Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business

Ever feel like you’re pouring all your energy into your business but getting zero feedback, validation, or results? It’s one of the most dangerous and discouraging moments in entrepreneurship. In this nostalgic solo episode, leading up to the monumental 1500th episode, Brian Lofrumento introduces the powerful concept of "entrepreneurial seasons." He dives deep into the first and arguably most important one: Planting Season. Brian shares personal stories from his own journey—from recording episode zero that nobody cared about to today—to illustrate why this unglamorous, invisible work is where your future success is truly born. This isn't just about business strategy; it's a mindset shift that will change how you view your progress, your "failures," and yourself.

✨ Why This Matters for You
 Understanding Planting Season is crucial for your long-term survival and success:

• It provides the mental framework to keep going when you feel invisible and are getting no positive feedback.
• It reframes the "grind" as a purposeful, identity-building phase where you become the founder your business needs.
• It teaches you to find value in the process, not just the outcome, protecting you from the temptation to quit too soon.
• It helps you cultivate the faith and patience required to build something truly meaningful, even when there's no guarantee of a harvest.

📝 Key Takeaways

• Seasons are Fluid. Entrepreneurial seasons aren't linear or tied to a calendar. You can experience different seasons in a single week or even a single day, and awareness is key.
• Embrace the Unseen Work. Society has a "harvest bias"—celebrating the million-dollar year or the viral post. But every great harvest begins with planting seeds that nobody else sees or values.
• Planting Season Builds YOU. The real purpose of this season isn't to build the business; it's to build you. Your first sales call builds a salesperson. Your first podcast builds a podcaster. The internal transformation starts immediately.
• Ask a Better Question. Instead of asking, "Is this working?" (an outcome-focused question), ask, "Am I becoming the person capable of making this work?" (an identity-focused question).
• Consistency is the Miracle. The milestone (like episode 1500) isn't the amazing part. The real miracle is the consistency of planting one seed after another, day after day.
• "Failure" is a Stepping Stone. As NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo explains, a season without a championship isn't a failure—it's a step toward becoming the team that can win. Your setbacks are preparation.

🚀 Put It Into Action
 This week, take a moment to reflect on your own Planting Season:

• Identify one "seed" you've been hesitant to plant because it feels small or insignificant. Commit to planting it this week (e.g., writing that first blog post, recording that first video, sending that one cold email).
• Where are you currently seeking external validation? Shift your focus this week to the internal transformation. What skill are you building? Who are you becoming?
• The next time you feel discouraged by a lack of results, remind yourself: "This is Planting Season." Trust the process and focus on the action, not the immediate feedback.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to keep planting, even when they can't see the harvest yet.

Do you ever find yourself looking at other successful entrepreneurs and thinking, "I would kill to have their problems"? Whether it’s struggling to hire fast enough or having too many clients, it’s easy to believe that their challenges are better than yours. In this reflective Solo Sunday episode, Brian gets real about the dangerous game of comparing problems and shares a powerful thought experiment he heard on TikTok that will completely change your perspective. He unpacks why the challenges you’re facing right now are not just problems, but proof that you’re on the right path. This is a short but profound episode designed to shift your mindset from frustration to gratitude and help you appreciate the journey you’re on, right now.

✨ Why This Matters for You

This shift in perspective is a game-changer for any entrepreneur because:

• It’s the ultimate cure for comparison, helping you focus on your own journey instead of wishing for someone else’s.
• It transforms your "problems" into "privileges"—reminding you that the ability to solve challenges in your own business is a blessing.
• It builds resilience by grounding you in gratitude for the opportunities you have, even when things feel tough.
• It prepares you for future success by teaching you that growth doesn't eliminate problems; it just presents new, more consequential ones.

📝 Key Takeaways

• Stop Wishing for "Better" Problems. Brian shares how he used to envy entrepreneurs with growth-related issues. The truth is, problems exist at every level—learn to value the ones you have now as signs of your current stage of growth.
• The Ultimate Perspective Check. Ask yourself: If everyone in the world put their problems in a pile, would you trade yours for a random one? This single question immediately fosters gratitude for your unique challenges.
• Business Problems Are a Blessing. The very act of having problems to solve in your business means you have an opportunity many don't—the opportunity to build, create, and dream.
• Growth Creates New Consequences. As your business grows, your problems don't get smaller; they evolve and become more impactful, affecting your team and their families. This responsibility is a sign of success.
• Gratitude Fuels Progress. Realizing how fortunate you are to face your specific set of challenges is a powerful motivator that helps you move forward with a more positive and resilient mindset.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, take a moment to practice this perspective shift:

• Identify one major "problem" or frustration in your business right now.
• Instead of focusing on the negative, ask yourself: Why is having this specific problem a sign of opportunity or progress? What does its existence say about how far I've come?
• Make a list of three things you're taking for granted in your business that are actually blessings in disguise.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who could use a dose of perspective this week

Are you afraid of giving too much away in your marketing? Do you worry that if you share your best insights for free, no one will ever pay you? In this powerful solo episode, Brian tackles one of the most pervasive entrepreneurial traps: the scarcity mindset that convinces us to withhold information. Drawing on nearly a decade of lessons learned, from selling his first online course to building a successful agency, Brian reveals why this fear is holding you back. He shares the game-changing shift from selling information to delivering transformation — a distinction that will revolutionize your marketing, supercharge your sales process, and ultimately help you deliver better results for your clients.

✨ Why This Matters for You

Understanding this trap isn't just a philosophical exercise; it's a strategic advantage:

• It makes your marketing magnetic in a world where everyone else is hiding their best stuff.
• It builds unbreakable trust with your audience before they ever pay you a dime.
• It forces you to level up your offers to focus on delivering tangible results (transformation) instead of just knowledge (information).
• It eliminates sales friction because you’ve already proven your value by giving away the "secrets."
• It positions you as a generous authority, not a gatekeeper.

📝 Key Takeaways

• Information is a Commodity, Transformation is the Value. In an age where any information is a Google search away, your true value lies in guiding clients to a result.
• Generosity Attracts. Where others withhold, being radically generous with your knowledge makes you stand out and builds a loyal following. Brian's most successful lead magnets were the ones he was told were "giving too much away."
• Stop Hinting, Start Solving. In your sales process, don’t just hint at the solution. Give it away. The clients who want transformation, not just information, will still hire you to guide them.
• Scarcity Kills Your Service. If your business model relies on keeping secrets from your clients, you’re not only doing them a disservice but also limiting your own potential for impact.
• Your Best Content Should Be Free. Brian shares his philosophy of making his best content—from podcast episodes to his entire book, "Operate"—available for free, trusting that it will attract the right people who need his help with implementation.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, conduct an "Abundance Audit" on your business:

• Where are you holding back information out of fear? Identify one "secret" in your marketing or sales process that you could share freely this week.
• Review your lead magnet or free content. Is it so good that someone would pay for it? If not, how can you level it up?
• Ask yourself: Is my offer focused on delivering information or guaranteeing a transformation? Brainstorm one way you can make the transformation clearer and more central to your offer.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode.
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian.
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to stop hoarding and start sharing.
• Did this episode resonate? Brian would love to hear from you directly! Send him an email at hello [at sign goes here!] imetbrian.com and let him know what you thought.

Ever feel a sense of guilt for charging a high price for something that feels “easy” to you? Do you find yourself justifying your prices by explaining how many hours you’ll put in? If so, you’ve likely fallen into one of the most common and costly entrepreneurial traps: the time for money trap. In this solo episode, Brian breaks down how this "employee hangover" from our 9-to-5 days leaks into every aspect of our business — from pricing and confidence to proposals and messaging. He explains why charging for time punishes efficiency, rewards incompetence, and ultimately puts a cap on your income and impact. This isn't just a talk about hourly pricing; it's a deep dive into the mindset shift required to charge based on the value you create, not the hours you log.

✨ Why This Matters for You

Escaping the time for money trap is essential for sustainable growth:

• It unshackles your income from the number of hours you can work in a day.
• It boosts your confidence by forcing you to recognize the true value and transformation you provide.
• It positions you as a professional who sells outcomes, not an amateur who sells effort.
• It fundamentally changes how you package, message, and sell your offers for higher profits and better clients.
• It protects you from the downward spiral of imposter syndrome that comes from undervaluing your own expertise.

📝 Key Takeaways

• You're Not Selling Time; You're Selling a Transformation. Shift your focus from the product or service you deliver to the result and transformation your client experiences.
• Value the 20 Years, Not the 2 Minutes. As Brian illustrates with the classic plumber story, clients pay for the years of experience that allow you to solve their problem quickly, not for the time it takes to fix it.
• Charging by the Hour Punishes Efficiency. The better and faster you get at what you do, the less you would earn in a time-for-money model. This is a backward incentive for an expert.
• Professionals Charge for Outcomes, Amateurs Charge for Effort. Your value is in the outcome you deliver, not the sweat you break getting there.
• The "Time for Money" Mindset Leaks Everywhere. This isn't just a pricing issue. If you believe your value is tied to your time, it will negatively impact your confidence, your sales conversations, your proposals, and how you view your own business.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, challenge the time for money mindset in your business:

• Identify one offer and re-calculate its price based purely on the value of the outcome or transformation for the client. How does that new number feel?
• The next time you talk to a potential client, ask Brian’s magic question: “What does solving this problem do for you?” Let their answer, not your effort, guide the conversation about value.
• Audit your website or proposals. Are you emphasizing the hours and tasks involved, or are you leading with the incredible results and transformation clients can expect? Make one change to focus more on the outcome.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to stop trading their expertise for a low hourly rate

Ever find yourself thinking, "This one thing... this is what will change everything"? Whether it's a new product launch, a big press mention, or a dream client, we’ve all fallen for the allure of the "silver bullet." In this solo episode, Brian gets personal, sharing a story from his first business when a shout-out on BBC radio sent 30,000 visitors to his site in an hour. He was convinced he’d “made it,” only to find things back to normal the next day. This episode unpacks the Silver Bullet Trap — the dangerous, dopamine-fueled belief that one single event will launch you into stardom. Brian breaks down why this mindset is the #1 threat to your long-term success and how to reframe your thinking from chasing breakthroughs to building lasting momentum.

✨ Why This Matters for You

Understanding the Silver Bullet Trap is crucial for building a sustainable business and a resilient mindset:

• It helps you avoid the devastating mindset crash that follows when a single big moment doesn't deliver the magical results you expected.
• It shifts your focus from chasing one-off wins to building a durable system for growth through consistent, daily actions.
• It teaches you to recognize and leverage "inflection points" for what they are — slight boosts in your trajectory, not finish lines.
• It protects you from becoming complacent after a win or giving up when that one magic moment doesn't immediately change your life.

📝 Key Takeaways

• The Silver Bullet Doesn't Exist. The belief that one single event, launch, or feature will change everything is one of the most common and dangerous traps in entrepreneurship.
• Big Wins are Inflection Points, Not Rocket Launches. A major press feature or a viral post is an inflection point—it slightly changes the slope of your growth. It’s not a vertical launch into overnight success.
• Success is a Compound Effect. Real, lasting growth is the result of small, consistent, and disciplined actions compounding over time.
• Beware the Mindset Crash. Pinning all your hopes and expectations on a single outcome sets you up for a massive psychological letdown if (and when) it doesn't change everything.
• Progress Feels Anticlimactic. The moments that truly build your business often feel small and unremarkable as they're happening. The magic is only visible when you look back over a long period of consistent effort.
• Capitalize, Don't Coast. When an inflection point happens, that's the time to 10x down on the work that matters and squeeze every drop of opportunity from the momentum, not to sit back and relax.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, let’s dismantle the Silver Bullet Trap in your own journey:

• Identify Your "Silver Bullet": What are you currently pinning your hopes on? A product launch? A partnership? A certain revenue goal? Acknowledge it.
• Reframe it as an Inflection Point: Instead of seeing it as the thing that changes everything, ask yourself: "How can this moment give me a slight advantage for what comes next?"
• Create a "Day After" Plan: What is the very first thing you will do the day after your big moment to continue the real work? Don't wait for the results; plan your next move now to maintain momentum.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to stop waiting for one big break and start building their own success.

Ever come back from a networking event with a stack of business cards, feeling like you’ve crushed it, only to hear crickets for weeks? Or maybe you’ve shared your big idea and gotten tons of praise like, “That’s amazing, I’d totally buy that!” but no one ever pulls out their wallet. This is one of the most common and deceptive traps in entrepreneurship. In this solo episode, Brian Lofrumento shares a personal story from his first agency about how he learned the hard way that interest and attention do not equal intention to buy. He breaks down why it's so easy to get fooled by positive feedback and a full pipeline, and reveals why the most critical job you have is moving people from "interested" to "invested."

✨ Why This Matters for You

Understanding this distinction is a game-changer for your business:

• It stops you from wasting months of time and energy on "leads" that will never convert.
• It teaches you how to identify true buying signals and separate them from polite compliments.
• It empowers you to build a pipeline that actually generates revenue, not just a list of contacts.
• You’ll learn to filter feedback so you're only building for your real customers, not just the fans.
• It shifts your mindset from passively waiting for sales to proactively creating them.

📝 Key Takeaways

• Interest ≠ Intention. Polite compliments, encouragement, and attention are not buying signals. Real intention is a commitment to act — to sign a contract, pull out a credit card, or place an order.
• Your Job is to Move People. Don't wait for prospects to nurture themselves. Brian explains that it's your responsibility to build the relationship journey that turns a tiny spark of interest into the blaze of intention.
• Beware of Misleading Feedback. Only take product, pricing, or service feedback seriously from people who have the genuine intention to be your customer. Listening to everyone else can send you in the wrong direction.
• Test for Intention. When someone says, "I'd buy that when you launch," challenge them gently. Ask if they'd pre-pay or what they'd be willing to invest. This separates the talkers from the true buyers.
• Focus on the Intentional, Not the Loudest. Your most valuable prospects might not be the ones giving you the most attention. Spend your energy on those who demonstrate real buying potential, even if they're quiet.
• A Full Pipeline is a Vanity Metric. Brian’s early mistake teaches us that collecting contacts is just the start. The real work—and the real value—is in the follow-up and the intentional building of trust.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, conduct an "Intention Audit" on your business:

• Look at your current pipeline or list of "interested" people. For each person, ask: "What have they done to show intention, not just interest?" (e.g., asked about specific pricing, booked a demo, requested a contract).
• Identify one person who has shown interest but no intention. What is one action you can take this week to actively move them forward and test their intent? (e.g., send a follow-up with a clear call to action).
• The next time someone says "That's a great idea!" thank them and then ask a follow-up question to gauge their actual intent, like "What would a solution like that be worth to you?"

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode of this "Entrepreneurial Traps" mini-series.
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to turn their fans into actual customers.

Kicking off Entrepreneurial Trap Week, Brian dives straight into the most common and dangerous myth that holds founders back: the belief that "if you build it, they will come." He argues this single idea is responsible for the biggest graveyard of failed businesses. In this episode, Brian challenges you to stop hiding behind product development and start focusing on what truly matters—distribution. He explains why even the most brilliant service or revolutionary product is worthless if no one knows it exists and makes a bold claim: you should be spending at least 50% of your time getting your business in front of people. This is the tough love you need to hear to turn your great idea into a real, thriving business.

✨ Why This Matters for You 

This isn't just theory; it's a fundamental shift that can save you from months or years of wasted effort:

• It stops you from endlessly perfecting a product in a vacuum, only to launch to crickets.
• It gives you clarity on the highest-impact activities that actually lead to customers and revenue.
• It helps you overcome the fear of rejection by reframing outreach and marketing as essential, non-negotiable tasks.
• It reveals why some competitors with "worse" products are winning—and how you can beat them at their own game.

📝 Key Takeaways

• The Biggest Trap: Believing that a great product is enough is the most dangerous trap in entrepreneurship. Nothing else matters if you fall into it.
• Ask Two Critical Questions: Before you do anything else, you must be able to answer: 1) Who, specifically, is "they"? and 2) How, specifically, will they come?
• The 50% Rule: Brian insists that at least half of your time, energy, and resources must be dedicated to distribution—the work of getting your offer in front of your ideal customers.
• Distribution > Perfection: A mediocre product with fantastic distribution will always outperform a world-class product with no distribution strategy.
• Action Creates Momentum: Entrepreneurs often retreat into "building" to avoid the hard work and potential rejection of sales and marketing. True progress comes from customer conversations and outreach.
• Build Your Audience First: Brian shares the story of his own podcast, explaining that its top 1% status wasn't luck. It was the result of launching to an audience he had already built from his book, giving him instant distribution.

🚀 Put It Into Action 

This week, take a hard look at where your time is really going:

• Where are you hiding behind "building"? Are you endlessly tweaking your website, logo, or onboarding process instead of talking to potential customers?
• Answer the two questions for your business: Who is your specific "they"? And what is one tangible action you can take today to make sure they see you?
• Do a calendar audit: Does your schedule reflect the 50% rule? If not, block out time specifically for distribution activities like outreach, content creation, or networking.

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode of Entrepreneurial Trap Week.
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who is stuck in the "building" phase and needs to hear this.

Ever feel like you’re doing all the "right" things—launching a podcast, sending follow-up emails, running ads—but getting zero results? In this Solo Sunday episode, Brian pulls back the curtain on a subtle but destructive mindset that sabotages countless entrepreneurs: the "Checkbox Mentality." He reveals why simply "doing the thing" is never enough and how this trap convinces us that effort equals progress, even when it doesn't. Brian shares powerful examples, from sales follow-ups to content creation, to illustrate the massive difference between just checking a box and pursuing excellence. Get ready to confront this common trap and learn how to shift your approach to unlock the results you’ve been working for.

✨ Why This Matters for You 

This isn't just another mindset talk; it's a diagnosis for why your hard work might not be paying off. Understanding and overcoming the checkbox mentality will help you:

• Stop wasting time on activities that produce no real return.
• Transform your marketing and sales efforts from empty actions into powerful, result-generating systems.
• Differentiate yourself from the 99% of competitors who are just going through the motions.
• Shift your focus from being busy to being effective, leading to real, measurable business growth.
• Build a reputation for excellence that attracts high-quality clients and opportunities.

📝 Key Takeaways

• Beware the Checkbox Mentality. It’s the dangerous belief that simply completing a task (like sending one follow-up email) is the same as achieving the goal.
• Effort Isn't Enough; Excellence Is. Showing up is the bare minimum. True success comes from doing things with intention, optimization, and a commitment to being the best.
• "I Tried That" Is a Red Flag. When you hear yourself saying you "tried" podcasting or "tried" ads and it didn't work, it's often a sign that you only checked the box instead of committing to excellence over time.
• Excellence Requires More. The alternative to checking a box is to go above and beyond. Instead of a generic email, send a custom Loom video. It’s more work, but it gets dramatically better results.
• Succeed Through Persistence & Quality. It's not about just doing the thing. As Brian says, it's about "doing the thing long enough and excellent enough until it succeeds."

🚀 Put It Into Action 

This week, Brian challenges you to audit your own actions and escape the checkbox trap. For every task you work on, ask yourself:

• Am I doing this just to get it off my to-do list, or am I striving for an excellent outcome?
• What would it look like to go above and beyond the average person's effort on this task?
• How can I inject more intention, creativity, and energy into this to ensure it produces a real result?

🔗 Stay Connected

• Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode (especially this week's special series on "Entrepreneurial Traps"!).
• Connect with Brian on Instagram @imetbrian
• Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to stop going through the motions and start getting real results.

In this special Collab Week episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, eight founders answer one deeply personal question:

What would you say in a voicemail to your younger self?

You’ll hear from Lisa Larson, Jane Alexander, Nate Hebbert, Nicholas Cook, Mike Gross, Leslie Hemedes, Shawn Sundsvold, and Stephen Custer as they look back on the earlier versions of themselves — the ambitious ones, the scared ones, the grieving ones, the overthinking ones, the waiting ones, and the ones who had no idea how much life and business would eventually teach them.

This episode is full of hard-earned wisdom about trusting the process, accepting help, grieving what you lose, protecting your spark, saying no sooner, starting before you feel ready, surrounding yourself with the right people, and realizing that the path rarely unfolds the way you thought it would.

For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur who feels behind, uncertain, afraid, or tempted to wait for perfect clarity, this episode is a reminder that you do not need the whole road mapped out. You need the courage to take the next step — and the willingness to keep becoming the person your journey is shaping you into.

✨ What You’ll Take Away

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Trust that your experiences are shaping you, even when they feel messy or disappointing.
• Accept help, be vulnerable, and share your story more openly.
• Stop forcing every opportunity to become “the one” and trust the direction your energy is taking you.
• Make room for grief so you can continue loving, dreaming, and building.
• Choose the right people to surround yourself with.
• Say no earlier, think less, and move before everything feels perfect.
• Come back to your “why” when fear, rejection, or uncertainty gets loud.
• Stop waiting for the perfect moment to start the thing that has been on your heart.
• Recognize that some people are wired to build — and that safety is not always the same as alignment.

🎙️ Meet the Collab Week Contributors

Lisa Larson — Mindful Corporate Mastery
Lisa Larson is the founder of Mindful Corporate Mastery, where she helps leaders and high performers build clarity under pressure before reactivity takes control. Her work focuses on performance-focused mindfulness, micro-interventions, and sustainable operating rhythms that support clearer thinking, better decisions, and long-term performance.

Connect with Lisa:
Website: https://www.mindfulcorporatemastery.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-larson-atx/
Free Program: https://awakeningperformance.com/5-day-clarity-challenge/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6EqbbvCrXoBgtEt21ZItVX?si=fMY2efj0S7KTfwCikdibHg

Jane Alexander — Emma Advisor
Jane Alexander is the founder and CEO of Emma Advisor, an AI platform helping families navigate the path from high school to college with more clarity, strategy, and confidence. After an unconventional educational path and more than a decade advising leaders at over 200 colleges and universities, Jane built Emma Advisor from the belief that opportunity should not depend on insider knowledge, social capital, or expensive consultants.

Connect with Jane:
Website: https://emmaadvisor.ai/

Nate Hebbert — SelfWare Consulting
Nate Hebbert is an entrepreneur and software engineer who previously worked for 3M, KPMG, and Domo, where he developed custom Java code for Fortune 500 clients. After burnout threatened to derail his career, Nate became obsessed with helping tech companies beat burnout without pressing pause. Today, he is the founder and CEO of SelfWare Consulting.

Connect with Nate:
Website: https://selfwareconsulting.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beat-burnout
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SelfWareConsulting

Nicholas Cook — Money 101 Academy
Nicholas Cook is a blogger, teacher, real estate investor, and founder of Money 101 Academy. His background includes work as a financial advisor and paraplanner, teaching personal finance, English, literature, theology, investing, and algebra, and building online projects across writing, web design, YouTube, ecommerce, affiliate marketing, and email marketing.

Connect with Nicholas:
Website: https://money101academy.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-cook77/
Life, Business, and Creativity Blog: https://nickcook.blog

Mike Gross — Michael J. Gross LLC / Management System Certification Training Solutions
Mike Gross is a trainer, training provider, consultant, and auditor who helps organizations make sense of ISO standards and apply them in practical ways. With more than 35 years of experience, including growth into executive leadership roles, Mike focuses on helping organizations build understanding through training first, then refine and improve their systems. As a committed solopreneur, his approach is practical, straightforward, and centered on leaving people more capable than when he started.

Connect with Mike:
Website: https://mj-gross.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mj-gross/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/michael-j-gross-llc/
LinkedIn Showcase: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mscertts/

Leslie Hemedes — KeepSaiQ
Dr. Leslie Hemedes is a clinical psychologist, entrepreneur, and founder of KeepSaiQ, a family intelligence platform reimagining how families preserve memories, stories, and meaning across generations. Her work sits at the intersection of psychology, entrepreneurship, technology, and human connection, with a mission to help families preserve not just what happened, but why it mattered.

Connect with Leslie:
Company Website: https://keepsaiq.com/
KeepSaiQ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keepsaiq/
Leslie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-hemedes-psy-d-b02b4022/

Shawn Sundsvold — GoldBear Media
Shawn Sundsvold is the co-founder and COO of GoldBear Media, a marketing agency based in Westminster, Maryland. After years of solving business problems across sales, operations, management, and marketing roles, Shawn joined his wife Kelly full-time in GoldBear Media to help small and medium-sized businesses improve their marketing, branding, online presence, social media, email marketing, and growth.

Connect with Shawn:
Website: https://goldbear.media/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldbear.media/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoldBearMedia

Stephen Custer — Dry Humor Marketing
Stephen Custer started Dry Humor Marketing because he believes marketing is seriously fun. He helps clients combine strategy, data, video, photography, websites, and authentic storytelling so they can inspire people to act instead of simply throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks.

Connect with Stephen:
Website: https://www.dryhumormarketing.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-custer/

🚀 Action Steps For Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

• Write a short voicemail or letter to your younger self. Notice what themes, regrets, or encouragements come up.
• Ask where you are forcing a path instead of following the energy, signals, and opportunities already showing up.
• Identify one area where you need to accept help instead of carrying everything alone.
• Look at one disappointment or closed door and ask whether it might be redirection rather than rejection.
• Choose one thing you have been waiting to start and take the smallest possible step this week.
• Protect your spark by reconnecting with the deeper reason you wanted to build in the first place.
• Surround yourself with one person, room, or community that reflects the kind of life and business you want to grow into.
• Practice saying no to one thing that is not yours to carry.

In this special Collab Week episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, nine founders answer one creative and surprisingly powerful question:

What is a concept from another discipline, hobby, or part of life that changed how you think as a founder?

You’ll hear from Shawn Sundsvold, Jaimz Hodge, Jane Alexander, Drew Dorenfest, Erik Berglund, Lisa Larson, Nate Hebbert, Stephen Custer, and Nicholas Cook as they pull lessons from recovery, fiction writing, gardening, baseball, fitness, running, software engineering, sketch comedy, poetry, and more.

The result is a wide-ranging episode about patience, systems, storytelling, recovery, consistency, craft, perspective, and the small lessons that quietly reshape how we build.

For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur who feels like business wisdom only comes from business books, this episode is a reminder that some of the best founder lessons are hiding in plain sight — in the hobbies you love, the disciplines you practice, the challenges you survive, and the patterns you notice when you slow down enough to pay attention.

✨ What You’ll Take Away

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Use life’s highs and lows as perspective instead of letting them define you.
• Move beyond passion by intentionally studying your craft.
• Build a startup with the patience and care of a gardener.
• Stop swinging for home runs and focus on getting on base consistently.
• Treat your business like something that needs regular self-care.
• Build recovery into your operating rhythm instead of glorifying exhaustion.
• Apply systems thinking from software engineering to business problems.
• Use storytelling to build trust in sales, marketing, and leadership.
• See creative hobbies as training grounds for better communication and business growth.

🎙️ Meet the Collab Week Contributors

Shawn Sundsvold — GoldBear Media
Shawn Sundsvold is the co-founder and COO of GoldBear Media, a marketing agency based in Westminster, Maryland. After years of solving business problems across sales, operations, management, and marketing roles, Shawn joined his wife Kelly full-time in GoldBear Media to help small and medium-sized businesses improve their marketing, branding, online presence, social media, email marketing, and growth.

Connect with Shawn:
Website: https://goldbear.media/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldbear.media/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoldBearMedia

Jaimz Hodge — Cart Catalyst
Jaimz Hodge helps ecommerce brands convert more customers by eliminating the invisible friction in their buying experience, from ad click to checkout. Through Cart Catalyst, he helps entrepreneurs get their products and ideas online, selling through Shopify and advertising through Google Ads.

Connect with Jaimz:
Website: https://www.cartcatalyst.com

Jane Alexander — Emma Advisor
Jane Alexander is the founder and CEO of Emma Advisor, an AI platform helping families navigate the path from high school to college with more clarity, strategy, and confidence. After an unconventional educational path and more than a decade advising leaders at over 200 colleges and universities, Jane built Emma Advisor from the belief that opportunity should not depend on insider knowledge, social capital, or expensive consultants.

Drew Dorenfest — Client Magnet CRM
Drew Dorenfest is a marketing expert who has worked with global brands including Netflix, Apple, Warner Bros., the NFL, and more as a video editor. Today, through Client Magnet CRM, he helps small business owners grow their brands through more clients, more 5-star reviews, stronger SEO, and more sales.

Connect with Drew:
Website: https://clientmagnetcrm.com

Erik Berglund — The Language of Leadership / Loominary
Erik Berglund is the founder of The Language of Leadership and Loominary, where he builds custom skill simulation systems that help teams practice the difficult conversations that drive performance.

Connect with Erik:
Website: https://www.languageofleadership.io
Website: https://www.loominary.io
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emberglund/

Lisa Larson — Mindful Corporate Mastery
Lisa Larson is the founder of Mindful Corporate Mastery, where she helps leaders and high performers build clarity under pressure before reactivity takes control. Her work focuses on performance-focused mindfulness, micro-interventions, and sustainable operating rhythms that support clearer thinking, better decisions, and long-term performance.

Connect with Lisa:
Website: https://www.mindfulcorporatemastery.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-larson-atx/
Free Program: https://awakeningperformance.com/5-day-clarity-challenge/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6EqbbvCrXoBgtEt21ZItVX?si=fMY2efj0S7KTfwCikdibHg

Nate Hebbert — SelfWare Consulting
Nate Hebbert is an entrepreneur and software engineer who previously worked for 3M, KPMG, and Domo, where he developed custom Java code for Fortune 500 clients. After burnout threatened to derail his career, Nate became obsessed with helping tech companies beat burnout without pressing pause. Today, he is the founder and CEO of SelfWare Consulting.

Connect with Nate:
Website: https://selfwareconsulting.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beat-burnout
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SelfWareConsulting

Stephen Custer — Dry Humor Marketing
Stephen Custer started Dry Humor Marketing because he believes marketing is seriously fun. He helps clients combine strategy, data, video, photography, websites, and authentic storytelling so they can inspire people to act instead of simply throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks.

Connect with Stephen:
Website: https://www.dryhumormarketing.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-custer/

Nicholas Cook — Money 101 Academy
Nicholas Cook is a blogger, teacher, real estate investor, and founder of Money 101 Academy. His background includes work as a financial advisor and paraplanner, teaching personal finance, English, literature, theology, investing, and algebra, and building online projects across writing, web design, YouTube, ecommerce, affiliate marketing, and email marketing.

Connect with Nicholas:
Website: https://money101academy.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-cook77/
Life, Business, and Creativity Blog: https://nickcook.blog

🚀 Action Steps For Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

• Identify one hobby, discipline, or life experience that has already taught you something useful about business.
• Pick one area of your business where you have relied on talent or instinct, then study someone who has mastered that craft.
• Replace one “home run” goal with a smaller, repeatable action you can take consistently.
• Block time on your calendar for business self-care: systems, team support, metrics, strategy, or reflection.
• Build recovery into your week before your body or brain forces you to.
• Look at one recurring business problem and break it down like a system: inputs, steps, decisions, outputs.
• Turn one fact-heavy pitch, email, or piece of content into a story with a hook, journey, and takeaway.
• Revisit a creative hobby and ask how it might sharpen your communication, leadership, or founder instincts.