As part of The Red Rabbit Studio's exploration of entrepreneurship, I interviewed the founder and CEO of Honeypot, Dan Nedelko. If you're interested in entrepreneurship and want to learn from the pro's, then this interview will inspire you to make your ideas into something real.
Before we begin, let's learn a little about Honeypot.
The following is an excerpt from Honeypot's talented content developer Courtney Cassel.
The following is an excerpt from Honeypot's talented content developer Courtney Cassel.
"Honeypot Marketing is a hub of curiosity, brainstorming, and constant learning.
These digital marketers can be found working passionately in Waterloo, Toronto, and Costa Rica with a myriad of clients, both big and small.
CEO and Founder Dan Nedelko makes it his personal mission to instill the importance of collaboration in his team. He and the Honeypot crew work side-by-side with their clients to connect modern tools and tech to traditional advertising and marketing campaigns.
Well versed in the ups and downs that face both start-ups and established corporations, the Humans of Honeypot get excited when they hear about the next business idea. They’re always itching to use new marketing techniques, like growth hacking, so that they’re not speaking to everybody – just the right people."
CEO and Founder Dan Nedelko makes it his personal mission to instill the importance of collaboration in his team. He and the Honeypot crew work side-by-side with their clients to connect modern tools and tech to traditional advertising and marketing campaigns.
Well versed in the ups and downs that face both start-ups and established corporations, the Humans of Honeypot get excited when they hear about the next business idea. They’re always itching to use new marketing techniques, like growth hacking, so that they’re not speaking to everybody – just the right people."
I was excited to hear the wisdom of a serial entrepreneur like Dan, who has worked hard at making something from nothing. I'm even more excited to share his insight with all of you as you too strive to grow your ideas and businesses.
Dan Nedelko: I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart. I owned my first business when I was 21 years old and I haven’t ever looked back on “doing my own thing”.
Honeypot specifically came from my software engineering background. I was involved for many years in the development of software and became frustrated with the way that business and marketing interacted with the end customer (not giving them what they truly wanted) and the lack of knowledge they had about the problem being solved.
It was then that I was motivated to get into the Marketing of these projects directly. Of course, there’s always the story of the name of Honeypot Marketing which is a great example of the spark being ignited. :)
RR: How did you find people to bring into Honeypot that truly care about the organization the way you do?
DN: That’s an interesting question. Over the years there have been many people involved with Honeypot Marketing at many different levels. Fundamentally we always look for
the curious individual who wants to try things in a different and unique way.
It’s much less about technical or marketing knowledge, those things can be learned. It’s really about a never ending curiosity to always learn and test, poke and prod. When we find those people they’re a great fit for Honeypot.
RR: What three pieces of advice would you give to anyone considering delving into entrepreneurship?
DN: Be patient. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Remember your loved ones and your priorities.
Keep calm and entrepreneur on. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to build a business, you’ll have more lows than highs but that’s what makes it worthwhile.
Work smart AND hard. There’s no easy path to success, but I can guarantee you one thing, you’ll have to work your ass off to get there, so you’d better enjoy what you’re doing otherwise it will be hell.
Last thing (and I know it’s a fourth), define success for you not for the rest of the world. You need to understand what success means for you so it’s achievable. Never shoot for some ethereal notion of “success” because it simply doesn’t exist. Be clear and honest with yourself.
RR: What would you say are the most important three skills needed to be a progressive entrepreneur?
DN:
Persistence.
Persistence.
Persistence.
Persistence is in fact a skill (in my book), if you’re trying to be progressive, you’ll hear more negative feedback and input, encounter more resistance and run into more daily roadblocks than anything you’ve ever done.
With the exception of trying to get a 2 year old to put on his shoes to go outside, that might be more difficult, the entrepreneurial resistance is a close second.
RR: What is one of your failures, and what did you learn from it?
DN: Only one? There are so many! I count that as a good and positive thing. We’ve launched many projects here at Honeypot that have not been a material success, numerous web applications that could’ve, should’ve would’ve worked out but didn’t. Without putting a finger on a specific example I’ve learned that it’s easy to convince yourself that the world needs my next great idea.
They don’t and quite frankly the world doesn’t really care about my next great thing, they care about what matters to them, it’s certainly not my whiz bang idea.
Humility about that simple fact is often overlooked by many entrepreneurs.
RR: How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
DN: Until I find myself trying to convince myself that it’s a good idea. When I’m having the internal dialogue then I know it’s just me making myself feel better about it. Giving up is a very negative way to term moving on or accepting that failure is a good thing.
We learn when we fail. I’ll use the old baseball analogy: If I bat .400 my entire career I’m going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. That means I missed 60% of the balls thrown my way. I’ll also miss 100% of the balls I never take a swing at in the first place.
RR: Who would win a fight between Superman and Batman? Why?
DN: Lex Luthor and the Penguin.
Because Superman and Batman didn’t have their eye on the ball, why the heck would those guys be fighting anyhow?
RR: What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage that fear?
I try not to classify fear. We are all fearful of different things at different times and in different scenarios. I manage fear by eliminating it to the best of my ability, I intentionally put myself into scenarios that are outside of my comfort zone then push that boundary consistently.
My late brother taught me that technique, it’s something I value and try to instill into my kids as well.
RR: Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
DN: There’s certainly no formula, pattern might be a more appropriate term. This truly comes down to your definition of success.
I know and see many successful people who have defined it differently and achieved that definition for them, it’s not monetary nor is it the size of the business developed. Those “successful” people I know have some common threads: they never look negatively at a challenge, it’s an opportunity. Positivity wins every time. Change is the only constant and they embrace it rather than resist it.
Those aren’t broad brushstrokes, they’re very real tangible patterns.
RR: What kind of culture exists at Honeypot and how is that aspect of the business nurtured?
DN: We spend a lot of time together, like every small company, so we try to have fun with it. We’re also modern marketers. We deal with rapid change, constant fire drills, never ending deadlines, it’s not for everyone that’s for sure.
We don’t watch clocks, we have a casual comfortable office, working remotely is just fine we’re all adults here and we trust each other. We joke, we have Beerviews on Fridays, we laugh, we cry, we hug.
We also tell it like it is, no corporate hierarchies exist and we are all always learning.
Lastly everyone in the company pulls their weight and doesn’t have a problem taking out the garbage.
It’s a constant process, encouraging our culture and we’re always building that into the DNA of our environment.
RR: Excluding Honeypot, what other companies or businesses do you admire the most?
DN:
Tesla
SpaceX
Unbounce
Vidyard
Twitter
SpaceX
Unbounce
Vidyard
How awesome was that?! Great words from Dan Nedelko on how to prepare and drive yourself forward as you venture farther into the world of entrepreneurship. Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed the interview be sure to leave a comment and share so we can all grow our skills and knowledge of entrepreneurship.
Learn more about Honeypot and how they can help you with your marketing and awesomeness needs. Be sure to say hi from The Red Rabbit!
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