear-based.

Christine Schlonski [7:21]
Yeah, yeah, that’s what my experience is too and once you help them to see the value, it usually is pretty easy to change the price point.

Gino Wickman [8:03]
Exactly, right. You guys start with, you’ve got to believe it yourself and then the words, in my experience, and they just come out. But yeah, you’ve got to convince, you got to convince your client that you’re worth it. You got to educate them.

Christine Schlonski [8:16]
Yeah. So why and the number one mistake people make is really having that vision. So what does a vision include, right? So when you say I’m just going to create a million-dollar company, right, because I don’t know, maybe it’s a cool thing. Maybe that’s a magic number. Maybe that’s the number where they see their dreams come true. What are the components of a vision and why is that so important?

Gino Wickman [8:47]
Yeah. And so I referenced the tool in the previous interview, and in so it’s called my vision clarifier, free and downloadable from the website. It’s in the book. And so the components are things like knowing your passion, first and foremost, as that entrepreneur taking the leap, you’ve got to know why you’re doing this, you got to know the dent that you want to put the universe, you’ve got to know what you’re passionate about? Because you’re going to get your ass kicked about 100 times over the next 10 years. And the only way you’re going to pick this up is to know why the heck you’re doing this. And so it’s things like knowing your passion. It’s things like knowing who your customer is, and getting really clear on saying, this is the demographic, the geographic and the psychographics of my ideal client. This is who they are and where they are and what they are getting really focused on that. So that you’re selling message, the language you use, the colors you use in your marketing, where you market, you’re directing everything at that particular individual. It’s things like knowing your business’s sweet spot, it’s knowing exactly what it is that you’re going to do, the service you’re going to provide for that person, to be able to say it in a sentence. Here’s what I’m going to for you, it’s knowing exactly where you want to land 10 years from now. So 10 years from now, what is the number one overriding goal that you’re going to work toward? It’s having a clear picture just a few years out and what it’s going to look like, I recommend three years, it’s knowing what you’ve got to get done this year, it’s knowing what you’ve got to get done in the next 90 days. And so it’s things like that. And the “my vision clarifier” takes that entrepreneur in the making through the process, of answering those things.

Christine Schlonski [10:32]
And it’s also like a part, like really knowing how you would love your life to look like in general, they can actually build the business around it.?

Gino Wickman [10:41]
Yeah, and that’s all part of that, you know, that three years, and so you want to put those elements in there. And here’s the reality, you know, so what I’m talking about, I urge you and get you to do in one page, okay, one document, one page all at a glance, short and sweet. You could look turn that into 100-page document. So all of a sudden, there’s this return on your time invested in, and the more you put into that document, the less you’re going to remember the rest, the less people are gonna remember. So I urge you to keep it simple. So you can certainly put aspects of your personal life in there. But here’s the reality, if you’re a true entrepreneur, you’re going to have people, you’re going to have employees, you may have a thousand someday, with all the love and respect they don’t care about what your personal life looks like. So this document in this tool is all about your company that you’re going to build. And it’s making sure that your customers understand that vision, your employees understand that vision, your vendors and partners understand that vision. And so, me, I would default to keeping your personal and I’m sorry, keep it business and then keep your personal stuff on the side. But listen, you’re the entrepreneur you get to do whatever the heck you want to do.

Christine Schlonski [11:50]
Yeah, so I would say like have two visions, one you share with everybody in the company. So you are going for the same goals and then also have your own vision where everything fits in, in the whole picture, like how do you want to feel? What do you want to do? As an entrepreneur? Once you achieved all of that, or I, you know, to overcome obstacles, it’s always a good reminder to know where you want to go personally, that then helps you to overcome these challenges.

Gino Wickman [12:22]
Yeah, and by the way, speaking your experience, I absolutely have the same thing. You know, I have my business plan. I have my personal plan. So I do have that exactly the same thing.

Christine Schlonski [12:30]
Yeah. Awesome. So now we confirm we have a glimpse, we know what not to do, or which mistakes to avoid. And now we’re going to go on to that path. So what do I need on the path, right? Here I am, on my PC. Here’s my phone. That’s my desk. That’s my big idea and vision. What’s next?

Gino Wickman [12:56]
Well, yeah, and so here’s so now what we’re going to do is we’re going to drill down a little bit The third part of the book and that is what I call, path. And again, they’re aspects of path are helping you to decide college or not helping you decide your passion, how to find a mentor 10 you’re thinking, eight disciplines to increase your odds of success in the nine stages. And we can again drill is deep down any one of those as you want. But first thing I would suggest in that first chapter I mentioned about college or not, if you’re at an age and you’re sitting there thinking you might be an entrepreneur, you confirm you see a glimpse, you first have to decide college or not, because what I do is I give all the facts, all the data, and then it’s a choice that you make. And I give a list of incredibly successful entrepreneurs that did not have a degree and incredibly successful entrepreneurs that have a degree. So when in doubt, you should probably go to college, but it’s a decision and choice you have to make for yourself. Because the number one feedback I got from entrepreneurs that are successful that went to college, you know, they say the number one benefit they got out of college is the relationships in the social aspect in the testing and proving ground as an entrepreneur. What’s funny is every single MBA college graduate client that I work with, I say, are you using anything from your MBA that you got a degree that is, you know, the degree that you got, and they say, I’m not using anything I learned from that MBA. So again, it’s just you got to decide why you’re going to college. Because if you’re going there, you know, to learn, you get the point. So anyway, the first step is to decide what’s right for you. And perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn’t. The next step is obviously to decide your passion, you know, and so you’ve got to figure out what your passion is. And one little tool I’ll quickly share with your audience is, and I give them multiple exercises to determine what your passion is, but it’s a 30-minute exercise. You can do it sitting in your in a coffee shop, in your bedroom, wherever but it’s a 30-minute thinking exercise three questions. So the first question you answer about yourself as what are your three greatest successes and you sit there for 10 minutes and just write those out and really engage with those and think about those or feel about feel those? Second question you answer is what are my three biggest failures? And again, spend 10 minutes thinking about those feeling those understanding those? And then the third and final question you answer is, what has life prepared me for? And you just think about that answer. And because the truth of the matter is, all of your experiences led you to something here and in that, you know, most people’s passion stems from a wound or pain or a challenge in their life or a problem they had to solve. And that’s going to help lead you closer to figure out that passion. And then the last one, I’ll talk about it, then you tell me how deep you want to go into the rest is finding a mentor and it’s, it’s finding someone who’s where you want to be. So once you do, the My Biz Maps have a sense of the industry you want to work toward and things like that. It’s going to help you decide who’s the right mentor for you because it’s somebody who is where you want to be you reached out to them, you’re gonna have to find lots of them because you’re gonna hear some No’s and you just ask them will you be my mentor? And you just simply meet, have a first meeting, share your story, share your ambition, have them share their stories, their insights, and it feels really good to decide how to go forward with a format. And I spell all that out and an entire chapter of a mentor.

Christine Schlonski [16:20]
Yeah, I would love to go into the mentor thinking and what you need, because I’ve seen like on my journey, like starting to invest into myself, like, you know, taking my money, not like the company’s money or my parent’s money, like my money, right? Hard-earned tax money to say, well, I want to buy this course or I want to go to this retreat, or I want to go to this seminar. That was a pretty big leap just from how the thinking shifted, you know, starting to invest in a book for 10 bucks that doesn’t hurt that much then when you buy your first $2,000 course or a $20,000 mastermind or whatever it is like I mean, there are steps in between. So yes, let’s help people to see why this is important. Because I always thought, well, of course, you say because you sell that stuff. Of course, you tell me it’s important to have a mentor. So I buy your stuff. Yeah, that’s not true. That’s like what we perceive when our mindset is not in the best place to really support us. So yeah, I would love to talk about mentors.

Gino Wickman [17:30]
Yeah. And so here’s something that’s really important. You know, the final chapter of the book, right? Is All The Lifetime of Growth, Learning, and Motivation. And I give all kinds of resources that you most of which you pay for is simply what you’re talking about this chapter that you and I are talking about right now is having a peer mentor that is not charging you a penny and is and is spending time with you because they want to leave a legacy. They want to transfer their knowledge. And so, let’s if you’d like, we can certainly talk about both. But let’s start with a pure mentor. Because, you know, I am what I am. Because I’ve had mentors my whole life and my two biggest mentors in my life. Were my business mentor, a gentleman by the name of Sam, who built his businesses to over 100 million dollars. And he took me under his wing, and he taught me and my second mentor was my father. And so what I would urge, first of all, is that you know, you don’t have to spend money to go find a mentor. And so first and foremost, I would urge you to think about somebody who’s where you are. And like I said, reach out and ask and, and you’re going to hear some No’s. These are very busy people. But when you find the right mentor, it’s truly life-changing. Now, the other statistic I share is that, you know, most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve worked with and interviewed and talked to have had entrepreneurs, but many have not. And so it’s not like it’s a death sentence if you don’t have a mentor, but I would urge you to find one there out there. So that’s free mentoring. And with that what you owe that mentor is lots of feedback. Practice what they’re teaching you express appreciation often that’s what fills them up. They just want to know that their legacy is going to live on and their knowledge is going to be transferred. The other little trick is if you find a mentor who’s where you want to be in, it’s hard to get their attention go work for him for free for a year, you know, I mean, just or a greatly diminished income. In other words, do what you can to surround yourself with that person. Now on the other side, you’re talking about, yes, I listed a ton of resources in the book. Absolutely. You can become part of masterminds invest in lots of training materials, go to seminars, certainly watch a lot of YouTube videos, things like that. But I’m talking about pure, textbook, classic mentoring in that first example.

Christine Schlonski [19:50]
Okay, so how, now I got the idea. How do I find a mentor?

Gino Wickman [19:58]
Starting with, I was taking a sip of water there, sorry for the pause. I keep going back to this, find somebody who’s where you want to be. Okay. And so finding a mentor, please understand audience that’s listening. It’s not easy, you know, it’s quite simple. It’s just not easy. So you got to work at it. And knowing the value is worth the work, it might take you a year to find your mentor. And so think about somebody who’s where you want to be, and connect to them through your family, through your friends, whatever it takes. And by the way, it could be your uncle, it could be your parent, it could be your brother so that it’s somebody one degree of separation from where you are, and so do the work. The other thing is, call it to you when you go to bed tonight and every night for the next year. Say, bring me my mentor and so whether that’s, you meditate, you pray, whatever your beliefs are, listen, when you put something out to the universe, it comes and so, ask for it every night. But do the work and you will find a mentor. And I would suggest if you’re not. You’re probably not working hard enough.

Christine Schlonski [21:05]
Yeah. Yes. Some people might say, well, there’s no entrepreneurs and my family we all work the classic path. We all have jobs. I don’t even know where to start. I mean, I can Google on the internet, but I don’t know what I read about them if they have the level of success if they are like, a couple steps further along, so I can really learn from them and they would also dedicate their time. Do you have like, more practical steps like try this and this and this to find them?

Gino Wickman [21:39]
Well, so those what I gave you, I feel are pretty practical steps but here’s, I think here’s the best thing I can say after everything I said. It’s not a death sentence if you don’t have a mentor, so be really careful that, oh my god, I don’t have a mentor because again, most have them and when I say most is like 60% have the people I’ve interviewed and talked to 40% didn’t, so again, not a death sentence and worst-case scenario, if you can’t find one because you just have absolutely no connection in the world, anyone. With all the love and respect, I find that hard to believe if you work at it, you’ll find it. But let’s pretend you don’t, hunker down. Spend a committed amount of time watching YouTube videos from successful inspirational people. So go to YouTube, go watch TED Talks from people that are where you want to be find those, do the work, I promise you in two hours, you’ll find 10 great videos, hunker down and watch those videos because that’s free education. That’s a mentor teaching you even though they don’t know your first name. So there would be one more practical thing to throw at you. But it’s listen, it’s this stuff we’re talking about is hard work. And if you don’t have these six essential traits, and you don’t have the drive to do the hard work, please go get a real job. There’s no shame in that. The world needs police officers, firemen, teachers, nurses, electricians, you know, the world needs. We’re talking about the 4%. Here, the other 96% of the jobs are desperately needed. So everybody, you know, doesn’t have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. And it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

Christine Schlonski [23:20]
Yeah, totally, totally agree. So that’s the past. So now I got a mentor. I don’t have a mentor, but I’m totally inspired. I’m filled up, I’m ready to go. What else could happen on that path? That maybe even a better question would be, when the challenges come up, like not the tiny ones that I can handle, but maybe something that kind of throws me off my feet? Because I have not experienced that. I don’t have any reference points to go through to like, what can you do? Like how do you handle the situation besides stopping for a moment, taking a deep breath, and try trying to think?

Gino Wickman [24:01]
Yeah. And so you’re asking the perfect question because these last set of chapters in this third part of the book path, you know, this is all it’s not entirely linear, but it’s I love what you’re saying, because now we cover those first three, now it’s time to move forward. And so this next chapter I call, take action, but be patient. And so the power of 10 years thinking and so the next thing I urge and ask, everyone, listening that’s about to move in this direction, be patient. 10-year thinking is it was transformational. For me, I learned 17 years ago, and if you can grasp and apply 10 year thinking to your life, time slows down, you make better decisions, but remember, it’s, take action and be patient. And so you guys do a bunch of stuff right now, but just know, you can accomplish anything in 10 years. And so if you’re sitting there as a 17-year-old, it’s okay to say when I’m 27 I’m gonna take my entrepreneurial leap, it doesn’t mean you have to take your entrepreneur leap tomorrow, some will, some 17-year-olds will take their entrepreneur leap tomorrow and have a $2 million company a year from now. But I will tell you this, one in a million stop thinking like that it takes 20 years to become an overnight success. And so for most of us, it takes us 20 years. And so if you’ll just say, at 27, or if you’re sitting there, you’re 50 years old, just say it’s 60 years old, I’m going to have this great $3 million business, you’ll make better decisions, you’ll actually get there faster. So my point, my advice at this point is to just now take action, but be really patient you will get there just do these things that you and I are talking about right now. And then from there, that takes us right into the eight disciplines and the nine stages. And we can certainly again, like we did with the previous I can give you a lightning fast overview of those eight disciplines of those nine stages and we can drill down on anything that jumps out of you but then again, I’m going to follow your lead. Where would you like to go next?

Christine Schlonski [26:04]
Yeah, let’s go to the stages. And just one thing you mentioned, which I’ve really liked, because it’s often overlooked, or we are, with the belief system in our way. You just said when you’re 50 you can have that at 60, the $3 million company if you wanted to. And so age doesn’t really play a role in this whole game, right?

Gino Wickman [26:30]
Not at all. You know what, it’s funny, I have a friend who has a podcast called living beyond 120. So living beyond 120 years old and the truth of the matter is, you know, in the next 10-20 years, we’re all going to be living past 100, there are so many breakthroughs if you choose to, you will probably live well past 100 and so an incredible Dr. Jeff Platen, Dr. Jeff Platen, as I’m going to be doing his podcast so we’re gonna have this great conversation because I will admit, you know, I have biases going into this because when you turn 50, 60, 70, 80? Do you really have the energy to be an entrepreneur take a leap? But as I thought about it more and more, it is so realistic and you probably have a chance of being a more successful entrepreneur because you come at it in such a mature way. So long story short, the age is irrelevant. And so if you’re sitting there at 60 years old, and you realize either you just retired or you’re sick of this corporate gig or whatever it is, you can absolutely take your entrepreneur leap. There’s no question in my mind.

Christine Schlonski [27:36]
Yeah, I love that confirmation. I have a couple of clients. One is starting to build a coaching business was 55. And then one is building this amazing healer business was 67 I believe. And it’s just so beautiful to see because they bring so much experience to the table. So much passion. They know they’ve been are out the block a couple of times they know how life works, the ups, the downs, the good, the ugly, and it’s just beautiful to see what they are creating, instead of saying, well, now I’m kind of old, I might just want to sit on the couch and watch TV.

Gino Wickman [28:17]
That’s great. And you know, there’s a, I wish I could give you specifics. But leading up to this podcast in this conversation about living beyond 120 there’s a story I heard about a 72-year old that took him entrepreneurial leap. And when I get the story, I just kind of throw it in a file and forget about it until I get close to ending the podcast is in a couple of months or something. So I wish I could give this specific but there’s a story of a 72-year old that took their entrepreneurial leap. So please, anyone listening, you know, that’s over 40 over 50 my god and you got a lot of life left. And so again at 10, you’re thinking you can accomplish anything in 10 years?

Christine Schlonski [28:51]
Yeah, it’s really the mindset and the beliefs. I mean, if you know this, let’s just say you decide, unfortunate, I know some people, they say well, I’m 50 I’m old now. I always think like, oh my goodness, that’s not an age, right? And then they do start to believe that they are old now and then they get what old people get like this hurts and that hurts, and the doctor appointment didn’t work out the way they thought. It’s like you get yourself into your own way instead of saying, you know, I’m dynamic, I’m young, I’m fit, I can do anything I want to. And there are so many beautiful examples about, you know, this, this one lady who still does bodybuilding and looks amazing in her late 70s or something, but that the yoga teacher that unfortunately just passed away this year, she was I think, 102 teaching yoga every day she had classes.

Gino Wickman [29:47]
If I can add to that, you know, it’s, you know, here would be my wish in dream for anyone listening that feels they’re old. The reality of it is if you could figure out what you are true passion is? What your true gift is? What the thing is that you love to do? And try the exercise I shared the 30-minute exercise the three questions, you’re going to get some answers, but the second you get clarity on that thing, and you bring that to the world. Even if you’re charging $30 an hour to deliver that you aren’t going to feel old anymore. You are going to feel so energized and young. You know, knock on wood, I hope I’m going to be around a long time, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, but I hope I’m gonna be around a long time. I mean, I see no end. In my mind. I feel like I’ve got like seven more 10-year freight timeframes to create stuff in the world. It’s like it’s limitless. So anyway, for what that impassioned plea is worth to your eye.

Christine Schlonski [30:44]
I love that passion, and encouragement, and inspiration. So people like really go for it right? There’s no excuse. You’re never too young. You’re never too old. You’re just in your own way. So and that’s, that thing you can solve, right? Let’s talk about the nine stages real quick before we, we are wrapping up so people can get kind of an overview. And then obviously everybody can get the book, gonna link in the Show Notes to your page to all of your social media, so people can connect with you can take the assessment and really go deep with this wonderful topic.

Gino Wickman [31:21]
Fantastic. Well, again, same drill, I’ll just move this through all nine as fast as I can give you a quick description. And if there’s anything you want to drill down on, we can. So I call these the Nine Stages of Building Your Business and I try to make them as linear as possible, but unfortunately, it’s not linear. You know, being an entrepreneur is in a process is something you are and then you just figure it out. Every time you get your butt kicked, you make another course correction and 10 or 20 years from now you emerge an entrepreneur, but here’s the best I can describe it in a linear fashion. Stage one is generating cash, what you have to know as an entrepreneur and so there you are listening, you realize and confirm your entrepreneur you got a glimpse, you know the business you want to start, you start that business. The second you started, the only thing to be obsessing about is generating cash, just focus on selling one. And when you sell one and generate $1, sell two, and then five, and then 10. And then 1000. You’ve got to generate cash. generate cash. Number two is hiring an integrator. And what’s important here is, you’re going to decide to hire your integrator on day one, or day 6030 to 10 years from now, but every if you are someone who possesses these six essential traits, you are a visionary entrepreneur, and every visionary entrepreneur needs to be counterbalanced with an integrator. And so that’s someone who runs the day to day for you while you grow the organization to the next level. I wrote a book around this called Rocket Fuel A Powerful Discovery. Every one of our clients are visionaries and most of them have an integrator. And that’s the reason they went to the next level. And again, this is all spelled out in the book. Number three is discovering your core values. And so I urge and ask as early as possible. And this is all part of that vision tool. But you got to figure out what are the three to seven core values at your core? Who are you so that as you bring people into your organization, you got to bring people in that align with you from a core value standpoint, we all have different core values, you want alignment there, number four is holding yourself accountable. And so what you got to do as soon as possible, hold yourself accountable. What I suggest here is simple discipline. Know your three numbers. Every week, what are the three numbers you need to generate, to know that you’re going to achieve your vision achieve your plan achieve your goals this year, and if you want to take it to another level of accountability, once you know your three numbers, tell your significant other what those three numbers are. Because if you really want to put your money where your mouth is, they’re not gonna let you forget because they’re depending on you to build this business. Number five is communicating frequently with your employees. And we talked about this, it’s keeping the circles connected, meet with them weekly meet with them quarterly, be open and honest in your communication give feedback regularly. Number six, have a plan B, C, and D. So what’s important to know, going into this is your first plan is going to fail. Of all the entrepreneurs I interviewed for this 90% they had to throw out plan A and go to plan B and you’re probably going to throw a plan B and go to plan C so that all that says is be ready. Just be aware and know that plan A is not going to be the final product. Number seven steps, stage seven is staying in your personal sweet spot. This is this thing we’ve been talking about this whole conversation you got to know who you are. You got to know thyself. You got to know your genetic encoding. You got to know your skill set and stay in that and as you grow the business and you continue to add people. Make sure you’re hiring people that you’re pushing things off to them that you don’t like to do. If you’re not great at finance, the next hire needs to be a finance person. If you’re not great at operations, that needs to be the next hire, if you’re not great at sales, you’re not great at marketing, you got to hire people that support those weaknesses of yours. So you’re keeping yourself and your strengths continuing to grow to the next level. Otherwise, you’re going to be miserable, doing a bunch of stuff that are not in your sweet spot. Stage eight is preventing your business from getting away from you. And this is where you got to stay true to your core know your sweet spot. And so what will happen is, the more successful you become, you’re going to get distracted by a whole bunch of shiny stuff that are is not in your sweet spot and what the demise of many companies is you’re trying to do too much, be too many things to too many people. And stage nine is capitalizing on coaching, training, and mentoring right back to what we were talking about. You’ve got to stay educated. And you know, you talked about $20,000 masterminds. You know, I personally spend a lot of money on training. You know, on mastermind, on coaching, and I have, and I’ve spent enough money in the last 30 years to get an MBA five times over. So while I didn’t go to college, I spent a tremendous amount of money educating myself and it works out to be about 5% of my income for what that’s worth. You got to spend money, you got to get yourself coached, trained, mentoring, and then I offer a bunch of resources for doing that. But again, lots of free resources too, if you can’t afford it. YouTube, TED Talks, there’s so much all these podcasts, your podcasts, there’s so many resources out there. And so those are the nine stages.

Christine Schlonski [36:37]
Well, thank you so much. I think there’s always if you want to find the way, you find the way right and that’s part of the entrepreneurial journey, like if you can’t even start there, then you’re definitely not cut out to be an entrepreneur.

Gino Wickman [36:49]
You’re here.

Christine Schlonski [36:50]
Yeah, awesome. Yeah, just time just flies with you. I’m sure we could have like another 10 podcast episodes talking about this amazing book, but I would just say is like, get the book, right? Pretty simple. Get the book and read it, do the homework, get to all the resources you are mentioning, and really make sure you are on the right path for you. Especially the shiny objects, something that at the beginning of the past can be pretty distracting, right? I did some investments that weren’t that smart because I wasn’t ready it was just a shiny object and once I realized it, I dropped it but I had paid for it. So if you don’t want to be in that situation, just get really really clear on your vision on all these pieces. And then just follow the great advice that Gino is giving us. Thank you so so much go to e-leap.com and all the links to Gino are in the Show Notes and the book. The link to the book is in the Resource section as well. And yeah, what do you want to leave us with today?

Gino Wickman [38:02]
Well, I just you know, I don’t know that I feel like I’ve given it all. And I’ve left it all on the table for you. So you know, as I mentioned in the previous episode, please be honest with yourself. And I can’t say that enough because this entrepreneurial journey is not for you. It’s not worth the sheer hell of taking the leap. And, but assuming you are, and let’s hope that you are because that’s what this content is all about, is I just, I wish you tremendous success. I urge you to do the 10 year thinking it’s the best thing you can do for yourself to calm yourself on this wild, crazy journey. And you know, do what I’m telling you in the book because it comes from a lot of experience the real world, there’s no theory here. And that’s, I guess what I will leave you with.

Christine Schlonski [38:46]
Yeah, I love that. Well, thank you so, so much for sharing that knowledge and for the big inspiration. And yeah, hop on over people get the book and do the work. Thank you so much.

Gino Wickman [39:00]
Thank you.

Christine Schlonski [39:01]
Well, there were so many golden nuggets in this episode, I hope you caught on to them. I hope you have an idea about your pricing. Where you want to go? What you want to pursue as an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur in the making? And then also how you get clear about your vision, how you avoid these entrepreneurial mistakes so you can get your business to thrive fast and you can really make the impact in the world that you want to make. Thank you so much for having been here. To get the resources to get all the links to Gino, just hop on over to christineshlonski.com. Find the podcast tab and there you have all the episodes find episode number 240. That’s the episode of the beginning of the week where Gino and I actually talked about Do You Have What It Takes? And then Episode 241 this one The Entrepreneurial Leap. You have the Show Notes, the Transcripts, and all the resources, it’s all just one click away, and while your over there Sign Up for the Empowerment Notes. That’s Empowerment right into your inbox. Amazing stuff that I usually do not share on social media, as well as updates on Heart Sells! Podcast and the amazing guests that are here to share their knowledge with you, their wisdom, to support you in your business growth so that you can thrive and build the business you love as well as the dream life. So thank you so much for having been here. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world. And I’m saying bye for now.