About Nik Ingersoll

https://ingersollnik.com

Nik Ingersöll is a serial entrepreneur and award-winning designer. He is the Co-Founder and CMO of one of the fastest-growing snack food startups, Barnana, sold in over 20,000 retailers nationwide. He also co-founded the augmented reality tech startup Candy Lab and served as CIO. Nik is also the host of The Nik Ingersöll Show podcast. Ingersöll grew up in a rural, lower-class family in Western Nebraska, worked and saved every penny from ages 13-18 and used it to move to California in pursuit of his dreams. There, he founded both venture-backed startups, launched several bootstrapped eCommerce businesses and a consultancy all while attending undergraduate studies full-time at San Diego State University where he then graduated with honors. Ingersöll is a Forbes 30 Under 30 List Honoree, Food Navigator's Top Entrepreneurs To Watch, 3x GDUSA Award winner, 2x International Forum Design Award winner, DEMO Launchpad Alumni, USPTO patent author, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt and recipient of The California State Legislature's Certificate of Recognition. Nik is also an avid combat sports practitioner and backcountry bow hunter.

Posts by Nik Ingersoll:

Seneca The Younger - Letters From A Stoic
Nik Ingersoll

#3: BOOK CLUB – Letters From A Stoic – (Podcast) The Nik Ingersoll Show

#3: BOOK CLUB – Seneca The Younger, Letters from a Stoic

The Nik Ingersoll Show Podcast

BY NIK INGERSOLL JUNE 14, 2019
@ingersollnik

 

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – AD 65), was a Roman Stoic Philosopher. This is a short book club episode reading and chatting about a few passages from Letters from a Stoic. This is one of my all-time favorite books and is one that I read over and over again. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
 
Get the book, Letters of a Stoic : https://amzn.to/2Xg2MXK

 

Download The Nik Ingersöll Show Podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…

This particular school of Hellenistic philosophy: Stoicism. It was founded in Athens, Greece by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century BC. The most famous practitioners include Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. The unique thing about Stoicism is that it says virtue should be based on personal behavior, rather than words. We cannot look to external sources for our success or failure or happiness or sadness because it is indeed out of our control as humans.

 

Stoicism reminds us of the chaos in the world, to take the chaos in and use logic to navigate through the turbulent seas of life. The part of Stoicism that stands out from other philosophies is that it encourages action, not waxing poetic.

 

Since the ancient Greek, the core tenants of Stoicism continues to be practiced by high performers around the world.

Please don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review!

 

Follow me on Instagram @ingersollnik
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: youtube.com/nikingersoll
If you have any questions or suggestions for me, please send me a message here: ingersollnik.com/contact
Jane Lee - Launch Pop
Nik Ingersoll

#1: Jane Lee – Launch Pop – (Podcast) The Nik Ingersoll Show

#1: Jane Lee – Launching Brands, Psychedelics & Entrepreneurship

The Nik Ingersoll Show Podcast

BY NIK INGERSOLL JUNE 14, 2019
@ingersollnik

 

 

Jane Lee (@janelee16) is an entrepreneur. She is best known as the Co-Founder of Launch Pop, where she helps high potential founders launch products that will change your life. You can check them out at Launchpop.io

 

Download The Nik Ingersöll Show Podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…

 

Please don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review!

 

On this episode of the podcast, we dive deep into entrepreneurship, direct to consumer brands and how to balance it all. Jane Lee founded the company Silly B and was also the Entrepreneur In Residence at Shopify before founding Launch Pop.

 

Jane shares how herself along side her Co-Founder Eva work with start ups to launch brands and what that means.
Follow me on Instagram @ingersollnik
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: youtube.com/nikingersoll
If you have any questions or suggestions for me, please send me a message here: ingersollnik.com/contact
nik ingersoll - founder hour image
Nik Ingersoll

Podcast Conversation : The Founder Hour Podcast

The Founder Hour Podcast Interview

BY NIK INGERSOLL SEPT 09, 2018
? @ingersollnik

 

We chat with Nik Ingersöll, co-founder & CMO of Barnana, to hear his incredible story of growing up on a farm in rural Nebraska with no money to moving to California for college and eventually launching the line of organic healthy snacks that has everyone going bananas.

We also talk branding, fundraising, and scaling a successful product in today’s competitive CPG space!

Ingersoll - Forbes 3 Friends Article - iPhone mock up
Nik Ingersoll

Forbes : Barnana, How Three Friends Created A Multi-Million Dollar

Forbes : Barnana, How Three Friends Created A Multi-Million Dollar Business Upcycling Bananas.

BY NIK INGERSOLL OCT 07, 2018
? @ingersollnik

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

I decided to take this Monday morning to brain vomit some random things I’ve learned over the last few years running my high growth snack startup? : Put in the hard work, acquire lots of skills, fail a bunch, take risks, don’t care about others’ perceptions, keep moving, do good things, make great products, never compromise on taste, keep your brand promise, don’t be scared, create meaningful jobs, make friends, over invest in design, brand rules all, be mindful of group think, manage escalation of commitment, grow as a human, keep your body healthy, treat your employees better than the market, take smart money from smart people, be ruthless on cash flow, be real, fuck the haters, hire culture=skill, get good at cap tables, employ tons of empathy, only work with A+ suppliers, own everything you do, learn what alignment is and optimize towards it over agreement, make friends, have fun, you’ll have high highs and low lows, pick your investors and advisors wisely, put in the hours, have relentless ownership over everything you do, brokers won’t deliver, you will need to make big sacrifices for your company to explode, PR is expensive, be generous, the higher you ascend the less people there are, give things away for free, amazon is powerful, brick and mortar retail is expensive, the cash turn around cycles suck, admire meritocracy, crush the competition, default aggressive, have a plan, lead, do something that adds to the overall human experience in a positive way & that’s all for today. @barnana

Article to read: https://www.forbes.com/sites/meggentaylor/2017/01/17/barnana-how-three-friends-created-a-multi-million-dollar-business-upcycling-bananas/

aaaaa
Nik Ingersoll

Going Bananas With Salomondrin And Crew In A New McLaren

Going Bananas with Salomondrin

BY NIK INGERSOLL AUG 01, 2018
? @ingersollnik

FUN

Salomondrin : A crew of fast car driving dudes that do fun things. After a ridiculous ride with these guys, I couldn’t help but post it up. We took a ride in our banana car around West Los Angeles and had some fun, check it out.

 

ingersoll - FOOD MARKETING NERDS PODCAST
Nik Ingersoll

My Interview On The Food Marketing Nerds Podcast: Guerilla Marketing

FOOD MARKETING NERDS PODCAST

TACTICAL GEMS & GUERILLA TIPS

BY NIK INGERSOLL AUG 28, 2017

? @ingersollnik

 

 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

GUERILLA MARKETING: DIGITAL & PHYSICAL
I sat down for the Food Marketing Nerds podcast this summer to talk food. Most people in the food industry think they are in the food business. However, they are not. They are in the marketing business. You can listen the full interview on iTunes by clicking the image on the left or by checking it out on their blog.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

On this segment, we got a chance to talk about all sorts of tactics that I utilize from zero budget to hero budget. We got to cover some really tactical digital strategies, real-world guerilla marketing tactics that I have used to make a large brand splash and lots of things in between.

[tweetshare tweet=”Most think they are in the food business, but they are in the marketing business.” username=”ingersollnik”]
WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFO?

You can check out more information on Barnana by going to barnana.com. If you want to find out more about me, you can go find that here: ingersollnik.com/about. The Food Marketing Nerd Folks also wrote up a little bit about our interview, you can find that link down below. Hit me up if you want to chat!

 

FOOD MARKETING NERD’S ORIGINAL BLOG POST WITH MY INTERVIEW CAN BE FOUND HERE:

[btn text=”READ IT” link=”http://foodmarketingnerds.com/facebook-ad-tactics-with-nik-ingersol/” tcolor=”#ffffff” bcolor=”#17bfd2″ bordercolor=”#17bfd2″ thovercolor=”#ffffff” bhovercolor=”#099bab” borderhovercolor=”#099bab” size=”large” font=”h1-family”]


KETO STARTER FEATURE IMAGE
Nik Ingersoll

The Ultimate Keto Starter Kit: Ketogenic Diet Starter Guide

THE ULTIMATE KETO STARTER KIT

KETOGENIC DIET STARTER GUIDE

BY NIK INGERSOLL MAR 23, 2017

? @ingersollnik

EAT FATS NOT CARBS

A VERY BRIEF PRELUDE
When I looked at trying the ketogenic diet over a year and a half ago, I found that the hardest thing to find is a starter guide to getting going with the ketogenic diet so I put one together. I won’t go into the infinite nuances that comprise the argument for ketosis here, but I will touch on basics and go VERY in-depth on the supplies and techniques needed to get your body burning fat.
First thing, for all too long we have been lied to that fat is bad. As it turns out, eating fat doesn’t make you fat. In fact, eating too much processed sugar does. Peep this New York Times Article where they detail how the sugar industry paid off Ivy League scientists to lie about fats and sugar. For additional reading (for you skeptical snakes out there) there are more links to peer reviewed scientific research, researcher interviews and other resources at the end of this article.
RESOURCES:

 

This is the list of keto supplements to help you get started:  Keto Supplement List

MY EXPERIENCE
I personally went into very strict ketosis in January of 2016 for a period of about 10 months before switching to a cyclical, modified ketogenic diet. As a result, my body dropped my fat level very low without sacrificing the majority of my muscle mass and the tremors I was having in my hands completely stopped and have not returned since.
My strength performance did decline slightly, but rebounded to stasis after about 2 months. As an indicator, my bench press routine went from 10 reps of 315 lbs to about 6 reps of 315 lbs during the lull. I also stopped experiencing the “food coma” after meals and didn’t have debilitating hunger anymore.
I highlight some of the purported benefits of ketosis from scientific research below.
THE KETOGENIC FOOD PYRAMID

ketogenic food pyramid

GENERAL BENEFITS & SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF KETOSIS
Before I get into the benefits of eating a ketogenic, modified ketogenic or cyclical ketogenic diet it’s important to note one thing: I am not a doctor nor do I wear a lab coat – but I do provide you with links to some of the peer-reviewed scientific research and experts on the subject.
It’s also important to keep in mind that I am extremely physically active male. I’m 6′ 3″ tall, weigh over 200 pounds, have less than 10% body fat and train 6-7 days a week in Olympic Style Lifting, Muay Thai Kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
That means that my dietary needs may be much greater than yours. If you surf nothing but the couch all day, first get off your ass and secondly keep in mind that your necessary dietary intake may be very different than mine for that reason.
If you need to find reputable Certified foods, check out: Keto Certification – The Keto Project 
OKAY, WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF KETOSIS?
It has also been observed in some study groups that males and females react differently to ketogenic diets as do people from different genetic backgrounds.

The goal: get your body fat-adapted. Meaning that your body and brain will burn fat (ketones) as fuel instead of sugar (glucose).

Again, this is not an exhaustive article.
If you want to learn more about the in-depth biosynthesis of ketones and what they do at a biochemical level, visit the resources and published scientific articles at the end of this article.
The basic benefits of getting your body fat-adapted and following some kind of ketogenic diet are numerous.
PURPORTED EFFECTS FOUND IN SCIENTIFIC STUDIES

Fat loss while maintaining or building muscle tissue.

Increased vascularity

Increased cognitive acuity

Reduction in seizures, convulsions and tremors in epileptic patients

Increase in oxygen efficiency in blood (Navy Seals)

Prevention of diabetes and heart disease

Appetite suppression

Drop in blood glucose concentration

Slowing of growth in certain cancer types when combined with other treatments* see Dom D’Agostino for more on this.

 

Again, I am not a doctor – do your research.

 

Now I am going to focus on all the tools you need to get started with the ketogenic diet

 

HOW TO GET STARTED: SCHEDULE

KEY TO SUCCESS: STRICT. ZERO SUGAR. NO CARB MEALS

WEEK 1 & 2

STEP 1: MORNING KETO COCKTAIL

NIK’S MORNING VIKING KETO COCKTAIL RECIPE:

Natural Flavored BCAA powder, Micronized Creatine, Beta-Hydroxybuterate, Collagen Peptides, D-Aspartic Acid, MCT Powder, Beta Alanine

***Your morning cocktail consisting of at very least: Beta-Hydroxybutyrate, BCAA’s and 1 tsp. of MCT oil mixed up in the morning

 

You can find your keto supplements here: Keto Supplement List

 

STEP 2: INTERMITTENT FASTING PROTOCOL
A. Maintain an eating window from 1PM-7PM.
B. A 6-7 hour eat window is acceptable.
C. Do NOT eat before 1PM
STEP 3: EAT REGULAR AMOUNTS OF CALORIES
A. Eat every 2-3 hours
B. It is important NOT to calorie restrict at this stage even if your goal is losing weight.
C. Calorie restriction will make you feel terrible while initially getting your body fat adapted.
STEP 4: TEST ALL THE TIME
A. Monitor your ketone levels every day to see where you are
B. Use ketone test strips or a glucometer daily during this process.

WEEK 3 & 4

STEP 1: MAINTAIN THE COURSE

A. By the end of week 2, if you have followed the steps above then most people should be in dietary or nutritional ketosis.

STEP 2: STAY STRICT

A. I would recommend that you stay relatively strict for the next 2 weeks after this month period.

B. Again, the goal is to get your body used to using your body’s fat for energy.
STEP 3: EMERGENCY BACK UP
A. IF you mess up and eat some sugar, down some Beta-Hydroxybuterate afterward and it will catapult you back into a ketogenic state within roughly one hour.
B.The graphic here shows the level of ketones that you will want in your blood, use this as a guide while analyzing your tests.
          OPTIMAL BLOOD KETONE LEVELS

SUPPLIES THAT YOU WILL NEED

This is the keto starter kit that you will need to assemble in order to make your journey into ketosis a successful one.

BHB (Beta-Hydroxybutyrate) otherwise known as exogenous ketones

This will help jump start your body into ketosis. It can also be used to put your body back into ketosis if you “cheat” and eat carbs.

You can find here: Keto Supplement List

 

MCT (Medium Chain Triglyceride) Oil

Made from coconut, olive and/or palm oils, it can be powder or liquid, it doesn’t matter.

MCT’s are the healthiest fats in coconut (more so than short or long chain triglycerides). MCT’s are also the easiest for your body to convert directly into ketones.

You can find here: MCT Oil Selection

 

Multivitamin

This is important because you will not be getting some minerals that you would in the starchy vegetables that you may be used to eating.

You can find here: Mens Multivitamin List

 

*If you are not physically active, get some Centrum or some B.S. Then get a gym membership.

Ketone Test Strips or Glucometer

You need one of these to test to see if you are in ketosis.

You can find here: Ketone Testing

 

BCAA’s (Branch chain amino acids)

You can find here: BCAA’s

Preferably natural ones without artificial colors and sweeteners.

 

Creatine: This is optional, but if you are engaging in athletic activities, I would recommend it.

You can find here: Creatine

 

Coffee

You can find here: Keto Coffee

 

Stevia In The Raw

Why? Because you might want a sweet taste and you are not allowed to have sugar.

You can find here: Stevia

 

Whey Protein Isolate Powder (zero carb)

You can find here: Whey Protein Isolate

 

Ketogenic Meal Replacement Powder

In case you are on the go and need some calories

You can find here: Ketogenic Meal Replacement

 

Fish Oil Capsules

This will get you those OMEGA-3 fatty acids and also help reduce inflammation

You can find here: Fish Oil Reccomendations

 

Probiotics

A staple for any diet that I am on, it should be in yours too.

You can find here: Probiotics

 

Vitamin C Tablets

This will help you immune system survive any sort of “keto flu” that you might encounter.

For the record, I use this will any diet and never had the “keto flu”

You can find here: Vitamin C Tablets

 

Zevia or zero calorie bubbly water

Will help make you feel full when you are intermittently fasting

You can find here: Zevia Zero Calorie Soda

 

WHAT DO I DO AFTER 4 WEEKS?

It’s up to you! Did you like it? Hate it? Love it? You should be keto adapted at this point so it’s your call on how you feel.

There are several different variations of the ketogenic diet that you can pursue after you are fat-adapted.

I am on a modified, cyclical ketogenic diet right now. What does that mean?

That means that generally I am eating mostly fats and once a week I will have a carbohydrate meal. I also intermittently fast after carb days. For me it has proven to give me flexibility, stay lean, build muscle and help my sport performance.

I will write a couple different articles in the ear future about modified and cyclical ketogenic diets, so for now – google it.

COOL, SO WHAT DO I EAT?

GENERAL DIETARY BREAKDOWN RULE OF THUMB:
Apx 70% Fats, 25% Protein, 5% Carbs, 0% Sugar
CORE FOODS
  • Fatty Beef, Elk, Moose etc.
  • Pheasant, Quail, Chicken or Turkey – Dark Meat/Thighs
  • Grass Fed Butter – Kerrygold
  • Fatty Fish – Salmon, Tuna, Catfish, Sardines
  • Nuts – Almonds, Macademia, Cashews etc.
  • Avocados
  • MCT Oil
  • Olive Oil
  • Olives
  • Cheese
  • Kale or Spinach
  • Heavy Whipping Cream
  • Eggs
  • Bacon, natural (no nitrites!)
SNACK OPTIONS
  • Beef or Pork Jerky – NO added sugar (Epic Bar, Osterim)
  • Unsweetened nut butter squeeze packs
  • Vita Coco coconut oil packets
  • Canned Smoked Oysters
  • Pork Rinds
  • Epic
  • Peanut Butter Cups
  • Quest
  • Protein Chips
  • No Carb Protein Bars
  • Canned Sardines (if you’re into that kind of thing)
  • Cheese Whisps
  • Mixed Nuts
MY DRINK RECIPES

NIK’S KETO VIKING BREAKFAST COCKTAIL

BCAA’s, Creatine, Beta-Hydroxybuterate, Collagen Peptides, D-Aspartic Acid, MCT Powder, Beta Alanine

NIK’S KETO THOR SHAKE

Almond Milk + Coconut Milk + Stevia + MCT Oil Powder + Ground Clove + Vanilla Extract + Cinnamon

KETO COFFEE (commonly known as bulletproof coffee, invented by Robb Wolf)

Coffee + 1 Tbsp MCT Oil + 1 Tbsp Grass Fed Butter + 1 Tbsp Stevia

GENERAL DRINK OPTIONS

Zero Calorie Natural Soda (Zevia)

Zero Sugar Nut Milks

Coconut Milk

Hemp Milk

Almond Milk

Cashew Milk

OTHER RESOURCES & SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

  1. Collection of Scientific Research Papers: https://usf.academia.edu/DominicDAgostino/Papers
  2. Effects of Male Hypogonadism on Regional Adipose Tissue Fatty Acid Storage and Lipogenic Proteins by Sylvia Santosa, Michael D. Jensen
  3. Pub Med: Sex-specific Genetic Effects Influence Variation in Body Composition
  4. Clinical Cardiology Journal: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2716748/
  5. Dom D’Agostino: www.ketonutrition.org/
  6. New York Times: How The Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat
  7. Tim’s Ferriss Interviews Dom D’Agostino: http://tim.blog/podcast/
  8. CBD Cream For Sore Muscles
DBAGS---NEW1
Nik Ingersoll

The No Douchebags Rule: How To Prevent Start Up Sabotage

THE NO DOUCHEBAGS RULE

PREVENT START-UP SABOTAGE

BY NIK INGERSOLL FEB 19, 2017

? @ingersollnik

 

NO DOUCHEBAGS, FOR REAL?

A REAL LESSON
When starting Barnana in 2012, myself and my two business partners created 5 core values to guide our vision and decision making as the organization grew. One of those five core values: No Douchebags. In Startuplandia, plenty of things can go wrong. So it should be no surprise to anybody that the vast majority of start ups fail hard. One of the things that does not need to go wrong is allowing less-than-optimal primates into your business.

 

When you start thinking about what your company’s core values are, I implore you to consider one that is slightly more unconventional than most: No Douchebags. At this point, you’re thinking this is a silly article full of hyperbole, but let me stop you right there. I’ll spell it all our for you in real terms with what I’ve experienced first hand growing start-ups into legit businesses and seeing friends suffer in Startuplandia.
[tweetshare tweet=”Trust me when I say that the No Douchebags Rule is one of the most important entrepreneurial lessons you will ever learn.” username=”ingersollnik”]
HAS DOUCHEBAGGERY GROWN?
For some context, there was a precipitous rise in the power of Apple when I was coming into my own as a young entrepreneur. This was accompanied by the demagoguery of Steve Jobs. It was easy for people to think that it was somehow cool to be a complete and total douchebag from his example. I think Donald Trump follows a similar style of business practice.
I argue that they are the exception, outliers, not the rule you should live by. I am here to tell you that it’s not only bad for you to treat people you work with like that, but that there are lots of these d-bags out there waiting on the wings of your business. They are hungry to climb inside and tear it up from the inside out.

 

You might be wondering who the man is depicted in the photo above. That is our good ole pal and as of 2017, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Regardless of your political persuasion, he is the epitome of douche. Give him a view: Here

 

WHEN YOU NEED TO GET RID OF “ADVISORS”

A GOOD PIECE OF ADVICE
Find amazing advisors. Become friends with them, gather advice from them and get them involved to help you raise capital. It also gives your startup some street cred. This doesn’t just benefit you, it benefits the advisor as well. You have a start-up and need an advisor? Hit me up, please have your s*** together.

 

A BETTER PIECE OF ADVICE
Be extremely careful with who you select as an advisor and get rid of them quick if there’s a red flag.

 

In the early days of Barnana, 2011-2012, before we ever officially launched product, we built up a team of advisors that were BAMFs in the natural food space. One such advisor turned out to be a conniver of the upmost extreme.

 

A man who as much as I would like to name him here, will remain nameless, for now at least. This particular fellow looked great on paper. He started some industry related businesses, was capital connected and had been in the industry for a long time.

 

THE BIG REVEAL

What none of us could have known was that he would secretly go behind my back and the backs of my other two business partners in an attempt to create disarray in the ranks. His targets: myself, my business partners, interns and others on the advisory team. Soon his motive became clear, to divide and conquer. To take something that we had worked on for almost two years to get to market so he could suck it into his negative vortex of disgust and take power.

 

One day, after our very first quarterly meeting he said to me: “Do you think that (our CEO) is the right guy for the job? You should think about trying to replace him.” All I could do is stare in disbelief with my eyes likely turning red with anger. On another occasion he said to me “I think (our COO) is too green, too impulsive – I know a great guy that can do that job.” My loyalty to people that I care about is so extreme that I am surprised I didn’t punch him straight in the face. I exercised restraint, put on my political face and said “hm… interesting…I disagree” and walked off. This is when I was 22.

 

THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE

My dad passed away in a car accident in June of 2013. He was my best friend and was literally the best human being that I have ever known. I was left with only my brother to bury him alone in Nebraska. There has never been and will never be worse moment of despair in my entire existence. When I went back to bury him that summer, about 6 months into the business, I found out that this advisor said something about me at our board meeting after I had hung up on the conference line.

After I hung up that day, in front of my partners, interns and other advisors he did to me what he had already done to my business partners. He said to the group “I don’t think Nik is qualified to be CMO, he didn’t even fly back for the meeting.” He went on to say all sorts of other things in that same vein. My business partners told me after I flew back to San Diego.

 

As you can imagine, this guy is almost an incomprehensible douchebag. I mean EPIC amounts of douche pulsing through every vein in his body. Like if you cut his veins, instead of blood coming out it would just be little Kanye Wests and Donald Trumps jumping running aimlessly into their own narcissism.

 

So, the question is: what do you do at that point? I was so emotionally distraught over the loss of my father that I couldn’t even process some guy trying to undermine my entire livelihood simultaneously. Once things calmed down a bit,my dad was buried and I flew back to California – I sent this advisor an email. It read:

 

MY FOLLOW UP EMAIL
Hey (Advisor’s Name)

 

So happy to have you at our most recent board meeting.

 

Again, so sorry I couldn’t attend due to the abrupt and unexpected passing of my father.

 

However, I am even happier to hear that you were talking shit about me in front of all my partners, advisors and interns after I hung up.

 

If you ever have anything to say about me in the future, be a man and say it to my face. No one respects cowards. Looking forward to connecting with you directly in person.

 

You are no longer invited to attend or participate in any of our board meetings from now going forward. 

 

Wishing you a healthy life

 

Cheers!
Nik

SO, WHAT HAPPENED?

I NEVER RECEIVED A RESPONSE
That was the first implementation of the No Douchebags policy at Barnana. When I brought up the issue with other advisors and my business partners they were luke warm about the idea of getting rid of him. This was mostly due to his paper acumen. I didn’t give a f***. However, having this core value that you must stick to, the decision was already made for all of us. This guy had violated one of our core tenants and he had to go.

 

 

TENACITY---NEW1
Nik Ingersoll

Bite Down On Your Mouthpiece: Entrepreneurial Tenacity

entrepreneurial tenacity by nik ingersoll photo of connor mcgregor

BITE DOWN ON YOUR MOUTHPIECE

ENTREPRENEURIAL TENACITY

BY NIK INGERSOLL FEB 12, 2017

? @ingersollnik

 

FIGHT OVER FLIGHT

What’s the one quality that I think matters the most when you are creating a company? Tenacity. The bite down on your mouthpiece type of drive. That kind of feeling that back in the day you could only achieve by running away from saber tooth tigers in the forest. That fight over flight attitude that you will hustle and execute to get to where you want to go as a matter of survival. Without the entrepreneurial tenacity for your idea to move forward, you might as well go work for Goldman Sachs.

 

Having tenacity doesn’t mean your idea is going to set the world on fire. However, if you don’t have tenacity, your idea most likely won’t. Tenacity, like many things, is heavily determined by the DNA that was sequenced during your journey from a zygote to a complete human. However, I think nurture over indexes on it’s influence over tenacity.

 

There is no doubt that growing up in a hard, working class environment aided the development of my entrepreneurial tenacity as a survival mechanism. I felt that no one believed in me and if I didn’t believe in myself, then wouldn’t go anywhere. I don’t know and I don’t think anyone really knows how to tell you how to be tenacious but I can tell you that you need it.

 

I know that I can control my discipline and work ethic. Therefore, I focus on that the most. I vowed to myself a long time ago that I would never allow myself to live my life at poverty line again. That idea really pervades much of how I think about things. 

 

THE ENEMY

The enemy of entrepreneurial tenacity: vacillation. But vacillations are are just that, thoughts. They are in fact not who you are at all. They are random neurochemical brain impulses that often result in electrophysiological signals in your body. You get to choose which thoughts you want to pay attention to and which negative thoughts that you can let fly on by. Fear is both real and rational, but flight is not what makes great companies, fight is. I must say that it is important not to confuse tenacity with arrogance, not to confuse confidence with boisterous bravado. But if you are too scared to start or too cocky to learn, then entrepreneurship may not be for you.

 

confidence vinn diagram nik ingersoll

Tenacity also means having the optimism and confidence that you will succeed. Confidence can win a room. In college, I was working full-time,simultaneously founding a couple of start-ups with my sights set on raising millions of dollars and eventually exiting for many more. I had no social life to say the least. Back then, confidence and optimism were two of the most important assets that I had besides creativity and smarts. I stood in front of 100’s of tech VC’s in Silicon Valley at Demo Launchpad, former entrepreneurs turned investors and the like, all before my 23rd birthday. I can tell you that when you don’t have a crazy resume, when you’re young, if you came from nothing like I; the confidence that you can generate about the skills that you DO have goes a long way.

 

 

The major caveat: no one likes unsubstantiated bravado.

 

On the inverse, I have felt my confidence waiver a couple of times in a high stakes pitches in my early 20s. When it happened, I could detect a profound change in the room. You always get back what you put out. When you are young with no real accomplishments – know what you do have. Work ethic, hustle, passion, smarts, skills, creativity, whatever that mix is for you – know it. Couple that with the tenacity to see it through. Know it and let everyone you work with know it too. Coming from the isolated, poor, rural farmland in Western Nebraska – I didn’t have money for college, no money from my parents for rent, books, tuition or any of that. So, I worked with what I had and what I could learn, but most importantly the tenacity to see it through.

 

I’m often asked for my advice for first time founders. First: are you sure you are cut out for this, do you have the tenacity to do it for real? If so, get help early. Start thinking about who could be a great Co-Founder or a first, second or third employee. Are they tenacious enough? Get your advisory board in order so you can have some people that you can ask questions. Were they a tenacious founder before? You should try to find one of those.
[tweetshare tweet=”Flight is not what makes a great company, fight is.” username=”ingersollnik”]
Always be aware of the enemy, vacillation. It is often truly and completely rational. Just because thoughts are rational however does not mean that they are good for you. I had to block out the rational part of my brain that was screaming things at me like: “what makes you qualified to steward millions of other peoples’ dollars and be responsible for others peoples’ families well-being? You’re still in college…” or “you’re just a poor kid from Nebraska with facial piercings, who is going to take you seriously?”.  The reason that’s important is because many people struggle with those rational, self-defeating thoughts entering their heads. Let them pass as the the wind passes through tall grass and have the tenacity to keep your vision focused on the prize of progress.

 

TO CARE OR NOT TO CARE

One important part of entrepreneurial tenacity is not caring about the opinions of others but also being self aware enough to listen to them. It’s a bit of a catch twenty-two. Don’t care about what people think about you but understand what they think and why they think that way. Being aware does not mean you must care, react or agree with their perceptions. It doesn’t mean that you have to care about their opinions at all actually. It’s for this reason, the most applicable philosophical perspectives to study in the entrepreneurial realm are the stoic teachings of Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and others. That’s because it does not allow for outside forces affecting your perception of who you are.

 

For whatever reason, I have never cared much about others perceptions of me. Perhaps it’s because I used to play in a death metal band with a face full of piercings and long dyed black hair, an easy target for ridicule. In not caring, I always thought that the attitude that I had was considered fringe or wrong according to others. But, Stoic philosophers have been writing about the benefits of not allowing others’ perceptions to affect your own cognition for a very long time. So, if I could jump into a time machine and give myself one piece of advice, it would be this quote from Epictetus:

[tweetshare tweet=”What upsets people is not things themselves, but their judgements about these things. – Epictetus” username=”ingersollnik”]

 

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Nik Ingersoll

My Live Radio Interview On The Morning Blaze #BUILDINGAMERICA

THE #BUILDINGAMERICA SEGMENT

ON THE MORNING BLAZE WITH DOC THOMPSON

BY NIK INGERSOLL FEB 14, 2017

? @ingersollnik

 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I sat down for a live radio interview with Doc Thompson on The Blaze Radio Network. This is part of their #BuildingAmerica segment, highlighting entrepreneurs and their businesses. Regardless of your political view, the message of entrepreneurship is great for everyone on the right, left and everywhere in between. In this 12 minute interview, we cover Barnana, Nebraska, and the entrepreneurial mindset. Take a listen below by pressing play.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

There were a couple key takeaways on this show that I think are worth mentioning. One of which is that one of the most important differences between people who are successful versus those who are not: Tenacity. It’s the will to keep going and not stop no matter what the reason. There isn’t one wildly successful person that I know that got there without hard work. Life is hard, get over it. Things get in the way, you were born poor or disadvantaged in some other way. Whatever your excuse is, capitalism does not care. If you are truly excellent at what you do then it doesn’t matter because you will then be undeniable. Focus in on yourself, not the way others perceive you because it will only hold you down. Here’s to growth!

 

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