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Gino Wickman, Founder of EOS, Talks About Entrepreneurial Leap

Gino Wickman is the creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical method that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs achieve greatness. He is also the Founder of EOS Worldwide, an organization that assists companies around the globe in the implementation of his effective EOS system. In addition to this, Gino has authored multiple best-selling books that have sold more than one million copies, including Traction, Get a Grip, Rocket Fuel, What the Heck is EOS?, and How to Be a Great Boss.

Currently, Gino is focused on driving the mission behind his most recent book, Entrepreneurial Leap: Do You Have What it Takes to Become an Entrepreneur?. With this book, he is helping entrepreneurs-in-the-making realize their potential and lead the life they were born to live.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Gino Wickman’s entrepreneurial background and the inspiration behind the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)
Gino talks about developing his business model for EOS Worldwide
How Entrepreneurial Leap helps entrepreneurs identify their potential and start on the path to success
Gino discusses the six essential traits of entrepreneurship and how they influence your career
When should you determine if the entrepreneurial life is right for you?
Entrepreneurial Leap’s “glimpse” into entrepreneurship—and why attending a four-year college isn’t for everyone
Gino discusses the importance of passion for entrepreneurial success
The difference between “10-year thinking” and “10-year goals”
How to get in touch with Gino and learn more about Entrepreneurial Leap

In this episode…

Are you interested in starting your entrepreneurial journey, but aren’t sure if it’s the right career path for you? Have you launched a business, but are struggling to grow and scale it to success? Do you want to unlock your potential to become not just an entrepreneur, but an exitpreneur?

Entrepreneurship can often feel like stumbling through a dark room: you have no idea what you’re doing and aren’t sure of the best ways to succeed. That’s why Gino Wickman created a clear-cut method for identifying your entrepreneurial potential and determining the next steps for business growth. As he says, entrepreneurship is a difficult journey—but with passion, a mindset for success, and a clear plan, you can successfully scale your business and achieve your dream exit.

In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Joe Valley sits down with Gino Wickman, the Founder of EOS Worldwide, to talk about his paradigm-shifting book, Entrepreneurial Leap. Listen in as Gino discusses how he developed his lucrative business model for EOS Worldwide, the six traits that every entrepreneur needs to scale their business, and the importance of maintaining lifelong passion as a growth-oriented entrepreneur. Stay tuned!

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Quiet Light, a brokerage firm that wants to help you successfully sell your online business.

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:07

Hi, folks, it’s the Quiet Light Podcast where we share relentlessly honest insights, actionable tips, and entrepreneurial stories that will help founders identify and reach their goals.

Joe Valley 0:29

Hey folks, Joe Valley here. Thank you again for joining me for another episode of the Quiet Light Podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by Quiet Light where a small to middle market entrepreneur led m&a firm focused entirely on online businesses. Every advisor on the team has built, bought or sold their own online business and now act as advisors to other entrepreneurs seeking and eventual exit. And to be honest, they’re all pretty damn impressive, but not nearly as impressive as today’s guest. You may have heard of him, his name is Gino Wickman. Gino has been self employed since the age of 21. And at age 25, he took over the family business I don’t even know what I was doing at age 25. Probably something I shouldn’t have getting myself in trouble. Meanwhile, Gino without a college education is taking over the family business. It was deeply in debt when he took it over, and it needed some serious help. After about three years of working on it, turning it around. He ran it for another seven years and eventually he and his partners sold the business. Then Gino took some time off and really narrowed his focus and figured out what he wanted to do in life. Gino then set out to help entrepreneurs and leaders get what they wanted from their businesses. Based upon his years of experience he built something called the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or EOS as many of you know and love it today. Gino is also the author of many books, the first being an award-winning best-selling book called Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business. There’s also Get A Grip, Rocket Fuel, How to Be a Great Boss, and What the Heck Is EOS?. Altogether, they’ve sold more than a million copies. Now Gino’s on to his next mission, and the book is called Entrepreneurial Leap. And that’s what we’re gonna focus on a bit more today than any of the other details. This book is designed to help entrepreneurs in the making get a huge jump start on their entrepreneurial life. The mission of the book is to find all the entrepreneurs in the making at any age, wherever you are, and help you realize your purpose and live the life you want to live the one you were born to live as an entrepreneur. There’s also another purpose to the book. And that is to make sure that people that are not entrepreneurs don’t have 10 years of misery, just to figure out that life is not for them. Gino, welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast.

Gino Wickman 2:57

Thank you for that introduction, Joe. I’m thrilled to be here and looking forward to helping your audience.

Joe Valley 3:03

And I don’t think I could talk for an hour and still get all the details in history and really cover how many people you’ve helped in your lifetime. And it’s not just those companies that have implemented EOS Worldwide, something like 100,000. But all of the employees of those companies and the families of those people did, you’re going straight to heaven. You’re a good man helping lots and lots of people. So thank you, first and foremost, for all the good work. Thank you. And I hope I’m going to have it you you are Can you shed a more a little bit more light and background though on on your journey?

Gino Wickman 3:40

Yeah, for sure. I’ll give you the real high level. And if you want to backup the truck, we can do that. But I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was really 21 years old. So I never went to college out of high school, I just wanted to work, I knew I was different from my friends, they all went off to college, and I just was drawn to something else. academia was not for me, and I couldn’t wait to get out of the school system. So I just went out and learned how and tried to make money. And so I bumped along for a while. But ultimately, at the age of 25 years old, I took over a family business and did a big turn around. My dad is this incredible visionary entrepreneur and turn that business around in three years, ran it for seven years. And then we decided it was time to sell there were three of us that owned the business, we each owned a third and we successfully sold the business. I then stayed on for a year and a half to transition in the new leadership team. And then I moved down to pursue my next passion and what I realized is my purpose and that is helping entrepreneurs and so through that family business experience, I got involved in an organization called EO now known as EO the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and I just fell in love with this world of entrepreneurship and realize I had this knack for helping entrepreneurs get everything they want out of their businesses. And so I was helping my EO brethren and I joined Strategic Coach and Dan Sullivan taught me my unique ability. And so I took the leap. And so in my early 30s, I set out to help entrepreneurs. And that’s basically what I’ve now been doing for 22 years. And so over a five year period, I created EOS working with a bunch of companies hands on, just kind of saw what they needed and how to solve it and put together a bunch of tools and created a bunch of tools. And then I wrote Traction. And then my partner and I Don Tenney, decided to leverage the whole thing. And so when I decided I was going to leverage I put kind of my radar up to the universe looking for the perfect partner and Don came to me and we joined forces and built EOS Worldwide, finding one amazing EOS implementer at a time. And then again, shoot forward to today we have 425 EOS implementers. All over the world. I sold that business three years ago. But with that, I still own all the books, I still own 12 and a half percent of the company, I’m still the EOS guy, I still have clients I still speak. And so half of my working time is still very much EOS. But three years ago, I set out on this journey with this new passion project and the other 50% of my time is now focused on Entrepreneurial Leap and helping entrepreneurs in the making.

Joe Valley 6:18

And we’re going to spend most of the time talking about this, but I want to know, and this is my own curiosity, when you wrote Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business. Did you have the plan the business model to develop EOS Worldwide? Or is it that you went into it and you just wanted to help and eventually, you figured out a greater way to help with EOS Worldwide?

Gino Wickman 6:41

I definitely did not have this clear plan. In other words, I truly was, this is gonna sound a little bit extreme, but making it up as I went along. So what I what I can tell you that I did know is when I started helping entrepreneurs, you know, so going all the way back 22 years ago, I just knew that I wanted to help them. And I had a knack for helping them. And I just have this way of seeing patterns and trends. And so over that five year period, where I was helping them and creating EOS, I really, you know, I told myself, I don’t want any more employees, I’m not going to build another company, you know, like the previous gig. And five years into creating it, I realized what I created and I realized this amazing life I created for myself and I couldn’t help myself but to say you know what, I want other people to live this life. And so I then wrote Traction to get that message to the world. And again, thought it was going to be little old me and writing this book and putting it out to the world. But then I decided I do want to leverage this, I do want to give this opportunity to other people. And that’s when I set out to find other implementers and join forces with Don Tenney my partner. And so it was the those first five years, I thought it was gonna be a little old me when I realized I wanted to leverage it, then I very much wanted to build an organization of EOS implementers, I didn’t quite think it would be and get this big, quite frankly, I had this picture of you know, these 50 implementers that were out there in the world. You know, again, now it’s 425. So I didn’t anticipate it getting this big. But the most important point in this story, though is is 20 years ago, I set a goal and I said that I want 10,000 companies running on EOS. And that meant that we EOS implementers would take 10,000 companies through the process. And one of things I teach in this new book is the power of thinking in 10 year timeframes. This was a 20 year goal for me. But ironically, almost to the day we hit 10,000 last year, literally a month and a half from the actual date that I set to hit that goal. So I did always have that big goal of 10,000 companies. I just didn’t know exactly how we were going to do it. But every decision was driven by impacting 10,000 companies.

Joe Valley 9:03

But you got to have a goal, you got to know, yeah, you got to have a goal and you don’t necessarily know the path or the road that’s gonna get you to that end goal. But you’ve got to set it in.

Gino Wickman 9:12

Exactly. And we just worked toward that every day. And then ironically, we’ve now taken 10,000 companies through the process through EOS. But we actually have 100,000 companies running on the system. So there’s a 10x factor for every company we take through the process. Personally, there’s another 10 companies that are actually self implementing from the books.

Joe Valley 9:29

Yeah. You’ve talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs through this process. You ever talked to some and you think, okay, I’ve taken you through this entire process. You are really not an entrepreneur or you maybe should either go get a job or change your goals because this enormous big goal of being a you know, a unicorn company. A billion dollar valuation is just not you. Did you did you find that a lot?

Gino Wickman 9:59

Yeah, great question. And so what’s with that question, I’m going to jump forward to some Entrepreneurial Leap content one piece of content, because it’s the only way to answer your question. Because it gets to one of the reasons I wrote Entrepreneurial Leap. Okay. And so the Entrepreneurial Leap is a passion project and a mission to help impact a million entrepreneurs in the making over the next 10 years. And I’m writing it to help my 18 year old self who didn’t know he was an entrepreneur, and I was a mislabeled derelict. And I didn’t get all of this. Well, to your question, I write the book in three parts, confirm, glimpse, and path. And we’ll come back to that in a minute. But in the glimpse phase of the book, that part of the book, what I do is I show this entrepreneur, all of the possibilities. And in its simplest form, not every entrepreneur is cut out to build a billion dollar company. And so it’s about understanding the type of entrepreneur or business owner that you are. And so when you say that, when I work with these, these clients, you know, sometimes it’s a second generation entrepreneur or business owner that isn’t an entrepreneur, and they inherit a business from an entrepreneur, a mother or father. So that person really shouldn’t. And that’s a really painful situation. The other situation, though, is the entrepreneur that’s cut out to have a 10 person company. And that’s it and 100 people is not for them, there’s just something about their wiring. And so that’s the most powerful lesson is to say, hey, there’s nothing wrong with having a 10 person company, this wonderful little company, that you’re making your $250,000 a year on. And so it’s about knowing the type of entrepreneur you are. And as we get into the content, that’s all gonna make sense when all the pieces come together. But I hope that answers your question. And directly,

Joe Valley 11:49

it’s it’s a nice way of saying what I say so eloquently, if that’s even a word. My approach is just don’t promote yourself to your own level of incompetence, right, you’re here, but you’ve got to figure that out. And that’s the challenge. And that’s what the glimpse section I’ve read the book, the book, folks, that’s what it talks about. And I’ve read it because look, people in the audience listening right now, Gino, are entrepreneurs in the making, they want to be you. They want to be the folks, the other half of folks that already run an online business and are growing, it’s and I’ve got a couple of friends that are trying to shoot for that unicorn valuation. And they’ll get there or they’ll get pretty damn close. And I’ve got others that are just, you know, they’re actually using a less, and they’re so incredibly efficient. And they’ve got a better life and they’re happy and their revenue is growing like crazy. And they’re never going to get beyond 10, 15, 20 people. And they’re going to exit for $10 million. That’s, that’s a pretty good gig. You know, if you’ve got even just that few people, you’re here talk to me about the type of entrepreneur that would be I know, in I think it’s the glimpse section, there’s a maybe it’s not, where’s the section about? Well, I think it’s confirmed from where you’re talking about that the type of business that certain types of entrepreneurs can run. And there’s one in there about, you know, running a single franchise. Let’s talk I’m going to, I’m going to dive in. But let’s talk about the Confirm section. And then I want to dive into that in terms of our audience.

Gino Wickman 13:20

Yeah. And so I love right where you are. And you know, my gut tells me your audience is ready for this message. So what I’m actually going to, I’m going to try and answer in a short way. But I’m going to bring kind of three big pieces together that I’m pretty certain your audience will totally get this. And if I’m not being clear, please correct me and check me. Well, the first thing I want to come back to now that we’re in to the Entrepreneurial Leap content is, let’s go high level. And again, those three parts of the book, everybody can just visually see confirm, glimpse, and paths. So if you can see this kind of linear process to discovering if entrepreneurship is right for you, and the type of entrepreneur that you are, first you confirm whether or not you even are, you see a glimpse of all the possibilities and what’s right for you. And then you’ll see a path for how to become successful faster and eliminate half the mistakes. So that’s point one, the context. Point two, we’re going to start with confirm and we’re going to touch on a glimpse piece in your question, because I think again, they’ll create a great context for your audience. And confirm there’s two things there. Number one is these very strong belief I have having worked with 1000s of entrepreneurs is that a true entrepreneur and entrepreneur has six essential traits and they are born with these and they can’t be taught and they’re ingrained in you. And so very quickly, we can come back to them. I’m just giving you the high level. They are visionary, passionate, problem solver, driven, risk taker and responsible and so hold that thought for a second but but just suspend disbelief. Give me blind faith for a minute. And let’s pretend I’m right. And that’s true. Now I want you to start doing a checkup on yourself as to do I have these six essential traits. The next thing I want to introduce from confirm, because once you’ve confirmed that you have the six essential traits, and there’s a wonderful assessment you can take for free, I then show you the entrepreneurial range. And this gets back to what we’ve been talking about here where everybody that owns their own business is somewhere on the entrepreneurial range. And if you can picture this arc in your mind, and on the far left end of the arc, picture, the words self employed, in a far right end of that arc, picture the words true entrepreneur, so anybody that owns their own business is somewhere on that range. One, the left side, these are the one person shows somebody that might buy one franchise, somebody with a side hustle, somebody who’s a freelancer, and then all the way to the right end of the range, the red line end of that range are the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney. And so again, everybody that owns a business is somewhere on that range. Well, the people that red line, those six essential traits, they’re all the way to the right side of that range. And the people that don’t are on the left side of that range, the point in this is, it is respectable and admirable to be anywhere on that range. And I love what you said, there’s nothing wrong with a 10 person company that you build that you sell for multi millions of dollars. So the point is, not everyone is cut out to build a billion dollar unicorn. And it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. So there’s peace in knowing where you are. And then the last little point, this third piece is just to jump into glimpse really fast, and then we can come back to confirm is a glimpse, and we can go deeper into this. I take you through all of your options as an entrepreneur. So all of the industries, all the types of business product service, high end, low end, all different types, commodity businesses in size is one of the things I talked about. And again, we’re back to this entrepreneurial range, but you’ve got to decide what type of an entrepreneur you are, because of the peace in that. And so to your point, if you’re not wired to build 1000 person company, stop trying, it’s okay, I sold EOS Worldwide when we got over 100 people, because it’s just not fun to me over 100 people, but I love building something from zero to 100. And so I know me, I knew when it was time to sell, and I’m so happy and peaceful that I did because now I’m off building something else. I know the kind of entrepreneur I am. So long run there to try and create some contacts. And now I’m gonna shut up and let you dig into anything you want. You know your audience better than I do. And they

Joe Valley 17:47

know me. And I think they’re probably really impressed that I didn’t interrupt you one. So in our world, you know, we’re not selling franchises, but I think it’s kind of the closest thing because we’ve got true visionary entrepreneurs that have the hutzpah to start something from scratch, right? They they just started as a side hustle. And then it grew to the point where they’re able to quit their day job. And then it grew and grew and grew. And oftentimes, they find themselves just running on the hamster wheel and can’t get off. And they and they decide or they wake up, unfortunately, one day and decide to sell their business instead of plan to sell it, we want them to think of it in advance, we want them to set a goal and reverse engineer a path to that. But the buyers, you know, are the ones that are really I would call the franchise buyers. But what they’re buying here is a business with lots and lots of slps sort of, you know, processes in place where somebody can step in, generally, you know, a one person show where they might have, you know, three or four contractors, VA is somewhere either in the US or Philippines or something like that. And then they can grow that business. Perfect example, we’ve got a client now that she bought a business in 2018 for just under a million dollars, we’ve got it listed now for 5.5. Right, and she never really took on any additional staff, she just followed the processes that the previous owner put in and then made damn sure she didn’t run out of inventory, which was his biggest problem. So would would that, in your view, what kind of entrepreneur with that type of individual day, maybe there’s three or four contractors and they just took something over and then built it with an eventual exit in mind.

Gino Wickman 19:40

And I and I absolutely love that question because it’s so important. You know, this, this word entrepreneur, everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. And and and there’s multiple definitions out there, okay. And so simply my definition is it’s an entrepreneur is anyone who sees an opportunity and need an idea in the world. Takes a risk to start a business to fill that need in the world by creating something new, or improving upon something that exists and they go forward and build a business with people. Okay, and so that’s my definition that can offend you that cannot offend you, that’s up to you. But my point in all this is that’s what I believe in entrepreneurs. And if you look at that entrepreneurial range, you know, the the for the people on the right side of that range, I believe are the true entrepreneurs. And the people on the left side of that range are self employed completely, both respectable both admirable. So it my point in this is, let’s not get too caught up in the word because you know, you have a you have a social media influencer, that’s a one person show that makes a million dollars a year off of their celebrity that wants to call themselves an entrepreneur. And with all due love and respect, that’s not an entrepreneur to me, that’d be like calling, you know, an actor that does nothing but act that talent that makes $3 million a year, you know, an entrepreneur, so that’s okay. It’s my definition, let’s not get caught up in that. But to your point in the, your audience, you are giving them a turnkey system, it is like a franchise, but let’s not call it that, because it’s not a franchise, but you’re giving them a turnkey system. And so when they start their business, apply your turnkey system and make 50 Grand 100 Grand $1,000,000.10 million dollars a year they are self employed. And the cautionary tale here is if you don’t have all six essential traits, you’re probably going to remain on the smaller side. If you have those six, six essential traits, these people are going to take your system. And there they can’t stop their brains from thinking of new, better different ideas. And they’re going to blow that thing up. Faster, larger, bigger than the person that doesn’t have the six essential traits. But they’re still self employed, they’re still taking a risk. It’s still respectable and admirable,

Joe Valley 22:13

not a bad gig.

Gino Wickman 22:14

It’s not a bad gig at all. It’s a great gig. Oh, anyway, that’s that would be my answer to that. And hopefully, I was clear,

Joe Valley 22:22

I think I’d rather be that than, you know, the person with 100 employees, because I know that’s me promoting myself to my own level of incompetence. Sticking to confirm for a little bit, but let’s talk about age, I think you and I chatted, you know, when we first met that I’ve got a couple of boys 17 and 19 years old, at what age should people be looking at Entrepreneurial Leap and taking these, you know, the the six essential traits and seeing if they fit in and helping them like, look at my 17 year old is a junior in high school, we’re trying to figure out what he’s going to study in college, he’s going to go because I think it’s a great opportunity to grow up a little bit more, although, interestingly enough, he talked about, he gave us some statistics on trade school the other day, that actually people that go to trade school, right, right out of out of high school, go to trade school, make more money, and have more savings up until the age of 42, then then people that go to medical school, and then it turns a little bit because of the income earnings. And I said to him at that point, I’m like, Look, the doctors, they end up having to keep up with the Joneses. They buy the fancy car they buy the fancy household may or may not turn as quickly as you thought. But Alright, this is Joe going on a tangent age 17 year olds, 27 year olds, 47 year olds, you know, when should people determine? Well, if they’re if they’re truly an entrepreneur or not,

Gino Wickman 23:43

I love it. And I want to go on three tangents with you right now. answer that, and I’ll try not to throw too many more things in there. But but the short answer is as early as possible. And so my experience shows that many 13 year olds have read this book completely understood it, it lit them up, they fully understood. So so I don’t know about ages earlier than that. I think I heard of one nine year old that read it and totally got it. But it’s written in plain English, okay. And so it’s really a question of when they’re showing interest, because if I’m a parent of somebody who I think is, has these traits, I’m giving them that book as fast as possible. But as important the parent should read the book to understand what they have. Because you know, a parent who has not had an entrepreneurial background and all of a sudden is faced with a child who is an entrepreneur. Number one, I ache for that child because they’re on a foreign land or they’re on Mars. And I fear for that ache for that parent because they think their kid is all screwed up. You know, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, so I was just as screwed up as everybody else. So we were all normal, but these six or seven Your trades in a child, you know, they show up, add, dyslexia, a lot of times hyperactive lots of ideas and you’re you It makes a person nervous. But to read this book and understand, wow, this is what I have that’s going to help calm you help you understand that better but certainly have your child read it at an age that you believe they’ll comprehend it. And I know that’s at least 30. I know that’s at least 13 years old. So that that’s, you know, my best answer there. And then I’ll stop myself from going on those other two times. biding my time.

Joe Valley 25:34

Yeah, I’ve had my youngest take the assessment test. And I know he got emailed to him, I haven’t taken a look at his email inbox to see where he stood. And it’s funny, you know, I am an entrepreneur, I was fearful, Gino, that Tell me, tell me why I should not be fearful. I was fearful that it would tell him, he’s not an entrepreneur. And why is that bad? I’m an entrepreneur. So therefore I want to, you know, put my entrepreneur, you know, focus on him as well. And I want him to live this up and down roller coaster life that I live, I don’t know why I would put him through that. But why is it a bad idea for us to push our kids in that direction? If they’re not,

Gino Wickman 26:15

it is a bad idea. And it’s really dangerous. And but what’s happening is there’s so much glamour around entrepreneurs right now, you know, everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. And some of us want our kids to be entrepreneurs. So it’s dangerous, because I believe 4% of the population is an entrepreneur has these six essential traits, these 96% don’t. But what’s important here is, if you’re in the 4%, you’re an entrepreneur, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, most of the 4% die broke, okay, so it’s not like we all become rich and build incredible companies. You know, we’re fucked up. If you can say that word on this podcast it to the outside world looking in. It’s a crazy, crazy, crazy world. It’s a high risk world. So for the 96%, the world needs all those other careers. And and it’s so it’s, it’s very, very dangerous to push someone into this that doesn’t have those six essential traits. And to use an example of let’s pretend it wasn’t you pushing your kid into it. But it’s some kid who got caught up in the glamour, wants to be an entrepreneur so bad, they start their business, they’re going to be miserable for the next 10 years. And what I’m trying to do is end that pain and misery. And help them understand that this just isn’t the career choice. There are 1000 other career choices. This is not the end all be all Pinnacle in life, in terms of a career.

Joe Valley 27:47

Yeah, so to the folks listening, I know you’re not 17 years old, but you might want to figure out if you’ve got these six essential traits yourself. And then decide whether you want to move on. And by an online business, you may be self employed, like many of the people that we work with, and many of us in many ways. Some of us, you know, maybe we won’t get caught up on whether we’re self employed, or entrepreneurs. It’s not a bad gig, though. Like if you can run a just a million dollar business. And you’re, you know, earning 20% discretionary earnings. It’s not a bad life. It’s very up and down now. And I’ve warned many of you not to bother not to go there. And to stick to the day job, just take, take lots of vacations if you need to, let’s move on to assuming that they they take the assessment, and they score, what do they have to score to really determine whether or not if they’re an entrepreneur in this,

Gino Wickman 28:44

so so 90 or higher, it’s called the entrepreneur in the bids. It’s called the Entrepreneur-in-the-Making Assessment, okay, it’s a website, e-leap.com, it’s free. But if you score 90 or higher, odds are pretty darn good that you’re an entrepreneur in the making.

Joe Valley 28:59

I took it, folks, I was very, very nervous. I did pass but Walker Deibel has insisted that I let everybody know that he scored higher. Alright, let’s let’s move on to glimpse, right, because they figured out that they’re entrepreneur, but then there’s so many choices, so many options, you know, that they could they could run a trucking company that combine online business that, you know, sells widgets, or is a SaaS company, how do they determine what sort of approach they take to finding the right business fantastic.

Gino Wickman 29:29

And so if we tie these three parts together, once we confirm that you’re an entrepreneur, we show you a glimpse. So if you have the six essential traits, glimpse is going to light you up because there’s three things I’m doing in glimpse, and then we’ll go deep into one of them. One is I’m giving you countless real world stories of people who are right where you are right now and what they built. Number two, I’m showing that eight critical mistakes that all entrepreneurs make when they take their leap and how to avoid every single one of them so you can increase your odds. So you see all of these Potential mistakes so you can avoid them. And then the third thing is showing you all of your options. And I’m really excited on this podcast to get to this. And this was one of the tangents I was about to go on four minutes ago that now I’m gonna, I’ll go there now. But I created something called MyBiz Match. Okay, and so in confirmed there was the assessment. In glimpse, there’s MyBiz Match. And then there’s a tool and path, we’re going to talk about that when you fill out all three of those tools, and they’re all free. We call that the 1-2-3 Roadmap. And so MyBiz Match is all about helping you understand all of the options that exist in the world. For an entrepreneur and your audience. The focus is online businesses. And so I love that what you have to offer your audience is this focus where you get to cut to the chase on the industry, but I want to give the big context. And then let’s focus on your audience. Because when we talk about all the types of businesses, here are the different factors and categories, okay, and so first, it’s industry, there are literally hundreds of industries for you to choose from as an entrepreneur. So I just want every entrepreneur in the making to know that there are all these options, not just the one you’ve only ever heard of, because what we’re trying to do here is figure out what you’re cut out to do, what you’re drawn to where your passion is. From there, we get into product or service businesses and every one of those industries you choose, then do I want to sell a product? Do I want to sell a service, those two worlds are completely different. I have other disdain for product businesses, they scare the hell out of me, inventory gives me Heebie Jeebies. I have lots of clients in product businesses, and they love looking at their inventory. I just happen to be drawn towards service businesses. I love selling invisible things. But my point is, we’re all different. So you have to know which type of entrepreneur in the making you are. From there. And then also for those of you that have already taken your leap, and you’re not as happy, maybe you’re realizing you made the wrong choice. So then from there, it’s about b2b or b2c, do you want to sell your product or service to businesses or to consumers? Those are very different sales. And so I’m a b2b guy, I love selling to CEOs. That’s my niche. That’s my knack. That’s what I’m good at. And then next is pricing. Are you high price, low volume, high value? Are you low cost, high volume, commodity base, both work, I have a client that sells lightbulbs for pennies. So that mean, they’re trying to make pennies. So you have to decide what you’re drawn to there. And then last, as we talked about earlier, is size, you want to build a 10 person, company, 100 person, company, 1000 person company, most entrepreneurs are not cut out to build a billion dollar tech unicorn. And it’s okay, I not. And I have clients that will say, Oh, I want to be Dan Gilbert. He’s our local billionaire here in Detroit. And I look at him, I say with all the love and respect, you’re no Dan Gilbert, and the sacrifice that man makes to build what he built. Most of us are just not cut out for that. And so it’s all about knowing and then all of a sudden, so there’s a tool, it’s called, like I said, MyBiz Match, it’s free on the website, you just go through and you click a bunch of buttons, and out pops the perfect answer for the perfect business. So I hope every one of your audience members, online businesses is the industry that they’re cut out for, but some aren’t. And the last little point I want to make is, you know, when you talked about trade schools, I get a chill down my spine because trade schools are amazing, okay, and not everyone should go to college. And when we get into

Joe Valley 33:45

path, I feel like I’m about to hear a but

Gino Wickman 33:49

we get into path. One of the chapters I write in path is college or not. So you make the right choice for yourself. And for many people trade schools are way to go. And there are many trade school graduates making six figures. But my point in this is, let’s get out of the online business example for a minute just to give another perspective. And so the example I like to use when you think of that entrepreneurial range is a picture of a handy man or woman. So someone with handy skills, they can go out and become a handyman or woman charge 60 bucks an hour, make six figures a year and be self employed. And so on that entrepreneur range, they would be all the way to the left as a self employed person, total freedom, control their own calendar and schedule. Now, a handy man or woman that has the six essential traits won’t be able to stop themselves, from all the sudden seeing, wow, if I hire somebody for $25 an hour and have them do this job, I can go out and get another job and then hire another person. In other words, somebody who has the six essential traits all of a sudden is going to end up with a construction company if that’s the industry. They’re drawn So my point in all of this is, you got to decide what you’re drawn to with MyBiz Match. And and if you don’t have the six essential traits, you know, I believe with what you offer, there are people that can be self employed via one person show, follow your system to the letter make at least $100,000 a year. So So the point is, there are those opportunities, you just have to know who you are, because you’re going to make yourself miserable. If you all of a sudden end up with 10 employees, and and you’re just not, you know, to the right of that range. And there’s no shame in being a one person show making your six figure income,

Joe Valley 35:38

the freedom that comes with it, I’ve got a client and he’s been on my podcast, I’ve been on his. And he was telling the story yet at dinner once, where he he would walk into the office at 10. He’d been working since seven from home, walk into the office at 10. And he had six or seven employees in Southern California. And it gave him a hard time for showing up at 10. It made him miserable, absolutely miserable. He outsourced to everything sold the company. And now he’s a one man show. And he’s happier, less stressful, doing more motivated, actually making more money on the bottom line, not the top line. But on the bottom line, which is really where it counts. Yeah. What I like about this so far, Gino is that is that you’re helping people first determine whether or not they should take this journey and saving them a decade of pain if they shouldn’t. And then you’re giving them an idea of where in that journey, they should choose what path to take. You know, the last part is the implementation, right? lots of advice. Lots of here, do this, you know, think this way think that way. But in this last part, you’re actually doing some how to stuff which I love. Can we jump into that area?

Gino Wickman 36:51

Absolutely. So I’ll give you the high level on this third part of the book. So again, confirm glimpse path and path. I’ll give you the chapter headings and topics that I teach. And then you pick the one or two or three that you feel is most suitable for your audience. But what I address there is, as I already mentioned, the first chapter in path is college or not, and going through all the facts,

Joe Valley 37:17

and kids, my kids are going to college. If you’re listening now just you’re going Bronson don’t drop out, Lucas, you’re gone.

Gino Wickman 37:24

So you have all the facts, and it’s a choice you make for yourself. And again, if you want to drill down on that, we can drill down on that. The next is how to discover and find your passion, which is vital and becoming successful. Next is then how to find a mentor. The next chapter is 10 year thinking and the power of thinking in 10 year timeframes, and how much more effective that will be for you as an entrepreneur. The next chapter is eight disciplines to greatly increase your odds of success. And then the next chapter are nine stages of building your company. And the idea behind path and those chapters is to help you obviously have a path and a plan and see it clearly. But it’s to help you avoid half the mistakes you’re gonna make, you’re still gonna make the other half it’s all part of the journey, but it’s to greatly increase your odds of success. So I’m happy to drill down on any at all.

Joe Valley 38:16

Let’s Let’s jump to passion for us. I was at a conference once and sitting around doing a roundtable discussion. And a very well respected entrepreneur within the mastermind group was talking about a particular business and it didn’t seem like there was passion around it. And I’m the outsider, right? I’m not in the group, we come to it, we speak, we help we present we educate. And I said, You know, I believe that you actually have to be passionate about what you’re doing, the service you’re providing, or the product you’re selling. Because as an entrepreneur, you’re gonna have some tough times there’s no question about it, you’re gonna hit some roadblocks. And you got to get over those and around those. And, and if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, you’re going to have a really hard time getting over those tough times. And she shook her head and basically told me flat out was wrong. I disagree. 100% but it wasn’t crystal clear. Yeah, passion. Gino could be passion for the product passion for the service passion for helping people. Do you have to love the individual widget that you’re selling or the the passion for growing a company? What do you mean exactly by passion? So,

Gino Wickman 39:37

so great. So first of all, I want to emphasize a point you made and that is you have to have a passion because it’s the only thing that will pick you up when you get knocked on your ass and you’re gonna get knocked on your ass often. Oh, yeah. As an entrepreneur building your business and so it’s the only thing that makes a person crazy. Easy enough to get back up and keep doing this crazy thing that they’re doing. And so it’s vital it is the number one reason you will succeed as passion. So I’m a believer too. And it’s funny, I did a podcast and I listened to one of the podcasters episodes just to prepare a little bit. And literally the episode I listened to, I’m three minutes into it. And he says, passion is bullshit. And so I’m like, Oh, my God, I’m about to talk to this guy for an hour, this is gonna be interesting. So there’s people that believe it’s not necessary, I’ll fight it to my death. So it’s vital. That’s point 1.2 is I give seven exercises for discovering your passion. I’m so convinced that it’s vital. But to answer your question, absolutely. You know, so let’s jump forward to what I created with EOS and Traction, I help every single entrepreneur with an existing business, find their passion, reconnect to the passion that started the business. And it always falls in one of four areas. And this addresses your question, because it’s rarely about the product or service. So that’s the thing that’s important here. So in one case, I’m gonna give you the four different examples. It is about the customer, the client, the end user, you have so much passion for making this impact on this person. That’s where my passion lies. It’s all about the end user. The second is all about the entity, the organization that you want to build a passion to build something great with great people, a great culture, you know, something that is second to none as an entity. The third is about problem solving, and being innovative. And so the passion is all about creativity, solving problems. And so it’s this kind of creative, energetic environment. And then the fourth type is people that just want to win. I mean, they have a passion for crushing competitors, they want to win, they want to be number one, and they’re all okay. It’s you deciding, you know, where your passions lie again. So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not always about the product or service. And most of the time, it’s not about the product or service. And so you’re sitting there going, why am I not getting excited about light bulbs? Come on, most people aren’t excited about light bulbs. So anyways, there’s always I think,

Joe Valley 42:19

and I think that’s exactly what she was trying to say, was it you don’t have to be passionate about the widget that you’re selling. And this was mostly a product mastermind group, but more passionate about the business, the people within it, you know, the the achievements that you’re trying to attain,

Gino Wickman 42:37

I’ll send her this little four minute clip,

Joe Valley 42:39

there you go, I will. Let’s jump onto because this is a mastermind group that I connected with her at mentors. I don’t Dan Sullivan, as a mentor of yours, he wrote a blurb for you on the cover of your book. You’ve had that early on from your father and a number of other people in your life. I’ve had it in many different ways in many different formats. Walter is one of my mentors that anytime I’ve got a problem anytime I’ve got a question I reach out to him in today’s world, you know, you know, I sold my company in 2010, my last ecommerce business in 2010. And back then, mastermind groups, online forums didn’t really exist. They’re in great abundance now almost too much abundance. The when you talk about mentorship? Are you talking about one on one mentorship? Or are you talking about mastermind groups where you can reach out to different people and connect with them? Or maybe a combination of both? Yeah,

Gino Wickman 43:42

yeah. So let’s go to the purest form of mentorship. And let’s go back 30 years, okay, because it is different today. So let’s start with the pure form. And ironically, my dad wrote the book on mentoring. So the book is called Mentoring by Floyd Wickman, and his co author, literally, literally wrote the book. In this chapter, I actually glean some of what he wrote to kind of give you a track for finding a mentor. But the point is, 30 years ago, it was a one on one relationship with someone who is where you want to be. And you have this intimate relationship where they teach their wisdom, you share your problems, challenges, ideas, and they give you insight. I’m quite fond of that. And I would urge that that, you know, be the ideal relationship. It’s just Unfortunately, not everybody has that luxury I, I was blessed in my 20s to have two amazing mentors and my dad and Sam Cup. So but with that said, I believe you can find a mentor and so I teach a really simple track in the book and in its simplest form, it’s you thinking about where you want to be finding someone who is there, find 10 people reach out to them because eight are going to tell you know, you’re going to hear lots of nose but find that one person, meet with them. Tell them your goals, that you’re looking for a mentor that you want them to be a mentor and then you decide from there and if it feels Right, you’ll decide to go forward with a format. And if it doesn’t, you’ll decide not to. So that’s the pure mentor relationship. And I would urge that if you can, here’s the beauty, though, you’re not going to fail without a mentor. A mentor is just kind of a speed pass to getting to where you want to go. So it’s not like it’s a death sentence if you don’t have a mentor. Well, what’s changed now, in the last 30 years? Is there a lot of paid mentors out there? You know, I’m a business coach. I’m a mentor to my clients. I’m a paid mentor. And so this coaching world is what that’s become masterminds are paid mentors, YouTube, going on a YouTube channel and watching these great thought leaders teach you stuff is a form of mentorship. 30 years ago, we didn’t have any of that stuff. I was listening to cassette tapes, and yeah, that was the extent of that my learning back then. So there’s lots of forms of mentorship now, the ideal is to find that one to one relationship, but certainly masterminds are incredible. coaches are incredible. So lots of opportunities in this world now. Got it.

Joe Valley 46:03

Got it. Okay. Last thing I want to touch on Gino, I keep saying 10 years thinking, thinking, thinking thinking, I haven’t heard goal, they’re very much. Why do you talk about 10 year thinking versus 10? year goal? Right? Well, we always talk about goals. What’s the goal?

Gino Wickman 46:17

Yeah, I’m hopeful that the 10 year thinking will turn into 10 year goals. So So at the end of the day, I do go there and I’m a big believer, you know, let’s go to EOS. You know, I created a tool called in a discipline called 10 year target, we force an urge every client to set a 10 year target. We call it 10 year target, and I decided to call it 10 year target because most clients choose 10 years but the rule of thumb is five to 30 years, Jim Collins called that be hairy big, hairy, audacious goal. And so in its purest form, long term goal setting works. So I start by calling it 10 year thinking because what I’m teaching in this particular chapter, is for an entrepreneur in the making to take action, but be patient. I’m trying to break them from the thinking about now now now, this week, this month, this year, patience, if you can slow yourself down and thinking 10 year timeframes. What is this all going to look like for you in 10 years, and you start making 10 year decisions? Ironically, I learned this at 35. It’s been transformative. So ironically, time slows down, you make better decisions. There’s a piece that comes over you and you literally get there faster. It’s the most incredible contradiction. Wow. But it absolutely works.

Joe Valley 47:40

you slow down, you have patience, and you get there faster. I’m gonna translate some of that, folks, I the Gino and I both have a little gray on our chins or I have a lot actually. For those that are not watching on YouTube, it’s this is really, it comes with age, I think a lot you know, and it’s, in this case for entrepreneurs that will eventually become exitpreneurs, right? Entrepreneurial Leap is the very beginning, exiting their business is the very, very end, you need to have a mindset, I think of that patience to build a great company, for a great Meyer, a great deal in price for both parties involved. It’s not winner takes all anymore, I don’t think and this 10 year thinking versus goal setting, just strictly goal setting is pretty amazing. Now, patience, I don’t have the patience to think 10 years, even at the age of 55 I’m still a little you know, maybe I’m gonna you know, five, you’re thinking, right. But the key thing is, I think when you get there, you’re doing five, you’re thinking you set a goal, you’re there, you’re having a good time you’re enjoying it, this set another goal set another 10 years or five years out in terms of your thinking is that

Gino Wickman 48:58

in line with what you teach 100% and so let me pull a few pieces together here. So now we’re in path and I talked about the third tool. The third tool is called MyVision Clarifier. So remember, three tools 1-2-3 Roadmap, you can take this all on the website for free, take the assessment, fill out MyBiz Match, and then MyVision Clarifier helps you get your vision out of your head and on paper. And one of the vital pieces that I forced you to get out of your head is your 10 year goal. So 10 year thinking Yes, there’s a psychology behind it. But at the end of the day, I’m pushing you to set a 10 year goal. And so for the 18 year olds out there listening what you have to understand, let’s pretend if you just live to the average age, you have like 5010 year cycles, 6010 year cycles left. So my god yes, the 30 year old the 40 year old, the 50 year old that is you, you have 310 year cycles left, so please think long term. And so the point is absolutely you set your 10 year goal You worked on your 10 year goal, when you hit that 10 year goal, you set a new one. And you do that over and over and over, I’m in the middle of this 10 year goal, which is impact a million entrepreneurs in the making in the next 10 years. And absolutely, when I achieve that at age 60, I’m gonna have another one to 70, another one to 80. And by the way, 90 100 and 110 is so with that I’m going to die in the middle of a project, man. Good. What do you do retire and golf every day? So anyway, I it’s there should be multiple 10 year goals in your life, not just one big one.

Joe Valley 50:33

I agree. Entrepreneurs don’t retire. I do know that for sure. In many cases, they find another adventure to go on. It’s been great. Gino, I know we’re coming up against a deadline here. How do people in the audience, whether they’re a buyer or a seller, learn more about Entrepreneurial Leap and the mission of Gino Wickman at this stage in your life?

Gino Wickman 50:54

Absolutely. I appreciate that. And so all things Entrepreneurial Leap in the epicenter of Entrepreneurial Leap is at the website, e-leap.com. That’s where you can click on a video to take yourself through the 1-2-3 Roadmap and again have walked out of there with a clear plan to start a better startup, as I like to say, there, you can download a free chapter of the book, I certainly hope you buy the book. And then the last thing I would say is for those of you out there that do have a passion for mentoring, helping teaching guiding coaching other entrepreneurs in the making, become a collaborator. And so I’ve joined forces with collaborators. And these are people that want to help that I freely give them my content to teach in the world. No money changes hands, no contracts, they’re free to absolutely just teach the content. All I asked them to do is give credit where credit is due. And so if you want to help other entrepreneurs, I’ve done 80% of the heavy lifting for you with this content.

Joe Valley 51:51

And we appreciate it. You know, you’re good man, you’ve done some amazing things to help hundreds of 1000s of people, the entrepreneurs and their families and the people all around even the communities. Right? When people have success in their business, it overflows into the community. So thank you for the good work, folks. Go to e-leap.com check it out. Buy Entrepreneurial Leap for yourself for a friend and all of his other books if you don’t know who Gino Wickman is and you’re in this world that we live in. I don’t know if you should be an entrepreneur or not. Come on now. All right, Gino, thanks for your time. I really appreciate it.

Gino Wickman 52:27

What a pleasure, Joe. Thank you.

Joe Valley 52:30

Wow, that folks was fantastic. I first heard of Gino at a an event at eCommerceFuel. Some people were doing a presentation on EOS. And actually the book What the Heck Is EOS? I was so incredibly impressed. And it seems like every successful, exceedingly successful, well organized entrepreneur that I work with, has implemented EOS. If you haven’t done it yourself, go out and buy yourself a copy of Traction. And if you haven’t figured out your path yet, go out and buy Entrepreneurial Leap. I think it’s an incredible opportunity for you to look inside the mind of a man that’s talked to the top CEO CEOs in the country that are doing some incredible things and helping lots and lots of people. Lastly, as always, if you would if you like the podcast, please subscribe please like it please give us a review that will help our audience grow and reach more people and help them as well. Thanks so much for listening to the Quiet Life Podcast.

Outro 53:39

today’s podcast was produced by Rise25 and the Quiet Light content team. If you have a suggestion for a future podcast subject or guest, email us at [email protected]. Be sure to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.