In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Speaker A interviews 16‑year‑old aspiring entrepreneur Thor Figgenskau. Thor shares a personal story from a high‑school welding class, emphasizing that consistent small actions matter more than raw skill. He outlines his new venture, a social‑media advisory, and stresses that providing value to consumers is key to gaining followers. Thor advises transparency with customers and employees as essential business practice, and encourages his younger self—and listeners—to overcome fear, put in hard work, and put themselves out there. He defines happiness as finding a long‑term passion. Thor cites Gary Vaynerchuk’s books Crushing It and Crushed It as influential, highlighting the lesson of taking action early. His favorite quote, Wayne Gretzky’s “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” illustrates the importance of reaching out, exemplified by a teacher who DM’d a CFO to secure a podcast interview. The episode concludes with Thor’s online contact details: his LinkedIn profile (Thor Figgenskau) and the upcoming Figgenskau Advisory website.
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All right everyone, welcome back to the Business Blast podcast. Today I have with me Thor Figgenskow. He is a future entrepreneur and I'll dive right in for the first question. Thor, the first one I have for you is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, so when I was in freshman year of high school, I had a welding class and in that welding class I was doing pretty well with it. Every single weld I would turn in would be like an A+ weld, pretty much. I was super good at it. And then my grandpa actually came down with a sickness and we had to be in the hospital for a couple weeks, kind of a big deal. And when we got back, there was like 1 week left in the term. And so when we got back, 1 week left, you know, I got there and I couldn't make up many of the welds because 1 week to make up, you know, multiple weeks of welding, it's the time just didn't work out. And so the lesson I kind of got from that was no It doesn't matter how good you are at something. If you don't do the little things, it doesn't matter.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, so I'm starting a social media advisory, and the number one thing I would say is, like, to gain followers and to get likes and everything is provide value to the consumer.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice?
I think just being transparent with your customer or your employees would be the biggest.
If you could give your younger self, I know you're pretty young still, but if you could give your younger, younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Yeah, I'm still 16, but yeah, my biggest thing would be just don't be afraid to put in the work or to put yourself out there to get better at something, really.
And by the way, it's badass that you're 16 and starting a business, so congrats on that.
Yeah, thanks.
In your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
I think it depends a lot on the person, but I think finding something that you really like and finding something that you can do for a long time would be a big key.
And what's the best book you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
Gary Vaynerchuk's Crushing It and Crushed It. Those two were awesome and kind of like the teach myself the something from when I was younger is just doing it. Because like, I mean, 16-year-olds, how much time we have? Like, sure, school takes a lot of our time, but after that, I mean, starting a business, like, then you realize, oh no, I've been wasting a lot of time.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is the Wayne Gretzky, you miss 100% of shots you don't take. Because my teacher, Mr. Gerking, he does podcasts and stuff too. He listens to Gary Vaynerchuk a lot, and one of their things is just DM your famous person that you want to talk to. And so he DM'd the CFO of the company, and he has a podcast with him the next week, I think.
That's awesome. And by the way, I'm a huge GaryVee fan as well.
Yeah, he's awesome.
So yeah, thanks for coming on, man. Last thing is just where can people find you online, like, you know, your future business, what's the website for that, and all those other good things.
Yeah. So Thor Figgenskau on LinkedIn, T-H-O-R-F-I-G-E-N-S-K-A-U. And then my future business, I'm going to have a website, Figgenskau Advisory, if you'd like to contact me from there. But yeah, thanks for having me.
Perfect. Thanks, Thor. We will talk with you soon.
All right. Thanks for having me.
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