Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business

Ever see someone crushing it with a specific marketing strategy—like Facebook ads, a Shopify store, or podcast interviews—and immediately think, "I need to do that too!"? If so, this Solo Sunday episode is a must-listen. Brian breaks down one of the most common and dangerous mental traps for entrepreneurs: assuming other people's results can predict your own.
Using a powerful behind-the-scenes story from the podcast—where one guest made over $100,000 from their appearance while others made $0—Brian reveals why asking "what results have others gotten?" is the wrong question entirely. Instead, he shares a much smarter approach that trains you to look for patterns, learn from contrast, and make strategic decisions that dramatically increase your own chances of success, no matter what channel you choose.
✨ Why This Matters for You
This mindset shift is critical for building a sustainable business:
It stops you from wasting time and money chasing shiny object strategies that worked for someone else.
It protects you from the false sense of security that comes from cherry-picked success stories.
You’ll learn to deconstruct what actually makes a strategy work, instead of just copying surface-level tactics.
It empowers you to make smarter, more intentional decisions based on patterns, not just possibilities.
You’ll learn to identify what’s required for success and honestly assess if you’re willing and able to do the work.
📝 Key Takeaways
Results Aren't Transferable. Just because someone else generated $100k from a strategy doesn’t mean you will. Their results are a product of their unique approach, messaging, and follow-through.
The Wrong Question. Stop asking, "What results did others get?" This question is flawed because success and failure exist for every single business strategy.
The Right Question. Start asking, "What are the common patterns, strategies, and mindsets of those who succeeded versus those who failed?"
Learn from the Contrast. The most valuable insights come from understanding the difference between what works and what doesn't. Actively study both successes and failures to find the real lessons.
Strategy Over Channel. The marketing channel itself isn't the magic bullet. Success comes from the intentionality, value, and strategic plan you bring to that channel.
🚀 Put It Into Action
This week, pick one strategy you're considering for your business (e.g., starting a YouTube channel, running Google Ads, guesting on podcasts).
Instead of just looking for success stories, actively search for examples of people for whom it didn't work.
Identify the patterns. What did the successful people do consistently? (e.g., clear call to action, consistent promotion, high-value content).
What were the common themes among those who failed? (e.g., inconsistency, poor messaging, no plan).
Based on these patterns, what do you need to commit to in order to put yourself in the "success" category?
🔗 Stay Connected
Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode
Connect with me on Instagram @imetbrian
Share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to stop comparing and start strategizing

In this special Collab Week episode of Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur, seven founders come together to answer one deceptively powerful question:
What's something you started or learned long ago that's finally paying off?
You'll hear from Shawn Sundsvold of GoldBear Media, Nate Hebbert of SelfWare Consulting, Raamon Newman of New Mavericks, Rami Akeela of Nera Systems, David Beltran of Accord Intelligence, Brandon Pankey of Blue Pine Works, Zeyno Dodd of AlgiSense, and Drew Mehta of ThinkFraction, as they each trace a skill, habit, or hard lesson from years ago straight into the business they're running today.
✨ What You'll Take Away
In this episode, you'll learn how to:
Spot when an old passion is quietly becoming a business asset
Prioritize real recovery, not just harder training
Stay in a "niche" you love, even when nobody else sees the value yet
Trust hands-on problem-solving even when it doesn't match the manual
Build a go-getter mindset early that compounds over years
Use pattern recognition across industries when you're stuck
Say yes more often in the early stages of entrepreneurship
🎙️ Meet the Collab Week Contributors
Shawn Sundsvold — GoldBear Media
Shawn is Co-Founder and COO of GoldBear Media, a marketing agency in Westminster, Maryland. After sitting in nearly every seat in business and recovering from a serious 2019 spinal surgery, he helped his wife Kelly grow GoldBear Media into a full-time business by 2022, focused on marketing, branding, and online presence for small and medium businesses.
 Website: https://goldbear.media/
Nate Hebbert — SelfWare Consulting
Nate Hebbert is an entrepreneur and software engineer who previously worked for 3M, KPMG, and Domo—where he developed custom Java code for Fortune 500 clients. When burnout threatened to ruin his career, he became obsessed with solving one problem: how to escape the cycle of burnout. Now, Nate is the founder of SelfWare Consulting—an organization that empowers tech companies to beat burnout without pressing pause.
Website: https://selfwareconsulting.com/
Raamon Newman — New Mavericks
Raamon is co-founder of New Mavericks, a CEO leadership development partnership he started 25 years ago as a full-time meditating monk. He works with founder-CEOs worldwide to raise their leadership consciousness for clear, healthy decision-making, and is co-author of "The Science of Protection."
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raamonnewman/
Rami Akeela — Nera Systems
Rami is the founder of Nera Systems, a confidential AI company helping enterprises use AI on their most sensitive data. With 20+ years across hardware, software, and cryptography and PhDs in electrical and computer engineering, he previously founded DZK, the first zero-knowledge proof systems company.
 Website: https://nera.systems/
David Beltran — Accord Intelligence
David is founder and CEO of Accord Intelligence. After nearly three decades in enterprise IT, including 14 years at IBM in cybersecurity and governance, he built Accord's decision layer, helping organizations trust, govern, and stay accountable for AI-driven decisions.
 Website: https://www.accordintelligence.ai/
Brandon Pankey — Blue Pine Works
Brandon is co-owner and Operations Lead at Blue Pine Works, an arboriculture and land stewardship company in East-Central Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. He runs the operational side — systems, marketing, HR, finance, and client communication — while working toward a COO-level role.
 Websiten: https://bluepineworks.com/
Zeyno Dodd — AlgiSense
Zeyno is co-founder of AlgiSense, developing AI-driven EEG digital biomarkers to objectively measure pain. With 25+ years across healthcare, cybersecurity, and applied AI, her work spans government modernization and privacy-focused health platforms, rooted in a passion for ethical AI.
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeynoaygendodd/
Drew Mehta — ThinkFraction
Drew is the founder of ThinkFraction, helping owner-operators grow revenue by fixing leaks in their back-end workflows and teaching them how AI fits into their business — all while learning to be an entrepreneur himself after 20+ years in corporate.
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhroovmehta/

Everyone is talking about adopting AI, but how do you do it without losing control, breaking the bank, or compromising your company’s data? In this episode, Brian sits down with Jake Tao, a seasoned entrepreneur and former engineering leader at giants like Amazon and Shopify. Jake breaks down the complex world of enterprise AI into simple, actionable strategies. He reveals why being locked into a single AI model is a mistake and how to create a secure, cost-effective AI environment tailored to your business needs. This episode is a masterclass for any entrepreneur who wants to move beyond the AI hype and start implementing it intelligently to gain a real competitive advantage.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
How to create a secure AI “control plane” for your business, ensuring compliance, privacy, and control over your data.
The vendor-neutral strategy: Why you shouldn't get locked into one AI provider (like ChatGPT or Claude) and how to choose the best model for any given task.
The "start small" roadmap for AI adoption that proves value quickly and gets your whole team excited.
How to translate abstract AI concepts like "tokens" into tangible cost controls and budget management for your business.
Why building a visual dashboard is key to understanding and managing your team's AI usage and expenses in real-time.
How to turn a lifelong passion for technology into multiple successful entrepreneurial ventures.
📝 About Jake Tao
Jake Tao is the founder and CEO of Syrovex, the company behind OwlVigil, an enterprise AI control plane. With over 15 years of engineering and leadership experience from tech giants like Amazon, Shopify, Capital One, and Oracle, Jake has deep expertise in large-scale infrastructure and AI. He’s a lifelong entrepreneur who started his first business in middle school, sold it to pay for college, and has since launched multiple successful ventures, including an online community for international students that is still active with over 270,000 users. Jake brings a unique blend of high-level enterprise knowledge and a scrappy founder’s mindset to the world of AI.
🎯 Jake’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"You need to find a real problem that you can help to resolve and start with small and test early and you can improve based on the real feedback."
📢 Memorable Quotes
"You don't have to have the whole business figured out in the beginning. So you need to be a real person, you need to solve the real problem." – Jake Tao
"The problem for the enterprise is like, hey, okay, this is something I use personally, but how can I leverage the whole AI system... for my business?" – Jake Tao
"I see the next decade of my life is like building something and helping people and growing." – Jake Tao
💡 Actionable Takeaways
Audit your current workflows for a small, repetitive task that could be improved with AI. Use that as your pilot project to see the benefits firsthand.
Instead of defaulting to a single AI platform, challenge your team to consider which model is best suited for a specific business task (e.g., creative writing vs. data analysis).
Implement a data privacy pre-check. Before your team inputs sensitive information into any AI tool, establish a clear process for filtering out private company or customer data.
If you're building an AI-powered tool, consider how you can provide a dashboard or reporting system to help your users understand its usage, cost, and ROI.
Take Jake’s advice: identify a real problem you personally understand, define the smallest possible first step to solve it, and get feedback immediately.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://syrovex.com/
Personal website: https://jaketao.com
Connect with Jake on LinkedIn
Follow Syrovex on LinkedIn

In a world where AI is making the hiring process feel more broken and impersonal than ever, how can entrepreneurs build teams based on trust and true capability? This episode features Josie Zhang, the founder and CEO of Griting.ai, who is pioneering a new approach. Josie breaks down how AI, when used correctly, can actually build a more trustworthy bridge between companies and talent. She reveals her framework for identifying real human potential beyond the resume, moving past biases to see what candidates are truly capable of. For any entrepreneur looking to build a high-performing team or ethically leverage AI, this conversation provides a groundbreaking and human-centric roadmap.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
🚀 How to use AI to remove hiring bias and focus on a candidate's true capabilities, not just their resume.
🤖 The critical importance of the "human-in-the-loop" model to ensure AI enhances, rather than replaces, human judgment and connection.
🧠 A deep dive into a 5-dimensional talent framework (Passion, Mental Coordination, Execution, Communication, Consistency) to evaluate talent in a more holistic way.
🤝 Why building a "trust signal" is the most crucial element in hiring and how AI can be used to verify skills and authenticity on both sides of the table.
⚙️ Practical examples of how to use AI agents to automate repetitive, "dirty work" so you can focus on high-value tasks like strategy and human connection.
💡 How to shift your mindset from AI as a replacement threat to AI as a powerful tool for amplifying human curiosity and passion.
📈 Why consistency and resilience are the most valuable traits for entrepreneurs and employees in the rapidly changing AI landscape.
📝 About Josie Zhang
Josie Zhang is the founder and CEO of Griting.ai, an AI talent intelligence company focused on building trust between talent development and employment. Currently a PhD student in AI at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering, her work explores multi-agent systems and human-AI cognition. Josie brings a unique and brilliant perspective that bridges the gap between deep academic research and the practical, real-world challenges of building a business and hiring the right people in the age of AI.
🎯 Josie’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
Find a problem you are so passionate about that you would work on it even if no one was watching, paying you, or managing you. That is your true north.
📢 Memorable Quotes
"The algorithm led us to want more efficiency, but the hiring matching process is not just like the efficiency. It's really like truly two sides can see each other in the right timing.” – Josie Zhang
"We believe each individual has a unique talent. We are not doing the ranking or the sourcing heavily to let the people like the competition. No, we believe we create opportunity for everyone.” – Josie Zhang
"Even though AI is really important, human at present is more important… We still need to be, want to be at present and want to gather with each other and want to talk with a really, really real person.” – Josie Zhang
💡 Actionable Takeaways
✅ Audit your current hiring process. Are you screening for keywords on a resume or are you creating opportunities to see a candidate's real capabilities in action?
✅ Identify one repetitive, low-value task in your daily workflow. Research how an AI agent could automate it to free up your time for more strategic work.
✅ Define a passion project you’d work on for free. Dedicate a few hours a week to exploring it with AI tools to see what new insights you can uncover.
✅ When implementing any AI tool, consciously build in a "human-in-the-loop" checkpoint to review its output, check for bias, and add your own critical judgment.
✅ Focus on building genuine, human-to-human connections. In a world of AI agents, being present and authentic is a competitive advantage.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://griting.ai
Connect with Josie on LinkedIn
Follow Griting.ai on LinkedIn

In this episode, Brian sits down with Noah McCloud, the founder of OptiGold PMO, who masterfully translates complex corporate project management principles into actionable strategies for entrepreneurs. Noah shares his journey from managing $600M+ portfolios to taking the leap and building his own business from the ground up. He reveals why most business failures aren't technical but human, rooted in our resistance to change and lack of trust. This episode is a masterclass in mindset, resilience, and the art of delivering visible results quickly to build momentum and prove your value. If you're struggling to manage competing priorities or need the motivation to finally make your own entrepreneurial leap, this conversation is for you.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
The "Human First" Principle: Discover why project failures are almost always human, not technical, and how to build the trust and buy-in needed to drive any initiative forward.
Deliver Value, Fast: Learn the strategy of delivering something visible and valuable quickly to earn your mandate, whether with clients, stakeholders, or your own team.
Ditch Reporting Theater: Shift your updates from "scope, schedule, cost" to conversations about trade-offs and strategic decisions that actually move the needle.
The Entrepreneurial Leap Mindset: Understand the power of the "Try, Fail, Iterate, Get Better" cycle and why embracing rejection is a prerequisite for success.
From Corporate Expert to Founder: Hear the real story of transitioning from a high-level corporate career to starting from scratch, and why you should spend less time planning and more time testing.
Leverage Modern Tools, Maintain Human Connection: Learn how to use AI and modern software to accelerate your operational tasks without losing the authentic connection that truly builds a business.
📝 About Noah McCloud
Noah McCloud is the founder and principal advisor of OptiGold PMO, where he builds and rescues project management offices for complex organizations. With over 20 years of experience, he has managed portfolios exceeding $600 million and led massive global technology initiatives. Noah’s core belief is that successful project management is built on human connection and trust, not just processes and tools. He took the leap into entrepreneurship to build something meaningful for his family, bringing his wealth of enterprise-level experience to the business world with a focus on agility and rapid value delivery.
🎯 Noah’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Don't quit. Don't give up on yourself. Remember why you started down the path... Find your why and why you want to do this. And, that first day that you step out, write that why down."
📢 Memorable Quotes
"Everything that you're trying to do to get to where you want to be in entrepreneurship is behind the things you're avoiding." – Noah McCloud
"You wanna fall in love with the journey and the process to step out on your own because it's not something that's gonna happen overnight." – Noah McCloud
"Try, fail, iterate, and get better. And people will notice that. People will notice that and they'll want to work with you because you're giving it your all and really, improving every day." – Noah McCloud
💡 Actionable Takeaways
Write Down Your "Why": Take 15 minutes today to write down exactly why you started (or want to start) your business. Keep it somewhere you can see it daily.
Identify One "Quick Win": Look at your current projects or client work. Find one small, visible result you can deliver this week to build trust and momentum.
Test, Don't Over-Plan: If you have a business idea, spend less time on the perfect business plan and more time getting feedback from the market. Take one small step to test your idea this week.
Reframe a Project Update: In your next client or team meeting, consciously shift the conversation away from a simple status report and towards strategic decisions and trade-offs.
🔗 Links & Resources
Website: https://optigoldpmo.com
Connect with Noah on LinkedIn
Follow OptiGold PMO on LinkedIn