Black & White Truth About Benefit Advising Ep 6: The Mindset of an Entrepreneur

Hey.

Hey.

Welcome back to the Black and White Truth About Benefit Advising. This is episode six, and I am joined, as always, by my friend, Mr. Kareem Cade. How are you, Kareem?

Man, I am fired up and ready to go. How are you, brother?

I'm doing well. Looks like you are joining us from nice, sunny, warm Tampa, Florida.

I am. I'm excited. You know, it's like Groundhog Day, Andy. Every day is the same, man. It's perfect, man.

Oh, the life. I gotta ask, man, I just read an article.

Yesterday over the weekend.

Okay.

The question was posed, are the Chiefs in a rebuild?

No, we're not in a rebuild.

Everybody thinks since they traded Tyreek Hill, they're in a rebuild.

I'm like, how does that happen, man? How do we trade one person? And we say, well, wait a minute. That's a rebuild. No, we. What we're going to do is continue to enhance and get better, man. Why not? For all that we picked up for that, Andy, we picked up a lot of good stuff, and I love Tyree. We picked up a lot of good stuff. But you and I both know, even as we talk about what we're talking about, entrepreneurship, things we talking about, I'll tell you this, Andy, what he did on that team and in that culture, it's going to be hard to replicate that when he goes to Miami, because it's not the same thing. So if they don't use him in the same way, if the quarterback can't get him the ball the same way, you know what he'll be doing? He'll be $72 million richer, but he'll be complaining on the size line because he's a competitor, man. And so if that culture is not right, and we always talk about culture on our show, we talk about culture in the past. If that culture is not right, man, it won't be a good move for him. We'll still be fine.

Paycheck might be good, but the move won't be good. And, and, and I. I love. I love the comment from the Chiefs gm. When Pat Mahomes is on your team, you ain't rebuilding.

He ain't rebuilding, man. We got the $500 million, man. Bro, we're not. We're not rebuilding. What is that?

So let's talk about.

It's great for a good sound bite, though, Andy. It's a great sound bite. You gotta get somebody tuning in the Sports Center. So that's great.

I would say. What do they call that, a Twitter bowl? It's a TWEETABLE sound bite that we all want. So let's talk about. Here's the topic I want to go to today, and I hope you do as well. I've been thinking about this word called entrepreneurship, and I have to admit, for a long time, I thought it was a title, right? To be an entrepreneur, you got to have your own business, and you got to be grinding eighty, a hundred hours a week and la, la, la, la. But I've really come to believe, because it took me a long time to get to the point of starting my own business. 41 years.

Yeah.

But I realized entrepreneurship is a mindset.

It is. I mean, and I think what has happened is that we've been sold that build of just because you own a business, because you're starting on your own, that you're an entrepreneur. And you and I both know that you know the average time span for a small business. I mean, the first three years. And we know how many fail in the first three years because many people are just treated like a hobby. It's not truly embedded in them to be an entrepreneur. And that's something we should talk about today is what does that look like?

What.

What does that feel like? Because as you and I have discussed, that's a mindset, man. It's back to what we always speak on is how are you thinking about it? And it has to be that that is who you are.

Yeah. And that's where I want to go into the depth a little bit for today's episode. And I want you to share. I know you've shared your story in a previous episode, but it's powerful enough to share it again. Because when I think about the mindset of an entrepreneur, what I think about is, are you owning your results? Are you. Are you owning every result you're creating, good and bad? And I, you know, I get to talk to advisors every week.

Right.

And I can quickly tell the ones that think like an entrepreneur and the ones that don't. The ones that do are telling me all the reasons why they're not winning, but they're blaming themselves for those reasons.

Yes. Yes.

The ones that don't think that way are giving me all the reasons why their boss isn't helping them win, their agency isn't helping them win, the market isn't what it used to be, yada, yada, yada. All the external reasons why they're not winning.

All excuses, though, because they're all excuses. I know. The only thing we can control is. Is what we do. And. And if we're looking at that from the entrepreneurship standpoint, again, that is it. It's about you owning in your mind what does it take to win at that level. Right. And because outside of that, I'll joke with people all the time, Andy, and they'll say, you know, they're talking to my agency and we want to talk to the CEO. And I'm like, you want to talk to the CEO? I'm the guy that just writes the checks. I mean, that gives me the fancy title. All that means is that I've got the expense model. Right. Outside of that, how am I treating the business? If you want to talk to me about what goes on internally with me, my habits, what, how I think about the business, how I approach the business, that's going to be strictly from what I think about as an entrepreneur. How do I grow? And it all comes back to me. I control those results. I know that if I don't get up and do the things that it takes to do daily, the daily habits are not the same, that I won't win. And as you and I were talking prior to coming on, you know, just looking at your activity and the things that you're doing, I saw your post the other day on LinkedIn and I saw you, you were writing there in a notebook and talking about entrepreneurship. And I'm like, man, this is it. And I think I commented to you and said that, brother, this is it right here. Because nobody talks about this piece of it. We have glamorized, you know, almost to a fault what it means to be an entrepreneur. Because as you alluded to earlier, you going to grind 80 to 100 hours.

You're.

And all those things are true. Let's let, let's not. I don't want to escape the work. Those things are true. However, you and I both know if that is, there is not personal ownership for what Andy is going to do. I don't care what Andy happened with the dog. I don't care what happened at the office. I don't care what happened at home. If you don't own what you're doing in that day, day to day, I can tell you can be unsuccessful. Man, man, nothing to talk about.

Well, tell, tell us your story a little bit. Because, you know, when I think about this and I look at my early career in the insurance world. Yeah. I mean.

One bad day devastated me.

Yeah.

Because I wasn't enjoying what I was doing, that I didn't have that entrepreneurial mindset. And you know, you talked about early in your career Seeking the bailout. Right. When things didn't go the way you wanted to.

Not taking ownership, but seeking the bailout. Talk to us about that. You know, go back when you got into the industry. How did that affect your career?

Well, I'll tell you. And as you said, we've talked about it, but it bears repeating sometimes because it always helps me to think back on where I was at that time. And so starting out and I was looking for someone to be the answer as to how I was going to be successful. And so I looked at it first and I talked about, well, it has to be the training. Right, Right. I mean, obviously I haven't been trained properly. Oh, well, you know, I need a better script because obviously I don't have the script that everybody else. I don't know if you remember that movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, you know, and so I, so I, I needed the Glengarry Glenn Ross leagues, man. I mean, I, I, obviously they were not giving me the good leads because I was not having success. But I didn't think about, well, maybe it was because I wasn't getting started till 11 in the morning. Well, maybe it was because that most of the folks have already been out grinding throughout the day, and I was getting started at lunchtime. Well, maybe it was because I hadn't done any homework, hadn't looked at the products, hadn't looked at any of the things that I was offering. Maybe it was because I hadn't picked up the phone. I didn't own any of that. I simply looked at it and went back to it. In this case, you know, it was my mother who was my manager. And I went back and I'm thinking like, well, hey, here's the deal. And she told me, you are going to be out of this business. You're going to fail. And ultimately, she fired me. Now, again, when I tell that story, if she's, when she's around, she's always saying, kareem, you always say, I fired you. And I refute that. And what I say is that you fired yourself. And once I began to understand on that, Andy, I did fire myself. And there's advisors that are firing themselves every single day because they're looking for everyone to blame. But they're not ever taking the time to sit back and saying, what should I be doing differently? If my manager never showed me a thing, if the business model never gave me what I thought it was, what can I can control? Because I know what I can control.

Guess what?

There's a thousand carriers selling Products, Andy. So there's always a product to sell, you know, I mean, so there's no. There's no lack of product. There's millions of people for us to talk to. So there's always a client to go and talk to. Right? So in that case, I can control both of those things. I can control how many people I see. I control what carrier I go to. So it becomes nonsense that I'm sitting back and waiting for the bailout. And that's what I was doing. I was waiting for that bailout. And so once I got out of the business and I was teaching school for those two and a half years, what I realized is at that time, I worked on my business acumen. I worked on understanding what it took to be an entrepreneur. Because here's the other thing I had to realize is even if I was working in an agency for someone else, being a 1099, or even in this case, if we're talking about W2, I still had the ability to control the factors towards my success. And I think the other thing, and I want you to chime in as you talk about your earlier piece of the business as well, I think the thing that probably really woke me up to that as well is that I saw people and don't judge me on this for those that are listening, because we all do the same thing. I saw people that I thought, man, I got way more talented than this guy or this lady. Get the hell out of here. How are they top of the table on a regular basis? You know, how are they out here, you know, exceeding goals every month? I'm like, this guy is lame or this lady. I mean, give me a break. They can't even spend string two sentences together. But you know what they did? They had an entrepreneurship mindset. They weren't ever going back to whatever they came from before. They were always thinking along those lines, and it embodied who they were. And when I started getting around them and realized that it was not personality driven, it wasn't based upon they had some magical skill set. But that came back in their mind, was focused on what it took to be an entrepreneur. It changed my life, bro.

So is it safe to say back in the day when things weren't going well, you were seeking the esp, the employer stimulus package?

Yes, I was. I was looking for my stimmy baby.

Give me another year of salary. Please give me another year of salary. Give me some more leads.

I promise you that I will make at least 10 phone calls next year.

Well, you know, on a Serious note, Kareem. When I think about my journey. I started my career with a company called Federated Insurance. Okay. And it was a captive company. You sold property, casualty, health, life, disability, everything. But you had a territory. You had, you know, you had specific geographic boundaries. We had specific industry niches. We only sold to. And I can remember how easy it was to blame all the external factors, like my market. My territory sucks.

Federated wants to go after farm implement dealers this year, and I don't have any. This sucks.

Right.

So I always blamed my company for my lack of results. And I think where it shifted for me is when Amy and I decided to move from Wisconsin out here in 14. It was kind of a chance to start over. Right.

Okay.

And when I went to work for Vogue Bell, I was still at W2. I was getting. I was getting paid a salary and commission.

Okay.

But it was in the moment I made that decision that I'm going to run this like it's my own business. Under the roof of Vogue Bell.

Yes.

And they're. And they're my private equity. Yes.

That's a great.

It was in that moment that I said, okay, it's all on me. And that's when I started making my own investments in my own professional personal growth. Like, I'm not expecting Vocal to pay for that. That's me. It's my business. I own IT Marketing. I'm not gonna cry if they don't have a plan. I'm gonna create my own plan.

Exactly.

And that's when everything changed. That's when the results started changing. And to that point is it took me a long time to get there, but it's when I realized that I have to own everything I do. It's not the responsibility. You know, I think about even when I was an account exec at Burkwal and Associates, right before we moved.

Okay.

I can remember specifically, like, one time, and I. I won't name the client because for my own anonymity here, I. I made a mistake that cost us a client. Okay. I made it. I made an account executive mistake on a renewal that cost us the client.

Okay.

But even then, because I was a W2, it's. I look back now and it's like, okay, it made sense. I still went home at the end of the day. And who was that liability really on? I took it as well. At the end of the day, it's still on Burkwald and Associates. Yeah. Burke Wald's losing that account. Yes, I am. As well as the account. Exact. But Guess what? Tomorrow I come back and I'm still getting paid the same amount exactly. So I didn't have that mentality of.

But then when I was like, wait a second, it is all on you. Every own, every result. You create, good and bad.

Good. And, you know, it's interesting. I remember going to the first. The first agency that I worked in that, that my mom was a part of. I remember going to the. After I been in the business having some success because it doesn't change. And here, here's. I guess what I would want to convey to folks is that, you know, once you make the decision, it's a constant decision, right, to continue. Because entrepreneurship has so many pieces to it that you just can't come in and say, okay, I own a business and I'm a hang a shingle on the door. I mean, there's so many things where you continue to evolve when you're watching game field and say, here's something else that I want to do differently. So I got to the point where I had some success, and we were doing very well. And then at that point, Andy, I kind of started, as the old folks used to say, I kind of started smelling myself and saying, hey, man, I'm real important around here, you know, hey, I, I, I, I want to come to the table. And so I remember going to see the owners, and I sat down with them, and I. In kind of, from what I could see, I'm like, okay, we're making up around my team is probably about 45% of revenue coming through, new revenue coming through. My team is producing this, and for that, you know, I need a better seat at the table. And I remember going in and talking to the owners and saying, hey, you know, I want to do this, I want to do that. And I remember the gentleman looking at me. He's still a great mentor for me right now. And he said, you know what? That's all fine and dandy, and if you feel that strong about it, Kareem, go open up your own shop. You know, And I never forgot that, man. I mean, I walked out of there because in my mind, I was thinking, hell, he has to recognize how much of a value I am. And he had a constant saying, and I'll never forget it, man. His saying was always the same. I was here when they came, and I'll be here when they leave. And that was his. That was his standard deal. And I hated to hear him say it. He talked about it with eight, with. With the agents that came through the door. He talked about it with the leadership in that particular organization was true. Here's what I found to be true. He was right. He's been. He's still there. He's still profitable. He's had multiple people that have come between me and the time I left in 2006 and started my own shop. So he's had plenty of people that have come through. All the leadership at the organization, the. The president, the CEO, all that has changed probably three or four times. And guess where he is. He's still there. He's still profitable. He's still running his business, and he's still having major results because he owns that as an entrepreneur. He owned what his market was. He owned and understood that. I can't control whether Kareem is going to stay around here or not. But what I can do is continue to make sure that I'm attractive and I can retain quality people when they come through.

And.

And it hasn't stopped people that I hired that were there, that were taken over when I left Andy, they still were successful afterwards. So when I think about that as a whole, I left at that point saying, I've got to do something else, and I did it. And now, as you can say that, I mean, the rest is kind of history. But I needed that to happen at that time, such that I realized that I was blaming the wrong folks, man. I'm just like, okay. He was like, if you want to. You want to have your own groups and all that, go open them. Kareem, go hang your own single.

And I'm like, it reminds. It. It leads to kind of the punchline of this whole episode and the gift and the message I want to give to the listeners is, if you ever have that desire to go out on your own and you want to know what it takes.

Yes.

Get the mindset before you make the move, because. Get the mindset before you make the move, because the biggest change, again, it took me 41 years to actually make the move.

Right.

The reason I was able to is because I'm okay and I'm excited about taking 100 responsibility for everything, man.

That's awesome.

If you do not own your results, you cannot own your own business.

Amen, brother. I think that's a great place to leave it. I mean that for this episode, that. That. That is everything. If you don't have the mindset, you will not be successful. And I don't care what they're selling, Andy, you could be selling candle wax, you could be selling fruit, you could be selling tables. And chairs. I could care less what it is. Somebody gets up every day to go sell something, you know, and that. And that's it. And their mindset is that that's what I'm focused on. I'm developing my business. And it's an inside job, man. Because once you believe it, once you understand it, you will execute like that. And you'll have the confidence that gives you the ability to know that even in a bad day. I won't put together a string of multiple bad days, I can tell you that. And as I've said before, you know, I haven't had a bad day. Well, what does that mean? Oh, yeah, I've had some challenging day, I've had some character building days, but just an all out bad day. No, because I can control that. And what I can control is that, you know what, pick up that phone, send that next email, make that marketing message. I can do something else that puts me in a space to be a winner, man. And so I'm excited that we took this topic today to really talk about the entrepreneurial mindset. Because what we know is that before you can ever start it, you've got to see it, you've got to believe it, and more importantly, you've got to become it.

Just like when I was standing on the mound, Kareem, and I just gave up a 400 foot home run to left field. I had to get right back up on that mound because I had a batter to face right away. So you don't have time. Whether you have an amazing day or you get punched in the nuts, it's going to bed. Excited as hell to do it all over again the next day.

Yes, sir.

Awesome. Everybody listening in? You know what happens? Clarity. Confidence leads to massive action. I hope Kareem and I did that for you today. This is a wrap for Black and White Truth About Benefit advising. Take ownership for your results and have that mindset of an entrepreneur. Until next time. Peace.

Boom. I love it.