The Millionaire Mindset No One Talks About I Kim Perell

These five traits really embody the most successful entrepreneurs and founders and executives I've ever worked with. It was a game changer for me. The company I worked for went bankrupt. I got fired. I had to lay off all my friends. I felt like a failure, like a total failure. And everyone's like, get a real job. You need to get a real job. Like a stable job. And I thought I just had a stable job and that didn't work out. You're going to hear 200 no's before you get one. Yes. I love the entrepreneur. I just can't help. I love it. I've been there. I know it. It's hard. I invest in so many companies and I wr books. I really want to help the next generation and create.

Kim Perel is the CEO, serial tech entrepreneur, prominent angel investor of over 100 companies. She's the author of two best selling books. She is a leader. She's an innovator. She's a keynote speaker as well. She has spent the last 20 years starting scaling and selling technology companies ranging from 0 to 1 billion in annual sales. Kim started her first company from her kitchen table when she was 23 years old and grew it to a hundred million dollar company. She sold her last company for $235 million to Singtel, one of the most prestigious telecommunications companies in the world. Her recent book is called Dare to do what scares you in Business and life, published by Harper Collins. It was a Wall street journal. Is a Wall Street Journal best selling book. And she has been on Good Morning America. She has been on the Today show, the Drew Barrymore show, cnbc, and countless publications. So please help me welcome to the stage Kim Per. Oh, I'm so excited to have you here.

I am so excited to be here. It's February 1st.

I know. Let's give it up for Kim Perel.

Let's go.

So we've been talking about this for a long time and now it's here.

It's here.

Yeah. So what a wild journey you have been on.

Oh my gosh. Right?

Yeah. So from the kitchen table to selling your tech company for $235 million and writing two best selling books, investing in like 100 companies and having two sets of twins.

I know. Oh my God.

Look at that.

Right?

Yeah.

Go big or go home, right?

You're such a slacker. I mean, really underachiever. I know. Is there anything as and I know there's so much more to do. Right. But I mean, looking back, is there anything that you would have done differently now that you know what you know.

Oh my gosh, there's so much. Right. All of you must be sitting thinking, what else would you have done differently on your roads that led you here? And for me, I think the biggest thing that I would have done differently, honestly, is ask for help sooner. You know, and I started really young and I was really self conscious about not knowing everything and having to think I knew everything and, and especially in tech. And honestly, if I would have asked for help sooner, I would have gotten farther, faster. And you can't do it alone. And so for me, looking back, I think that would have been key because I saw it as asking help as a sign of weakness. And to be honest, it's a sign of strength and courage and vulnerability and people want to help you. And there's been so many people that have helped me get to where I am. I feel so blessed. But do you have to ask in order to get.

Yeah, it's so true. And I think that's one of the things that people, but especially entrepreneurs, have a hard time asking for help. Right. I think I should know this. But why wouldn't you get support if you could, especially from people that have.

Been there, that have done that, that have, you know, they're in chapter 10, you're in chapter one. I mean, even today, I call people all the time asking for help because you just don't know what you don't know.

Yeah, exactly. And so let's kind of get down into the nitty gritty here. I would love to know you took your company Frontline Direct, that was a digital marketing company, to 100 million. What do you feel as you look back at that? What do you feel were the biggest needle movers to make that happen?

Oh, my gosh. Well, first, getting out of my kitchen, because that was, you know, close to the fridge, and there was a lot going on there.

The fridge can really get in the way.

It was a very tight kitchen. So, yeah, I think the biggest needle movers to growing number one was just finding the right people. And it's easy to have someone that looks perfect on paper. You know, they've got this amazing resume. They, they check all the boxes. Probably like dating. They check all the boxes, but once you get them in, like the chemistry is not there or, you know, and I, I drive that down to values, like your values just aren't the same. And so once I established clear values in my company and hired according to those values, it was a game changer for me, the absolute game changer. Because if you joined and you weren't, one of our values was resilient and you weren't resilient, and that didn't feel like the behavior that you would naturally be inclined to embrace. We just didn't hire you. And so I think that really helped just set the stage for how every individual that I hired would be able to adapt to our company culture. And so that made the biggest change, I think, in the trajectory of our business.

When you think back to that time, what do you feel like were some of the biggest challenges that you had to overcome?

Oh, my gosh, so many. Because the Internet was a graveyard of failed Internet companies. So when I started in, you know, the early 2000, the.com bubble had just burst. Everyone was saying, kim, I mean, the company I worked for went bankrupt. I got fired. I had to lay off all my friends.

And I, you know, that must have been fun.

Oh, I felt like such. I felt like a failure, like a total failure. And everyone's like, get a real job. You need to get a real job. Like a stable job. And I thought I just had a stable job and that didn't work.

Work out. Yeah.

So maybe I should make a different bet and make that bet on yourself. So I think first, just the noise of other people self projecting their own feelings and their doubts and their dream killing on me, and then making sure that the belief in myself and my confidence, myself had to be graver. That all these doubts and all these people saying, kim, you've got to get a real job. The Internet's a fad. It's not going anywhere. This is ridiculous. You know, I mean, now it seems ridiculous that they would say that, but then it was true. I mean, it was, you know, a different time.

It is a big thing. You really have to learn to tune people out because there are always going to be naysayers. But my guess is going through those difficult times probably created the resilience that you needed to go on and accomplish so many other things.

Yes. Rock bottom is a great place to start again.

So, yeah, for anyone in here that's.

You know, at a low point, you.

Know, been there, done that. But then it's not as scary.

Yeah. Because I think you develop the confidence to know no matter how hard it gets, that you can, you can overcome it. And as long as you have the right support and the right confidence, you know, things as entrepreneurs, you know, things happen every day that you can't control. So it's really, how do you react to what's happening that makes the Biggest difference.

Yeah. And so your first. So your first company was acquired.

Yes.

And then you later had this big exit for the 235 million to Amobi. And we have. How many of you would like to either acquire another company or for your company to ultimately get acquired? Raise your hand. Wow. Okay, fantastic. And so looking back, what do you feel like is most important for them to understand, you know, that helped you to make those deals successful?

Yeah, well, I'm still doing deals all the time. So I think the first is just getting back to business basics. Number one, focusing on profitability, focus on long term predictability of your business and that growth. Number two is culture and making sure culture. Especially in such a fragmented, disconnected world, that culture is important because it drives employee engagement, it drives success, and it ultimately will drive down to your bottom line and then from an acquisition. I mean, I was at dinner on Tuesday and I'm in the middle of a deal, so. Which is fun and hopefully everyone will eventually get there. Everyone raised their hands because dealmaking's fun and especially if you're selling to a strategic. So I sold the last two companies to strategic and I think strategics are great opportunities to sell, but it comes down to relationships and I think especially with the acquirer and people don't place enough value on that. So we went to dinner and we were with a group and after the dinner, one of the executives called and she said, kim, we didn't talk any business. Like, what's wrong? What are we doing here? You know, we just spent three hours to talk, no business. And it was because they're judging. Do you fit my culture? Are you my same DNA? Do we have similar value systems? Systems? And if you do, it's a much easier. The numbers will speak for themselves with the numbers speak for themselves. But on acquisition, whether you're acquiring someone or someone is acquiring you, those relationships are so important because it's built on trust and that makes a huge difference, especially in being acquired. And then usually, I mean, I ended up staying and most people don't. But if you have a great relationship, there's huge opportunity and upside with the potential acquiree. You make new relationships, you get more exposure, you learn how to. I learned how to run inside a publicly traded Singaporean telecommunications company. I mean, that is not easy for an entrepreneur that's sitting at her kitchen table being scrappy. Right. I mean, now I'm going to the real game. So the relationships do matter.

Yeah. And so I mean you're here building relationships and, and you know, who knows you could be sitting next to the person that in a few years, even five and 10 years, maybe wants to buy your company.

Oh, yes, for sure. My first company I sold in 2008. I had met the CEO that eventually we sold it. We got seven LOIs and letters of intent, and to be honest, I ended up selling to someone who I had previously met almost a decade earlier. So you don't know who in this room may be one of those relationships in the long term that makes such a difference in your life.

Now all of a sudden they went. They just sat up in their seat. It's so true. The power of relationships. It's so important. That's such great advice, Kim. And so if they are preparing, let's say, because some of them are preparing 2 years, 5 years, 10 years for their own exit, what are some things that these business owners should start working on now for their companies?

Yeah, preparing for an exit. I think, number one is predictability and revenue as an acquirer. I don't want to buy something and then you fall off a cliff the next, you know, the next month. So just predictability and revenue and having that makes a huge difference. Number two, I think really is lack of customer concentration, because that will devalue. So if you have. I remember going into one deal and our customer concentration was over 25%. Nobody likes that. So making sure that, you know, lack that customer concentration. And three, I really think it's so hard today, but the culture does matter. It really does. I think we underestimate from a leadership perspective in a disconnected world where we're on zoom all the time, how much culture does matter?

Well, right, because if, let's say, if I'm going to buy a company and you go in and the culture's a mess and there's a lot of negativity, you don't want to be around that.

No. And so even when I sold my last company, when the executives from Singapore came to my office, I mean, and we were completely different than a telco, right, a $60 million telco. And. And we're an Internet marketing company and we're spinning a wheel and people are cheering and they're going, what is going on here? But ultimately, that energy led to our success. And so a culture is defined by the leader. So that was our style. But there's so many different styles that you can adopt. It just has to be authentic to you.

Yeah. Can you just define customer concentration? So break that down a little bit.

Yeah. So when you look at your customers that are buying your products, or services. And if one of those customers, when you look at, let's just say, take a look back at 20, 23, if one of those customers is 50% of your business, that's a huge red flag for an acquirer. They're thinking, what happens if I lose that customer? Then I'm losing half my business. So really focusing on how do I ensure that I have diversification across more than a set number of customers.

Yeah, that makes sense. So really diversifying within your company base. Okay. See when you have the right team.

Yes. Hi.

Okay.

How you guys doing?

Okay. Good, good, good. So fear and uncertainty. And I know you're so good at talking about this. You wrote a whole book about it in Jump. And so how do you navigate? Because fear comes up and there is uncertainty. But when you're risk taking or you're needing to make decisions, how do you deal with when that fear comes up? What do you do?

Oh, my gosh. I fear all the time. Don't you?

Of course I do.

Who here is afraid all the time? I'm afraid of everything all the time. I've got a productive paranoia going on all the time. For me, I think it's hard, especially as an entrepreneur. So you're on a constant roller coaster. You don't know what's going to happen. And if you think and wait till you're 100% and I'm in tech, so if you're waiting for 100% or you're waiting till you're ready, opportunity has passed you by. And so I really, I use Colin Powell's rule, which is the 40, 70 rule. So if you're 70%, you've got to go. Do not, you know, if you're less than 40%, do not go. But if you're at 70%, that's enough information to make an educated decision and feel the fear and do it anyway. And so I really use that. I had a call this week and I was like, we're at 70%, we gotta go. And so just using that as a baseline, knowing I'll never get to 100%. And even if you think you're at 100%, you get out to market and it's not perfect. So you have to be able to adapt and change.

Yeah, that is great advice. That's a good barometer. Are you all sorry.