Hardy Haberland is a German serial entrepreneur, brand builder and marketing expert. He is also hosting The Hardy Haberland Show. On the show, Hardy speaks with the most prominent masterminds and experts on the global stage.
He has since been mentored by some of the most experienced and innovative entrepreneurs, marketers, psychologists, mathematicians, among other highly accomplished and respected world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sport, etc.) in the United States and Germany.
Hardy used his specific knowledge to start or play a major role in several companies – including HaberlandPodcasts.com.
Contact Hardy:
Lastly, iTunes and everywhere else you can think of as well.
[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:06
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone, this is Umar Hameed, your host and welcome to the No Limits Selling Podcast, where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how to make you better, stronger, faster. Get ready for another episode.
Umar Hameed 0:35
Hello everyone! today I have the pleasure of having, Hardy Haberland here with me today. Some days he's in the top 100 podcasts on Apple Music, Hardy welcome to the program.
Hardy Haberland 0:48
Thank you so much for having me, Umar.
Umar Hameed 0:51
There's been a, you know, this, this notion that they are no new ideas, and podcasting just really is radio in a different format that's more convenient, would you agree?
Hardy Haberland 1:01
Yeah totally! And I really really love the format because you can really have in-depth conversation with friends and guests, and I've met so many cool people on the podcast. I've had a couple of billionaires on the show lots of...
Umar Hameed 1:15
Nice.
Hardy Haberland 1:16
...hundreds of millions in sales, and yeah, I really really love podcasting, so
Umar Hameed 1:21
Brilliant! So here's something just from yesteryear, it was like in the late 1890s, that if you were in Manhattan, you could get your phone, you know, like windup phone and call the Philharmonic. And you and your family could hear what the orchestra was doing live, and that was like streaming in the 1890s. Can you believe that?
Hardy Haberland 1:41
Yeah! A bit strange.
Umar Hameed 1:43
I'm sure it sounded really crap!
Hardy Haberland 1:45
I'm really too young for that.
Umar Hameed 1:46
Yes! me too, believe it or not. So Hardy, so many people have hopes, dreams, desires of what they want to accomplish in this world, but yet, so few of us actually get to live, the dream that we created. Why do you think there's a disconnect between wanting something and achieving something?
Hardy Haberland 2:09
To be honest, I think everything boils down to desire, I think those people who eventually succeed are those people who have an irrational obsession or an irrational passion around succeeding, they really, really want to succeed, they just have to desire. So I think, at the end of the day, everything boils down to desire, and I think, if one has a sufficient level of desire, if one has a sufficient level of talent, I think it's just a matter of time before one eventually succeeds.
Umar Hameed 2:41
So you're labeling it desire, the way I would look at it is because I know a lot of people that have so much desire! but the fear within comes in, and it stops them from executing. So what you're defining is desire is, you know, overcoming fear. So where do you think the fear comes from and how you've spoken to many people in your on your podcast, and a lot of them very successful, that had fears that overcame it? How do you think we overcome our fear and actually go out and achieve something?
Hardy Haberland 3:10
I think that's a good question. I think almost all of us suffering from fear at one point or another fear of not succeeding fear of eventually failing or having failed and the...
Umar Hameed 3:25
For the fear of spiders!
Hardy Haberland 3:29
Probably that as well.
Umar Hameed 3:31
So how do you overcome those fears? Because some people do overcome the fears, and some people are still afraid, but they do it anyway, I think that's called courage. So if you were advising a friend, and they had a fear of starting their own business, how would you get them to overcome it?
Hardy Haberland 3:48
To be honest, I have I would have like a little bit of a different approach like I would basically ask them and ask them like, "Hey, come on, do you really, really want to create a business." And I think if someone really, really wants to create a business, they create a business, even though they're feared, even though they are afraid of failing, even though they are afraid of losing money. And I think, at the end of the day, I think to be honest, when someone doesn't create a business because they have a lack of money or because they are afraid of failing, I think it really comes down to they don't want it bad enough. Because for instance, like I have been in a place where I had no money I have been broken and broke, but I still wanted to create a business. And I see it like in countless talking to so many, like, great entrepreneurs and I had like also like a lot of social media influences on the podcast even like Hollywood actors and so on and so forth. And all of them basically have like a similar background of being very afraid of, okay, like getting into their thing and afraid of like being shaming themselves in public or doing something wrong and public and so on and so forth. But I think, despite those things, they decided to create the business or work towards agreement. That just makes sense.
Umar Hameed 5:20
So share one of your experiences where fear came up, and it may have stopped you for a while, walk us through when that was and how you overcame that fear, because it doesn't happen magically. So tell us from your life experience overcoming that so it can be a good illustration for the people listening to the podcast.
Hardy Haberland 5:38
I've got it. So basically, I was I was studying business administration here in Germany. And I was very unhappy being a student and I come from a background from a very entrepreneurial background, my father always has been in business, he always had a marketing business his entire life. And I was like, man, like, my father didn't study. I don't like studying, so maybe I should work somewhere. And so I worked at a firm where they basically it was a security system firm here in Germany, where I was working, like, doing sets and stuff like that, but um, eventually, I thought, okay, like, "This isn't my thing, this isn't my passion." I think it was like, quite boring, to be honest. And then I then I got into like freelance writing, and from doing freelance writing, I tried a million different things online. And after, like, a couple of years, I had the chance of working with Neil Patel, and helping him with his German marketing and he's like one of the biggest marketers over in the US...
Umar Hameed 6:45
Of course!
Hardy Haberland 6:46
...having millions of fans and doing like, I don't think like maybe 50 million or 100 million in revenue. And I helped him with his German marketing. And after helping after working with him and collaborating with him, I basically had the idea, "Oh, I should start a podcast." And then I was able to leverage this relationship with Neil and to getting like a lot of clients, for instance, one of our clients was also on your show recently, Cameron Herold,
Umar Hameed 7:15
Yes!
Hardy Haberland 7:16
Great guy by the way. And, yeah! that's basically my story.
Umar Hameed 7:21
Brilliant! So how do you go from, I don't want to be in this company to actually leaving, because your dad is an entrepreneur but also, you know, your mom might be like, "What are you doing? You've got a job, you've got a paycheck!" Did you have any of that?
Hardy Haberland 7:36
Oh, yeah, a lot, a lot! Like, basically, my entire family thought I was insane. So but but again, it really boils down to desire, like, I just, I just fed that I'm doing this whole, like, working for this company, and I was like, very, very unhappy, to be honest, very unhappy, and I saw like, the alternative of sticking with my job was worse than trying to figure out the whole entrepreneurship by myself. And yeah! I had had some savings, And I felt comfortable that eventually I will find out a way, and yeah!
Umar Hameed 8:13
So tell me about this crappy job that you had, there must have been some lessons you took away from that experience that still serve you today, like, was there anything that you learned out of that you went, you know, that was a useful lesson.
Hardy Haberland 8:27
A useful lesson. So basically, the job wasn't that like shitty or something like it was actually like a very, very prestigious job because they installed like security systems on yatch and boats, and very, very big home. So I was for the first time in my life in my early 20s, on like big boats and big yachts. And what I what I really learned during this time frame is I think, how important relationships are, because...
Umar Hameed 8:57
Yes.
Hardy Haberland 8:58
...I was really able to meet very, very important people, very, very people who are like high up on the food chain, and I realized how important it is to to really build a great network. And nowadays, like I have done like nearly 250 podcasts in English, and 50 podcasts in German, and expert like hundreds of terrific relationships that really, really helped me to be in the position that I'm in now.
Umar Hameed 9:25
Absolutely. Because the reason I wanted you to share that is oftentimes people go through life and they had like a bad job and they just label it bad and it's thing in the past, but every human experience we have there are lessons to be learnt. Even jobs that are fantastic is like you know, what is the lesson out of that experience? If we don't capture those, we lose something really, really valuable.
Hardy Haberland 9:47
Yeah! totally, totally agreed. I think, like everything. I don't really believe in the whole idea of failure. I think ultimate failure is very, very rare, and I think like everything until ultimate failure is basically a learning experience. So, yeah, I never viewed failed businesses in the past as, "Oh, I have failed!" For me it was really a learning experience. So...
Umar Hameed 10:10
Absolutely. And I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of sucking that if you're going to do an endeavor, you should endeavor to suck. And what the reality is, is that if people put a little bit of effort in it, though, what they create is not going to suck is going to be fairly decent. But if they go in with the mindset of it has to be really good, then either they never execute, or they stress themselves out so much that the end product is not as good as it could be, because I guarantee 100% when you do this thing, that semi-sucked, the next time you do it is going to be better and the 10th time you do is going to be pretty freakin' fantastic.
Hardy Haberland 10:45
Yeah! to be honest, like, like, everyone in our companies, and my clients know that I'm like, really a perfectionist, so I really have like OCD. And I try to do everything, like as great as possible. But I totally agree with you. I think a lot of people they have this whole, like, they take it a little bit too far. And I think it's really, really important to eventually arrive at a point where you're like, "Okay, hey, I really, really need to launch this product right now, I really, really need to launch sales or service right now." Because I too, don't really gain momentum. And I think it's so so important to build up momentum nowadays, always has been.
Umar Hameed 11:25
I think so, and I think very much in the music industry, I think perfection is what they went for. Well produced, beautiful music sung well gives you Platinum albums, but in the software industry, it was like, how do we create something that's good enough, and then we'll have version 2.1 and 2.3, and then we'll do version three and it's always improving and going but just good enough, gets it out the door because you need real world experience. So if you're an entrepreneur out there, I would think that it's really, really important finding a good mentor out there, would you agree? And how would you recommend people find a mentor?
Hardy Haberland 12:04
That's really an interesting question because I think in this current environment that we are in, everyone take it as takes it as a given that they need to have a mentor. And I think there are like definite upsides to having a mentor, especially like if someone really, really has a lot of experience. They have like, they're working with a lot of great clients, they really have like, an established brand. And they really know their stuff in and out. I think there are like definite upsides to that. But I think what's also really interesting to realize is that there are also downsides to having a mentor, even though you are having a mentor who is doing maybe like 10 millions and sales 5 million sales or a million and sales because I think mentors are sometimes a little bit of like, like buying a used car, like you're basically also buying the problems of the mistakes that the mentor made. But having said that, I would say to to really make sure that the person is knowing this stuff in and out because, yeah, I think else you just adopt the bad habits and wrong understanding that the mentor has and having talked to and now having so many friends in a lot of different areas and a lot of different niches, I found out that obviously everyone who has the like 50 million a year brand, or 10 million a year brand, they have like a very very incredible understanding of, of their business, obviously. But I also found out that there are a lot of misunderstandings or a lot of ideas that are just commonly accepted, that aren't really true or that aren't really effective. So I think for everyone who's listening to this, they should also be cognizant of that.
Umar Hameed 13:55
Absolutely. I think sometimes, at least in my worldview, is that getting a mentor in your industry has power, but also getting a mentor that has good leadership skills in a totally different industry, or maybe moving on profit can be a big blessing. Because sometimes when we get caught up in our own industry, then we get very much tunnel vision and what we're doing and sometimes getting somebody wise, and there's lots of people out there that want to help and want to be asked, but you need to find the right fit. And sometimes the mentor is good for between this phase and that phase. And then you need to find somebody else on the next phase. And also becoming a mentor yourself sometimes just gives you mastery over your own craft, because when you have to explain stuff to the young bloods coming up, sometimes you kind of go, "Oh yeah," you get insights as well.
Hardy Haberland 14:44
Yeah. And I think for everyone who is listening to this because I know that you have built your brand and want like say it's a marketing and I'm really, really fascinated by sales and marketing. And I think for instance like what I just was thinking about, I think that there are so so many entrepreneurs and it doesn't really matter at what level they're at, I see this like everywhere, who really think about, they have to be like increases salesmanship skills, and they have to improve their sales. And there's definitely a point at a time and place for that and I think, yeah, you have to improve your sales skills. But what I see is that a lot of people that are addressing symptoms of not having a great brand, and I think...
Umar Hameed 15:30
Yes.
Hardy Haberland 15:30
...it's so so important in this day and age to not only focus on selling, and improving your salesmanship skills, and your statesman, or your sales processes or your marketing processes. But I think what's really, really important to understand is that you will have the most leverage coming from your brand. And I think if you build a big brand, and really a really respected brand, I think sales would just become effortless. Like, for instance, I had a really, really, really hard time selling my services three or four years ago. And I think I was pretty good at sales. Like I was always the guy who didn't have like a lot of problems meeting new people, I was always the kid who always quickly find new friends and stuff, and, and I really had like salesmanship skills, but I didn't really focus on building a brand. And the moment when I started my podcast, like two years ago, and having worked with Neil, and then getting more clients and this and that, and really focusing on building up my brand, like selling it's very, very easy nowadays. So I think for everyone who's listening
Umar Hameed 16:39
Friend builds trust. And that trust is basically what makes allow sales to happen really easily.
Hardy Haberland 16:45
Exactly! Yeah.
Umar Hameed 16:46
So what's kinda interesting is, you know, as we build our companies, sometimes, you know, we reach the $10 million mark. And the people that are with us do not have the capacity to go to a $50 million company. But one things is kind of interesting is there's people in $50 million companies that started that at zero. And now at this $50 million dollar company that reached this height where it's like, all the passion and love for what they do is gone. And you as a $10 million company can go and say, Come help us. And a lot of times people earning a lot more money will take a pay cut to come down to your company to help you accelerate to 50, because they're hands on with the employees and the passion is there...
Hardy Haberland 17:26
Good point. Yes!
Umar Hameed 17:27
So how do you, as you help companies, and as you build your own company, how do you create a culture in the company where people go above and beyond the call of duty?
Hardy Haberland 17:39
So I think it's always easier to say what something not is, instead of what something is. And I think a lot of people, again, I think they really address symptoms, I think there's a time and place to think about like ping-pong tables and drinking beer with your employees and having fun and so on and so forth. But I think first and foremost, for everyone who is listening to this, like, it doesn't matter if you're like doing 100 million, 10 million, 1 million, if you're just starting out. I think it's really, really important to really hone in on your vision. I think it's all about your vision at the end of the day. And it's really important to really think about like, what kind of people do you want to attract in your company?, like, what kind of employees do you want to have?, like, what kind of environment do you want to build?, I think if you really know, the end of your vision, and if you really know the destination, it creates a journey at the end of the day, I think you will find the means and you will find ways to attract the right people, like for instance, because I'm really really taking, taking our growth seriously and scaling seriously. So how we are basically hiring people, it's like, "Hey, if you're on like really, really obsessed about this job, or if you aren't like work last attitude, or if you don't at least like have a think you have like a great talent at doing this specific thing, You are not a good fit for us." And I think like might some people might take it the wrong way and thinks it's arrogant, but it's just like filtering out the wrong people because you will realize that if you don't really have like a specific vision, and if you don't say like, "Hey, I'm looking for this," you would get a lot of employees or you find yourself working...
Umar Hameed 19:34
That's expensive!
Hardy Haberland 19:34
That's expensive and exhausting.
Umar Hameed 19:39
Very much so. So Hardy, if there were three pieces of advice you could give entrepreneurs to be successful in 2021 What would they be?
Hardy Haberland 19:49
The first advice would be focus on your brand. It's all about your brand, I think if you aren't creating content like why blog post, why publish podcast, opportunity videos. And if you don't really want to create a personal brand, or you have like already a very, very big company, make sure you are getting into content marketing, whether it's building blog posts, doing guest blogging, social media, it's all about building like a world class brand nowadays. So firstly...
Umar Hameed 20:23
Nice!
Hardy Haberland 20:23
...get the branding right? Second, I would say, really, really make sure that you are getting hiring the right people, because I think at the end of the day, all this problems, people problems, and if you felt that people aren't, I think everything will take care of itself. So make sure that you're getting the best people that you can and hire the best people, and I think no matter how high your bars...bars of hiring, employees, make sure to raise it, I think it's so important to work with the best people that you can possibly work with...
Umar Hameed 21:00
Nice!
Hardy Haberland 21:00
...and just the cert crush as a sort of thing that I would say or suggest is really, really always be open to finding new ways to address new markets, to launch new products or to sell other services, because I think a lot of people, they are only focusing on selling their existing services or their existing products, but I think if you improve the existing products and existing services will only gain incremental improvements. But if you want to grow geometrically, if you want to go like from from zero to 1 million, and I don't know, like 12 months or something, I think for a beginner, if you're at 10 million, and we want to go for them for like I had people on the podcast, who went from like 10 million a year to like 50 million in a matter of two or three years. And I think if you want that geometric growth, it's all about selling new products, addressing new markets because you were you will, you will have the advantage of, yeah, being able to grow geometrically.
Umar Hameed 22:14
Brilliant! Hardy, thank you so much for being on the show. I learned a lot, I took some notes. Thank you.
Hardy Haberland 22:20
Thank you so much Umar for having me, it has been a pleasure.
Umar Hameed 22:27
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at nolimitsselling.com. I've got a free mind training course there, that's going to teach you some insights from the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and that is the fastest way to get better results.