Stay ConnectedThe Mentors follows twin brothers Vadim and Sergei Revzin as they seek to uncover how successful people build their businesses and careers from day one. Twice weekly, the brothers bring inspiring stories from entrepreneurs, artists, business leaders, and entertainers they meet in NYC, to tell never before heard stories of how people get started, even when they have nothing.
Music by: www.purple-planet.com
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This week, we decided to give you an inside look into a recent phone call we recorded where we ask a high school principal for a speaking budget.
For many people, asking someone what they might be willing to pay is the most uncomfortable part of any sales or business development conversation - aka, going for the close. But with practice, you can learn how to do this quickly and effectively, creating new opportunities that may have been left on the table before.
You'll hear how to use active listening to rephrase your line of questioning when asking for something like budget or a commitment to finally get the answer that you want.
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Anxiety has risen as much as 30 percent in the last 4 years, affecting as much as a fifth of the population. While its causes are obviously varied, in this episode we decided to tackle work related stress and anxiety.
The episode is split up into three sections, with examples throughout:
Finding Focus and Prioritizing, where we discuss how to take control of your schedule by focusing on one thing at a time, and one main goal per day. We also talk about checking things off of your to-do list, and how doing the things you're least comfortable with first can have a huge impact on reducing stress and improving your productivity.
Removing Sources of Anxiety, where we touch on the importance of taking the time to walk away from all sources of inputs and simply reflecting. We also talk about how restructuring the use of social media an email can help reduce a lot of latent stress.
And lastly:
Getting help, possibly the most important step. You're never alone in your struggles, and simply speaking with significant others, friends, therapists, and even strangers can make you feel better. We also suggest a buddy system for those of us that do a lot of solo work to help you get out of your own head.
Happy Listening.
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"Destiny does not do home visits. You have to go for it." Today's 5 Minute Pick Me Up was inspired by this quote from a great fiction novel we read, The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
In this episode, Sergei talks about 2 sets of entrepreneurs that he advises in the fashion ecommerce space, and how "going for it" made the difference for one of the companies when raising money from investors.
You will learn:
1) The type of work that actually matters in the early days
2) Why you might want to hold off on raising money
3) What you can do this week to create your own destiny
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This is a continuation of Monday's episode where we interview two more startup teams that just completed a two week program at NYU where their goal was to talk to as many people as possible to validate their business idea.
We asked the founders to leave their drinks a the bar, and join us outside in 30 degree weather to tell us what they learned in the program, and what they plan to do differently now that they're more informed.
The first founders are Mir Hwang and Ryan Kim of GigFinesse. Mir discusses how his early execution helped him recruit Rich as a technical co-founder, who just quit his engineering job at Google to join the project as CTO. Even though they entered the program with hundreds of gigs booked, they approached every customer conversation with an open mind, and this ability to challenge their own assumptions is changing the way they plan to build their software.
Up next was Syreeta Gates and Airis Johnson of Yo Stay Hungry. They've been working on their event company for four years without making any money, and decided to use this two week sprint at NYU as a way to see if they can figure out a revenue model for their already popular event series.
They discuss how they were able to schedule over 35 interviews with advertising agencies over one weekend, and the large revenue opportunity they've identified through sponsors hungry to get in front of the hundreds of people that attend each of their events.
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This week we decided to interview 3 sets of entrepreneurs that Sergei works with, right at the end of a two week program where they had to speak with as many prospective customers as possible to try to validate their business idea.
We spoke with a student named Kanishk who had some really creative ideas for how to meet as many doctors and other healthcare professionals as possible in less than 2 weeks. He discusses what worked, what didn't, and how this process was instrumental in helping them figure out what kind of business they can build for healthcare professionals. The founders also told us how they were able to use this process to secure their first pilot customer.
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In their first two years of business, the founders of Nardo's Natural bootstrapped their business to $30,000 in sales. Even though the four brothers had to figure out how to make this money last to fund all of the operations of their business, they were confident that there was a massive opportunity in their coconut oil skin care line. Their customers loved their products, and they had to make it work.
In this episode Danny Mastronardo, one of the brothers and owners, tells us exactly how the team got their first distribution deal at a 5 Diamond Rated Resort Hotel, and how they quickly became the highest selling product in the whole resort. The team was able to use their family focused brand to close their initial deal, and started building relationships with more and more hotels in the area. Two years later, one of the brothers came across a then new show called Shark Tank and they decided to send an email to the producers on a whim.
Danny tells the hilarious story of how the brothers broke all the rules to get selected to pitch on the show, and why they were ultimately successful in closing a deal with Barbara Corcoran. The advisor and mentor relationship with Barbara continues to this day, and has helped them land multiple appearances on Good Morning America, ultimately growing their brand to millions of dollars. Today, the brothers have diversified their revenue streams to include private label and contract manufacturing, launching over 250 brands in the last year alone.
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The art of persuasion comes down to understanding human behavior and what people want. In business and in life it's a very powerful tool, and while everyone has a different approach to persuading others, aggressively trying to force your way is usually not effective in the long run.
In this week's 5 Minute Pick Me Up, Vadim talks about how he was able to convince two YMCA employees to give him a free hat this week, and how we've used the same approach in sales to get past gatekeepers and reach important people.
You will learn:
1) How being nice to people is likely to make them want to help you
2) The importance of respecting authority and existing processes
3) Why building a human connection is more important than being right
4) How to come up with creative solutions to empower others
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The path to doing what you love is not always straight forward, and sometimes the hardest part of becoming an entrepreneur is figuring out what you don't know and trying to fill those gaps in knowledge as quickly as possible. Before he became an accomplished author, successful entrepreneur, and popular podcast host, Steve Glaveski, author of Employee to Entrepreneur, was there himself, which is why he decided to write a book that provides a blueprint for people that want to be freed from the corporate world and learn how to become creators and entrepreneurs.
In this interview Steve describes how he went from being a corporate employee that didn't feel purpose in his life to starting multiple successful businesses and building a life where he can create impact for the world. He provides highly tactical and actionable advice describing exactly how he built his businesses, from how he scheduled hundreds of meetings with prospective customers and leveraged press to raise money, to the actual tools that he uses to automate tasks and accomplish all of his goals.
We also discuss what Steve did to grow his team at his current company, Collective Campus, a corporate innovation and startup accelerator, and why he thinks it's so important to outsource certain parts of your job as quickly as possible to focus on high value activities like business development and strategy to accelerate your business growth.
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How often have you thought to yourself "wow - I haven't talked to her in forever?" We work very hard to meet new people and grow our personal and professional network, but it's easy to forget to stay in touch with the people that we meet. Friendships, partnerships, and opportunities can only happen if you actually work to build meaningful relationships.
In this episode we discuss how we recently made it a point to reconnect with some of our old colleagues, friends, and acquaintances, and the immediate unintended benefits that can come from simply asking how someone is doing.
In this episode you will learn:
1) The importance of doing things and not expecting anything in return
2) Why you shouldn't overthink things, and start reaching out to people that you've met
3) How to start acting towards reconnecting with people right away
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Why are New Year's Resolutions so popular? Because we always have hope that things can get better. It's how we survive. The start of a new year can feel a lot like moving to a different city and starting over. Opportunities seem endless, and you can develop yourself into someone completely different. Unfortunately, most resolutions tend to fail unless they're properly managed. It's important to first understand that changing your life and acquiring new habits is more of a cyclical process - a constant back and forth. In our experience, we've found that there's a few critical things you can do set yourself up to achieve your resolution goals.
In this episode we discuss our 2018 resolution - what we called "The Year of Content" at the beginning of the year, and break things down into four main takeaways:
We tie these concepts into the creation of The Mentors Podcast this year, and why we think we were able to make big progress towards our "year of content" goal this year. We also make parallels to other popular resolutions, like weight loss, and talk about how successful entrepreneurs like Scott Belsky of Behance (acquired by Adobe) get past potential points of failure/giving up when things seem very uncertain.
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