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059 From Lawyer to the Lonely Entrepreneur- An Interview with Michael Dermer – Part 2 of a 2 Part Series

In this episode, Christina Martini and Michael Dermer discuss:

  • The foundation days of The Lonely Entrepreneur.
  • The power of perspective on your success.
  • Important skills to develop as an entrepreneur.
  • What Michael would tell his younger self.

Key Takeaways:

  • The journey and the story is everything.
  • Being an entrepreneur is not a job, it’s an identity.
  • Emotional intelligence is incredibly important to develop.
  • Everybody needs a release.

“Think about the premise of being an entrepreneur. The premise of being an entrepreneur is that you’re going to do something new and unique, and you’re not going to have capital, and you’re not going to have resources. So what that means is you have to go about it a different way, and that becomes a skill.” — Michael Dermer

About Michael Dermer: Michael Dermer is an entrepreneur, speaker, lawyer and founder/author of The Lonely Entrepreneur. Michael is considered the founder of not only a company, but an industry – rewarding individuals for healthy behavior. Michael left a promising law career to start IncentOne, the first company to provide rewards for healthy behavior. At the time, rewards in healthcare were not only non-existent – they were offensive. He was told over and over “we will never reward people for things they should be doing to be healthy.”

 

After bootstrapping for a decade, his company received a large private equity investment on October 15, 2008. They had arrived. It should have been a time for celebration. Then the financial crisis hit. Ten years were gone in ten days. Bankrupt customers. Investment gone. Credit dead. Family dollars at risk. Angry investors. Family relationships on the brink. It would take two years of working 24 hours a day to save what took ten years to build. The perfect storm.

 

It was doomed. Or was it? Today, health rewards are everywhere, he sold IncentOne to industry innovator Welltok and his company is credited with creating the health rewards industry. What resulted was not only a business success, but the discovery of a unique method on how to thrive under the pressure, chaos and burden of being the entrepreneur. The Lonely Entrepreneur was born.

 

Connect with Michael Dermer:

Twitter: @thelonelye

Facebook: The Lonely Entrepreneur

Website: LonelyEntrepreneur.com

Book: The Lonely Entrepreneur: The Difference Between Success and Failure is Your Perspective

Instagram: @the_lonely_entrepreneur

YouTube: The Lonely Entrepreneur

LinkedIn: Michael Dermer & The Lonely Entrepreneur

Connect with Christina Martini:

Twitter: @TinaMartini10

Website: www.paradigmshiftshow.com

LinkedIn: Christina Martini

Email: christinamartini.paradigmshift@gmail.com

Show notes by Podcastologist: Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

About the author, Christina Martini

For nearly 25 years, Christina (Tina) Martini has been an intellectual property attorney practicing in BigLaw. Tina is a partner at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery and focuses her practice on domestic and international trademark and copyright law, as well as domain name, Internet, social media, advertising and unfair competition law.

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