Ep 119: The No BS Truth About Starting a Business with Tom Swartwood

Starting a business gets this very shiny reputation: freedom, flexibility, being your own boss. And then there's the version nobody talks about as loudly, the one where you're thinking about your business at 2 am because the to-do list is never actually done.My former professor, Tom Swartwood, has spent decades working with entrepreneurs across industries, countries, and stages of business. He developed the entrepreneurship curriculum at Drake University, founded one of the first startup bootcamps for women in the United States, and is the kind of person who will tell you the truth about business ownership whether you asked for it or not. What you'll hear in this conversation is not a checklist or a roadmap. It's a perspective shift on what starting a business actually means, what separates the people who go for it from those who don't, and why the goal was never really about freedom in the first place.Topics Covered:Why "freedom and flexibility" is a misread of what entrepreneurship actually delivers.The three questions every aspiring founder needs to answer before anything else.What Tom calls the most dangerous advice founders listen to.Why starting a business is less about you and more about everyone else.The Craig Newmark story and what it means to decide what "enough" looks like for you.What actually separates people who go for it from those who stay on the sidelines.Why entrepreneurs aren't big risk-takers, they're just comfortable with ambiguity.Connect with Tom!LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomswartwood/ ______________________Contact French Kissing Life PodcastDM us at @shawnnarstiver on Instagram or FacebookConnect with Shawnna Stiver on LinkedInEmail us at [email protected] Until next time, muah! ______________________French Kissing Life is sponsored by Ampersand Copy and Content. Ready to convert browsers into buyers? If you want to master your messaging, stand out in a saturated market and become a crushed-on, go-to brand, contact us today!Website: https://ampersandcopyandcontent.com/Email: [email protected]