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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: February, 2019
Feb 25, 2019

Leah Darrow joins the show today to teach us all about the Made for More Mentality.

 

Leah is a former model and contestant on America’s Next Top Model who has a driving passion to inspire women to do something beautiful with their lives. She is an international Catholic speaker, author of The Other Side of Beauty, and host of the Do Something Beautiful podcast.

 

I ask Leah about her final episode of Top Model and what attracted her to modeling in the first place – with that high-stress situation as an example, in particular, it can be difficult to understand why anyone would want to do that.

 

However, it all comes down to one of the most basic human desires: you want to be loved and you want to be beautiful.

 

Unfortunately, we’ve distorted beauty so it almost exclusively pertains to the physical these days, and at the time, that’s what she was pursuing. But she got fed up with it. She didn’t want to be known as a pretty picture or a pretty girl, and she certainly didn’t want to get used to being used to sell products.

 

So today, Leah is concerned with the beauty of the soul; the beauty of someone who is compassionate, who is generous, who forgives, who dives deep into friendships. “That is a beauty that remains with you throughout time, and that is why people who engage in that type of a lifestyle have a lot of beauty around them and in them – and we are attracted to them!”

 

And Leah is on a mission to help other women tap into their God-given potential and let it shine, which is why she created Lux U, a first of its kind online learning program for Catholic women who want to be informed, inspired, and empowered in their faith.

 

“We need to connect on a more human level because people are not projects, people are not deadlines, people are not profit. Until we engage with the people around us, in our personal life and our business life, we will not make the impact that the world needs.”

 

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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

Feb 18, 2019

About a year ago, I invited my beautiful wife, Lisa, on the show for episode 100. That was one of our most popular episodes of the year so, today, she is coming back by popular demand! We each pour a glass of bourbon, sit down in front of a mic, and kick things off with our traditional toast: to us and to all of our friends, past, present, and future.

 

Then we take turns asking each other questions submitted by you, the listeners of the show, and our friends (and I may have added a couple extra questions as well). I hope you are able to take away some tips from our conversation so that you can make a greater impact on the people you love, your community, and the world.

 

I highlighted a few of my favorite questions and responses below, but there’s a lot more in the full episode.

 

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Mike: If someone wants things to go differently, wants things to go well, wants to take action, what’s the first thing they should do?

 

Lisa: You have to make forward progress every day. Every little opportunity you have to choose to have a different response and choose to make a different path for yourself or your family – that’s why we’re here. We’ve had many opportunities this past year to stop and say, no, we’re going to do something different. We’re not going to just react. We’re going to choose to respond in the way that we want and the way that we feel called to and gifted for.

 

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Ross: What did you think would be significantly easier or harder in marriage?

 

Lisa: From the beginning, I felt like we had all the building blocks for a great marriage and relationship, and that has proven to be true ... But harder, in terms of marriage, is the every single day dying to self. Every single day, I’m going to do something that I know Mike would appreciate. I’m going to say yes to our children in a loving way – the everyday part of it. ... What I mean by that is making a very intentional decision to do something that you don’t feel like doing.

 

Mike: I want to reiterate that we have the building blocks for a good marriage, and I want to share a little bit about how we do it... First of all, we both have good parents to set examples for us... And their marriages weren’t perfect, and I think we saw that, and that also helped us understand that perfection is a myth and something that will never be achieved. ... And we’re very intentional. We communicate!

 

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Mike: Why is having gifts – and using them – important to you?

 

Lisa: We all have gifts. We all have things inside of us that we were made and born to do, and if you don’t use them, that equals the worst kind of suffering.

 

Mike: We know that people struggle with the belief that they don’t have any gifts or that they don’t know what their gifts are... So if someone feels like they don’t know how to articulate it or they don’t know what their gifts are, what would you tell them to do?

 

Lisa: The first step is that you need to make a lot of room and time for silence. Because in the classroom for silence is where you will discern and know a lot of things. So you need to make room for silence first, and then you need to follow the little whisper inside of 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

Feb 11, 2019

AmyK Hutchens first joined the show back way back in episode 26, which published in September 2016. We talked about her phenomenal book, The Secrets Leaders Keep, which is still a must-read for anyone in any kind of leadership role.

 

Today AmyK is back and we’re talking about her recent work focusing on the power of profitable conversations, especially tough conversations.

 

AmyK teaches us that life happens one conversation at a time – and the quality of our lives are a direct reflection of the quality of our conversations.

 

And really, it only takes a few minutes of intentional thought and preparation to assure that almost any conversation will be a high-quality conversation, whether it’s a tough conversation to have or not. We just keep lying to ourselves that we don’t have enough time when, in reality, we can’t afford not to take the time to think about the way we communicate with others.

 

Whether you’re talking to your employees in a Fortune 500 company or your daughter, immediately reacting to a conversation can lead to irresponsible communication that negatively impacts your relationship. However, if you take the time to consider the context around a conversation and how you want to be treated by others, you can approach every conversation with a strategy and tone that leads it in a positive direction.

 

Amazingly, all it takes is pausing before you respond, as opposed to reacting. It’s okay if you feel angry or have an emotional response, but you have to keep in mind that as a parent, as a boss, or as a spouse, the very first words that you say will set the entire tone, tenor, and direction for everything that follows.

 

AmyK tells us that, when we get in these tough conversations, there’s two things you can do to sustain a relationship (or not): go in for connection or go in for power. If this is a conversation with your partner, children, or friends, obviously it makes sense to go for connection. But there are other times when you have to draw a line or a boundary, and that’s when you have to go for a power play – and you have to make this choice consciously.

 

If you want to have more impactful and profitable conversations in your life, I highly recommend checking out AmyK’s new course: The Power of Profitable Conversations. After you’re done, you’ll be confidently and competently leading your toughest conversations without saying something that you regret, giving your power away, or damaging your relationships.

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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

Feb 4, 2019

Today’s guest served his country with honor and distinction, has been committed to his wife for over 40 years, has six kids who love each other (most of the time), has enough grandchildren to field a football team (and still have a few subs), has cultivated a dedicated and loyal community of friends, and is generous with his time and resources – and I am proud to call this man the most successful man that I know and my father.

 

All that Mike Flynn Sr. has achieved is even more impressive when you consider the fact that he didn’t necessarily grow up in a home that modeled the generosity and love that he offers his children, grandchildren, and community. His childhood home was marked with abuse and self-medication, which ultimately led to him dropping out of high school at 16 years old.

 

He was looking for an opportunity – and that’s when he found the Army. He started as a clerk, quickly moving up to infantry and then long range reconnaissance patrol (which is part of the 75th Ranger lineage). In the jungles of Vietnam, he saw a degree of safety belonging to a smaller patrol, as well as the adventure and excitement he was originally sold by military recruiters.

 

Mike Flynn Sr. left the military almost as quickly as he joined, young and confused. He had packed away his grief for the young people who fell beside him, but it all came unpacked in college. He sent a letter forgiving and apologizing to his father. He never received a reply, but it opened something in him.

 

“I let go of anger and hatred. I let go of it, in that act... I found myself back in church and I renewed my relationship with Jesus and the Catholic church, and I came into a relationship with God, and all of that confusion went away. I always said felt like I was a ship that was listing to the side and that ship was righted.”

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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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