What Is An Entrepreneur with Brooke Wadsworth

A true entrepreneur creates value in their space and within themselves. They should be able to remove themselves from what they’ve built and that machine keeps working. One such entrepreneur is Brooke Wadsworth of Wadsworth Wellness. Brooke started her first business right out of high school. She launched her second business geared toward her passion for motorsports, building show cars, racing motorcycles, and working as a model. Her need to succeed led to her being recognized and voted Top 10 for Maxim Magazine’s Hometown Hotties and earning her bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Brooke shares how she started her marketing and wellness company, and discusses her definition of an entrepreneur, building confidence, achieving goals, and fitting into the male-dominated industry of motorsports.

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What Is An Entrepreneur with Brooke Wadsworth

I was at another charity event in Dallas supporting one of my close friends and Survivor sister, Missy Payne. She was on Season 29 of Survivor, Blood versus Water. She finished in third place. I’m tied to a few charities. They hit home with me because we focus on kids. It was all about the kids. Missy’s charity is called Cheer for Your Life. It provides teens with the support they need to go after their dreams. This is something that hits home for me. Some kids don’t have the financial support to participate and perfect their craft. They could be a singer or a dancer. They could be an artist or a skier. We help those kids pay for the training that they need to excel. These kids are talented.

The best part about this charity is that it has two sides to it. There’s a beneficiary side and a warrior side. The beneficiary side is where the money raised goes to the kids in need. To raise the money, the charity also works with other kids that come from a background where they have the resources to pursue their own talents. These kids are supported by their families. What they do is they support the charity by raising money for those other kids that need it. These kids are called the warriors. They’re learning from a very young age what it means to give back and to support others in need. They do challenges that the founder, Missy Payne, gives them to achieve throughout the year. When they do these challenges, they earn points. After they complete a challenge, they get their points. They are also required to raise a minimum of $200 on their own. When they do, they’re eligible to come to this event in Dallas and compete against celebrities in tough challenges.

We had 22 celebrities from Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother and American Ninja Warrior. We had a radio host from Dallas and a TV personality from Dallas as well. It was great. We had over twenty warriors attend the event. We competed against and with these kids because they were all divvied up on different teams. They came in from all over the country. We also saw exactly where the money goes. We met the kids that were benefiting from this charity as well. One of the beneficiaries who is a skier got asked to train with the US team. That is where dreams come true. It’s unbelievable. The fact that I am able to be a part of it is amazing. It not only helps the kids in need, but it also teaches those other teens to give back themselves. It’s a great message all around. If you want to donate to this charity, you can go to the C4YL.com. There’s a donate button at the bottom of that page. It happens every year. I will keep you posted on it.

I have another fabulous guest with me on my show. I was looking at her background and I was blown away. If you looked up the definition of entrepreneur in the dictionary, you would probably see her face there. She is inspiring to many women and has a passion for making things happen. Brooke Wadsworth is here with me. Let me give you a taste of what she’s accomplished in her life so far. She was on the fast track from the start. She graduated early from school. She started her first business right out of high school. That’s pretty amazing to have that foresight to be able to do that. She launched her second business geared toward her passion for motorsports. When I met her, motorsports wouldn’t be what came to mind first. She was building show cars, racing motorcycles and working as a model.

A true entrepreneur creates value in their space and within themselves. Click To Tweet

Those three things don’t always go together but that didn’t stop Brooke. She knew what she wanted. She went after it because she has a need to succeed. By 2008, she was already recognized and voted Top Ten Maxim Magazine’s Hometown Hotties. She continued her schooling and graduated from David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. She started her own marketing company called Black Crown Models. She rides horses, race cars, shoots guns and goes wakeboarding. She has a marketing and wellness company, a husband and two adorable girls. She clearly is no slacker. She is here with us. Welcome to the show, Brooke. I am so glad to have you on the show.

How are you?

I’m doing great. I am so excited to be talking to you. We’ve got a lot to cover. How do you start a business right out of high school?

From a very young age, I pretty quickly realized that I’m unemployable in a way that people wouldn’t expect. Right out of high school, I knew that being on someone else’s time was going to be very difficult for me. I wanted to be in control of my time. It didn’t matter if that meant that I had to spend more of it working, I just wanted to make sure it was on my terms. What I mean by unemployable isn’t just by time, but also the fact that I am the ultimate employee. I go above and beyond. I am that employee that gives 110% and treats any opportunity or any job as if it were my own. I do pay that respect, but we all know that sometimes these employees were not paid or compensated as such.

CRS 14 | True Entrepreneur — True Entrepreneur: Time is the one thing that you can never get more of, so spending it in the right way is critical.

Time is the one thing that you can never get more of. Spending it in the right way is critical. The fact that you learned that so early on in life is pretty amazing because I feel like some people waste a lot of time. That is one thing that we don’t want to do.

It’s definitely so easy to do. It’s not always an easy choice to make. Right out of high school I was on to how can I be my own boss per se?

How does a hometown hottie get into building show cars and racing motorcycles?

It’s funny that you asked because it’s the reverse. I was building show cars and racing motorcycles. That industry specifically led me to my modeling career. A lot of these big companies and people at these big import shows, when they put two and two together that I built the car and they saw me, they asked me if I’d ever considered modeling and talking about my own car. Showing up to shows like SEMA and being able to not only be the pretty face that a lot of promotional talent is hired for, but be the hired person that can speak and talk the car language while also promoting my own cars.

You are responsible for your own destiny. No one is standing in your way except for you. Click To Tweet

I talked about the word entrepreneur and in this day and age, that word is the key buzzword. Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to hear from you, how do you define the word entrepreneur?

It is becoming such a buzzword right up there next to #BossPaid. In my personal opinion, a true entrepreneur has finally created value in their space, their specialty and within themselves. I like to take mine a step further from that. That’s starting to be given with this new wave of entrepreneurship. I say that at some point, with that value you created as a true entrepreneur, you should be able to remove yourself from what you’ve built and that machine keeps working. Let’s take Steve Jobs, for example. He’s an entrepreneur in his space and has created tremendous value. With him being removed and I don’t mean by death, but if he had retired, the machine keeps moving. What he’s built and what he’s created keeps on going with or without him. That to me is the ideal height of entrepreneurship. Your average person might google that and find out that it means to start a small business, organize and manage a business, which isn’t that exciting to me. That’s creating yourself a job and a lot of people are great at creating themselves a job.

That is such an interesting point to that because you are building a legacy. If you open up a business and it is all tied to you, then it is a job. It could be creating value at some point. I feel like you have this vision, you figure out a way to inspire others and then have them join you on your journey. Ultimately transition it over to others so that they can continue it down the road. Whether it be in the same state or the same country or the same sector, it goes on and on because that’s how you do create your legacy. I absolutely agree with that.

It’s important because many people are looking to be entrepreneurs. When you started your business out of high school, that’s probably scary and exciting at the same time. There are two sides to this discussion. One side can be viewed as, “This is so scary. I don’t have anything concrete. I’m creating it as I go and I don’t 100% know what I’m doing.” The second side is that you’re responsible for your own destiny. You have the ability to work as hard as you want to achieve your goals and nobody is going to stand in your way except you. What do you think put you on that path especially at that young age?

Exactly what you’ve said in that second piece of the puzzle, which is you are responsible for your own destiny. You are responsible for the choices you make in life. You absolutely have the ability to work as hard as you want to achieve your goals and no one is standing in your way except for you. What put me on that path specifically was the confidence in myself and knowing and owning that and saying, “This is up to me.” Confidence from a young age, that’s the first side of this discussion that didn’t scare me, to be honest. I was never scared. I knew I was in control of my destiny and that made me proud and even more confident. I was willing to make sacrifices. I wasn’t the person out of high school or early in college out partying. I was the person that was at home grinding up until 2:00 AM, building websites, executing and putting stuff into action and implementing what I wanted to go in the direction I wanted to go.

On my show, I talk a lot about women. When I looked at your background and I looked at your making show cars and your racing motorcycles, those are not typical women’s sports. They have changed. I’m glad to see that a high-powered woman took that over. How did you get into those types of things, which are typical boys’ sports? I’m wondering how you got into it. Did you find any barriers from getting into that in terms of being a woman?

Absolutely, to the barriers question. To start with your first question, how I got into it. It was naturally instilled in me. I grew up with a relentless passion for horses, which is a big, strong and powerful animal. The freedom that came with that and the connection of an animal. The horses led to the next thing. I was anxious to get a car at sixteen. I knew exactly which one I wanted. I knew it had to be a five-speed. Anything I’ve ever achieved in my life, I’ve seen it. Whether it was years, months, weeks, even days before it happened. I’m such a visionary in what I want for my life. It keeps me on a very clear path. I knew at sixteen what car I was getting. I knew everything about it.

The need for speed with cars grew immediately into motorcycles, which had a huge barrier getting to the track and racing motorcycles against men. When you’re beating them, the first thing they want to say is it’s your power to weight ratio because you’re small. I’m pretty sure I was the only one launching my bike at $10,000 with MotorSportsTalk. Most bikes would flip right on over and I never had any a wheelie bar to keep me from doing that. That’s throttle control. Yes, absolutely barriers, but you prove yourself and you make great friends. All good came with that. Luckily, women are becoming far more acceptable in what was once considered male sports. In a lot of male industries, we’re coming in and proving ourselves easily.

Choices lead to competence. Click To Tweet

You talked a lot about confidence. It’s interesting because there are two ends to that spectrum. There are some kids that are born always feeling confident. They go after things. They don’t worry about things. There are other kids that are less confident. They need more of that fitting-in type thing. We all want to fit in. Many people have issues wanting and striving for that. Some people feel confident at the get-go and others don’t. What are your thoughts on how to build that confidence at an early age so that people can have that jumpstart and be ready to go?

For me to personally respond to that, I have to bring in a huge important factor for me and that was my parents. My parents growing up instilled a ton of confidence in me. They put a lot of responsibility in my hand and they allowed me to take on a lot of responsibility that I chose to. They never told me specifically what I could or could not do. We know what advice that normal parents are going to give on what you shouldn’t be doing. My mother wanted me to be a prima ballerina. I was a ballerina for a long time. She wanted me to pursue that. I was more passionate about equestrian and horse riding. Instead of speaking her two cents and being the mother who interjects and tells me to go a certain path, she allowed me to control my life and make the choices that make up my life.

I believe that gave me a lot of confidence that she allowed me to make choices. That’s the key word there, that choices lead to confidence. When we’re allowed to choose our destiny and make the choices that make up our lives, we start to become confident in the choices we make. Even when we’re not confident in the choice or it backfires, learning from that and learning that you are in control builds confidence. The other part to that outside of parenting comes down to a lot of self-development and being willing to spend time alone. That’s so important that a lot of kids these days are finding that in crowds, spending a lot of time with friends, drawing power and confidence from friends. Children should be finding certain activities, not to be antisocial, but to build their own confidence in being away from the social aspect and understanding who people are. You’re 30, 40 or 50 and you’re like, “Do I still didn’t know who I am yet?” Even being introduced to that at a young age and finding time to figure out who am I?

Back in the day, every mom wanted their kid to be the prima ballerina. I was in ballet for seven years. For me also, it was not a passion. I always wanted to do gymnastics instead of that. My mother allowed me to make that choice, to have that decision to do what I felt confident doing and to pursue what I was going to be passionate about. It also comes down to having that will to win. It’s like attitude. It’s a constant hunger in my eyes to make things happen and to embrace change. I loved what you said about spending time alone because you do begin to self-reflect. You think about what’s working and what isn’t working?

Did I like this? Did I not like that? I’m a very social person. I know you’re a very social person as well. I liked to be out and about a lot of people in the crowds. You do need some of that reflection time so that you can continuously learn. Those are key elements not only in being an entrepreneur, just by being successful in life. You have to have a vision. You have to figure out where you’re headed. You have to have a passion for learning because you need to constantly be growing and continuously improving. You’ve built a few businesses from the ground up and you’ve watched them flourish. They’re more than businesses as you mentioned. They are your legacy. They’re things that you’ve developed that can run on their own. What are the biggest challenges that you still have to deal with every day?

The juggling act and the constant daily pressure to perform and to be available until that machine is running on its own. It goes back to some advice a very savvy business friend gave me many years back about being a true entrepreneur. That goes to that. That the machine runs on its own when you’re removed. For me, the biggest challenges are still juggling. I don’t believe there’s a balance. A lot of people are going to gasp, “What? There’s no such thing as balance.” Let me know when you find it. There are schedules. There are a lot of awesome tools. There are a lot of things you can get into the routine and habit of and those do well, but we can never predict life. To be able to say that you can always have a perfect balance is not realistic. I continue my juggling act, which fall is falling. I do have my strategies for success to deal with these things. For me, it’s a juggling act. It’s the constant daily pressures to perform and be available.

The juggling act becomes critical because you need to be able to prioritize. You need to know what to juggle and what not to juggle. For some, especially in the beginning, it’s hard to prioritize in that way. As you become more experienced and as you do it over and over again, you’re juggling all the balls in the air. In addition to those balls, you’re also for work perspective, you’re juggling family pressures. You’re juggling kids. You’re juggling a husband. You’re juggling shopping and all of those things don’t go away. That becomes part of your everyday life. It is a juggling act. I don’t think anyone has the magic formula. We wish we had that magic wand where we can say three words, click our heels and there it is.

The family is always there. The responsibilities of actual life outside of the entrepreneurship and the business life is always going to be there. I’ll tell you this and anyone reading this, if you are not married with kids yet or you’re married, take full advantage. You work those twenty-hour days. I’m not even joking. You get four hours of sleep at night because it’s not going to change when you have kids, but you’re working twenty hours on towards your entrepreneurship. Take full advantage. Don’t go to the club. That’s my advice.

Life is a juggling act. It's the constant daily pressures to perform and be available. Click To Tweet

Work it so then when the additional kids come and your twenty hours turned into 24 hours, it doesn’t stress you out. I’ve been there and done that. My kids are grown. I am empty nester now, which is sad. I know exactly what you’re talking about. One of things that one of my mentors said to me back in the day is the people that you surround yourself with are probably the most critical people in your life. I believe that you become those people. You have to find the people that can help you on your journey that will support you. In addition, having mentors to help guide you along the way was very important in my career and in my life. Have you had mentors to help you on your journey? What is your feeling on the people that you surround yourself with?

The people I surround myself with, I believe that’s a part of success my entire life. I learned that, at a very young age, who you hang out with in junior high and high school and college, it all matters. Brains might not matter, but the type of people you’re influenced by and you continue to make the choices of who you hang out with dramatically will impact your life. It will continue to do so into your business career, the success of your life and the quality of your life. In this day and age, many people parallel entrepreneurship with success and money. More comes with that especially when you surround yourself with a variety of influential people. They don’t all have to be bazillionaires.

These types of people should improve the quality of your life because we come back to that most important asset that we never get back and that’s time. Just because someone isn’t the bazillionaire you want to surround yourself with doesn’t mean that they’re not the type of person that’s adding tremendous value to your life and influence. I absolutely believe that you become the people you surround yourself with. I hate having to say that I’ve never had mentors. Only friends, people that I’ve chosen to keep in my tight circle and be great friends with. I’ve learned very quickly that one of the next steps for me is to start to find actual mentors. Not just friends, but mentors that know that that’s the relationship between us.

We talked about mentors and it was interesting to me that you said you’ve never had a mentor, because you are such a mentor to so many other people. How did you get that skill set and know how important it is to mentor others when you yourself have not been mentored?

That’s the realization I’ve had the last few years because if you look at anybody that is at the top of their game, whether it’s an athlete, business professional, whoever it is. They typically have a coach or someone that is continuing to push them and influence them and build them. My husband and I have both realized that the importance of going out and hiring our own coaches, our own mentors and people above us in realms or spaces that we want to grow ourselves personally, we also need that. You look at the Olympic team, they have coaches. They’re the Olympians, but the Olympians have coaches. It’s important to not believe or ever hit status that you are the top of the top.

Always be willing to learn. If you’re not willing to learn, you’re willing to fail. We’re ready to branch out. Everybody should have mentors that make you stronger and better. You can’t know all. Everybody has to know that. I don’t know everything about the business, that’s for sure. I’m not an all-around equestrian. I don’t know everything. I’m definitely going to need more experts and mentors that are above me. That’s great. I’m on that journey. Thus far, it’s been me and my spouse surrounding ourselves with people that add quality to our lives. They are influential. They are uplifting to us because they are business owners or athletes or whoever they are. They are powerful people to surround ourselves with because of how they are in their own lives. They’re not telling us or giving us advice on how to grow ours.

That’s the critical element because the whole concept of a mentor is getting very specific and direct feedback that can help you grow. Sometimes your friends may not want to hurt your feelings. Let’s say, you’re screwing something up. Your mentor will be able to say to you, “Listen, Brooke, settle back. Stop doing this. Do this instead because you’re on the wrong path.” If you don’t get that guidance, then you’re missing out. You’re not giving yourself the opportunity to get to that next level. That’s why mentors are important. It struck me as interesting because you are a mentor to many other people. You see the value of it. The fact that you’re taking that step to get it on your own is why you’re successful. For our readers out there, feedback is a gift and sometimes people shy away from feedback. Without it, you can become stagnant. You can make yourself stay in that same place. That is not what an entrepreneur is all about. That is like the death wish of an entrepreneur.

Friends are there to relate to and have that quality of life and be able to draw a lot of energy and positivity. You are going to be the people you’re around. That’s the fact. The mentor is where you’re differentiating the butt kicking. They’re not there to be relatable all the time. They’re there to push you to that next level.

You become the people you surround yourself with. Click To Tweet

The Olympians, their coaches aren’t like, “Sweetie, what’s up?” They’re like, “Okay buddy, ten more pushups. Run around the track. Do this, do that because I’m going to make you the star that you can be.” Another thing I want to talk about was taking risks. Entrepreneurs, 100% have to take risks. Everyone should be taking risks. There are some people that are sometimes afraid of taking risks because they don’t know what to expect. We take risks all the time in our everyday life. Can you give me an example of what you consider to be a well-calculated risk?

Let me start by going back to my days of formal marketing education and SWOT analysis. If you don’t know what that is, it stands for Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. I do SWOT analysis very commonly in about every aspect of my life, especially business. I always draw to that as well as a huge dose of common sense. Reaching out to others, successful friends of mine and soon-to-be mentors as well as your gut. People underestimate their gut. Let’s talk about my business and why I chose it. Maybe that will help steer through my advice with this real application.

When I started this last business in health and wellness, it’s a no-brainer. My husband and I are very into health and fitness and longevity. When I looked at it, I looked at three main things. Let me dumb it down. The first thing that this opportunity from a business, not just passion standpoint had to fit was one, it was highly consumable. This is why phones are recreated. The new iPhone X comes out because if they kept the same one for years and years, profits would go down. The first one is become highly consumable. The product that I chose to be a part of is highly consumable, meaning someone needs to replenish their supply more often than six months or a year.

If someone’s buying a kitchen table, they’re coming back to you in ten years, if at all. The second thing became that women had to love it because if women love it, they’re going to buy it for themselves and for men. I didn’t narrow my demographic to women only. I wanted to make sure women loved it. Number three, it had to work. That’s a key factor because one and two don’t mean anything if the product or the service does not work. Those three things: highly consumable, women have to love it and it has to work. It has to be different. It has to be proprietary. It has to be patented, which all goes into my number three that it had to work.

If you're not willing to learn, you're willing to fail. Click To Tweet

Some people do not think about that highly consumable issue. I love the fact that you focus on women because women buy everything for their men. They do have to love it and they do have to have it. Brooke, I am so excited that you are on the show with us. You have given people so much to walk away with. That’s the benefit of this show. You get real life things that you can take with you to do differently and make things happen. If you are looking to be an entrepreneur, you now have the tools to do that. The last thing, Brooke, I wanted to let our readers know where they can find you.

If you want to learn more, if you want to connect with me, if you want to talk about entrepreneurship, I’m open. As Carolyn mentioned, mentorship and bringing you under my wing is definitely an option. Let me give you the easiest way and that’s going to be my website, WadsworthWellness.com, that’s going to link you to a lot of our other social media such as Facebook and Instagram. My personal Instagram is going to show a lot of the car stuff, the family stuff, the Maxim modeling and my American two time Ninja Warrior husband is going to be @BrookeWeisbender, which is my maiden name. I’m behind the curve. I hope to see you guys soon and connect for more value.

Thanks again for coming on. Remember the Carolyn Rivera Show is all about you, the reader. You can follow me on Instagram @TheCarolynRiveraShow. My passion is to watch people succeed.

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About Brooke Wadsworth

Former Maxim Model & Professional Print Model
Degree in Business Marketing & Business Management
Specializes in Business Start-Ups & Working from Home
Competitive 3-Day Eventing Horse Rider
Mother
Cole Wadsworth’s Wife
Nitrous Motorcycle Drag Racer
Fitness & Health Advocate
Goat Guru
Warmblood Sporthorse & Friesian Breeder
Charity Event Organizer
Passion for Helping Others
Personal Growth Advisor

Brooke wants to tell you, “Every single day you have choices. Every day you have the power to make new choices that will change your life, change your health and ultimately guide your life to the future you want. Dreams without deadlines will remain dreams. Personal wants without actions will always remain wants. When you are ready to live the life you deserve, I would cherish the opportunity to be a part of your journey and your positive choices to make changes.”