Welcome to invest in yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. Join the podcast mogul Phil Benner as he interviews successful entrepreneurs that make their living in the digital world. Now let's draw your host Phil Benner as a special guest today on invest in yourself, the digital entrepreneur

Welcome back to another amazing episode of Investing Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm, of course, your host with the most feel better. And today we have an incredibly inspiring guest who has mastered the art of entrepreneurial business ownership and a wealthy knowledge to share. Our guest today is a serial entrepreneur, author, and keynote speaker who has spent the last decade and a half in the trenches of entrepreneurial and business ownership. He has successfully acquired, grown, and sold 4 different companies, something we all dream of, with the most recent venture yielding an impressive 10 x return on invested capital. That's incredible. His expertise spans across industries having worked with some top tier brands. You may have heard of this one called Harley Davidson, the Milwaukee Bucks, John Deere, Tough Mudder, Master Lock, and a small software company named Microsoft.

His achievements has also been recognized in the Wall Street Journal and Crain's, just to name a few. But his impact doesn't stop at business. He's an adjunct professor, co creator of the entrepreneurial through acquisition course at the prestigious University of Chicago Bluff School of Business and a doctoral research focusing on the very subject he teaches. Can you get even better of a guest, my friends? He's trained future entrepreneur leaders at prestigious institutions like Dartmouth, UC Berkeley, and BYU. And he's an active contributor in the academic community on top

of it. Like, come on.

I got you a golden guest here. But outside of his professional life, our guest is an Eagle Scout, Ironman triathlete, and an outdoor enthusiast who thrives on adventure. He may also be an adrenaline junkie, ladies and gentlemen. But whether it's racing up the world's tallest staircase in Switzerland or embarking on the round the world trip, this guest is going to share his journey, the principles that have driven him to success, and how you can achieve autonomy through entrepreneurial business ownership. So get ready for a deep dive into the mind of a true business strategist and adventurer. My guest, Reid Tylson. Reid, thank you so much for being here.

Yeah. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here, and thank you for the thank you for the humbling introduction. I appreciate it. I I

always try and get my guests to be humble on this show, you know, because they haven't really achieved much if you think about it. But you have been, to be honest, I read your bio when when it first crossed my desk for my VAs and I was like, I wanna talk to this guy. He he preaches what he teaches, you know. Your your duels you're the best like a sword. You got both sides covered, you know. You go out and do it, but then on the other side, you're teaching others to do it so that they can become better. That's, like, the best type of guest for this podcast.

Great. I'm super super excited to be here, and, I love the show that you put on. I love how the people you bring on here, You inspire individuals to go out there and live. What I incredibly believe is the American dream, and that is being a controlling business owner, which means that you have the majority upside on the venture that you own. It also means that you control the dynamics of it. So you don't work for someone else. And whether that's through, you know, bootstrapping something and building it from the ground up or it's from acquiring something that already exists. There is no higher call in than being a business owner in 21st century America.

So I'm just jazzed that there's people like you that are out there inspiring people and showing them the way for how to do that.

I love it. So we're gonna get into the first question, before we we we talk back and forth and just enjoy our each other's company and, you know, blow smoke up our bums, if you will. But what is the reason you decided to get into entrepreneurship? Because it's a very vast world, and you touched on a lot of things. What was the first drive? What was the spark that created this engine that is the retomps Tilesons?

It all start if there's one common theme that we're gonna discuss today about what the motivation to do things is, is one thing and one thing only, and it is people. It is relationships. People are inspiring me to do things. What inspired me to get into entrepreneurship to ultimately be a business owner is my little brother, Trevor.

Now how did Trevor inspire? Was he did he start off in your family as the 1st entrepreneur, business owner? Was that the reason why he inspired you?

Well, like, Robert Trevor is Trevor is the last