Fabrice Testa: Episode 743

Transcript

[0:00:23] DA: All across the planet, entrepreneurs and innovators are actively working to solve humanity’s toughest problems, if you’re an inventor, trailblazer or gamechanger who dreams of making the world a better place through crazy ideas with extraordinary results, we have a book for you. Fabrice Testa’s new book, Super Entrepreneurship Decoded, will show you step by step, how to make that dream a reality from tackling an insurmountable problem to creating the kind of breakthrough business that can fix it. In the book, Fabrice teaches the five secrets of top super achievers who are changing the way we travel, eat, work and simply go about our daily lives. By applying this unique method, you’ll be able to materialize your dreams, build your own future and achieve anything you want in life. Hey, listeners. My name is Drew Applebaum and I’m excited to be here today with Fabrice Testa, author of Super Entrepreneurship Decoded: Five Secret Keys to Create Breakthrough Businesses that Change the World. Fabrice, thank you for joining, welcome to The Author Hour Podcast.

[0:01:26] Fabrice Testa: Hey, Drew. Thanks for having me here, very happy to be here to talk about my book, thanks.

[0:01:32] DA: Let’s kick off the podcast just by learning a little bit about you, Fabrice, can you give us a brief rundown of your professional background?

[0:01:39] Fabrice Testa: Yes, I’m an exponential thinker, better, I’m a serial tech entrepreneur so I founded, co-founded different companies myself. I’m also business angel investor, I’m a mentor, a coach, I’m also an international speaker and I’m author now with this book Super Entrepreneurship Decoded. As I said, I successfully founded, co-founded, participated in the launch of multiple companies in the space industry, the digitalization, we created hundreds of jobs, generated multi millions of worth news. One of the companies achieved one of the turnovers, 200 people. I’m also the creator of the Superpreneur Blueprint Framework and I have developed a set of kit of strategies and tactics to help entrepreneurs to become super entrepreneur and too much realize crazy ideas, maybe we will talk more about this and build breakthrough ventures. My goal is really to help entrepreneurs to solve the world’s biggest problems.

[0:02:41] DA: Now, you’ve been in this space for a while, why was now the time to share these stories in the book?

[0:02:49] Fabrice Testa: Yes, you know, after helping more than 100 companies excel in their fields, I decided to make a methodology to be clear of the label in the book, Super Entrepreneurship Decoded to really help the entrepreneurs, the innovators, inventors to materialize their dream because you know, all across the planet, there are entrepreneurs, innovators. They are working actively to solve humanity’s wealth of problems and my book is really about them, about these super achievers. They are dreaming of making the world a better place and most of them do it through what I call crazy ideas or unconventional ideas. What I found is that sometimes, they have a big idea but they don’t know exactly how to materialize the idea. In my book, I give a very simple step-by-step method to help them to make this dream a reality.

[0:03:47] DA: Now, when you sat down to write the book, in your mind, who were you writing this book for? As you mentioned, is it for current entrepreneurs, is these folks with ideas at home, who could really have the most takeaways from the book?

[0:04:01] Fabrice Testa: I think it’s really for entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors, gamechangers, trailblazers, you know? People that do not accept the status quo, people that want to build a better world, that want to change our daily lives, they don’t accept how things are done, they want to create a better future. They have some ideas to solve some big problems like problems of energy, food, water, transport and maybe they have an idea that they think it’s a crazy idea and they don’t know exactly how they are going to materialize the idea, you know? Because what is important is to attract all their resources to make it form and eventually, if they succeed, they will create some breakthrough venture and in my book, I give some examples of people that have built companies that now are worth billions, you know? It started from a crazy idea.

[0:04:58] DA: Let’s start at the beginning of the book because you actually begin talking about this, I’d love to discuss it here. I think all of these ideas, they’re all set in our world today. Set the stage for us, what is the state of the world today?

[0:05:12] Fabrice Testa: Yeah, that’s a good question, thanks for asking. Actually, you know, as of today, the world for sure is getting better, there are many things that are much better than in the past, that’s for sure. Also, and I describe this in the book, we are entering too, what I call the age of exponential acceleration. Everything is accelerating very fast, which is good because technologies have achieved a level of maturity, which is good, which can help these innovators to materialize some crazy ideas. At the same time, problems are also accelerating and so to give you a couple of examples. For example, today, around 10% of the global population still lives in extreme poverty, environment and we see it with California today with all these wildfires, et cetera, all the floodings, there are a lot of problems linked to the environment. At the time of writing my book, one million people across the planet have no access to clean water. We are still dependent highly on fossil fuels and we should have more renewable energy sources. Education literacy are also problems, 30% of the world’s adult population might still be illiterate in 2030. There are still a long list of problems that still need to be solved if we want us to leave a better planet for the future generation. And you know, I’m the father of four kids and I would like, when my time on this planet passed that at least, the planet behind me is a bit better, you know? And this is my motivation to try to help some other entrepreneurs, they just to maybe solve some of these big problems.

[0:07:08] DA: Now, the book is a step-by-step guide to help you tackling those big problems and finding the big problems and creating a solution and then executing that plan. The question is, how do you really see what that problem is you want to tackle as an entrepreneur? How do you really step back and get that 30,000-foot view of the world?

[0:07:30] Fabrice Testa: What I – world-changing ideas. These crazy ideas for me, there are three big components. First of all, it’s an idea that has the potential for solving a huge problem. Typically, if you can impact with this, one billion people, that’s for sure an idea with a huge potential. Then, the idea should use, let’s say, one or more breakthrough technologies, you know? What I call breakthrough technologies are these exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D printing, general mix of blockchain, sensors or robotics, et cetera. With this, you can build and I explain some ideas in the book how to build, let’s say a real terrific solution and finally, those solutions should be radical. Never done as such before so these guys, these super achievers or the super entrepreneurs or what I call “Superpreneurs” they come with a new way to approach the problem.

[0:08:32] DA: You use the term, super achievers and superpreneurs in the book and I guess, just your average entrepreneur probably is going to tackle these massive problems like you just talked about, can you define what a super achiever or a superpreneur is and maybe, what makes them different than even, you know, highly successful entrepreneur in other spaces?

[0:08:55] Fabrice Testa: Yes, I think you know, I have a profound respect for entrepreneurs of all kinds of course.

[0:09:02] DA: Sure.

[0:09:04] Fabrice Testa: I mean, you know, for example, there are great entrepreneurs that develop, I don’t know, social apps, et cetera and of course, we need these social apps and they create a revolution for sure. I mean, what I’m looking for and the guys that I want to help are people that really, they want to really impact the world by building things. I’m more focusing on the builders, you know? People that build things and solutions that really contribute to solving these kinds of big problems and that probably then can shape a better future for humanity. It’s why I call them super entrepreneurs because they will dedicate maybe a decades or if not, two decades to try to materialize their dream. Most of them, they don’t want simply, you know, to build a company and to sell the company, that’s not what they are looking for. They have a very strong motivation, a strong purpose, what I call or what is called because this is a notion, which come initially from the singularity university, the MTP, Massive Transformative Purpose. They have a strong motivation to dedicate a big part of their life to solve a problem and by the way, they built a big company too. I would say to the breakthrough company is a kind of side product because initially, what they want is to really impact by solving a problem and then they want to materialize this kind of radical and conventional ideas. In that sense, it’s why I call them super entrepreneurs because they are not like the into brackets average entrepreneur.

[0:10:55] DA: Now, in the book, you document a few famous disruptors and superpreneurs and these are in the five secrets chapters and you don’t have to reveal the secrets but surely, there have been plenty of geniuses and gamechangers throughout the history of the world. Why did you choose these five specific examples?

[0:11:15] Fabrice Testa: I’m now in business since more than 30 years. As I said, I’ve worked for many companies. I also mentor or coach over 100 founders. I also read a lot, I’m really passionate about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and the five secrets I’ve decoded in my book are the result of all those many years of observation and of doing myself. These are secrets but yeah, I’ll do say these are somehow it’s very simple to understand. What is more complicated is to put in practice, so I give some tips in that respect.

[0:11:52] DA: How did you actually go about doing the research for those chapters?

[0:11:56] Fabrice Testa: Yes, the research, you know as I said, I read a lot. I’m really passionate about these entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship so I try really to – in the book, I tell stories about many entrepreneurs so I try to take examples from all over the world. There are some American entrepreneurs, some European ones, et cetera even some from Africa, so I try to see a bit of the different origins. Also you know, there are some well-known people like Musk, Branson, et cetera but there are also some less known people, so people like you and me that just had a crazy idea to solve a problem and they just – yes, they just did it because you know, at some point I see a lot of entrepreneurs develop these ideas, et cetera but at the end, they never materialize their idea, you know? They are a bit stuck by the fear of failure, et cetera and these guys, they apply what I call the secrets. They apply the secrets, which minimize let’s say the risk of failure. If you apply the secrets that I reveal in the book as an entrepreneur, as an innovator, it’s not of course a guarantee of success but you will probably minimize the risk of failure and you will maximize your chances of success but let’s be honest, it will be hard. It will be really out because to build these kind of companies and I myself, one of the co-founders of a new company that is also in the book and I can tell you, it’s tough for sure but these guys are passionate about it and we do it because, yes, because we have this massive transformative purpose. This thing that really get us off the bed every morning.

[0:14:01] DA: Now, for those readers out there who get incredibly excited after starting the book or finishing the book, what would you suggest they get started on their ideas and what are the resources they might need before they start or when they start rolling with these great ideas?

[0:14:20] Fabrice Testa: I think initially it’s important to dream and to have a vision how they want to impact the world, which kind of future they want to build. As I always say, build the world you love. I think you cannot let’s say do something if you don’t visualize somehow the world you would like to be and I give some examples of people that they faced some problems themselves and because they are not happy with the current solutions because most of the current solutions have proven their limits. It’s time today to come with some radical ideas. First of all, you need to really see, “okay, what is the future I wanted to build?” Now, dreaming is not enough unfortunately and and idea, you know, remains an idea until it’s materialized. After dreaming, it’s important to liberate a plan, where exactly to go, with whom, how, what are the possible options? Which ones make more sense? This is all the preparation world. This is a phase that sometimes some entrepreneurs they try to do a bit of shortcuts, et cetera or I see a lot of entrepreneurs they want immediately raise funds, why they don’t have made a proper, let’s say plan B first. I think the preparation world is very important. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of superentrepreneurs they take one year or even two years as for preparation world. I think it can make sense at some point. Usually, yeah, I recommend to make a retro planning so entrepreneurs should stand by their big goals and then define near term achievable goals, so what should they do in the next three months or next six months to get closer to their big goals and finally the plan is ready, just do it. As I said previously, I see many entrepreneurs they have written a lot of plans but they never do it. At some point, they must move ahead, take their chance and when it starts, what is really, really important and again, in the book I give some tips in that respect is to look for excellence. They should not be complacent and they should always look ideas for ruling the book, which comes from a famous entrepreneur, the 90-5-5 look at all the 5% that really can arm your business. All these super achievers, they look at perfect execution. Most of the time, this is a big reason why some succeed and some fail.

[0:17:00] DA: Now, talking about resources, you actually provide a lot of worksheets in the back pages of the book. Can you talk about what you have back there and what the goal of those worksheets are?

[0:17:11] Fabrice Testa: I’m an avid reader myself, probably I read between 50 and 60 books per year. I like the books, which, where there are takeaways at the end of each chapter, which I provide. Also some action steps, which I provide again in the book and where there are some worksheets because I like to do the exercise with the worksheets, et cetera and I think it can really help the readers to put somehow the ideas of the book into practice somehow. Now, of course if at some point some are interested let’s say by put this more really into a reality, after the launch of the book, I will launch online course around the ideas of the book. Maybe some readers will have an opportunity or so to have an extensive – it will be a 12-week online program where we will go deep into the – everything, which is in the book but we will go deep into all of these into the course with a coaching by myself really to try to have them to materialize their idea into a concrete plan. That’s at the end of the online course, they can really launch their idea. If they already have an idea, maybe to fine tune, to perfect, let’s say their idea or even to improve their company if they have already a company.

[0:18:48] DA: Now, going further just with the resources, you have your own site as well. Can you talk about what readers and listeners can find there?

[0:18:57] Fabrice Testa: I have two websites, the fabricetesta.com, which is the site about me. There, let’s say the readers they can better understand who I am, what I did, et cetera, where the companies or the organization in which I’m involved. There are also some recordings about some conferences I did, et cetera, some podcast. Yeah, these are mostly the resources there. The superpreneurblueprint.com site, there they will find a blog with all my blog about the Superpreneur Blueprint. Every Monday for example, I post a blog about where always I put a tip, a question and a quote and I have to say that it’s not quite famous and that followers and people they like it because it is every Monday, it is very short and it always gives some good tip or some reflection, et cetera so many people like it and they can find also on the website, a recording of a master class that I did about the Superpreneur Blueprint framework.

[0:20:20] DA: Well, Fabrice, we just touched on the surface of the book but I want to say that just writing a book where you are just really going to supercharge the current and the future entrepreneurs is no small feat, so congratulations on having your book published.

[0:20:34] Fabrice Testa: Thanks a lot, Drew. I really appreciate it. It was a lot of work to say but I’m really happy that now it is done and it’s going to be published. Yes, I’m really – what I hope is that readers will like it, will find the ideas interesting and they can maybe put in practice some of the ideas of the book and if it helps them, I would be super happy.

[0:21:02] DA: Well, Fabrice, this has been a pleasure and I’m excited for people to check out the book. Everyone, the book is called, Super Entrepreneurship Decoded, and you could find it on Amazon and Fabrice, we’ve talked about your website, we of course can check out the book, is there anywhere else where people can connect with you?

[0:21:17] Fabrice Testa: Yeah, they can connect on social media. I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, on YouTube too. Just check Fabrice Testa on all these social media and you will find me and feel free to follow me.

[0:21:37] DA: Well, Fabrice, thank you for giving us some of your time today and wish you nothing but the best of luck with your new book.

[0:21:43] Fabrice Testa: Thanks Drew, it was a pleasure. Thanks a lot.

[0:21:50] DA: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Author Hour. You can get Fabrice Testa’s new book, Super Entrepreneurship Decoded, on Amazon. Also, you can also find a transcript of this episode and all of our other episodes on our website at authorhour.co. For more Author Hour, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite subscription service. Thank you for joining us, we’ll see you next time. Same place, different author.