BIO: Rick Elmore is an entrepreneur, sales and marketing expert, and the Founder and CEO of Simply Noted.
STORY: Rick had a team of software developers, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers who were to develop a robot for a seven-figure client. The robot was supposed to be done six months before the client signed the contract. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t deliver, so Rick lost the contract.
LEARNING: Let your losses drive you. There’s no straight line to success.
“There’s no straight line to success, it’s going to be constant ups and downs, and there may be many more downs than ups.”
Rick Elmore
Guest profile
Rick Elmore is an entrepreneur, sales, and marketing expert. As the Founder and CEO of Simply Noted, Rick developed a proprietary technology that puts real pen and ink to paper to scale handwritten communication, helping businesses of all industries scale this unique marketing platform to stand out from their competition and build meaningful relationships with clients, customers, and employees.
Founded in 2018 and based in Tempe, Arizona, Simply Noted has grown into a thriving company with clients of various sizes across the country, including in hospitality, real estate, insurance, nonprofit, franchise, B2B, and others. Rick has served as the company’s CEO since its founding for more than five years and has over a decade of sales and marketing industry experience.
Worst investment ever
Rick’s background is in athletics, but in 2017, he had a bright idea to start a robotics and industrial automation company. Rick had no clue what he was doing. He worked hard, and his sales team brought in clients. Rick had a seven-figure contract with one client.
After a year of working with this client, it was time to renew the contract. However, the multi-year contract depended on getting a robot done. The robot the company was using then couldn’t scale with the client. Rick had been in talks with the client and promised that the new robot would be done before signing the new contract.
Rick had a software development team, an electrical engineering team, and a mechanical engineering team. Together, they were supposed to be done with the robot six months before the new contract negotiation was done. The team, however, was way behind schedule. Rick had put so much work and money into the robot for almost three years, and the developers and engineers just couldn’t get it done on time. Rick ended up losing that seven-figure contract.
Lessons learned
- There’s no straight line to success. It involves a lot of ups and downs—there will be more ups than down.
- You cannot refuse to start something because you’re afraid of how hard it will be or because you don’t have all the answers.
- You have to get started. You can’t be afraid to fail. Fail early and often.
- Learn from your failures.
Andrew’s takeaways
- You have to scale to get to the next level.
- Let your losses drive you.
- You’re going to make mistakes, and you’re going to go in wrong directions. That’s just part of life.
Actionable advice
To be a successful entrepreneur, you must be disciplined and take calculated risks. The only way to do that is by doing a lot of tests in your business.
Rick’s recommendation
- Rick recommends taking Coursera courses for self-education. You’ve got to become a student in life and your craft.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Rick’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to build a new website to offer his clients the best product experience.
Parting words
“Never give up. You don’t fail until you quit.”
Rick Elmore
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