Misfit Entrepreneur February 2022 - 288: I Am NOT Someone Else’s Retirement Plan, Building a Badass Business with Donnie Boivin

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Dave Lukas Chats with Donnie Boivin

288: I Am NOT Someone Else’s Retirement Plan, Building a Badass Business with Donnie Boivin

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Donnie Boivin. Donnie is a Marine Corp veteran, award winning professional sales trainer, and owner of Success Champions and Success Champions Podcast. After leaving the Marine Corp and working in sales and business for almost 20 years, at the age of 40, Donnie realized he was not living his dream. So, he set out to create it.

Donnie is author of best-selling book, How to Be a Success Champion, Business Strategy for Badasses.

What I love most about Donnie is his no BS, direct style. The guy gets results. So, I’ve asked him on the share his best on how you can do the same in your life and business.

Text “Success” to: 817-318-6030 (Donnie will send a bunch of great stuff to you)

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Show Notes

After the Marine Corps, Donnie spent 20 years in straight commission sales. His last career was as on one of the top sales trainers in the country for the Sandler Sales Institute. He was all set to buy the business from his boss when his boss told him something that would change his life. His boss, out of love, said “Thank God, you are my retirement plan.” It was in that moment that he realized he was building something for someone else and was their retirement plan. 15 days later, he launched his company and went out on his own.

Nowadays he runs 6 companies, 2 of the top podcasts in the world, and has written 4 Best-Selling books, plus he owns a working farm.

What is a success champion?

Someone who is chasing their own success.
At the 5 min mark, Donnie relates this to the movie Troy. Achilles is the champion.
A success champion is chasing life so they can find their own business freedom.

What is a badass in business?

Someone who knowingly gets up every day knowing they are going to get punched in the face by life but does it anyway.
Most people think business is fairly straightforward and easy. They are not prepared for the amount of work and dedication it truly takes.
The badass is excited to get to work knowing things are going to be a wreck and they will have to sort through it, plus do all the other things in their life like taking care of the family.
They enjoy the struggle.

At the 10:30 mark, Donnie and I have a great conversation about the DCP formula.

Donnie ads that you have to know what you need to be disciplined about. You need to be focused and stay in your lane and delegate out what is not your lane.

What are the strategies you’ve used to create and build your businesses?

Writing down everything you have to do in the business. Everything.
Then ask yourself, “Would Steve Jobs do this task?” If not, as a CEO of a company, you need to decide what it is you should be doing.
And you may not be able to afford to outsource everything, but you and trade services for things you would like. You have to get things off your plate.
Everything is a system, a process. Donnie created a formula to create processes: ADD. Action. Document. Delegate. For every task in a business, you have to take action on it, document it as you go through it and then delegate it to someone else and let them further define it and make it better putting it to work.
This creates a duplicatable system.

“Every lesson you learn in business is going to be applied again somewhere down the road…”

What are the best strategies that you advocate for gaining clients in today’s world?

People need to understand that the old school tactics that were taught many great names don’t work anymore.
There is no more “closing.”
Instead, your personal brand has become something much bigger and stronger.
Sales is now just a conversation that has an outcome.
People are not used to getting an outcome. They don’t like closing, but they love “closure.”
If people focus on how to get closure than on closing, they will be more successful.
Every conversation with a prospect needs to have some sort of end.
Most people leave their conversations open-ended.
Use sales as a conversation and get to closure.

At the 24 min mark, Donnie shares some examples.

You have to let people know what the actions are that you want them to take and then be detached from the outcome.

Thoughts around story?

How we tell our stories and show up in the world that gets people talking about you.
Cold sales are tougher and tougher.
Everything is community and if you don’t have one or the ability to build one, then you can’t be as successful as you could be in this world.
If you can’t tell the right stories, you cannot build the community of people you need to.

What are the elements of a great story?

The Hero’s Journey. If you have not read Joseph Campbell’s philosophy, it is recommended.
It’s Frodo from Lord of the Rings and going from a nobody, adventure to hero.
What are the moments of time you went through that were really impactful that you can use to teach others?
It’s also being vulnerable in telling the stories and showing that you’ve been through it before.

LinkedIn for growing your business?

LinkedIn is becoming a business social app.
It’s not just a place for putting your resume.
It’s now one of the best places to engage and develop a business.
LinkedIn has just come out launching their own audio/video style of Clubhouse
DCP the heck out of LinkedIn.

There are a lot of people out there working in a job, but know they are destined for something greater as an entrepreneur. What is your best advice for them on how to make the transition?

Screw up fast and screw up hard. As an employee, you are taught not to do this, but as a business owner, if things are not breaking, then you are not going big enough and doing enough.
Turn off everything you thought of an employee and start thinking like a CEO.
People get hung up in creation. They are not being out front growing their business.
Your business will never be built by doing just operational stuff. Build a network and leverage the heck out of it.
You have to mentally become what you want before you can get it. If you hand someone a million dollars that didn’t earn it, they most likely will lose it because they have not developed themselves to keep and manage a million dollars.
Quit thinking in “how” and start thinking in “who” – who can get this done for me?
Quit thinking in “how” to get where you want to go and start thinking in “systems,” – what systems do we need in place that can duplicate and grow to get you there?
Most of the time you need to take action and quit planning.

What lessons from owning a farm have helped you most as an entrepreneur?

Regiment is everything.
If you don’t have regiments and routines, you will fail.
Your day should be regiments including the fun things you do.

Best Quote

Every lesson you learn in business is going to be applied again somewhere down the road…

Be you. Everyone else is taken. You do not need to be someone else to be successful.

Go BIG. The Level you are going at right now is not big enough.

Get rid of your excuses. Running your own company, you will meet yourself along the way because you will run out of excuses. Take ownership.

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