Misfit Entrepreneur November 2023 - 376: The Rebel Entrepreneur, How Alex Concepcion Found His Way to Success

Subscribe and Listen Today!

Inspiring and Actionable Content Weekly from Misfit Entpreneurs

Subscribe on Itunes

Subscribe on Stitcher

Subscribe on RSS

Dave Lukas Chats with Alex Concepcion

376: The Rebel Entrepreneur, How Alex Concepcion Found His Way to Success

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Alex Concepcion. Alex has a very interesting story, but let’s just say that fate helped him find his way and part of that fate was never working for someone. As he’ll share, it took him a while to find his way, but he did so in starting a niche high-end apartment location business called Taco Street Locating based out of Austin, Texas.

Alex went from broke to having a business that pays him multiple 6-figures a year allowing to work when, where, and how he wants to and is he author of the forthcoming book, The Rebel Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk, riches, and Immortality – hearing that title, you can probably guess why I asked him to come in the show to share his journey and lessons learned.

www.Survivalfirstbook.com

Don't Miss Even More Resources to Help You Each Week. Click Here and Subscribe to the Misfit Minute!

Show Notes

Alex got where he is “by burning all the bridges and doing all the things he wasn't supposed to do.” He graduated college and did not get hired in 2 years. He was meant for a different path, but he did know what it was. He decided to start from scratch and leave Miami to go to Austin. He got a job at a fast growing startup company and after a few months knew it wasn’t for him. He left and then spent about two years, just hopping from side gig to side gig like real estate photography, and nd even sold cricket to protein bars for a few months. He ended up in Southeast Asia traveling with a food documentarian for a few months and then come back home broke again.

He decided to get his real estate license and stumbled into apartment locating and found his niche. Then covid hit and instead of his business having trouble – it doubled in size!

What are some of the biggest lessons that you learned on your journey so far that you think other entrepreneurs should know?

You don't need business degrees to be good at business.
Business, when you really get down to it, it's very simple. And if you understand just foundational principles and you have a basic level of competency, that's really all you need.
Starting from just basic principles of what a business is, what a business is for, basics of sales and marketing takes you really far.

What are some of those principles you use to build upon?

Understanding that you're here to solve a problem.
You must be worth trusting to solve the problem.

How does your business work? How have you built it to allow for the lifestyle that you want? And most importantly, how can entrepreneurs build their business for the lifestyle that they're looking for?

First, that's understanding what do you want. What are you optimizing for?
You must know what you want to design the business for ti.
Build systems and operations so that you can offload a lot of your own time to either technology or people and free up a lot of my own time.
Decide on the relationship you want with your business.

How can somebody figure out what they want?

“Give yourself permission to ask the question, and recognize that you have the power to answer that question, especially now in the time that we live in, is probably the best time in history where we can actually imagine what we want and build what we want in ways that's never been possible before.”
It’s a lot easier to understand what you don't want once you know what you want.

What has made the most difference in your success so far?

It is being honest to yourself.
Being who you are in your business is important.
“The more I show up as myself in my full essence and like this business, for example, the more that shows up in the brand, in the service, that makes people want to choose me over working with other people.”

Why did you name it Taco Street Locating?

I Austin, every street is taco street
Alex though it would be hilarious and silly and playful and ridiculous to have a taco themed real estate business.
And what you see in business, pretty much everywhere all the time in all industries is everyone is copycatting each other. Be original.

When we first met, you know, to discuss an episode, you mentioned something that I thought was pretty interesting and it surrounds the book. You said that we need not to focus on risk, but the inverse of it. Explain that.

The reality is most entrepreneurs don't make it. And we don't hear their stories. No one goes on podcast tours when their business collapses.
Most of us don't make it, and there's a lot that can be learned from those stories, from when things go wrong, from these horror stories that a lot of people go through but don't want to talk about.
Just acknowledging that there's a lot of risk and darkness in what we're doing. But at the same time, none of us are just here to focus on the bad stuff.
If you're an entrepreneur, you're likely an optimist by nature. And you're not here to merely survive. We're here to win. Risk is really simple. It's just potential bad stuff. But if you just invert the bad part to good, you'd have potential good stuff, which is the definition of opportunity.

“The reality of what we're doing as entrepreneurs is holding the tension between both risk and opportunity.”

Explain that more.

We're all just trying to survive and make it in a world of uncertainty. Uncertainty can be good and bad. How do we make decisions where the downside is survivable.
That changes everything. If the upside is high and the downside is survivable, it makes it much easier to accept risk.

What are two to three other important lessons or pieces of wisdom that you share in the book you think other, you know, that entrepreneurs should know?

The biggest one I would say is your reputation. Invest in and protect your reputation. That is the ultimate asset. It's something you own 100%. It can't be taken away from you. It can't be copied or stolen from you. Your reputation is why people are going to hire you, buy from you, give you money, everything.
If you have a strong reputation, you're basically invincible. There's a thought exercise I'd like to do. It's if Warren Buffett wakes up tomorrow with zero, no money, no assets, no nothing, how long would it be before he's a billionaire again? I would take about about five minutes. People would give it to him, no question to ask, because he has a strong, undisputable reputation.
Do you like your business? What can you do this year to make you like my business more? If you really don’t like it – what are you doing?
It is good to do a financial exercise in your business and prune out or reduce expenses that are not making a difference for you.

Immortality. How does that fit in?

It goes back to reputation. A strong reputation keeps you basically invincible. Make something beautiful. Because beauty is eternal. Creating beauty is how someone can become immortal

Whas has helping people find a home taught you about people? And how can that relate to entrepreneurship?

it's the proximity that you get to the problems you’re solving and the value that you are creating.
Alex gets to help them solve a really important problem and impact their lives.
It creates connection.
The lesson is to stay very connected to the value you are creating between you and your customer.

Best Quote

The reality of what we're doing as entrepreneurs is holding the tension between both risk and opportunity.

We all live in a world we don't control. And it's our job and responsibility to adapt to a world we don't control.

Competition in business isn't real. Whoever your customers are, they are the ones who choose you or someone else. And it's your job not to beat someone in a competition, but to become irreplaceable so that customers want to choose you, so that clients want to hire you.

You are the biggest risk to your business. You are the one responsible if it lives, dies, and thrives. The success of it is based on the choices that you make.

Show Sponsors

Misfits,

If there is one thing I’ve learned as an entrepreneur and in endurance racing is that it pays to be properly fueled. As a business owner, it is important to not only take care of yourself, but also your team. Did you know that studies show that 67% of employees believe access to snacks and drinks positively impacts their job satisfaction. And those happy employees are 20% more productive.

That is where Nuts.com comes in. Nuts.com is your one stop shop for the highest quality foods for business - they offer delicious office snacks, corporate gifts, and wholesale ingredients. Over fifty thousand companies choose Nuts.com for their business needs. From offices, to hotels, to restaurants, and retail stores, with Nuts.com there’s something for every business. Along long with freshly roasted nuts, they have thousands of premium products, like: dried fruit, wrapped candy, chocolate covered sweets, trail mixes, popcorn and jerky. There’s gluten free and other dietary options, and you can order in single servings or in bulk.

I absolutely love this company and their products. Their bourbon pecans and trail mixes are my go-to snacks in the afternoons while working – and of course, my kiddo loves things like the chocolate covered gummy bears. Nuts.com has something for everybody and you cannot get better quality or service!

Nuts.com makes ordering for your business quick and easy! Right now, Nuts.com is offering Misfit Listeners a FREE gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $125 or more at Nuts.com/misfit

Misfits,

If you are looking for one of the best tools to help you focus and center yourself daily, the 5 Minute Journal is the best one out there.

This short 5-10 minute daily routine will help you in all aspects of your life and success.

It is one of the simplest and easiest ways I have found to consistently improve myself and my well-being as well as ensure better results and success.

Check it out and get your copy today!

Check it out at www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Journal