Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Every day you have a choice. You can wake up and choose to give in to mediocrity and complacency, you can choose bad habits and poor choices, and you can do the bare minimum to get by and fly under the radar. Or you can choose to make today the day that sets you apart from the crowd, you can choose to start doing the right things, the things that will set you up for success. You can choose to create a life that is worth living, worth waking up to, and worth sharing with the world around you. Today You can choose to start with a win.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:12
Speaker 2
No matter whether you put a team around you, what you get financial resources. At the end of the day, it's all on you.
00:00:06:17 - 00:00:07:21
Speaker 2
No excuses.
00:00:07:21 - 00:00:15:16
Speaker 1
I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start my own business. Or maybe they're doing something on their own, or solopreneur, or like a real estate agent or a mortgage broker or whatever it is.
00:00:15:22 - 00:00:21:04
Speaker 1
I mean, how do you get them to start legitimizing this process, to go through?
00:00:21:04 - 00:00:28:05
Unknown
Welcome to start with a win where we unpack franchising, leadership and business growth. Let's go.
00:00:28:05 - 00:00:41:21
Speaker 1
And coming to you from area 15 ventures. And start with the Win headquarters. It's Adam Contos with. Start with a win. Are you ready to learn the secrets of startup success from someone who's been there, done that and then some.
00:00:42:00 - 00:01:12:06
Speaker 1
Well, today's guest on start With a win is none other than Fred Kerry, a true powerhouse in the entrepreneurial world with over ten companies under his belt and a knack for turning ideas into billion dollar ventures. Fred is the go to guru for navigating the startup jungle, and believe me, it is a jungle. As the CEO of Ideo pros, he's made it his mission to guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the twists and turns of the business landscape by helping them turn their visions into reality.
00:01:12:11 - 00:01:24:01
Speaker 1
Oh, and did I mention he's also the mastermind behind a weekly show that's captivated over 4 million viewers? Yes, this guy knows a thing or two about making it big in business.
00:01:24:01 - 00:01:34:15
Speaker 1
So if you're ready to soak up some wisdom from a true titan of entrepreneurship, you're in for a treat with Fred Kerry. Fred welcome to start with a win.
00:01:34:18 - 00:01:38:02
Speaker 2
Nice to be here. I'm really looking forward to this talk.
00:01:38:04 - 00:02:01:10
Speaker 1
Awesome. You know, it's not, often that we get to talk to really, really strong entrepreneurial development minds like yourself. but I want to start with, how did you get into building businesses? I know you've done, like, three IPO shows. You've done. You've built hundreds of businesses. You've got, I mean, just an immense amount of social media followers and personal branding.
00:02:01:12 - 00:02:05:03
Speaker 1
how did you get started in this?
00:02:05:04 - 00:02:25:03
Speaker 2
you know, I started ten different companies. And, after I sold my last one, I wanted to do one last thing that really find a place in the market that had a big gaping hole in it, and it was growing rapidly. And unbeknownst to me at the time, it was entrepreneurship in a way, on social media.
00:02:25:03 - 00:02:47:05
Speaker 2
We we are just trained to think that this is easy. And, all we got to do is leave our cushy job and we start our own business, and and, you know, we'll be driving our Lamborghinis. before no time at all. And as it turns out, almost all of us are outsiders in the field of entrepreneurship. And we don't have access to capital.
00:02:47:05 - 00:03:01:19
Speaker 2
We don't have the resources, the connections that we need to actually have a fighting chance to win. And so I decided to try an idea approach to to democratize entrepreneurship, if you will.
00:03:01:21 - 00:03:20:15
Speaker 1
I love that. I mean, and there are certainly a lot of highs and lows in entrepreneurship, more lows than highs. Everybody that's listening here, you know, it's there are, I think, a lot of misconceptions about going out and getting into entrepreneurship. And I, like you said, people are like, I want to quit my job, whatever it might be.
00:03:20:15 - 00:03:38:06
Speaker 1
But, you know, we always know that there's this overlap runway of preparing yourself for being an entrepreneur. Before you get into entrepreneurship, do you have any advice for somebody who's like, I want to be an entrepreneur, how do I start? Obviously, you know, having a great idea and being able to market that to a marketplace is is a plus.
00:03:38:06 - 00:03:42:18
Speaker 1
But you also need to build yourself up to get ready to be there. Don't you.
00:03:42:20 - 00:04:08:21
Speaker 2
To to have any chance at, building your own business as an entrepreneur, you really need to be able to go into the fire and be comfortable with it. you can look at some of the most successful companies and leaders in the world today and take the time to study any of their stories. And you'll see there were many, many times where they were on the edge of defeat.
00:04:09:02 - 00:04:35:21
Speaker 2
In fact, they got into defeat many, many times before they got their their victories that they have. even companies like Airbnb that finally get their shit together after just a torturous ways of starting out, they finally become this amazing billion dollar company. And, overnight, their bookings dropped 90% because of Covid, and they had to reinvent themselves again as $1 billion company.
00:04:35:21 - 00:04:51:21
Speaker 2
So it's a struggle that never ends. And it's a journey that never ends. And you need to be prepared for that. If you have the guts to pull it off. And it will happen if you come in thinking, this is going to be great, I've worked three hour, three hour days and have all this money coming in.
00:04:51:23 - 00:04:54:04
Speaker 2
Then this is not the right thing for you.
00:04:54:06 - 00:05:16:04
Speaker 1
Right? And I mean, having gone to market and also having to, having funded companies, it's fascinating because you, you get these instances where people are like, I've got this great product, but they're broke and, you know, they're just looking for somebody to, you know, that Angel to come out there and give them wings and help them get there.
00:05:16:04 - 00:05:42:18
Speaker 1
But ultimately, a lot of these things don't necessarily even happen on an idea. I mean, very few businesses start on just an idea. You have to have multiple steps in order to get there. And I know you guys have this, you know, this three step process of fund build launch, you know, in looking at your website or maybe that's just, you know, the three legs of the stool or something like that, and that just gets you into the marketplace.
00:05:42:18 - 00:05:59:13
Speaker 1
I suppose it doesn't even guarantee anything. So, you know, what do you typically see when people come to you and say, I want to I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start my own business. Or maybe they're doing something on their own, mid or solopreneur, or like a real estate agent or a mortgage broker or whatever it is.
00:05:59:19 - 00:06:06:13
Speaker 1
I mean, how do you get them to start legitimizing this process to go through?
00:06:06:15 - 00:06:24:22
Speaker 2
Yeah, the very first thing we do when we interview anybody is really see what their mettle is, you know, what are they all about? as a as I just said, you have to you have to persevere and you have to be comfortable with pain in order to pull this up. It's like going to the gym, you know, you go to the gym on your own.
00:06:24:22 - 00:06:41:15
Speaker 2
You think everything's cushy. Then the first time you work out with a trainer, you're a bitch. And everybody who will take your phone calls that night about the fact that you can't even walk. And that's the difference between what you think entrepreneurship is in trying to do it on your own, and what it really turns out to be.
00:06:41:15 - 00:07:04:06
Speaker 2
It's it's really intense. It takes a lot of work. And as you said, launching is is just the beginning. And yet 99% of us don't even get to the point where we where we launch, and that's where we position our companies for our founders, for to really train them, educate them, be prepared for the fires ahead, get them launch, get them their first funding.
00:07:04:06 - 00:07:23:21
Speaker 2
And then it's a it's an ongoing journey that never ends. I mean, you're always going to have to be looking at your your growth, your competitors, how to make yourself obsolete so you can get to the next generation of what, what you're doing. it's a it doesn't quit, doesn't end. There is no end. There's no finish line.
00:07:23:23 - 00:07:39:10
Speaker 1
And you you guys bring people into the. You have something called the insiders club. And I guess you start educating people at that point. Is that kind of a hey, let's see if they can stick to systems and processes or, I mean, explain to us what the insiders club is.
00:07:39:12 - 00:08:07:13
Speaker 2
Yeah, I started the Insiders club because, I wanted to give a voice to the 95% of entrepreneurs who are not insiders. You know, we look on social media and we see all these millionaires, multi-millionaires, billionaires talking about how easy this all is. And it's the furthest thing from the truth. When you look at the data, the multi millionaires and billionaires that consider themselves entrepreneurs, 94% of them went to elite schools.
00:08:07:13 - 00:08:28:12
Speaker 2
60% of those got advanced degrees from those schools. They have professors that can pick up the phone, get a meeting with top venture capital in America, and the rest of us are complete outsiders. So the insiders is just really it's a free forum. We have workshops two, three times a month. We have, newsletters that go out every week.
00:08:28:12 - 00:08:39:07
Speaker 2
And really, it's an educational forum where people can really learn with what it is that they're going to have to go through before they take those first steps in actually doing it.
00:08:39:08 - 00:08:54:13
Speaker 1
And what do you look for? Obviously, it's also kind of an incubator for you guys. I would guess, you know, you're planting a field and seeing what sprouts and what has the consistency and the fortitude, things like that. What do you look for in those people? Is there anything in particular that is a turn on, a turn off?
00:08:54:15 - 00:09:02:13
Speaker 1
You know, what pushes, the, you know, the venture capitalists away from budding entrepreneurs, things like that.
00:09:02:15 - 00:09:28:01
Speaker 2
Yeah. everybody has an idea. It's as simple as that. I don't know anybody that's listening to this show that didn't wake up some morning at 3 a.m. when this amazing idea fell asleep, and then never thought about it again. so what I'm looking for is a pretty good idea. Doesn't have to be a great idea, because none of the ideas we start with are the ones we end up with.
00:09:28:03 - 00:09:50:01
Speaker 2
A pretty good idea, but a really solid human being that, has a high emotional intelligence level that has this kind of persistent persistence about them that understands that everything's going to be on them. No matter whether you put a team around you, whether you get financial resources, at the end of the day, it's all on you. No excuses.
00:09:50:01 - 00:09:54:03
Speaker 2
You're the one that has to get up every morning and go to the gym, if you will.
00:09:54:05 - 00:10:05:02
Speaker 1
Can can you give us an example of somebody who came into Ideo pros with an idea and has launched a business around that?
00:10:05:04 - 00:10:30:12
Speaker 2
Yeah. one good example is, a company that we have called Olive and coop. It's Olive and co op ecom. and that is, an app to put elder Americans together with younger like, college students and, and people in their 20s. the, the thought process behind it is, older people want to stay home. 92% of them want to stay in place.
00:10:30:12 - 00:10:50:07
Speaker 2
They don't want to go to assisted living. They don't need caregivers. They just need somebody around the house to help with chores, to make sure they're taking their meds, maybe driving to the doctor or whatever. And young folks can afford rent nowadays. I mean, here in San Diego, $3,000 a month gets you a studio apartment that you can't even get a roommate for.
00:10:50:07 - 00:11:15:02
Speaker 2
You know, who who can afford that kind of stuff. So in exchange for getting, a bedroom and your own space in an elder person's home, an older person home, you get rent to have instead of $3,000, maybe it's $500, and all you do is agree to a list of things that you put together. The the couple that started this, they have like the most amazing attitude.
00:11:15:08 - 00:11:42:17
Speaker 2
They have no problem at all understanding that they're the ones responsible for pulling this off, figuring out what to do about it, where they're going to start. You know, they have my strategic advice, but I brought the two of them up to Palo Alto just a couple months ago to raise capital, and we had them in front of 50 different venture capital firms, and one which is a really prestigious firm, said this is the best pitch I've heard in years.
00:11:42:18 - 00:12:08:05
Speaker 2
These guys have never pitched before to anybody. You know, they did their homework, they got their training from me, they found their story, by the way, their pitch. Unlike most pitches of sophisticated, founders, their pitch started with. Let me tell you about the day that I thought my father died. That was the first like a who's not going to put down their their email and their phone and listen to hear what the second line is.
00:12:08:05 - 00:12:34:07
Speaker 2
And by the time they were done, the father was the inspiration for for all of improve. By the time they were done, their last slide was a picture of their dad, Oklahoma farmer, sitting in front of his field with all these crops behind him, really smiling and happy because he was one of those success stories. I'm looking for those type of people that will roll up their sleeves, that will go find money, that will do all the homework necessary to go out there and make a difference.
00:12:34:09 - 00:13:00:01
Speaker 1
Wow. I mean, it certainly takes a lot of grit and a lot of fortitude in order to achieve that. Is there a particular, you know, demographic? I've heard there that most entrepreneurs who are successful at launching businesses or somewhere between the age of 35 and 45, but I don't I mean, are you seeing any trends in what's being successful, what's not any sort of background or education?
00:13:00:01 - 00:13:11:01
Speaker 1
Or is it just like that scrappy person that comes in and says, I don't care what you tell me, I'm not going to quit. I mean, what what direction do you typically find these folks come from?
00:13:11:03 - 00:13:34:10
Speaker 2
Yeah, and you're spot on. By the way, I sweet spot is between 30 and 55 that that's where they come from. Now you have the 20 year olds that are going to venture capital all day long, wildly coming out of, Berkeley or Stanford or Harvard and, and even quitting those schools and getting venture capital money. They've never run a business before in their lives.
00:13:34:12 - 00:13:54:06
Speaker 2
The sweet spot for us, the real entrepreneurs is, as I refer to them, are people that are already in corporate America, the middle management, upper management. They make a really good wage. They have great benefits. They're only working 40 hours a week, and they wake up every morning thinking that life sucks and they just they know they can't do it.
00:13:54:06 - 00:14:22:02
Speaker 2
We have we had one guy come over that he was making 750 grand a year in his, executive capacity and just hated his life. And so that's what we're seeing as the sweet spot of American entrepreneurship. Are these outsiders from corporate America? There's no inntrepreneur capability in the organizations that they operate within. And so they're going up to try to do it on their own.
00:14:22:04 - 00:14:43:22
Speaker 1
So obviously there's a lot of there's a lot of benefit to coming from corporate America or the corporate environment if you're not in America. In order to do this, obviously, one, you have a paycheck so you can make ends meet while you're starting your business. But do you do you find that most of these endeavors that turn into something that creates enterprise value and creates good profitability, start as a side hustle?
00:14:43:22 - 00:14:46:16
Speaker 1
Is that what you're saying?
00:14:46:18 - 00:15:12:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, you can start as a side hustle, but that's a very brief period of time. the one, the one benefit I think the people who started with our flagship product, that, idea approach, is that we did all the heavy lifting. you have an idea? You have a checkbook, and you come in and and basically say, all right, we're going to spend the next year to two years working on this.
00:15:12:14 - 00:15:28:14
Speaker 2
We're going to build everything. We're going to work with you, really train you as an entrepreneur. So you have an immediate co-founder and team in place. You're paying a bunch of money up front. You're paying about a quarter of what it's going to cost you to do on your own. You have the flexibility to stay in your main gig.
00:15:28:16 - 00:15:50:09
Speaker 2
and then a year down the road when we're getting close to lunchtime, then you can decide when it's time to, to build corporate America. But most of us don't have that luxury. So, yeah, they kind of start out as a side hustle. And pretty soon you get overwhelmed with what all the stuff that's coming at you and you make your decision to go, go leave the job that you have.
00:15:50:11 - 00:16:08:22
Speaker 1
Wow. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's that's what got me going in entrepreneurship. I was a police officer. I had two companies. I started on my own, and then it pushed me into other things. But, it's, particularly public servants. You know, if you're working nights, you've got all day long to run your business, so it's fantastic.
00:16:08:22 - 00:16:30:07
Speaker 1
As long as you're getting enough sleep to be safe on the job. But, That's great. any. You know, this is a fast paced world for startups. We see everybody wants to create a startup. And it was it was very taboo. I'm Gen X, and when I was, you know, in my 20s or whatever, being an entrepreneur was not a popular thing.
00:16:30:09 - 00:16:58:08
Speaker 1
People were like, that means you can't work for somebody. And now everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. But is that the place for everybody? Or, you know what? What path would you recommend for people to start getting to know this? Because a lot of people don't even know the difference between an LLC and a corporation, or, you know what, some of the, you know, the contract type issues you deal with or anything about marketing.
00:16:58:08 - 00:17:15:13
Speaker 1
I know you've you've built a great personal brand. You've built a great brand around idea pros, but it took you a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get there and a lot of time. anything in particular you see that people are most blind to when it comes into entrepreneurship?
00:17:15:15 - 00:17:50:19
Speaker 2
I truly think that what people are most blind to are the are the fundamental elements that you need to have in place to make this work. we do a couple of things that are really improper. And number one, we go into battle without knowing who our opponents are. The General Custer School of Strategy, and, and we also don't really understand the fires and things that, that we're going to need to go through and understand the fact that it's more likely we're going to fail than succeed.
00:17:50:21 - 00:18:11:11
Speaker 2
but it's the beginning of a journey, a path to success, wherever that success may be. It's going to be way different than where you started. I mean, even guys like like Elon Musk, he with both SpaceX and Tesla, he said he he was sure he had less than a 10% chance of of winning with either of those.
00:18:11:16 - 00:18:30:20
Speaker 2
And yet knowing that knowing those I mean, you're going to jump out of an airplane knowing you have a 90% chance that the shoots are going to open. We're not going to do that. It has to be that type of person to understand the odds are against you. Nobody's going to give you anything. you're going to fail 100 times before you find that right path.
00:18:30:22 - 00:18:40:15
Speaker 2
It takes that type of fortitude and determination, in a person, to make this journey tolerable. other than that, this is a suicidal mission.
00:18:40:17 - 00:19:00:19
Speaker 1
There must be a lot of late nights on on zoom over a cocktail crying with some of these people to say tomorrow is going to happen, but we just got to keep going. I mean, do you find the psychology in this is just got to be off the charts? Great. With respect to emotional intelligence and things like that.
00:19:00:21 - 00:19:23:13
Speaker 2
Yeah. I would say two things about that number one, with 400 companies under our belt right now, there's there's a lot of, midnight oil, being burned. but number two, what I find about the the biggest entrepreneurs, the ones that have the best chance, they're going to get on the call with you and they're going to reassure you instead of the other way around.
00:19:23:18 - 00:19:41:00
Speaker 2
Right. Entrepreneur ers that need encouragement. and guys, think about this. you're going into battle on your own. If you need encouragement to go into the battle, you're probably not going to win. it's the ones that are like, let me in, coach, let me in, coach. Those are the ones that are really, really going to make it.
00:19:41:00 - 00:20:01:23
Speaker 2
So if you need somebody to nudge you and encourage you and cajole you, into taking that next step, then maybe you're not cut out for this. It's the ones that don't need that support, that just need to know that, hey, I'm going into battle with somebody by my side, not necessarily somebody leading me. Those are the ones that have the best chance of making it.
00:20:02:01 - 00:20:26:09
Speaker 1
Wow. And that's I mean, that sounds like some leadership principles. There are some, you know, internal leadership. And you talk about people who come from the corporate world, that sweet spot I know they have. You know, once you get to that point, you've you've been exposed to some different managerial and leadership, type, components in life. And you probably supervise some people at that point.
00:20:26:10 - 00:20:40:06
Speaker 1
how does leadership play into what you do? And I mean, is that an imperative because you've got to lead yourself in order to lead others, in order to lead the company, whatever. What do you look for in that, and what do you recommend?
00:20:40:07 - 00:21:02:20
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, you think entrepreneurship and leadership go hand in hand, but the polar opposites because as an entrepreneur, when you start out you're doing everything your my dad used to call it the one arm paper hanger. Right. Everything you're doing on your own. And there comes a point in time when business starts growing. You bring in people, hopefully really talented people who believe doing.
00:21:02:22 - 00:21:29:12
Speaker 2
You have to make a really sharp transition from an entrepreneur to a leader. And a leader is a person who let go of the reins. Let's other people run that race with them and focuses on working on the business instead of in the business, as they say. So that's a big, big shift. And I would say to anybody who wants to be an entrepreneur, understand in the beginning you're going to do it all yourself.
00:21:29:14 - 00:21:48:05
Speaker 2
But fundamentally, the way companies work. Surround yourself with really, really talented and passionate people. Have a great plan in place, then get the hell out of the way and let them go and execute on that plan. that's the way your company is going to grow into something amazing.
00:21:48:07 - 00:22:14:12
Speaker 1
I love that I have something that I call founder syndrome, and having started companies, having taken over companies, things like that, I, I've always believed that founders have this, this syndrome of, okay, I'm going to make the decisions. This is my baby. and they have trouble handing their baby off to those people you're talking about that they should be trusting to go and run and develop the company.
00:22:14:16 - 00:22:41:14
Speaker 1
And if they did it right, like you said, they're not the smartest person in the room anymore. I mean, you're upgrading, so what does you know when I say founder's syndrome and struggle with releasing this as the founder and moving on to a, you know, a CEO role or a chairman role or something like that, what do you see as, you know, key challenges that founders have in progressing their company to the next level?
00:22:41:16 - 00:23:02:02
Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you this, if you're listening and you're a founder of a company, the number one failure of entrepreneurial companies in the first year is that the founders created something. There's no demand for us because we get so myopically focused on what we want, what we think, what we think is a great idea, then we don't look at the rest of the world.
00:23:02:07 - 00:23:26:16
Speaker 2
We're not going to buy our idea. Everybody else in the world is, and we don't do our homework. We don't do our research or studies to see that we're in a good spot. There's a growing marketplace with good competition, and we found that hole in the market to proceed forward. We don't do the intellectual inquisitor. We search within ourselves and into the marketplace to see if we're on the right path.
00:23:26:18 - 00:23:43:23
Speaker 2
So what I would say to any of those founders is like, oh man, you just got to loosen up. You have to understand that you're good idea. Today could be a great idea tomorrow. If you surround yourself with the right people and you have the fluidity to just go where that river is going to take you.
00:23:44:01 - 00:24:10:19
Speaker 1
I love that. Go where that river is going to take you. I mean, that takes a lot of guts to do that. And, you know, we we've already talked about the fortitude necessary there. Fred Kerry with idea pros, a powerhouse entrepreneur investor really. I mean, just kind of a somebody who helps others build businesses. Fundamentally, we need more people like you in this world because entrepreneurship drives growth economically.
00:24:10:19 - 00:24:23:05
Speaker 1
And then in the communities and society, and it helps people find new opportunities. Fred, where can we find you online? I know you have an awesome online presence and you deliver so much value there. Where where can we find you there?
00:24:23:07 - 00:24:53:14
Speaker 2
Well, thanks. an Instagram, an official Fred Kerry squad. I put one post up a day for right now, and, hopefully inspirational leadership, personal development, doing the right thing, things like that. That will start your day off. Right. you can also go to Idea pros.com and sign up as an insider. It's completely free. You're going to get information every week and you're going to have opportunities to be part of our free workshops as well.
00:24:53:16 - 00:25:11:22
Speaker 2
and if you got a great idea and you're, you're getting ready to launch and you want to have, a co-founder with you, you can actually just write to me and shred an idea. pros.com and, I'll take your email, I'll respond to it. And I can either help you or guide you.
00:25:12:00 - 00:25:23:12
Speaker 1
so make sure you check out Fred on Instagram and also at Idea pros. Dot com. Fred, I have a question I ask all the great leaders on this show and that's how do you start your day with a win.
00:25:23:14 - 00:25:44:06
Speaker 2
You know starting your day with a win can be difficult. So what I decide to work on before I work on the business, I work in the business of me. And so I make sure I get up early. I get up by by five. every day I have a trainer that comes here for 90 minutes a day, five days a week.
00:25:44:08 - 00:26:13:15
Speaker 2
When I'm done with that, I actually look in the mirror and do personal affirmations. so getting that positivity going, I, practice gratitude. I find at least three things that I'm grateful for this morning, like I did today. And, I'll meditate five, ten minutes. Nothing big. And then I'll read, read something a chapter, a page, a paragraph, whatever it is of of the book I'm interested in at the time.
00:26:13:17 - 00:26:29:02
Speaker 2
And then I start my day because, my philosophy is, if you start your day on yourself first, you'll be physically and mentally prepared to handle the challenges ahead of you so that I say start your positive day with your positive self.
00:26:29:04 - 00:26:46:09
Speaker 1
Wow, I that's one of the best answers I've heard. and I love that. So and I mean, we've done over 300 of these. So thank you for sharing that. This is fantastic Fred Kerry, you've you've helped a lot of people. You continue to help a lot of people. Thanks for all you do and thanks for being on start with a win.
00:26:46:11 - 00:26:47:17
Speaker 2
Thank you. Appreciate it.