This week, renowned sales leader and your host, George Leith goes over the anatomy of an entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur is different. We all have certain skills and capabilities that we have specialized over the years that are unique to our craft and our own grind. George Leith goes over 8 underlying characteristics that he has seen successful entrepreneurs exhibit and relates them to his own experiences. As you listen to this episode, note the anatomy highlighted and cross-reference it with your own strengths and weaknesses. Are there aspects you could improve on or have you checked off the entire list? Lastly, understand that everyone is unique. If some aspects of the anatomy highlighted don’t come as easily, that’s when we build a complimentary team to take us to the next level.

The anatomy of an entrepreneur as discussed in the episode:

Calculated & Logical
Motivated & Focussed
Confident & Outgoing
Risk-taker & Courageous
Strong Work Ethic
Creative & Innovative
Patient & Persistent
Versatile & Agile

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Introduction

This is the Conquer Local podcast, a show about billion dollar sales leaders, marketers leading local economic growth, and entrepreneurs that have created their dream organization. They wanna share their secrets, giving you the distilled version of their extra ordinary feats. Our hope is with the tangible takeaways from each episode, you can rewire, rework, and re-imagine your business. I’m your host and the creator of the show, George Leith, and this week’s episode of the Master Sales series, the anatomy of an entrepreneur, coming up next on the Conquer Local podcast. One of the questions that I get asked all the time, whether we’re doing a round table with channel partners, or we’re at a convention talking to agencies or managed service providers or media companies it’s like, if you could distill what an entrepreneur, what are the traits that they need to have. So we decided to put together an episode around the Master Sales series around the anatomy of an entrepreneur. So, maybe you don’t run your own business, but it is becoming increasingly important to tap into an entrepreneurial mindset. And it’s a message that I have been moving forward with teams for a long time around getting individual contributors to understand that it’s kind of like you’re running your own business. And I’ve also found that if you’re gonna be a sales professional, and you’re doing B2B sales, business to business sales, and you don’t have a high level of business acumen, you’re really, you know, playing from behind. So, let’s look through some of the top pieces that are what I believe makes up the anatomy of an entrepreneur.

Calculated & Logical

So the first one is, you need to be calculated and logical. Inform all of your decisions with data and logic, you’ll be more likely to reach the right people at the right time, and you’re always evaluating and iterating the choices you make, and that ensures that your approach is right on the money. So I don’t mean living in a spreadsheet. I mean, taking a look at the indicators that you have around your career or your organization, or the interactions that you’re having, and seeing, you know, what’s going with the dashboard? Like around any interaction, there is something happening. And if you’re paying attention to the audience, trying to communicate a message, you’re looking at the metrics from a campaign that you ran for a customer, you’ve made a bunch of promises, and you’re trying to line that up and show that you’re getting the results that you wanted, having that level of logical thinking, and then being very calculated in the things that you do, ensures that you’re going to be efficient, and you’re going to hit the expectations that you’ve set with the prospect or customer.

Motivated & Focussed

Number two, when it comes down to that anatomy of an entrepreneur is they need to be motivated and focused. I don’t think I have come across too many successful entrepreneurs that don’t have a high level of internal motivation and have a focus. And understanding what that focus might be is a challenge sometimes because some entrepreneurs are crazy, and they have big dreams and they’ve got big things that they’re trying to accomplish, but that myopic focus on that dream or that goal a lot of times is what makes them an effective entrepreneur. And then having that motivation where it’s not, somebody has to kick your ass out of bed, you jump out of bed, and you want to seize the day and accomplish things. I haven’t run across too many successful entrepreneurs that are not very, very, very self-motivated.

Confident & Outgoing

Confidence and being outgoing. This is part of capitalism and being an entrepreneur and being in business. It’s really tough to sell something you don’t believe in and having that level of confidence that you’re able to deliver the solution or the product to your customer in a way that no one else can, a lot of times the difference between success and a lack of success as an entrepreneur. And then being outgoing, not being afraid to walk into that group and talk about the problem that you’re solving or talk about the product that you created.

Risk-taker & Courageous

Risk-taking and being courageous. This is one thing that defines entrepreneurs. I think that if you met a successful entrepreneur that had been doing it for a period of time, they would say, “I took this risk, “and that’s what defined my business.” Or “I had the courage to say there was a better way.” So a lot of times entrepreneurs that are successful are solving a long lived problem with a new solution. And those new solutions are being born all the time.

Strong Work Ethic

I don’t know any successful entrepreneurs that do not have a strong work ethic. And I am fortunate, I get that from my parents. They taught me at a very young age that I was never gonna be the smartest person in the room, so I better make up for that by being a hard worker, and I thank them for that. I believe that the most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve ever met have also had a very strong work ethic and believed that they had the solution to the problem.

Creative & Innovative

Now, understanding that you have a solution to the problem also means that you have to be looking around the corner and you have to be looking for disruptors. Having that level of creativity and innovation, does not just start when you are beginning your entrepreneurial journey, it not must be something that is resident at all times. Looking around the corner for what new opportunity might be there, constantly innovating on your solution and having a very high level of creativity, I would pin that badge on every single entrepreneur that I know that has been successful.

Patient & Persistent

And then that patience and persistence. Doing the hard work, realizing that success doesn’t happen overnight. So overused analogy or meme out there is that iceberg, right? So we’ve got the little bit of the iceberg that you can see, and then underneath, you’ve got a whole bunch of iceberg that they couldn’t see when the Titanic ran into it. That’s the story. But also that happens inside every entrepreneur. The patience and the persistence, and then billion dollar company. It just doesn’t happen overnight. If you talk to any entrepreneur that’s been successful, they’ll tell you, there were sleepless nights, there were long fought battles that they didn’t win, there was a lot of failure in there, but having the patience and the persistence and understanding that it doesn’t happen overnight and becoming good at the problems and the stresses and the setbacks and dealing with those, that is part of a successful entrepreneurs anatomy.

Versatile & Agile

The versatility and agility. We talked a little bit about this, innovation, agility, but being able to adapt to change. If you are not prepared to pivot or adapt and be agile, I just don’t think it’s gonna work out for you in an environment that is constantly changing.

Conclusion

Those are our 10 items that we have put into our list of the anatomy of an entrepreneur. And I wanna cover them off for you again. Number one, being calculated and logical. Number two, self motivated and focused. Confident, and outgoing in your interactions. Risk-taking and being courageous around your decisions. A strong work ethic, the hardest worker in the room or in the market or in the environment that you’re competing in. Creative and innovative. Patience and persistence, and that versatility and agility. It’s important to tap into an entrepreneurial mindset in whatever you do. Anyone that’s in a position where they’re driving revenue, and there’s a set of costs, meaning you’ve got the profit and loss statement and you control it, I’ve always treated my roles or tried to treat them as if I was a small business person. Run it as if it was my own thing, and that mindset has always served me well throughout my career, and when I see top entrepreneurs, whether they are a part of a team, or whether they’re running the whole show themselves, they embrace and they actually perform these components that we believe are a part of the anatomy of an entrepreneur. Thanks for joining us on this Master Sales series episode of the Conquer Local podcast. We’ve produced over 200 episodes in the past four seasons to help you conquer local. If you’ve found value in this episode, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. This feedback will help us grow and better adapt to what you want to hear in future episodes. Be sure to subscribe to the award-winning Conquer Local podcast, as we continue to welcome extraordinary sales leaders, marketers, and entrepreneurs. My name is George Leith, I’ll see you when I see you.