Relentless and Tenacious Entrepreneurship with Tony Petkovich: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Systems Saved Me. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives and we'll be breaking down relentless and tenacious entrepreneurship to drop these vibe bombs. I brought Tony Pukovic into EO Fire Studios. Tony is an experienced dealmaker, expert negotiator, and known problem solver who has owned more than 23 businesses over the course of a 20-year career. In today's foundation, we will talk about how you cannot to have it all.

0:35You can have most things, but you have to look at what you are willing to give up to succeed and look at a roadblock as a speed bump. It might slow you down, but you can go over it and owe so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Tony and our sponsors. DTC Pod, hosted by Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolas, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. DTC Pod is a podcast about all things direct to consumer. Ramon and Blaine cover everything from starting, growing, and optimizing e-commerce stores and DTC brands.

1:09If you're interested in the stories behind your favorite consumer brands, this podcast is for you. One recent episode on how the best brands are built is a must listen. Listen to DTC pod wherever you get your podcasts. Tony, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? I hope you guys are doing well and hope that you get something out of this podcast and look forward to answering any questions that John might have or you guys might have. And as far as to answer that first initial question, I would say that the biggest thing that I think people get wrong with success is that you can have it all.

2:02And I don't believe that you can have it all. I think you can have most things. But I think you have to really look at what are you willing to give up to become successful. Not necessarily to be happy, not necessarily for others, but strictly just with the inclination just to become successful. And, you know, for me, you know, throughout my, you know, 20 year career, I would say, you know, I realized many years ago that I was willing to give up everything to, you know, become successful. I mean, that was partying with my friends, you know, going out, having a good time when I was younger, you know, and when I started my first company, when I was 19 years old, you know, everyone was out there partying and getting drunk.

2:50And I was like, that ain't what I'm trying to do for myself. And I don't see myself reaching my goals if I do everything that everyone else is doing. So I felt like I had to do my own thing. And I said to myself, I'm willing to give up everything to reach my goals. so I think that you have to have single-minded focus and really not worry about uh the I guess the status quo in terms of you know at 20 22 23 24 you got to be partying you know and living life I feel like I live a really good life but I really pretty much gave up everything to become successful and and uh and I definitely feel like I've achieved that you speak in my language brother focus, follow one course until success.

3:39It's not follow every course until success. If you have FOMO, Fire Nation, if you have a fear of missing out of what your friends are doing and what this person is doing, you're not having your eye on the prize. And that's why we're talking today Business 301. This isn't Business 101 or 201. This is Business 301, breaking through plateaus. And Let's start by talking about roadblocks. How can we identify when it's time to move past a roadblock? Make a decision to make a distinction. One, I've never really believed in roadblocks because I feel like that's a mental barrier that is very hard to cross over.

4:19So I've always felt or looked at them as more like speed bumps. And I think when you look at it from that perspective, I feel like they're really easy to go over. A speed bump, you can easily walk over. It might slow you down. You might have to maybe even change cars if your sports car is too low to the ground. But if you look at it strictly from the standpoint, look, it's not a roadblock. It's a speed bump. I think that really puts you in the right mindset to be able to overcome any adversity that comes your way. And for the people that are not ready to make that distinction, then you got to say to yourself, well, look, I'm going to find a way over this, whether I have to kick it down, climb a wall, throw a rope on the other side.

5:12But there's always, you know, a solution to every problem, you know, and I firmly believe that. Sometimes it might take, you know, a few days to process, you know, what the problem is and be able to identify it. But I mean, I think if you're motivated and you have the intellectual horsepower, I think it's easy to find a solution. Well, every solution starts with a first step. So what is that first step that comes when you want to crush these speed bumps? The first thing really, it needs to be able to be identified to see exactly what it is that you have to cross over. So it could mean several different things.

6:00And I've used these methods for quite a long time. So I feel like for me, it's more of one, identifying the problem, and then two, moving forward in terms of possibly looking at, you know, do we need to hire a specific person that has a specific skill set that you don't have? It could be augmenting your marketing. It could be creating a new division. It could be maybe something a little bit out of your comfort zone and maybe making a new acquisition with a company that complements what you're doing. But it can augment a certain area of expertise that you possibly don't have. So I think that's really kind of like the first steps, if you will, to really, you know, break through these barriers that we all have to go through to really reach the next level.

7:08And, you know, for me, I've never, you know, been happy with, you know, just growing a small amount over time. I mean, for me, it was really just, you know, crush every single speed bump that comes my way. So that's kind of the way I've always looked at it. Now, does this apply to everyone in all businesses or is this just in specific test cases? Right now, currently, I own five different businesses in different industries. And I've used pretty much the same set of skills to augment my business and really grow them with these principles. So to say that it can work for every single business, I don't want to reach that far.

7:54But, you know, in a 20-year career owning 23 different companies, I've never seen a business that it hasn't worked for. So I feel like it's, you know, I'd be comfortable to say that it works with most businesses. Can you give us an example that you've used at some point over the last handful of years that you think really will show Fire Nation, our listeners, a great example of these concepts you're talking about? One company that I started about seven or eight years ago, I felt like we kind of reached a plateau after about, I'd say, about three years or so. I mean, we had year over year growth.

8:34And I was like, I identified that we kind of hit like a stagnant, I guess, period. So I said to myself, what do I need to grow? So one thing that I did was I hired someone that had expertise that I really felt like I probably lacked a little bit. And it was really centered around a marketing, a stronger marketing campaign. And I felt like I was spread so thin wearing so many hats that I couldn't focus. so I did a uh a presentation uh that I was asked to do uh at a college and long story short there was uh I met someone there doing a presentation as well and we start talking and uh and I said you know I basically told him you know we really need a really strong marketing uh person on our team uh to really get uh the word out and after talking to him I felt like intellectually uh you know, they were an equal.

9:42And I didn't feel intimidated or, you know, I feel like that is a problem with a lot of hiring managers today. That's why I try to hire directly because, you know, it's kind of like what they teach in business school. A level employees typically hire B level employees. C, you know, B levels hire C level. C level hires D level. And, And your company really just gets watered down. So I try to do all the hiring myself when I can. And that was just kind of one example of how we grew. I mean, within weeks, I felt like we had a lot bigger reach. And it was really one of the stories that I feel like took us to the next level.

10:38Fire Nation, we're going to figure out if you're on the right track, some other things we may need to be doing, and is it likely you'll experience this stuff on your road to success when we get back from thanking our sponsors? Marketers have never been spread so thin. Trust me, I feel it too. Between creating content, launching campaigns, generating leads, nurturing your prospects, and more, you barely have a second to breathe, let alone do your best marketing. But I've got some great news. There's a better way to do things, and it's with the help of HubSpot and Breeze. It's new, built-in AI. When you combine the power of HubSpot's marketing hub and content hub, you can have your best quarter every quarter.

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11:48Visit HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. So Tony, we're back. And as I teased before the break, how will we know when we're on the right track? What are the clues we're going to see? What are the successes we're going to have? How do we know if we're on the right track? Numbers don't lie. So, I mean, you really need to look at the numbers, sit down with your accountant and go through the numbers and see areas of weakness, areas that possibly need improvement, areas that you might have grown or augmented and really, you know, look at it strictly from, you know, what I would call a science point of view in terms of, you know, the numbers.

12:32The other thing is, you know, I would say that most high-level business owners have a fair level of intuition and kind of just can feel things out. So I think it's like if you're able to mesh both together, you can come up with a better answer and kind of just feel out where, without even looking at the numbers, where you are maybe weak and then try to augment those areas and see where you're strong and continue to grow those areas where you're strong. And even put an emphasis on the areas that you're weak it's kind of like, you know, people that are, you know, let's just say a power lifter, for example, they want, they're only strong at bench press, but they don't want to practice squats.

13:24You got to, you know, work on your squats a lot more, you know, even though you don't like to. And then as you get better at it, you're going to not only want to do it more, but you're going to get stronger. And business is really the same way, you know, really to focus on your weak areas. You shared a lot about what we would have to do and what the correct steps would be when we encounter certain things. You have vast experience. I mean, you've been doing a lot over the 23 businesses you've owned over the course of over 20 years. So take a minute here. What do you want Fire Nation to know from what you've learned?

14:04What else do we need to know about moving past these speed bumps? The first thing is you got to believe in yourself that you can do it. I think a lot of people sometimes when they reach a speed bump, they, as I mentioned earlier, they look at it the wrong way and they're like, you know, it's a roadblock. You really got to believe in yourself when no one else does, because no one's going to believe in you until you already made it. And it's not going to be, you know, it wasn't any different with me and it's not going to be any different with you. And, you know, history always repeats itself. So if you kind of want to know what's going to happen in your career or the first time you go through these plateaus as you're growing a business, it's better to listen to people that have already been there and done that.

14:51So believe in yourself first before anyone else does and then just move forward from there with some of the points that were brought up earlier. Will our listeners experience this type of stuff along their road to success?

15:33know, I've already made it and it's kind of like time to give back. Tony, I'm going to give you the microphone right now. Speaking of giving back, and I want you to take this mic, take this platform, take this stage, make sure you share with Fire Nation right now the one takeaway that you really want us to understand from this entire theme, this concept, these words that you've been sharing with us today. Tell us how we can connect with you if you want Fire Nation to follow up or to connect or anything you may have here. any further call to action, and then we'll say goodbye. The biggest takeaway to believe in yourself and to really just try to become a better version of yourself every single day, you know, spend time reading as much as you can, regardless of what it is and learn from everybody, even people that you think that might not necessarily be in the position that you're in.

16:26You know, they might have an experience. They might have, you know, come across something that, you know, maybe you haven't learned yet, experienced yet. So really just try to learn from everybody. So that's, that's, you know, the best piece of advice that I could give right now. You know, for people that want to reach out to me or if they have any questions or, or anything that they, you know, maybe didn't get answered on this podcast. I mean, they're definitely free. Feel free to reach me at TonyPetkovich.com and also my Instagram page, which is Tony Petkovich on Instagram. And that's T-O-N-Y, P as in Paul, E-T-K-O-V-I-C-H.

17:16Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with TP and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com. Type Tony in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about here today, links to everything that Tony just mentioned. Of course, you can go directly to tonypekovich.com. Find him on Instagram as well. Tony, thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, knowledge, and value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Sounds great. Take care, Fire Nation, and keep up the good work.

17:55Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Tony. And Fire Nation, what can 3 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle that you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side.

18:35DTC Pod, hosted by Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolas, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. DTC Pod is a podcast about all things direct to consumer. Ramon and Blaine cover everything from starting, growing, and optimizing e-commerce stores in DTC brands. If you're interested in the stories behind your favorite consumer brands, this podcast is for you. One recent episode on how the best brands are built is a must listen. Listen to DTC Pod wherever you get your podcasts.