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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.
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Now displaying: November, 2018
Nov 26, 2018

“Stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learn. Work hard, and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you. These are not cliches but real tools you need no matter what you do in life to stay focused on your path.” – Phillip Sweet

 

After watching Jack Ryan with my wife, the Amazon series based on a Tom Clancy character, we checked out a short documentary series featuring former operators and analysts who worked with the CIA – and that’s where I first saw our guest Nic McKinley, the founder and CEO of DeliverFund and the man who inspired the hashtag #TheRealJackRyan.

 

When Nic was growing up, he wanted to be Batman; “Just a normal guy who used his resources to change the world, and worked really hard to build himself up to be the catalyst that would change the world.”

 

And Nic pretty much got as close to being Batman as anyone gets: CIA special agent. He served as a member of a special unit focused on providing unique capabilities and expertise, regardless of threat or environment, in response to the critical operational needs of the Intelligence Community as part of an overseas unit conducting complex operations in non-permissive countries.

 

Like Batman, Nic did start with some privilege. He didn’t have the entire fortune of Wayne Enterprises behind him, but he didn’t need it. He says, “The ultimate privilege is good parenting – and I had really good parents.”

 

Nic was also a USAF Pararescueman (PJ) for 10 years, but exceptional dedication in the military alone isn’t what got him recruited into the CIA (although it didn’t hurt). He later worked as a consultant for fortune 10 investment banks, where he demonstrated a penchant for finding solutions to hard problems, and these diverse experiences are what made him so appealing for high-stakes operations in high threat countries.

 

But this isn’t even the most awesome impact that Nic has made to protect our country and world.

 

After being exposed to the human trafficking epidemic that is still very alive today, Nic was moved to found DeliverFund, an organization that equips, trains, and advises law enforcement around the world on how they can arrest human traffickers.

 

Together with law enforcement, they work to counter human trafficking, eliminate this horrible market, and really save lives.

 

You can help their mission by going to https://deliverfund.org/donate.

 

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full-service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. They 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.

 

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The Impact Entrepreneur Show is produced by Podcast Masters

Nov 19, 2018

I’ve known Ike Ndolo for 20 years, and when we first met, he didn’t know how to play a single chord on the guitar. But in September 2018, Ike released his third album, “Shine” – and it is beautiful.

 

Time is truly amazing, and Ike’s journey reminded me of this quote from Colin Powell: “A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” And the more you get to know Ike, the more applicable this quote becomes.

 

Ike grew up in Missouri as the son of Nigerian immigrants and, according to his bio, “the life of Ike Ndolo is a woven tapestry of experiences: hymns and Bob Marley, injustice and mercy, discrimination and acceptance. As a result, Ike has become a well-tested navigator of the human experience.”

 

His goal is to share and guide listeners through stories that inform and even reorient their perspective. His music harkens back to his soulful gospel roots, mixing it with new wave R&B, modern influences, and a few choice synth beats to create something “that musically mirrors the many worlds he walks through daily.”

 

When you listen to Ike’s music, he wants you to explore what you think about yourself, consider your negative perceptions, and then choose to SHINE.

 

“We’re all afraid of the unknown and what the world has to offer. But more than that, we’re afraid of what we have to offer. We’re afraid of what’s inside and who we are. We’re afraid of our potential and what we could be and what we’re supposed to be. We’re afraid of how brightly we can shine.”

 

We bury what we want to do, what we can do, under what we feel we ought to do; what’s right, what’s proper, what’s normal. We get so bogged down in these ideas that we never take a risk, look inside ourselves, and figure out what we truly have to offer the world.

 

“Out of darkness and despair and doubt and rejection, shine” – and don’t let that shine be taken away from you.

 

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Resources:

 

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full-service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. They 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.

 

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The Impact Entrepreneur Show is produced by Podcast Masters

Nov 12, 2018

Chris Voss is the CEO & Founder of the Black Swan Group and author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. But before Chris donned his entrepreneur hat, he was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group.

 

He has used his many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program and team that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world, and today we’re going to learn some of those techniques.

 

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar

 

In reflecting on the Zig Ziglar quote above, I found myself pondering a question: do you need to know what you want before you can help other people get what they want?

 

“Absolutely not,” Chris answered without hesitation. “It’s much more a question of is that the beginning of your thinking or confining your thinking.” What Chris means is that we can’t allow goal setting to narrow our focus because “whatever goal you have in mind is, at best, maybe 80% of what’s out there.”

 

Let’s use an FBI negotiation as an example. In any negotiation, there are two problems: being focused on a goal and being focused on how you’re going to get there.

 

The inherent danger in these problems – things that some might consider common course in their business or life – is that when you know exactly what you want, you can become inflexible and miss out on unexpected opportunities that come up.

 

“Never be so sure of what you want that you wouldn’t take something better,” Chris says. It helps the FBI get the best information, and it can help you get the most of what’s available in business and in life.

 

Conquering Fear

 

What role does fear play in negotiation, in business, and in life? “THE role.”

 

Chris says the hardest thing for us to do is admit that we’re afraid of anything. So how do you conquer or overcome that? There are two hacks:

 

  • Chris learned in his time on crisis intervention lines that if you can turn someone from grief to gratitude, regardless of what the issue is, they’ll be almost instantaneously healed.
  • The identification of the negative diminishes it, “every single time.” A study highlighted in the book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time demonstrates that when people simply identify what they’re feeling (whether it’s sadness, disparity, fear, or something else) the electrical activity in the negative part of the brain drops. Not some of the time, but every single time.

 

So how do you deal with a negative feeling like fear? Self-identify it and then reorient yourself towards gratitude!

 

You can learn more incredible hacks like this in Chris’ “The Edge” newsletter.

 

“The Edge” is a free newsletter that comes out every Tuesday. It’s a short, easy read that will help you keep your negotiation skills up-to-speed.

 

To sign up, head over to https://blog.blackswanltd.com/the-edge or text “fbiempathy” to 22828.

 

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Resources:

 

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full-service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. They 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.

 

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The Impact Entrepreneur Show is produced by Podcast Masters

Nov 5, 2018

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” –Isaac Newton

 

Today’s guest, like Isaac Newton, has certainly stood on the shoulders of giants: his phenomenal parents, his longtime coach Alan Arata, the ‘96 Olympic decathlon gold medalist Dan O’Brien, and too many others to name.

 

With the teachings of these mentors as his rock-solid foundation, Eli Bremer became an Olympian, an Air Force Academy graduate, and a serial entrepreneur specializing in high-impact business activities.

 

These mentors “helped me understand who I was, who I am, and what my potential would be.” They were more than just leaders – they were partners who invested their time and shined a light on his potential, even when Eli couldn’t see it himself, “and that makes a big difference.”

 

Becoming an Olympic Modern Pentathlete

 

If you’re not familiar, the pentathlon is a unique Olympic sport tracing back to the original games.

 

The Greeks valued a well-rounded person, so they created the traditional pentathlon as the culminating event of early Olympic games. Comprised of a number of fighting skills, the traditional pentathlon included a short foot race, the javelin throw, the discus throw, the long jump, and wrestling. It was the ultimate test of the all-around athlete.

 

When the Olympics were revived in 1912, they kept the idea but chose different events for the modern pentathlon: fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, and a combined event of pistol shooting and cross country running.

 

Through the early 2000s, Eli was an up-and-coming modern pentathlete, winning in the 2007 Pan Am Games and earning a slot for the 2008 Olympics. Before the 2008 games, Eli was ranked in the top 10 in the world.

 

Lessons Learned Through Training

 

Through training for this taxing event, Eli learned a few lessons we can all benefit from.

 

“The harder I trained, I didn’t necessarily get better – but the more I learned how to recover and to balance everything out, the more I advanced.”

 

As a result, Eli got better at balancing more things in every area of his life and, ultimately, get more things done – a skill that certainly benefits him today in the entrepreneurial world.

 

Eli also learned to care more about the process than the results. “You just have to learn to focus on the process. Because if you let yourself focus on the outcome, it’s going to kill you.” And as soon as Eli made this psychological transition to committing to the process over anything else, his scores got better, he was more consistent, and he made fewer errors.

 

This last lesson took a longer time to learn, but it’s a goodie: “Quit trying to win and start trying to be good – because good athletes win more often.” Focusing on the outliers too much can put you in a dangerous state of mind, and this is as true in competition as it is in business or personal life.

 

“Winning can happen by accident, but being the best you can be or the best in the world is much more difficult than simply winning.”

 

Overcoming Catastrophe

 

Unfortunately, Eli experienced a disappointing Olympics after a catastrophic horseback riding accident hospitalized him just over a week before the competition.

 

The weeks after the accident were devastating, but those lessons Eli learned through training helped carry him through to one of the best performances in his athletic career. Just two months after his accident, he won a Bronze Medal at the World Cup Final, the top individual medal won by a U.S. athlete since 1979.

 

“The more I was able to rely on the fact that I had integrity with myself and had done everything I could to get ready for that competition, as much as it hurt to have a freak accident take me out, at least I could say that’s what took me out, as opposed to I didn’t do as much as I could to win the medal.

 

“That I can live with... it still hurts, but I can live with it.”

 

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Resources:

 

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full-service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. They 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.

 

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The Impact Entrepreneur Show is produced by Podcast Masters

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