Latest / The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast / Stop Spinning Your Wheels and Go Get It with Corey Dissin (stage 2) - Ep. 387

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Stop Spinning Your Wheels and Go Get It with Corey Dissin (stage 2) - Ep. 387 · The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast

• 0:00
  Scott Ritzheimer: Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again
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  to the start, scale and succeed podcast, the only podcast that
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  grows with you through all seven stages of your journey. As a
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  founder, I'm your host, Scott Ritzheimer, and here's what
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  nobody tells you about starting a business. The hard part isn't
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  the idea. It's showing up every single day when nobody's
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  watching. And this is especially true for those of you who are
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  still in that startup entrepreneur stage, because
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  early stage founders, I really believe this. They don't fail
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  because they lack talent, or they lack good ideas, or even
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  that they lack a market but, but they fail because they quit
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  before their habits have time to compound. Today's guest, Corey
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  Dissin is going to help us in this area a lot, because he's
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  the no nonsense force behind knockout life and high
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  performance coaching, helping driven pros ditch the fluff and
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  finally get unstuck. After 30 years of leading massive media
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  projects, he flipped the script and built a coaching system
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  rooted in grit, structure and relentless action. He's also the
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  author of going the distance, part memoir, part plan for
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  building a life that actually hits back, and he's here with us
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  today. Corey, welcome to the show. Glad to have you here. I
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  want to jump in just right out of the gate with a question, and
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  that is that I've heard you say that most founders that you work
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  with don't necessarily have a strategy problem, but they have
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  a discipline problem. What do you mean by that, and why is it
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  so critical at this early stage?
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  Corey Dissin: First, thank you for having me, Scott, that's
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  point number one. Point number two. Discipline is spelled D, i,
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  s, s, just make sure we got it spelled right for people. Got to
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  keep the branding involved in there. Talent is a dime a dozen.
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  I mean, hard work stick to itiveness and consistency are in
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  short supply. And, you know, I work with people of all
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  different stripes, and it never ceases to amaze me how off, how
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  quickly off track they can become. And in your intro, you
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  kind of set it all. It's not because they're unable or
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  unwilling to take a journey. They're unwilling or unable to
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  take the journey far enough. You know the you know, I always
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  refer to the stone cutters credo. I'm not sure if you're
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  familiar with that. It's written by a man named Jacob Riis R i i
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  s In the early 1900s observing a stone cutter at his work. And he
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  would say, you know, I'm going to paraphrase it. I don't, I'm
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  going to butcher it a little bit. But the the gist is, when
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  they're in times of distress, I watch a stone cutter at his
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  trade and, you know, swinging and hitting that rock with the
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  hammer, and on the 100 and first blow, the rock splits. But it
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  wasn't the 100 and first blow that did it. It was the
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  accumulation of the 100 before it. And that's what I teach, to
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  have that resilience, to have that discipline and that
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  consistency, to take relentless action without an immediate
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  result.
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  Scott Ritzheimer: Here's the thing that I think of makes this
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  harder than it should be, and that is, when we look at how
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  entrepreneurism is described, like on on social media,
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  Facebook, Instagram seems to be the worst of it, but what I see
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  there doesn't match what I've experienced myself in the
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  several businesses I've started, or the folks that I help. And
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  what you see is this idea of, like, the entrepreneur life,
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  being sitting on a beach after your four hour work week,
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  sipping my ties, but like, that's just not the real world.
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  And so what happens is, when folks get into the world
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  thinking that that's what normal is, they get punched in the face
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  a couple times by life in the entrepreneur stage, and they
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  feel like they're doing something wrong. And I actually
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  had a guy gave me some fantastic advice. His name is Scott, which
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  is probably why he was so wise. But he was not me, by the way.
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  But he said, Hey, just because it's not working doesn't mean
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  you're not doing the right thing. And, and, and it's what I
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  hear you saying. So why? Why is it that we're so afraid of doing
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  the wrong thing, and how does that keep us from actually doing
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  the right thing?
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  Corey Dissin: Well, human beings are innately magnetized by
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  comfort. When you are putting out a tremendous effort not
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  getting a result that is grossly uncomfortable, so it's easily
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  avoided. It's easy to get on the off ramp and say, I don't want
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  to drive on this road anymore. And entrepreneurship is boring,
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  and that's another thing. Folks don't want to be bored. They
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  they're they want to see they're like the cat with a new toy.
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  They want to go to the next flashy, shiny object, and go to
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  that because it's cool, or it gets sexy, or it has a lot of
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  attention online, and the real gritty, muddy, dirty work of
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  entrepreneurship is boring and repetitive, and that's the other
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  piece of the puzzle too. You got it a lot. God, thank goodness I
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  live but live a charmed life. I get to live some of that stuff
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  that's advertised. Of that what's sexy about
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  entrepreneurship, but people forget that I spent 30 years
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  building up to that. Folks have spent 30 days and want what I've
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  achieved in 30 years. That's where the major dis Connect is,
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  and I said it that,
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  Scott Ritzheimer: Right, Yeah. I like, yeah, there's, there's so
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  many different ways. I won't go with that, but I want to, I want
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  to stay in this how, how do you know, or do you know, where to
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  put your massive action, right? If you're going to go hit the
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  rock 100 times, how do you know where to hit it.
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  Corey Dissin: What I tell clients is you always need to be
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  putting yourself out there. If you're an entrepreneur and
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  you're trying to build a client base, you have to be less
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  consumed with I am an expert craftsman, or I am superior at
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  this service, and then I need to network. That's what most people
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  approach it that way. I turn the tables and say, you need to
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  become a master networker that happens to do said service,
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  because at that point, you have proven that you're willing to do
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  what others won't and daring to do what others don't. Right.
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  Does that invest heavily in marketing, in creating
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  visibility and creating Attention. Attention that is the
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  metric, that is the currency. Everything else is off of that.
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  And I always tell people, you can be I mean, I tell them to
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  think about their favorite music act. Who would you pay pop
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  baller to sit front row to watch, and whether that's
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  Metallica or Lady Gaga or Beyonce, whoever it is, it
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  doesn't matter how good the music is. If there's no one
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  sitting in the arena, learn how to sell tickets. I teach people
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  how to sell tickets. Everything takes care of itself, because
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  when you sold the tickets, you're developing the know, like
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  and trust. You're cultivating a relationship with that person.
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  Because ain't nobody spending money with someone they don't
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  like, they don't know, and they don't trust. If you have that
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  built up first, eventually they will open their wallet to you
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  for whatever you're so good at, because you throw a rock.
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  There's people good at what they do.
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  Scott Ritzheimer: I love this interplay between intensity,
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  which is easy to manufacture, but over time. And one of the
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  things in your book that struck me is how you capture the time
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  of this in the the metaphor, if you will, of the boxing round,
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  like going 10 rounds. And so tell us a little bit your book
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  going the distance. Why'd you choose the boxing analogy? And
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  what does this hit that the conventional business books
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  miss?
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  Corey Dissin: Oh, man, so many good questions for you to unpack
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  there. Let me dig in here. So first, I'm a boxing fan, a
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  boxing nerd. That's number one. Number two, I trained as a
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  fighter. Never fought professionally, but I trained
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  with EX heavyweight champion of the world, Tim Witherspoon. Was
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  very lucky to do that. Got my head knocked around by him, too.
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  That wasn't very fun. And his son, who was a professional
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  fighter, who was very good. I was a trainer, or I trained MMA
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  people on how to condition themselves. So I've always had a
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  connection to the fight game and even running the production
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  company for 27 years, one of our biggest clients, top ranked
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  boxing Don King productions. So I was doing commercials for
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  Tyson and Roy Jones Jr and Oscar De La Hoya. So you add all those
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  things together. And by the way, I'm from Philly, and what famous
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  fictional boxing character is from Philly, Rocky Balboa, baby.
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  And if you're from Philly, you take that stuff serious. That's
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  for real. And the whole underdog story, all that stuff resonated
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  with me just since I was a little kid. So that's one of the
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  reasons how boxing played a part in the framework of my book.
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  Number two is, I, as you can tell, I'm not your typical
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  stuffed shirt academic. Nothing against those people. It just
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  ain't me. I'm a ham and Egger. Okay, you know, you're lucky you
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  got me in sleeves today. Let me put it to you that way. And
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  because of that, I wanted a book that reflected my authenticity,
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  that was clearly me. It wasn't some theory that I took in a
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  class or some seminar, because there are a lot of self help
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  books that are dry and they'll put you to sleep. I wanted
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  something that you could read quickly, that would, you know,
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  keep you interested and engaged in a format that was unlike any
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  other book you've ever read. And that's how I kind of landed. I
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  took all. Those ingredients, stirred them up in the soup. And
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  here we have, you know, this book that has this boxing thing.
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  Oh, and it helps that going the distance is a metaphor. You
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  know, boxing has that double entendre meaning too. So, and
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  quite frankly, Look, man, life's a fight. You say that in the
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  book, Life is a fight. You're going to get punched. You got to
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  know how to throw punches. You got to get up off the canvas.
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  And if you want to be a champion, you got to be willing
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  to get in the ring and mix it up, because the success is not
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  just going to meet you halfway. You got to get in there and mix
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  it up and be challenged. So all these things factored into me
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  putting this book together, and obviously it's on brand. Like I
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  said, I'm not your typical science teacher type guy.
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  Scott Ritzheimer: That's awesome. That's awesome. And
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  when you're writing the book, who Who were you trying to? Who
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  are you trying to help? Who are you writing to, and what do you
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  hope that they get from his pages?
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  Corey Dissin: So I had two audiences. One was very selfish
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  and one was very unselfish. Selfish. Version was written for
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  my two sons. They had the legacy. They didn't get a chance
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  to grow up with me. They heard the stories at Thanksgiving.
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  And, you know, all the times and the rides in the car, all the
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  lectures and whatnot about how to do this and why this
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  happened, and who I met, and this guy and the other guy, I
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  wanted them to experience what it was like when I came up, so
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  they knew where they came from. So I know that when I'm not here
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  anymore, they can keep this book with them and reflect on it, and
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  they can pass that along to their kids and so on and so
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  forth. Because legacy. We talk a lot about legacy in the book
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  too, because I was passed down from my father. I wanted them to
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  be able to have that story, or series of stories, and then, you
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  know, the other piece was letting people, allowing people
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  to benefit from the people and the advice that I got, so they
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  could take it, put it put it in their own hip pocket and use it
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  for their own success, whether they're starting a small
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  business, whether they're working for somebody else,
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  whether they're a student getting ready to go to college
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  or graduate, they can there's pieces, there's sections in that
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  book that apply across the board, and because I talk about
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  it in a very direct, regular way. It's very relatable. So I
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  wanted to be able to share and pay it forward, the, like I
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  said, the experiences, the advice, and the people, the
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  shoulders that I stood on. I'm it's a love letter. I'm paying
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  homage to these people. You know, they helped me. Let me
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  allow them to help you through me.
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  Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, I love that. Corey, there's this
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  question that I have that I ask all my guests. I'm very
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  interested to see what you'd have to say to it. And the
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  question is this, what is the biggest secret you wish wasn't a
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  secret at all? What's that one thing you wish everybody
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  watching or listening today knew?
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  Corey Dissin: Ooh, that's a good question. I would probably say
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  it's going to take longer than you think it always does. You
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  know, they say patience is a virtue. It's very cliche, but
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  you got to be able to put forth that maximum effort.
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  Championship rounds are championship rounds at the end
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  of the fight, not in the first round. I'm trying to tie it all
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  together. And my whole life, my story is all about still
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  standing when the bell rings, because, believe me, I got my
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  butt kicked. And, you know, with respect to how you wanted to
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  address the show, I would normally say that in a much more
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  graphic way, but I got my butt kicked. I wasn't, you know, I
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  didn't even work a 40 hour week till I was in my 40s. I didn't
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  even know what that was. And plus all the little twists and
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  turns along the way, and I try to communicate with everybody,
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  you got to hang in there. It you, there's no you can't come
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  up with this artificial goal post and go, if I don't get to
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  my goal in a year, or 18 months or two years, I'm going to try
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  something else. It's the thing you can do. Yeah, you want it
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  bad enough, and you're passionate about it, you will
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  see it through to the end. So if you're seeing it through to the
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  end, you gotta, you gotta go until it's done. It's not done
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  till it's done.
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  Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, yeah. Corey, I love that so much,
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  because I think the other aspect of this, and I'd love to have
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  been able to explore it a little bit further, but one of the
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  things that I hear in that, that I don't want to overlook or
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  assume is understood, is like, because it's worth it, right?
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  That's the on the other side of this. Yeah, so it's going to be
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  harder than you think, but it's going to be more worth it than
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  you know. And I love that, because it comes out in who you
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  are, comes out in in the book, and I hope people capture that
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  as well, because it's not just hard for hard sake. It's because
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  of what that hard. Creates in us,
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  Corey Dissin: Anything worth having or doing requires pain
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  and sacrifice first. Not everyone is cut out to withstand
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  that. Yeah, and you know, if I can help someone push through
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  that difficult period, absorb some of that kind of
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  figuratively, get your back and push you back out in the ring,
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  and let's go sign me up.
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  Scott Ritzheimer: That's awesome. That's awesome.
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  Speaking of which Corey, I know there's founders that are
• 15:28
  listening today that would love to know more. They'd love to get
• 15:32
  a copy of the book or connect with you. Where can they do
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  that? How can they find out more about you and the work you do?
• 15:38
  Corey Dissin: Easiest way. CoreyDissin.com, C, O, R, E, y,
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  d, i s, s, I N. And you know, the big joke that I say in a lot
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  of these interviews is, hey, I'm a marketing guy. If you type me
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  into Google and I don't show up, then I'm a fraud. I mean, I'm
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  out there. I'm not hard. There's pages and pay if you can't find
• 15:54
  me, something's wrong. Maybe the power doesn't work on your
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  computer. I'm very in tune with social media. LinkedIn is my
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  jam. I'm on the other platforms too, but I drink the LinkedIn
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  Kool Aid. So you can find me on there as well.
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  Scott Ritzheimer: That's fantastic, fantastic. Well,
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  Corey, thanks so much for being on the show today. Really was a
• 16:16
  privilege having here. Totally fun conversation. I loved it,
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  and I'm glad you're able to join us today. For those of you
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  watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the
• 16:24
  world to us, I hope you got as much out of this conversation as
• 16:28
  I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.