539: The Traits of Eight Figure Entrepreneurs – Part 1

What does it take to build a business generating over $10 million per year? 

In this episode, Samantha and Tim pull back the curtain on the key traits and behaviours that set eight figure entrepreneurs apart. They dive into what it really takes to reach the next level of business success.

Samantha and Tim draw from their experience coaching and interacting with ultra-high earning entrepreneurs. They share the mindsets, values, and actions that allow people to grow financially successful companies. Gain insights on the importance of adaptability, integrity, leadership skills, calculated risk-taking, and more. 

If you want to avoid years of struggle and fast-track your path to multi-million dollar success, this episode is essential listening.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:

• The differences of 6 figure and 8 figure entrepreneurs (4:47)
• Why strong leadership skills are critical (7:06)
• The restlessness and adaptability of top entrepreneurs (10:07)
• Distilling information into actionable plans (13:42)
• Should we “fake it till we make it?” (15:50)
• Does taking risks, and failure, need to be part of success? (20:12)

QUOTES

• “Leaders are made not born. None of us are born knowing exactly how to lead, we learn how to lead by doing, being, and having feedback from others.” – Samantha Riley
• “Most 6-figure entrepreneurs feel like they need the next new tool, the next shiny tactic, they feel like they need to know how to do something. Eight figure entrepreneurs aren’t worried about the tools and tactics so much, because they know there is so much more to the story.” – Samantha Riley
• “One of the beliefs I have and one of the things I’ve observed in more successful entrepreneurs, is that their ability to distil lots of information and ideas into actionable plans, is a pretty strong trait.” – Tim Hyde
• “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” – Tim Hyde

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WHERE TO FIND TIM HYDE

• Website: https://winmoreclients.com.au/
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CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY

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• Twitter: @thesamriley

TRANSCRIPTION
(This transcription is AI-generated and may contain inaccuracies.)

Samantha Riley Snippet (00:00):

What I’ve now realized is that I don’t agree and fake it till you make it. But I do wholeheartedly agree with starting to think about what is the eight figure version of me need to look like? Who is that person? How can I be that person right now so that I can act the way as the eight figure version of me? For example, which direction would the eight figure version of me choose right now? How would I make that decision as the eight figure version of me?

Welcome to the Influence By Design Podcast. I’m Samantha Riley, authority positioning strategist for coaches and experts. If you’re ready to build a business that gives you more than just a caffeine addiction, and you dream of making more money, having more time, and having the freedom to be living your best life, then you’re in the right place, it’s time to level up. 

Super looking forward to having this conversation with you today around the traits of eight figure entrepreneurs. And alongside me for today’s conversation is my good friend, Tim Hyde. Looking forward to this conversation, Tim,

Tim Hyde  01:07

I am in detail, this is a little bit departure from our normal tools and tactics. And looking at what does it take to be the next level not just, you know, plan to be at the next level, like to actually be the next level of entrepreneur? In your business. And I I’ve actually enjoyed as much as as much as anything, and we literally spent like 45 minutes, we probably should have recorded. We

Samantha Riley  01:31

we say that every week, it was such a I really enjoyed preparing for this conversation, because it’s always insightful to reflect and you know, that’s it’s its own. I guess, learning there is just sort of reflecting. And you and I have both worked with eight figure entrepreneurs. I’ve worked with nine figure entrepreneurs, some sort of big numbers. Well,

Tim Hyde  01:56

this all came about, just for a passing comment we had yesterday, wasn’t it?

Samantha Riley  02:01

Yes, you and I do speak a lot, don’t we?

Tim Hyde  02:04

Particularly every day. But it was a passing comment. Yesterday, I shared some feedback about a mutual colleague from somebody else who had bumped into a conference up on the Gold Coast. And the feedback I had was, I don’t know how you’d say it in any nicer way than it was not flattering. You know, this person is still up to the same rubbish. Okay. And we got into a conversation about what would you fake it till you make it? And we’ve all heard that saying before, what does that actually mean? And, you know, is that a legit thing? And this got into this conversation about? Well, you know, if we need to, you know, if we think that we need to fake it till we make it to get to this next level, ball, what is the next level I say look like? And what traits should we be emulating or looking to develop? I think it’s probably better, better way of putting out what traits do we need to focus on developing, if we want to enable us to step into that next level of business that we want to aspire to? to it as well saying, Well, I know, all of our listeners, well, you wouldn’t be listening to us. If that’s not something that you wanted as well. Yeah,

Samantha Riley  03:20

well, let’s, let’s be clear. And upfront, you and I are not eight figure business owners right now. I want to be like put that straight in the table. This is traits that we’ve recognized from other people that we’ve worked with. And this isn’t a conversation that is coming from a negative place. This is a conversation that’s coming from a positive place to help to show you the path forward that other people have taken before us. I think the very first thing I want to say is that, that the things that we’re going to talk about are actually traits. And they’re not tools and tactics. And this is the biggest thing that I see tripping up. Most people that are building their business, they feel like they need the next new tool, the next shiny tactic, they feel like they need to know how to do something. And that one thing is going to just open the lid on some huge, amazing genie bottle that’s going to turn their business around. It’s not going to happen by downloading your next free lead magnet. It’s not going to happen by you know, trying to build your YouTube channel over the next three days and deciding that that’s too hard. So it’s not the tools and the tactics. We’re going to talk about some some traits because eight figure entrepreneurs, they’re actually not worried about the tools and tactics so much.

Tim Hyde  04:47

When not some not in the bigger picture. I think definitely on a day to day basis. Yes, you are kind of looking at it or getting reports from your people about what’s working and what’s not working, but should almost be elevated, you must try to to exit yourself out of your business. And certainly out of the doing part, certainly out of the kind of operational day to day management part, you’ve actually started to look at what does it look like to lead your business. And I think about those as exits, you know, you exit off the tools, that’s the first thing, then you exit out of the days of day management. And then we need to start exiting, you know, potentially exit the business, but we’ve exited this point where we’re now running and leading our business in a big way. And that leads me I think, to the first trait of, you know, strong leadership, I want to throw this thing out there for it sound to get your reaction on it. Because this is another one, as you always stress

Samantha Riley  05:42

me out when you throw this out. And don’t give me time to think about

Tim Hyde  05:46

1. I’m ready to leave any time to think about it. All right. I’m ready. The team can edit out the long pause. Thank you, Tim. So you know, Sam is absolutely on point here. But what do you think of the idea that leaders are born not made, oh, I

Samantha Riley  06:03

don’t even need a little gap here. I call BS on that. I think leaders are made, none of us are born, knowing exactly how to lead, we learn how to lead. By doing by being by having feedback from others. There are certainly people that have sort of a disposition for leading. I even wonder, though, is that a nature versus nurture thing, you know, have they grown up in in environments that have helped them either in a positive way where their parents are great leaders, but also in a negative way, like, I’ve heard Tony Robbins talking about the fact that he’s able to do what he does, because of the experiences that he had with his mother abusing him as a child. So you know, we can use all of those experiences in a positive, positive or negative way. And they all teach us how we want to be or how we want to show up.

Tim Hyde  07:06

I think it’s some there’s a, there’s a, there’s an underpinning skill there in the industry and good leadership, it’s the ability to observe how your actions affect others, positively or negatively, in any moving those people towards an outcome. So sometimes, you can’t beat about the bush, and you’ve got to give negative feedback, or otherwise critical feedback to somebody if it’s going to get them to where you want them to go. But if it doesn’t, then maybe the velvet glove velvet hammer is probably not the tool to use. And I think that’s what a good leader is about a good leadership. A good leader has a series of tools at their disposal. And they’re clever about how they use them to get their organization aligned towards a common goal. Totally,

Samantha Riley  08:02

totally. Oh, I think I feel like leadership as a whole. Probably five episodes, on their own leadership is such a massive, massive topic. We’ll

Tim Hyde  08:15

do a series of leadership from the trenches. Maybe Haley. Interestingly enough, I was was on a call with a very experienced leader, senior leader yesterday at Dunn, particular come out of the fashion sector. But in eight 910 figure businesses a lot and at the age of 73, he was now teaching leadership to other people. And of course, we got onto the topic of what about disruptive leadership and heart centered leadership and blah, blah, blah, leadership, butterfly leadership and make up the term leadership and leadership for Tuesday’s. Yeah, whatever it happened to be. But yeah, part of the conversation was that leadership is such a messy industry. Just in the US alone, $60 billion spent every year on leadership coaching. Wow, wow. That’s a lot must have been super ineffective. Hmm.

Samantha Riley  09:17

Interesting. Let’s move on from there. That’s certainly something to think about. I love studying leadership, and it comes from a place and this is where I know that Leadership isn’t sort of made from the beginning. When I had my first business, when I look back, I shudder I was a terrible leader. I didn’t know what leadership was. I’d only come across it because I was only young when we opened our first business, that these few versions of leadership I’d seen. Were more what I would call managerial, not leaders. So that’s what I thought just shit was And gosh, if I could go back and redo that it would be very, very, very different. So,

Tim Hyde  10:05

number number two is one that I think you will absolutely agree with Sam and that is adaptability and action takers. Okay, that’s number two. Right. So being highly self motivated, is the second trait of a 910 figure entrepreneurs. I love this quote he is like, nobody makes progress by sitting back and waiting for success to find you.

Samantha Riley  10:33

What a shame. Yeah, it’s not gonna come into that we’re not gonna come and tap you on the shoulder and say, Hey, I’m here ready for you? Definitely does not happen a lot. I

Tim Hyde  10:42

love this one. My my chances of winning Lotto are really poor. Alright, but they’re even worse when I don’t buy ticket

Samantha Riley  10:46

100%. Yeah, well, I

Tim Hyde  10:50

think saying that, you know, this adaptability. And it’s this action taker, this self motivation comes from it almost comes from a restlessness. And I think this is why you’re seeing potentially a disproportionate number of, of business owners with ADHD. Right? Yeah.

Samantha Riley  11:05

Really high 100 Really

Tim Hyde  11:08

high percentage. If you look at the if you look at the stats around it, but you know, we enjoy seeking challenges, we enjoy overcoming challenges, we, you know, we look for opportunity, we can’t really sit still, we’re not prepared to kind of just let things wait for us. It was interesting, because my wife said this to me last night, she’s gone, you know, you’re not. And I don’t know whether she would sign up from a position of criticism or a position of maybe you should wake up and smell the roses sometimes. But she says you’re never happy with what you’ve got. And I’m like, What do you mean, is that? Are you saying this as a bad thing? Or,

Samantha Riley  11:46

or good? Yeah, because it could be taken either way. Okay. And I

Tim Hyde  11:50

think I think this is a very common thing we see in very successful entrepreneurs, that they’re always looking for the next thing, right, we’re adaptable about how we’re going to achieve it. But we’re, you know, again, we’re, we’re action takers, we go, I need to do its thing today, because I know if I do it today, then I’ll do another action tomorrow, another action, mostly results. And both you and I have worked with lots of five figure and some six figure business owners who are quite content with where they’re at. And

Samantha Riley  12:21

that’s completely fine. That’s perfectly okay. But

Tim Hyde  12:23

it’s only that action taking, right that motivation to take action today. That will get you where you want to go tomorrow. And I guess that’s a really specific trait to more Sigmund with what we classify as more successful entrepreneur.

Samantha Riley  12:39

Absolutely. And that adaptability, I just want to touch on that just quickly. That comes from a place that anyone that’s got to a financially successful place in their business, they know that out of every 10 things that they try, maybe only one or two things will work. So that adaptability isn’t Oh, my goodness, I am going to put this in quotation marks fail. Also, they know that there’s no such thing as failure, only learnings. But they don’t get caught up in all that failed, I’m no good, or this whole thing’s not going to work. Eight figure or successful entrepreneurs already know that lots of things are not going to work. So when something doesn’t work, it’s just like, okay, so what do we need to change? What do we need to do to get to the next thing, they don’t get held back by this this negative story that they’re not good enough? They need to be adaptable?

Tim Hyde  13:31

Yeah, I want to throw this one at you and see your get your thoughts on it. And this is why you

Samantha Riley  13:36

this is what you’re doing today throwing all sorts of all sorts, right, all sorts of stuff.

Tim Hyde  13:42

You know, one of the one of the, one of the beliefs I have and one of the things I’ve observed in in more successful entrepreneurs, is that their ability to distill lots of information and ideas into actionable plans is a pretty strong trait. 100%

Samantha Riley  14:00

I would agree with that. Yeah, rather than

Tim Hyde  14:03

getting paralyzed, which often happens, that

Samantha Riley  14:06

that overwhelm of like, Oh, my goodness, I don’t know where to start. They understand the difference between macro and micro, versus like looking at it from a macro or micro level. They understand how to break things down. They understand how to reverse engineer things. They understand how to, I guess, really understand the picture that they’re looking at, because sometimes the picture isn’t what you first think it is. They understand how to have conversations around understanding it. What could be so yeah, I definitely agree with

Tim Hyde  14:39

that. Yeah, I look at an anyone who’s got out a notepad whilst listening to a podcast or been to a conference and walked away with 700 pages of notes, or there abouts. Which get filed away in a safe place and never looked at again. We’re calling you out right now.

Samantha Riley  14:57

Tim picked one I’m sitting here looking at a bookcase that’s got My Notepads from conferences I’ve been to for the last 10 years.

Tim Hyde  15:08

I’m calling you out soon, but I

Samantha Riley  15:10

do I do open them, I can still remember sessions from conferences I’ve been to something might happen. And I guess I know someone spoke about that seven years ago, and I know where my notes are.

Tim Hyde  15:23

Just to organize, but I’m gonna do No, I do know that you pull those out, and you pick something and you’re gonna execute, right? Okay, let’s go to the next one. Because this one’s an important one, this one’s gonna be coming back to what we talked about very early on here was faking it till you might get and really successful entrepreneurs have a strong sense of basic ethics, and integrity.

Samantha Riley  15:50

I really want to dig into this because I, and this is a this is a very slight nuance, because I used to think you did have to fake it until you make it. What I realized is that I didn’t see it in the way that other people saw it. I wasn’t thinking, I’m going to fake it and tell people that I know things that I don’t know, I’m not going to fake it and and say that I’ve done things that I haven’t. And that’s when I realized that you want things that you have things that you haven’t. Exactly, what I’ve now realized is that I don’t agree and fake it till you make it. But I do wholeheartedly agree with starting to think about what is the eight figure version of me need to look like? Who is that person? How can I be that person right now so that I can act the way as the eight figure version of me, for example, would which direction would the eight figure version of me choose right now? How would I make that decision as the eight figure version of me? So I very much agree in that. And I used to think that was fake it to light till I make it now I realize that it’s not so I think that there’s a slight nuance there. And now

Tim Hyde  17:07

there is a thing there’s a if you look it up, right, there’s a really cool TED talk about 15 minutes long from Amy Cuddy CQ Double D wiener and as a TED talk on faking it till you make it. And it comes from a psychological exists. The saying itself comes from a psychological predisposition to influence your own emotional state, by certain actions. Okay, so if you smile, even if you’re not feeling happy, if you smile, you will, by the nature of the action, feel happier. Unfortunately, the entrepreneurial world has taken it to mean, tell people you’ve done stuff that you haven’t done, right, so that you’ll buy an expensive car. So you’ll appear and sound more successful than you really are, unfortunately, confidence and competence, not necessarily the same thing. So it’s great to tell people that you are at least competent at what you do. It is a very bad idea to tell people, a lot of people, and particularly a lot of people that you are not get competent. At what, there’s

Samantha Riley  18:17

a big difference between confidence and coming from an egotistical space. Yeah. Because we can still act confident when we don’t feel confident. I 100% believe that, because people do buy confidence. And there’s only one way to get more confident. It’s to act confident, so that you start to get the confidence to be able to do what it is that you’re doing. So it’s quite meta. But there’s a big difference between that and being egotistical. And I’m very lucky, there is not very many people in my world that are the latter. We had someone just this week apply to come to our event. very egotistical. And we just very politely said, I don’t think this is the place for you. I think one of the other traits is that successful people know and act on their strengths and their weaknesses in different ways. They don’t pretend that they don’t have weaknesses. They don’t pretend to cover this off. They know what they’re really good at. And they’re quite comfortable enough in themselves to say I’m not so good at this small little network around me that I very much value and trust. What should I do? Who do I need to go and speak to? Who do I need to bring into the equation here? And just there there was little clue. I use the word who?

Tim Hyde  19:44

Yeah, absolutely. Which brings us into number four, around a willingness to fail. Alright, you know, this is definitely a trade willing to take risk and not be afraid If it’s not working out the way we expect it to probably the biggest risk we’ve seen recently Elon Musk buying Twitter

20:10

X.

Samantha Riley  20:12

Can I Can I just add something a little bit? There’s something you said that that I actually disagree with. And that is that they’re not afraid to fail. I think that they do. And I say they we ask, we actually do feel the fear. We are afraid of that. But we do it anyway.

Tim Hyde  20:34

Feel the fear and do it anyway. But it’s more, it’s more. And this is mostly by the time you’re sort of hitting seven and eight and nine figures. You’ve got runs on the board. And you’ve you’ve made a lot of decisions, some of which have gone well. Others which have not gone so well. And you’re constantly learning from those decisions. So there are the risks. We’re taking calculated risks.

Samantha Riley  21:01

Yeah, and get them on. Quickly. Yeah, it gets easier because you you you learn along the way. Do I wish that I didn’t have to fail at anything? Yes, I don’t like the feeling of thinking of stuff. But I learned way more from things that don’t go right, then things that just happen easily and effortlessly. The lessons that I learned along the way by things not working is by far the greatest teacher in my world. And it’s probably why I’m a good coach. There we go. People you’ve heard it here. I failed so much. That’s why I believe that I’m a good coach. Yeah, awesome. Well, that’s the first four, we actually have another four to go. And we’ve run out of time today, Tim, so what do you say that we continue this conversation next week?

Tim Hyde  21:55

Yeah, like I absolutely think so. I’m gonna be it’s gonna be interesting to see now that we’ve sort of shown a bit of light on this, which of these things come up for you? Over the next seven days, Sam? And, you know, you’ll again, because every time you listen to this stuff, and I absolutely encourage your listeners to go back and pull out old episodes from time to time and, and listen to it again and gone.

22:15

Ah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Tim Hyde  22:19

Because it is that lesson that starts to sort of sticking a little bit more. So it’d be interesting to see what happens for me over the next week as I reflect on these, the first four and then and then come back to the next week, you know, which one’s gonna come up? Totally.

Samantha Riley  22:35

Totally. So we’d love to hear from you what’s resonated so far for you certainly look us up on the socials. You can find all the links in the show notes below on whatever app you’re listening to. Or if you’re listening on the show notes page over at influencebydesignpodcast.com. Just scroll down and you’ll find all the links for our social so that you can let us know what stood out for you this week. Thanks, Tim for having this conversation with me today and can’t wait to dive into more next week.

Samantha Riley Outro

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If you want more head over to influencebydesignpodcast.com for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other experts who are growing and scaling their business to join us in the coaches, thought leaders, and changemakers community on Facebook, the links are waiting for you over at influencebydesignpodcast.com