#70 – Lessons of an Entrepreneur | Ray Pekowski

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2 years ago

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The Lessons of an Entrepreneur: How to Grow, Take Risks, and Survive

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, the challenges of starting a company, and the benefits of being your own boss, you will learn some of the lessons of an entrepreneur in this interview with Ray Pekowski, the CEO and founder of the Expo Group.

Ray is a driven entrepreneur. Over the last 47 years, he has launched, acquired and successfully sold many businesses most of which have been in the trade show industry. The Expo Group has been recognized with numerous awards for innovation and growth through Ray’s vision and leadership. Ray shares many of those experiences in his first book, Lessons of an Entrepreneur: How to Grow, Take Risks, and Survive.

Ray holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northern Illinois University. Ray is married to wife Linda, has three children, Randy, Robert, and Rachel and has six grandchildren.

The Expo Group: Architects for Connecting Communities

The Expo Group is the company that Ray founded. Here is some information on the company:

Founded: 1991

Principals: Linda and Ray Pekowski

Location: Irving, Texas

Vision: The primary vision of the founders was to create a servant leader culture that would lead and innovate in the trade show industry. This vision coupled with our core values built the foundation for the success we have enjoyed these last 25 years.

Guiding Principles: We think about these enduring principles every day in making decisions both big and small to fulfill our Mission, To Help People Perform at a Higher Level

INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY that deliver demonstrable benefits to our customers. Our patented business processes and technology have been a key component to our success.
TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION are key ingredients that inspire our people to keep working here and create solutions for our customers’ needs.
GROWTH is controlled to maintain the best-in-class service levels for our customers and to provide opportunities for our employees.
FINANCIAL stability to self-fund our technology innovations and provide security for our employees.

Core Values: We have a passion to be the best by doing things better. We create experiences that make life easier for our customers by doing things faster and building in more convenience. A corporate environment that challenges us to pursue perfection so that excellence can be achieved allows us to reach our fullest human potential.

INTEGRITY We must demonstrate the highest standard of business ethics in dealings with our customers, our suppliers and most importantly ourselves. We must gain the trust of each other so that we can build our reputation through individual integrity and earn the respect of our customers.
COMPASSION Our passion and enthusiasm for what we do enable us to achieve our success. We believe people who are focused and disciplined to perform the tasks at hand create an internal motivation that spreads to our customers.
EXCELLENCE It is a way of life. It is a mindset. It is integral to our company. We expect our service, people, practices and leadership to exemplify it.

Ray’s Lessons of an Entrepreneur

Topics Ray discusses on the podcast:

Ray’s journey to building a business in the tradeshow and live event business
The similarities and differences between business and coaching
Understanding the expo business and how the Expo Group provides a unique service in the industry
lessons of an entrepreneur that he has learned over the years in his experiences in business
Managing the challenges of a family owned business
Navigating through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic
Lessons of a leader in times of crisis
The value of a strong organizational culture
How to handle failure

I hope you enjoy this episode!

best,