Listen Now

I think it is important to know this is not a one and done. Legal compliance is a continuing thing that will rise with your business. As you scale and grow there will be new issues that will come up. There will be new opportunities to kind of enter into strategic partnerships and those will bring there own separate issues around all of this and what kind of agreement you want to engage with a potential business partner to create a new offering or to pitch a joint offering. Those will all involve rights and obligations about intellectual property and liability. So those need to be negotiated properly. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

I hadn't gotten any attention from VCs. So these who invested in me, some of them as many as seven or eight times, I have to honor those folks, I have to give them a great deal. They have been with me since 2014. Hearing out the idea of what we wanted to go after as a market was easy. Building the tech was harder. We founded in 2014 so we are looking at year seven and just now looking at monetization and talking about exit plans. So I have to honor those folks. I have to make sure they are rewarded for sticking with me. And if there is a nine or ten-figure exit, they absolutely deserve to be apart of that ride along with us. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

If the market is telling you something, don't ignore it. You know the story about PayPal and eBay is there was an anomaly where people on eBay were starting to use PayPal. They saw this anomaly in their data and then pursued it. Then PayPal exploded because it became the go-to solution for buying stuff on eBay. But itinually it was just a blip in the data. like what was going on over here with eBay and why are people over there using PayPal. So I say look for those anomalies and look at why they are happening? Think is this something I could leverage? Is this something I could build upon? Then start small and iterate from there. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Being able to adapt to changes is very important. For us, the pandemic changed people's habits from housing to communication to transportation. This means we had to move fast to serve the people in the housing market. We started in the Bay area and right now we realize people are moving to Austen and Idaho Falls. So we have to figure out how we can help those people. It is challenging for us because we are in the real-estate sector and it's a local business. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

So for me something that was really important was trying to really take it one step at a time. There were a couple of times where I put it down and did not touch for a month at a time. And I do think that why it took so long to finally publish it. But, once I kind of set deadlines for my self, and they were very manageable deadlines. At first I felt like maybe they were too small because they were small chucks to work on at a time. It was nice to be able to take a month to only go over so many pages or paragraphs at a time. That way if I did not necessarily want to devote as much time to it and spend maybe more time with friends and family I was able to do that and not feel like I was putting on the back burner. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Don't have an entrepreneurial seizure. Don't just do it because you're tired of your job. Look at what it takes to run a business. Look at all the things you have to have in a row. If you need help, talk to Devin. He will help you. If you have a cool idea, talk to Devin. He will help protect you. There is one thing we have been so hypervigilant about that we have locked it down so much that it impeded our growth. So we have the trademark, now I want to look at a patent to help me protect the methodology more. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

You really need to love and be super passionate about whatever your going to do. Because it is going to take away time from other things that you love to do like your family, or another passion whether it is golf or whatever it may be. Your going to have to sacrifice and take away time from something that you love to go and build this. Because most likely you don't have the resources to not be working and build it as a full time job. So for me whether it was Vibio or content creation I have has to do it on nights and weekends, I have had to wake up early and stay up late. That takes away from things that I love to do. So to really be successful I think you need to understand that commitment that you are going to be in and be super passionate about it. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Every entrepreneur needs to develop grit and practice gratitude. What I mean by that is with developing grit there is no easy business. If it was easy everybody would be doing it and nobody would be willing to pay you for it. You are doing something hard and so you are going to have days that are awful. You are going to have days where your partner is depressed and you are depressed and you don't feel like you can go forward. That's where I feel like you really have to take a step back and say ok I need to have the same Passion and excitement that I had on day one for this project right now in this moment. Because that is the only way we are going to get through this. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Failing is another story but definitely on your own path to your successes whatever it is. It will be rocky and you will have ups and downs and it's hard as hell. So definitely I think perseverance is the number one thing I could advice anyone. I tell that to myself every time it is hard. It was hard when it was Corona like two months ago. So you just wake up and say oh it's this time of life again. You just have to wake up in the morning and plow through the day. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

I can't be in a conversation without talking about LinkedIn to the point where anyone thinking they want to be an entrepreneur at some point or even they are now to leverage LinkedIn. It's the one platform for professional business purposes. Leverage the platform is my biggest thing. Sometimes I get clients who wait until they are at the point of frustration where they may have to close their business and it's like no you should have connected with me a long time ago. Making sure they are leveraging the platform and then guarding their time. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

My big thing in terms of advice is to just Start the business. Its not going to turn out the way you want it to, almost certainly. Whether that means you need to make a small pivot or the business was not meant to be there is something that is not going to work out the way that you are expecting it to. So I think the important part is to just start and you will learn as you go, adapt as you go, and pivot as you go. I think that is really the most effective way to learn. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

I'm a huge fan of side projects and side hustles so to speak. Before you decide to change your life, quit your job, or take money out of your 401 K, try to get one customer. Try to just do one thing. Try to validate the idea in a number of different ways. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

There isn't necessarily a right way to do it. I would say that if you are trying to figure out what to do as a start up and where to start the most important thing to do is start. If you can get 80% of the way there then often times that remaining 20%, lets say that remaining 20% is the gap between where your at and a perfect answer, a perfect product, a perfect sales pitch. Often times that 20% is more of a nice to have then the 80% of actually having something there. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

It's about persistence. I actually think it was Ryan Smith with Qualtrics he said the same thing about being all in. So if you are doing this be all in. Also be persistent in what you are doing. If you do run into some road blocks, and they are legitimate road blocks, evaluate that. Maybe you are not on the right course and maybe you need to make some adjustments. However that happens just keep at it. If it is something that is legitimately a great thing that will help whatever market you are in then you will see results but that persistence has to be there. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Identifying where your largest community is. I always want my clients to get the biggest bang for their buck when they are looking at their content. So finding where the majority of your people are and targeting the top three to five questions, interactions, or response that you see most often is a really great place to start when you are looking to create content. Chances are you are already engaging with those people and working to answer that question anyway. So building the content is an opportunity for you to polish and fine toon that response and make it available to people easier, which will eventually save you time on the other side. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

If you feel like your business is stagnant, or not moving like you would want it to then focus on talking to new people. If you set aside an entire afternoon and just talk to new people then you will fill up your next weeks schedule. It does not have to be people in your industry. If you sell shoes talk to the guy that sells carpets and see how he dose it. Talking to new people I think has been one of the biggest drivers for our business. We are always looking for new people to connect with via linked-in, Instagram, and Friends and family. New people that have not heard about your value propositions yet, I would take time to talk with those people if you feel like things are not moving like you want them to. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Find people that you really trust and partner with them. It's crazy what you can do with other people compared to what you can do alone. It does not matter how smart you are, or think you are. I was so reluctant in the beginning to get on board with an investor and to partner but taking his money and also having him as a permanent consultant to the company and getting his whole life's worth of expertise has just been invaluable. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Meet with 2 new people, 3 new people, 4 new people a week. As many people as you possibly can. I have found that people absolutely love to  support business owners. It's still one of the reasons I think America is such an amazing and great country. Entrepreneurship is such a foundation for what this whole country is built on. To me I have seen so many times someone who just wanted to support me as a young entrepreneur trying to build something. I would encourage anyone who wants to start a business or even just take their career to the next level. Meet new people constantly. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Focus on your customer. A lot of start up business owners my self included like to think about your product and/or service. That is probably the part of your business that you are most passionate about. In my view, the way that you actually make a business succeed is start with your customer. Who are you going to sell to? What are you going to sell? Why would they care? If you can get those first few customers and actually make a sale then you are on your way. Try and resist focusing on your product and service in advance of having any customers. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message

Show up everyday ready to work. Work hard because you can only be responsible for the effort. The result will take of its self. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-inventive-journey/message