"We don't see things as they are. We see things as we are."
After 27 years as a chef living and working in seven countries, a change was needed and for the past 10 years, Curt Sassak has worked in the wine and spirits industry. He also helps motivated people grow their network, brand themselves, and earn additional income on LinkedIn. He struggled for months learning how this whole “social media thing” works. His goal is to teach you what he has learned and save you months of frustration. You can learn on your own, or you can hire someone to help you get from point A to point B faster. His approach is easy-to-follow, and you’ll see that there is a science behind all of this.
Like most people, Curt always had just one job and one source of income and never really thought about anything bad happening. The pandemic taught him how quickly things could change for the worst. Many people lost their jobs and more. From that point, he decided he would not allow himself to be in a position where his life could be threatened again due to things out of his control. What did he do? He learned how to brand himself utilizing social media (LinkedIn specifically) to grow his network, develop a side hustle and teach others to do the same. Your brand is bigger than any job. Your brand is bigger than any title or salary. Your brand goes with you everywhere.
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Tell us a little bit about your current projects. What exciting milestone would you like to share with our readers? (Don’t hesitate to delve into your achievements, they will inspire the audience)
Curt Sassak: After two years of immersing myself in learning everything about social media, content creation, and marketing, I have been helping those new to social media learn how to maximize content creation to generate more followers and revenue.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up?
Curt Sassak: When you are learning things on your own it is easy to feel lost and get discouraged. I had no idea how to use social media to my advantage. At times I wanted to give up, but I also knew giving up would not help me grow, so I stuck with it. Fast forward to two years later and I am now creating a course to help people get started with social media.
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Curt Sassak: Wow, this could depend on the situation, but I will give some general examples. An entrepreneur cannot be successful if they are not self-aware. If you aren’t self-aware you won’t be able to determine what you are good at and what you should delegate. You must know your strengths and know what areas require your attention and what areas require delegation.
An entrepreneur cannot be successful unless they love ambiguity. When creating your venture everything is ambiguous, and you must find your way, especially if you are introducing a product that doesn’t exist or is unique and there is nothing to compare it to. Here is a bonus. Ideas are most vulnerable in their infancy, so if you have a big idea, don’t tell anyone until you get it going. Why? Because those close to you may try to steer you away from your goal, not out of any malice, but out to love to protect you. The problem there is if that happens, you will be expending energy on defending your new idea as opposed to growing it.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Curt Sassak: Resilience is simply the ability to withstand the blows life can throw your way. In other words, can you keep getting back up when you get knocked down?
What is most important to your organization—mission, vision, or values?
Curt Sassak: One of those is not more important than the other because they all work together. As a former chef, let me use a culinary example. Think of pizza. Pepperoni is great. Tomato sauce is great. Cheese is great. The crust is great. But they are not complete unless they are together
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Curt Sassak: Self-awareness.The ability to recognize what areas of myself needed improvement. Mental fortitude. I have dealt with depression, career change, moving from country to country, and starting my life over from scratch and I am still going. Drive. I know what I want and I go get it. Period. To this point I have achieved every goal I have set out to achieve
How important do you think it is for a leader to be mindful of his brand?
Curt Sassak: I cannot stress this enough, but don’t limit this to a leader. Everyone should develop their brand and be mindful of it. Your brand is bigger than any business, building, job, title, anything. Think of your brand as a compass. If you are mindful of your brand and make sure your actions align with your brand, you will always be pointed in the right direction.
How would you define “leadership”?
Curt Sassak: The ability to get a group of people aligned to achieving the same goals. The ability to make people want to work for you as opposed to working for you because they have to. In other words, the title should not mean anything. People should be there for YOU.
What advice would you give to our younger readers that want to become entrepreneurs?
Curt Sassak: Just start. Too often when someone has a big dream or goal, they become overwhelmed and lost because they are faced with this huge goal and don’t know where to start. Let’s say someone wants to open a restaurant. I have opened a restaurant and I can tell you there are like a thousand things that need to get done. The best thing you can do is just start. Pick one simple task and just start. Get the process going and focus on progress over perfection. Just start. I am 51 and I did not learn that lesson until a few years ago.
What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Curt Sassak: Anais Nin. “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.” I cannot tell you how many times I have seen adults fail to progress in life in work or their personal life all because of bias, prejudice, or ego. Let all that shit go.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Curt Sassak for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Curt Sassak or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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