Info

The Impact Entrepreneur

Mike Flynn takes you behind closed doors and invites you into his conversations with game changing entrepreneurs. These conversations go beyond success and failure, beyond product or service or platform, to uncover what is really behind the decisions these entrepreneurs make and what IMPACT they hope to have in the world.
RSS Feed
The Impact Entrepreneur
2019
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: October, 2017
Oct 30, 2017

Jason Redman is a retired naval officer and U.S. Navy SEAL, and author of The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader. He shares the leadership and life lessons he learned in his business, SOF Spoken, and inspires wounded warriors to overcome with his nonprofit, Wounded Wear.

The process of becoming a SEAL has changed over the years, but the ingredients that make up a good candidate remain the same. During that time, the military has spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out the difference between an individual who completes training and an individual who doesn’t.

Despite all that money, the attrition rate has stayed about the same since SEAL training started – about 75%.

So why don’t more people pass SEAL training?

There’s no one answer, but Jason believes it’s a cultural problem – “As a nation, we are not allowing America’s youth to grow up and encounter failure, and navigate their way through adversity on their own … that cultural shift is having a direct impact on the grit of this current generation.”

Jason credits his own success to grit and tenacity. “I’m definitely not the smartest guy, the biggest guy, or the strongest guy … but I will drive forward, and I will never quit. It doesn’t matter what you tell me – I will figure out a way to get there, and I think that is truly the key to success.”

Jason sees people quitting way too easily in today’s society, and that’s a big problem because you don’t grow when you’re in your comfort zone.

The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader

In his book, Jason is extremely vulnerable and brutally honest about his journey – from not being accepted into the SEALs or Army on his first attempt to his first mistake as a military leader to getting struck by machine-gun fire at point-blank range – and how overcoming those challenges allowed him to grow into a more effective leader.

SOF Spoken

Jason founded SOF Spoken after retiring so that he could share the lessons and abilities learned by Special Operations Forces with leaders, entrepreneurs, and communicators, and the company is built on the idea that leadership is forged by experience in the most difficult moments.

How can entrepreneurs apply these lessons?

  • Tenacity is required – You have to believe in yourself and what you’re doing. Sometimes this means understanding the difference between quitting and falling back.
  • Communication is key – If everybody you work with is informed about what’s going on, you foster better relationships and invite potentially critical feedback.
  • Develop an overcome mindset – “Leaders figure out what they need to do, and they get it done … they evaluate what needs to get done, and then they put the steps in place and discipline themselves to accomplish it.”

--

 

 

Resources:

--

 

We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

--

 

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 23, 2017

Josh Mantz returns for part two of our conversation in this series about the Warrior’s Heart. Last week, we discussed why Josh became a soldier, the day he died, and the decade-long emotional struggle that inspired his mission to help veterans and non-veterans alike recover from the emotional wounds that severe trauma can cause.

Today, we dig into Josh’s imminent book: The Beauty of a Darker Soul: Overcoming Trauma Through the Power of Human Connection. Josh wrote this book to help others uncover and validate the true source of their pain, and to give them a shared language they can use to express that pain productively.

How Josh Found Meaning in the Suffering

1. Trauma is complex, cumulative, and personal.

That’s why we need to fight our natural tendency to compare ourselves to others. Your experiences are unique and powerful, and you shouldn’t invalidate your trauma by telling yourself the story that it’s less than someone else’s experience.

2. Trauma isn’t always what it seems.

The experience of dying isn’t what caused Josh’s decade of trauma, and it wasn’t the most difficult part for him – it was living with the incurable immune disorder Crohn’s Disease, going through a divorce, and other failed relationships.

That’s why it’s important that you do the deep (and, yes, difficult) forensic work necessary to uncover the root of your trauma, because it may have started 10 years ago and you didn’t notice (because, as we’ve mentioned, it’s also cumulative).

3. Suffer productively

Although trauma is a very personal experience, you don’t need to go on the journey to overcome it alone. If you try to suffer alone, the paths you take can be dangerous, and even irreversible at times.

“Every moment of my life, even times when I adamantly believed that no one could possibly understand the depths of what I was experiencing, there was always someone in my life who proved me wrong. There’s always someone who had the courage and strength to plant healing seeds inside my mind that would eventually start to grow. They had the strength to be vulnerable, and I really believe that that vulnerability is what binds us together at the core of the human experience.”

There’s nothing more powerful in the resolution of trauma than the power of human connection.

--

 

 

Resources:

--

 

We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

--

 

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 16, 2017

This week we kick off our series about The Warrior’s Heart with Josh Mantz, who was shot and killed in Iraq but came back to life – now he’s on a mission to help veterans and non-veterans alike recover from the emotional wounds that severe trauma can cause.

Two mentors and role models had a significant influence on Josh’s life, and his decision to be a soldier.

The first was his stepfather, a police officer and former infantry officer who brought Josh into a military and police family. He had an incredible positive influence on Josh’s life, and got him thinking about the military as a possibility.

Second was a gentleman named Sergeant Major Doug Van Der Pool. After retiring from the special forces, where he ran anti-drug operations in South America, he took over the Junior ROTC program at a small high school in Pennsylvania.

SGM Van Der Pool and Josh’s stepfather drove home the importance of appreciating foreign cultures, appreciating the capacity of human beings wherever they come from, learning language, understanding cultural norms, and understanding empathy.

Josh entered West Point in 2001 and graduated in 2005. His class is considered “the class of 9/11” because they were freshman on that fateful day, and four years later there was no doubt that they would be sent to fight.

Josh and the other cadets wanted to quit the academy – not to leave the fight, but to enlist and ship off immediately – but, for the most part, they waited and graduated.

The Day Josh Died

Because Josh majored in Arabic, his unit was partnered with the local Iraqi police force and tasked with training them.

One day, they were on a humanitarian mission to deliver school supplies. The operation went off without a hitch, and the Iraqi police did a great job. On the way back, a RPG was fired at an American unit.

While investigating, they noticed a suspicious vehicle driving in the area. They stopped the car, and then they were engaged by an enemy sniper. A bullet ripped through the aorta of the Staff Sergeant and then severed Josh’s femoral artery.

At first, Josh didn’t know he was shot. Time and sound were distorted. “I could only hear the muted sound of the sniper shot and my own voice calling for a medic.”

Despite a brilliant evacuation effort, Josh started to die. “I consciously knew that was it. I took my last breath, said my last thought, and I died.”

His last thought was, “Please take care of them.”

Two days later, Josh woke up in the green zone. He had flatlined for 15 minutes straight and, while he survived, his Staff Sergeant did not. “I would soon come to learn that the experience of dying would pale in comparison to the decade-long emotional struggle that I’d go through as I sought to find meaning in a second life.”

The Beauty of a Darker Soul: Overcoming Trauma Through the Power of Human Connection

Trauma isn’t always what it seems.

It took almost a decade of struggle for Josh to uncover the meaning in his second life – and to admit that the experience of dying wasn’t the source of his trauma… It was the guilt in his ability to heal when so many others in the hospital couldn’t.

This may seem like an unimportant distinction, but when it comes to the resolution of trauma, it’s incredibly important to do the forensic investigation and piece the sequence of events back together, in context.

Josh wrote his upcoming book, The Beauty of a Darker Soul, to help others uncover and validate the true source of their pain, too, and to give them a shared language they can use to express that pain productively.

You can join the Darker Souls community and get news about the release of the book at DarkerSouls.com.

--

 

 

Resources:

--

 

We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

--


Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 9, 2017

For the last several weeks, we’ve been studying the power of belief, how we can develop it, and what is required of us. We’ve talked about how small shifts can lead to massive change in our lives.

 

It's been said that if the Earth shifted its Axis by even 1°, it would alter the landscape and environment permanently. Fortunately, the Earth sits perfectly on its axis… But what if we could tilt the landscape of our mind, our beliefs, and our actions by 1 degree? What would your life look like? Who would you be surrounded by? What kind of impact would you have? How fulfilled would you be? What choices would you make?

We kicked off the Belief series with the incredible Tom Bilyeu, Co-Founder of Quest Nutrition, which he helped grow to a BILLION dollars in revenue over the course of 2 years.

 

He was called to do more, so he started an internet TV show called Impact Theory about mindset, peak performance, and fulfillment. This was my second conversation with Tom and it was just as powerful and inspirational as the first interview.

There were two key moments that stood out in my mind.

  • If you want to take advantage of your latent potential, it’s important to shift your beliefs. You can’t necessarily do everything – but you can learn how to do anything, if you put in the effort.
  • Far too many gifted people quit just because someone is better. How bad do you want it? If you’re willing to put yourself on the path and do the hard work for years (or even decades), you can achieve the most extraordinary results. Most people are too afraid to suffer, give things up, and accept that long period of hard work.

 

Dr. Colby Jubenville, co-author of the book Me: How to Sell Who You Are, What You Do, and Why You Matter to the World, joined us to address how he is working with college students and executives across America to bring an end to this self-belief crisis.

 

Dr. Jubenville had his share of adversity from the time he was born; He had a vision problem and was essentially blind, but through continuous support, improvement, and struggle, Colby taught himself to see through the cobwebs in his eyes. Colby said we live in a society where belief isn’t appreciated, intentional, or taught, but Colby believes that the two greatest opportunities we have in life are:

  • Helping people find their voice (and voice is the intersection of talent, passion, conscience, and need in the world)

  • After they find their voice, teaching them to develop, protect, and maintain their confidence.


If you can help someone do both of those things, there’s nothing they can’t do.

 

Kevin Hall, author of Aspire: Discover Your Life Purpose Through the Power of Words, joined us to talk about… well, words. It may sound simple, but this is one of the most powerful episodes I have done on this show. His work literally changed my life 6 years ago, and I continue to talk about it on a daily basis.

 

Our words – internal or external – precede our action, so first it starts with understanding the power of the words we use when we are speaking to ourselves or others.

 

One of the most powerful words Kevin has encountered is the word GENSHAI, which means never treat another person in a manner that will make them feel small, including yourself.

 

I think this world could use a lot more of that, but here’s the thing: it starts with yourself. In other words, I am not going to wait around for someone else to treat me with dignity before I begin treating others with dignity.

 

Doing so leads directly into the power of the word BELIEVE, which means to Be Love. When you believe in yourself, you love yourself. When you believe in others, you love others.

 

I know some of you might think that is corny, but why? Why do we think that way? In order to break the cycle of limiting belief that we’ve been living in, we must start loving ourselves and others.

Now you might be feeling overwhelmed or thinking to yourself that there is a bunch of stuff you need to do. Don’t I need a vision? Don’t I need a mission? Don’t I need a purpose? No!

 

You just need to start taking action.

 

As Dr. Albert Bandura says in his Self Efficacy Theory, the fastest way to build self confidence is to move from ‘I think I can,’ to ‘I know I can,’ to ‘I can.’ And the only way to do that is by taking action.

 

Once you get comfortable taking action, then you will have developed the fundamentals to being to build a vision, a mission and a purpose.

 

Mel Robbins, author of The 5 Second Rule, ties TNT to the common motivational content ubiquitous in the entrepreneurial world and detonates it. Mel is trying to rid the world of the notion that one can just sit around and wait for some fairy godmother to do the work for them.

 

Too often, we allow ourselves to get stuck, but Mel’s 5 Second Rule is so simple and powerful there is no way to really argue against it: “Either you’re somebody who wants to change, or you’re someone who wants to bitch about it. “ Which one are you?

 

Finally, once we get comfortable with taking action and begin to build a vision and discover our purpose, the fastest way to accelerate achievement is to understand how we are wired or manufactured. Gary Vee talks about this, Mike Dillard talked about this back in January, Dr. Jubenville talked about it a few weeks ago, and he specifically mentioned the power of the Harrison Assessment.

 

I am a huge fan of assessments because they use innovative processes to ask you questions you might otherwise not ask yourself, and the answers uncover your key strengths and areas you might need to examine.

 

In my episode with Julie Scher, managing partner of Harrison Assessments and Co-Founder of Peak Focus Coaching, you were able to listen into a private conversation where she picked apart an assessment I took analyzing my key strengths and areas of growth. What have you done to assess your innate skills, gifts and talents?

Next week, we’re starting a new series on The Warrior’s Heart. Our guests will include:

  • Josh Mantz, who was shot and killed in Iraq but came back to life and is now on a mission to help veterans and non-veterans alike recover the emotional wounds severe trauma can cause.
  • Jason Redman is a NAVY SEAL and author of The Trident, where he shares the dangerous effects of ego and the leadership lessons he learned after nearly losing his Trident, and how those lessons ultimately helped him regain the respect of his brothers, become a leader in the team, and aided in his recovery after nearly dying from a gunshot wound to the face.
  • Carey Lohrenz is the US NAVY’s first female F14 Tomcat Fighter pilot, and we will discuss the lessons she learned to become a Fearless Leader while in the midst of a great many obstacles.

If you want to join the movement to have a game changing impact in the lives of others, head over to theimpactentreprenuer.net/join to learn more.

--

 

Resources:

--

We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

--

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 2, 2017

One of the quickest ways to accelerate achievement and progress in your own personal development is to understand how you are manufactured. We touched on this idea in Episode 77 when Dr. Colby Jubenville discussed his experience with the Harrison Assessment.

Today we’re diving deeper into the power of self-awareness, and Harrison Assessments specifically, with Julie Scher, a die-hard entrepreneur and a Founder of Peak Focus, a business coaching and consulting company.

Julie’s first experience with Harrison Assessments was about 15 years ago, when she was a shareholder in a startup company. There was a major internal management conflict, so they brought in a Harrison expert. It was an extremely painful experience for everybody involved, but the assessment helped them resolve the conflict.

“At that point, I was just sold on Harrison. It was an amazing tool. It not only helped us all understand ourselves – it helped the team understand how our behavior impacted ourselves and impacted others.”

After the conflict was resolved, Julie left the startup, pulled her father out of retirement, and started Peak Focus. They became managing partners of Harrison Assessments so that they could help others resolve similar conflicts.

It all comes down to developing self-awareness around how your behavior impacts other people, and understanding that behavior is a choice. We can choose to adapt and behave differently, if we are aware and willing.

So what exactly is the Harrison Assessment?

The Harrison Assessment helps you understand your strengths, challenges, enjoyments, and interest levels – and it provides a roadmap of the next steps you can take to get where you want to be.

Specifically, it gathers data to measure the strength of behavioral tendencies, which is your preference level for specific behavioral traits. From one assessment, a Harrison expert can generate multiple reports that will enable you to explore your successes and challenges, and the reports describe your likely behavior based on your answers to a questionnaire.

This will give you insight into specific, actionable behaviors that you can use to further your personal development; an opportunity for self-awareness.

There are two theories behind Harrison Assessments:

  1. Enjoyment-Performance Theory – When we enjoy a task, we do it more often, and when we repeat a behavior, we tend to get better at doing it. This results is positive recognition and feedback, which further increases our enjoyment of the behavior. On the flip side, we tend to avoid the things we don’t enjoy, and we don’t usually do them enough to get better or improve.

  2. Paradox Theory – Paradoxical traits are those that may seem to be contradictory, but in fact are complementary and synergistic. According to this theory, a trait can either be constructive or destructive, depending on other complementary traits. For example, when frankness is complimented by diplomacy, it takes the constructive form of being forthright and truthful… however, without the complementary trait of diplomacy, frankness can become bluntness. There are 12 sets of paradoxical behaviors, and each of these pairs consists of a dynamic trait and a gentle trait.

What’s wrong with Mike Flynn (AKA Mike’s Development Report for the Analyzes Pitfalls trait)?

If you want a better idea of how these assessments work, here you can view a report analyzing the development area of Analyzes Pitfalls, or Mike’s tendency to scrutinize potential difficulties related to a plan or strategy.

The first part of the report is an assessment that concludes, “If you keep a balance of optimism and scrutinizing potential pitfalls, you are much more likely to achieve your goals at work and in your personal life. Although strategic decision-making is usually only important in the workplace for management positions, each of us could benefit from better strategic decisions in our personal lives.”

Following the assessment is an exercise Mike can use to analyze the potential pitfalls of a plan or strategy.

If you are interested in working with Julie for personal or professional development, head over to PeakFocusCoach.com.

--

 

Resources:

--

We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

--

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

1