Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business

In this episode, Brian sits down with Noah McCloud, the founder of OptiGold PMO, who masterfully translates complex corporate project management principles into actionable strategies for entrepreneurs. Noah shares his journey from managing $600M+ portfolios to taking the leap and building his own business from the ground up. He reveals why most business failures aren't technical but human, rooted in our resistance to change and lack of trust. This episode is a masterclass in mindset, resilience, and the art of delivering visible results quickly to build momentum and prove your value. If you're struggling to manage competing priorities or need the motivation to finally make your own entrepreneurial leap, this conversation is for you.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• The "Human First" Principle: Discover why project failures are almost always human, not technical, and how to build the trust and buy-in needed to drive any initiative forward.
• Deliver Value, Fast: Learn the strategy of delivering something visible and valuable quickly to earn your mandate, whether with clients, stakeholders, or your own team.
• Ditch Reporting Theater: Shift your updates from "scope, schedule, cost" to conversations about trade-offs and strategic decisions that actually move the needle.
• The Entrepreneurial Leap Mindset: Understand the power of the "Try, Fail, Iterate, Get Better" cycle and why embracing rejection is a prerequisite for success.
• From Corporate Expert to Founder: Hear the real story of transitioning from a high-level corporate career to starting from scratch, and why you should spend less time planning and more time testing.
• Leverage Modern Tools, Maintain Human Connection: Learn how to use AI and modern software to accelerate your operational tasks without losing the authentic connection that truly builds a business.

📝 About Noah McCloud

Noah McCloud is the founder and principal advisor of OptiGold PMO, where he builds and rescues project management offices for complex organizations. With over 20 years of experience, he has managed portfolios exceeding $600 million and led massive global technology initiatives. Noah’s core belief is that successful project management is built on human connection and trust, not just processes and tools. He took the leap into entrepreneurship to build something meaningful for his family, bringing his wealth of enterprise-level experience to the business world with a focus on agility and rapid value delivery.

🎯 Noah’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Don't quit. Don't give up on yourself. Remember why you started down the path... Find your why and why you want to do this. And, that first day that you step out, write that why down."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• "Everything that you're trying to do to get to where you want to be in entrepreneurship is behind the things you're avoiding." – Noah McCloud
• "You wanna fall in love with the journey and the process to step out on your own because it's not something that's gonna happen overnight." – Noah McCloud
• "Try, fail, iterate, and get better. And people will notice that. People will notice that and they'll want to work with you because you're giving it your all and really, improving every day." – Noah McCloud

💡 Actionable Takeaways

• Write Down Your "Why": Take 15 minutes today to write down exactly why you started (or want to start) your business. Keep it somewhere you can see it daily.
• Identify One "Quick Win": Look at your current projects or client work. Find one small, visible result you can deliver this week to build trust and momentum.
• Test, Don't Over-Plan: If you have a business idea, spend less time on the perfect business plan and more time getting feedback from the market. Take one small step to test your idea this week.
• Reframe a Project Update: In your next client or team meeting, consciously shift the conversation away from a simple status report and towards strategic decisions and trade-offs.

🔗 Links & Resources

• Website: https://optigoldpmo.com
• Connect with Noah on LinkedIn
• Follow OptiGold PMO on LinkedIn

Tired of the daily "what's for dinner?" struggle and the mental gymnastics of healthy eating? Sushmitha Kanukurthi, a data scientist with over 20 years of experience at companies like Meta, turned this universal problem into her mission. She founded Nuven, a health-tech platform that acts as your personal AI kitchen assistant. This episode is a masterclass in leveraging deep professional expertise to build a unique, data-driven solution in a crowded market. For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur, Sushmitha’s story is packed with invaluable lessons on listening to user feedback, the power of pivoting, and why being married to the problem—not your initial solution—is the ultimate key to success.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• Leverage Your Unique Expertise: Discover how Sushmitha’s 20-year career in data science gave her a unique edge in identifying signals and building a tech solution for the food industry.
• Solve the Mental Load: Learn how to identify and solve the "mental load" for your customers to create an indispensable product they'll use daily.
• The Power of the Pivot: Understand when to listen to the "buts" from your users and have the courage to pivot away from your original idea to build something truly valuable.
• Win in a Crowded Market: Find out how focusing on a niche (culturally relevant food) and a unique value proposition (end-to-end kitchen management) can help you stand out.
• AI with a Purpose: See how to integrate AI intentionally to solve core user problems, rather than just using it as a buzzword.
• Build a Real Feedback Loop: Learn how to create a direct line to your users and use their insights to drive every product iteration.

📝 About Sushmitha Kanukurthi

Sushmitha Kanukurthi is a 20-year veteran of data science and analytics who has pivoted her extensive expertise into the world of health tech. She is the founder of Nuven, an AI-powered platform designed to make healthy home cooking simple, personalized, and culturally relevant. After becoming a mother and growing concerned about the food system, Sushmitha combined her professional skills with her personal passion to solve the daily mental load of meal planning for families. Her data-driven approach offers a unique perspective on building a consumer-facing product that truly listens to and evolves with its users.

🎯 Sush’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Don't be married to the solution, be married to the problem."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• "When you see the signal across the board and you see that there is no real solution to this problem yet... now is the time for me to take a plunge." – Sushmitha Kanukurthi
• "When you give people culturally relevant foods, foods that are familiar to them, that they grew up eating and help them figure out how to make that healthier. That's what will make it sustainable for them." – Sushmitha Kanukurthi
• "I was very married to the solution I was building... every time I talk to the user, I would get feedback that, hey, you know what, this is great, but... by the fifth or sixth time, I was like, okay, these buts seem to be never-ending, so we gotta figure out a way to nip this in the bud." – Sushmitha Kanukurthi

💡 Actionable Takeaways

• Listen for the "Buts": When gathering user feedback, pay close attention to qualified praise ("it's great, but..."). Consistent "buts" are a clear signal that a pivot or iteration is needed.
• Audit Your Professional Skills: Identify the unique skills from your career (like data analysis, marketing, or project management) and consider how they can be your unfair advantage in a new venture.
• Start Marketing Yourself: Even without a budget, embrace the role of a marketer. Start building a social media presence for your brand and enjoy the process of connecting with your audience.
• Focus on a Niche: Don't try to be everything to everyone. Find a specific, underserved angle (like cultural relevance in food) to build a loyal early-adopter base.

🔗 Links & Resources

• Website: https://www.gonuven.com/
• Connect with Sushmitha on LinkedIn
• Follow Nuven on LinkedIn

Ever feel like the evidence is stacked against you? A failed proposal, a critical email, or even that voice of self-doubt in your own head can feel like proof that you’re on the wrong track. In this Solo Sunday episode, Brian Lofrumento dives into a controversial but essential trait for every founder: delusion. He argues that in a world overflowing with evidence that you’ll fail, the only way to succeed is to be delusional enough to believe you will win anyway. Brian breaks down why this mindset is critical, how the most successful founders use it to their advantage, and why you need to stop looking for criticism and start looking for reasons to believe.

✨ Why This Matters for You

Embracing a healthy dose of delusion is a game-changer for entrepreneurs:

• It’s your shield against the constant negativity and criticism that can paralyze your progress.
• It empowers you to keep moving forward when the data, the feedback, and the circumstances all scream "stop."
• It helps you understand that your belief in your success is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• It frees you from the trap of constantly seeking validation and allows you to build based on your vision.
• It’s the fuel that gets you over the mountain of obstacles to the other side where your supporters are waiting.

📝 Key Takeaways

• Delusion is a Prerequisite for Success. It’s the ability to believe in your vision despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
• Negative Evidence is Everywhere. From failed pitches to your own self-doubt, reasons to quit will always be abundant. The key is to consciously ignore them.
• Your Belief Determines Your Reality. As Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right." You have to choose to believe you can.
• Beware of Over-Seeking Criticism. If you ask for negative feedback, you will always get it. Successful founders protect their delusional mindset by surrounding themselves with believers, not just critics.
• Find Your "Green Team" Evidence. For every piece of "red team" evidence that says you'll fail, there's "green team" evidence that says you'll succeed. Your job is to find and focus on the green.
• The Market Will Test You. The world will provide plenty of criticism and negative feedback on its own. You don’t need to go searching for more of it.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, conduct a "Green Team" audit of your own business:

• Identify one area where you've been focused on the negative evidence (e.g., low conversion rates, a critical comment).
• Now, actively search for three pieces of "green team" evidence in that same area. This could be a single positive customer review, one successful sale, or even just your own unwavering belief in the product.
• Write them down and make them your focus for the week. Choose to be delusional and act as if that green evidence is the only thing that matters.

🔗 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 permission to be a little more delusional

In this special Collab Week episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, 13 founders come together to answer one deceptively powerful question:

Tell us about something you picked up during your school years that had nothing to do with the actual coursework, but has helped you in day-to-day as a business owner.

From a nightly outfit ritual that taught preparedness, to a rugby final that taught the difference between the right action and the right outcome, to a boss's two-word correction that reframed an entire philosophy of customer service, this is a wide-ranging episode that's a reminder that the most useful business lessons rarely show up on a syllabus.

For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur who's ever wondered whether their "unrelated" hobbies, jobs, or offbeat professors actually mattered, this episode is proof they did — and a nudge to go looking for the lesson hiding in whatever felt like a distraction at the time.

✨ What You'll Take Away

In this episode, you'll learn how to:

• How sourcing advice from total outsiders gives you unbiased market intel
• Why knowing when you're being told something wrong matters more than ever in the AI era
• How getting comfortable around smarter people builds stronger partnerships
• Why arguing both sides of an idea (respectfully) leads to better decisions
• How choosing the right action over the desired outcome protects your progress
• Why choosing the pain of discipline beats the pain of regret, every time
• Why realistic workloads (not cramming) make you a better manager and leader

🎙️ Meet the Collab Week Contributors

Patricia Ballivian — Altura Strategies
Founder of Altura Strategies, helping founders bring clarity and structure to the messy realities of scaling.
Website: https://www.alturastrategies.net/

Drew Mehta — ThinkFraction
20+ years in corporate; now helps owner-operators grow revenue by fixing back-end workflow leaks and applying AI the right way.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhroovmehta/

John Lunsford — Tethral
Engineer, anthropologist, and PhD in tech adoption; formerly led AI and personal safety at Uber, now founder/CEO of Tethral.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-lunsford/

Arjun Bidesi — Orcana.AI
Co-founder/CEO of Orcana.AI, closing the gap between operating plans and actual performance with AI-driven insights.
Website: https://www.orcana.ai/

Stephen Custer — Dry Humor Marketing
Owner of Dry Humor Marketing, pairing serious strategy and data with authentic storytelling that gets people to act.
Website: https://www.dryhumormarketing.com/

David Beltran — Accord Intelligence
Founder/CEO of Accord Intelligence, building the decision layer that keeps humans accountable for AI-driven decisions.
Website: https://www.accordintelligence.ai/

Zeyno Dodd — AlgiSense
Co-founder of AlgiSense, developing AI-driven EEG biomarkers to objectively measure pain.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeynoaygendodd/

Raamon Newman — New Mavericks
Co-founder of New Mavericks, a CEO leadership development partnership; co-author of The Science of Protection.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raamonnewman/

Mike Gross — Michael J. Gross, LLC
Trainer, consultant, and auditor helping organizations apply ISO standards practically, with 35+ years of experience.
Website: https://mj-gross.com/

Nicholas Cook — Money 101 Academy
Founder of Money 101 Academy and owner of Prime Land Properties; also writes at The Place Blog.
Website: https://money101academy.com/

Erik Berglund — Loominary
Founder of Loominary, building skill simulation systems for practicing business's hardest conversations.
Website: https://www.loominary.io/

Nate Hebbert — SelfWare Consulting
Founder of SelfWare Consulting, helping small business owners beat burnout without pressing pause.
Website: https://selfwareconsulting.com/

Brandon Pankey — Blue Pine Works
Founder and owner of Blue Pine Works, an arboriculture and land stewardship company in East Central Minnesota.
Website: https://bluepineworks.com/

Tired of wrestling with clunky spreadsheets or paying a fortune for software that doesn't quite fit your business? James Edgell, a former technology leader at giants like McDonald's, IBM, and Deloitte, is here to show you a better way. He shares how his new venture, SoftExit Studio, is using AI to make custom business software accessible and affordable for everyone. This episode is a masterclass in leveraging technology to solve real-world business problems without a team of developers or a venture capital budget. James breaks down how any entrepreneur can now build the exact tools they need to scale, automate, and finally get out of "spreadsheet hell."

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

•  🔧 How to escape "spreadsheet chaos" and the growth plateau it causes for so many small businesses.
•  🤖 Why AI-driven configuration (not code generation) is the key to building stable, bug-free custom applications quickly and affordably.
•  🚀 The single most powerful (and boring) concept James learned in big business that you can apply to scale your small business.
•  💰 How to build powerful, custom tools like CRMs and inventory systems without paying for expensive AI tokens or hosting fees.
•  📈 A framework for identifying the hidden gaps in your operations that are perfect candidates for a custom software solution.
•  🤝 How to use AI as your "brutally honest" co-founder to pressure-test ideas and build a rock-solid business plan.
•  🛠️ Why bootstrapping a powerful tech-enabled business is more achievable now than ever before.

📝 About James Edgell

James Edgell is a seasoned technology executive, entrepreneur, and the founder of SoftExit. With a high-impact career spanning roles at IBM, Motorola, and McDonald's, he was a key leader behind the digital platforms that served millions of customers, including the McDonald's mobile app. James has a unique talent for transforming complex business challenges into practical, scalable technology solutions. Now, he's on a mission to empower small and mid-sized businesses with SoftExit Studio, an AI-enabled platform that makes custom software a reality for entrepreneurs everywhere.

🎯 James’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

“This is the most exciting time for entrepreneurs… AI can be your co-founder. I mean, you finally have somebody you can bounce ideas off of that knows everything… Get out there and try it and do it… This is the time where bootstrapping actually makes sense.”

📢 Memorable Quotes

•  “I learned something that was incredibly boring, incredibly powerful, and it's called process. And it is absolutely amazing.” – James Edgell
• “A lot of companies… end up dropping back to spreadsheets. And then when they start to grow, that kind of plateaus their success because now they're in all these spreadsheets up to their neck and none of them work together.” – James Edgell
• “We're going to provide a great service to a lot of companies at an affordable price for our entire existence.” – James Edgell

💡 Actionable Takeaways

•  ✅ Audit Your Spreadsheets: Identify the one spreadsheet in your business that is the most complicated, error-prone, or critical to your operations. This is your first opportunity for a custom solution.
•  ✅ Think Like a Change Agent: Step back and work on your business. Ask yourself: "If I could build any tool to solve my biggest daily frustration, what would it do?"
•  ✅ Use AI to Challenge Your Business: Go to your favorite AI chatbot and prompt it with: "Be brutally honest and attack the weaknesses in this business idea..." See what you uncover.
•  ✅ Explore No-Code First: Before assuming custom software is too expensive or complicated, explore an affordable platform like SoftExit. You might be surprised by how quickly you can solve a major business problem.

🔗 Links & Resources

• Website: http://www.softexit.com/
• Connect with James on LinkedIn
• Follow SoftExit on LinkedIn
• Follow SoftExit on Facebook

Tired of hearing about AI as a novelty? This episode cuts through the noise. Serial entrepreneur Marty Reed joins the show to reveal how to implement AI with a founder’s mindset, focusing on one thing: a tangible return on investment. He explains why simply chatting with an LLM is the lowest bar and shares how to build custom AI agents that automate complex workflows, multiply your team's productivity, and directly impact your P&L. For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur feeling overwhelmed by AI, Marty provides a clear, strategic playbook for leveraging this technology to build a more efficient, scalable, and profitable business. This isn't about AI for AI's sake; it's about making AI work for you.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• Beyond the Chatbot: How to move from basic AI prompts to building "agentic tooling" that automates repetitive, time-consuming tasks across your business.
• The 5X Productivity Formula: Learn how AI can analyze thousands of data points (like customer emails) to create automated workflows that make your team five times more productive.
• The Founder’s ROI Playbook: Discover how to identify the highest-impact areas for AI implementation and calculate the financial return before you invest a single dollar.
• Context is King: Understand why giving AI access to your unique data (emails, meeting transcripts) is the secret to making it an invaluable, personalized executive assistant.
• Human Capital Multiplier: Reframe your thinking from AI as a job "displacer" to a powerful "multiplier" that frees up your team for high-value strategic work.
• Winning Over the Skeptics: Learn the strategy for turning AI naysayers on your team into your biggest advocates and drivers of adoption.
• From Two Weeks to 20 Minutes: Hear a real-world example of how AI condensed a complex, two-week reporting process into a 20-minute automated task.

📝 About Marty Reed

Marty Reed is the managing partner of Apex AI Advisors and a seasoned serial entrepreneur who has founded seven companies and successfully exited four. With a deep background in finance and operations, Marty approaches technology from a business-first perspective. His last venture, an edtech company called Aranda Solutions, deployed statewide data systems in 35 states and 7 countries. Marty’s unique expertise lies in his ability to look past the AI hype and pinpoint exactly where it can deliver measurable ROI, making him an invaluable guide for founders looking to build smarter, more efficient companies.

🎯 Marty’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"I don't know where we're going and I know exactly how to get there."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• “Adoption is ROI, period. And as long as you have adoption, ROI will follow.” – Marty Reed
• “[AI is] a really smart executive assistant that has no idea what you do or how you do it... How do we leverage this tool... to really have impact on our business?” – Marty Reed
• “This is all about multiplying, right? All about multiplying capital, all about multiplying human capital. And how do you leverage those really, really smart people?” – Marty Reed

💡 Actionable Takeaways

• Audit Your Workflow: Identify one repetitive, time-consuming task you do daily or weekly. This is your first target for AI automation.
• Give Your AI Context: Instead of re-explaining your business in every prompt, connect your AI tool to your emails or meeting transcripts to create a personalized assistant that understands you.
• Calculate the ROI First: Before building a complex AI solution, ask yourself: "If this task was automated, how many hours would it save my team per month?" and "What is that time worth?"
• Convert a Naysayer: Find a skeptical team member and offer to build a simple automation that solves one of their biggest daily frustrations. Their success will drive wider adoption.
• Schedule Your Learning: Create a recurring task in your calendar to spend 15 minutes testing the latest AI models with a baseline question to see how they’re improving.

🔗 Links & Resources

• Website: https://apexblueprint.ai
• Connect with Marty on LinkedIn

In an era where AI tools like ChatGPT are making it easier than ever for students to cheat, how can we ensure real learning is still happening? This episode dives deep with Kevin Doshi and Patrick Roscio, the co-founders of Scholera, an AI-native platform designed to solve the biggest problems plaguing education today. They share their incredible journey from identifying a critical issue in academia—partly from their own experiences—to building a sophisticated tech solution from the ground up. This isn't just a story about EdTech; it's a masterclass in how to tackle a complex societal issue, find a co-founder with a shared vision on LinkedIn, and navigate the challenges of selling a disruptive product to a traditional industry. For any entrepreneur looking to solve a meaningful problem, this conversation is packed with insights on product development, market positioning, and the relentless drive required to build something that matters.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• How to spot a massive business opportunity by analyzing the unintended consequences of new technology (like AI in classrooms).
• The framework for turning a personal pain point into a scalable, tech-driven business idea.
• Why building a "memory layer" for your platform can create a deep, analytical moat that competitors can't easily replicate.
• Strategies for navigating a long sales cycle in a traditional industry like education by finding internal change agents and running pilot programs.
• How to leverage your co-founder's unique perspective to build a more robust and well-rounded product.
• The art of filtering feedback—knowing when to listen to criticism and when to block out the negative energy to stay focused on your vision.
• Why solving the core problem is more important than ever, especially when AI makes the "building" part of a tech business easier.

📝 About Kevin Doshi & Patrick Roscio

Kevin Doshi and Patrick Roscio are the innovative co-founders of Scholera, an AI-native learning platform for universities. Kevin, who grew up learning the fundamentals of customer relationships in his father’s stationery store in Mumbai, brought his computer science expertise from Stevens Institute of Technology to conceptualize Scholera. Patrick, also an engineer from Stevens, was inspired to tackle the AI cheating problem after seeing his own reliance on AI tools as a student and recognizing the skills gap it created in the professional world. Together, their shared vision and complementary experiences led them to build a platform that addresses the core issues of modern education head-on.

🎯 Kevin’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Startups are not just about making money. It's really about trying to solve a problem which maybe you faced… go out there and trying to solve that problem… fail 100 times. But I guess you need just that one time you need to succeed."

🎯 Patrick’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"You can't listen to people who are trying to put you down... you can't let negative energy and you can't let negative people turn you away from something that's gonna be great."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• "With AI now, the building part has become really very easy now... We now really have to try to solve the problem because the problem-solving part needs to be easier and spot on." – Kevin Doshi
• "You need one happy customer which will lead you to maybe 100 or 1,000 happy customers." – Kevin Doshi
• "It's not just about getting to the final answer, it's really about the journey, which we all know is where the learning really happens." – Patrick Roscio
• "For anybody that's going to put you down or any bad thing that happens along your journey to success, you have to take it in stride. Just keep plugging away at the problem and eventually you'll get there." – Patrick Roscio

💡 Actionable Takeaways

• Identify a new technology trend in your industry and ask: "What is the biggest unintended problem this creates?" This is often where the most valuable business opportunities are hiding.
• If you're looking for a co-founder, optimize your LinkedIn profile and start engaging with people in your target industry. A single, well-crafted message can lead to a game-changing partnership.
• Instead of thinking about how to ban or fight a disruptive force (like AI), brainstorm how you can build a tool that harnesses its power for a positive outcome.
• This week, reach out to five potential customers and ask them about their biggest challenges—don't pitch them, just listen. Use this research to validate or refine your business idea, just as Kevin did with university professors.

🔗 Links & Resources

• Website: https://scholera-inc.com/
• Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn
• Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn
• Follow Scholera on LinkedIn

Felix Vicknair, an executive business advisor with 25 years of experience in supply chain and operational excellence, joins the show to demystify how small businesses can leverage the strategies of global corporations. He explains why focusing solely on revenue growth is a mistake and reveals the hidden opportunities for profit and efficiency that most entrepreneurs overlook in their day-to-day operations. This episode is a masterclass for any founder who feels overwhelmed and is looking for a structured way to lower costs, improve results, and build a more resilient business. Felix breaks down complex concepts like Lean Six Sigma and process standardization into simple, actionable steps you can apply immediately, regardless of your company's size.

💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business

• How to adopt a "big business" mindset to find hidden profits and efficiencies in your small business.
• The secret to consistent, high-quality results by standardizing your core processes (and why "asking Joe" is a recipe for disaster).
• Why balancing revenue growth with expense control is crucial for long-term stability and profitability.
• How to use data and AI as a strategic tool without falling into the trap of blindly following numbers.
• The framework for identifying which tasks to automate or simplify so your team can focus on high-value activities.
• Why you don't need an in-house engineering team to achieve operational excellence.
• How to overcome personal limitations (like being an introvert) to become the leader your business needs.

📝 About Felix Vicknair

Felix Vicknair is an executive business advisor and the founder of United Business Works. With a background as an industrial engineer and over 25 years of experience in supply chain consulting for large global corporations, he has a unique talent for identifying operational inefficiencies. Felix is now on a mission to bring those same high-impact solutions—from cost reduction and process optimization to automation—to small businesses and nonprofits that are ready to scale. His hands-on approach helps entrepreneurs stop reinventing the wheel and start building more profitable, efficient, and sustainable companies.

🎯 Felix’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs

"Nobody has all the answers."

📢 Memorable Quotes

• “If you're not actively thinking about ways to drive change, to take advantage of how things are moving in markets and in the world, you're falling behind.” – Felix Vicknair
• “Data tells a story that it's not emotionally bound to how an operation performed on any given day. It doesn't have biases towards feelings or just experiences in the way that sometimes people do.” – Felix Vicknair

💡 Actionable Takeaways

• Document one core process this week. It could be how you onboard a new client or fulfill an order. The goal is to get it out of someone’s head and onto paper to create consistency.
• Conduct a "tech bloat" audit. Review all your software subscriptions and cancel any licenses or tools you are no longer using.
• Identify one person in your network you can ask for feedback on a current business challenge. Schedule a 15-minute call with them.
• Look at your daily tasks and identify one repetitive, low-value activity that could be simplified or automated.

🔗 Links & Resources

• Website: https://unitedbusinessworks.com/
• Connect with Felix on LinkedIn
• Follow United Business Works on LinkedIn

Are you stuck in the "idea phase," convinced that your success hinges on creating something brand new that the world has never seen? In this Solo Sunday episode, Brian Lofrumento breaks down a critical pattern he’s observed that separates wantrepreneurs from successful entrepreneurs: the obsession with novelty. He reveals why experienced founders don't look for new ideas, but instead focus on what's already proven to work. Drawing on powerful stories—including the man who invented AstroTurf too early and Russell Brunson’s warning about pioneers—Brian explains why your energy is better spent on execution, not invention. This episode is a must-listen if you're ready to get out of the brainstorming phase and into building a real, profitable business.

✨ Why This Matters for You

This mindset shift can save you years of frustration and wasted effort:

• It frees you from the immense pressure of having to invent the "next big thing."
• It gives you a clear roadmap to follow by modeling what's already successful in the marketplace.
• It helps you avoid the costly trap of trying to educate a market on a brand-new concept.
• It shifts your focus from the "idea" to the three things that actually drive success: marketing, sales, and delivery.

📝 Key Takeaways

• Proven > New. Wantrepreneurs believe their success is tied to a revolutionary idea. Entrepreneurs know success comes from leveraging proven models.
• Execution is Everything. A simple idea with brilliant marketing, sales, and delivery will always beat a brilliant idea with poor execution.
• Pioneers Get the Arrows. As Brian shares, the first to market is often the one who fails, paving the way for others to learn from their mistakes and succeed.
• Don't Reinvent the Wheel. There's a reason established business models work—the market is already spending money there. Your job is to step in and serve that market, maybe just a little bit better.
• Innovation Happens Within Lanes. True, sustainable innovation isn't about creating a whole new industry; it's about improving on what already exists within a proven market.

🚀 Put It Into Action

This week, stop brainstorming and start analyzing:

• Pick an industry you're passionate about.
• Instead of trying to come up with a "new" idea, find 3-5 businesses that are already crushing it in that space.
• Study them. What are they selling? How are they marketing? Who are their customers?
• Ask yourself one simple question: "What is the one thing I could do just a little bit better than them?" That’s your starting point.

🔗 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 is stuck trying to find the "perfect" new idea

In this special collab episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, 16 founders come together to answer one deceptively powerful question:

What does "hard work" mean to you, and how is it different from when you started your business?

It's a wide-ranging episode about what hard work really means once volume stops being the measure — from swapping busyness for stillness, to learning to make the ask, to discovering that AI has moved the hard part from typing to thinking. Across all seventeen answers, one thread holds: hard work stopped being about how much these founders could carry, and started being about what they have the discipline to put down.

For any wantrepreneur or entrepreneur who still measures their effort in hours logged, meetings taken, or how exhausted they feel at the end of the day, this episode is a reset. Seventeen founders, across wildly different industries, arrived at strikingly similar conclusions: hard work isn't disappearing as they grow — it's relocating, from the doing to the deciding, from the hours to the judgment behind them.

🎙️ Meet the Collab Week Contributors

Lisa Larson — Mindful Corporate Mastery

After 25+ years in corporate tech, Lisa founded Mindful Corporate Mastery to help high-performing professionals manage stress and decisions differently than she once did.

Website: https://www.mindfulcorporatemastery.com/

Nate Hebbert — SelfWare Consulting

A former software engineer at 3M, KPMG, and Domo, Nate now runs SelfWare Consulting, helping tech companies and small business owners beat burnout without pausing growth.

Website: https://selfwareconsulting.com/

Shawn Sundsvold — GoldBear Media

Shawn co-founded GoldBear Media with his wife Kelly in 2020, helping small and medium businesses get more out of social media and email marketing.

Website: https://goldbear.media/

Erik Berglund — Loominary

Erik founded The Language of Leadership and Loominary, building skill simulation systems that let people practice their business's hardest conversations.

Website: https://www.loominary.io/

Sheri Roder — Get UnStuck HQ

After 40+ years in corporate life, Sheri launched Get UnStuck HQ, a coaching practice that helps clients turn a messy, complicated choice into a decision they can act on.

Website: https://www.getunstuckhq.com/

Brandon Pankey — Blue Pine Works

Brandon is the founder and owner of Blue Pine Works, an arboriculture and land stewardship company. He and his wife Kay lead the company in East Central Minnesota.

Website: https://bluepineworks.com/

Kevin Kertes — advanceMEN Coaching

A former 30-year music industry executive, Kevin now runs advanceMEN Coaching, helping capable men confront postponed decisions and move forward with confidence.

Website: https://www.advancemencoaching.com/

Brandon Katz — DreamLever

Brandon is founder and CEO of DreamLever, an AI system that learns a business from its own meetings and drives the right work forward, after 4 years as Chief of Staff at Fine Fettle.

Website: https://www.dreamlever.ai/

Raamon Newman — New Mavericks

Raamon co-founded New Mavericks 25 years ago as a full-time meditating monk, and now leads CEO development work with founders scaling companies into the billions.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raamonnewman/

Patricia Ballivian — Altura Strategies

Originally from Bolivia, Patricia founded Altura Strategies to help growing businesses align their operations, systems, and people.

Website: https://www.alturastrategies.net/

Sara Reece — Workmind

Sara is CEO and co-founder of Workmind, helping organizations use operations-first automation to eliminate friction and grow without adding headcount.

Website: https://workmind.cloud/partners/

Mike Gross — Michael J. Gross, LLC

With 35+ years of experience, Mike runs Michael J. Gross, LLC, providing practical ISO training and consulting built on what already works.

Website: https://mj-gross.com/

Stephen Custer — Dry Humor Marketing

Stephen built Dry Humor Marketing as a one-man show helping businesses tell their story through video, photography, and web design, before hiring his first contractor last November.

Website: https://www.dryhumormarketing.com/

Drew Mehta — ThinkFraction

After 20+ years in corporate, Drew founded ThinkFraction to help owner-operators fix the leaks in their back-end workflows and put AI to work the right way.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhroovmehta/

Rami Akeela — Nera Systems

With 20+ years in hardware, software, and cryptography, Rami founded Nera Systems, a confidential AI company helping enterprises use AI on their most sensitive data.

Website: https://nera.systems/

David Beltran — Accord Intelligence

After 14 years at IBM in cybersecurity and identity, David founded Accord Intelligence, building the decision layer that helps organizations govern and trust their AI.

Website: https://www.accordintelligence.ai/