Serial Entrepreneur Don Smithmier’s 10 Keys To success

Country billboard chart, 6 companies, Price is right: Here’s his advice.

These are the key takeaways from my conversation with Don.

I highly suggest you listen to the our original conversation and hear it directly from Don! soundcloud, itunes, stitcher & google play music !!!!

Let's get started…

1. He might be writing a book and I think he spilled the beans on podcast! (…if you can’t tell I’m pretty geeked!!!!!!!! )
2. Don’s worked really hard to be where he is today. He’s a straight up hustler. He was hired as a temp to answer phones and make coffee at Capell back in 1994 when they was just launching. He worked his way up to a VP position by designing his day to accidentally run into the CEO at lunch
3. His advice to founders in summary: Don’t die, be persistent, stay positive, stay focused and constantly listen to the market.
4. Exercise your creative muscle!! It will keep you young at heart and open to new ideas
5. Invent, Build, Optimize, Maintain. — Know where you fit and find an organization or a role within an organization that matches that.Invent organize build maintain
6. The prime challenge with being an early stage entrepreneur in the twin cities is seed stage funding $0–$500k. The wealth exists in minnesota because of the fortune 500s’ in town have made wealth executives. The problem is that some of these execs don’t know that the startup community exists in the twin cities. Organizations like TCSW are helping bridge the gap, service providers like GoKart Labs need to play a role and it will also take some media attention.
7. He would tell his younger self to work even harder, but relax. Don’t stress too much, do the work minus some of the stress.
8. “Trying to run several companies at the same time is the real challenge. you want to be in a situation where you have dedicated leadership around each business.”
9. You can always second guess yourself — The day that roosevelt died and Truman became president, he thought “There must be a million people in the world more qualified for this than me. Then he realized the job was his to do, and he was determined to do it”
10. He recommends that you read Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business by Gino Wickman

Conclusion

If you want to learn more about don, be sure to check out his episode on our podcast and it’s follow up article

🚀Stay curious!