Success | The Barefoot Spirit

How Resourcefulness Can Help Your Business Survive Major Disruptions

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 16:05:01 +0000

Since some of us are still locked down, we may as well have some fun perfecting one of the two most commonly heralded ingredients of entrepreneurial success, resourcefulness.

The other one is tenacity, and together they make an unbeatable duo that most successful entrepreneurs will readily credit for their success.

But for now, let’s just explore resourcefulness (or self-reliance).

Spoiled?

This is almost a lost skill when we live in an age of “push button — get banana” and “write business plan — get financed.” What happens when the buttons don’t work so well and the investors starts to pull in their horns, sort of like now?

To read the complete article, please visit The Busines Journals

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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5 Ways to Make the New Year HAPPY !

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 27 Dec 2018 18:00:47 +0000

For the next few weeks, you’ll hear a lot of folks wishing you a Happy New Year! And you, like us, will no doubt wish them the same. Everyone wants something better for themselves and others, and hopes that a fresh start is possible in the coming year. So, this is the time of year when people feel obligated to make resolutions, create goals, and plan out the year ahead.

But instead of all those pronouncements, perhaps what we really need is to return to a few classic principles. Perhaps we can rediscover some daily practices that will actually help achieve that often wished for, and sometimes elusive, truly Happy New Year. Here’s 5 time-tested principles to help make the New Year…HAPPY!

Civility – Practice Dignity

Value good manners and dignity. Practice respect for others, especially for those with whom you disagree. Shun and refused to participate in language that dehumanizes others. Don’t contribute to conversations that lead to hateful suppositions. Don’t view degrading remarks as amusing but as a threat to the very fabric of cooperation and compromise. Take the highroad and encourage others to join you.

Don’t be a sucker for simplistic views that lead to division and support for demagoguery. Realize that there are no simple answers. Look for and listen to the multiple facets of every challenge. It’s not “just the one thing!” Promote high school civics and the humanities.

Resourcefulness – Do More with Less

Be less wasteful of everything from money, to water, to food, to fuel. Think about the most efficient way to conserve and better utilize the precious resources that we have. Look for more efficient ways to get to work and use less energy. Try to borrow as little as possible, get by with less, and save as much as you can. Are you really hungry? Or is it just time to eat?

Look for ways to solve problems and make a difference with what you have. Stop restricting yourself by excusing your inactivity by stating what you need. Find new solutions with what’s at hand. Look for and use your hidden resources. Recognize what you have and be grateful for your many blessings.

Empathy – Show Respect for Others

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. What do they want, and more importantly, why? Empathy is the backbone of cooperation and cooperation is the backbone of peace. By truly understanding the other parties needs you will be empowered to discover and suggest an arrangement compatible to both sides. As Ivan Misner, the founder of IBN, the world’s largest business network puts it, “Take off the bib and put on the apron!”

Condoning or ignoring any form of group marginalization is ultimately self-defeating because it gives permission for that type of behavior to be perpetrated against your own group. What really makes America great is diversity. Let’s embrace and celebrate what each culture has to add to our future as a nation.

Sustainability – Vote with Your Purchases

We all grew up with books and movies that pitted man against nature. We admired the heroes that overcame the forces of nature and “tamed” her. The idea was that nature was there for the taking. The atmosphere, the land, the plant life, the animals and the oceans could all absorb an infinite amount of harvesting and man-made pollution – forever! That notion was promoted by producers who provided us with products whose very manufacture and use assumed that same fallacy.

In less than a century, that type of thinking has resulted in detrimental climate change, micro-plastics in our food supply, and threats to our own health and welfare. Even if we can’t compete with the powerful lobbies that have rolled back environmental protections, we can vote with our purchases for sustainable products. And we are thrilled that according to Nielsen, our “votes” are beginning to influence the producers!

Healthy Living – Take Care of Yourself!

Know when it’s time to put the phone down, walk outside, stand up straight, look up, take a deep breath, go for a walk, and appreciate nature. Just 3 walks per week significantly improve the mental processes. So it will improve your work as well as your memory.

Take public transportation, bike, or walk to work whenever possible. Shop local and visit your farmers’ market. You’ll get to socialize in real time with real people. It’s more fun than shopping online. And the food is better for you, your community, and your environment.

Develop an interest in doing something that inadvertently puts you in a natural environment, like photography, hiking, jogging, birding, climbing, or gardening. Anything, really, to get outside, exercise your body, clear your mind, and get your eyes off the screen.

Here’s to a truly HAPPY New Year!

Cheers!

M&B

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Problem Solving, Barefoot Style: 5 Steps to Approach Any Problem

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 02:10:13 +0000

The success of the Barefoot Wine brand is living testimony to the problem-solving methods Bonnie Harvey and I employed in our early days. You can use these same methods to help overcome the problems your business faces on its journey from start-up to build-up and from build out to enterprise.

Barefoot Wine is now the world’s largest wine brand, but it had very humble beginnings. Bonnie and I started out in a laundry room in a rented farmhouse. We had no money and no knowledge of our industry. But these two apparent handicaps turned out to be the keys to our success.

Because we were underfinanced, we were forced to become resourceful. Because we were unfamiliar with our industry, we were forced to ask lots of questions.

To read the complete article, please visit Strive Magazine

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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3 Business Functions You Can’t Outsource

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:00:06 +0000

The Burn Rate and Runway

It’s always painful for us to hear a new wantrepreneur talking about the first steps they’re going to take when they go into business. They usually say something like, “Well, if I’m going to go into business, I’m going to need to get an office, a production facility, and a warehouse.” And “I’m going to need a new car, a new truck, new furniture, and new machinery. Oh, and I’m going to need a full staff.”

Interestingly, they believe that their business success is based on the acquisition of those items. They’re excited to hear stories of how similar startups with similar wish lists got funded. Presumably, a big reason for the funding is to support all that overhead in lieu of income from sales for a period of time. This is also known as a “burn rate.” The idea is to get the business all set up with enough in the bank to pay your bills until sales “take off.” This is also known as a “runway.”

The Millstone Around Your Neck

We grimace when we hear these comments. True, their business will eventually need these things, for at least the startup and build up phase. However, these reoccurring monthly costs are a huge millstone around their necks, pulling them down while they’re trying to swim upstream to achieve a positive cash flow. Like it’s not hard enough already? So now, before we even achieve a positive cash flow, let’s put our precious time, money, and attention into building out the business? No!

Some startups may know that sales will be the most difficult part. They suspect it’s a lot of energy for very little return, especially at first. But they can put it off and take refuge in doing something that does “show”, like spending money on assets and overhead. Other startups may just plain underestimate the amount of time, energy and focus it takes to actually make sales happen.

What’s crazy for us is how easy it is to borrow money when there’s hard assets involved. This lending policy further temps startups to put on that millstone. It’s as if the lenders and investors believe they can take those assets back if you default. But even if they can, they’re hard to move and certainly can’t return the full cost.

Focus on Sales not the Millstone

For whatever reason, tying up precious capital in bricks and mortar and bringing on a staff can distract you from your primary objective, sales! You can outsource most of this stuff anyway. In fact, once you free yourself of the monthly millstone, you may decide you don’t want to burden yourself with a bunch of assets and overhead, so you can put more focus on sales. We believe that sales earns these types of assets, not the other way around.

When we started Barefoot Wine, the first thing people would ask us was, “Oh, the wine business! Where are your vineyards and how many acres do you have?” Our answer was simple, “None! But we have sales – lots of sales!”

When we got started, we couldn’t get financing so we had to make sales happen early and often just to survive. We had no runway and we couldn’t afford a millstone. So we outsourced as much as we could. Today we recommend this “beyond lean” startup strategy to our clients.

Outsource Everything But…

We believe you can outsource everything but sales, accounting, and quality control. By doing the sales yourself, especially to get started, you gain a deep respect for the customer and the market fit of your products and services. This will become a priceless experience as you grow your company and ultimately hire and train your own salespeople.

In-house accounting is critical. You need to see the numbers now! You can’t wait a month or two to see what’s happening in your business. It will be too late! That business plan you spent so much time writing is now replaced by the cash flow report. And successful cash flow management turns out to be a critical startup skill.

You can outsource production, but you can’t outsource quality control. You need to have your person in your contracted facilities to ensure quality. Your production contracts must specify in great detail all the requirements necessary before you will pay for those goods and services.

But pretty much everything else can be done by somebody else. And in many cases, better than you can do it yourself. Don’t encumber your fledgling business with a bunch of overhead bills hungry for monthly bucks. Jump on the hardest job, sales! Once you make that sale, you’ll be surprised at how many vendors jump out of the woodwork to help you keep those sales going. After all, your sales are what’s paying everybody’s bills.

The next time a wantrepreneur tells us about their startup plans, we would love to hear them say, “To get started, I’m outsourcing everything except for sales, accounting, and quality control!”

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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3 Lessons to Vitalize Your Business!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 17:08:38 +0000

We recently had the honor of the opening keynote for the Alaska Small Business Development Center’s first annual Vitalize Alaska Conference. The conference was the brainchild of Jon Bittner their new Executive Director. He wanted to encourage and inspire innovation and business development in the new frontier. Over 300 small and medium-sized business owners attended.

The conference was held in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, but still under 300,000. The state is much bigger in area than Texas but lacks the infrastructure we take for granted in the lower 48. As you can imagine, the winters are harsh, and the people are stalwart.

While most of the rest of the country enjoys a booming economy, Alaska suffers from a recession, brought on by the collapse of oil prices in an oil-producing state. Needless to say, they have to find a new path economically and so they are turning to entrepreneurship.

What could we possibly bring to the table that would help them in their challenge? What could we bring that would have a universal and positive impact on those folks who now face raising themselves up by their own bootstraps? We looked at our own bootstrap experience and discovered three practical lessons we could share:

1. Follow Your Opportunity …Passionately!

You often hear, “Follow your passion!” It seems to make sense on its face, since we all need that drive and tenacity that comes naturally when we follow our passion. But you can follow your passion right into the poor house if you are not fortunate enough to have a passion that is in great economic demand.

We followed our opportunity, passionately. The chances are greater that opportunities, not necessarily in your passion, will present themselves more often. We found we didn’t have to give up on our passions to seize the opportunity we were presented with. As a matter of fact, we found many creative ways to use and incorporate our passions into our mercantile business, not the least of which was Worthy Cause Marketing.

We saved a bundle on commercial advertising by supporting worthy causes we were passionate about. We wanted to give the members of those causes a social reason to discover, buy, and advocate our products. This can work in Alaska!

2. Use your Hidden Assets and Resources.

The VC’s have brainwashed most startups and small businesses into believing that the only way to success is to secure a big investment, go through a burn rate, scale fast, and fail fast. If you are playing a numbers game, then you only need one unicorn in 10 if you expect a 10X return. Forbes, the SBA, and others all agree that still, today, 9 out of 10 new businesses fail. ‘Sounds like they are indeed failing fast.

But what if you don’t get a big investor and don’t have the luxury of a big burn rate? If you are like most of us, you don’t! So now we are talking cash flow management. And the secret to cash flow management is reducing your need for cash and growing slowly, but surely!

One hidden asset we had was our top supplier. Outside of product (wine), our biggest need was packaging materials (glass, corks, closures, labels and cartons). Because we were a low priced product with high volume, we would use more of these materials than any of our supply company’s other customers. We certainly let them know this, but we didn’t stop there.

We met with them quarterly to share our growth plans and negotiated a long-term contract. We let them know ahead of time when we couldn’t make our payments. And we gave them a catch-up plan that would bring out account current. Over time, we were able to gain extended credit and terms that saved us from borrowing the money or worse, trading equity for it.

Treating your suppliers as partners to save money can work in Alaska!

3. Put Your Self in the Other Guy’s Shoes.

You hear this all the time. It basically the golden rule. But just how does that translate into practice in the business world? And why does it remove obstacles and speed the processes you rely upon?

We found 7 distinct people we had to sell in order to get our product to market. They each wanted something different. Surprisingly, most of them were interested in something else entirely beside “The best wine and the best price” (our slogan).

For instance, our own people wanted income, acknowledgment, time off, and a company that stood for more that its product. The ownership of our distributors wanted a strategic advantage with a powerful retailer who wanted our product. The distributer’s sales managers wanted to make their numbers. The salespeople wanted to make their commissions. The retailers wanted a proven product with excellent customer service. The store clerks wanted to feel important, so they would recommend and reorder our products. Only the consumer really cared about the wine or the price!

But discovering and delivering what each person in the chain wanted (and not what we thought they wanted) was the key to our success. This can work in Alaska, or, for that matter, anywhere.

We admire the spirit of Alaska, and hope these lessons help vitalize their recovery!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Entrepreneur – The Top 4 Reasons Startups Fail, According to 14 International Accelerators

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Tue, 01 May 2018 15:00:40 +0000

As speakers, advisers and trainers in the entrepreneurial space, we’ve been particularly excited by our December survey of the principles of 14 international accelerators. We wanted to know, from their point of view, what were the key factors in startup success … and failure. As far as we know, this is the most recent study conducted on this subject. Although these folks are from all over the world, it’s amazing how much they agree when it comes to why startups fail.

Inadequate Testing

Inadequate Testing was by far the most mentioned reason for startup failure. This factor is identified by several other terms like not getting started, not understanding how to access the market, and not understanding the barriers to entry. But Greg Wright, founder of HATCH pitch, put it quite succinctly: “Failure to test and validate hypotheses and assumptions,” and its corollary, “Premature scaling (seeking/obtaining funding too early, ramping production/team/advertising before achieving product market fit).”

Keith Hopper, CEO of Danger Fort Labs, adds, “Not addressing an important enough need that customers are willing to pay for.” Ben Hsieh, program manager of Nest and Jason Cole, CEO of Da Primus Consulting, both agree that “not finding product market fit” is a main cause of failure.

To read the complete article, please visit Entrepreneur

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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5 Entrepreneurial Skillsets You Learn in College

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 17:00:41 +0000

In college, it’s not only what they teach that will enable you to be a successful entrepreneur, it’s the skillsets you must acquire just to get through college. About this time of year, many students are near completion of their college year and wondering if they should continue. They keep hearing stories about successful entrepreneurs who gave up on formal education early to get the jump on their entrepreneurial pursuits. They wonder about the value of a college degree in the world of entrepreneurship.

But many students discount the more subtle advantages of attending and finishing college. These advantages are not widely heralded as the primary benefits of completing a formal education, but they are the exact skillsets you need to succeed as an entrepreneur. We are talking about the skillsets that are not taught in the classroom, but the skillsets you must develop and utilize just to survive in the classroom.

We are talking about personal discipline, delayed gratification, and good judgement. These behavioral skills are all required to complete your education and they are all required to increase your chances of success in business. Here’s some critical business skills you gain by completing your education:

How to Prioritize (Also known as strategic planning)

In school, you must develop the ability to Identify and organize a plan of action that gets the most important and time-sensitive jobs done first. Being able to judge the consequences of your various choices is critical to your scholastic survival.

In business, by focusing on your top priorities you are less likely to get blindsided by a fatal oversight. Recognizing the basics, focusing, and not getting easily distracted, are all essential skills necessary to succeed.

How to Extrapolate (Also known as conceptualization)

In order to pass college exams, you must develop the ability to extract concepts from examples and apply them to new situations. You don’t have time to memorize and regurgitate every example. Sooner or later you have to look for, discover, recognize, and apply the reoccurring principles behind those examples.

In business you must learn from your mistakes, and fast! You can’t be successful if you are asking, “Like what?” and, “Give me an example,” over and over again. Extrapolating the principles from the experiences of others as well as your own, and applying them, will save you precious time and dollars.

How to Juggle (Also known as cashflow management)

In college, you have to pay for books and tuition, food and housing, transportation and social life. You are likely undercapitalized and may have a job to support yourself. You have all these bills to pay, plus you have to spread your precious time between all these demands.

In business you will need those juggling skills. Especially starting up, you will be faced with colossal time and money shortages. You will have to juggle your bills with your income, and your time with your commitments.

How to Learn (Also known as analysis and documentation)

In order to pass multiple classes each semester, you must listen for, and not just to, what is being said. You must listen actively, ask questions often, and take notes. You must develop a hypothesis about what is being taught. You simply don’t have the time to take down everything that is said. Outlining helps you learn, retain, and access the important parts of what is being taught.

In business, you must remain objective, take notes, outline, and develop policies and procedures. Because you learned how to learn in college, you are more likely to be a quick study, sift through mountains of information quickly, and understand and apply the essence of what you are learning. You will be more likely to learn from your mistakes. You will be able to create, change, and improve the documents that will make those mistakes less likely to reoccur.

How to Honor Your Commitments (Also known as integrity)

When you see your education through to your degree, you are experiencing the fruits of your labor. You are validating the long nights and personal sacrifices. You completed your goal. You honored your commitment. You did not give up.

In business, your reputation, payment terms and credit limits are on the line! Vendors, lenders, banks and buyers are holding you accountable to do what you say you’re going to do. Seeing project’s through, no matter what the obstacles, is the basis of credibility. Success always takes longer and costs more than you thought. It will require tenacity, patience, and commitment.

Bottom Line: Stay in school and learn what they’re teaching that is not in the curriculum. You’ll be glad you did when you get out there in the world of business!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Is Conventional Wisdom about Starting a Business All Wrong?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 18:00:41 +0000

For years, we’ve been hearing from the business media about scaling fast, burn rates, and failing fast. Everything is fast, fast, fast! But the Department of Commerce puts the failure rate of new ventures at 90% within the first 5 years! Now, that is failing fast! But, is that the outcome startups are really looking to achieve?

Conventional investor wisdom is simple: just invest in 10 – 20 startups, play the numbers game and hope for a unicorn. And the unicorns fill the covers of the business magazines with unlikely stories of instant success. This certainly panders to their readers desire for a fast track to success. But like Las Vegas, it’s only the winners you hear about.

Building the Barefoot Wine brand, we made a ton of mistakes. Since the acquisition, we have been writing, speaking and blogging on two sites about our real-world experiences. We have spoken at over 50 schools that teach entrepreneurship and regularly contribute to several business publications. Our goal is to increase the odds of success by sharing insights that come from actually doing it, so others, like you, don’t have to make the same costly, time-consuming mistakes we did.

We have been promoting the Barefoot Startup movement in an uphill battle against the backdrop of this kind of conventional “fast wisdom” for years. Now, finally, some help is on the horizon. We are absolutely thrilled with the new business book: Shortcut Your Startup: Speed Up Success with Unconventional Advice from the Trenches.

It’s the brain child of Courtney and Carter Reum, the founders of M-13, “a diversified holding and branding development company at the nexus of consumer brands, media and technology.” Their new book promises to “flip traditional startup advice on its head.”

Hailing from the beverage alcohol business like ourselves, we have an added level of respect for this dynamic duo. They created VEEV Spirits and took it through every stage of development from identifying the market opportunity, hand selling, building their customer base, taking it national, expanding their line, and monetizing on their brand equity through a successful acquisition. From what we know first-hand about the difficulties of that particular industry, this is an amazing outcome to a daunting task!

They started VEEV after successful careers at Goldman Sachs. They wanted to create a “one of a kind vodka alternative” with a commitment to sustainability and innovation. And they did just that.

Since then, M-13 has invested and involved itself with over 130 companies in the consumer brand, media, and technology spaces like, Pinterest, Lyft, SpaceX, Warby Parker, Bonobos, Thrive Market, Tender Greens, Pressed Juicery, KeVita, Blue Bottle Coffee, BirchBox, Ring, and more.

Their new book, Shortcut Your Startup, is based on their own experiences and that of their associates. These real-world lessons are a must-read for any serious startup. Some of the principles with which we wholeheartedly agree include:

“Do What You Do Best, and Outsource the Rest.” This is always great advice. Too many startups try to do it all. We used outsourcing for most of our business functions so we could focus on sales and quality control.
“Nail It Before You Scale It.” We like this way of putting it. We say, “Don’t scale to fail,” and, “Get your act together before you take your show on the road.”
“Think Milestones, Not Time.” We advise our clients to understand the milestones and focus on their achievements no matter how long they take.
“Get into the Trenches.” We like to say, “Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty; you will gain insights you can’t see from your office.”
“Gain Buy-In with Heart-Based Momentum.” We advise or clients to “Give your customers a social reason to buy your products, and turn them into advocates.”

There’s much, much more in this great startup toolbox to help you achieve the success you have always imagined. We are proud to give Shortcut Your Startup two toes way up!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Do You Deserve Success Just Because You Follow a Process?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 16:37:28 +0000

Nowadays it seems like everybody wants to work from home and make six figures in six months.

The internet marketing folks are quick to pander to those who are believers. They also are quick to take advantage of impatient and inexperienced views of what it really takes to be successful.

If you think that all you have to do is follow a process and you therefore deserve success, you may as well have a big target on your back with a dollar sign in the bull’s eye. They are looking for you.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Do You Deserve Success Just Because You Follow a Process? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Your Attitude Can Predetermine Your Business Success

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 17:00:53 +0000

“You’ll never make it with that attitude!” You’ve heard it in sports. You’ve heard it in school. And you may have heard it from your parents. You attitude is the filter through which all the input you receive passes, is judged, and is acted upon.

In business, having a constructive and positive attitude is crucial to success. Having a negative and fatalistic attitude can bring on a self-fulfilling prophecy totally detrimental to business success. If you expect negative outcomes, then situations that hide an ultimate advantage will be judged solely and quickly on their apparently negative surface. You may never look deeper to discover the gold.

When we were delivering the Keynote speech for the International Conference on Entrepreneurship in Dublin a few years back, we had the pleasure of meeting a professor from the St. Petersburg State Institute of Technology in Russia. We got talking about the shape of entrepreneurship in his country. He said the biggest obstacle they faced was the negative attitude of the general public toward entrepreneurship. From their perspective, risk taking is fool hearty, destined for failure, and puts a burden on families who have to support failed entrepreneurs. Ouch!

You don’t have to go to Russia to find counter-productive attitudes that doom business success. We have our own home-grown variety. They are baked into the way we were raised, the neighborhood we grew up in, and the schools we attended. They have to do with whether or not you have seen enough success in your life to believe it’s possible. They have to do with whether or not you have a history of overcoming adversity, solving problems, and seeing things through.

We found it very telling that the largest percentage of Inc. 500 entrepreneurs had parents who were also entrepreneurs. This apparently shaped their attitude. At least they knew more about what to expect and that challenges could be overcome with patience, tenacity, and open mindedness.

Can you develop a “can do” attitude without that environmental support? We think so. But it requires listening closely to your own words, expressions, and comments. Terms like, “It’s just my luck,” and “This will probably fail,” and the ever popular, “Sh*t happens!” can erode your positive attitude and incline you to give up at the first sign of adversity. This can blind you to solutions staring you right in the face.

One of the ways we describe “The Barefoot Spirit” is that it is an attitude that says, “This is possible, and I am going to find out how. Sure, it’s going to require more work, more research, and more anxiety, but I can handle it!” The Barefoot Spirit doesn’t just hype you up rah-rah style like a pep rally. It provides actual tools you can use that help make success happen.

If you believe it’s possible and you have the tools, you are more likely to find success. For instance, “Who gets rich if I get rich?” Those are your strategic allies. “Who benefits when this problem is solved?’ Those are the strong players on your team. “Who has already solved this problem in other industries?” Those are your mentors. In other words, with the right attitude, you are not alone.

It’s easier to change your lexicon to positive self-talk and remarks when you know you have access to the tools that can help you handle the unknown. It’s not about luck, it’s about preparation meeting (and recognizing) opportunity. So, prepare yourself with a positive attitude and grab some time-tested and proven tools you can use!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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