Taking the Jump into Entrepreneurship with Kim Perell: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Like that, Sparkfire 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 Marketing Made Simple. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to take the jump into entrepreneurship. To drop these value bombs, I brought Kim Perel into EO Fire Studios. Kim is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and bestselling author. She sold her last company for$235 million and loves supporting entrepreneurs and is an advisor to over 100 companies.

0:33In today's Fire Nation, we'll talk about how failure is essential to success, how it is important to plan, save, and know what you are willing to give up in order to achieve your vision. And being afraid means you're growing and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Kim and our sponsors. Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship.

1:05A recent episode discussing the billion dollar health secret with the founder and CEO of Whoop is a must listen. Listen to success story wherever you get your podcasts. I have a question for you, Fire Nation. Do you feel like your life is optimized or do you feel like you're leaving a lot in the table when it comes to health, wealth, and relationships? If you think you could use some personal guidance in optimizing your life, let me help. I've created a program called Optimize where I will personally work with you one-on-one to get to know you, your life, your goals, and your dreams. If you want to learn more about this program, visit eofire.com slash optimize.

1:42Kim, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, Fire Nation. Excited to be here. Let's see. One thing I think most people would disagree with is I think everyone thinks you need passion, right? I mean, everyone's like, oh, we need passion. But I just don't think passion's going to get you where you need to be. So I look at passion, you know, from a different angle, which is it's a Latin root word of pain or suffering. And so I really think you do need passion, but not in the way people think, not to love it, but to suffer for it.

2:26So to be a true entrepreneur, like what are you willing to suffer for to achieve that vision that you have in your mind. Yeah, I agree with that. Because for me, I will be honest, like I did have to suffer through becoming a podcast interviewer by interviewing people and by communicating with them. It was a struggle. Like I was bad. I had never done it before. You know, I just really had to get up every day, dreading it a little bit and just getting a little bit better every single day. And here we are 3000 episodes later. So what I'm trying to get across to you, Fire Nation, is like I've actually evolved into being passionate about having conversations like this and about loving what I do.

3:06It wasn't like this necessarily day one. Like I never wanted to go to school to be a radio announcer or anything. Like this is something that, hey, you see an opportunity. Your passion can evolve over time. And we're here to talk about taking the jump into entrepreneurship. And Kim's going to be breaking down a lot of things because there are, Kim, a variety of jumps that we as entrepreneurs make. What types of jumps do you see most often? Oh, my gosh. Well, I look at it and I think entrepreneurs usually take what I would call an opportunity jump, which is they have this vision. It's burning inside of them.

3:41They have an itch. They got a scratch and they jump. Right. And I think that's what most entrepreneurs I worked with have felt. But I think there's also I mean, I came from a survival jump where I basically was, you company went bankrupt and I had to survive. So I took the leap into entrepreneurship. So there's many different ways to get there. I'm ideally like an ideal world, it'd be an opportunity jump. But I also think, you know, you can have a survival jump. You can come from a stagnant place where you're bored, you hate your job. You just got to try to find a different way out or, you know, you want to change careers.

4:17So the opportunity jump, I think is the best place to be from my experience. Well, listen, bankruptcy sucks. Failure sucks. But riddle me this, should we, as entrepreneurs, be afraid of failure? No, I do not think so. I think failure is essential to success, to be honest. I mean, I've failed so many times along the way and honestly every day, and it's about what do you learn from each of those failures? And I really think I've learned more from my failures than I have from my successes because you learn, you grow, you adapt, you get stronger, right? It's like resilience. And I think if you're not failing, you're probably not trying hard enough.

5:00Were you afraid when you first launched this company that you now sold for $235 million? Oh my gosh. When I first started, I was so scared. I mean, I didn't, obviously, I'd never been an entrepreneur. I had no idea what that even meant. I didn't know all the acronyms like a P &L. Honestly, I didn't know anything. I was definitely afraid of failing. But honestly, after coming from a bankrupt company, I was already at rock bottom. So I guess I didn't think I could get farther. There was farther for it to go. So I felt like if I was going to fail again, it was going to be on my own terms. And I felt like at least I was taking control of my own destiny.

5:40And at the end of the day, if I failed, that would be the result of myself. And I like the best bet you can make is a bet on yourself. Well, you've also made bets on a lot of other people. I mean, you're an investor in over a hundred different companies. I mean, one of your favorite things is angel investing. So let's talk about what you see with these companies that you're investing in. I mean, are they afraid of failure when you're investing money into these people? Like what is the lure that brings you to angel invest in companies? Oh my gosh. I love entrepreneurs. My passion is helping them because I am one.

6:18And I think having been there and it's lonely and it's scary. And, you know, my grandma made a bet on me, but not everyone has someone to make a bet on them. And I want to make those bets. I just feel I, I have the ability now to, obviously, having sold my company and it's like, I'm going to make bets on people that I believe, can really create something great. And it's about making the bet. And I think true entrepreneurs, like these are resilient, they're resilient. Like they want to create and that's what motivates them every single day. Well, you've obviously seen a lot of pitches though. If you've decided on a hundred companies, what's like one really green flag where you're like, this is a go.

7:02And then on the alternative side, what's one really red flag? Green flag is honestly at the stage, I usually do early stage investing. So early stage, C stage. And at that point, you're betting on the opportunity, market opportunity and the person, right? Like it's definitely, great people make great companies. And so at that early, it's, you know, there is no, it's pre-revenue usually. So you're really making a bet. And so it just has to be the combination of the market opportunity plus the person that you believe can execute against it. Red flag? When every time I see a deck and there's that hockey stick in year five where you make a ton of EBITDA and you just knock it out of the park, it's like, I mean, come on.

7:46I know it should show that, but let's be realistic. I saw someone the other day was like, I'll make 50 million in EBITDA in year five. I'm like, this is the most amazing company ever. I mean, not really. It's never going to do that. Fire Nation, we're going to talk next about preparation. So, Kim, break it down for us. How can entrepreneurs best prepare for the leap of their life? I love that. The best entrepreneurs I know make a plan and they start planning at least, I mean, honestly, a year in advance. They're researching, they're learning, they're educating themselves, they're saving, they're planning for that leap.

8:22And I think, you know, if you don't know where you're going to go, how are you going to get there and how are you going to make sure you have enough oxygen to get there? So I really do believe it's important to plan. It's important to save. And it's important to know, again, what you're willing to give up in order to achieve that vision. And there's probably, you know, I worked out of my kitchen for three years and ate, you know, burritos and top ramen. So like, what are you really willing to do? And I think that's important to know. I think that last phrase, Fire Nation, what are you willing to do, needs to be something you really come to terms with before you take that leap because you've got to be willing to do just about everything going all in.

9:03And now, Kim did briefly mention Archmuchia being lonely. We talked a little bit about overcoming fear, but we're going to be getting really into this stuff when we get back from thanking our sponsors. If you're a marketer, then you know what it's like to feel like you're moving in a hundred different directions at any given time, like you're spread too thin. Between creating content, launching campaigns, generating and nurturing leads and more, you barely have a moment to breathe, let alone do your best marketing. What if there was a better way? This is where HubSpot and Breeze, its new built-in AI, come in.

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10:11I have a question for you, Fire Nation. Do you feel like your life is optimized or do you feel like you're leaving a lot on the table when it comes to health, wealth, and relationships? After interviewing over 4 ,500 successful entrepreneurs, I have found that every one of them have optimized their life to a high level. In over 12 years of running a multi seven-figure a year business myself, while staying healthy and raising a wonderful family, I figured out how to optimize my life to an amazing level. It didn't happen automatically. There was a lot of struggles, but through mentorship from others and a lot of intentional work, I got there.

10:45And if you think you could use some personal guidance in optimizing your life, let me help. I've created a program called Optimize, where I will personally work with you one-on-one to get to know you, your life, your goals, and your dreams. Then over a three-month timeframe, we will create a fully optimized life that will set you up for a lifetime of optimized health, wealth, and relationships based off your goals and your dreams. An optimized life does not happen automatically. It only happens through intentional work and guidance from someone who has reached that level that you are striving for.

11:18My goal is to turn you into a fully optimized human based off of your life goals. If you want to learn more about this program, visit eofire.com slash optimize. We'll jump on a call. We'll discuss the specifics of the program. And if we both feel to fit, we'll talk about next steps. EOfire.com slash optimize. So Kim, we're back. And as I teased before the break, we're talking about loneliness next because entrepreneurship is lonely, especially when you're just starting as a solopreneur, which I did back in 2012. It was just me and my laptop and like 12 hours stretching out in front of me all day being like, what do I do?

11:55So how can we find the right community? I think it's really important to have that support system, no matter who you are and where you're coming from. And I think for me, you know, specifically, it's looking for people who have been there, have done that. So finding a mentor has been really helpful for me. And that mentor doesn't have to be someone that's 10 steps ahead, just one step ahead. So if you're looking to be an entrepreneur and like a podcast, right, like who's one step ahead that's already started, that's up and running. And I think trying to find someone that's been there, that's done that.

12:27So you do not have to reinvent the wheel is really important. Also, just to, you know, to be there and to bounce ideas off of. And if you don't, if you don't have that, I think also just looking for supportive friends, families, coworkers, anyone that supports your vision. because having been there, and I'm sure you were probably there too, is just everyone's gonna tell you why it's not gonna work, why you shouldn't do it, why it's risky, why you should get a real job. Like, I mean, there's a thousand reasons why you shouldn't do it, but find the people that actually support why you should. One step ahead, Fire Nation.

13:03And I always talk about your mentor, which I think is a great part of this as well. When you're looking for your community, your mentor, your masterminds, I always say that your mentor is somebody who is currently where you want to be in one year's time. Not in 10 years, not in 20 years, because they're not even relevant anymore in what you're doing in this moment, because things have changed so much in one year's time at the most. And people in your mastermind, these should be people that are one step ahead, two steps ahead at most, maybe one step behind you so you can help pick them up as well.

13:33These are the people in the community you need to be surrounding yourself with. And let's continue to talk about fear and specifically overcoming fear, because fear is going to happen when you're about to take a leap into uncertainty. How, Kim, can we overcome this? I mean, honestly, every day I'm afraid of something. I still am, right? It's scary. And so trying to understand, you know, making friends with that fear, acknowledging the fear, and knowing if you're afraid, that means you're growing. So that's like a good spot to be. Comfort, to me, is like the death zone. So once you hit that, like the fear is the growth zone.

14:09So acknowledging if you're afraid you're growing and that means you're taking, you know, that you're jumping forward and you're jumping up and you're, you know, that you're going to be seeing growth in whatever you're trying to achieve. And, you know, but it is scary. I don't know if you ever get over the fear. You never get over the fear. I mean, I've talked to people who have been in this business for 50, 70, 80 years, some of them. Fear is really something that keeps you going. I mean, I love that comment. Comfort is the death zone. And one thing that I say a lot is all the magic happens outside, outside of your comfort zone, Fire Nation.

14:45So if you don't want any magic in your life, then stay in the comfort zone because there won't be any magic there. But when you get scared, fearful, you push the envelope outside of the comfort zone, magic. It's magic. People love saying that they're too young or they're too old for the leap. Is there an age where it's too late to jump? I do not think so. It's so interesting because my family's, you know, very entrepreneurial. And I talked to my dad this morning. He was going because he's he's building again. He's, you know, 73. He started a new company. And, you know, it's just interesting that, no, there's you'd never too late to start again.

15:23I think that's really important. But you're also it's never too early because the earlier start. I believe like the earlier start, you just learn specific strategies for growing, for creating, for getting faced with rejection. If you can learn those early on, like it makes, you know, it makes, it makes a journey easier. Right. So just trying to put your face in, you know, those type of, um, experiences. And so even my nieces, you know, she's starting to, she's nine, she's got a, you know, dog baking, um, treat business. I mean, you could be any age and be an entrepreneur, which is amazing, right?

15:58There is no age limit. Um, it's just having that courage to start and to take that leap. It comes back to courage. And I think that really goes back to community. Like if you have the community, you have the mastermind, the peers, the friends, the mentors, people that will support you. It's going to help you be that much more courageous and brave, which is so key. Now, Kim, we've dropped a lot of value bombs here today, but really, I really would love for you to share right now is the one key takeaway that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from everything that we talked about here.

16:30what's the key thing you really want us to make sure that we walk away with. Then share what you have going on right now in this world, how Fire Nation can find out more about that, connect with you, any call to action you have, and then we'll say goodbye. Awesome. Let's see. I think the biggest lie people tell themselves is they don't have a choice. And that's just, honestly, that just to me is just a lie. You do have a choice, right? You're the CEO of your own life, you can fire, you can hire, you can promote, you have to be, have the courage to make that choice. And that's, I think everyone would rather complain why they can't, why they won't, why they're too old, why they're too young, why they don't have the skills.

17:11Like that is a massive lie. Like you just have to have the courage to take that leap and believe in yourself. And so I just think it's hard. I get it. I've been there, but you can do it. And I just, again, what I'm doing now. My new book, Jump, is coming out and it's all about daring to do what scares you in business and life. It's scary and I've been there and I just think that one leap can change your life and having the courage to take it. I mean, it's scary, but just how do you go from here to there? And that's what makes all the difference. Where can Fire Nation go to find out more about this book, Jump?

17:53jump with kim.com please visit um and learn there's an amazing bonus that you get a one-year success plan going back to your you know your question about a plan i truly believe you need a great plan to make a jump and there's a great uh bonus download that you you know maps out 12 months and i think it's really important and gives you really that success plan to ensure that you safely land your jump because it is scary but there's a safe way to land with a plan fire nation You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with KP and JLD today. So keep up the heat.

18:28Head over to eofire.com. Type Kim in the search bar. Her show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about here today. Make sure you visit jumpwithkim.com to learn more about what sounds like an amazing book. And Kim, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks so much. See you guys soon. Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business startups, and entrepreneurship.

19:08A recent episode discussing the billion-dollar health secret with the founder and CEO of Whoop is a must-listen. Listen to Success Story wherever you get your podcasts. I have a question for you, Fire Nation. Do you feel like your life is optimized or do you feel like you're leaving a lot in the table when it comes to health, wealth, and relationships? If you think you could use some personal guidance in optimizing your life, let me help. I've created a program called Optimize where I will personally work with you one-on-one to get to know you, your life, your goals, and your dreams. If you want to learn more about this program, visit eofire.com slash optimize.

19:49Thank you.