For many entrepreneurs, the journey does not begin with a business plan. It begins with a problem, a setback, or sometimes a job they never imagined would shape the rest of their career.
My guest today, Vance Morris, has taken one of the more unusual paths into entrepreneurship.
He went from working as a Security guard in a birth control factory, to a decade in Disney management, to bankruptcy, to building a successful brick-and-mortar service business, and then helping other business owners create better customer experiences.
Vance is known for taking lessons from Disney and translating them into practical systems that Small Businesses can actually use. Not theory. Not magic. Systems.
https://vancemorris.com
https://www.deliverservicenow.com/
Mike Konrad entered the electronics manufacturing industry in 1985. Four decades later, he continues to dedicate his career to advancing reliability within the industry. In 1992, he founded Aqueous Technologies, an equipment manufacturer serving the electronics sector. Becoming an entrepreneur was never part of his plan, he simply had a passion for a product he designed. When his employer declined to build it, he realized the only way forward was to create it himself.
Mike entered business with strong technical skills but no business acumen. His early assets were ego, passion, arrogance, ignorance, and above all, a poor assessment of risk. Ironically, those traits proved useful in the beginning, ignorance really was bliss. But as his company grew, Mike recognized that those same traits could lead to its downfall. To survive, he had to transform himself, developing business acumen, adopting sustainable strategies, and evolving from reckless enthusiasm into purposeful leadership.
Today, with 40 years of industry experience, Mike shares both his technical expertise and his entrepreneurial journey, offering lessons from personal and professional growth, the near-misses that almost derailed him, and the strategies that carried him forward. He is also a strong advocate of “conscious marketing”, moving beyond traditional chest-thumping advertising toward education-driven authority building. By offering value through knowledge rather than hype, Mike helps organizations connect with a new generation of decision-makers who prefer independent research over bold claims.
