Andy Smith 🚀 on LinkedIn: I've got kid drop-off duty because today is my wife's colonoscopy. Now is… | 16 comments (2024)

My oldest daughter graduates High School tomorrow and in a few weeks is her last dance recital. Let me tell you about these RAD DADs 👇Quick background: None of us RAD DADs are dancers.These girls have danced for 80+% of their life. We're practicing for their last dance recital in a few weeks... But, today, I just want to shout out all those that just freaking go for it...👉 - People who do the hard stuff.👉 - People who take risks.👉 - People who put themselves out there.👉 - People who work daily to be the best version of themselves (not the best, but the best version)...👉 - People who sacrifice for others (and they may not even know)...👉 - People who go full out when others think their crazy...Around 85% of the world things I'm a complete NUT JOB for choosing entrepreneurship as my career path... and that's ok...We're all a little crazy.This year I challenged graduation girl to do some hard stuff. And she did amazing.We don't come from money, fame, or fortunes. And this year, she choose to raise money for a charity. The goal was $5,000... I helped her with the tactics and nudged her to do email outreach, video messages, post on LI and social, etc, etc... PUT HERSELF OUT THERE. She was mortified at video, didn't understand email, and all the rest. But, she did it. And she met her goal... by herself.I realize this post is all over the place and guess what... That's ok. My parent tribe will probably relate.A lot of us are "all over the place". Life, entrepreneurship, and putting yourself out there is hard and messy...But, just think how happy you'll be if you do it... Here's a motto I love (stealing it from the dance studio):"Full Out or Get Out"

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I've been on the topic of Purpose lately, because I've realized its the common through-line in everything that we do. It's our "WHY" we do what we do 👇Why do we get colonoscopies? 👉 Preventative HealthWhy do we post on social? 👉 Meet cool people, build opportunitiesWhy do we work out? 👉 Health, clarity, physical fitnessWhy? 👉 That's the question we should be solving for...Why did we start this business? That's our purpose. Once "we" know our purpose, then we need to make sure we "Align The Golden Thread" throughout the entire organization so all our stakeholders know our purpose.It's the same in business building, team building, culture building, and even youth sports. I coach youth basketball. Each team has a purpose -and- NO, it's not always to win a championship.Find your PURPOSE and I betcha you find your "profit".

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Our team has been really working hard to get clear on what we do for the businesses, founders, and leaders both inside and outside our portfolio 👇Here's the key to building businesses the "blacksmith" way:👉 - Start with Purpose. Purpose is your business's why - the reason it exist.👉 - Then, "Align The Golden Thread" throughout the entire organization. Don't start in the board room or C-Suite... Start at the bottom of the organization. Figure out the pain points, the friction, and the issues FROM THEM. They know what is working and what is not.👉 Finally, focus on all Stake-Holders (shareholders, customers, suppliers, partners, etc)... Just like a fitness program, building your business is a daily act of consistency guided by a united purpose. Hit me up if you'd be interested in attending our FREE monthly Workshop... We're working out the details now.

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Coffee shop Monday... Today was packed full of meetings and there is one common thread that is appearing to me in these conversations👇Entrepreneurs are problem solvers and when they find problems, you'll often see them building businesses... But, more and more I'm seeing really huge PURPOSE(s) behind the founder. Growing up, we were taught in biz school about Vision and Mission. No one mentioned PURPOSE.Today's workforce gets behind PURPOSE... 👉 - PURPOSE is your WHY👉 - VISION is your WHAT👉 - MISSION is your HOWWhat I'm finding is a HUGE correlation between PURPOSE and PROFITS.Profit(s) are a result.Purpose is a why.But, if when you start with why, you find the result... Win Win Win

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Happy Mother's Day, tribe... The blessings, learnings, and moments shared as a parent (especially a mom) are unparalleled. My special lady was tired 👇yesterday afternoon after a big day, week, month, and year. Yesterday, we hosted my oldest daughter's graduation party (we didn't have these growing up, but now-a-days kids will host parties for their family, friends, teachers, coaches, etc). It was a perfect day, but took months of "MESSY" to get to this day... We often see the pretty pictures in the moment, but behind the scenes is often times absolute chaos, in the best kinds of ways...Every detail was thought about, stressed over, and planned, replanned, and thought about more... 100% by my wife, daughter, and those they reached out to for support.So, for today, I just want to say Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms that make ripples into the future on a daily basis... I'm not sure my wife and mom know what Linkedin are, so this one is for you, mommas...

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This was a really fun one to write this week. So much going on from hospital visits, bringing on new Associate Founder(s), and an amazing "come from behind" story of positive mental toughness. Inside this week's newsletter are five (5) take aways I use to help navigate uncertain situations which is 98% of entrepreneurship and Venture Building.Thanks for being here...

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Any serial entrepreneurs / venture builders gone through a similar trajectory? In 2007, I started for the dough. But, the dough rose and fell to create a new 👇 reason to exist...Took me time, though, to realize that focusing on profit is not the metric we should control...Profit is an outcome... We CAN'T control outcomes.So, what CAN we control?Here's is what I've landed on:👉 - We can control WHY we are doing something👉 - We can control WHO we do it with👉 - We can control WHAT we doAll of this results in us controlling HOW WE BUILD.And this is the essence of Building with Purpose. Having a clear PURPOSE, leads to a culture of meaningful work (and good home lives), which will result in financial gains...Impact on people, your business, your community, and your stakeholders (not just shareholders) turns out to be a much more predictable and straight line approach to growth (at least for me)...

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Every morning, my wife and I get the kids out the door and then I sit down to spend 30 minutes sharing some thoughts from the trenches before I head to workout... She's a 4:30am runner (I'm not).Got to thinking about how, today, I would post about "regular" stuff now that I feel "regular" again. Quick aside: Big supporter of preventive health after seeing what I saw this week. My favorite part of the whole colonoscopy experience was talking to this amazing nurse 10 minutes before my surgery about "life" as I laid there "waiting" in the surgery room and then questioning the anesthesiologist on whether my IV was really working before he said, "watch this". He won, it was working. Trying to learn to turn off the engineer brain more... work in progress.But, I got to thinking about what is "regular" content.I'm struggling with people who give advice, because how do they know YOU? What drives YOU... Your PURPOSE. Your WHY.Most "influencers" post controversial topics and advice because that drives engagement. AI will only muddy the waters and increase the amount of noise, advice, and false teachings.So, why should you take advice from someone not in your shoes? I don't know the answer, but I do know that I love learning from those that are true, authentic, and have unique and complimentary experiences to mine. That's my thesis around posting content here and across all social. Maybe one day, one nugget, will help you get just a little better. So, to go full circle, I am not sure what "regular" content is. But, I do love sharing the journey, lessons, and struggles of building businesses, raising a family, and trying to find the best version of ourselves in that process...In the end, I think we are all just trying to do our best... One step, one moment, one day at a time...Cheers to you being the best version of yourself while comparing yourself to no one...#faith #family #fitness #fun

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