Overcoming Anything

Overcoming a Career Transition with Len Ward

• Anne Vryonides • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Episode 008: Overcoming Career Transitions with Len Ward

What happens when the security of corporate America no longer feels aligned with your future? In this episode of Overcoming Anything, I sit down with Len Ward, entrepreneur and founder, who shares his journey of leaving a steady paycheck behind to step into the uncertainty of business ownership.

From the fear of supporting a young family, to losing his first business during the 2008 housing crisis, to rebuilding with resilience and scaling a successful digital agency, Len’s story is a powerful reminder that courage, action, and self-belief are the foundation of any entrepreneurial journey.

Len also shares why paying yourself first matters, how to manage imposter syndrome, and why AI-enabled small businesses will be the future.

Len Ward is the Managing Partner of Commexis, an AI consulting and product development firm helping businesses evolve into AI-native organizations. A former Wall Street VP at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, Len transitioned from finance into entrepreneurship during the dot-com boom, launching an e-commerce business and self-teaching digital growth. He went on to build and scale a full-service marketing firm and today leads a team creating AI-powered marketing engines, intelligent chatbots, and workflow automation tools. 

 

Key Takeaways

  1. Indecision will kill you- Success comes from taking action quickly and course correcting along the way, rather than staying stuck in fear or hesitation.
  2. Pay yourself first- Even if it’s a small percentage, prioritizing your own paycheck from day one ensures sustainability and prevents the “vanity growth” trap many entrepreneurs fall into.
  3. Failure fuels growth-  Losing a business isn’t the end—it’s the training ground that equips you with the resilience, knowledge, and confidence to build something stronger.

Timestamps

00:00 — Welcome & introduction
 03:10 — Len’s mantra: “Indecision will kill you”
 07:00 — Leaving corporate America with a young family
 11:20 — The challenge of paying yourself first
 15:45 — Loneliness and self-reliance in entrepreneurship
 20:00 — The 2008 collapse and losing his first business
 24:30 — Starting again: free work, first clients, and the “unplugged phone” moment
 30:00 — Scaling from solopreneur to 25 employees (and what broke)
 37:00 — Key merger that changed everything
 42:15 — Facing imposter syndrome and believing in yourself
 48:30 — How AI will reshape small business and entrepreneurship
 55:00 — Lessons learned, books that made a difference
 01:02:00 — Where to connect with Len

Connect with Len Ward

Website: Commexis.com
LinkedIn: Len Ward
Twitter/X: @LenWardNJ

Books & Resources Len Recommends

Credits

  • Host: Anne Vryonides
  • Guest: Len Ward

 
DisclaimerDisclaimer

The content of this episode is for informational and inspirational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional advice, therapy, or coaching.

Please follow, download, and rate Overcoming Anything so this podcast can reach the people who need it most.

❤️ Anne

 

Anne Vryonides:

Welcome to Overcoming Anything, the podcast where we dive deep into stories of resilience, transformation, and growth. I'm your host, Anne Vryonides, and today we have an incredible guest, Len Ward, who has overcome the uncertainty of leaving corporate America and starting his own company as an entrepreneur So before we dive in, Len, I'd love to ask you what's one quote or mantra that keeps you going in tough times?

Len Ward:

There's a couple, but one main quote I learned, I actually learned it from Charles Barkley when I was younger in a college, I was a caddy at a golf course and he gave me a line that I've lived with the rest of my life. And anytime that you face tough situations, indecision will kill you. So no matter what's happening, no matter where it's going, you have to make decisions to move forward. That's the only way to get out of tough times. And Charles went through a whole big thing about how he applied that in basketball and how other people applied it. But when you really think about it for a minute, indecision is what kills you. And if you start making decisions quicker, faster, you will eventually get yourself out of the tough spot you're in.

Anne Vryonides:

I agree with you, just make a decision and course correct later on, but just take action. So let's start at the beginning. So what is the most difficult situation that you encountered, leaving corporate America and starting your own business as an entrepreneur?

Len Ward:

I was a young dad at the time I think I had, I had one daughter. Now she's 23. Go, go figure. She was about a, 2-years-old then. But it's the steadiness of a paycheck. It's the steadiness of income coming in. That's a whole different level of fear. Losing your job is one thing, but when you all have to basically hunt what you eat and you have to bring in your own money, that's a, very scary thing. So my advice to somebody who's looking for a business or about to start a business, the very first thing you have to do is you have to establish how you're going to get paid before anything else. You have to pay yourself from day one. That's one of the best pieces of advice I can give to somebody thinking about leaving corporate America into entrepreneurship.

Anne Vryonides:

How would you suggest that someone starts to pay themself day one?

Len Ward:

Well, I mean, obviously that's gonna start with they have to have some sort of revenue, right? So, you would hope that they have a plan. I mean, I'm not saying day one, meaning like walk in, okay, today I'm gonna be a baker. I demand and get paid, but the minute you have established some sort of revenue stream with your product or service, whatever that may be, make sure even if it's a small amount. That money is coming back into your pocket. I know you wanna invest in marketing, I know you may wanna invest in employees. But the most important thing is if you make a dollar, make sure you, if it's 10 cents, 20 cents, that it's coming into your pocket as pay. Don't get caught up in the vanity numbers of, I have all these employees, or you know, look at me. I'm doing all this advertising. But in the reality of the situation, you're five months behind on your mortgage or credit cards. A lot of entrepreneurs that happens to. Don't do that. So the minute you start making money, you immediately allocate what your pay should be and then start scaling up as you go. But pay yourself first. Always.

Anne Vryonides:

So what made this, particular, experience of becoming an entrepreneur, particular challenging for you?

Len Ward:

Do you mean moving from corporate into entrepreneurship, yes. Like what made it challenging? Yes. I think everything falls on you. When you, I literally started out, as you know, I was, before I had this agency, I actually started out, with an e-comm business. So we were doing actually online ticket sales for high-end events, Broadway shows, things like that. Everything falls on you, marketing, business decisions, finance, hr, everything, scheduling. Uh, so I think that was probably the most challenging thing. Forget, you know, the scary thing is getting paid, but the most challenging thing is. The amount of hours you put in, I was putting in 10, 15 hours a day working weekends. I was working Saturday night till 10 o'clock at night just trying to build out back then, which was an e-commerce platform back in 0 4, 0 5. It's going back 20 years now. But that was the biggest challenging point, is that you had nobody to bounce this off of, like it was just you. So challenging.

Anne Vryonides:

So was there a specific moment where everything just felt impossible and you're like, okay, I can't handle this stress of, you know, starting a business, the pressure of sales, the pressure of, like you said, doing everything without maybe having all the skillsets and not having any money coming in. How did you deal with that?

Len Ward:

Well, like any mom or dad, you have a mortgage, husband, wife, and you have a child. To be honest with you, you've burnt the boats you're on the island, you have to make it work. So I think that fear of not being able to pay the mortgage, not being able to pay the bills and obvi, my wife had a full-time job too. She was a nurse, which is an excellent profession. But I think not having that really fueled me to like, okay, well this isn't the right answer. If I am frustrated or burnout, I have to try to find a solution. Things got really difficult in 0 8, 0 9 during the housing meltdown because our business was directly affected by that because people were buying from us$500,000 dollar tickets for like premier seats and Broadway shows. Like back then Wick, it was brand new and. Things like that were sporting events, like Super Bowl type tickets and that stuff, when the housing market dried up, the business collapsed. So technically, my first entrepreneur business, I lost that business. It didn't really go out of business. The guy I was working with at the time, who was a partner with me at the time doing it, we kind of just like sunsetted it, you know? But I would say that was probably a tough time because you're sunsetting that business. But that. pole vaulted me. Everything I learned from running an e-com business turned into a digital agency. So one door closes, another one opens. That's exactly what happened.

Anne Vryonides:

So how did you get the courage to start the digital marketing agency then? how did you, not say to yourself like, oh, this didn't work out. How am I gonna make it work out again? how did you get that courage to just step out there?

Len Ward:

Well, the average, entrepreneur will tell you a lot of'em hit it on the first one, which is awesome. Not a lot, some do, but the average entrepreneur is between 2, 3, 4, 5 times you fail. I would think on the iterations on where I'm at, I'm probably at that five number, if you kind of look at a few different things that I've done. So, you know, I guess, so your question's more is how did I get to the digital and how, like, you know, what was the, the fear of it, you mean, or kind of that way?

Anne Vryonides:

Yes how did you summon that courage inside of you to start again?

Len Ward:

Well, I didn't wanna go back to a job I didn't like, I knew at that point I was literally unemployable. people laugh when I say that. I'm like, I am completely unemployable. I'm not going to listen to the boss. It's not because, I'm smarter'cause I'm not. The thing is, you're so set in your ways that you know the decisions you make or what moves the ship forward or backwards. I can't sit in a ship with a bunch of people and somebody's telling us which way to go. When I think deep down it's not the right way to go, whether I'm right or wrong, you're mentally programmed. So I think once you get through that first hurdle of maybe one or two businesses that have succeeded, you've sold or failed, now it's muscle memory. Now you look at it, you're like, unless it's something out of the ordinary. Like a dream job. And the way I did it was I remember my wife and I having a conversation and we had this conversation like, okay, we're gonna give this a little bit of time, like if it doesn't pan out. And I think we said like 15 months or something, then I would have to swallow my pride and go look for a job. And how I started, quite honestly, is I gave myself away for free. So it was like the baker who's like, I think I have a really good set of cookies here. Or I make my pies and I'm gonna let everybody have taste tested. And that's what I did. I put an ad out in the paper and I was like, I'll optimize your website for free. I will help you rank. Back then it was on Yahoo and Google wasn't just Google. People called me and I said, if this works, start paying me. And that's exactly how the business started. Not getting paid for work, you're doing hours and hours was really, really scary. But I knew that digital marketing, that this was going to change everything. And that's why I was like, I'm pushing forward'cause I'm just gonna try to get my piece in this industry.

Anne Vryonides:

Who was there to support you, during those times of uncertainty when you just felt so frustrated and you wanted to quit, and you felt completely alone? Were you like in a networking group or did you have a mentor or someone to support you?

Len Ward:

I mean, obviously my wife, I had friends, I had family and things like that. I had people that, it's funny'cause how you networked 20 years ago in digital is very weird. Like, you would put ads out, oh, I can do digital marketing, or I'm trying to do digital marketing. And you would meet people that way. Like they would call you and say, Hey, I'm from an agency too. Would you mind if I pick your brain or can we have a quick conversation? And I actually ended up meeting, some pretty good friends from that way. You know, people that I've actually still talked to, to this day. But at the end of the day, the dirty secret about entrepreneurism that a lot of people don't say, and something you want to think about when you are in those dark times is that you realize you have to lean on yourself a lot. That it is lonely.'Cause people don't quite understand, what you're going through and it's hard to talk to somebody who has a really good job as a lawyer, an accountant, and they're getting a steady, great paycheck. Busting your back, just hoping you know, beyond hope that you can get to minimum wage kind of thing. So you are gonna find yourself in that you have to make sure you believe in yourself, you rely on yourself. You're gonna find yourself talking to yourself, talk through ideas, but you are your best ally. And don't forget that you'd never, ever lose faith in yourself because that is the person who will, you're gonna be bouncing the most things off of. I know that sounds strange, but I think every entrepreneur, when you sit'em down and talk to'em, they will say, yes. I had to rely. On myself a lot.

Anne Vryonides:

So was there a meditation or a mindset ritual, or what did you tell yourself in those tough times to get your mind right when you felt like, oh my gosh, this isn't gonna work out. How did you reprogram your mindset?

Len Ward:

So I do believe in a lot of business books. I do like reading a lot of self-help books. Even back then there were not really podcasts, but there are other types of things you could listen to, like, radio shows and so forth. And it did move into podcasts. I don't wanna act like I'm riding a horse to work.'cause it wasn't that, but it was a little different. But self-help books, especially in business, there's a lot of books I can go through. Reading them and then taking what these entrepreneurs did and applying it to where you had realizing when you're reading a lot of books, like I always love books for people who wrote about it from the entrepreneurial angle, because you would realize two, three chapters in, you're like, wow, you know, she went through the exact same thing I went through. And this is really kind of neat. So it was kind of like, this is like just pre-social media where you can, you know, social media's great now because you can bounce stuff off of people. But that's, that's kind of what I did. So to kind of help me through.

Anne Vryonides:

So what was the turning point when you realized, I can make this business work, I can succeed as an entrepreneur.

Len Ward:

I'll never forget it. I had a little office, in New Jersey that I was, sharing with a design agency at the time, and it was just two of us. She said something to me one day about my phone ringing I was getting, and I started advertising a little bit on Google and so forth. and, things were starting to pick up, but I had to unplug my phone. Because I couldn't take the calls anymore. The business was so much that I was like, I can't do this. And then when I would plug the phone in, give it like a week and the phone would start ringing crazy again, right then and there. I knew actually then I started scaling up to another office and I put an ad out for my first employee that I was hiring for that company. I remember driving away the one day when I unplugged the phone'cause I was laughing, you know, it just stuck with me forever. I'm like, I think we're gonna make it in this industry. I think we're gonna be able to do something.

Anne Vryonides:

Yes. So was there a specific mindset shift at that time, once the phone started ringing and did this partner give you advice like, Hey, it's time to expand, or how did you go from being a solopreneur to I need to hire someone?

Len Ward:

Yeah, that's a great question because, you know, what's funny about that is I say this story all the time. I'm telling you. It was just me in the office in Echo, and then I moved to an office in Vorhees, which is where, we are now, a little bit bigger, I went to bed one day, Ann, I'm not lying. I walked in and I had 25 employees. Wow. It was like, that's how fast it went. And let that be a word of caution. Don't grow too fast, too quick.'cause I did. Everyone's thinks that's a good thing. It is not a good thing. It's a bad thing, because things break along the way. Things that you don't want to break along the way. But that's what happened. It just happened so fast and I, and it was like, it got to the point where you know, I was hiring people and then I had people who were doing the interviewing for me, doing the hiring for me. It really started scaling, growing all the way up. It's funny'cause the day and age we're in now with digital marketing, the real rock stars in digital marketing are the agencies that are only like two or three people because of AI now, which is crazy. But back then, 10 years ago, you were judged on how many people you had sitting in the seats, which was, oh, well they must be a really good agency. They have 25 people working for. So I used to have clients come in, look at the team, see where their stuff was gonna get worked on and all of that. And now like that's, a thing of the past.

Anne Vryonides:

So, was there a point where your business started to grow and then you hit let's say a financial hiccup and you're like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? Like, how am I gonna pay all these people? Because things changed and, and how did you handle that?

Len Ward:

You're not an entrepreneur until you've lost sleep because you're trying to figure out how to make payroll. You're worried about your family, but then when you're looking at 25 people out in your bullpen and you have 25 families now relying on you, that's a whole different level of fear. So yeah, that was scary. I was happy at the time because we had a pretty good management team around us that was really helping us grow, making the right decisions. But even during that time. I was even paying myself less because like I said, it was a word of advice. And it's funny how, you know, there's a vanity part in business where you think about having all these employees or the big, office space, but the sacrifices you may not be making as much money. That was a scary time.'cause then you're thinking about, you know, then I had to get human resources. Then you're talking about benefits and Yeah, it really went from just me. Answering a phone and doing website optimization. Small website builds all the way up to high level strategy meetings. You know, trying to figure out, what's the projection of the next, quarter's growth at the agency. And it happened really, really fast. Like. 36 months. I went from there to like, there, it ramped up quick. I remember my landlord and we kept having to knock out more and more walls to expand out.

Anne Vryonides:

So like the cookie monster, just eating more and more just kept

Len Ward:

going. Yeah. Literally. It's what it was.

Anne Vryonides:

So looking back, was there a single decision or action that made the biggest difference in the growth of your company?

Len Ward:

Yes. When I merged with another agency at that time it was called Mustard Seed and they did all traditional marketing. What Mustard Seed brought in was a lot of larger type clients, like universities, governments, larger businesses, I was able to. Develop a partnership and merge with a gentleman who was kind of like part of that madman era, although a little bit past his, his experience, wealth of experience was amazing. And at that point I finally had that person who was in the trenches that I could really, we'd sit down for hours and just kind of. Hash out the business and his expertise really helped propel us, you know, kind of get us through that crazy growth time, and say this is how you should be doing things in marketing going forward. So that, that's kind of when like the pivot really happened, that merger.

Anne Vryonides:

Wow. I feel that I got like goosebumps when you were saying that story.

Len Ward:

Thank you.

Anne Vryonides:

So what life lessons, did this experience of starting a business and going out on your own, teach you leaving corporate America and just starting a new chapter of your life?

Len Ward:

Imposter syndrome is real. And I think too many entrepreneurs deal with imposter syndrome and it can get debilitating to the point of like, you really never become what you want to become. I think that's one of the things that helped me back then, I started truly believing I, I look, it's not that I was the smartest guy, I wasn't. I just did my research. I always read, I always stayed on top of things. I was constantly reading about digital marketing and then luckily I had a Wall Street background way before this where I was in investment banking. I could apply those business metrics to what was going on in marketing. So at the bare minimum, I knew if I walked into a room with a prospective client or an employee team, that I knew that at the bare minimum I was prepared for that conversation. That eliminated that imposter syndrome. But that imposter syndrome is something I think, entrepreneurs really have to address and kind of have to take on head on because every single one of us go through it, even to this day. I know a lot about the topic that I can talk intelligently about, but sometimes even a 52, that imposter syndrome will creep in once in a while.

Anne Vryonides:

Absolutely, I always hear that saying, new level, new devil. So when you are growing and going to that next level, how do you personally face that imposter syndrome and what suggestions would you have for someone who is afraid of stepping out?

Len Ward:

I think the number one thing I can tell you is just don't, who cares what anybody thinks. They're not paying your bills, they're not paying your mortgage. If you know who he is and it just make that post, write that blog post, make that video, who cares? If somebody is making comments or has comments or questions about you, it's because they're jealous, because you took that first step and said, I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna do it on my own. You gotta believe in yourself. No more than anybody in the room just by doing your research. If you know your product or know your service or know that industry, you're constantly, you know, up on it. Nobody's looking at you as an imposter. They may critique you, they may criticize you, they may have comments. That's business. But just really take that first step. Believe in yourself and just, do it.

Anne Vryonides:

Wow. Great advice. Thank you. So how has your life changed for the better because you've faced these, challenges in your entrepreneurial journey?

Len Ward:

It's funny, I was actually talking to my wife about this last night'cause there was something I would, some of that I had our copy that we're just kind of working through right now it was like Tom Hanks. There's like five actors sitting around a table. You might have saw it. It kind of pops up on reels and so forth. Tom Hanks, whether you like him or not, think he's a good actor. He made a great line. He's like, things are going good. He goes, you got that role? He's like, you know, maybe you were nominated for a few awards. He goes, yeah, that's gonna pass. He goes, things are going bad. Haven't been employed, you know, you haven't had, any work in a year. Yeah, that's gonna pass too. And they all kind, I think De Niro, they were all sitting on the table, they were all laughing and they all agreed that was the number one thing that kept them going in their career. Finally at 52, I know that there's ups and downs of business. I literally still see'em every single day, but I always come back and say the same thing to myself. This too shall pass when it doesn't pass anymore, you know, they're throwing dirt on top of your casket, it's over. You know, it's, the waves of life is the waves of business. No matter how bad it looks, this too will pass no matter how good or bad.

Anne Vryonides:

Yes. That's a good thing to remember and tell ourselves. So if someone's listening and they're going through a similar situation where maybe they were laid off in this crazy economy, or maybe they have a toxic boss and they're like, I can't work this job anymore, and they want to go out on their own as an entrepreneur, what advice would you give them to start the process and really believe in themselves?

Len Ward:

Okay, so the best advice I can give right now would be basically with a lot of the stuff that we're doing, which is AI consulting, you are in a time right now where I believe AI is gonna take jobs. It's going to take jobs and it's gonna take a lot of jobs. However, we're gonna see a renaissance in our country where you're gonna see the rise of small businesses in our country. That's going to happen over the next two, three years is gonna be absolutely unbelievable. And it's gonna propel us to a whole different level of ingenuity and just coming up with new types of things. And I believe there's gonna be a lot of positives gonna come out that I do believe a lot of the workforce is going to look very different. Companies that are like a thousand people are gonna be down to 25, but I do believe these small businesses are gonna feed off each other and they're gonna do well. So my advice, if you have not downloaded the chat GPT app, if you have not started to understand, that chat GPT is not a Google search engine. That it will talk to you, it will interact with you, talk to it, you know, tell it all about yourself and say, Hey, give me a business idea. You know, it can you help me build a business? Hey, I wanna do this, I wanna do that. It has the intelligence of your lawyer, your accountant, your business consultant, your industry strategist, and your marketing strategist all at your fingertips. We never had that before, so true. Use it, learn it, lean on it. And you know, one of the things I tell people, and maybe this one, if you have a listener, maybe this will be them. The biggest threat to corporate America with AI is not ai. Corporate America is so worried about looking at their next behemoth, you know, competitor next to'em, to the right, to the left. Corporate America's biggest problem is gonna be Jenny, who's in her garage. And she's so good with AI that, she's gonna challenge your corporation because of how well she's leveraged ai. That's how powerful it is. That's what's coming. And that could be one of your people that are listening. Like you could be that person, out there. So just keep that in mind. But right now, you're in a great spot. Leverage ai. Man, I wish I was 30 with AI right now. I would go crazy.

Anne Vryonides:

Mm-hmm.

Len Ward:

If you haven't embraced ai, go put all your chips in and let it work you through, and then maybe you can get outta that toxic boss situation.

Anne Vryonides:

So if someone's raising their hand and they're like, I wanna be Jenny, what advice would you have for them on how to learn ai?

Len Ward:

Oh, literally download chat. GPT. And start talking to it, asking questions. I thought it was a genius. Have chat. GPT create a tutorial for you on how to use it. Go in and say, I wanna learn how to use you and can you teach me like I'm an eighth grader and every day I come back for a new lesson or gimme an entire lesson. It will do all of it for you if you wanted to talk to you rather than'cause you, maybe you're more verbal than you are reading text. It can now talk to you if you want to have a video and show a video of yourself and say, you know, what do you think? Or, and show a video of like maybe your product line you're thinking of. It will look at it. And say, this is what I'm thinking. A few years ago, people can't believe this. They didn't know how to use a search engine. People were like, well, what do I type in? I don't, what do you mean search engine? I'm not doing that. Or email. Just go and do that. And if you're really lost and you want building blocks, I mean, there's a couple great podcasts. There's a podcast out there. It's called Everyday ai. I think the guy's really good. Every day. He has a brand new podcast and it talks about the blocking and tackling of ai. So listen to podcast, watch YouTube videos, and most importantly, just get in and start interacting with chat GPT. But your next business 100%, should be built on the foundation of chat, GPT, no matter what business that is.

Anne Vryonides:

Yeah, sometimes we don't really think about how we can use chat. GPT. have a friend that, actually ask chat GPT for relationship advice for, astrology readings and for recipes. It is, like having your own best friend that is available 24 7.

Len Ward:

Yeah.

Anne Vryonides:

As well as, you know, resources. You're

Len Ward:

right. It's fact they actually called copilot agent. Your friend is, far down the road When you're really leverage it for its intelligence. I know people are like, oh, I use it for email and blog topics. When you move into the intelligence aspect, it's gonna blow you away and you are right. The advice it gives you now, there's a lot of hallucinations. You gotta pay attention to what it's doing. The advice they give you is amazing. It's threatening to certain types of professions, if you think about it. It really is.

Anne Vryonides:

Okay, so looking back, what is the one thing that you learned about yourself having gone through this entrepreneurial journey?

Len Ward:

Resilient. I've had a lot go on personally and professionally I've developed a resiliency. I don't care if I walk out tomorrow and drop dead I think that's a trait that most entrepreneurs, when they look deep down, they think about it. If you've made it, even if you were an entrepreneur 20 years and decide to go work for somebody else afterwards, a lot of people do it. That's fine. You're still resilient. Entrepreneurs are very resilient they find a way to succeed and they find a way to survive. And I think that's the number one thing I found out about myself was I did have that resiliency and I didn't know if I had that when I first started, you know?'cause I did a kind of a cushy Wall Street job that was nice and I didn't know if I had that grit and grind to get me through. And I found out that I did and I found out that I was resilient. Hopefully entrepreneurs, you know, you see that too in yourself because that is probably your number one trait.

Anne Vryonides:

I love it. Awesome. Is there a book that you would suggest for someone who's starting off on the entrepreneurial journey that really made a difference for you?

Len Ward:

So, I'll give you two books that I think are really good. The first book I would read, if you're thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. No matter what is called the E-Myth by Michael Gerber, read the E-Myth. The E-Myth is basically it's the entrepreneurial myth and are you an entrepreneur? Are you a manager? Are you a technician? Because a lot of times technicians think they can run a company better than their boss can. And then what they realize is that they're actually just really good at the, technical stuff. They're not good at the business stuff. Read the E-Myth before you make a decision to get into the business or buy a business. That's number one. If you have crossed that Rubicon and you like that book and you believe you're an entrepreneur, read The Purple Cow. The next one, it's by Seth Godin. You could read that in a day. That basically is like everybody has a product, but do you have a purple cow? And it's the story about it. Him and his wife and his family, they're driving through France. And everybody did all these dairy farms over there. There's all these cows. But then they pulled over because the one dairy farm, Lily had a purple cow stared standing in the middle of the field. They got me here and he, and he talks about the fundamentals of marketing. Like, what is your purple cow? You have to have that, that's what makes you Don't just be another guy selling a hammer. Everybody sells hammers. What's your purple cow? And the last one that will quiet your mind a little bit when you are going through rough times is called the untethered Soul. Untether soul. Actually, I stumbled upon that. I saw a Troy Aikman tweet a few years ago. He loved football, and, you know, fan of the way he calls football games, although I'm an Eagles fan, but he put it up there and I actually grabbed it. I was like, yeah, all right. I kind of like what Troy says about football. And it just quiets that voice in your head, that entrepreneurs, it's like there's a voice that's talking to you nonstop and you just need to shut the hell up'cause you wanna run your business. The untethered soul will help you do that. It helps you kind of. Certain types of way. You have to look at meditation and certain ways you have to kind of take a step back and realize that voice is your enemy and here's how you're gonna quiet it. So those are the three books, I think. Those are the three books and I've read a lot. They have left the biggest impact on me, impression on me in regards to being an entrepreneur.

Anne Vryonides:

Awesome. And when do you have time to read?

Len Ward:

I know I do a lot. I'm heavy exercise in the morning where I do like this, I call up this old man, like walk type, little bit of light run but I do a ton of audio books, so I listen to all my podcasts and audio books. I try to do about 90 minutes every morning. While I did read them like text as of late to kind of get all these books in, I do a lot of audio, which I think is great.

Anne Vryonides:

That's great. Combining the exercise and the education. That's great. All in one. Perfect. Alright, well this has been such an inspiring conversation, Len, and, for those people out there that are just really struggling right now and they're ready to start something on their own and embrace this online economy and take advantage of it, thank you for sharing your journey, your advice, your insights with us. So where can people connect with you and follow your work or learn more about you

Len Ward:

They could just come to conexus.com and then you can follow our social channels down below. I'm on there as well, and you can find me on Twitter. I'm Leonard Word, nj. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, and I tell people all the time, if you have a question, if you're thinking about starting a business or just wanna bounce something off me, feel free to reach out at any time.

Anne Vryonides:

Amazing. Thank you so much. We'll include all the links in the show notes below. So if you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who might be facing the same situation and who's ready to take that step out on the entrepreneurial journey and needs to hear this message of hope. So don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you next time on overcoming Anything.