What My Mentor Taught Me 30 Years Ago Changed Everything

There’s this crazy guy named Rehan Allahwala. He’s got 15 million followers on Facebook, and he messaged me saying he wanted to meet in Silicon Valley. I thought he was just another random person hitting me up. I told him I’d be speaking at a conference in San Francisco and to meet me there at 5 PM when I got …

What I Wish I Knew at 18 About Building a Business

It was 3 AM in Toronto. I had just spoken at a conference earlier that day. And somehow I ended up in a conversation with two young guys from Germany who were traveling the world. Leonard is 18. Leo Pohlmann is 19. Best friends since kindergarten. They grew up playing football together, were in the same class for 12 years, …

He Became an Entrepreneur in One Night at 19

My buddy Leo Pohlmann is 19 years old and as of last night he is officially an entrepreneur. He was thinking about going to school to prepare for entrepreneurship. Learn about psychology, soft skills, all the things they tell you that you need before you can start a business. I told him why not just actually be an entrepreneur instead. That’s …

How to Systemize Your Business in 3 Simple Steps

I was at the IAB Trend Digital conference when Andy Jorgensen put me on the spot and asked for my top three tips for systemizing a business. Here is what I told him. Write down your processes If you are doing something over and over again, it needs to be documented. Most business owners keep their processes locked in their …

Dennis Yu and Gavin Lira, CEO of The Empathy Firm, December 2022

Gavin Lira on Why Active Listening Beats Every Growth Hack

Gavin Lira cold-called a marketing agency owner named Spencer X Smith when he was still a senior in high school. He did not ask to pick Spencer’s brain. He left a voicemail offering a specific Instagram growth strategy that he could tell Spencer was not using. Spencer called back ten minutes later. That single phone call launched the network that …