Entrepreneurship – Page 3 – Robin P. Zander

DerekSivers

Derek Sivers is probably best know as the founder of CD Baby, a company serving independent musicians which sold to charity for 22 million dollars. But the thing that makes Derek notable is his lifelong drive to learn, or in his words, personal improvement. Prior to founding CD Baby Derek trained him self obsessively for 15 years to become a professional musician, and since selling his company to charity he taught himself to become a speaker and “thought leader.” These days, Derek is a citizen of the world, currently living in New Zealand, and studying level human and software development languages.

John Lee Dumas_Fire_1200_675

This interview is a fast-paced conversation with the host of the award-winning podcast Entrepreneur on Fire. I haven’t had a lot of my interviews with famous entrepreneur, but I wanted to bring John Lee Dumas on not just because he’s a successful businessman, but because he’s a successful teacher. Over the last three years of hosting a 7-day-a-week podcast John has taught thousands of aspiring entrepreneur and enabled others like him to find, pursue and monetize their passion.

I’ve never considered myself a sophisticated business person. Several years ago (albeit, after interviewing more than a dozen MBAs) I decided against going to graduate school in business, focusing instead on a less tradition career of which business is more the necessity than the focus.

That said, I enjoy learning. And “business” – encompassing everything from tax law through client sales – have increasingly become a part of my daily life. And still I’ve carried around the idea that compared to those who make the study of business their life’s work, I’m an amateur.

So it was that after 4 cups of coffee on a recent flight from New York City to San Francisco, as I was stretching in the back of the airplane that I got to talking with the flight attendant. He had a menu displayed on his computer and we started talking. It turned out that he and his partner run a Soul Food Truck in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I began to ask questions about his food, employees, marketing efforts, revenue and more.

What is Sales?

When you think of sales what comes to mind? For me it is the combination. My grandfather going door-to-door selling vacuums in California’s Central Valley in the mid-1950s. I think very highly of my grandfather and he did well by his family. But I don’t think of knocking on doors in the 100 degree Summer Fresno heat as my ideal way to earn a living.

The second image that comes to mind when I hear the word “sales” is a guy in a shiny but none-too-high-quality suit selling sheet metal roofing. Why sheet metal roofing – no idea. But in my mind this salesman is extremely pushy, aggressive and doesn’t give a damn if I even have a house that needs a roof. He is going to persuade me to get his roofing, no matter what.

The final image that comes to mind when I think of sales is this video clip. I am among the most persistent people I have met, in my learning projects, in relationship, or with myself. But I don’t ever treat others or want to be treated like this. I view this hard-nosed desperate selling as pitiable.

And guess what? I am learning sales. If you know me at all you probably know that I love learning – be that gymnastics, dance, handstands, Spanish, questioning or autism. Right now I’m learning sales because being comfortable asking for a sale is going to be a part of the contributing factor to the success of my current big project.

Me being me, I am not going to do sales like any of the images that come to mind when I think of selling. I am learning to sell very differently.

I am a scientist by training. In college I spent my time in the psychology lab teaching rats to press levers and studying how humans learning new skills. I never expected that I’d come to apply those same scientific principles to my own business development.

Me and my team at a recent Start-Up Weekend. (Photo: David) — **My team at a recent Start-Up Weekend.** (Photo: David)

Freelancing Failures

In my first year of freelancing I tried to appeal to everybody. I was a personal trainer, project manager, facilitator and efficiency expert. As a result of this broad-spectrum approach, I didn’t make significant differences for my clients and struggled to get by financially.

Flash forward four years: I’m just back from a two-week trip to Argentina during which I gave 40+ lessons to children with special needs, consulted with families, taught a seminar, and managed to reserve two day just for my practice of Argentine tango. I earned enough in this two weeks to pay for the trip and a month’s worth of expenses, and will spend the rest of the month dividing my time between practicing my Spanish, training in gymnastics, and applying Lean Start-Up methodologies to families affected by autism around the world.

Category: Entrepreneurship

Derek Sivers: Never Stop Learning

Entrepreneur on Fire John Lee Dumas shares his Mistakes and Motivation

When Everything You Have Learned Is Sufficient

The Art of Selling – Don’t Always Be Closing and Other Counter-Intuitive Tips

What is Sales?

An Introduction to Running Lean – Using the Scientific Method to Build A Better Business

Freelancing Failures

Selling is hard, subscribing is easy