Our guest has dedicated his life to answering a really great question. How do you make business grow? This developed into a bigger question, how do you help people grow?

He's kind of famous for discovering the entrepreneurial personality type (EPT). We're going to dive very deep into that topic. He started consulting at a very young age and has worked with Fortune 500 companies and global 100 companies. He was also one of the first people I actually followed on Facebook without actually knowing him!

We welcome Alex Charfen, host of the Momentum podcast, to the show!

“The easiest way to create momentum is to give it to someone else”

— Alex Charfen.

WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW:

[06:00] Embracing Differences

Alex describes himself as fundamentally different than most people. I’m sure there are those out there who can relate. You may feel ridiculously awkward, socially awkward and indifferent. You may know, deep down in your core, different from the rest of the world. Alex did.

He felt that, for some reason, the systems in the world didn't work for him. He grew up believing that there was no one else out there like him, and that he was alienated and alone.

This pushed Alex to read, obsessively.

“I read biographies and autobiographies and third party accounts and articles anything I could find on successful people” he shares. The more he read, the more he connected with historical figures that were just like him.

Alex explains that he connected with Socrates who went to his death because he would not agree with something that was against his principles. There was Newton who was sitting under an apple tree and the apple hit his head he discovered gravity. Alex explains, “What we don't share with that story is he was completely anti-social didn't do well with other people and that's why he was alone under a tree.”

It was the lifelong obsession with these individuals which led to Alex’s discovery of EPT.

[17:48] EPT - Self Qualify!

According to Alex, there are four types of people in the world.

Caretakers
Communicators
Coordinators
Hunters

Caretaker's are the human beings that like to take care of other people. Alex warns me, there’s a disqualifier too. Ask yourself, do you like changing bedpans? If your answer is “if that person needed the bedpan changed and I was here to change it I feel fulfilled”, then you might be a caretaker. Caretaker's liked the act of taking care of other people.

The second group are the communicators. Sure, if you like to talk, you like some form of communication, you may be a communicator. However, as in the previous example, Alex provides a disqualifier. Ask yourself, do you enjoy small talk? communicators they love small talk. In fact, you get two communicators together and they will talk for 45 minutes about a half hour TV show. Unless you could do this, you aren’t a communicator.

The third group are coordinators. They are people who love details and love fine print. They love contracts, not because there's a deal but because there's a contract. The disqualification question, for everyone listening... How many committees have you voluntarily put yourself on? If the answer is none, you aren’t a coordinator.

The fourth is the evolutionary hunter. This is a small percentage of people who are willing to get up every day and accept the vulnerability and exposure of saying. "I'm going to go do something new. I'm going to go kill something I'm going to keep this tribe alive." If you just identified with evolutionary hunters, you're an entrepreneurial personality type.

The other types, they strive for average and they struggle to maintain the status quo. They don't want things to change. When you look at how the hunter is hard-wired, they literally offend and terrify a big percentage of the rest of the population.

Is this you? “Accept who you are and understand that you are part of the most important club in history and it doesn't matter what diagnosis or disability disorder or whatever somebody has told you or said.” Alex shares, “There is nothing wrong with you and you are not alone.”

[26:29] The Momentum of the Hunters

The evolutionary hunters are physiologically sensitive momentum-based beings who are highly reactive to constraint. These hunters don't know the difference between a gambit of emotions.

Evolutionary hunters can’t understand the differences between sad, frustrated, pissed off, ticked off, confused or upset. There is no difference. Evolutionary hunters are not intended to have emotions.

Why? Happy is on and sad is off. It’s not a state that a hunter can understand because they are hard-wired to keep the tribe alive.

“We only recognize one feeling - momentum. We're either in it or we're not.“

When you're in momentum it's when things are going your way when you're achieving when you're accomplishing when you're making things happen. You can do anything. You can lead do the impossible. When you're in momentum, you chemically boosted into a dopamine cycle or an adrenaline cycle in. When you look at the evolutionary hunter in our species, doesn't it make sense that we would be physiologically, cognitively and chemically boosted when we are on the hunt?

Which means as they approach a goal it loses importance to us. Evolutionary hunters couldn't celebrate a kill we had to go out and kill again to keep the tribe alive.

[30:02] 3 States of an Evolutionary Hunter

For the hunter, there are 3 states. It starts with momentum until we're facing resistance. What happens when we face resistance? An evolutionary Hunter becomes constrained.

Constraint is when you don't see a way out. When the system people around you the authority around you is holding you in place. When this occurs, physically, how fast do you break down? How fast does your body start feeling tired?

We are evolutionary hunters. We are programmed to be on the hunt. Our innate motivation where we can't turn it off becomes the engine.

Society tells these hunters that they should pursue these things like happiness and joy. When really they should pursue being on the hunt. If you look at any entrepreneur who's happy, you'll likely find them on the hunt.

[34:46] I’m a Hunter - How can I Create my Momentum?

Step one is lower the pressure and noise in your life. If your outcome in this world matters to you, don't let anything in that takes momentum away. It doesn't matter who or what it is. Treat yourself like a professional athlete. You are an evolutionary hunter and you should look like one. Move and drink and hydrate and eat the right foods. Hunters are far more sensitive than the rest of the population.

Second, you must increase your ask for protection and support. As entrepreneurs, we have strengths and skills that should be protected and everywhere else we need support. We have to develop the ability to transparently ask for help. "I call it the entrepreneur's dilemma" Alex explains. Hunters need more protection and support than the average person to reach full potential.

If you lower pressure and noise, and you increase protection and support, your strengths and abilities start to show. You get better at what you do and you figure out who you really are. In this way, the hunter can start understanding the massive impact they have in the world.

Therefore, if you lower pressure and noise, increase protection and support, which allows you to show your strengths and abilities... you can make your greatest contribution. Every one of us at our core wants to make a contribution.

The entrepreneurs who make the greatest outcomes in the world are those who are driven to contribute to help the people around them. For anyone reading this, if you're stuck, if you're in constraint, if you're feeling like you can't go forward, do these things. Lower pressure and noise, start taking care of yourself immediately, declare you the most important person in the world because you are to you and increase protection and support.

Oh, and make sure to listen or watch Alex share this with us, his passion is palpable.