eric fischgrund Archives - Eric Fischgrund

Your Entrepreneurial Journey is Your Own

Let me share with you a few pieces of unsolicited advice I’ve heard over the years:

“Never work for free, your time is valuable and you should be compensated.”

Wrong.

“Cold calling is dead, don’t do it.”

Wrong.

“Don’t ever work with your friends.”

Wrong again.

“The Patriots are going to crush the Eagles in Super Bowl LII.”

😆

“58 rules for modern marketing, a thread 1/59”

When you see this on Twitter, block block block!

“Ladies, don’t eat finger foods at networking events.”

Very wrong, and also pretty damn sexist. I listened to this exact advice at an etiquette event at a university that I have great respect for…in 2019. I now believe the speaker time traveled to get there. For the record, if there’s cocktail shrimp or chips and guac, you should eat that shit immediately. Don’t be a fool and don’t worry, I let him have it.

The only thing I know for sure.

There is really only one single rule when it comes to starting a business and that is this – your entrepreneurial journey is your own.

There is simply nothing else to consider, but don’t worry – as an entrepreneurial philanthropist rainmaker content creating visionary evangelist with a bunch of emojis in his title – I’m here to explain. Starting a business is hard, but it’s even harder when you let the business impostors of the world into your life.

I’ll start with an example from year one of my entrepreneurial journey – an event that changed my life and inadvertently the careers of so many of my colleagues.

In July 2014, I had five clients, and I was wracked with anxiety. FischTank PR was really just me sitting in my apartment, filled with self-doubt and taking showers at 4am before putting on a dress shirt for no reason whatsoever. Zoom wasn’t a thing, Skype was already on the decline, and everyone else was in their office or happy hour after being social. Except me.

I was struggling to get going. It was very difficult for me to know when to say yes and when to say no to something. To make things more challenging, since December 2013 when I’d picked up my first client, I had encountered a number of YouShoulds – a noun that isn’t yet in Webster’s Dictionary but will be by the time you’re done reading this blog post.

…OK, I’ll bite. What is a YouShould?

Glad you asked. YouShoulds are exactly as their name indicates. They’re generally individuals who don’t own businesses and don’t call their own shots, but do have a sense of entitlement based on either their seniority or college education. Perhaps they’ve held some prior mid-level job at some Wall Street bank, internet conglomerate or some other organization they think you should care about.

YouShoulds start every sentence with “You should…” They inevitably tell you that you should get embossed business cards (this happened, at the Cornell Club of all places); rename your company (someone advised me to call FischTank ‘Regal Communications’ – so original); or my favorite, bring on a senior partner who was mature (I’m not mature?) and could help me engage with c-suite business leaders.

You’ve seen them in their glory. The “thought leaders” who have LinkedIn titles like “CEO Whisperers,” “10X Sales Leaders” and “Building Multi-Million Dollar Orgs” and “Entrepreneurial Problem Solvers with 7 Successful Exits.” For that last one, they really mean they exited the company. But who cares about nuance, right?

These charlatans, usually men with headshots from 2004, quote Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk – you know, a bunch of regular guys. These gents have no problem sliding into your DMs to tell you about how great they are and why you should listen to (and hire) them. Just as the tips I listed above are wrong, these titles are nonsense, and the people hiding behind them generally are as well.

The worst part? I listened. Maybe I didn’t always act, but yeah, I have a few hundred of those embossed business cards left, and yes, I considered a partnership with an Investor Relations professional who may or may not have fought in the Civil War and voyaged on the Titanic. I almost let them board my entrepreneurial journey.

Returning to the plot with my moment of entrepreneurial awakening.

OK, back to the event from July 2014 that woke me up to the actual realities of entrepreneurship. I was introduced to a securities attorney who will remain nameless to protect his identity, and he made me an offer: I would get him press coverage discussing IPOs and SEC-related topics, and in exchange he would refer me business by making introductions to clients in need of PR services. A pure barter.

I asked three or four people about it, and all of them said more or less the same thing: f*ck no! “Eric, your time is valuable!” “He’s scamming you, make him pay!” “You’re being taken advantage of!” Their feelings were unanimous – don’t do it.

I heard them out, but this time I didn’t listen. I called him back the next day and said I was in. Why? Honestly, I wasn’t that busy and I wasn’t that happy, either. I didn’t know my path forward. I decided to take the shot.

A few days later a market moving event occurred, and I secured a media opportunity for the attorney with a CNBC online news journalist. Nothing too crazy, but definitely a good start.

The attorney emailed me maybe 10 minutes later, but it had nothing to do with the media opportunity. It was an introduction to an advanced materials company that had recently gone public, and the attorney recommended they hire me, positioning me as someone who was hungry and would get results. Weeks later, they were a client.

Shortly thereafter, that same attorney made another introduction, this time to a large, private after-market automotive retailer. I visited their office and days later, they became a client.

After that, I had enough business to bring on a partner and now friend of mine, Matt Bretzius. “Don’t work with people you’re friendly with!” they said. Once again, “they” were wrong. People who love the Eagles, Phillies and Sixers (and Flyers, sure) can run a pretty fine business.

The securities attorney and his firm have been clients of FischTank for nearly eight years. He and his team made countless introductions that have resulted in many more networking opportunities and event invitations, essentially creating a tree of new connections that have driven ongoing business (and revenue) to FischTank. In return, for years my firm has generated countless media opportunities for that attorney and his colleagues, managed the website and social media, and supported their marketing objective. Why? Our handshake deal still stands.

Do your thing!

This of course is the moral of the story. Sure, asking for advice is important and something I do on a regular basis, whether it’s from my wife, friends, clients, colleagues, business associates, or history and books that contain even more lessons.

But one thing I know for certain is this – my entrepreneurial journey is unique to me alone, although I do have so many people to thank and give credit to. Had I listened to the YouShoulds or the LinkedIn influencer wannabees with the 800 word blog posts about what we can learn about marketing or business from Kanye West’s downfall, I don’t know where I’d be.

Trust yourself, your vision and the people who care about you first. Work hard, follow your own entrepreneurial journey and the results will come.

Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave – A Book Review

I became a fan of author Ryan Holiday when I read “Stillness is the Key” – a book that profoundly influenced my life and introduced me to the philosophy of stoicism. Since then, I’ve caught up on all of Holiday’s books on the subject and have been eagerly awaiting Courage is Calling, finally published in late September.

Philosophy aside, the book re-introduces core principles that most of us were taught at some point in day care or grade school:

Do the right thing, even when no one is watching or when it’s unpopular.

Help others.

Stick to your principles.

Don’t give up.

Many of the lessons are told through the narratives of famous historical figures like Florence Nightingale, a wealthy British socialite, who after years of living in her family’s ivory tower, ends up reforming the hospital system. There’s John Lewis, a former US representative who was beaten countless times while marching for civil rights in the South. Or Charles de Gaulle, the French politician who refused to surrender France’s dignity even when the city was captured and under siege by Nazi Germany.

And yes, a recent reference for the late Senator John McCain who, despite campaigning against Obamacare, bucked his party and voted to keep the law intact, thus maintaining healthcare coverage for millions of Americans.

These are all admirable examples, some that most of us recognize and are likely inspired by. But the true message isn’t just about their legacy or example, but about their approach. They persevered through situations far more challenging than our own, often at their own peril. There are citations throughout the book of both well-known and unknown people who made sacrifices that ultimately cost them their lives, many of which weren’t recognized at the time but only now as years, decades and centuries have passed.

Courage is Calling also has some blunt messaging and phrasing that some will find offensive. Two of my favorites? “Nihilism is for losers” and “cynicism is for cowards.”

I found the latter more interesting, as I know far too many people who are proud of their cynicism. In their view, cynicism is objectivity. For Holiday, cynicism is for those who don’t aspire to make change, who don’t believe things can be fixed, or who don’t believe our best times are ahead of us. It’s not just their forward-looking view – it’s their vantage point that they’d rather be part of the chorus of criticism or negativity rather than push forward and impact change and make a difference.

Nihilism is something I find it far easier to reject. Try telling new parents, a kid going off to college, a graduate starting their first job, or someone else on the brink of adventure and purpose that life is meaningless and to hell with any social system. The nihilist is someone who is afraid to make the effort, afraid to get started. They own little courage of their own and would prefer to tear down others than build something meaningful.

But cynicism is everywhere. As someone who leads a cleantech PR firm and marcomm efforts for broader sustainability-driven industries, one of the most common things I hear as pushback against efforts to curb CO2 emissions or plastic waste is, “well what does it matter when China and India aren’t doing anything about it?”

To that, I say – who cares what others do, it’s what I can control that is significant. My efforts matter because the difference I make today could impact one person, maybe even my daughter, who could lead or change the world one day. I reject anyone who believes my voice, opinion, or efforts don’t matter because of what another person (or country) is doing.

Now, apply this beyond my professional example to things in everyday life, and soon you’ll see that influence is everywhere, but it starts with a spark.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and in that moment unintentionally set social justice wheels in motion that continue to this day. When a neighboring nation asked for help from the Spartan army, they were sent one Spartan commander – it was enough. Whistleblowers like Frances Haugen and Edward Snowden, regardless of what you think of their actions, chose to make decisions that forever changed who they are, where they can live, and likely any future career or relationship prospects either will ever have. They sacrificed and let the chips fall where they may.

Point being – courage is contagious, as I’ve seen Holiday and others mention since the book’s publishing.

Maybe my favorite story from Courage is Calling is a short one about when Gen. Douglas MacArthur met with the Japanese in 1945 to negotiate a final surrender and plans for peace. He and his officers took no weapons with them into Japanese-controlled Tokyo Bay. They knew that in doing so the Japanese would recognize the American’s lack of fear, essentially setting the tone for the meeting and subsequent months and years of peace and eventual prosperity between the two nations. It can take one person’s simple act of courage to change the way groups, and even masses of people think.

In a world where not everything goes right, Courage is Calling inspires me to be more accountable, more confident in my convictions, and ultimately reinforces my belief that standing up for yourself and people who can’t stand up for themselves is not just important, it’s the key to leading an enriched life.

Others may take issue with this approach and my (and your) opinions in general, but as the saying goes, “A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of sheep.” Most opinions are extremely unpopular before they become popular, and one would do well to ignore what others think and focus on what they can control – their good deeds and the conviction for which they perform them.

You can find Courage is Calling and the rest of Ryan Holiday’s work on his website.

Career Lessons from the Flourtown Farmers Market Bagboy

The smell of oranges always makes me think of the Flourtown Farmers Market.

No, it’s not because the smell of fresh-squeezed juice being sold by the market’s vendors filled my childhood nostrils with an aroma so memorable. It’s because of the trash compactor.

I was ten years old, and like many ten year-olds, I bugged my parents for toys to play with outside (water guns) and inside (NHL 94 for Sega Genesis). Mr. and Mrs. Fischgrund didn’t always give in, however, and I quickly realized that I would need several allowances, and hence several months, to save enough to make my purchases. I have never been the patient type.

The Flourtown Farmers Market was located in – you guessed it – Flourtown, PA, only blocks from my house. The place was filled with food merchants from all over the world. There were Afghanis selling Mediterranean food, an elderly Polish couple running the butcher shop, a loud and entertaining Pakistani selling pasta dishes, and many others – all of whom fascinated me.

As my mother wrapped up a purchase at one of the stands, I asked her permission to go speak to the older gentleman who ran the deli. She said yes, and I walked over and applied for my first job. He laughed, and told me to go ask his son, Kenny, who ran the BBQ stand diagonal and across the aisle from where I stood.

So I walked over and asked Kenny, who told me I was too young to work behind the counter. However, he did say that the Flourtown Farmers Market could always use a bagboy – someone to take trash out for the 25-ish vendors in the building, and someone who would carry grocery bags for the elderly and weak who were unable to do so on their own. I could work Saturdays, from 8:30 until 3:30, surviving off tips I received for carrying bags, and discretionary cash from the vendors whose trash I would deposit in a large trash compactor behind the building.

I had my first job. Looking back, it was entrepreneurial before I even knew what entrepreneurial meant. The Flourtown Farmers Market did not include guaranteed pay, and my compensation would reflect my hustle and sales skills with customers during the day, and the merchants at the end of it.

I started the following week, and I would go on to work as a bagboy for three years, learning many lessons that have stuck with me through life. Among them:

Even a bagboy requires sales skills. I would approach older folks and people struggling with their bags with a smile, asking if they needed a hand to their car. I needed to convey charm, capability, and most importantly – trust. I wanted these people to know that the boy who could barely carry the bags himself deserved that tip.
I learned the lesson of networking early on. It wasn’t always busy in the market, and many of the merchants played cards, told dirty jokes, played whiffle ball in the lot, and found other ways to pass the time. I was easily the youngest person working in the building, and I found ways to make friends.
Understanding and patience. This story may seem cute, but things didn’t always go my way. Many times I would carry heavy bags out to someone’s car and they’d say “thank you” and jump in their car, no tip included. I had to understand there was no requirement for a tip, and to be patient and wait for the next one. To this day, and especially when I started my first company over five years ago, I constantly remind myself of this message.
I was fortunate in my upbringing that I didn’t have to handle serious adversity before age ten. The Flourtown Farmer’s Market, in many ways, was a wakeup call. I played baseball in spring and summer, and one Saturday I had an early game. I went around an hour or so early collecting from the vendors, a dollar here and a dollar there. One business owner was clearly having a bad day, and he screamed at me in front of his workers and customers for leaving early, then threw 50 cents on the ground for me to pick up. I was only 11 years old. Editor’s note: Unfortunately for him, my mother was one of the customers in the area, and the next week I received a very nice apology (and a $1.50 instead of my regular $1.00).
There was more adversity to be experienced, as it appears in many forms. The poultry stand had several guys working in their late teens and early 20s, and they took me under their wing a bit (and also had some fun at my expense). One of the guys, named Marshall, told dirty jokes that used to make me turn bright red. One Saturday he wasn’t there, and I asked another one of the guys behind the stand where he was. He took me aside and calmly told me that Marshall had overdosed on heroin and died the weekend prior. I didn’t even know what heroin was. Because I couldn’t let the other guys see me upset, I went into a bathroom stall and cried for ten minutes.
Yes, even bagboys must deal with competition. Every few months, a random kid around my age would see what I was doing to make a few bucks, and show up to do the same. At first I got frustrated, but then I realized one of the great truths about business and entrepreneurship, something that has become my mantra – show up, work hard, do the right thing, and the results will come. While I may have experienced an uncomfortable Saturday or two dealing with a peer trying to steal my job, they would inevitably get frustrated by a lack of tip or an angry vendor, and would not return.
Keep your eyes open for opportunity. I did not want to be a Flourtown Farmers Market bagboy forever. After a few years of making 20 bucks on a Saturday, I was offered a job by “Joe Pony,” the seafood stand owner, for a glorious $5 an hour!
The value of money. Like many fortunate ten year-olds, my parents took care of the necessities. But after a couple of years, I was the only elementary school kid I knew who had an ATM card and 500 bucks in his account. When I wanted a water gun or Twisted Metal 2 for PlayStation – I bought it.
Asking for help. I forgot that I opened this story with oranges and trash compactors. I would use the hand truck to wheel a trash can filled with squeezed oranges to the trash compactor. The first time, I went to lift it and…nothing happened. I was too weak. I stood there, embarrassed, waiting for the next person to come by and help me. When they did, I asked, and they laughed and effortlessly lifted it and dumped those oranges in. My embarrassment faded, and until I was strong enough a year or two down the road, everyone helped the Flourtown Farmers Market bagboy throw away his oranges.

The Flourtown Farmers Market bagboy learned a lot in those days that now feel like a lifetime ago, but not only about work ethic and entrepreneurialism. Opportunity is everywhere, relationships are everything, and experience and the way a person deals with adversity is ultimately what sets them apart from the rest. This guiding principle has remained the same since the day I launched FischTank PR through today.

George Floyd, protests and the things I think I think

Most important to recognize is the catalyst for this blog post – the gruesome murder of George Floyd. I watched the video not out of morbid curiosity, but because I felt like I needed to view to better understand specifically what upset so many people. For those who haven’t watched it, I don’t know where to start. There are no words I could write here to do it justice. I feel so bad for his family and friends.

It’s also important to recognize that – as if my first and last names don’t give it away – I am a white male. I have been pulled over several times when I was younger (and once, more recently); been briefly detained by police twice (once was my fault…sorry Columbia, PA!); and lived in Maine, Pearl River (NY), Germantown (Philly), Montgomery County (outside of Philly), Shippenburg (PA), San Diego (CA), and East Rutherford, Clifton, Jersey City, and Hoboken – all in NJ. I’ve worked in New York City for nine years.

I have never in my life felt targeted based on the color of my skin. Not once. Not by those of a different race, and not by police. For that reason, I have to understand that until that day comes, I cannot see this from the perspective of a person of color.

Discussing police men and women and their use of force is a very difficult topic for me. I have friends who are police officers and good people, and right now I worry for their safety on the front lines. They go to work every day not knowing what to expect, and I’m sure these past few days have been harrowing. Thinking of protestors spitting and screaming in their faces upsets me.

I also know a few police officers who are not such good people, and who are indeed quite racist. I suppose at the end of the day police officers are just like the rest of us – many of them are very good at their job, which in this profession makes them a hero, and some of them are not, which makes them a villain. Derek Chauvin is a villain and an embarrassment to the real police officers who put their lives on the line for US, and perhaps some of these protests would have been avoided if he’d been immediately brought to justice…

…which brings me to the George Floyd protests. Because of all the reasons listed earlier, I feel like it’s not my right to tell people of color how to protest racial violence or inequality. Whether I agree or disagree with the things we see on TV or read on social media, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m a 36 year old white male and for that reason, I just can’t identify with the problem and thus the protests that stem from it.

What I can say is this…

…Colin Kaepernick looks pretty good today. He kneeled peacefully before professional football games – stating from the beginning that it was a protest against police brutality, and guess what happened? White society told him he was wrong. The NFL blackballed him. President Donald Trump said “…maybe you shouldn’t be in the country” and referred to fellow-protestor Eric Reid as “a son of a bitch.” Kaepernick worked with and was supported by military members, trying to protest and raise awareness peacefully. Maybe America should have listened at the time. He’s not the only name being brought up right now…

…I continue to see people say “this is how you protest” before referencing Martin Luther King leading marches through the streets. While MLK is treated as a hero now, let us not forget he was vilified in the years and months before he was assassinated. Before you point to MLK as the shining star, remember that he too met a violent and premature end.

My last comment on the protests. Destruction and looting hurts us all, not just the taxpayers and city officials, but especially the small business owners watching their store shelves emptied or their storefronts burned to the ground. I’m a small business owner, and I can’t imagine what they’re going through. To pretend George Floyd’s murder requires a tit for tat with small business owners and other community members seems so short sighted. Watching these clips tightens the knot in my stomach.

Where do we go from here?

We need new leadership, and I’m not just talking about government. Yes, the President of the United States is openly racist and has a career littered with racial events. This is fact. When he saw Nazis in the streets of Charlottesville, they were “very fine people.” When he saw far right militia armed to the teeth screaming in the faces of police officers because they didn’t want to wear masks, they were “very good people.” When he saw black people peacefully protesting in the first couple days following Floyd’s death, they were “THUGS.”

…But it’s not his fault. It’s ours. Society’s. We let this happen because we haven’t spoken out enough. We haven’t been active enough in our communities. We’ve sat idly by while wealth disparity in the US balloons to unthinkable numbers. We’ve allowed people to work hard and be poor, while others who don’t work are handed everything. We haven’t done enough. Blaming federal officials for these past few days feels so lazy…

…so what can we do? We’ve all made mistakes, myself included. I’ve used language that I thought was funny or attention-getting when it was just wrong. I’ve been insensitive. I haven’t done a good enough job of hiring people of color. When it comes to this topic, I’ve done very little that’s productive other than do my best to positively influence the behavior of my family and friends. This is really my first time speaking out publicly. I have to be better…

…but I don’t pretend to have real answers, only broad comments that seem obvious to me. I feel like we need to be more accountable and improve/change our behavior at the local level, which I think will make a national impact. We need to remember that change can start at any place, any time, and that it’s very contagious. The efforts we make today in understanding racism and doing our best to extinguish it, will pay significant dividends tomorrow. If not? I don’t want to know.

We can’t bring George Floyd back, nor can we do so for any of the untold number of people of color who have been murdered, intimidated, bankrupt, attacked, bought, sold, fired, and otherwise prejudiced against because of their skin color.

But I am an optimist, and I hope we can be better people today and tomorrow, and look back on 2020 as the tipping point.

***Donate to the George Floyd Memorial Fund by clicking here.***