Max My Profit with Ben Fewtrell
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Episode Summary
In order to earn more, every business owner needs to learn more. Knowledge transforms into confidence that lets business owners try things and not be fearful of change. Even after operating 64 trucks in the transportation industry in Sydney at the age of 24, Ben Fewtrell felt that he was not getting anywhere in life. Now he helps business owners to grow their businesses using the five stages of the Business Exceleration Blueprint. If you are still asking, “How can I max my profit?”, the simple answer is by working on your business to give it value and making it a valuable solution to your prospects. Learn why making time, people and money as the foundation of your business can help it grow and make people invest in it.
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Our guest is Ben Fewtrell who is an expert on helping businesses grow their business. He really shares with us a five-step process on how to get yourself from just struggling to soaring. It’s all about the foundation, the growth, how to optimize what you’re growing, the transitions so that you’re not the only person that can run the business, and finally how to diversify. He said you should really be budgeting for profit and that cashflow is like gas in your car. His real tip is on how to hire the right people and he has a really interesting insight into that. He says, “You don’t close a sale, you complete a sale.” Let’s learn the secrets to growing our business.
Listen To The Episode Here
Max My Profit with Ben Fewtrell
I have a guest all the way from Sydney, Australia. His name is Ben Fewtrell. He started his first business at the young age of eighteen in the transportation industry, and by 24 he had 64 trucks on the road, and by 28 he was done. He was working long hours and making hardly any money and he knew there was a better way. That’s when he then decided to pursue his passion for business and became a business coach. He spent thousands of hours training himself and others on just what they need. In the last ten years, he’s been featured in several publications. He’s an author. He hosts a podcast. He’s just an all-around great guy. His podcasts are called Business Brain Food and Daily Business Tips. He also gives keynote talks. If anybody who wants to book him from Australia into America, I would highly recommend that. Ben, welcome to the show.
John, thanks so much for having me.
I always like to ask my guests to take us back and flush out that little introduction. You’re 28 years old, you’re like, “I’m not going to kill myself. This is crazy. I’m going to help others figure out how to grow their business.” How did that all come about?
It was probably about six months before that moment in time that I had met somebody who called themselves a business coach. Back then, it was a relatively new thing. There weren’t a lot of people out there doing it. I went to one of those BNI breakfast meetings. I don’t know if you know those, John, where you get a breakfast and you get 60 seconds to do your elevator pitch.
I know it well because that’s what I train people on how to have a good one.
There was this one guy there and he would never use his 60 seconds. He would stand up and he’d say, “My name is Andrew and what I do is I help business owners work less hours and make more money.” Then he would sit down. I was in the situation where I was in the transport business and I had the disease that so many business owners have. That is that no one could do it as good as me at this or what I call the Superhero Syndrome where I was doing everything and it meant I was working crazy, crazy hours. I didn’t understand how to make money out of my business. We were turning over millions of dollars but I wasn’t making much, and I was making less than if I worked for somebody else and working a lot harder. This guy would stand up and do that every single week. When I go to this Breakfast Network, I don’t always get there but when I get there I said to myself, “I wonder what he actually does.”
One day I had lunch with him and he told me what he did. I ran back to my business. I was actually in partnership with my father-in-law. To give you an idea of what he was like, he would always find the twelve reasons why something wouldn’t work instead of the one why it would. When I told him about this coach, I said, “I found this guy that can help us,” I was struggling in a business and was not sure what to do, he just wouldn’t have a bar of it so it never happened. When I got to that point where I reached the end of the road and it was my relationship that was on the line, my marriage more than anything, that was the catalyst for me in making that change. My wife wasn’t happy and had given me a bit of an ultimatum. I had to make a decision. Do I sacrifice my marriage or my business partnership? Of course, my business partnership is what I sacrificed. I wasn’t happy there. Then I thought to myself, “What am I going to do?” As soon as I had sold my shares out of that business, I set in and said, “I wonder how many people are in the same predicament where they think they’re doing the right thing by working hard but they’re not getting anywhere.” That’s when the penny dropped for me. I went, “I want to do what that guy does that stood up every week and said he helps business owners make more money and work less hours.” I booked him in for lunch again and said, “How do I do what you’re doing?” Here I am today.
There’s a great example of having a compelling pitch that intrigues people enough to say, “That’s interesting, tell me more,” without having to get into all the details. That’s classic. Ben, I was watching one of your videos and you really are quite smart with this whole frame of reference. I’m someone who loves words, like within the word authority is the word author, so whatever you are the author of, you’re the authority of. Tell us about what you do when you talk about the word earn and how you add one letter to that that totally changes everything.
There are a lot of people out there that would like to be rich, let’s face it. If it was easy to get a couple of million dollars in your bank account right now, you’ll probably go, “Yes, Ben, show me how.” I can show you how. I think the great thing is that if you want to earn more, you do have to add one letter to the old L plate. You have to learn more. I always say to people the reason why there are people out there that are making $1 million a year or $2 million a year or $10 million a year, is they have learned how to. If you’re not earning that, you just haven’t learned how to. It’s possible. We know it’s possible. It was like the four-minute mile, people just have to learn how to run it. I believe the same in business is true. I think that you are a direct reflection of the knowledge you have, not because knowledge makes you money but knowledge gives you confidence to be able to try things that you may be fearful of trying otherwise.
You have a lot of different expertise. I’m going to dive in to the five-stage business acceleration blueprint, which totally ties into what you were just saying about the importance of learning to earn. Can you tell us what those five stages are?
Sure. I might just go back a bit because it’s important to understand that I think one of the challenges so many business owners were faced with is they didn’t have a road map. It’s like kids; businesses don’t come with an instruction manual. It would be nice if they did. It’s perfect for your listeners because if they’re pitching a business idea to an investor, if they’ve got a road map where they can say to an investor, “Here are the four stages I’m going to grow this business through. Here’s how I’m going to get the results.” That investor’s more likely to be intrigued and interested in investing in that idea. It’s great for any business, whether you’re looking for investors or if you just want to grow your business. What I worked out was there are five distinct stages a business goes through in its growth cycle. Myself and my business partner developed this thing called the Business Acceleration Blueprint. Now, when we work with a client, we take him through these five stages.
[Tweet “Budget for Profit”]
The first stage is foundation. This is a stage that so many people miss because it’s not sexy. It’s all the boring stuff like getting the basic fundamentals right in your business. The second stage is then the stage of growth. Growth is about being able to get your marketing and sales working in such a way that you have a predictable marketing machine. It’s important, if you’re going to grow a business that you know that when you spend $1, you’re going to get $10 back in. Whatever it might be, it’s got to be predictable. It’s no good waiting for the phone to ring. Having the best product doesn’t mean that you’re going to grow a great business. We’re seeing some great international organizations that make very average hamburgers yet they have over 30,000 stores. After you’ve got that marketing and sales working really well and got good cashflow then we go on to the third stage, which is to optimize. Optimization is all about systemizing repetitive tasks in the business with automation, in particular. In this day and age, it’s very easy to get into using software or a program of some sort that can systemize your business. It could be something simple, that doesn’t have to be automation. It can just be having a simple flowchart so people know what they’ve got to do. It just makes a business much more efficient, which of course includes profitability.
The fourth stage, the amount who go to business that has good foundation is growing nicely and predictably is optimized and runs efficiently, is now to transition how to working in to on. That’s a challenge so many business owners are faced with and being able to trust their team but also trust their systems that if they’re not there watching everything or macro-managing, that the business is still going to be successful. I’m sure as an investor they’d like to know that the business doesn’t rely on one individual because of course that’s dangerous. The transition stage is making sure the business can stand on its own two feet. The fifth stage, once you’ve got a business that runs without you having to be there, is then to be able to diversify. In the business sense that could be opening up of outlets, putting more vans on the road, it could be franchising or licensing or it could be totally something different. It could be buying other businesses or it could be investing in a property or a share. As an individual, it’s about diversifying and then capitalizing on the work you’ve done the previous few years to get to that stage.
Those are great stages: foundation, growth, optimization, transition and diversification. Let’s take a little bit of a deep dive into the one that’s so important. It’s like building a house, if you don’t have a solid foundation, the whole thing will crumble as you build up. What are some of the key mistakes people make in not having a good foundation?
If you look at why so many businesses fail, and that’s probably the point where I start with, is getting them to understand that businesses don’t fail because you want them to. Nobody starts a business with that as their goal. Everyone has this goal of building this great amazing business that’s profitable and fun to have, etc. The reality is most businesses fail, eight out of ten, they say statistically. I think it’s actually slightly higher in Australia. The reason for that is because they run out of money. When you look at the foundation side, the first thing is to do what I call financial foundation, which is having control of your money. It’s one of the resources that you need to manage. In your business, there are three resources that I believe you have in finances. One of them is time and people is the other one then money is the third one.
There are some key areas within finances that you need to master. One is reporting. You need to be able to look at a monthly profit and loss statement and understand what those numbers mean, look at the report and be able to make decisions based on what’s actually happening rather than on fictional. A lot of people say, “I go on gut feeling.” Gut feeling is not a great way to run a business. You want to run a business based on what’s actually happening and you want to be able to look at what are the most profitable products or services and then be able to capitalize on that by selling more of those. If something’s not making you money, you want to stop selling that. If expenses are getting out of hand, you want to know why. If you’re doing really well and you’re under budget, then you can also want to know why because you’d do more of that. The reporting is really important.
Max My Profit: Gut feeling is not a great way to run a business. You want to run a business based on what’s actually happening.
The second area then that it leads to is the ability then to be able to do budgeting. A lot of people think you budget for expenses or you budget for sales. I always say to businesses, “You’ve got to budget for profit because that’s why you’re in business. I know money is not everything but it’s somewhere very near to oxygen in my book. You want to be making sure you’re making money. Then the other real critical part of financial foundation is then cashflow forecasting. If you think about cashflow being like your fuel in your car, if you’re running out you’re going to stop. We want to make sure that there’s always fuel in the tank and that business continue to drive forward all the time. Those are the three key financial foundations but of course that leads to other parts of it. We don’t want to make business as accountants but we want to make them accountable.
You’ve got some really great sound bites, “Be accountable, and your foundation has to be both money, time, and people because it’s all about the team.” What do you look for when you hire people to work for you?
I think I made the mistake so many business owners make when they first start hiring, and that is to hire on skill. That can be important if you need somebody who’s got a qualification on something, then you’re going to have to hire that person. I really hire people on attitude because if someone’s got the right attitude and is a good fit with the team, then you can teach him anything. When I look for someone, that’s really the key thing; I look for what is their attitude and what are their personal attributes. Are they disciplined? You look at their lifestyle. Are they disciplined or are they lazy? They are a reflection of their life so that helps you then decide whether or not they’re going to be a good fit in your team. I always say to people, “Think of your business like a rowboat and you’ve got twelve people on the rowboat and you’ve got eleven people rowing, but you’ve got one person throwing the anchor at the back, it’s going to be a very difficult trip.”
The second part of this five-stage process, you talk about growth and the importance of sales and marketing. This is again really your sweet spot. What are some things business owners can do on LinkedIn to get more customers?
LinkedIn is a great platform. In fact, I always tell people LinkedIn is the most up to date business database in the world. We know that because you’re updating it. Everyone can jump on there. I think a lot of people are expecting with any social media platform that you can just put witty quote cards up or funny pictures up or a comment here and there, or maybe even pitch a product online and people are going to buy it. I think it’s still important to build a relationship. LinkedIn is probably more important than any other to have that ability where you can be very targeted but then start building a relationship with the people that you target. You do that by adding people to your network of course and you can look at second context through your current network and get introductions. I actually have a script that I wrote for people that are in the service-based industries to be able to contact somebody on LinkedIn. The good thing with something like LinkedIn is when you call somebody, if you just open with this online when you contact somebody at LinkedIn, you might Google them, get their phone number, ring them directly and say, “I’m giving you a quick call because I saw your profile on LinkedIn and I thought it was interesting.” Rarely will someone hang up on you.
Right, because you’re making it about them and not about you. You also have some really great skills and insights, and you give a whole keynote talk on this about how we can all simplify sales. I think one of the biggest challenges people get is, “I don’t know how to handle objection.” The biggest objection is, “Your price is too high.” Do you have any tips there, Ben?
[Tweet “Cash flow is like gas in a car.”]
This is a great distinction. If you’re getting that objection, you’re probably not articulating the value of what you offer. Objections are a good thing, by the way, so don’t be upset if you get an objection because it means that you’re getting closer to a decision. You’ve got to be comfortable with the fact that some people are going to say no and some people are going to say yes. We can use those objections as a tool to understand what is going on because communication is the response that we get. Whatever we’re getting back, we must have communicated something to get that response back. If someone says it’s too expensive or your process is too hard, what they’re actually saying to you is, “I don’t see the value in what you’re selling.” It’s totally different if someone says to you, “I can’t afford what you’ve got.” That means they see the value but they don’t have the money. I always say to people if you’re getting that objection that the price is too high, go back a few steps and go, “How can I make sure that my prospect sees the value in what I offer?” That’s going to come down to the questions that you ask. You want to be asking the right kind of questions to understand what it is they need? What are the challenges they have in their life that they need to overcome? Why aren’t they overcoming them? How does your product help them do that? I call that the POD formula: the Problem, Obstacle and the Desired Outcomes.
If you know what the problem is you solve. I always say to anybody, when they start writing up their sales process or thinking about objections, “Think about all the problems that you solved because the problem you solve could be different for every single person.” For example, if I own a hardware store that sells electric drills, for the person that wants to hang a picture, I’m solving that problem. For the person who wants to build a billy-cart, I’m solving that problem. For the person who just wants to drill holes in the floor to mount something, I’m solving that problem. For everyone, it’s different even though it’s the same product. I say to people, “Whether it’s the product or service, think about all the problems that you solved and then skip the O for a second and go straight to D,” which is the desired outcome and go, “What is the desired outcome for that problem that you’re solving?” For example, if the problem that you’re solving is overweight and the desired outcome is that, “I’m nice and fit and healthy and I can fit into the clothes I used to be able to fit into when I was eighteen,” then you can start thinking about what are the obstacles that person is faced with achieving that desired outcome? That’s where your marketing and your sales come in. That’s where you build the values. If my obstacle is that I don’t have time to exercise then if I want to help them reach their desired outcome, I could start pitching to them by saying something like, “Lose weight in ten minutes a day. Lose weight even if you don’t think you’ve got time to exercise.” All of a sudden, my sales have just become much more pertinent to what their desired outcomes are and their needs and it’s addressing their obstacle.
I love that so much because you’re getting inside the head of your potential customer and figuring out what their spoken or sometimes unspoken obstacle is to getting their goal, and then that’s what makes them go, “I want that outcome but I don’t have time.” If you don’t address the fact that you don’t have time in your pitch, then I just think, “I don’t have time to buy an exercise machine or whatever,” but you’d go, “In ten minutes, I could do that? Maybe I could buy a machine to workout ten minutes a day.” I love that you connected that problem, obstacle, desire. Half the people don’t even talk about what problem they’re solving, so just doing that is better than 50% of people out there. What gets you in the 1% then is you really take it to the next level of, “We’re not going to talk about your problem, we’re not going to talk about your outcome, but we’re going to talk about whatever your obstacle is to getting that outcome will be solved through this and therefore, you’ll pay anything to get that outcome because we’re overcoming your particular obstacle,” if I heard you right?
Absolutely. I always say to people, “Just imagine that you’re stuck in the middle of the desert and you’ve been walking through the desert for days and you’re just minutes away from death, from dehydration, and someone offers you a bottle of water for $10,000. You’ll find the money. You’ll buy it because the value is there.” The price is never too high. It’s that the value is not high enough.
The other thing is people say, ” I know I have to ask questions in order to get people to tell me what their problems are or their challenges.” What are the tough questions you find people afraid to ask?
One of the things is people dance around the fact that they are selling, and I think that’s dangerous because it puts everybody into a false sense of security. I’m pretty upfront with people. If I’m a salesman, I’ll say, “John, I don’t want to waste your time and I certainly don’t want to waste mine.” I’ll make sure you know my time is just as valuable as yours. That then allows me to ask the next questions where I would say, “John, is it okay if I ask you a few questions?” You’ll say, “Yes, sure.” Then I can start asking you because you’ve given me permission to some of the questions and I’ll make sure we’re not wasting each other’s time. I think things like saying, “Have you put aside a budget for this? Have you thought about how much you’re willing to invest to fix this problem?” Number one. I think too many people don’t do this, so they don’t qualify their leads.
Max My Profit: It is just about learning to ask good open-ended questions.
I think another thing that you’ve got to make sure you ask when you’re in any sales situation, whether you’re pitching for an investor or selling a product or a service is making sure that you have all the decision-makers at the table when you’re pitching whatever it is you pitch. Otherwise, you’ll get the one objection that’s very difficult to overcome and that is, “I’ve got to go and check with my partner,” whether it’s a business partner or a life partner. If you haven’t got all the decision-makers in the room then you’re in trouble. I think a lot of people struggle with asking that question. I think sometimes it is just about learning to ask good open-ended questions. What I mean by that are any questions that can’t be answered with a yes or no, but it typically start with a who, what, where, why, when and how. That enables you then to start gathering information so you can offer the right solution. You might love pitching what you pitch because you love it and you’re passionate about it but if it doesn’t resonate with your prospect, they’re not going to buy it.
In that spirit of open-ended questions, what do you find is some of the best closing questions that people can ask?
In my case, what I teach people is not to close and I teach people to complete because you’re starting a relationship. I think that the word closing has a negative connotation. What I like to do is I like to do a thing called temperature checking. The way that we do that is I use either/or questions, so alternates, rather than saying, “Will you buy from me?” The danger of saying “Will you buy from me?” or “Would you like to go ahead?” is you’re going to get a yes or a no. If you get a no, it’s all over. What I’d rather do is I usually say to somebody something like, “John, based on what you’ve told me, it sounds like it could be a good fit. Would it be okay if I offer you a couple of different options?” You’ll go, “Yes,” and I’ll say, “We’ve got it in green and we’ve got it in blue. Which color would you prefer?” Now instead of saying “Would you buy from me?” I’m now doing what’s called temperature checking. You might go, “I really like the blue.” I go, “Great. We could deliver that next week or the week after. Which week is going to be better for you?” One or two things are going to happen. You’ll say, “I’d like it next week,” or “Hang on a minute, I’m not ready to buy this.” I’ve got this opportunity now where I can go, “I’m sorry, what is it about the blue one that you weren’t happy with?” I can go back to my open-ended questions. Never am I getting a no to finish the conversation. I’m slowly easing us into doing what I call the completion process, which is of course in most cases paper work and payment.
It’s almost a little bit of the assumptive close in there until you’re told otherwise, right?
Absolutely. I always assume that because I say to people, “One of the key things is not what you do when you’re closing but what you do when you’re opening.” I do a thing called a positioning statement, which I know you’ll love because you’re all about positioning yourself. I would say, in my case for example, I walk into a meeting where we sell business services, I would sit down and say, “John, is it okay if I quickly outline how today’s meeting is going to go?” You’d never say no because we’d like to know what’s coming. It’s like sitting in a dentist chair and the dentist says, “You want me to just surprise you or would you like to know what I’m going to do?” I say to people have a positioning start where you say to somebody, “What’s going to happen in today’s meeting is I’m going to explain a little bit about my company, a little bit about myself, so you understand what gives me the right to be in front of you offering our services. Then I’m going to ask you a whole bunch of questions to find out exactly where you’re at, what problems you have, what’s stopping you from solving them, and see whether or not I can find a solution. If we both agree that what I can do will help you achieve those goals, then what we’ll do is we’ll have a look at the different options and if we’re all happy, we’ll get the paid work and the payment out of the way today and we’ll get you started. If not, no harm done. I’ll politely let you know if I don’t have a good fit and we’ll both be on our way. Is it okay if we go through today’s meeting that way, John?”
Just to jump back to one of the five steps here is this transition. I don’t think a lot of people even think about ever transitioning, as you said, from in to on. Getting somebody else to take over if you’re not there or you get sick or whatever it is that they are just so controlling that their identity is so tied up in it. How do you get someone to have the right mindset to even start thinking like that?
I think there are a couple of key factors. One is knowledge. If you put the oId plate on, you’ve got to learn. I think the knowledge needs to be, first of all, that you have the systems in place to be able to give you back the information you need to be comfortable that your business is working fine. Part of that process in foundation is setting up all the key performance indicators, the KPI, so you’ve got the reporting in place, and making sure that your business is structured for growth. What I mean by that is that you have distinct roles and responsibilities with KPIs attached to them. It is easy for you to monitor what’s going on, what’s working well, what’s not working well, so you can make more informed decisions. I think the reason a lot of people don’t make the transition is they’re uncomfortable because they’re not sure what’s going on is working. That’s the first step.
[Tweet “Hire people on attitude not just skills.”]
The second step, the other key fundamental is then the mindset. It’s your baby, you built it, you want to be a part of it, you feel proud of it, so you have this mindset that you need to be involved in it. The other dangerous mindset to have is that most people, and this is really a big problem for business owners all over the world, is that they value their money more than their time. What that leads to is that business owners will do a task that they’re not good at that they could pay someone a lot less to do than they’re paying themselves because they think they’re saving money. Huge danger. I always teach entrepreneurs that you’re making most money when you’re working on it, not in. When you work in your business, it feels good because you’re trading your time for money and you’re getting paid instantly. When you work on your business, you’re actually not trading your time for money. You’re actually trading your time to build leverage in your business that will pay you somewhere down the track, but it will always pay you more and it will pay you forever. It’s like you write a book. You don’t get paid now for that, you get paid later for that but you keep getting paid for it.
Ben, do you have a book that you would recommend either about business or life?
I’ve read so many books and I’m such a fan of telling people that can’t read books. The one that changed my life was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I gave that book to somebody one day and they said, “I don’t get it. What’s it all about?” I said, “Did you read the cover?” That’s about mindset. I believe that your business is a direct reflection of who you are. I can give you all the strategies, I can teach you, I can put your sales process together, I can put an amazing marketing plan together and get leads barreling into your business, but if you don’t have the right mindset then it’s not going to work long-term. It will only be a short Band-Aid fix. As an entrepreneur, if you can get your headspace in the right thinking where you are doing the things that are going to make the biggest impact. Most of us grew up working with somebody else in the beginning. We had to look busy to be valuable. When you’re a business owner, being busy is not valuable, being busy is inefficient. I always say to business owners, “You’ve got to be productive,” and to be productive you’ve got to make sure that your mindset is in the right space so you’re not doing the wrong things, because that’s where people get busy.
Any last thoughts or words of advice?
We talked about going to the dentist. I always say to people, “You wouldn’t give yourself a root canal. You’d go and see a professional.” If you’re going to grow a business, don’t try to do it on your own. There’s nothing wrong with hiring a professional to help you. You’re building a house, you hire a builder. You’re getting your kitchen built, you get someone to come in to do that. People pay people to wash their car. Why don’t you have somebody help you build your business? You might get there on your own but we’ll just get you there faster and quicker and a lot more cost-effective than if you try doing it on your own. I always say, whether it’s me or somebody else, go and find somebody to help you, to be by your side to walk you down that path and guide you and help you overcome the obstacle. You’re never going to get there in a straight line, that just doesn’t happen, but you’re going to get there in a straighter line.
Ben, how can somebody find out more information about you, engage with you? What’s your best website to go to?
The best website to hit isMaxMyProfit.com.au. That’s my main business website. There’s whole bunch of freebies on there. You can download my latest eBook, which is Planning Your Path For Business Success or you can download the Business Plan Template that we’ve used to grow thousands of businesses across the globe. That’s a very dynamic business plan template that we used to sell for a few thousand bucks, you can get it for free just by going to MaxMyProfit.com.au.
Ben, I can’t thank you enough for being on the show and sharing so much wisdom and insights. It’s been a pleasure.
My absolute pleasure. Thanks once again for having me on.
Links Mentioned
- Ben Fewtrell
- Business Brain Food
- Daily Business Tips
- Think and Grow Rich
- MaxMyProfit.com.au
- Planning Your Path For Business Success
- Business Plan Template
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Gratefulness And Exponential Thinking: Success Secrets with Will Bunker
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Episode Summary
The idea that you have to uproot your life and live in Silicon Valley to make big money may have some truth in it. But this is not necessarily a requirement for Match.com Founder Will Bunker when he sold his company for $47.5 million. The success secrets he has held onto in order to invest in 170 start-ups are humility, gratefulness and exponential thinking. Don’t be just a clone of the other pitchers that came before you. Have a heart, choose kindness and think outside of the box.
Today’s guest on The Successful Pitch is Will Bunker who founded Match.com and was able to sell that for millions. He’s now invested in over 170 companies. He shares with us what he looks for when he hears a pitch and the importance of getting a customer versus just relying on funding to grow your company. He has some real core values at his company,GrowthX, about humility, gratefulness and exponential thinking where they’re really looking for the big idea. Really the big takeaway for me was if you’re not good at something, then figure out how to do it. If you’re not getting the results you want from pitching, then work with someone like me who can help you with the pitch. He’s working on improving his networking skills, so I introduced him to Judy Robinett. There’s always something you can offer someone no matter how successful they are, if you take the time to figure out what they’re working on now and how you can help. Enjoy the episode.
Listen To The Episode Here
Gratefulness And Exponential Thinking: Success Secrets with Will Bunker
Today’s guest is Will Bunker. Will knows two of my other guests, Andrew Goldner from GrowthX as well as Manny Fernandez. Obviously, I am excited to have Will on the show because we’re connected from multiple different ways. He’s an investor in more than 170 startups. He made it his life’s mission to help other entrepreneurs succeed in developing successful companies and achieving their goals. His skill and experience in connecting people have allowed him to build a global network of investors and entrepreneurs, which he then considers his extended family. Before he co-founded GrowthX, he raised and led the Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate, which is a seed-stage micro-VC. He was also a seller-founder of OneAndOnly.com, the largest internet dating site and one of the top 100 site of the 90s acquired by Ticketmaster for $47 million and rebranded as something we all know as Match.com. Will, welcome to the show.
Glad to be here.
Why don’t you start by telling us where you’re recording from because that’s interesting right off the get-go?
I’m at the Blockchain Conference, which is at Draper University being put on by DLJ and a couple of other folks. It’s an interesting group of people. There’s a lot of excited young people mixed in with conspiracy theory currency stuff, and so it’s just very interesting.
I know that your career began when you were working with N.B. Hunt who sent you on these adventures across Russia and Nicaragua, and you ended up carrying $250,000 worth of gold to Florida. Can we start there?
The plane left too early in the morning so I had to sleep with the gold under my bed because you couldn’t get it out to the bank that early. I would sleep with it under my bed, drive out to the airport, jump on a commercial plane, and drop it off to the Brink’s people in Miami every two weeks. Panic attack, it was tough.
[Tweet “Spend time learning skills you don’t have.”]
How long did you do that?
A year was all I could take. I would grab a book on Novell networking in the airport, come back to the jungle, study it, and when I passed all my tests, I quit and went to Dallas to get into the tech business.
If nothing else, it’s almost like building up your risk tolerance like taking a cold shower can do, right?
Starting an internet company seems a lot less risky than Nicaragua and Russia, that’s for sure.
I know everybody probably always ask you this and I would be remiss as a host if I didn’t, but would you mind sharing the story of how you came up with the concept for One And Only, and then how that became Match.com?
Dave Kennedy and I were really good friends in Dallas, Texas. We knew we wanted to do an internet business we believe strongly and that technology is the future. We kept researching ideas and then I ran across the fact that AOL generated half their revenue from chat because they were charging by the hour and everyone’s on the chat system. We went into the chat rooms and everyone was trying to get a date. We saw that half of the revenue of the largest company revolves around dating, whether they know it or not. We need to build that on the internet so that when everyone migrates off, we’ll be there. That was where the idea came from.
How long did it take to grow? Going back in my own memory bank, there was a stigma attached that only people who are really desperate would go on an online dating site. Now, that obviously is gone. Was that a big objection you got?
When I would tell people what I did in Dallas, they would physically back off or would cringe. It was seem pretty shady. As a matter of fact, there’s a really good movie about the guys who processed credit card payments for the pornography industry, and that was the only bank that would take us. I knew the guys in that movie. They were the only ones that would take credit cards from some crazy dating site. It was strange times.
Did you have to raise money before you were able to sell it to Ticketmaster?
I had no clue as to how to raise money in that time period. It was Dallas. It would have been very difficult even if I’d known how. We raised a total of $90,000 and that was all the money that went into the site. We grew it on cashflow for the next five years before we sold it.
After you have that kind of success, I recently read your article about what do I want to do next in my life, and you talked about do what makes you happy. I love that story. If you wouldn’t mind expanding on that about your own personal passion, you were happy with computers when you were a young lad, right?
My father was always buying us the latest technology, so we had a TI computer that I programmed. I really liked it as a kid. I was socially awkward. I just enjoyed it, I’d get lost in it. Then you get a little bit older and you realize, “I got to make a living.” I just couldn’t imagine getting paid to do something that much fun. I went into industrial engineering. I learned a lot and I’m very happy of the things I picked up in college, but I went to work at a factory during my junior year at the summer, and it’s just a miserable environment. You’re in there, it’s noisy, you’re inside, the machines are going, no one’s happy to be there. It’s worse than farming. I was just like, “I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to find something else to do with my life. Twenty years of this will not work for me.”
You know what I find interesting about your story, Will, is the risk. You could only do it for a year of taking that much gold from Nicaragua to Miami, and you said, “I can’t do that anymore, so internet doesn’t seem so bad. Now, compared to farming, being in a factory is even worse so I have to still find something else to do.” These dramatic comparisons are sometimes what propel us to take action into a new area of innovation.
Success Secrets: Pleasant doesn’t mean you agree with everything. It just means you’re not an asshole about stuff.
My father had the best way of motivating me. His thing to me was, “Son, go do anything you want. If it doesn’t work out, I’ve always got a tractor for you.”
That’s what you want to hear, isn’t it? Come on back to that life.
It’s like, “I’ve got to get out of here. I can’t do that.”
Since you’ve invested in so many startups, and this is The Successful Pitch, we would love to hear what makes a good pitch in your opinion?
It’s a combination of having a unique idea that’s not a clone of 60 other things you’ve heard that week. Today, I heard one at the Blockchain Conference. It was a person who is using Blockchain technology to allow anyone to rent storage space on their computer. Just connect it to the internet all the time. It’s like a distributed AWS, Amazon Web Services. I’ve never heard that idea before, that’s really interesting. It may or may not work, but at least it’s a unique perspective, and when you think about the future, you’d go, “Why wouldn’t you be able to do that?” Some of it is just being on trend, but they’re not being a clone of the seven other things that are trying to do it.
God knows there’s a lot of clones of Match.com, for example, now. I can’t imagine you’d have much luck trying to get money.
It’s very hard to raise money on dating because everyone’s heard of a dating idea and then seen it fail.
One of the things you wrote about that I really resonate with is when you generate trust, that’s what generates money, and that’s what caused you to want to get involve with GrowthX. Can you talk about that please?
I started investing seriously four years ago with my personal money. Quickly, I reached a point to where every time I want to invest with a company, I have to have this super painful conversation with my wife where she would beat me up and tell me what a terrible idea that startup was and we shouldn’t invest in it. I just reached the point where I was like, “Let me just put a fund together and write one check, invest of it out of the fund.” Plus if you look at the math, you need to make a lot of investments at this stage to get to one that really has the payoff that you want.
GrowthX came out of the fact that I was bringing some of my startups into Sean Sheppard who was teaching sales and Biz Dev at a boot camp. He started getting the students to work on it and they took one of my companies from $30,000 a month to $1 million in a month in less than a year. I just went, “What if that happened more often?” We put together this group, and if you raise money for people it is because they trust you. The people that gave me money initially, even for One and Only, it was the guy I worked for. Why did he give me money? Because he saw what a hard worker I was and he trusted me. In order for it to work, you have to build an ecosystem of trust around you because that’s who people do business with, that’s who people give money to. If you’re a first-time founder and you don’t have enough traction for an outsider to invest in you, the only resource you have is to go to the people you’ve built trust with and ask them. You’d be surprised at the numbers that will back you.
Success Secrets: You have to build an ecosystem of trust around you because that’s who people do business with, that’s who people give money to.
GrowthX has so many different arms and legs. Let’s let everybody know what all the different potential things are. Let’s start with the boot camp part of it.
We train people to do the non-technical roles that grow a company. That could be sales in Biz Dev, digital marketing and design. If you built a product and you have initial customers, you’re going to grow or die based on your growth talent. That doesn’t mean just touchless digital marketing. It could be any of the three. That’s our way of trying to create a talent pool that ten years from now we’ve got hundreds of people that we could pick up the phone and say, “We’ve got this great company that’s taken off. Are you interested? Can you help us support it?”
You also are really big on helping seed-stage capital find its product market fit. How does that work?
Before we had the school, we had an internal team. We want to make sure does this process work? We would take that team in about one out of three investments, deploy them into the company to do it with the company, and then to train and hand off those functions in the company once we’ve got the basic pattern figured out. That’s our market acceleration program. We’ve done it with twelve companies now. I’ve got two people full-time on the team and they’ve now taken twelve companies to market in the space of a year and a half. The amount of experience that they bring up there is really incredible.
Can you tell us the story about one of them, Will?
Max was a student of Sean’s. That company that I was saying that they grew, I was looking at investing, and Max called 400 new customers and of that, 35% wanted the product and 0% were able to use the product. It wasn’t time to put money in, but think about it, the other Angels that I hang out with were like, “No, why didn’t you put money in?” They know I invest anything. They really got worried. I said, “We called 400 customers and here’s what we found out.” They went, “Oh shit, we only called two.” You can generate a lot of information by trying to sell a product. It’s better than looking at the deck, that’s for sure.
You talked that success comes from customer revenue, not venture capital subsidy. I think that’s a big a-ha for a lot of people because they watch companies keep raising round after round that are not profitable and still maybe even pre-revenue, especially in the artificial intelligence arena when you’re competing against, let’s say, IBM, Watson, or something.
If something takes that much money to develop before you can get your revenue, it is exceptionally hard for the founder to end up with anything at the end of the journey. The original founder of Match.com raised $10 million ahead of us. He was fired, and when they sold the company from underneath everyone, he made $40,000. That is a very common story. The more you peel back that onion, the more you realize that raising money is not the outcome.
Success Secrets: The more you peel back that onion, the more you realize that raising money is not the outcome.
The other thing that I really love about what you and Andrew Goldner and the other people there are doing is this whole concept that you don’t have to uproot your life and your family and move to Silicon Valley in order to build a great company.
You don’t. All of us made our money out of the valley. Mine was in Dallas. Sean’s was in Phoenix. Andrew was in New York initially. It’s crazy that you have to move to be near some guy to write you a check. It’s logical for them because they can, but I think we’re rapidly reaching a world where that’s just not going to be true. If you focus on coming up with an idea and approach where you sell aggressively early, it removes that burden from you.
For someone who’s listening who is a startup founder, let’s say it’s their first startup, they don’t live in Silicon Valley, and they would love to raise the money and possibly work with GrowthX, what’s the first step they take?
Reach out either via someone you know that knows us or via the website. Some people will contact me on Twitter and send me their deck. It’s just any way to make that initial contact. I’m very diligent about at least looking at the deck and asking myself, “Am I interested?” It’s more interesting if someone I trust introduces you, but it doesn’t mean that a cold intro won’t work. One of our best investments stalked me at a conference in Redwood City, just came up out of the blue and just started talking to me. There was just something about this guy. He’s awfully strange but he’s a really good founder. You just don’t know. There’s a little bit of serendipity in this business.
Some investors like to really specialize, “I only invest in Fintech. I only invest in Mobile. I need to be early.” Do you have a criteria that you could share so people would know if they even have a shot at what you’re looking at?
I can’t really help you because I don’t know enough about your vertical to tell you what to do. Then, if you have a price point that allows you for having sales people involved, so it’s not just touchless digital marketing, then that fits our wheel house a lot better. It helps if you listen. If you’ve already got all the answers then we don’t really have much to add, please go execute. You don’t need me. Just go do it. I’m looking more and more just for people that are pleasant to work with. Pleasant doesn’t mean you agree with everything. It just means you’re not an asshole about stuff.
That whole thing about being coachable. Let me ask you to just recap so that everybody can really grasp. If someone’s pre-revenue, you’re still willing to potentially invest with them?
No. They must have a customer. Then we’ve got something to say about that, which is how do you get a million more just like him?
You have to have proof of concept before they should even approach you is what you’re saying?
Yes. We’ve had one company that was very science-oriented. They used magnetic waves to detect your heart rate without touching you. We, as part of our due diligence, got them their first customer. If you’re mature enough and interesting enough, we can always work together to get that customer, but we won’t invest until you have one.
You’re willing to possibly help somebody, get that first customer and then make the investment. How much revenue do they need to have? Do they need to have 400 customers for you to potentially call that money?
No, if it’s an interesting idea with some customer traction, just some. The more, the better, but any is fine.
Do you have any sweet spots of things or areas or you’re just open to new ideas that are unique?
As long as you’re selling to human beings, we find that interesting.
Of all the companies you’ve invested in, unless it always obviously is the person has unique idea, they’re coachable, you like working with them, do you fund past the seed round or do you put them in touch with VCs you know or do you do both?
We will follow on some capital. We consider the sales. Deploying that team is a form of human capital, so that’s our follow on. One in three companies we do that with. Then we have a real strong LT network that the reason they gave us money was to find good things for them to put money into.
The other thing that I really like about what you’re doing at GrowthX is your core values. Would you mind speaking to some of them? There are eight of them. The one that really resonates with me, of course, is gratefulness, but we can talk about any of them.
[Tweet “Core values of Humility and Gratitude are Key”]
For me, it’s people first. If you really treat everyone as a legitimate human being, then you’re forming the basis for a real relationship, a real way to work together. It’s easy to say that, “People first,” but from the people we picked to be our partners, that’s the key thing. If someone’s nice to me because they need something from me but the minute I’m not around, they tool on a startup because they can, I don’t want to work with them. You don’t know in this life who or what will become meaningful and important later. How many times have I needed people’s help? A lot. I just really believe in leading with that. I may not be able to give you money, I may not have any answers for you, but I can at least be kind and listen and be empathetic.
The other one that really jumps out for me is this concept of exponential thinking where you take some exponential steps. Can you explain that? I’ve never seen that before as a core value and that really interests me.
It’s the thought that we live in a world of unlimited abundance. We want to be working on things that have that explosive potential. If we don’t think our sales team can 10X your traction, we shouldn’t do it. We’re looking for those giant leaps forward. I took that $90,000 investment from that one investor and I returned him $15 million. That’s the kind of results we wanted, not only from the people we invested, from ourselves. We need to be looking at those things that are going to make a difference. I’m not doing this just to earn an extra $5. I want the world to be a better place. You do that by introducing new technologies, new businesses, new ways for human beings to get what they want.
Let’s talk a little bit about your advisory board because I was reading some of the descriptions of just basic things on how to come up with compelling ways for your messaging, which I’m all about story-telling and pitching. I was impressed by that.
Are you talking about the advisory board for the fund or for our mentors for GrowthX Academy?
I think the one I was reading was about the GrowthX Academy, but either one.
The academy there is creating a community of people that are successful and ready to give back. I go give talks all the time. I’m not doing it because I get paid anything, as a matter of fact. I do it because I want, in some way, to give back to the next generation of founders and entrepreneurs. The mentor group, at their core, that’s why they’re doing it. They’ve all reached a level of success where it’s no longer just about getting that next promotion or making that extra dollar. It’s, “What can I do to help people just like I was helped?”
Success Secrets: It’s no longer just about getting that next promotion or making that extra dollar. It’s, “What can I do to help people just like I was helped?”
Any final piece of advice about pitching or anything?
The biggest thing is to look at every one of these things like pitching, raising money, as a skill. By definition, if it’s a skill, you can learn to get better at it, but you have to train to get better at it. If you’re going around and you’re not having success raising money, how much time did you put this week into getting better at raising money, fundamentally? One of the things I’m working on now is I want to be better at maintaining my network. I’m putting a lot of time and energy. I’m spending probably five to seven hours a week learning about that because it’s a weakness that if I got better at it, I would be able to raise money faster and I’d be able to help more of my startups because my network would be better. It is a skill. Anything that you’re not having success at, if you put attention on getting better at it, you can.
What a great line and what a great way to end because if you’re not getting results from pitching, then you should engage someone who can help you with your pitch. If you want to improve your network, you should figure out who’s good at it and get their advice or read books on it. Even at your level and all the experience you have, you’re still willing to learn and I just think that’s so inspiring to all of us.
Will, I can’t thank you enough for joining us. On Twitter you’re @WBunker. Is there anything else you would like us to promote you or what you’re doing?
No, it sounds good. I enjoyed it. Thanks.
Thank you.
Links Mentioned
- Match.com
- GrowthX
- Judy Robinett
- Andrew Goldner
- Manny Fernandez
- OneAndOnly.com
- Ticketmaster
- @WBunker
- GrowthX Academy
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FARGO-Exceeding Low Expectations with Greg Tehven
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Episode Summary
Collaborating with people and exceeding low expectations is a bigger win any entrepreneur can ask for. Greg Tehven isn’t an exception to this notion.When all he saw in front of him was just metrics and checklists, he knew he had to make a shift and invest in time and experiences instead. Now a Co-Founder and Executive Officer of Emerging Prairie, Greg is dedicated to give value to the community and use his skills to serve others and make a difference.
My guest on The Successful Pitch is Greg Tehven, who has a fascinating story about growing up in Fargo, North Dakota, couldn’t wait to get out, travel the world and then decided to move back after all and make a difference in his own city. He said he’s all about hustle and not desperation. He has a great description of the difference and how that changed how he looked at the world. He said, “When you have limitations and you share them, you create compassion. If you start bragging about all your successes, you create competition.” His big focus is on creating moments and he wants to be time-rich so that he can spend his time with interesting and wacky new people and look at his life as an adventure as opposed to goal after goal to achieve. He has some great insights on how he discovered himself at a young age and now is living in the moment. Enjoy the episode.
Listen To The Episode Here
FARGO-Exceeding Low Expectations with Greg Tehven
Our guest is Greg Tehven who is living and from Fargo, North Dakota. I had the pleasure of meeting Greg when I was on the North Dakota Today Show and he has so much insights as to what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur and make an impact in the world. He is known as a thought leader, a storyteller, and that really resonates with me. He literally is an advocate for people who are creative. He loves to put out a message on how you can build a community that you want to live in. Greg believes that if you think creatively and act boldly, you can overcome any obstacle. He has literally done that. He’s proud to be from Fargo, North Dakota. I love his passion for that. He has literally traveled around the world and now he’s back in Fargo and he’s now taking action to make Fargo be known as its own special place with a good message out there. That pride takes on a lot of forms where he takes on big projects not only within his community, but inspiring other people to do it as well. He is the Executive Director of Emerging Prairie where he’s done so many things such as starting the TEDxFargo, 1 Million Cups Fargo, Startup Weekend and a lot of other great things. He’s really well-connected and generous with those contacts. I love his sense of humor and relaxed style. Greg, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks, John. It’s an honor to be here.
I always like to ask my guests to take us back to their own story of origin. You were growing up in Fargo. You can take us back as far as you want, whether it’s high school or earlier or college or earlier. What made you decide that you were going to leave Fargo? Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?
I don’t think I understood the word entrepreneur as a kid but I had a really, really healthy disrespect for the status quo at a very early age. I would challenge my coaches that there was a better way to do things. I would challenge my parents that there was a more efficient way to mow the lawn or shovel the snow. Believe it or not, John, as a young person, it’s not very appreciated. I don’t know if I was always appreciated for that perspective.
Will you call it precocious?
I would just describe to somebody that, “It was Greg’s world and everyone just lived in it.” I wasn’t always proud of that. I was this kid that lived on a farm and I would see things being done inefficiently. As a kid, when you live on the farm on a gravel road and you don’t get to go to town very often or if you forget something at home, you can’t just run home and get it. There was a resourcefulness that came from that. There was really, as a young person, awareness of waste: wasted time, wasted resources, wasted energy. I brought that through my entire journey.
One thing that’s interesting that I wanted to bring is in 1987, North Dakota was the only state in the union with a declining population. The politicians were talking about the brain drain. The best and brightest were leaving the state. The community conversation from when I was three years old until ten was that the best and brightest were leaving. They went to some researchers and they said, “What do we do in North Dakota?” They went to some Princeton PhDs and they came back with a proposal to return the prairies of North Dakota back to the buffalo and create buffalo commons. As a young person, the media was shaping my identity, that we weren’t smart. That if I was smart, then I had to leave. As a young person, I couldn’t wait to get out of Fargo.
I think a lot of us have that quest urge inside to go see the world and leave. The Midwest, coming from Chicago suburbs myself, those roots are usually pretty deep. You decided to go to Minneapolis and then you even dabbled in Stanford, I believe. Tell us a little bit about that journey.
I just knew that there was no school I was going to go to in North Dakota. I didn’t consider any of them. The University of Minnesota had a great business school at the time, and so I enrolled there. I had an incredible experience. I’ve got to live on a campus with 50,000 students, to experience an urban environment. I loved it. I started my first social enterprise when I was ten years into my freshman career with my college roommate and a couple of friends where over the course of the next seven years, we brought close to 30,000 students on Pay It Forward Tours where they would travel around the country and do service on their spring breaks; a fantastic learning experience of building a social enterprise, that transformative time of my life. I learned a lot about community and I learned that those things that my parents taught me when I was a kid about taking care of your neighbor, about serving others made a big impact, not just in Minneapolis but across the country. It really, really was helpful.
I also noticed you have a big philanthropic part of your personality. Can you talk to us about where that comes from?
Exceeding Low Expectations: Helping your neighbor makes a big impact. It’s small things and it’s big things. I gain a tremendous amount of joy from that.
I think that comes from growing up in a rural community in North Dakota. My parents role modeled for me taking care of your neighbors. When somebody’s house would burn down or somebody got cancer, all of a sudden my parents would be organizing folks around the coffee table on Sunday nights and they’d come over week after week, and I didn’t know what they were doing. Then I’d go to a big fundraiser that they were part of hosting or I would see them do that work. I think growing up in a rural community, that’s all we had, were our neighbors. That’s the spirit of generosity that for generations in my family has been instilled in me and that I believe resonates everywhere. Whether I’m doing work in India or in a small town in Pennsylvania, helping your neighbor makes a big impact. It’s small things and it’s big things. I gain a tremendous amount of joy from that.
How did you go from, “I can’t wait to get out of Fargo,” to being its biggest advocate and fan?
Part of that comes from when I burned out. I was 25 years old. Students Today Leaders Forever was hosting the Pay It Forward Tours. It was growing. I got a little self-absorbed. I looked in the mirror and realized I was more interested in the numbers, how much money we had raised or how many people were on our trips, versus the impact. I lost myself. I decided that I needed to take a break. I didn’t like who I was becoming. I didn’t have any hobbies. I didn’t have any friends outside of work. I decided to take a year and wander around the world. It was during those eleven months of walking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago or being in a village in West Africa with Peace Corps volunteers for six weeks that I saw the value of a small community. Because each place I went, I missed the small interactions. I missed knowing my barista. I missed knowing the person that I bumped into every Saturday morning at the market.
It was on that trip, I was in New Zealand on the last leg and I said, “I want to make a difference at home. I want to make a difference on my street.” I had been thinking I was going to be this big global world-changer and then I was like, “Maybe I’ll just try to add a little bit of value in my own backyard.” Unexpectedly, I started working in Fargo. It was the last place I ever, ever thought I would live again. The first project we did was TEDx. It was about sharing ideas. I had given a TEDx Talk in Minneapolis a few months before that and I was like, “I should look for ideas in my home community.” That’s when I fell in love with Fargo. I met a farmer that had brilliant ideas on nourishing the world, a doctor that thought about beauty differently, an artist that thought about their art as a tool to build a community, an entrepreneur that thought about curiosity as the success principle to change the world. These were all people that lived in my hometown.
It’s fascinating to me you took that year off. I did something similar after I graduated from college and traveled a year. I had a fascinating insight. I didn’t stay in any one place longer than six weeks and normally it was way less than that. I noticed, and I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but you miss people knowing you. Every time you go to a new country and start a new conversation with somebody on a train or whatever, “My name is John, I’m from Chicago. I just graduated. I’m taking a year off.” You have to start your story over and over and over and there’s a lack of intimacy because you’re starting from scratch, as opposed to people who’ve known you your whole life and you can say, “I’m feeling frustrated. I’m feeling sad. I’m feeling overwhelmed.” You can’t really start those conversations with strangers. It wasn’t until I left the country and traveled that I started to really appreciate the relationships I had at home.
I think that’s so true, John. I’m guessing you’re similar to me and similar to folks like Steve Jobs or Sargent Shriver that their global experiences shaped their local actions. For me, I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn’t a year off, it was actually a year on. I discovered that I’m not a human doing, I’m a human being. Those were some discoveries that were really helpful for me. Some discoveries that weren’t helpful is I realized I wasn’t humble. Because back home, I would describe my work, “I’m part of this cool project.” When I was walking across Spain meeting strangers, they asked me what I did and I took all the credit for my co-founders. I was just disgusted by what was coming out of my mouth. It was a real shaping experience when I just had to show up as me. People are evaluating based on me, on who I am, not what I could do for them. I learned a lot about myself.
That lesson is so fantastic and important because I’ve interviewed a lot of investors and they’re looking for someone who’s confident and humble, confident but not arrogant. Also being a keynote speaker, one of the big lessons I’ve learned is that while the audience wants you to have confidence when you’re on stage, they’re still interested in you telling some vulnerabilities about yourself so that they can relate to you. I think that it takes a lot of self-esteem and work on yourself to be willing to not have to overcompensate and try to impress everybody all the time.
That really resonates with me, John. One of my teachers, if you will, on my year around the world was Steve Lacy, who was from a small town in Australia. This is a young guy, small town, had one of those fast track careers. He shared with me this idea that when we share our success, we create competition. When we share our limitations, we create compassion. It’s a fine line. For my work, I speak around the country, I work in big communities and small communities. It’s a fine line of helping people trust that we’re going to get some work done, but also let them know that we’re human. I’m lucky that I’m very human. In my keynotes, I’m often telling jokes of how pathetic I am.
Exceeding Low Expectations: When we share our success, we create competition. When we share our limitations, we create compassion.
Before I met my amazing wife, I was pretty pathetic at dating. I missed some cues from time to time. I was a guest of our US senator out at the State of the Union a couple of years ago. I thought the State of the Union was in Bismarck. Turns out it’s in Washington, DC. I thought that they brought a bunch of people to it. Turns out only one person can be a guest of each US senator. I forgot my suit on the way out there. I’m at the State of the Union wearing one of the staff members’ suits because I just miss some cues from time to time. I find that just being imperfect actually helps me. The fact that I can share that with folks, I just get to build better relationships and get to know people.
There are very few people your young age that get to do a TEDx talk in Minneapolis. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s taken that and then said, “I’m going to do one in my hometown,” especially in such so early in your career. How did TEDxFargo come about?
It was back in 2012. I was working for one of the great entrepreneurs of North Dakota’s history, Doug Burgum, who built Great Plains Software. He ended up selling it to Microsoft for $1 billion. He’s now our governor. I was working for Doug, working with him and trying to build out the energy, the creativity, the ideation in our community when he said, “Let’s do a TEDxFargo.” We threw an event. It cost us $5,000. We got four speakers. We did it at a beautiful art gallery in the heart of our city. We got 100 people there, and people loved it. It was February 2012. I got excited and I was like, “I’m probably going to go to grad school soon. Why don’t I just get another one in before I go to grad school?”
On summer solstice, we did another TEDx. I brought friends from across the Midwest to come speak. We did some adult fieldtrips that we called adventures beforehand, so folks were going to different businesses, doing some interactive work with chefs. We brought in Brian Murphy who wrote See Mix Drink, the world’s best cocktail book in 2011. People were learning how to mix cocktails before our event. It turns out that’s a really bad idea because then some people had to leave a few hours in and had to get a nap. We sold out three events in 2012. One of them we sold out in nine minutes. People were just excited. That was back in 2012. Since then, we’ve now done eight TEDxFargo events. We have one of the largest events in the country. We bring in speakers from all over the world. It’s made a really big impact in Fargo, North Dakota.
Let’s talk about the one that’s coming up in July of 2018. What’s the theme and what would make people want to come either hear this in person or certainly listen to those talks after they’ve aired?
[Tweet “Use your limitations as your strength. “]
Believe it or not, John, there are not a lot of people that are just stopping into Fargo on a regular basis for no particular reason. We use our limitation as our strength. How are we going to get people to come to Fargo on Thursday, July 26th? We look for world-class content. A couple of years ago, we had Richard Wiese, the producer and face of ABC’s Born to Explore. We had Steve Rohr, the publicist for The Oscars. We bring these folks back. What we’re trying to specialize in is the audience doesn’t just get to meet them on stage. We curate small events beforehand with the speakers. We have adventures. Our mainstay content is strong but we create experiences. We have 2,000 people that get to eat lunch together on the street in the heart of downtown Fargo. We hire musical performers, artists. We spend a lot of time thinking about moments, how do we create moments for our guests, for our sponsors. For our sponsors, we have a private backstage red room where the sponsors can interact with the speakers when they come off the stage. We have custom cocktails, fresh juices. We try to create these micro experiences.
For this upcoming event, the theme is ‘Forth’. It’s the activation of ideas. Some of the folks that we have coming, the President of Microsoft, Brad Smith, will be coming to give a talk on engaging technology in rural America. The University of Minnesota Women’s Volleyball coach, who has won a gold medal in both the Men’s Volleyball Olympics as the coach, and the Women’s Volleyball Olympics as the coach, is going to give a talk on his research that he’s doing with one of Malcolm Gladwell’s context. We look for world-class ideas but we’re trying to create an experience. We also do something which I believe is special in Fargo, where all of our past speakers get invited to dinner the night before. The current speakers and the past speakers get invited. In two years, we’re going to have our tenth event and we’re going to invite all 200 past TEDxFargo speakers for a big reunion weekend. Our past speakers are the governor, the artists and doctors and TV show folks. We’re going to bring them all together because we believe in creating community.
What’s fascinating to me, Greg, is that your lessons learned from the farm of not wasting time and wasting resources has propelled you to take that mindset into creating TEDxFargo by not wasting a moment and creating moments for not only your guests but for the speakers and using your limitations as your strength. I think that’s really a key to success in entrepreneurship and anything you do in your life. Because this is The Successful Pitch, let me ask you, how do you convince or pitch some of these big names to come to Fargo TEDx when they probably have other options of where they could go?
That’s my favorite part of it, John. What I need is I need to get them on the phone. I can’t sell them over email. I get them on the phone and I say, “Come to TEDxFargo. Here’s why you need to do it. No TEDx events can pay you, but what we can give you is world-class production. We give you a great video and great photography. Every single one of our speakers has fantastic images and videos from their talks.” They like that, but they can probably get that elsewhere. Then I say, “Come a day early. We’re going to have rehearsal, we’re going to have a speaker dinner and tell me who you want to meet. We want to activate your ideas in the community.” We had Todd Bol, the Founder of Little Free Library out of Wisconsin, come. Little Free Libraries have popped up all around the world. They’re just a little library on people’s yards or in the community where people can grab a book, take a book, leave a book, whatever they want to do. We had Todd come in a day early and we worked with our local community foundation in the city of Fargo and we had a community build. We built 30 Little Free Libraries the day before, he gives a talk, they go out the next week and all of a sudden, they pop up around the community.
We try to activate those ideas. We try to connect our speakers. Our community has become a laboratory to turn ideas into impact. It’s happened time and time again. We also have a concierge team where we book all their travel, we manage their schedules. We make the speakers feel like rock stars. Sometimes it’s famous people that people have heard of. Sometimes it’s high school students. We had two high school students speak and they both got standing ovations. It was so incredible. My wife and I had them over for dinner a couple of weeks later and I said, “Ladies, do we treat you like rock stars?” They both looked at me and they said, “No.” In my head, I’m pissed. I’m like, “What the heck? You’re in high school. How could you want us to treat you?” They shared with me and they go, “We felt better than rock stars. Our families felt like rock stars. Our community felt like rock stars.” We have these high school kids sneak all their friends in backstage. One of the women is from Somalia. She had all her friends there. The governor was taking photos with them, not the other way around. This young woman, Nastesho, she works at Target at the tail, she’s a cashier. She shared with me that the next day, she was back to work and people were stopping her and they wanted to talk to her about her talk. She just felt so good that she gave a powerful talk on radical inclusivity in communities and the community responded.
That’s making a big, big impact, clearly. Somewhere along the line, you decided to become the Executive Director of Emerging Prairie. Tell us about what that does to the community.
[Tweet “Fargo exceeding incredibly low expectations. “]
For you, John, who’s been to Fargo I believe one time and for others that maybe have been there zero times, growing up there, we go back to that idea of the brain drain. What’s going on in North Dakota? What’s going on in Fargo? When I do a lot of my talks around the country, I open up with the thought of Fargo exceeding incredibly low expectations. I’m with some buddies, all from North Dakota. One is an intellectual property attorney out of Harvard, one is a venture capitalist, one is an entrepreneur. We just said, “People locally are terrible at telling their own stories. We don’t want to be prideful. We don’t want to be boastful. We, as a group of friends, need to be better at telling the people in our community’s story.” We created Emerging Prairie with the idea that we should celebrate and connect our entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Now, here we are six years later. We’ve got a team of five, great folks. We’ve got a bunch of events in the drone industry, in emerging technology in agriculture and we’re building platforms to celebrate entrepreneurs. We’re connecting entrepreneurs to the ecosystem, so the corporations, the legal community, the finance community. Emerging Prairie is making a big impact. We had our third annual Drone Focus Conference and US Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, came out and gave a talk. That talk has made a big impact on policy and partnerships across the country. It happened in little old Fargo.
I want to talk about that because I watched that as part of your talk about the impact that drones had and why Fargo was uniquely the right place for drones to be tested because there was a problem you were solving and you have all this open space. Can you double click on that a little bit on that for us?
Exceeding Low Expectations: Sometimes our limitations are our strength.
Let’s go back to sometimes our limitations are our strength. North Dakota is a state of 700,000 people. If our state was a city, we would be not in the top 50 of biggest cities in the country. We got scarce population. When you have scarce population, you have opportunity. Drones can be tested. We have one of the five test sites in Grand Forks, North Dakota. These folks are world-class. You look at the intersection of a technology community, of a university system that cares and then you add on that low unemployment. North Dakota has really low unemployment. One of our drivers for innovation is lack of talent. We got folks building world-class technologies with drones to monitor construction sites, to test out bridges to see how they’re doing, to fly the drones along electric lines during blizzards so we’re not sending humans out but we’re sending the drones out to make sure that our power is on in rural North Dakota. There is an ecosystem in the unmanned aircraft system that is growing. It’s collaboration. It’s the university. It’s the economic development folks. It’s the private sector. It really is a spirit of possibility. A lot of that has been championed by our elected officials from both sides of the aisle that see this technology as making an impact to improve the human condition.
Greg, do you have a vision for your life of where you want to be a year from now or three years from now?
I used to be really goal-oriented, John. I used to have metrics, goals, checklists. When I was on that year around the world, I shifted my perspective as I just want to be time-rich, meaning I get to choose to spend time with interesting, weird and wonderful people. Then I can use my skills and abilities to make a difference. I’ve thought about life more as a videogame such as Zelda, which is an adventure of multiple things you can do, versus the old school Mario where you passed levels and moved up. I don’t really see where I’m going to be in three years but I hope I’m loving my community, I hope I’m adding value, I hope there are twists and turns, and I hope it’s an adventure. I’m not focused on big numbers anymore. I’m not focused on certain accomplishments. I just want to have an interesting, wild and wonderful life that hopefully leads to other people benefiting from it.
[Tweet “Be TIME rich “]
When you have that clear of an intention, you are literally free from what I call the self-esteem rollercoaster, which is only feeling good about yourself if your numbers are up, and you feel bad about yourself if your numbers are down. That’s where you and I really align, Greg, is that’s one of my biggest goals is to get people off that self-esteem rollercoaster who are always looking outside of themselves for validation. There’s a whole new way to live your life. The irony is when you let go of that fear of not being good enough based on your results, the results typically come in because people want to help you. I’ve seen it time and again in my own life and I see it happening with you and what you’re doing not just for yourself but for all of Fargo.
Let me piggyback that one, John, for a second because what you said just resonated with me. There are a couple of thoughts I want to share. If this is helpful for everybody, great; if not, disregard it as fast as possible. Our organization, we need to raise money. I was on a pitch for $200,000 because in the nonprofit space, we still have to raise money too. I’ve thought of our work as a laboratory versus an outcome. I think the beauty that science gives us is the spirit of exploration. There’s an Einstein quote that said, “If we knew what was going to happen, we wouldn’t be able to call it research.” In my world, in my team’s world, we try to focus on having a great setup to our experiment versus predicting the outcomes. We think of our work as a lab and it takes the pressure away from certain outcomes and deliverables. That’s helped us.
Exceeding Low Expectations: If we knew what was going to happen, we wouldn’t be able to call it research.
The second thing is there’s a huge difference between hustle and desperation. Hustle is busting your tail. It’s achieving results, making an impact. Desperation is fear. Desperation has anxiety in it. We try to hustle and try to remove that desperation behavior. The last thing that we’ve learned is that we need to collaborate. In everything we do, we have to have collaboration. The projects that our team takes on, we can’t do alone. We fundamentally cannot do it alone. It forces us to collaborate. It turns out, when you collaborate and you have clear mission and intention and you bring people along for the journey, great things happen. In our organization, we struggle to put our name on our events. We struggle to put our name into the “branding world.” It turns out, when we shine through others and we collaborate and we let other people be the hero, or our mantra is “Give the wins away,” we just get way more wins. It’s a lot more fun. That’s been a principle that has percolated into the organization of, “Pass the microphone. Give other people the opportunity to be the hero,” and it’s working.
Greg, how can people follow you on social media both for TEDxFargo as well as Emerging Prairie?
Nothing that we do is all really unique. Our handles on social media for Emerging Prairie are just @EmergingPrairie, for TEDxFargo, @TEDxFargo. Personally, my Twitter handle is @GregFromFargo. My email is [email protected]. We’d love for folks to follow along. John, you asked, “What’s the why behind this?” For me, it’s to show off my community, to show off my neighbors, my friends, my family that I believe are doing world-class work. You came to visit Fargo and we went to Young Blood Coffee shop. That’s been around for a year and a half. I’ll put their toast up against anyone. They make great toasts. It’s $6 for a loaf and $5.50 for a slice, but it’s damn good toast. The biggest honor anyone here would do is come visit, come check us out, let us know. We’d love to buy you coffee. We’d love to show folks around. Fargo is a special place right now and we’d love for people to come explore it.
I personally can attest to the warmth and the hospitality of everyone I met there, including you. Thank you so much for being a guest on The Successful Pitch and sharing your passion and insights on how to make a difference in the world.
Thank you.
Links Mentioned
- Greg Tehven
- Emerging Prairie
- TEDxFargo
- 1 Million Cups Fargo
- Startup Weekend
- Pay It Forward Tours
- Students Today Leaders Forever
- TEDxFargo
- Doug Burgum
- See Mix Drink
- Richard Wiese
- Steve Rohr
- Little Free Library
- Drone Focus Conference
- Emerging Prairie Facebook
- TEDxFargo Facebook
- Greg’s Facebook
- [email protected]
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