A Recap of Where We’ve Been, What We’ve Learned, and Where We’re Going

“You get that exhilarating feeling of like, ‘Oh, man, I could get out of this place.’ And that's really where I was. I was very hungry to learn. I was very hungry for different results. And so even though it took time, a lot of people think it's going to be easy too when they take that leap. Like, ‘Oh, I'll just make this decision, everything's going to be easy.’ You got to be willing to stick it out. You've got to be willing to do the hard things to be able to get where you want to go. And so even though we made the decision that we were going to do something different, it took time to begin to work hard and to switch that from being an employee to jumping over into entrepreneurship.” - Kirk & Nicole Porter

Kirk & Nicole Porter (@Kirkporter and @Nicole_insights) hail from Dallas, Texas where they fell in love, started their careers, had their boys, and pivoted to multiple different ventures, including their current venture as Bonvera entrepreneurs. Before becoming entrepreneurs, they were comfortable and keeping up with the Joneses but they wanted so much more. With Nicole as a dental hygienist and Kirk in IT, they were trapped and stuck in the daily grind. But, they weren’t staying stuck. Through battle after battle, they gained more knowledge, got grittier, and learned to stay in the fight. Today, they’re serial entrepreneurs who run multiple businesses in realty, technology, network marketing, and education. They’re passionate about helping others find success as entrepreneurs too.

In this episode with Bob, Kirk & Nicole recount why they decided to pursue entrepreneurship. In this process, they learned how to shift their thinking from an employee mindset to entrepreneurial freedom. They learned how to keep pushing past the challenges, and they learned how to focus so strongly on their dream that nothing stood in their way.

Notes and Quotes:

-We basically got into the spot where we bought the American dream, right? Like we had the nice cars, we had corporate jobs, we had the nice house, and we looked good from the outside. But on the inside, we were in debt. Any money we made, we spent it.

-We learned three keys to wealth, which was delayed gratification, long term vision, and the power of compounding.

-But [in this documentary of Pumping Iron], he says, "When I'm competing, if my car gets stolen, I can't even think about my car getting stolen. Because I'm so focused on my goal to get where I'm going, that someone else can't even come and tell me that, they have to handle it for me."

-When you're chasing your dream and you're doing those things, you’re so focused on your goals. Nothing is going to stand in your way. Your car gets smashed on the side of the road. You're like, I don't got no time for that, right?

-I'm in the hunt. I think a lot of times people want to pass that hunt and just talk about the success that they think they've already achieved. But I love the hunt and I think the hunt is the funnest part of the whole thing. The battle being the battle and getting to where you want to go.

-I think there's always a challenge. There's always something that’s being created, there's always something being recreated. I mean if you're a business owner you've got to be okay with that. You know that you’re constantly reinventing yourself, constantly you're on to the next challenge. It's challenge to challenge to challenge to success. Challenge to challenge to challenge to success.

-Man, do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? To me, one of the biggest keys is having that long term vision. You've got to be able to see far ahead, not just what is this going to produce for me in a week. You've got to have that staying power and be able to see things long term.

Links in this episode include:

Kirk & Nicole Porter’s Leadership Profile

Kirk & Nicole’s website & blog

Visit their store at Macdaddy’s

Lockheed Martin, an Aerospace and Defense Company

Define, Learn, Do principle, a method of learning referred to in the New Way MBA program

The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky