You don’t have to fail to succeed. It’s absolutely okay to always win, and that should be your aim, learn from other’s mistakes and minimize your own.
Sean is dedicated entrepreneur that is passionate about helping startups achieve their business growth goals. He is the Ex-Founder of InsureChance and currently consulting dozens of companies in their sales and marketing efforts. His mission is to connect the right businesses to right customers so that the world can be a more fruitful place for all of us.
Where did the idea for your company come from?
After I sold my first company, I decided to use what I learned to help startups and entrepreneurs in their growth efforts. After a few years of doing so on my own, I realized it’s time to scale the process and help impact the business world on a bigger scale by helping connect the right businesses to the right customers. This lead me into building a small team and starting Frootful Marketing to be able to impact as many startup as I with lean growth and go to market strategies.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I bounce around from being an early bird and waking up at 4 am, to being a night owl and staying up until 3am. Currently I’m waking up at 7am, and after a workout and breakfast, I head to work until dinner with my family, which is usually about 630. After spending some quality time with my girls, I get back to work at 9pm and have a uninterrupted focused effort until about 2am to 3am, at which point I head to bed and get ready to do it all over again.
Over the years I have learned to manage my energy rather than my time. I notice that there are slots in a day where I am more creative and more energetic, and other slots where I am a complete zombie. Seeing these patterns day after day has redesigned how I create my to do list. I leave the most mentally taxing tasks that require the most creativity for my energetic blocks, while leaving boring algorithmic tasks for times when I am low energy, but can still engage in thoughtless work.
How do you bring ideas to life?
In my opinion there is only one way to do so, and that’s sweat equity. Ideas are all about execution and if you struggle with that aspect, it’s impossible for an idea to become reality. However, there are a lot of factors that go into bringing an idea to life, strategy and good organization being among them.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The rise in consumer-oriented companies. In the modern day entrepreneurs no longer have to trade their values for profits. The soil is perfect for customer first companies to succeed. The digital consumer knows all and “100% transparency” is no longer a choice for most businesses out there.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
It is less about one habit and more of a character trait, which is the discipline and focus on sustainability. I have a strict regimen that I stick to daily but make sure to avoid things that can burn me out. So I eat healthy, I exercise daily and I consume the same amount of milligrams of caffeine, at the the same time, everyday. This discipline leaks over into every area of my work and is responsible for my productivity. In business you quickly realize you are in a marathon and not a sprint, which is why it is important to be able to focus at your peak on a daily basis, and I avoid anything that can knock my physical or mental edge off track. This includes avoiding junk food, alcohol or anything else that can make my performance anything less than peak.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Think before you do.
My younger self was a doer and had lots of energy, which was his undoing. Because he was so high energy he took on a million tasks at the same time, not taking the time necessary to plan, think and figure out what the best course of action was.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
You don’t have to fail to succeed. It’s absolutely okay to always win, and that should be your aim, learn from other’s mistakes and minimize your own.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Read and Write.
Read because you never know when there is that one sentence, on that one page, that can change your methodology from that point on. Essentially, the author is providing decades of research or experience to you in a few hours. In my opinion, that is absolutely invaluable.
Write because it is one of the most underrated skills that you can have and is super important in the world today. On top of that it can help grow your business, help you learn about yourself, and help you communicate your ideas with the world. You never know when that one sentence you write, can change someone’s methodology from that point on, and cause its positive ripple in the world.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Content marketing.
It is the most overhyped and underutilized buzzword that exists in business today. I have helped grow my companies through content marketing as well as all my clients. What I do is address consumer questions and teach them something they may not have known before. We try to be everywhere the customer can possibly be and address their concern. The digital consumer wants to be educated. If you can educate your customer, you can earn their trust and their business.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Not niching out soon enough. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made was trying to do to many things at the same time just because I could. What this does is prolong progress. You end up doing everything “just okay” and it becomes exceedingly difficult to excel at any one thing. In the beginning especially, you should pick the one thing you are the best at, and scale that until it’s maxed out.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
This more of a product idea and is a tough one to describe but I think it would sell to people like me.
A “Focus Pod.” This is a pod that you can place in your office or home, can be circular and plain on the outside with one entry point. Inside it has an embedded reclining chair that you can completely fall into. From the top you can drop a laptop holder that can be positioned for your comfort level. Once you close the door it’s just you and your work, because its noise cancelling. Inside are also cool features like timers, air conditioning and lights if need be. This is a product that I would love to have in my daily life. Sometimes you need to tune out your environment and just absolutely crush your day. The limited space and noise cancellation will cut out distractions, and being 100% reclined with even your head at rest, will help thoughts flow. It has been proven that being in a completely physically relaxed state puts us at peak creativity.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I bought some workout equipment for my home. This way I can save on travel time and be more consistent with my exercise regimen. Working out makes me feel much better throughout the day and much more productive. This leaves me with no excuse but to do it daily, even when I’m strapped for time, I always have time for a 20 minute workout.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Trello has been one of my favorite tools recently. I organize all my ideas, goals and to do list into, breaking it down by projects and whether its personal or professional.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Great by Choice – Jim Collins. This is my favorite book by far from recent years. Mr. Collins has a way of doing amazing case studies and introducing concepts that aren’t only great for business but can be used in your personal life. This is a must read.
What is your favorite quote?
“Never Have an Ordinary Day”
Key learnings:
- Manage your energy and not your time. Do the hard stuff when you’re at your best.
- Once you come up with an idea, focus on the execution of it.
- Build habits that are sustainable, if it is not sustainable, do not engage in it.
- Don’t get caught up in the act of “doing,” so much that your forget to plan.
- Educating your customers through content marketing can be one of the most effective ways to grow your business.
- Niche out to make progress faster and become the best at in that niche.
Connect:
Twitter: @sdudayev
Linkedin:
Instagram: @seandmarketer
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.