Radical Self Belief
TVC073 Founder Vitality Stephen Woessner
TVC073 Founder Vitality Stephen Woessner
I welcome Founder of Predictive ROI, legacy maker and data guru Stephen Woessner on the show, to share his insights and story on passion, purpose and the importance of people in building a brand and a business.
Part of my Influencer Series Stephens direct, energetic and engaging story will have you inspired and taking action to lead in business and in life. Founder and self confessed “data-geek” Stephen Woessner is guru of all things about predictive ROI: SEO, online marketing and how to take that special online real estate of yours, which is your website if you’re owning a business, from average to remarkable.
Stephen’s career spans both public sector, being in academia six years, the private sector and owning five businesses.
Take away some top tips on building your emotional energy bank, dealing with stress, creating a game plan for your people and staying healthy on the road.
I asked Stephen what his approach is to blending health, wealth and wisdom throughout his career:
The three pillars, keeping together the energy, the mental fortitude, of having the right people around you and being able to fail forward and pick yourself up.
Here’s our 7 Founder Vitality Tips to stay engaged, energised and create a culture from within:
Founder Vitality #1: Legacy
Billie Jean King said “A sense of purpose is a privilege.”
Running a business and being responsible from an early age for Stephen has been about following the family hard work mentality and out of admiration and respect for his Grandfather.
This might be kinda out of left field for some of your listeners, but I think I owe it to my family. Specifically to my grandfather, Peter. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1902. He grew up in Istanbul as a young Greek male, at a time when it wasn’t awesome to be a young Greek male in Turkey, where there was public executions of Greek men. There was a lot of ethnic cleansing and my grandfather grew up in that.
And when he was at the ripe old age of eight, he became the man of the house, because my great-grandfather didn’t come home one day, because that’s what the times were like. And my grandfather grew up in that.
Stephen’s grandfather came to the US in 1920, he had $10 in his pocket, couldn’t speak the language, and had no friends. He didn’t have a robust LinkedIn account or a lot of friends on Facebook, or he couldn’t create a Kickstarter campaign.
He had this dream that he wanted to have a restaurant some day. But he had no path to do that. He started cutting vegetables and cleaning lettuce and washing dishes at a downtown Canton, Ohio, restaurant.
After coming to the country with nothing, six years later he had saved enough money to own his own restaurant, and that was just two years before the Great Depression. He gave away more soup than he ever sold, married an amazing woman and had four incredible kids along the way, was a man of extreme generosity.
Through all of that, Stephen remembers the fact that his grandfather focused on how to smile and took care of his customers.
“So when I’m sitting at my desk late at night I have this photo on my wall in my office, and it’s a photo of my grandfather Peter, standing behind the lunch counter in his first restaurant with four customers sitting there at bar stools, eating fresh soup and sandwich he had made earlier that day”.
Founder Vitality #2: Keep Perspective
When Stephen thinks of the struggle and the sacrifice in everything that his g...