835: The Blueprint for Success in Leadership and Life w/ Eduardo Lopez

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Wontropner to entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian Lo-Framento, and I'll tell you what.

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If you're someone who's sitting there tuning into today's episode and you're thinking, gosh, I just wanna grow, I wanna be the best version of me, then today's guest is all about that.

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So let me tell you about him.

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His name is Eduardo Lopez.

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Eduardo is a former Fortune 500 CFO who decided to focus on his passion helping others grow.

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Former members of Eduardo's team currently occupy CFO, ceo and president roles at world-class operations.

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After starting in a market far from company headquarters, he made it to the C-suite and is convinced that, if he could do it, anyone can if they believe in themselves and by focusing on the few key things that leaders look for when designing who will be the future leaders of the company.

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For all of us who are hungry for growth, who are leaders in our own rights, in our own businesses and careers, and especially for all of you entrepreneurs out there who are looking to climb that ladder, you're in for a treat today, so I'm not gonna say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Eduardo Lopez.

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All right, eduardo, I'm so excited that you're here with us today.

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Welcome to the show.

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Thank you, brian.

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I'm deeply excited and delighted to be having this conversation A great five great hot gas-grade conversation that you've got going on, so I'm honored to be here.

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Thank you so much, eduardo.

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I run on excitement, so the fact that you're also bringing excitement today means that this is gonna be a fun one for me.

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But first things first, I want you to take us beyond the bio.

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Who the heck is Eduardo?

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How'd you start doing all these cool things that you've gotten into?

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So I'm a person that's always been motivated by learning and by helping others.

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When I was a little kid, I remember that my dad used to tell me that the one thing that you need to make sure that you do as long as you're alive is to try to learn and to try to help others also learn, and that stuck with me.

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I have a couple of daughters.

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One is 21, the other is about to be 18.

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They keep me busy, they keep me on my toes, they're my passion.

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Along with my wife, I have a crazy little dog, a multi-pool, called Paquita, and that's my day-to-day.

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My energy and my focus is just trying to do whatever I can to provide the best for them and to also learn and share with others what to do.

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I'm an avid diver.

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Haven't been doing that for a while, but just that's who I am.

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I find myself smiling a lot more than I realize and I don't know, at some point I thought that might have been a problem.

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Some years ago I came to embrace it and I'm just a happy person.

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That's how I like to see myself.

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Yes, I love that overview.

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Eduardo, I'm gonna publicly call you out.

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You're far braver than I am.

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Not only are you a diver, but you've traded the sunny scene of Mexico City for the Pacific Northwest living in cold weather.

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I don't know how you did that, but obviously so much of your backstory starts with really kind of living that American dream of climbing your professional career before we're gonna transition, inevitably today before you helping other people do exactly that.

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But walk us through your professional journey, because Fortune 500 CFO is an incredible accomplishment which speaks to so many of your innate and worked on abilities that you built up over the years.

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Walk us through that path.

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Thank you, brian.

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So yeah, it's been exciting.

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I started very far from the headquarters of any company that I worked in.

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I started as a management consultant and from there, after a couple of big assignments, I was invited by a friend who at the time worked with Procter and Gamble to join them.

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So I joined that company fantastic school and I started with their management systems department.

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So IT.

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I'm an electronics engineer with a computer science major and that's how I started.

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After a couple of years and having had projects with finance, my friend and finance brother said so what the heck are you doing there?

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You should be in finance.

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And so they poached me over into that area and ever since I became another user, I started in cost accounting.

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I didn't really know a lot about accounting other than the T account and that was just by the shape, more than any other technical knowledge.

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And from there I was pretty much moved all over the function and a random gamut of positions and I ended up doing competitive intelligence, strategic planning and a bunch of other things on a regional basis for Latin America.

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That point was poached out.

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A consumer after an ungodly amount of years into the pharmaceutical industry.

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Long story short, I ran finance for Pfizer in Mexico then, and Mexico and Central America then, and then Spain and then Europe, from where I was invited to come back to the New York headquarters.

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Well, go back to the New York headquarters and run finance globally for a couple of their five business units, and from there I joined Phillips.

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You were mentioning the cold weather, so Phillips moved me to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, which, as you know, is a lot more miserable than Seattle is, and I did for years so that I became the chief audit executive for the company.

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I came back to the US to run finance for their North America market and then I joined another corporation here in the Pacific Northwest called Fluke, where I was also their CFO globally.

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Thence when I started to really think seriously about following my passion and doing what I do now, and I joined.

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Well, I decided to start my company up B-Sharp in November of 2022, so a year and a half ago and focus on what I was telling you earlier is just my real passion, which is helping others grow, helping others develop, like I've done all through my career.

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Yeah, I love that overview, Eduardo, especially because where my head goes is I'm biased.

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Entrepreneurship is my love.

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I've been doing it for 16 years of my life.

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But with that in mind, I know that there are ingredients that guide people to these types of paths, and I even see those seedlings in your professional career, because I can't help but think, eduardo, not everybody grows, not everybody elevates into those positions.

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What are those ingredients when we're talking about your professional career?

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What are those ingredients that made Eduardo not just an exceptional person in the workforce, but someone who just climbed that ladder?

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Thank you.

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So I think that the most important thing, brian, in my mind and this is what I tell my clients and people that I train, even keynotes that I give the first thing that you need to have is the belief that you can.

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If you believe that you can, then everything else is going to happen.

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If you take that away for a second.

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The remaining things that you would need to be good at is having a team that elevates you, and you can only do that if you elevate them, if you develop them.

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Having an ability to navigate human relationships, which are not always smooth.

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They're sometimes rocky, complex.

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Having an ability to understand the strategy of whatever place you're working at.

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But you can have all of these things.

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If you don't have the belief that you can, if you don't have the faith that will let you get up every time you fall and you will fall then you won't get there.

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And that's my experience that I also at some point became convinced that I could do it and that I wanted to do it, and then I didn't let anything stop me, and that's how I've been able to also help some others who are pretty senior leaders in their companies today.

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It's just if you don't believe it.

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No amount of technical knowledge, expertise or institutional knowledge is going to help you.

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You need to believe in yourself.

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That's what's gonna carry you.

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Yeah, eduardo, you walked me right into one of my favorite quotes of all time.

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It's that Henry Ford quote where he once said whether you think you can or you can't, you're right, and I really do believe that.

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It's that simple, but it leads me to.

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I think this is a big question.

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I'm so excited to see the direction that you take it in, which is that's almost the harder stuff to focus on.

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You can teach me how to be better at understanding T-accounts and debits and credits when it comes to accounting, but it's really hard to reshape someone's mind.

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You've been someone who has helped others grow into those CFO roles, ceo president roles at large companies.

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How do you even begin to focus on reshaping those belief patterns?

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When someone says, eduardo, there's a million reasons why I can't grow to those roles which, by the way, they're right there are a lot of reasons why they can't do it.

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So how do you even begin to reshape those beliefs?

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I think that there's always a big element at least the way I try to help people that's telling stories, and I think that in real life stories we find a lot of examples of things that can really be done right.

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There's abundant examples of things that have been done when everybody else thought that it couldn't be done.

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Example the moonshot right.

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And you remember that Candidate said we do this and the other things because, not because they're easy, but because they're hard.

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And there's a very, very simple example that I have often used that I found extremely inspiring.

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I am not sure if you or anybody in our audience today is familiar with a person called Anthony Robles from Arizona.

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This guy very, very short version of the story.

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This guy was born without one leg, no stump to attach a prosthetic to.

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Without one leg, he decided in his early age that he was going to not he was not gonna let that stop him.

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His mom said be defined by what you can do, not by what you cannot do.

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So with that in mind he started.

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He decided that he would become the push-up champion in his school.

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When they organized a contest to do that, sure enough, he won.

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Then he decided he wanted to become a wrestler.

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The coach said are you kidding me?

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You only have one leg.

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How are you gonna do that?

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He entered the competition.

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He was last.

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This is in seventh grade, I believe.

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By the end in three years he had become number one.

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Miss school I think he had become like number three in the state.

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The long story short is, by the end of high school he got a sports scholarship because he had developed moves that leveraged his ability to just use the one leg to bring people down to the ground.

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Then he penned them.

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He was invincible.

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So this guy ended up his professional studies by being an all-American and, I think, second in the nation at wrestling.

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And he said something that really, to this day, gives me chills, which is I don't care about what's probable through blood, sweat and tears, I am invincible.

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And those examples are what I tell people when they are starting to think like, oh, it's hard, I don't speak English, or English is not my native language, or I'm far away, or I don't know people, I didn't go to Harvard, I didn't go.

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So that's not important, it's.

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Do you believe if this guy could do it, if he could become a national champion of wrestling without one leg, why could you find the skills and find the belief that can get you where you wanna go?

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Yeah, really well said, eduardo.

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I'm gonna have full transparency.

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I think part of the reason why I so love and respect the work that you do is because I relate to so much of it.

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I'm the son of an immigrant mom, for example, and you bring up JFK's moon speech and the first memories.

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I'm getting chills even just telling you this story.

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The first memories that my mom shares with me about coming to the United States as a teenager was seeing the US land on the moon, and to her that was just like such an incredible feat that guided her.

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And it's funny to me as an adult now in my 30s, thinking why did we go to the moon?

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Like, what was the benefit of it?

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And part of it was just to show people look at what you can dream and what you can do.

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And so I love your perspective on these things and how you look towards those stories.

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I think that every immigrant story everywhere around the world is that notion of no, we're not just gonna accept our circumstances that we've been handed.

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We are going to proactively choose our own limits or defy any limits that others or ourselves try to place on ourselves.

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So I think it's such a powerful message.

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But I think that where it gets lost and the harsh realities of this message that we're talking about today, that the cynics are gonna say, brian and Eduardo, what the heck are you guys talking about?

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Because this stuff wears off.

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It's easy to get excited and inspired when we hear these things and when we see real life examples, but on a day to day basis, when stuff hits the fan and we are in those, it's all peaks and valleys.

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When we're in those valleys, how do we get out of there?

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Because you're someone who had a long career and you navigated those your career I'm gonna call this out for listeners you didn't go without those valleys.

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You inevitably had those valleys.

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So how do you deal with those?

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I think that the most important part is, like I was saying before, the belief that you can and that nothing will stop you.

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That's the first decision you need to make.

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The second is you need to know exactly what drives you.

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What's your why, what do you wanna do?

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What do you wanna do?

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If you are aligned with whatever it is you're trying to achieve and that really lines up with your value, with your interest, with your passion, that's the only way that you're gonna be able to sustain your will and your energy and your focus throughout the storms that you will inevitably face.

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You will fall down, no doubt about it.

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You're gonna trip, you're gonna skin.

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With me, the trick is what keeps you going, what gives you the energy you need to get up dust off, keep going.

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In my case, I was sharing my family is such a key source of energy for me.

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Just my illusion.

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I really have this ton of source of illusion of giving them what I saw my father give us.

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No matter the effort, no matter the hardship, it's what motivates you, what gives you energy.

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If you're aligned with that, if you know what you wanna do, if you know why you wanna do it, then it won't always be easy.

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There will be tears, there might be a little bumps in the head or scrape in the knees, but you will power up because that's what you wanna do.

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Yeah, not only may there be tears.

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Listeners, Eduardo and I are here to tell you there will be tears.

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This is pretty much a guarantee in your journey, Eduardo, I do wanna push you a little bit here because I think it's advice that we all have heard.

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I mean, Simon Sinek is obviously doing incredible work in the field of discovering your why.

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I don't think within the entrepreneurial space, we talk about those whys often enough For me, gosh, there's so many things that excite me.

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As I said at the top of today's episode, I get fueled by excitement.

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You've talked so much about your family and obviously that's a core part of who you are and the way that you show up.

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You've worked with so many different people with a lot of different whys.

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Give us some of those insights into what whys can look like, because I think a lot of listeners and a lot of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs they don't even know where to begin in finding their why.

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They know they should, but they don't know what is.

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some examples of those whys yeah, absolutely, and I think that one of the things that we all need to realize is that, regardless of what you do entrepreneur, corporate world you need to understand what we're saying.

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So why are you doing things?

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Let me give you two examples.

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I had a couple of clients.

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One of them is well, was a consultant in one of the big firms and he wanted to become a CFO and that was his burning desire in the world.

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And he was convinced and he knew that he wanted to make money, he knew that he wanted to get to the top, he knew that he wanted to have his fingers on the pulse of the company and he was so decided that that was what we really focused on.

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What's the really, what's the balance that you're gonna bring to that?

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And are you okay with that balance?

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Because that's gonna have a price on other things Maybe your family, maybe the hobbies that you wanna pursue, maybe a little bit less travel or some other sacrifice in the shorter term.

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The long story made short for this person is that he is now the CFO of a bigger company that I always wanted to see it was the CFO for, and he's happy like a fish in water.

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He's like well, the other side of that coin is I had another client who was also very, very successful investment banker and she's originally from India, and at some point she started, she was doing really well in her career but was not feeling fulfilled and she felt that something was missing, that there was something else that she wanted to do, and what she ended up deciding is she loves helping others.

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So she left a pretty juicy, very attractive role in investment banking and she moved back to India in a non-governmental organization, earning like an eighth of the money she was making.

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But she's happier than she's ever been, and the only reason that happened was because that she really found that she wanted to spend the rest of her life at least professional life helping others do better in that part of India where she's from, from J-Port, and so that motivation is what really helped her power through the difficulties of leaving her investment banking job, leaving all of that money she was making, living the life that she was living in the US and then heading back to India, to that poorer region of the country where comforts are not as abundant as what we have here.

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And she's happy that she said that that's because she found her, why, same as with my CFO friend who's now working, you know, 16 hour days every day, seven days a week.

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Not everybody can take that, but he's.

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He's happy as a clam because that's why he wanted to do it and he knew why he wanted to do it.

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Yeah, really powerful real life examples and I think that they illuminate really the easy why, the why that so many of us think before we've found our real why is it's easy to chase money.

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It's easy to say, well, I just want to make more money, because that's something that we can actually measure.

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We can log in and see that our bank account balance.

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So that's something that's easy to pick on.

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But I think the harder stuff, gosh, we're getting into, like these really ethereal topics Happiness, excitement, joy.

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I'm going to pick on that P word of passion because, eduardo, a lot of people probably tuned in here today and they heard me say it right in your bio that your passion is helping others grow.

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I remember in my teenage years, in my early twenties, when I was a newer entrepreneur, I, just when I would hear these stories of people like you, eduardo, I was like so what?

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You just woke up and you, you knew your passion, like how did that happen?

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I don't, I haven't had that moment just yet.

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Walk us through where in your journey you've developed or uncovered I don't know the right verb to use there but really discovered that passion of yours and how that started to guide you made some big changes.

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You're one of us.

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Now You're a fellow entrepreneur.

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How'd that happen?

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Thank you.

00:19:48.545 --> 00:19:55.748
So that was, I think, similar and probably even the third example that I could offer, along with the other two that I that I just gave.

00:19:55.748 --> 00:19:59.482
I I ended up like I said.

00:19:59.482 --> 00:20:02.432
I started in the technical world in IT.

00:20:02.432 --> 00:20:03.575
I was invited to join finance.

00:20:03.575 --> 00:20:04.682
I was.

00:20:04.682 --> 00:20:06.575
I enjoyed that ride tremendously.

00:20:07.617 --> 00:20:18.575
The things that I got to do, that was fortunate enough to get to do, are things that I used to only read in business magazines, like deciding what can be the bad, what can, what can what part of the business to shed that kind of thing.

00:20:18.575 --> 00:20:21.535
I enjoyed that immensely.

00:20:21.535 --> 00:20:35.575
But what I found as I was growing was that you can only go as far as your team will take you and and that realization really led me to invest energy and helping others develop and helping others grow.

00:20:35.575 --> 00:21:01.409
And then when they moved on, even if they were in a, in a different company, and they checked back in with me because most of them do and I heard about their great accomplishments and how fast and how far they were getting, that's what really gave me energy, more than the deals, more than the you know, pnl and everything that that CFOs, that we as CFOs get excited about, our cash flow.

00:21:01.409 --> 00:21:02.789
These are all great things.

00:21:02.789 --> 00:21:13.269
I love them, but I got so much happiness out of hearing how people that worked with me were able to leverage our work together, work together to get to where they got.

00:21:14.715 --> 00:21:18.555
That's how I decided at some point to to change my career.

00:21:18.555 --> 00:21:28.464
And I have a bunch of friends where, when I said, listen, I'm just, I'm just going to, I've done this for a while, I'm happy doing it, I I don't know that this is satisfying me as much.

00:21:28.464 --> 00:21:37.301
I want to focus on what really really drives me, which I found over the years is helping others, and more than a couple told me I was not.

00:21:37.301 --> 00:21:38.124
Are you on drugs?

00:21:38.124 --> 00:21:39.487
Disapply on assignment?

00:21:39.487 --> 00:21:42.417
Why would you leave this job, et cetera, et cetera.

00:21:43.935 --> 00:21:52.509
It's over the years, brian, to your question, that I discovered this is what really really felt my soul and why I decided to move off of that.

00:21:52.509 --> 00:22:09.145
As my friend said, plum job and start entrepreneurship, which is not always an easy journey, and you need to going back to my point earlier know why you want to do it, know what is your trying to accomplish, because it won't be easy.

00:22:09.145 --> 00:22:13.265
You know money doesn't start pouring in just because you open doors for a business.

00:22:13.265 --> 00:22:15.080
You need to know what you want to do.

00:22:15.080 --> 00:22:30.945
You need to be able to sustain those headwinds and to keep on pushing, and I think that's what every entrepreneur, regardless of the business, needs to be aware of and keep front and center, no different from any other person in corporate America or in corporate world.

00:22:31.816 --> 00:22:41.575
Yeah, I think there's something so revealing in that answer that you just shared with us, which is you brought up that word energy and I've found the older and the wiser that I get, even though I'm still relatively young.

00:22:41.575 --> 00:22:45.575
The thing that I always think of is I just pay attention to what gives me energy.

00:22:45.575 --> 00:22:56.555
Eduardo, we all do things in life, in work, in relationships, whatever it may be that either give us energy or cost us energy, and I think the older that I get, the more cognizant I just am.

00:22:56.555 --> 00:22:59.067
I'm just like when do I feel energized?

00:22:59.067 --> 00:23:07.575
And clearly, I feel energized behind a microphone, which is why I think I have the coolest job in the world, because I get so much excitement through talking to amazing people and entrepreneurs like yourself.

00:23:07.575 --> 00:23:15.741
And so people always ask me you know, I do eight back to back interviews on our recording days and people always ask me gosh, aren't you exhausted by the end?

00:23:15.741 --> 00:23:21.575
And I'm just like no, I am even more energetic at the end than I was at the beginning, and I think that that's so revealing.

00:23:22.659 --> 00:23:28.578
And when you talk about when you start your business, everyone thinks it's that old adage If you build it, they will come.

00:23:28.578 --> 00:23:29.381
Everyone thinks that.

00:23:29.381 --> 00:23:35.575
When I launched my website and posted on LinkedIn boom, I'm an entrepreneur and I'll have clients and customers raining from every corner.

00:23:35.575 --> 00:23:43.575
But the truth is obviously not that, and so I want to talk to you about that transition as someone who worked in corporate for so long at the enterprise level.

00:23:43.575 --> 00:23:46.702
Eduardo, what was that transition like?

00:23:46.702 --> 00:23:51.515
You went from having day to day responsibilities, someone else dictating to shareholders.

00:23:51.515 --> 00:23:53.555
Here's the direction we're going into.

00:23:53.555 --> 00:23:56.575
Now you are the captain of your own ship.

00:23:56.575 --> 00:23:58.846
What did that transition look like?

00:23:58.846 --> 00:24:00.575
Especially, take me back to your first Monday.

00:24:00.575 --> 00:24:03.223
That's always the day that I love to hear stories about.

00:24:04.636 --> 00:24:15.984
Well, so I think that I'll preface that answer by saying that you are whatever you were before and on that Monday you are the CEO.

00:24:15.984 --> 00:24:20.503
And I don't mean the chief executive officer, I mean the chief everything officer.

00:24:20.503 --> 00:24:21.767
And that was my first shot.

00:24:21.767 --> 00:24:26.602
The fact that when you're in corporate world I mean you're.

00:24:26.602 --> 00:24:27.825
You know you need to swim.

00:24:27.825 --> 00:24:35.416
You don't need to swim fast and a lot, but the pool is built, you have your swim lanes, there's everything there, there's towels.

00:24:35.416 --> 00:24:39.066
If the water is cold, you have somebody to call to to make it a little warmer.

00:24:39.066 --> 00:24:42.121
And so you're told what?

00:24:42.121 --> 00:24:43.103
Which is your swim lane?

00:24:43.103 --> 00:24:44.306
You get in there, you start swimming.

00:24:44.306 --> 00:24:45.288
That's corporate world.

00:24:45.288 --> 00:24:50.227
When you start your business, you're going to eventually end up swimming.

00:24:50.227 --> 00:24:56.065
You're going to eventually have some swim lane, but you need to first find a plot of land where you want to build your pool.

00:24:56.065 --> 00:25:00.136
Then you need to build a pool, then you need to fill it with water, then you need to build a swim lanes.

00:25:00.136 --> 00:25:13.220
And so all of these things, all of those decisions, the fact that I didn't have anything where I was used to just pick up a call and have somebody come help me with my computer, that was my first shot.

00:25:13.220 --> 00:25:14.323
That was my first Monday.

00:25:14.323 --> 00:25:19.544
Brian was just figuring out okay, gosh, my mail wasn't working well.

00:25:19.544 --> 00:25:20.769
That that, that first day.

00:25:20.869 --> 00:25:29.376
I remember that I, when I just said, okay, today I start, and I had one client that was willing to have at least a conversation, I just couldn't get my computer to work.

00:25:29.376 --> 00:25:35.976
So that was the first shock realization that the world is different.

00:25:35.976 --> 00:25:48.943
You need to now be able to juggle Not only the many things that you will need to do as a chief everything officer, but it's also the emotional ups and downs that you're gonna have because you're frustrated that the computer is not working.

00:25:48.943 --> 00:25:51.038
On the other hand, you need to be smiling to your client.

00:25:51.038 --> 00:25:53.950
On the other hand, you need to be focused on yada, yada, yada.

00:25:53.950 --> 00:26:03.663
So that was my, my shock the Realization that now there's a lot more that I didn't appreciate quite fairly before.

00:26:03.663 --> 00:26:13.339
That's so important that I was taken for you know, it was a given and now I needed to build it and have it and construct it and just understand it.

00:26:13.339 --> 00:26:15.483
That was my, that was my first shock.

00:26:16.730 --> 00:26:21.536
Yeah, I love that story because that's the reality of the situation People want to talk about.

00:26:21.536 --> 00:26:29.260
You know all these things that have worked well in our entrepreneurial journeys, but you giving that example, it's something that and it's not a one-time example we all experienced that.

00:26:29.260 --> 00:26:34.690
I have those tech days, and I feel like it's just things that go around in the air where we're all just like why is nothing working today?

00:26:34.690 --> 00:26:36.075
And that's the reality.

00:26:36.075 --> 00:26:43.409
And, ceo Eduardo, you're the first person I've ever heard who said chief everything officer, but it is the most accurate depiction of entrepreneurship.

00:26:44.112 --> 00:26:48.730
I want to ask you this, though, because obviously, entrepreneurship in life is about that duality, and so much of it is.

00:26:48.730 --> 00:27:10.983
We have to focus on growing our businesses, we have to focus on being the chief everything officer, but we also have to focus on, as you said, putting a smile on in front of clients and serving others, and I Personally know, having done as much research about your business as I have, that what really lights you up is Serving those people, is helping people grow into those CFO roles, ceo roles, cxo, whatever it is that they want to do.

00:27:10.983 --> 00:27:14.586
Talk to us about how you balance that in your mind, is it?

00:27:14.586 --> 00:27:17.317
Do you carve out executive time to focus on your business.

00:27:17.317 --> 00:27:20.789
How much of your business is just, eduardo, being of service to others?

00:27:20.789 --> 00:27:22.626
I'd love to hear how you balance those.

00:27:22.646 --> 00:27:36.913
I think that the the the most important part to keep in mind on this important question other things are real important is is having the clarity of at least Identify.

00:27:36.913 --> 00:27:41.569
So what is it you're trying to achieve in this year or over three years?

00:27:41.569 --> 00:27:56.344
I like to use an analogy that I called the 12th quarter year, and what it does is it Transforms three years for quarters each year into a big year that has, you know, 12 months, each month's quarter.

00:27:56.344 --> 00:28:14.757
And so I like to start by by at least imagining what I, what I think I want to accomplish over that period, and that break that down into Quarters, that will years, and in quarters in the months and two weeks, then into days, and, and so that that focus, that clarity, is what really helps.

00:28:14.757 --> 00:28:20.982
You know, keep, keep things in mind, or or just really drive that.

00:28:22.231 --> 00:28:25.648
That part of the engines is a focus what is it you're trying to accomplish?

00:28:25.648 --> 00:28:42.292
And just focus on those few things, because if you're gonna spend your whole time Worrying about my computer doesn't work, then you're going to lose sight of the things that are really important to move the needle towards what you want to accomplish at the end of those three years.

00:28:42.292 --> 00:28:57.825
And that's why, or that's how I, for Myself, identify those things that I must not Forget, that I must not neglect, that I must focus on no matter what, even if it's sleeping two hours that night.

00:28:57.825 --> 00:29:19.259
But there are certain things that you must do in order to move the needle, and the rest is secondary, even if it's Short-term important, like it could be, like the computer could be, there's, there's, there's bigger considerations that you need to carve out and use that Executive time, like you called it for this think time.

00:29:19.259 --> 00:29:22.849
How do you gonna move the needle to get to where you really want to go?

00:29:22.849 --> 00:29:24.940
And then the rest is tactical.

00:29:25.743 --> 00:29:27.049
Yeah, really important perspective.

00:29:27.049 --> 00:29:30.750
I love hearing the way that you talk about time, eduardo, because it's a lesson that took me a while.

00:29:30.750 --> 00:29:40.980
I started my first business when I was 19 and it took me a while to embrace that concept of we overestimate what we can do in a week, but we underestimate what we can do in a year, and it's so important.

00:29:40.980 --> 00:29:54.737
But I think it comes to something that it appears to me and this is why I'm gonna ask you this publicly here on the air it appears to me that you are a master of patience, that this is something that either you had innately or something that, for sure, you've worked on along the way.

00:29:54.865 --> 00:30:00.242
I find that to be something that's so difficult, especially for newer entrepreneurs, whatever age they are.

00:30:00.242 --> 00:30:03.809
It's just we know what we want to do and we know that we want to do it now.

00:30:03.809 --> 00:30:05.863
And so to hear you I operate in quarters.

00:30:05.863 --> 00:30:13.230
I love that you shared that with us and so to hear you talk about well, these things are gonna have to wait for Q2, q3, q4, q8.

00:30:13.230 --> 00:30:17.280
I love this concept of having more than just four quarters in the three-year process.

00:30:17.280 --> 00:30:19.218
How do you dictate that?

00:30:19.218 --> 00:30:27.883
Because and I want to talk to you not only as Eduardo the entrepreneur, but Eduardo someone who serves high-powered professionals who are also equally ambitious and hungry.

00:30:27.883 --> 00:30:30.797
How's that patience factor into this stuff?

00:30:30.797 --> 00:30:32.961
Because, gosh, is that such a hard thing to master?

00:30:34.031 --> 00:30:35.643
Yeah, it is I.

00:30:35.643 --> 00:30:41.329
I think that I Do tend to be more patient with this type of endeavor.

00:30:41.329 --> 00:30:49.223
My daughter is, for my wife might beg to differ on a day-to-day perspective that I'm the most patient person.

00:30:49.223 --> 00:30:58.240
I do tend to to view my professional life Probably with more patients that others patients than others.

00:30:58.652 --> 00:31:24.275
But I, as I, as I work with people, brian, in my corporate, you know life before or now, when I help them grow, is that, regardless of your impatience, regardless of your Eagerness to get to the endpoint and to get to the benefit, the most important, let's say, discipline that you need to master is creating that big vision.

00:31:24.275 --> 00:31:30.834
Like we were saying before those 12 quarters what do you want to accomplish?

00:31:30.834 --> 00:31:33.259
What's the big thing you want to make a difference in?

00:31:33.259 --> 00:31:47.295
And break that down so you won't be able, however impatient you are, if your vision is big enough, it's probably unlikely that you will achieve it within the next month.

00:31:47.295 --> 00:31:51.295
So, almost by definition, you know that that's going to take you some time.

00:31:52.137 --> 00:32:18.295
Then what I do is just help them break that down to the smaller chunks that take them to the nearer term and always keep that vision in mind, because that's what really helps them see that they need to be impatient about what they need to accomplish in the shorter term, today, in the next hour, this week, this month but not as impatient about what they want to accomplish over a longer period of time, which is the three years, for example.

00:32:18.295 --> 00:32:31.063
And that's how it kind of balances out, because that very impatience in some of my most impatient clients, that impatience helps them get things done.

00:32:31.063 --> 00:32:44.295
They do get frustrated more than others when the computer doesn't work, when the phone is crackling, but they are very good in the shorter term at getting things done.

00:32:44.295 --> 00:32:48.491
That's where impatience for them becomes an actual tool.

00:32:48.491 --> 00:32:49.295
Does that make sense?

00:32:50.259 --> 00:32:52.548
Yeah, not only does it make sense, full transparency.

00:32:52.548 --> 00:33:12.881
I'm a very impatient person, Eduardo, so hearing that you actually reframe impatience in a more positive light and it's something that I will say something that helps me as an impatient person is this concept that my friend, Nat Harward, who's been on the show a bunch of times, Nat, really articulates it as be impatient for actions but patient for results.

00:33:12.881 --> 00:33:28.275
And really, what I'm hearing from you is something along those lines that I think is so powerful, which is you're even saying it for some of your clients, which is they're very impatient when it comes to the inputs, which is good, because we just have to focus on those inputs, We'll never be able to control those outputs or those outcomes.

00:33:28.275 --> 00:33:29.618
So I think that that's so important.

00:33:29.618 --> 00:33:32.086
The fact that you really articulate it in that way.

00:33:32.086 --> 00:33:36.214
I think it's such wise insights from you, Eduardo, which is why I was so excited to talk to you here today.

00:33:36.856 --> 00:33:50.255
I did know that we'd be running out of time here today, so I'm going to ask you the question I ask every guest and I have no idea which direction they're going to take it in which is what's your one takeaway for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs listening to us in over 150 countries all around the world.

00:33:50.255 --> 00:33:56.295
We talked about so many important big questions and topics here today during our session together.

00:33:56.295 --> 00:34:00.444
What's that one thing you hope everyone walks away from today's episode with?

00:34:01.575 --> 00:34:16.248
So the one thing is you need to know why you want to do whatever it is you're aspiring to do and who is that going to help At the end of the day and, brian, I'm not only talking to you, I'm talking to everybody listening to us.

00:34:16.248 --> 00:34:24.762
So I'm going to say you listening to us today you need to define what you want to do, why you want to do it and who are you going to be serving.

00:34:24.762 --> 00:34:28.860
At the end of the day, with that, there's always somebody who is not you.

00:34:28.860 --> 00:34:31.284
Nobody is in business for themselves.

00:34:31.284 --> 00:34:33.568
You're always in business to serve somebody.

00:34:33.568 --> 00:34:35.557
So who is it you're going to serve?

00:34:35.557 --> 00:34:39.927
Focus on them and put them first, and the rest will come.

00:34:39.927 --> 00:34:48.047
That would be the one takeaway is really know what, why and who, and that who is probably the engine for the rest of it.

00:34:48.047 --> 00:34:49.628
Once you know what you want to do.

00:34:50.315 --> 00:34:53.521
Yes, really wise advice from you here today, eduardo.

00:34:53.521 --> 00:35:00.463
I feel like you've shown us your brilliance and that wisdom it's the word that keeps striking me in our conversation here today is how wise you are.

00:35:00.463 --> 00:35:02.887
But obviously wisdom comes from those experiences.

00:35:02.887 --> 00:35:05.719
Putting ourselves out there comes from that growth that we can achieve.

00:35:05.719 --> 00:35:07.043
So I really love that.

00:35:07.043 --> 00:35:11.079
That's the direction you took that answer in and listeners, you know what time it is.

00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:16.295
I'm going to ask Eduardo to drop all the links on us so that you can go deeper into experiencing his brilliance in business.

00:35:16.295 --> 00:35:28.119
But before I do that for you, eduardo, I'm going to call you out right here in front of listeners, because there's a section of your website that absolutely resonated with me, so deeply, and that is listeners.

00:35:28.119 --> 00:35:46.989
You'll want to go to Eduardo's website because on his website you'll find a button that says my story, and it's not so much just Eduardo's story to talk about himself, but what he really shares is five statements that have summarized his journey and really guided him, and it's words of advice and wisdom from his own parents and how those shaped him.

00:35:46.989 --> 00:35:52.760
So, eduardo, I think what you do with your work and with your business and on your website is so brilliant and, again.

00:35:52.760 --> 00:35:56.295
It's so much of service to others, so drop those links on us.

00:35:56.295 --> 00:35:58.282
Where should listeners go from here?

00:35:59.204 --> 00:36:00.193
Thank you so much, brian.

00:36:00.193 --> 00:36:01.385
That's great.

00:36:01.385 --> 00:36:07.295
So the first place, my website is wwwvsharpercom.

00:36:07.295 --> 00:36:18.275
That's VSM, victoria, sharp, as in a sharp knife, and then an R at the endcom, and that'll take you to the website that you, so you know, generously visited and produced ICN.

00:36:18.275 --> 00:36:20.275
It just makes me smile.

00:36:20.896 --> 00:36:25.106
The other thing that I would like to I have a gift for everybody in the audience today.

00:36:25.106 --> 00:36:30.275
So please go to HTTPS and call and double slash all of that.

00:36:30.275 --> 00:36:35.893
The link is free course dot build your growthcom.

00:36:35.893 --> 00:36:55.853
So free course single word dot build your growth, single wordcom, and you're going to get access to a free online training on executive presence, which is a high level, one hour training that I'm pretty sure you will, you will enjoy and with, with my best wishes, you can go get that.

00:36:55.853 --> 00:36:58.460
Get that there and the other call out.

00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:07.255
That I'd like to do is the last link that I'd like to drop, brian, would be I'm always looking for for things to work on to help others.

00:37:07.255 --> 00:37:11.235
I'm starting to create some online courses and write some articles.

00:37:11.235 --> 00:37:24.599
I would love to get everybody's input, as many as I can on these things, and so there's another link that I would like to share today, which is the same thing it's.

00:37:24.599 --> 00:37:39.746
It's called topic research dot build your growth dot com and that'll give people a little bit of a sense of hey, would you be interested in some of these topics executive presence, effective business writing, finance for non finance managers.

00:37:39.746 --> 00:37:41.548
Would you like me to research an article?

00:37:42.389 --> 00:37:50.367
And anybody who wants to go there and just help me pick a topic and I will invite you for a very, very brief conversation.

00:37:50.367 --> 00:37:59.485
And then another gift and I'll stop with this it's if you go to same HTTPS, etc.

00:37:59.485 --> 00:38:04.295
It's growth tools single word dot build your growth dot com.

00:38:04.295 --> 00:38:18.255
You will find there another, a new book that has a bunch of resources, very easy, very practical to apply with your team, with your executive presence, with how you communicate with stakeholders or your bosses within your company, etc.

00:38:18.255 --> 00:38:20.461
It's so free, it's for you.

00:38:20.461 --> 00:38:24.295
Enjoy it and I hope that it is helpful.

00:38:24.295 --> 00:38:32.048
And I really, really enjoyed having been here and I would enjoy more conversation with you and with anybody who wants to go and take a look.

00:38:32.757 --> 00:38:36.295
Yes, listeners, the good news is you do not have to remember all those links.

00:38:36.295 --> 00:38:46.295
We are dropping all of those links down below in the show notes, wherever it is that you're tuning into today's session, and you're going to get a heck of a lot of Eduardo's brilliance in those links, so definitely check them out.

00:38:46.295 --> 00:38:52.275
A free course about executive presence is something that benefits every single entrepreneur or entrepreneur.

00:38:52.275 --> 00:38:54.590
You can benefit from that and it's free.

00:38:54.590 --> 00:38:55.295
We all love that word.

00:38:55.295 --> 00:39:01.295
So, eduardo, that's super generous of you and I think all these links just show how much you show up out of service.

00:39:01.295 --> 00:39:04.295
So, listeners, definitely check those links down below in the show notes.

00:39:04.295 --> 00:39:17.255
And, eduardo, on behalf of myself and all the listeners around the world, thank you so much for coming on today sharing your story with us and your brilliance and all of your experience and perspectives and stories here on the Wontropner to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:39:18.318 --> 00:39:19.282
My absolute pleasure.

00:39:19.282 --> 00:39:19.983
Thank you for having me.

00:39:20.836 --> 00:39:26.295
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wontropner to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:39:26.295 --> 00:39:30.400
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:39.295
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewontrapnershowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:39:39.295 --> 00:39:48.295
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:39:48.436 --> 00:39:50.295
These are not sponsored episodes.

00:39:50.295 --> 00:39:52.041
These are not infomercials.

00:39:52.041 --> 00:39:55.295
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

00:39:55.295 --> 00:40:06.295
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome Wontropners and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

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So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

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We also have live chat.

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If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewontropnershowcom.

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Initiate a live chat.

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It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wontropner to entrepreneur podcast.