As we near the end of season one, we've gotten a lot of feedback and questions about what are some of the key insights I've gained along the way.  In this episode we've gone back through all the conversations we've had to date to try and distill out the commonalities and highlight what could and should be considered the keys to success.

This is a really short episode, but is full of great little nuggets.

We'd love feedback if there are any nuggets you uncovered in your listens that we missed or made a big impression on you.

Erik co-founded Tender Greens in Los Angeles in 2006, a pioneering fine casual brand with 30 locations and growing. At Tender Greens Erik focused on democratizing good food at scale, and has since moved on to join Cohere where he advises founders of food brands helping them do the same. His unique perspective on supply chain integrity, biodiversity and regenerative organic agriculture provides an intuition for future food trends in uncertain times. As a chef and entrepreneur himself, he Is able to meet up-and-coming food brands where they are.    
Erik's Book 

"Ten Year Plan"  follows the journey of three young entrepreneurs who in
2006 opened a radically fresh, disruptive restaurant concept in the heart
of Los Angeles. Defying the long odds stacked against everyone in the
restaurant industry, the founders and their skilled team built Tender
Greens, named by Conde Nast Traveler one of “The Ten Best Restaurant
Chains in the World,” and by Forbes as one of the “25 Most Innovative
Consumer Brands.” Ten Year Plan lays out a practical, proven approach to
creating enduring value—including missteps, misgivings, setbacks, and
successes. Applicable to any industry, the scalable business
model crafted for Tender Greens gives equal emphasis to margins and
mission. Your business, especially now, can be a powerful engine for
needed social change.  Ten Year Plan shows you how.

Dan Kan - A serial entrepreneur, shares some of his incredible lessons learned starting several business, culminating in Cruise Automation which was sold to GM for $1 Billion.    

Garrett Sutton is a corporate attorney, best-selling author and one of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad’s Advisors. He has sold more than 900,000 books to guide entrepreneurs and investors. For more than 30 years, Garrett Sutton has run his practice assisting others in protecting assets and maximizing financial goals.  Listen in to hear how Garrett met Robert and was able to become a part of the winning team that set up for the success he is today.

Listen as Dave discusses how he transitioned from a Landscaper to owning over 8,200 units and the lessons he learned along the way.   

Book Giveaway - Davetoday.com

An amazing conversation that got into one of my favorite subjects - Great books.   Here are the books Dave mentioned throughout the conversation.   

Books Mentioned -

Multi-family Millions - David Lindahl

Good to Great - Jim Collins
Awaken the Giant Within - Anthony Robbins
The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
Raise the Bar - Brian Marcel
Lead the Field - Earl Nightingale
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
Becoming Supernatural - Joe Dispenza
The Science of Getting Rich - Wallace Wattles
Ask and it is given - Esther and Jerry Hicks
The mountain is you - Brianna Wiest
Body for Life - Bill Phillips

Starting out as a broke landscaper in 1996, Dave Lindahl’s goal was to simply create a better life for him and his family. That year he bought his first property, a three family building with no money out of his pocket…he had none.

Since then he has gone on to create a portfolio of over 9,000 units in eighteen different markets across the United States.

He is the principle owner of The Lindahl Group, an Emerging Markets commercial real estate Investment company.

Brian talks me through some of the remarkable changes he has made to his business in the past year that have created an exponential growth in his business.    

Brian C. Adams is the President and Founder of Excelsior Capital, where he spearheads the investor relations and capital markets arms of the firm. He has 10 years of experience in real estate private equity and has advanced knowledge in best practices for strategic real estate investing. Prior to forming Excelsior Capital, Brian co-founded Priam Properties (an institutional real estate private equity sponsor) in 2010 and provided leadership and direction for the firm in connection with capital markets, investment management and investor relations.

He has served on the Board of Sirrom Partners, LP, a single-family office investing across private and public asset classes since May of 2008. Since May of 2017 he has served on the Investment Committee for Solidus LP, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investment opportunities in Healthcare and Technology. From January of 2016 to January of 2018, 

Brian served as a member of the Board of Next Gen Advisory Faculty for the Institute of Private Investors / Campden, a program designed to support next generation family members in preparing the following generation for the responsibility of being a steward of family wealth. He has also served on the Advisory Committee for the Southeastern Family Office Forum since December of 2016. 

Brian is a former practicing attorney, earning his J.D. from Suffolk University and his B.A. from Wesleyan University with Honors.

Do you want to see people grabbing their pens when you open your mouth, then you've got to learn the rule of three.   

Join me as I chat with Larry Stevens, my former leader and an all around interesting and great person as he imparts some of the incredible knowledge of his career and two books.    

J. Larry Stevens, a retired partner at the international accounting firm, PwC  is Executive-in-Residence and Visiting Professor at Kennesaw State University's Coles College of Business where, as a member of the School of Accountancy faculty, he teaches courses in mergers and acquisitions and accounting. He is the author of Riding in elevators backwards and Curiosity Made the Cat and Other Myths.    Also a really interesting fact to me, is that Larry hired me onto his team many years ago back at PwC, so I can attest that the stories he tells are actually true.  Let’s dive into the conversation.    

Dr. Ioannis Tsamardinos

Listen as Ioannis explains how a professional crisis set him up for where he really needed to be.   

A world-class scientist and innovator, Dr. Ioannis Tsamardinos has more than 30 years of service in academia and applied science. He has co-founded and is the CEO of JADBio, the only AutoML platform specifically designed for life science data and particularly molecular data. 

A sui generis persona - mentor, expert, researcher, author, speaker, inventor, entrepreneur, and athlete, Ioannis is a Professor at the Computer Science Department at the University of Crete where he heads his own lab and all-star team MensXMachina, successfully translating academic R&D into real-world business tools ready to market. 

His work on automatic time-limited actions design was applied to the NASA Dean Space I software. Ηe is also an enthusiastic dad of two and an underwater diver.