What does it really mean to have an entrepreneur mindset—and how do successful founders apply it to execute faster and avoid common startup mistakes?

In this episode of Let’s Get Entrepreneurial, entrepreneurship educator and angel investor Professor Gary Palin and serial entrepreneur Ryan Budden break down the entrepreneurial mindset for execution—how founders think, decide, and act to turn ideas into real progress. You’ll hear actionable entrepreneurship tips and practical startup advice designed to move founders from insight to action.

You’ll learn how top entrepreneurs use proven mental models not just to think differently, but to make better decisions and execute with clarity. Using real startup stories—including successes, failures, and pivots—you’ll see how opportunity recognition, creative planning, and disciplined execution form a founder’s true competitive advantage.

This episode covers:

• What the entrepreneur mindset really is—and how it drives execution at every stage
• Five mental models founders use to improve decision quality and speed
• Why busyness isn’t productivity—and how execution creates momentum
• How MVP thinking, rapid experimentation, and iteration beat perfection
• How successful founders treat failure as data and adjust quickly
• Practical ways to apply this mindset and move toward your first paying customer

Whether you’re launching your first startup, refining your offer, or breaking through analysis paralysis, this episode delivers entrepreneurship tips for founders who want to execute with confidence, learn faster, and build momentum.

🔥 BONUS: Discover your entrepreneurial tendencies with the Janus Entrepreneurial Assessment and identify exactly where to strengthen your founder mindset for execution.

Related episodes:

• How to Get Your First Paying Customer (No Product Needed)
• 9 Founders: The Nights They Almost Shut Down (Startup Stories)
• Investor Red Flags That Can Kill Your Startup (Run from These)

Note: This episode contains some audio variations.

Join the Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community for founder insights, real startup stories, and execution-focused frameworks you can apply immediately.

If you’ve ever thought, “I have skills but no idea how to get my first paying customer without a product, funding, or a big audience,” this episode is for you.

Professor Gary Palin, angel investor and entrepreneurship educator, delivers the battle-tested “First Customer Cheat Sheet” — a 10-step roadmap refined over 40+ years to go from zero to paid clients fast, often in weeks and sometimes before your product is even finished.

Hundreds of founders have used these exact steps to land $5,000–$20,000 in sales while others are still building. This is the ignition key to real revenue: no fluff, just actionable entrepreneurship tips.

Key steps include:

• Finding one high-demand problem in your niche
• Crafting your one-sentence offer
• Building a simple landing page
• Pricing and delivering offers you can fulfill tomorrow
• Driving traffic and cold outreach
• Running tight discovery calls
• Closing sales and scaling with testimonials

This concentrated cheat sheet has started many real businesses using this framework to secure their first paying customer.

For the full First Customer Playbook — complete with scripts, templates, cold DMs, call frameworks, landing page copy, and 7-day launch checklist used with $10K+ clients.

Become a Pro Subscriber at profspirit.substack.com.

Get entrepreneurship tips, startup stories, and practical startup advice delivered straight to your inbox.

Let’s get entrepreneurial — the smart way.

🔥 BONUS: Unlock your Janus Entrepreneurial Score and see your personal entrepreneurship tendencies scores by taking the Janus Entrepreneurial Assessment

This entrepreneur podcast delivers startup advice, business growth strategies, and practical lessons for entrepreneurs ready to enhance their revenue model and scale a startup sustainably.

New episodes drop every other Tuesday.

Title: How to Get Your First Paying Customer (No Product Needed)

Other episodes with startup growth and founder insights:

• 9 Founders: The Nights They Almost Shut Down (Startup Stories)
• Investor Red Flags That Can Kill Your Startup (Run from These)
• Upselling Strategies and Cross-Selling Techniques to Skyrocket Startup Revenue

You can book a Virtual Coaching session to assist your entrepreneurial journey.

Join our Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community and let’s embark on this adventure together!

Today I’m sharing the nine founder stories that completely rewired how I think about building companies. These aren’t the polished versions — these are the nights they almost shut down, the decisions that saved them, and the one mindset shift that changed everything…”These stories hit me so hard I dropped this episode early.

These 9 real startup stories will hit you in the chest:

• The unicorn that raised $65 M, hit $100 M revenue… and still went bankrupt
• 11 days of cash left when the world shut down
• The founder who fired himself as CEO
• The co-founder divorce saved by one shotgun clause
• The single mom on food stamps → $40 M exit
• Two “boring” tools that hit $100 M ARR with ~11 people
• A major fraud in startup history
• The night a dad almost lost everything to Staples… and the ad that turned customers into evangelists

Raw founder startup stories for every entrepreneur who’s ever stared at the ceiling at 3 a.m.

If one of these hits you, leave a review and tell us which night felt the most real — so the next founder finds this before it’s too late.

Let’s get entrepreneurial — the smart way.

🔥 BONUS: Unlock your Janus Entrepreneurial Score and see your personal entrepreneurship tendencies scores by taking the Janus Entrepreneurial Assessment

This entrepreneur podcast delivers startup advice, business growth strategies, and practical lessons for entrepreneurs ready to enhance their revenue model and scale a startup sustainably.

New episodes drop every other Tuesday.

Title: 9 Founders: The Nights They Almost Shut Down (Startup Stories)

Other episodes with startup growth and founder insights:

• Investor Red Flags That Can Kill Your Startup (Run from These)
• Upselling Strategies and Cross-Selling Techniques to Skyrocket Startup Revenue
• Finding the Right Startup Mentor to Accelerate Growth and Strengthen Your Entrepreneur Mindset

You can book a Virtual Coaching session to assist your entrepreneurial journey.

Join our Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community and let’s embark on this adventure together!

Raising money feels amazing — until the wrong investor turns your dream into a nightmare. In this hard-hitting episode. Professor Gary Palin, angel investor & entrepreneurship educator, and Ryan Budden serial entrepreneur & startup consultant, pull back the curtain on the investor red flags that can literally kill your startup.

If you’re fundraising or ever plan to, you can’t afford to miss these warning signs:

• The “sign today or the deal dies” rush tactic
• Control-obsessed investors demanding weekly 4-hour reports and veto rights
• Short-term flippers who only care about a quick exit
• Strategic investors quietly trying to turn you into their private supplier
• Disrespectful communication and zero value beyond cash
• The dangerous myth of “we don’t need a lawyer, it’s just boilerplate”
• How desperation lets predators rewrite terms at the last second

This isn’t theory. These are real-world investor red flags that have wrecked companies — and the practical checklist every founder needs before signing a term sheet.

Whether you’re talking to angels, VCs, or family investors, learn how to spot toxic money fast and protect your equity, vision, and sanity.

Perfect for first-time founders and seasoned entrepreneurs who never want to be controlled by the wrong check.

Let’s get entrepreneurial — the smart way.

🔥 BONUS: Unlock your Janus Entrepreneurial Score and see your personal entrepreneurship tendencies scores by taking the Janus Entrepreneurial Assessment

This entrepreneur podcast delivers startup advice, business growth strategies, and practical lessons for entrepreneurs ready to enhance their revenue model and scale a startup sustainably.

New episodes drop every other Tuesday.

Title: Investor Red Flags That Can Kill Your Startup (Run from These)

Other episodes with startup growth and founder insights:

• Upselling Strategies and Cross-Selling Techniques to Skyrocket Startup Revenue
• Finding the Right Startup Mentor to Accelerate Growth and Strengthen Your Entrepreneur Mindset
• What Startup Founders Should Know About Becoming an Effective CEO

You can book a Virtual Coaching session to assist your entrepreneurial journey.

Join our Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community and let’s embark on this adventure together!

Professor Gary Palin, angel investor & entrepreneurship educator, and Ryan Budden serial entrepreneur & startup consultant, reveal the exact upselling strategies and cross-selling playbooks that can turn your company into a high growth venture.

You’ll discover:

• Upselling strategies that boosts Customer Lifetime Value
• The cross-sell sequence McDonald’s and Apple perfected (“Would you like fries with that?” on steroids)
• When to bundle (and when NOT to — avoid the 15-screen checkout nightmare)
• An automation playbook using CRM + email to spot upsell moments instantly
• Real numbers: how a pizza-oven attachment scaled smoker profits

Plus the #1 mistake that kills trust and churns customers forever.

If you’re doing $100K–$5M ARR, this episode is your cheat code to higher profits with zero extra Customer Acquisition Costs.

🔥 BONUS: Unlock your Janus Entrepreneurial Score and see your personal entrepreneurship tendencies scores by taking the Janus Entrepreneurial Assessment

Sell smarter, not harder. Press play — your bank account will thank you.

This entrepreneur podcast delivers startup advice, business growth strategies, and practical lessons for entrepreneurs ready to enhance their revenue model and scale a startup sustainably.

New episodes drop every other Tuesday.

Title: Upselling Strategies and Cross-Selling Techniques to Skyrocket Startup Revenue

Other episodes with startup growth and founder insights:

• Finding the Right Startup Mentor to Accelerate Growth and Strengthen Your Entrepreneur Mindset
• What Startup Founders Should Know About Becoming an Effective CEO
• Is First Mover Advantage Really Worth It for Startup Founders? ?

You can book a Virtual Coaching session to assist your entrepreneurial journey.

Join our Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community and let’s embark on this adventure together!

Title: Finding the Right Startup Mentor to Accelerate Growth and Strengthen Your Entrepreneur Mindset

Other episodes with startup growth and founder insights:

• What Startup Founders Should Know About Becoming an Effective CEO
• Is First Mover Advantage Really Worth It for Startup Founders? ?
• Entrepreneurship Tips for Startups and Existing Ventures to Avoid Common Financial Mistakes

You can book a Virtual Coaching session to assist your entrepreneurial journey.

Join our Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community and let’s embark on this adventure together!

Hosted by Professor Gary Palin, entrepreneurship educator, angel investor, and one of the Top 25 Global Entrepreneurship Education Thought Leaders and Ryan Budden, a serial entrepreneur and startup consultant. This episode blends startup experience with actionable advice for every entrepreneur mindset.

If you’re searching for a entrepreneur podcast that delivers startup mentorship, entrepreneurship tips, and proven strategies to help you launch a startup and lead it with confidence, subscribe to Let’s Get Entrepreneurial. New episodes drop every other Tuesday.

Title: What Startup Founders Should Know About Becoming an Effective CEO

Other episodes with startup growth and founder insights:

• Is First Mover Advantage Really Worth It for Startup Founders? ?
• Entrepreneurship Tips for Startups and Existing Ventures to Avoid Common Financial Mistakes
• How to Deal with Decision Fatigue and Use Business Growth Strategies to Overcome Entrepreneurial Challenges

You can book a Virtual Coaching session to assist your entrepreneurial journey.

Join our Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community and let’s embark on this adventure together!

Is first mover advantage a golden ticket … or the fastest way to burn cash and die?
We expose the first mover advantage myth with hard data + the graveyard of pioneers (MySpace, Friendster, Palm Pilot, Webvan) who got crushed by better-executed followers like Facebook, Google, and Apple.

Most startups that scream “we’re first!” become cautionary tales. Discover why being the fast follower is usually 10× smarter, the only 4 real sustainable advantages that actually matter, and the 5-question test to know if YOU should ever try to be first.

If you’re a founder or investor tired of the “first mover” fairy tale, this episode will save you millions.

Key moments included:
• The cold open that debunks the myth in 60 seconds
• What “first mover advantage” actually means
• The 30-year study: First movers get crushed
• The first-mover graveyard: MySpace, Friendster, Palm Pilot
• The rare winners (Amazon, eBay, Netflix) – and why they’re exceptions
• Why fast followers win 90% of the time (Google, Facebook, iPhone examples)
• The only 4 advantages that actually last
• Should YOU try to be first?
• Final verdict + your homework assignment

Hosted by Professor Gary Palin, entrepreneurship educator, angel investor, and one of the Top 25 Global Entrepreneurship Education Thought Leaders and Ryan Budden, a serial entrepreneur and startup consultant. This episode blends startup experience with actionable advice for every entrepreneur mindset.

If you’re searching for a entrepreneur podcast that delivers startup mentorship, entrepreneurship tips, and proven strategies to help you launch a startup and lead it with confidence, subscribe to Let’s Get Entrepreneurial.

🔥 BONUS: Unlock your Janus Entrepreneurial Score and see your personal entrepreneurship tendencies scores by taking the Janus Entrepreneurial Assessment

We publish new episodes biweekly on Tuesdays.

Title: Is First Mover Advantage Really Worth It for Startup Founders?

Other episodes with startup growth and founder insights:

• Entrepreneurship Tips for Startups and Existing Ventures to Avoid Common Financial Mistakes
• How to Deal with Decision Fatigue and Use Business Growth Strategies to Overcome Entrepreneurial Challenges
• Founder Insights: How to Discover Overlooked Market Goldmines in Niche Opportunities

You can book a Virtual Coaching session to assist your entrepreneurial journey.

Join our Let’s Get Entrepreneurial community and let’s embark on this adventure together!