I don’t know if I’ve ever met someone who lives more in the moment than Brian Dickinson, and he shares his incredible story in today’s interview. He is an ex-Navy rescue swimmer, a world-class mountain climber and the author of Blind Descent, the inspiring story about how he summited Mount Everest – alone – and overcame descending the mountain blind.
Brian is still learning the ability to slow down and live in the moment, gathering the courage to be content. Brian’s climbs help him gain perspective on the world off of the mountain, because he experiences how slowly time can feel.
It can be dangerous to start climbing alone. “Not even climbing, but everything. If you can latch onto somebody who has a clue, has made the mistakes, you’re going to learn a ton.” There’s so much in your control, if you know how to control it.
Control, on the mountain and in your business, comes down to preparation. “The success is creating a lifestyle of change,” and then you will always be prepared for that next climb or business endeavor.
I’ve described preparation as the bridge between expectation and reality. Sometimes, that bridge can collapse, and things will go south in spite of your preparation – like when you start to develop snow blindness at the highest point on Earth. In these situations, success can come down to willpower. Sometimes willpower means moving forward, using your training, without overthinking the situation.
Motivation can pull us through the impossible, in our lives and in our businesses. Brian used his family to help him descend Mount Everest and overcome his instinct to panic. Use your motivation to focus on breaking a bad experience down to small successes, keeping a map in your mind of where you are going.
For now, Brian is taking what he learned and focusing on having the courage to be content. There’s no shortage of adventures in this world, and he’s going to go on the next few with his family.
We are put in situations for a reason. Usually it’s not at the top of Mount Everest, but it’s always so that we can share something of value with other people, and maybe save someone’s life, career or marriage through our stories.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Today I have an interview with a modern Renaissance Woman. Kelly Roach is an ex-NFL cheerleader, formerly the top sales person in a Fortune 500 company, author of Unstoppable, the loving mother of a two-year-old, and a successful entrepreneur. Kelly trains other entrepreneurs to launch, monetize and scale profitable businesses.
Kelly was promoted seven times in eight years. She was the youngest Senior VP of the company and managed 17 locations. Her health was sliding to the back burner until she thought, “Every time I get promoted, every time I have success in this environment, it compromises more of who I am.”
Taking some time to think is critical. After reflecting on her core values as a person, she came to the conclusion that she was not living the life she wanted. Kelly’s core values:
By fulfillment, Kelly means making an impact, doing work that she feels matters, and helping people. Every time she has success in the wrong environment, she will have less freedom to pursue making a difference. She also doesn’t like making a company millions of dollars. She can make that money for herself.
It can be difficult to stop your life and shift course, particularly when things are going according to plan. Kelly accomplished one of her goals when she became Senior VP, but the experience wasn’t exactly what she thought it would be. “I’m getting exactly what I set out to achieve, which means I also have the power and the control to decide where this goes next.”
Take time to consider where your core skillsets intersect with what people are willing to pay for in the market. Kelly believes that, with an 80% failure rate, the people who really need her training are small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Mentorship is critical. Kelly’s passion for leadership, coaching others and making others successful is a direct result of her first mentor’s advice, and they are the ingredients of her success. The prevalence of podcasting and social media makes the process of finding a mentor easier than ever. Look for people who have success in the area you wish to pursue and start following them online. You will be able to find the voice and teaching style that resonates with you and begin a relationship.
Kelly’s book, Unstoppable, ties into her message on every platform. To Kelly, being unstoppable means you are so driven, focused and motivated that you have to be the best you can possibly be in any given situation, no matter what life throws at you. The human experience is full of chaos, but the book provides nine key principles that will help entrepreneurs achieve unlimited success in business and in life.
Kelly is generous enough to share a couple of the principles from her book:
Entrepreneurship is heavily romanticized. Don’t expect success to come overnight. There is a grind that everyone goes through – most people fail, often more than once, before they succeed. Entrepreneurs need to be aware that there is nothing wrong with failure, because that’s how we find out what works.
Too many entrepreneurs spend their business life planning. They wait for the perfect opportunity, the perfect product, and it never comes. “The imperfect action is the most important entrepreneurial skill,” so get out there, make an offer, create a course, and start advertising.
Last year, Kelly helped her first client add over $1 million to their business. The key is to put a sales and marketing system in place. Online marketing has been romanticized in the same way as entrepreneurship – to the point that many entrepreneurs forego sales. Marketing is great, but at some point there has to be a conversion event between marketing and sales.
There needs to be a system to convert potential buyers to sales. Kelly’s three-step system:
Kelly’s business has been a great vehicle for freedom and flexibility in her life, and she encourages others to pursue entrepreneurship to gain more freedom in their own lives. I hope she inspires you to reflect on your core values, and to start improving your life.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
My long-time friend Aaron Hinde came in for a value packed interview today. He’s a fearless risk taker who jumped into one of the toughest industries out there, the beverage industry, and has successfully grown it and now leads a team of 28 people.
Aaron’s always had the unique ability of empathy which has served him well. It’s the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand where they’re coming from. Many people make the mistake of trying to meet somebody where they think they should be, but Aaron says empathy is about quieting your mind and listening with a non-judgmental attitude.
This kind of positive attitude is also a big part of mentorship, something Aaron is a strong proponent of. All successful entrepreneurs have at least one mentor, and some are paid for and some are not. If you’re in the business of offering your own mentorship or coaching at a price, you’ve also got to have your own mentor you’re paying for, as you’ve got to do in order to be.
Relationships are key in business; mentors, business partners and spouses. An understanding spouse is a necessity as it’s all but impossible to succeed without someone supportive at your side. The same thing holds true for business partners. Make sure yours is one you can bounce ideas off of, one you can trust and share a unified vision and purpose for your business with.
Aaron’s a risk taker, and the ability to take risks is important for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you’re gun shy there are ways to train yourself to take the plunge, like going all-in in poker or scaling heights if you’re afraid. “Push yourself constantly in that uncomfortable zone or else you’ll never grow as an entrepreneur.”
Aaron’s entrepreneurial journey hasn’t been an easy one. But he and his family were willing to endure the years of being broke and living in a tiny apartment to gain the success they now have. He started LIFEAID Beverage with the idea of creating a healthy beverage alternative that actually benefitted you (not like the sodas and energy drinks prevalent today). What drives his company is their over-arching vision of having a tangible, healthy impact on the world, and his million+ cans sold every month is a testament to that.
His company not only has a great vision, but some strong BHAG’s as well (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals):
BHAG #2 is his actual focus, because a great team is essential and they’re a reflection of the brand. If you make sure the team is engaged and focused then that’ll lead to goal #1. It also helps to constantly invest in your team by making your workplace comfortable and fun, and being ultra-supportive of everyone.
One tenant that Aaron really holds onto is the tried and true “Hire slow, fire fast” mentality. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is hiring quickly out of desperation as you grow. Aaron makes sure they hire great people by following some important steps in the hiring process:
Taking these steps helps him find great people with a cooperative team attitude and a good cultural fit with the company.
Aaron’s empathy and his passion for entrepreneurship and his company really came through in this episode. I’m grateful that he gave us his time and shared with us much of what he knows of running a successful company.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Ian and I go way back to high school, and it was great having him on the show today. He’s a lifelong entrepreneur, a creative thinker, risk taker and relationship builder, and I’m thankful he joined us for this episode.
Ian’s always had a natural leader’s charisma; something unique and influential that led people to follow him. He really learned to harness his gifts through his work with ‘The Master’s Program’ with Bob Shank. Bob’s was the most authoritative voice outside of his influential father’s, and the 3-year program really grounded Ian.
He believes that the key to his success is that he’s so committed to mentorship. “If you don’t follow the advice of your mentor, they are not your mentor.” With mentorship, you find somebody that’s a peer or higher than you, and you position them in such a way so that they can start speaking into your life about something or some things. Then you make a deliberate decision to not knit pick their life or how they apply what they’re telling you. A mentor’s role is not to show you how to live, their role is to declare what they know to be true.
Confidence is something that Ian has always had. He admits, though, that he isn’t 100% confident, but he seems to be more confident than most. And there’s a big relationship between confidence and being risk-averse: the less risk-averse you are, the more you’re willing to take chances, so the more confidence you appear to have. One of Ian’s favorite mantras and confidence boosters is, “The wind is at my back, all I do is win.”
One thing that Ian learned early in life is that high capacity people like him need to be challenged in order to avoid some of the perils that life can throw at you. If you’re not challenged, you can tend to look for immediate pleasure or a numbing of feelings in the form of drugs. For these reasons, he has lovingly pushed his children to excel in what they love to do and to help them avoid the things that derailed him early in life.
As one of the co-creators who launched the software company Kukui, Ian learned some value lessons about business and relationships. He wrote about these seven lessons in a LinkedIn article called ‘7 Principles I Learned Launching Inc. 76th Fastest Growing Company.’ He broke down the seven principles for us:
Ian shared quite a lot of powerful and inspiring words today, and I’m very grateful for this awesome interview.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Dan Waldschmidt is a busy guy whose mission, vision and passions align with The Impact Entrepreneur show. I’m extremely grateful to have this self-challenging, ultra-hard working person (to the point of barfing) on today’s show.
Speaking of challenging himself, Dan is looking forward to running a 500-mile ultra-marathon in July. Just thinking of that is fear inducing, but he welcomes the challenge. At a young age he stumbled across the formula of hard work and sacrifice equals the ability to achieve anything.
With this idea in mind, he took a $150,000 business to $8 million within one year. He did this because he was extremely hungry for success, so much so that he never ate lunch. “When you’re hungry, you’re willing to do things that you wouldn’t otherwise be willing to do.” He started with the challenge of 25 calls before lunch. This led to success so he upped it to 35, then 50, 60, 70 and finally 75 calls. Eventually, he just didn’t have time for lunch at all because he was so caught up in this challenge.
All of this hard work led him to being the CEO of the company at a young age, as well as becoming D.C.’s leading legal litigation strategist without even having a legal degree (or even completing college). He had dropped out of school because he was too busy making things happen to spend the time to learn.
Dan created the EDGY Audit. It’s a simple 12 question multiple choice test that helps you understand your business strengths and weaknesses. Your results give you an EDGY score that’s based on:
The average score is in the 140’s, but don’t compare yourself to others. “It’s not where you’re at, it’s where you’re headed.” Take your score and the interpretations and decide how you can go about improving these to be a more edgy and successful business person.
Through the course of his work, Dan has interviewed thousands of people and not a single one of them ever said, “I quit, then all of a sudden life was good.” In fact, it was just the opposite; “I’m so glad I didn’t quit.” It was fighting through the tough times, when others criticized or outside forces conspired against them, that led to true success.
Dan and I had a fun talk, and he gave us tons of great information. I’m sure you’ll get just as much out of this candid discussion as I did.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Kelsey Humphreys is a perfect fit for our audience: enthusiastic, encouraging and freely shares her expertise in moving in the right direction as a driven entrepreneur. We were very fortunate to have her on the podcast.
If Kelsey could choose a super power, it would be super speed. But, even though that’s not possible, there are ways that we as entrepreneurs can apply the essence of super speed to our lives. What she recommends is getting organized right from the start of your journey. Organization early on allows for outsourcing your work sooner, which is the real-life way of multiplying yourself and getting more done.
When Kelsey started her entrepreneurial journey, her passion allowed her to accomplish a lot, but the lack of direction meant she didn’t attain any great success. She knows first-hand that many entrepreneurs go through multiple course corrections before finally understanding their true passion and using that to guide them.
Kelsey’s book, ‘Go Solo’ is all about how to start your own small business while you keep your day job. Anybody can do it, all you need is an Instagram or a blog where you curate the content you’re interested in. As you do so, she recommends curating your content to where you want to go. That’s how she built up her fan base on her business success blog KelseyHumphreys.com.
If you’re going to be a successful entrepreneur, one of the skills she recommends you build is your “figure it out” skillset. She was first introduced to this by her entrepreneurial father, an actual Church Growth Consultant back when you had to travel around to do that (pre-internet). He always had the attitude of “figure it out” and “make it happen.” If you don’t have this for yourself, it’s actually a muscle you can build. Every time you’re confronted with a situation where you want to shut down, stop yourself and say, “Alright, this is part of delivering my message, so I’ve got to figure it out.” The more you do this, the easier it becomes and the sooner it turns into a healthy habit.
Kelsey’s “Success for the Rest of Us” mantra is all about avoiding overwhelm in business and making success possible through 2 doable, short and digestible steps:
This is the message she sends through her podcast The Pursuit and through her YouTube video channel. She gives one tip through each episode, something that the average Joe or Jane can take and run with to move them forward.
This was a fun, impactful and interesting interview with Kelsey, and I’m sure after listening to this you’ll be a fan of hers if you aren’t already.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Jon Vroman is a super passionate speaker and coach and he was a blast on the podcast. He believes in giving big of himself and his expertise, and has incredible passion for helping others live a present and meaningful life.
Jon started out as your average corporate employee until he encountered what he calls “the trifecta” that led him to entrepreneurship:
These three events opened his eyes to who he really was and his passions in life. He discovered his “why” through these three events, and after this he couldn’t not pursue this journey. So, he left the corporate gig to pursue speaking, coaching and running the charity he created called The Front Row Foundation.
Jon credits his habit of getting “silent” to helping him find direction and to accomplish so much with his foundation. When you find ways to change your environment and get away from the distractions, it frees your mind to envision your future and to get focused on what you can do now to lead you to your goals.
Jon’s true passion in life is the foundation. He started it back in ’05 with the intent of giving people facing critical health challenges a front row experience at the event of their dreams. This foundation combined his greatest fear with this passion: dying early and living your best experiences.
Starting a foundation is surprisingly simple, but it’s keeping it strong that’s the real challenge. You start with passion and dedicated supporters and that can build momentum and some early wins. But it’s tough to keep up this momentum over time. Donations start to dry up as do volunteers and community support. There are two things that Jon recommends to get you past this:
Jon developed a powerful acronym out of the FRONT ROW:
This was a fun, insightful and impactful podcast with Jon that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
It was lovely having Susie Miller on the podcast. She’s a successful entrepreneur, podcaster, author and a Huffington Post contributing writer.
Susie’s super power is her willingness to discuss openly and honestly any topic. She feels that when people share and talk openly about what they’re feeling it builds collaboration and community, benefitting everyone.
She knows first-hand how hard it is to have a spouse and run your own business at the same time. “Entrespouse” is a term gaining in popularity and is something that Susie speaks to quite a bit. Often a spouse can feel like they’re competing with the business for the attention of the entrepreneur in the couple. This can really hurt the relationship.
In her work over the years with entrepreneurs, she found that “A lot of people were bankrupting their relationships in pursuit of success.”
Because of this issue, she found a way to tag the entrepreneur’s natural concern for profits to their personal life. This lead Susie to the P.R.O.F.I.T. Method.
Priorities – We have plans for business or work, but not for our relationships. The things that are important to our spouses should be important to us. Every entrepreneur needs to understand how their actions communicate to their spouse.
Rekindle – Over the years relationships can go from romance to roommates. We often get consumed with all we do for our businesses and we neglect our spouse. Rekindling the romance in the relationship has long-term benefits for the marriage.
Open-up – Communication skills are of utmost importance in business and in maintaining important relationships. Having conversations, whether serious or fun and silly, are important as long as what’s being discussed is meaningful to both of you. Be aware of sharing too much or too little.
Focus – Being present is an important part of business success, and it’s also a major part of relational success. When you’re at work, be there 100%. When you’re in your relationship, be there 100%. You also need to learn how to get back to the present moment when something pulls you away temporarily.
Intentional Interactions – Be intentional in your interactions, and you can even utilize the technology you use daily in your business to bring you closer to your spouse.
Tenacity – It takes hard work for a relationship to stay strong over time. You have to be tenacious and be willing to work hard on it. Be honest with your spouse in what will make your relationship be a lasting one.
Susie said something that will strike home with many entrepreneurs:
“Entrepreneurship is like a high-wire solo act, and marriage is about sharing and stability and two becoming one. They are so diametrically opposite that you really have to pause and think about it.”
Susie was a delight to speak with and she’s so insightful and experienced when it comes to helping entrepreneurs develop and maintain their relationships outside of the businesses they run. I learned so much from her and I’m sure you will as well.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
I was fortunate to have Anthony Iannarino on the podcast this week. He’s a successful blogger, podcaster, public speaker and writer. He shares with us his wisdom regarding success, nurturing relationships, mindset, using your time wisely, and having an “other-oriented” sales outlook.
Anthony’s entrepreneurial journey is all about helping people by doing meaningful and purposeful work. He first found success in blogging with his ‘The Sales Blog’ website through consistently putting out great content related to sales and nurturing relationships with your clientele. Now Hhe’s also putting his message out through his podcast ‘In the Arena’ where he interviews successful people in the sales and entrepreneurial world.
While success is different for everybody, Anthony thinks there are a few key questions to guide you on your path:
Entrepreneurship is about finding an area where you can make a difference and a contribution, one in which you can use your passions to fuel your work
When it comes to helping sales people, Anthony knows firsthand the pain associated with not achieving the outcomes you desire. He suggests that you avoid emotional attachment to outcomes by being flexible and detached from sales process. Maybe you envisioned things going one way, but the client said “no.” It’s time to pivot and find another angle to approach the problem from. You can accept temporary defeat but choose to stick with it; play the long game and win later.
Anthony wrote a great article about this called “Why Fast Is Slow.” It’s about slowing down the sales process and working at a relational level with the client. Human relationships are built on trust, and moving fast doesn’t build trust; it takes time.
There are two levels of selling:
One huge downfall of the sales process that Anthony discusses is the self-oriented way salespeople often approach their clients.
“The more self-oriented you are, the less other-oriented you are. The more other-oriented you are, the greater the benefits accrue to you and the faster you get the things you want.”
This idea has been around for a long time, and it rings true even more today than ever before. The more you help and support others, the more you’ll receive.
Another thing that Anthony is passionate about is controlling what he spends his time doing. We all have the same amount of time and your choices are your own. You have the time to get stuff done provided you can ignore the distractions. Instead of one hour on Facebook, spending that time more productively can produce tremendous results:
“I don’t have the time” means you’re saying yes to small things but no to the big things. Being consistent and doing a little bit everyday will get you there. “500 words per day will get you a book in 90 days.”
Anthony put this idea to work in creating his upcoming book, ‘The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need’ coming out October 11th, 2016. It’s about what you need to do now to sell well. The first half of the book is personal development and “Me Management.” The second half is full of workable sales strategies organized by “pick your weakness” chapters.
I truly enjoyed my talk with Anthony and learned a lot from it, as I’m sure you will as well.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Cameron Herold has taken 20 years of experience operating some of the biggest business success stories in North America and turned it into a flourishing career as both a motivational speaker and management consultant. Cameron is a business coach and mentor to several companies, and a CEO coach to large corporations globally. He is also the best-selling author of Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less.
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
I’d pick the one my oldest son has and it’s his smile. Every time he smiles, the whole world stops.
Was there an impact moment that led you on this journey to being an entrepreneur?
I was groomed by my father to be an entrepreneur, but the real moment that showed me that being an entrepreneur was where I wanted to be was one day my dad took me to a golf course in the middle of the day. He pointed out to me all the people who were playing golf at twelve o’clock, and what company they owned. His lesson was, the people who could play golf in the middle of the day are the ones who control their free time, and the way they control their free time is by controlling the way they make their money which is by running their own company.
How has mentorship impacted you and influenced your outlook?
The mentoring for me comes in various forms. The first is focusing where I’m going, the second is having a mentor board of advisors that I could always learn from, and the third is surrounding myself with others in masterminds who are learning in the same focused area.
Entrepreneurs are wired differently than the rest of society:
Most have the following traits:
Those aren’t necessarily traits that describe entrepreneurs. They are actually clinically diagnosed traits for bi-polar disorder. Most entrepreneurs have the traits of manic depression. We also have a lot of the signs of attention deficit disorder.
According to the medical community, we’re disasters. We should be medicated. The reality is we are sane. We’re wired exactly the way we’re supposed to be wired. They should not be medicating us. We should learn how to actually leverage those strengths and not call them weaknesses anymore because they’re absolutely strengths that we have.
What we need is for the entrepreneurs to rise up and say, “Stop medicating our kids. Stop saying there’s something wrong with them. Maybe they’re wired exactly as they’re supposed to be. Maybe this is how they’re supposed to think.”, and starting to show the education system they can actually function in high functional ways if they would try to accommodate for those styles.
How can entrepreneurs get supercharged focus?
We need to give ourselves a little bit of a break and allow ourselves to hyperfocus for maybe 8 hours a week, do some buffer work for 16-20 hours a week, and then have lots of free time & breaks scheduled in between just to recharge our brains.
How can entrepreneurs and leaders approach leading teams that consists of four different generations?
We need to understand how each generation works & leverage their strengths, and also teach each other. Traditionalists and baby boomers can learn a ton from Gen X, Gen Y & Gen Z on leveraging technology. Gen X, Y & Z can learn a ton on business processes, planning, and leveraging networking the old fashion way & truly building deep relationships.
How did you enroll “the dream manager” into 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
On day one, get your employees to write down their bucket list. Your role is to help coach people and connect them to people, and get them to start crossing things off their bucket list.
Imagine you could start getting people on your team to achieve the things they want to do before they die, and how much more engaged they’d be in the company.
In your book, you talk about the 5 stages of the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship. How can entrepreneurs approach that Crisis of Meaning (questioning the meaning of life) stage, and what are the steps they should follow to get to the Hopeful Realization stage?
You need to relax your brain and take disconnect times from work or you’ll never be recharged enough to hit the ground running.
Why is important to take time and reflect on the past?
Instead of being busy and learning from everybody else, it’s important to dig deep and ask, “What have I learned from me?”. Instead of reading a book of someone else’s experience, why don’t we tap into our own experiences.
I am probably the best mentor I can have for myself if I will allow myself to be introspective and look at my contributions to my successes and failures.
How will you measure your life?
Right now it’s on my ability to raise good kids. Our role is to raise nice young adults, and to raise happy, healthy children so they can leave the nest.
Last words of wisdom
At the end of the day, let’s not take ourselves so seriously. Can we just wake up in the morning and start having fun with what we do? Let’s leave others that we touch every day with a sense of our smile, our fun and our healthy enjoyment of life cause at the end of the day none of us are getting out of this alive. We might as well have fun along the way.
Show Links
Cameron’s Website - CameronHerold.com
Meetings Suck, Cameron’s newest book on Amazon
“Let’s Raise Kids to Be Entrepreneurs” Tedx Talk
Commit To 3 App - CommitTo3.com
FocusTime (Pomodoro app) - FocusTimeapp.com
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
I would choose the ability to read people’s minds and I would use it know what people were thinking at all times.
Why are you an entrepreneur? Was there an impact moment that led you to this path?
It was our sponsored wedding that got us thinking we could build businesses, but I’ve always had some entrepreneurial thinking. What I teach my kids now is to think about solving problems creatively and if you can figure out how to do that, you can probably solve other people’s problems and build a business doing that.
What do you want readers to take away from reading The Art of People?
“Everything you get out of life is a result of your interactions with other people.”
What The Art of People is all about is how can you live your life in a way that is going to make people want to do things for you, and position yourself to be the person people think about when they want to help someone.
The number one thread is the power of listening, and listening better than you do today. Most people aren’t listening, they’re waiting to talk. If you’re waiting to talk, you can’t possibly be listening for meaning and understanding, and that’s where you can get to the heart of connecting with other people. If you want to become a better listener, it comes with intention and practice.
What’s the most important question they should ask in order to stand out, and what should they do to stay top of mind with their colleagues and customers?
What are some quick tips people can execute immediately to change their social media strategy to stay in front of people?
Find out what your keywords are for when people talk about you or the problem you solve.
How is tapping through someone’s stories on Snapchat going to be a gamechanger?
It represents how people communicate with each other. It’s more like the real world where if you say something, it doesn’t last forever. Real life is just random moments.
What is the most underrated key in networking?
Build your own personal brand. Make your own distinction on your outfit. What can you do that makes yourself stand out a little bit and helps brand you over time?
How will you measure your life?
I will measure it by the impact that I have on others and my family through my business, books, speaking and everything else to come.
Show Links
Take the People Assessment - ArtofPeopleQuiz.com
Dave’s company Likeable Media - Likeable.com
Likeable Local - LikeableLocal.com
Dave’s website - davekerpen.ceo
Follow Dave on Snapchat - @DaveKerpen
Email Dave at dave@likeable.com
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
If I had to pick a superpower it'd have to be healing, the ultimate physician and healer. I can't think of a more powerful and impactful superpower. If I could touch anybody and all of a sudden ailment and disease are taken away, I think that wins.
What was the impact moment that launched you on the path of entrepreneurship?
The idea of Building Champions came to me after taking a sabbatical from the mortgage banking world. What fueled my passion for this business was that I loved the coaching piece of my last job. I really excelled at management and my style of management was to work with really talented, hungry, humble people and help go further, faster.
Something that really excited me was owning my own company. I was surrounded by entrepreneurs from my grandparents to aunts and uncles. They were all startup kind of folks. I saw that as really real and possible.
Can you tell us a story of a mentor in your life who impacted your mindset and influenced outlook on your life and business?
I'm always comfortable with asking people for help. I will always people for a cup of coffee. I will always ask people for 30 minutes.
I always pushed myself to get out of my comfort zone. Therefore it enabled me to meet with a bunch a people that other people might be intimidated by.
You co-authored Living Forward with Michael Hyatt, but you were the first one to introduce him to the concept?
I started coaching Michael and walked him through the Life Planning process which is one of the things we outlined in Living Forward. It made a profound impact on him, his thinking, his beliefs, his behaviors, and he's grown immensely since then. He loved Life Planning. He began sharing it. He wrote an ebook off our process, and then a couple years later approached me and said, "Hey, would you like to write this book with me?" and I said, "Dude I'm going to write it, so let's give it a go together." I'm really grateful we came together and created the Living Forward piece.
What is a Life Plan, and why do we need it?
This Life Plan has your vision, your purpose, your primary role, and then it has specific actions that you can implement on a daily and weekly basis, so that every time you do you’re mindful of increasing net worth in all those areas. So it helps you to see what’s really important to you, and how you can strategically close the gap from current reality to that future state. A Life Plan is a dynamic tool that you plan from. It helps you to make more intentional decisions.
You need one because most of us drift through life. Most of us will not tend to what matters most today. We buy a lie that we can get to it tomorrow. You need one so you don’t amass great net worth in certain accounts in your life, and go bankrupt in some others that are really important.
“How you lead life, impacts how you lead others. People don’t leave companies, they leave leaders.”
What are the main questions we need to be asking ourselves as we approach completing our Life Plan
Am I ready to fill my days with more intentionality? Am I at a place where I don’t want to feel like I’m out of control anymore? Am I at a place in my life where I know no matter what, I’m not going to get it all done, but I need to get the right things done?
What would you tell a 21-year old who looks at the word “legacy” and doesn’t think it applies to them?
The sooner you come to grips with your mortality, and the opportunity you have today to make a difference - regardless of how young you are - you can make a huge difference today, but you’ve got to be crystal clear on what matters most to you. This world today doesn’t need a bunch of people to just say yes and go along with the trend. What we need is people who stand for something.
What impact can we expect to see from completing the Life Plan?
You’re going to see impact everywhere. I’m not saying if you do it you’re going to have this perfect life. What is does is position to be filling your days and reacting to whatever life throws your way in ways that enable you to make proactive and intentional decisions. You’re in control more than you think so there’s peace in that. At the end of the day, when you look at your life 30 years from now, if you do this, you’re going to have a much high probability of living a regret-free life.
How will you measure your life?
What fans my flames is how I impact others. My life’s going to be measured by how I live out my gifts, my callings, my passions, my purpose so I make a positive and lasting difference in the life of everybody I come into contact with.
Show Links
Daniel’s Coaching Company - buildingchampions.com
Living Forward book - livingforwardbook.com
Living Forward Life Assesment - livingforwardassessment.com
Facebook/Twitter - @DanielHarkavy
“On the other side of fear is success.”
On this episode of The Impact Entrepreneur Show we have Amy Cosper, vice president and editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine.
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
Having the ability to fly, and see all kinds of things, and go on all kinds of adventures.
I think that having a superpower that lends itself to adventures is good for the human spirit. The ability to see things from different perspectives is good for the soul.
Who is a person whose impacted you as a leader and entrepreneur?
The person who gave me sense of confidence and natural curiosity was my mother.
My mother exposed me to a lot of different things which gave me a different world view and an appreciation for all things adventurous, and just having the ability to be curious.
Do you think there’s a critical thinking gap in entrepreneurship today, and what advantages do entrepreneurs that possess the ability to think critically and write well have over those who don’t possess those skills?
I think there are always gaps in critical thinking. The entrepreneurs and business people who are layered up with business degrees and masters of their crafts, but they’re not always the most creative thinkers. I think that it’s a gap that’s largely brought on my academics.
What is one trait that you see in entrepreneurs that significantly enhances the probability of success?
Clarity of vision. They can tell you in 3 sentences or less what their idea, company or service is. Their idea keeps them up at night. There’s a passion that comes from a gut level and drives them towards their vision.
What are some ways that entrepreneurs can measure their confidence and make sure it’s not flipping into arrogance?
Staying true to your mission, and not doing things because they’re cool. Keeping the silliness in check and keeping true to yourself and your mission without all the bull s**t is how you keep arrogance out of your organization. The minute you introduce it in, it creates toxicity.
What are some steps entrepreneurs can do to make sure they stay true to their vision?
Know where you’re going. Focus on the execution and look for opportunities. Know what you want to accomplish.
What are some of the trends you see happening as it relates to bootstrapping in the future?
Crowdfunding and the peer-to-peer nature of business is going to increase. It’s going to increase opportunities and ideas and collaboration. The laws of crowdfunding are changing on May 19th where the platforms will be allowed to accept much larger investments.
Hand in hand with that is social media. The impact and reach and power of these free platforms in business is unprecedented. You can launch an entire company on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. You don’t even need a marketing department.
What are some ways small companies can break through the noise on social media?
If you want to have a presence, you need to be on social media in some capacity. You need to understand your universe and you need to understand who you are trying to attract. The way to do that is to watch successful brands and how they are engaging their customers and prospects on social media. It’s never a hard sell. It’s always becoming a part of the conversation of your target area. Go out there and pick a big brand and observe. It’s not going to cost you anything. Figure out how to make those successful models work for your model.
How will you measure life?
The way I measure the impact my life every day is if I can impact one person’s day with something I’ve created or written and inspire them to greatness, if I can inspire one person every single month to be great that is how I measure my career and my life.
Parting words of wisdom:
Don’t let your fear paralyze your creativity. Go forth and conquer. It’s okay to have stage fright. It’s not easy, but if you want want to be an entrepreneur, if you want to succeed, you have to get to the other side of that fear barrier.
Show Links:
Read Amy’s Articles via: Entrepreneur.com/author/amy-cosper
Pitch Ideas to Amy via Twitter: @amyccosper
“Authenticity is hard because it requires us knowing who we are before we can be ‘authentic.’ Develop the hell out of yourself so that you know what you want and what you don’t want.”
On this episode of The Impact Entrepreneur Show we have Jordan Harbinger, founder of The Art of Charm, an iTunes Top 50 podcast, and advanced social skills training program for top performers.
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
Freeze time. This has so many applications. You decide, “Oh man, I’m not getting enough stuff done!” No problem; freeze time, go to sleep, wake up fully rested, keep outworking everybody.
What are you most excited about?
I’m excited about is moving the show [The Art of Charm Podcast] forward, and getting better at the craft of talking to other people and creating the show. So feasibly, my goal is to become one of the best interviewers in the world where it becomes a right of passage to come on the show.
How do you decide what opportunities to pursue and what to pass on?
The way that I started promoting the show was “I’m going to do every podcast, I’m going to say yes to everything”. What I found was, after a while I got sick of being interviewed poorly. So I created a focused filter of things that make me happy and things that move my business forward. I choose my opportunities like I choose my tools
How have you evolved and remained true to your vision over the years?
I don’t know if we have. We’re constantly evolving what we teach and what we do. The intent is being helpful to other people and not be spammy internet marketers. We always knew that we couldn’t sleep well at night creating a crappy business and it had to be something that had longevity. We’re playing long game and so a lot of our decisions have been made in that way.
How did you overcome the obstacles you’ve faced?
A lot of what we have that’s worked for us is delusional confidence in the product, as in “This is gonna work even if we have to change it a thousand times we’re probably not going to go out of business because this is so good. We have the idea. We have the technology. It’s gonna work. We’re smart. We can figure this out.” That kind of confidence.
How do you go about changing one’s mindset it 6 day span after a lifetime of bad habits?
The way that we change habits in that super short amount of time is that we don’t change your habits in that short amount of time. We give you 6 months of prep before your program. You have a lot of drills and exercises. There’s pre-calls with the coach before the program. Then you come in for the week-long live component. After the program, we have an alumni network, and a follow up program. It’s just the live component part of the program that’s a week.
How will you measure your life?
I really want to put as much knowledge, information, and practical stuff out there as I can. It’s like, have I really left it all out on the table? The real way I would probably measure my life is whether my kids are great productive members of society or whether they’re crappy.
Parting words of wisdom:
“Legacy is greater than currency” helps you make decisions better than you normally would.
Show Links:
Art of Charm: ArtofCharm.com
Twitter: @theartofcharm
Email: jordan@theartofcharm.com
Impact Entrepreneur: Someone who is impacting the world or their industry with their product, service or platform.
On this episode of The Impact Entrepreneur Show we have Nancy Hawley and Sara Kalick. Both are Vice Presidents and General Managers of their respective app products at SY/Partners in New York.
Nancy spent a years in her early career doing digital content at large publishing companies like Time Inc. and Condé Nast. She was part of the Unstuck launch team and has been with SY/Partners for 5+ years. She considers herself a “maker by nature, entrepreneur by circumstance.”
Sara considers herself a “professional storyteller”. In her early career she managed nightclubs and ran bars, and also worked in fashion. She went to business school in Spain and learned about design thinking and innovation. Sara then took that knowledge and applied during her internship at SY/Partners, where she was responsible for running their strategy group. She now works on one SY/Partners newest tools, Leadfully.
SY/Partners helps leaders transform their organizations, their teams, and themselves. Their mission statement is:
“In a world that too easily settles for less, we believe that it’s worthy work to envision, believe in, and fight for greatness. That’s the work we do every day.”
What it’s like to work for SY/Partners?
Sara:
Nancy:
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
Nancy: Visual design. Design is critical to the work we do.
Sara: Helping people figure out who they want to be and how to get there.
What’s your favorite tool on Unstuck?
A tool incorporated in the Unstuck app is Tell Me Why, and it helps you get to the root of why you aren’t doing something. Unstuck is designed to help you dig up the answer that you already have inside, but won’t give yourself.
Get Your Game On is a planning tool for people who don’t like to plan.
Pros vs. Pros primarily for “wafflers” or people who can’t decide. You write all the effects of all options, and then sort them by importance.
About Leadfully
Helping individual leaders at companies be their best selves. Our hope is to give people practical tools in order to start taking action and building new behaviors.
Show Links:
Website: SYPartners.com
Twitter: @SYPartners
Unstuck App: Unstuck.com
Leadfully Tool: Leadfully.com
Welcome to The Impact Entrepreneur Podcast!
Music for this episode comes courtesy of Sylence - check him out at www.sylencemusic.com