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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: Page 6
May 15, 2017

This episode is part of the Comeback Series, which features Entrepreneurs who have experienced a major setback and then successfully pivoted to something different, bigger, and more impactful.

Today’s guest, Nick DiNardo, had his whole world flipped upside down at age seven. Now he helps entrepreneurs perform at their very best and teaches them to overcome overwhelm… but he had to build resilience to get there.

Nick’s mother experienced her second bipolar episode when he was seven, which led to some time in a hospital, his parent’s divorce, and his father’s bankruptcy. He felt angry, ashamed, misplaced, and like everyone else had a nuclear family that he could not have.

These experiences allowed Nick to develop resilience, and he believes he has thrived off of the adversity he experienced.

But how does someone build resilience if they experience success, instead of adversity? If Nick’s son grows up under better circumstances, how will he develop an awareness of struggle?

“The difference between the high-performers and the average is the ability to identify and use adversity to your opportunity, rather than avoiding it or just letting it pass you by.”

Nick’s book, The Game of Adversity, offers eight practices that will help anyone turn difficulty into opportunity, developed through his years of experience as a practitioner of resilience.

  1. Building a Growth Mindset is the keystone habit and foundational principle of his book.
  2. Process Over Outcome is about focusing on the daily habits and practices that we need, rather than being too overly-focused on goal-setting. We shouldn’t rely too much on goal-setting.
  3. Focus on Stoicism, or what we can control, and our relationship with failure.

 

  • Building Self-Awareness
  • Focus on Goals That are Bigger Than You

 

  1. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants is about perspective, and understanding history and the challenges people have gone through before you.

 

  • Preparation

 

  1. Gratitude, and appreciation over expectation.

If you have faced adversity or struggle and you haven’t built your resiliency, where should you start? Nick suggests an exercise for identifying how you naturally react to adversity so that you can review the game tape and change your processes.

  • Tim Kight, Founder of Focus3 Consulting, developed this heuristic: Event + Response = Outcome (E + R = O).
  • You can’t control the event and you can’t control the outcome, but you can control your response.
  • Brainstorm 10 specific tough times that you have experienced adversity (small to big).
  • In each of those moments, what was the outcome and how did you respond?
  • How would you respond now, knowing what you know now and what the optimal response would have been?

I appreciate Nick coming on the show and sharing his vulnerability. People don’t think of vulnerability as a strength often enough, but it is incredibly powerful – and Nick is living proof.

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We are also 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

May 8, 2017

This episode is part of the Comeback Series, which will feature Entrepreneurs who have experienced a major setback and then successfully pivoted to something different, bigger, and more impactful.

There is a narrative pervading our society that we have to be perfect, and we project perfection into the world – but we don’t relate to any single person through their success or their perfection.

We relate to other people through their struggle.

That’s why we’re talking to Geoff Woods, a man who has come up against adversity numerous times in his life only to overcome it, and grow stronger as a result. He’s Vice President of The ONE Thing, the company behind the best-selling book of the same name written by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan, and host of The ONE Thing podcast.

As we discussed last time Geoff was on the show, his entrepreneurial journey began with a tragedy: in just one week, his pay was dramatically slashed and a co-worked died of a heart attack.

He then went on a mission, inspired by Jim Rohn, to surround himself with new people and change his life, and he started The Mentee podcast as a vehicle for this journey. He discovered that people really connected with his struggle, “and it was at that moment that I realized the greatest power that I could possibly have, being the man behind the mic, was vulnerability.”

But he’s not just vulnerable – he’s committed to change, and courageous enough to share it with us. You can hear more of Geoff’s vulnerability on The ONE Thing podcast.

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Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

May 1, 2017

This is the last episode in the Happiness Series. We have been taught to believe that we can not choose to be happy because happiness is something that can only be earned – that’s not true.

We can take hold of happiness any time we choose. Happiness is an attitude, and attitude is a choice.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” –Viktor Frankl

Over the past several weeks, we had leading experts from a wide array of industries share, confirm, and reiterate simple truths about happiness, fulfillment, and impact.

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We are also 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

Apr 24, 2017

This episode is part of the Happiness Series. We have been taught to believe that we can not choose to be happy because happiness is something that can only be earned – that’s not true, and I hope these amazing entrepreneurs will help you choose to find happiness. Doing so will give you an advantage in business, relationships, and life in general.

Jason Kotecki is an artist, author, professional speaker, and entrepreneur. He and his wife founded Escape Adulthood in 2000 (and later The Cure Adultitis Institute) with one goal: annihilate Adultitis.

Jason and his wife envisioned an ideal version of adulthood, but the “real world” didn’t live up to it. Bitterness and cynicism are rampant – excitement and enthusiasm are elusive.

Why?

They realized that most of us lose something in the transition from childhood to adulthood: curiosity, delight, and the ability to dream big.

However, the most successful entrepreneurs – the Musks and Jobs of the world – never lose these super powers.

Escaping Adulthood isn’t about ditching responsibilities to rediscover fun. It’s about remembering what we once knew as kids so that we can improve our lives, our relationships, and our businesses.

  • How do you bring more fun into the workplace in a productive way, without being branded the crazy misfit?
  • How do you become a more fun parent and raise your children with discipline?
  • How do you find time for yourself when you’re a caregiver?

Don’t get caught living a paint-by-numbers life – we are made for more. The beauty of adulthood is freedom and choice, so live freely and make your own choices!

If you want a crash course in productive fun, you can attend the 2017 Escape Adulthood Summit.

You can also join their free community of insiders and find a ton of awesome escape tools, and so much more, over on EscapeAdulthood.com.

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We are also 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

Apr 17, 2017

This episode is part of the Happiness Series. We have been taught to believe that we can not choose to be happy because happiness is something that can only be earned – that’s not true, and I hope these amazing entrepreneurs will help you choose to find happiness. Doing so will give you an advantage in business, relationships, and life in general.

Today’s guest, Doug Kisgen, is the author of Rethink Happy: An Entrepreneur’s Journey Toward Finding Authentic Joy.

One of the key tenets in Rethink Happy is the importance of living a life of virtue. We often focus on the hustle, the monetary success, aesthetics, and independence… but we try to hide the adversity, the struggle, or the heartache we experience along the way.

If we live a life of virtue – which doesn’t mean we have to stop hustling – we can fill the holes that we try to cover up.

So what does living a life of virtue mean? Doug breaks it down to six parts…

  • Love
  • Wisdom
  • Temperance
  • Courage
  • Justice
  • Transcendence

We can see these virtues brought up throughout history by great minds such as Aristotle and Benjamin Franklin, but we also seem to have forgotten them – and we aren’t actively or intentionally trying to bring them into our lives.

If you want to challenge yourself to embrace these virtues, don’t take on too much at once. We often fail to create lasting change in ourselves because we try to make too many changes at one time.

You have a finite amount of willpower, so don’t wear it out.

You can start living a life of greater virtue and make the most out of your willpower by taking baby steps. Committing to small changes can lead to big results. Ask yourself: What’s a small win that I can get on a daily basis, and that I can keep track of?

Learn more about living a life of virtue in Rethink Happy: An Entrepreneur’s Journey Toward Finding Authentic Joy.

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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We are also 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

Apr 10, 2017

JP Sears is back for round two!

If you haven’t checked out last week’s interview with JP, you should go back and listen to it. It’s a fun conversation and he shares some wonderful stories. Today we really dig into what happiness is, why people tend to look for happiness in the wrong places, and how to cultivate your own greatness.

This episode is part of the Happiness Series. We have been taught to believe that we can not choose to be happy because happiness is something that can only be earned – that’s not true, and I hope these amazing entrepreneurs will help you choose to find happiness. Doing so will give you an advantage in business, relationships, and life in general.

JP’s entrepreneurial journey didn’t begin until he started believing in himself, and using that belief productively. There are millions of people who believe in themselves, but it’s much more difficult to cultivate that belief.

Start by doing things you’ve never done before. Put yourself in a situation where you are required to give yourself more support and more belief than ever before. You won’t enhance your self-belief unless you give yourself a good reason.

For a big wave surfer, the 30-foot wave is a good reason. It’s a high-pressure environment that allows the surfer to become extra present and enter a flow state, which they may not be able to access without that environment.

You need to create a big wave for yourself – we are incredibly resourceful beings, but we can’t mine deeper resources unless we put ourselves in a situation where more resources are required.

Similarly, you need to have the right mindset and set yourself up to find happiness. Too often, people look for happiness in all the wrong places: what we do, what we have, what we own, material possessions, status, etc.

But happiness is found in what you are, not not what you do or what you have. If you cultivate your greatness, you will likely find happiness growing too.

“Bet on your authenticity and risk discovering it.”

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Resources:

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We are also 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

Apr 3, 2017

Today’s guest is JP Sears. You may be familiar with his Ultra Spiritual comedy series from YouTube or Facebook, but he is also an emotional healing coach and a curious student of life. We share powerful stories about our journey, explore the (often overlooked) importance of our feelings, and have a lot of fun.

This episode is part of the Happiness Series. We have been taught to believe that we can not choose to be happy because happiness is something that can only be earned – that’s not true, and I hope these amazing entrepreneurs will help you choose to find happiness. Doing so will give you an advantage in business, relationships, and life in general.

JP is known by many as his comedy persona, easily identified by the headband and flowers in his hair, but that doesn’t excite him anymore. The last time he donned the flowers was in January 2017, and he knew he needed to make a change.

JP knew this because he listened to his feelings. Carl Jung once said that our feelings are the language of our soul, and JP adds that “if we pretend that we have even half a clue of what a soul is, then maybe we can pretend that our soul is a wiser source than our intellectual brain.”

Our feelings are difficult to comprehend – they don’t seem to be communicated through a human language – but maybe that is because they contain so much wisdom.

Did you enjoy this episode? Then you’re in luck! JP Sears will be back next week for Part 2 of this interview. In the meantime, you can get your fix at AwakenWithJP.com.

 

 

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We are also 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

Mar 27, 2017

Sheryl O’Loughlin is an eager entrepreneur who leverages passion and purpose to create a happy life and a huge impact. She is a huge proponent of bringing love and happiness into your work, and into your work culture.

She previously served as the CEO of Clif Bar, where she introduced the world to Luna bars (and grew the bars into a $70M business in just three years); she was the cofounder and CEO of Plum Organics; and she is currently CEO of REBBL super herb beverages.

Sheryl is also the author of KILLING IT!: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart.

KILLING IT! was sparked by a study conducted by Dr. Michael A. Freeman, which found a correlation between entrepreneurs and illness such as ADHD, bipolar disease, depression, and drug abuse. He found these were present in about 72% of the entrepreneurial population, compared to about 40% of the general population.

Sheryl was experiencing this dark side of entrepreneurship, and she realized the need for a change in entrepreneurial culture. We need to start talking about the the dark side of killing it every day, and how we can avoid the big pitfalls.

“99% of business don’t make it, and entrepreneurs are going through this hardship alone because they think they’re the only ones. I want to change the culture of that so people don’t feel like they’re alone!”

Love and time helped Sheryl out of the darkness.

She fell in love with REBBL, a super herb elixir business created in collaboration with the nonprofit Not For Sale.

The nonprofit’s goal is to stop human trafficking. REBBL helps them achieve that goal because they source ingredients from affected indigenous communities, and the income helps support their livelihood so that they are no longer vulnerable to trafficking. A portion of the net profits also helps fund Not For Sale’s rehabilitation efforts.

“It’s a joy to go to work when you know you’re doing something with so much meaning.”

Social Mission Companies like REBBL, companies that intentionally pursue a greater purpose than pure profit, are able to create a powerful and sustainable impact that other support organizations don’t have the resources to accomplish. As an added benefit, the social mission creates an environment where people love to work because something truly meaningful drives every individual's actions.

Entrepreneurs, be wary of the hustle and the grind. Remember that the dark side is part of our nature, and that we can forge a path through the darkness and back to the light with support, love, and purpose.

“People are talking about how they’re killing it, but it could be killing you.”

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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We are also 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

Mar 20, 2017

This episode marks the one-year anniversary for The Impact Entrepreneur Show, and I want to thank you for tuning in every week and inviting me into your lives. It’s an awesome gift, and I take this privilege very seriously. Today I want to offer you a couple gifts…

  • The Clarity of Purpose Scorecard will help you measure and guide your progress in 10 critical areas: developing your superpower, your spirituality, your emotional strength, your intellectual capacity, your physical strength, your recreational capacity, your ability to volunteer, your romantic strength, your social strength, and your professional strength. Click here to head over to TheImpactEntrepreneur.net/scorecard and get your copy for FREE.
  • 6 Bridges to Wellbeing and Personal Growth is a bonus tool I will send you after you pick up your scorecard. This is based on a template that my wife and I have used for the last couple of years to help us focus in on our goals and objectives.

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This episode is part of the disruption series. We’re going to discover how incredible people disrupt their lives, their industries, and the world to create a powerful impact.

We’re chatting with return guest Cameron Herold. He is a best-selling author, coach, and speaker who strives to simplify business problems and guide business leaders to previously unimagined success.

Cameron also created the COO Alliance, an opportunity for second-in-command business leaders (or Chief Operating Officers) to connect and grow. These people are often left behind the curtains and don’t get any of the attention, events, or masterminds that CEOs and other leaders often get.

“Perfect is the enemy of good.”

Cameron has a unique (and potentially counter-intuitive) perspective on disruption: “It’s less about innovating, and it’s more about rip off and duplicate.” Momentum creates momentum, and far too often entrepreneurs try to find a newer, cooler, or better way to do something instead of taking the really great systems that already exist and just doing it.

Sometimes disruption is the result of significant momentum, not significant innovation. To build momentum, your business needs more than just a Minimally Viable Product – it needs Minimally Viable Everything: emails, meetings, software, etc. Perfect is the enemy of good.

How did Cameron train his teams to pursue momentum? It’s a simple process...

  • Set goals
  • Break the goals down into specific projects and tasks
  • Declare when to work on each task (not when the task will be completed)
  • Create time constraints for specific tasks

You can use my new tools (detailed above) to help you identify goals, hold yourself accountable, and build some momentum.

If you want to hear another conversation with Cameron Herold, check out Episode 6 – Cameron Herold on Supercharging Your Focus.

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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We are also 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

Mar 13, 2017

This episode is part of the disruption series. We’re going to discover how incredible people disrupt their lives, their industries, and the world to create a powerful impact.

Ryan Evans is the CEO & Co-Founder of Inboard Technologies, home of the M1 Electric Skateboard. He and his team were recently featured on Shark Tank and convinced Mr. Wonderful, AKA Kevin O’Leary, to partner with them in their mission to create a massive disruption in the transportation industry.

Since then, the M1 Electric Skateboard has taken the world by storm and the company is growing at a blistering pace.

“Lightweight, portable, electric transportation that you can take with you anywhere empowers everyone. We all need to move.”

Ryan rejects the idea that things should be done one way because they’ve always been done that way. We are able to do incredible things when we think creatively about process.

People often spend too much time focusing on an end goal, but real progress is made when iterating the process.

Inboard’s end goal is to create lightweight transportation technology that flows, but Ryan understands that you’ll go out of business if you wait until a product is perfect before you launch it.

They didn’t wait. They embrace an iterative product development process, and they are able to improve their products remotely. Inboard engineers are constantly working behind the scenes so that the customer experience is constantly improving.

You have to constantly change and improve because there is no one big challenge to overcome – there are always challenges. The road to success is a constant struggle, so you need to come prepared. You need the right mindset and a support group.

You won’t create a powerful impact if you go alone.

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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We are also 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

Mar 6, 2017

This episode is part of the disruption series. We’re going to discover how incredible people disrupt their lives, their industries, and the world to create a powerful impact.

Don Wettrick is an Innovation Specialist at Noblesville High School and author of Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level. He is disrupting the education system and teaching the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Don teaches a class called Innovation and Open-Source Learning. They explore how to network, how to collaborate with intelligent people, how to market, and so much more. Businesses have been launched from his classroom. In one year, four patents were filed.

The class has their own methodology. They call it R.O.T.H. I.R.A.

  • Realization – Related to flow states, realization often comes about through movement. They start the school day by walking and talking.
  • Open Discussion – The thoughts generated through realization will fade if they aren’t discussed.
  • Tussling – “I love a good fight.” Debate challenges people to think.
  • Homogeneous Grouping – Kids split off to collaborate on the same projects, but coming from different perspectives.
  • Ideation & Prototyping – “We jokingly call this the difference between December 31st and January 15th.” It’s fun to brainstorm, but it’s hard to actually do it.
  • Reflect – Every project is two weeks, because that gives you enough time to know whether or not you are interested in the subject.
  • Adjustment – This loops back to the ROTH for Realization #2.

 

Don started the class because he didn’t see any passion for learning – or much of anything – in his students. They were being churned through a system that destroyed their interest in learning.

Not only is the current educational paradigm passionless, it’s just old. As a culture and a society, we are moving exponentially faster outside of education.

  • What did your phone look like five years ago? Vastly different.
  • What did your public high school look like in 1980? Roughly the same.

 

“Here’s the cruel joke we’re playing on a lot of our students:

we’re preparing you for a future that used to exist in 1970.”

 

Why is education innovating so slowly?

  • We still measure success by test scores. You get into college largely based on your SAT score. They’re accepting the kids who are best at not taking risks.
  • We reward memorization far more than creativity.
  • Some teacher unions have pushed back (not all).

 

Don can’t disrupt the entire educational system on his own. If you are a parent, student, or teacher and you want to change something about your local school system, Don will help. You can head to StartEdUpInnovation.com for a podcast, consulting, teacher training, and all the core services necessary to start and strive with new educational initiatives.

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We are also 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

Feb 27, 2017

This episode is part of the disruption series. We’re going to discover how incredible people disrupt their lives, their industries, and the world to create a powerful impact.

Stephan Aarstol is the Founder & CEO at Tower Paddle Boards, author of The Five Hour Workday, and one of the most unique success stories from ABC’s Shark Tank.

Stephan didn’t have the most elegant pitch on Shark Tank, but he still secured investment from Mark Cuban. The show wasn’t his endgame – it was just the first stepping stone towards disrupting an industry.

The five-hour workday was the second stepping stone.

“You want to get your employees to where they’ll run through walls for you. To do that in the modern world with knowledge workers, you can’t whip them harder or give them a little bit more money. You have to do something that is meaningful to them.”

Tower Paddle Boards was an attractive place to work, but they still lost some of their top talent. Stephan wanted to sweeten the pot.

How does Stephan change his company to attract the best people?

  • Transition from an e-commerce company to a brand
  • Embrace a consistent company culture
  • Shorten the workday (for the same compensation)

Stephan wanted to attract efficient team members and repel slow workers; he wanted superstars. If you can adapt to a five-hour workday, you are rewarded with more control over your work life and personal life. If you can’t adapt, you’re fired.

This strategy puts full autonomy and pressure on the employee to figure things out, and the end result is that they actually think and act a lot more like entrepreneurs. The friction helps them cut waste and identify better tools. “You turn everybody into their own little productivity expert.”

Think about how you work – don’t be satisfied with just working.

Head over to FiveHourWorkday.com to read the first 48 pages of the book, receive a subscription to Tower Magazine, and download a bonus list of 38 amazing productivity tools… all for free!

“Work is not the point of life. The point of work is to finance this incredible life for us.”

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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We are also 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

Feb 20, 2017

This week we’re kicking off the disruption series. We’re going to discover how incredible people disrupt their lives, their industries, and the world to create a powerful impact.

 

Today’s guest, Steven Kotler, is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Co-Founder / Director of Research for the Flow Genome Project.

 

He is one of the world’s leading experts on ultimate human performance and he has spent his entire career exploring how people do the impossible.

 

  • Rise of Superman is about how action and adventure sports athletes reinvent kinesthetic possibility.

 

  • Abundance and Bold are about the entrepreneurs who have built the fastest and largest companies in the shortest amount of time.

 

  • Stealing Fire (Steven’s newest book) is about a $4 trillion underground movement to harness alternate states of consciousness to massively uplevel performance.

 

 

Through years of research, Steven has discovered that the secret to disrupting human performance is the same across the board: altered states of consciousness. This includes flow states, meditative states, psychedelic states, and more.

 

“One of the most well-established facts in the whole history of psychology is that altered states are incredibly good for us, and it’s not common knowledge.”

 

If you’re not familiar, altered states of consciousness can be defined as a specific bandwidth of non-ordinary states of consciousness where...

  • our normal sense of self vanishes
  • our normal sense of time disappears
  • we are freed from the drudgery of daily life
  • we get a sense of effortless motivation
  • and we can tap into a level of inspiration information that is normally unavailable.

 

In Stealing Fire, Steven uses the Greek term ecstasis to refer to this phenomenon and bypass the negative stigma placed upon altered states of consciousness. He also discusses the four forces accelerating this movement towards the upper possibility space of human experience, which he calls the Four Forces for Ecstasy:

  1. Psychology
  2. Neurobiology
  3. Pharmacology
  4. Technology

 

Altered states of consciousness aren’t just for team building at Burning Man. They can be directly applied to your life and workspace.

  • After rolling out mindfulness training at Aetna, they gained $3,000 per employee in productivity and saved $2,000 per employee in healthcare costs.
  • At Patagonia, the Founder has a “let my people go surfing” policy to encourage flow.
  • Standing in a power pose for a few minutes can change your physiology and empower you.
  • We get more flow any time the challenge at hand slightly exceeds our skillset.
  • Physical, emotional, psychological, and social risk can all focus our attention.

 

We are all created with the potential to do more than we could possibly ask for or possibly imagine. Steven’s research is a gift that will help us take a few steps towards disrupting what is possible. If you’re interested in exploring the fringes of human possibility, you can’t do better than Steven’s books.

 

These are a few of my favorites…

  • BOLD – This book challenged me to have a bigger vision for my life and the impact I'm capable of having. I still don't believe I am thinking boldly enough.

  • Abundance – Beyond loving the word, this book woke me up to the fact that NOW is the best time in human history to create and innovate amazing solutions to today's problems and tomorrow's challenges. Contrary to past experience or what one may have been led to believe, the resources are abundantly available.

  • Rise of Superman – We all have the ability to perform at super optimized levels. We refer to it as being "in the zone." God created us with an amazing organ - the brain - and if we put ourselves in the right environment it is amazing what each of us is capable of doing.

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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. The are your one stop shop for all your web site, 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

Feb 13, 2017

The past couple episodes have focused on courage. In today’s episode I am going to highlight the key points from the conversations I had with Justin Constantine and Noah Galloway. I’ll also share some of my thoughts on courage and what it means to me.

  • We all have the skills and ability to overcome the greatest adversity and most difficult challenges... if we choose to.
  • You are stronger than you think you are.
  • Depression has no reason, depression is real, and depression can strike anyone. You can be the most powerful person on the planet and depression can still affect you.
  • It takes both strength and courage to overcome depression, but that process starts by acknowledging that you are vulnerable. When you allow yourself to be vulnerable, no one else can make you vulnerable.
  • Sometimes being courageous simply means talking to someone or seeking help.

You are special. You are created for greatness. You are courageous.

Go out and make an impact by encouraging someone today – by adding to their heart – even if that someone happens to be you.

Resources:

This episode is brought to you by SY Partners and Unstuck, helping you make a change by identifying the things holding you up. Their new program “Life Courses” are based on decades of learning about what inspires people to change. It is created by SYPartners, a transformation company that helps individuals, teams, and organizations become the best version of themselves, so they can create massive positive impact in business and society.

To start making your change, visit Life Courses by Unstuck on the web.

 

We are also 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 web site, 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

Feb 6, 2017

Today we’re learning more about courage with Noah Galloway, a former U.S. Army soldier, motivational speaker, and author of Living with No Excuses: The Remarkable Rebirth of an American Soldier.

Growing up, Noah’s father worked construction with only one hand. It was a powerful inspiration that ended up affecting him more than he ever expected.

During the Iraq War, Noah lost his left arm and leg.

“Someone is going to read Living With No Excuses and see that they are not alone. Whatever they are going through, they can get through it, get some help, and see there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

He struggled with depression and denial for a few years before embracing physical activity again. He started running marathons and, in 2014, he was named the Ultimate Men’s Health Guy.

He spoke on The Ellen Degeneres Show, The Today Show, and came in 3rd place on Dancing With The Stars.

Noah’s run on Dancing With The Stars highlights the power of mindset. You have the ability to overcome any obstacle that is presented to you.

“I was glazing over the depression part. I felt like it was unrealistic to people to lose two limbs, have all those things happen to you, and then make it on the cover of the world’s largest men’s magazine and go on Dancing With The Stars. Not having that piece of the puzzle didn’t make sense with me and I wanted to share that.”

War is full of obstacles, but writing Living With No Excuses was an obstacle too. Sharing your most difficult experiences and making yourself vulnerable requires incredible courage, but it is so important.

In Living With No Excuses, Noah emphasizes that struggle is universal. No experience “earns you the right” to be depressed. Depression can happen to anyone.

“Depression is real and can strike anyone. You can be the most powerful person on the planet but depression can still affect you.”

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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. 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

Jan 30, 2017

To kick off a short series about Courage, I’m speaking with Justin Constantine, an expert in overcoming adversity and leadership. He is a former Marine and attorney and is now an inspirational speaker and leadership consultant.

Justin recently completed his first book, My Battlefield, Your Office: Leadership Lessons From the Front Lines. Justin draws on his experiences with the Marine Corps, the US Chamber of Commerce, and in the nonprofit sector and shares what it takes to be a good leader in any environment.

On October 18, 2006, Justin was deployed in Iraq. He was on patrol when an enemy sniper shot him in the head, behind his left ear. Incredibly, the young Marine he was with performed an emergency tracheotomy and saved his life.

Recovering from the experience was difficult. For a long time he was embarrassed, but then he saw the inspiration that his recovery gave others. The experience gave Justin a renewed sense of focus, optimism, and intention.

“It wasn’t something to be embarrassed about. The bottom line was that I was so fortunate for surviving, but really I was so fortunate that so many people along the way had reached out to help me.”

Justin’s definition of courage has changed since his recovery. Before he was shot, he would have given a pretty typical definition of courage: doing the right thing when no one is watching, or something along those lines.

Now, Justin believes courage is choosing to persevere in the face of the toughest adversity – even if that means taking the tougher road sometimes. Life is about choices and sometimes choosing the tougher road leads to much greater results.

“I think courage comes down to taking the time to understand what you believe in and what you stand for, and then taking that road.”

Remember, you are stronger than you think you are. “Take the time. Be thoughtful about what you want to accomplish in life in life and you will do it.”

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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. The are your one stop shop for all your web site, 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

Jan 23, 2017

Today’s episode is the final part of our Getting Started series. We’re talking to people who got off their butt and took action to accomplish the dream they have been sitting on for years.

I can’t think of a better topic to end the series with than Your One Word.

“I think everyone does have one core value that cuts to the root of who they are, and if you’re not happy with your life then it’s because your life is too incongruent with what your One Word core value is.”

Evan Carmichael coaches entrepreneurs for peak performance, and he’s helping even more people reach their peak performance with his new book: Your One Word.

Your One Word is a guide to greater self-awareness, because it’s easier to forge a path towards your ideal future when you are aware of your single most important core value. It provides a blueprint for a process that has helped entrepreneurs build multi-million dollar businesses.

“A lot of people feel like they have potential, but they don’t know what to do.”

Your Word is only for you. It’s a word or phrase that represents what you are about, at a core level. The process of picking Your One Word helps you reflect on your purpose and move forward with more intention. Evan’s word is Believe. Mine is Impact.

“Having that self-awareness helps me create with more consistency, create with more intention and build a team around something super meaningful.”

The exercises in the book will bring you through a process of self-reflection that starts by reinforcing the constant nature of Your One Word. It’s not who you want to be in 2017. It’s not your New Year’s Resolution. It’s who you’ve always been and always will be.

It has to be a personal exercise. After you understand yourself, you can apply that to running a business.

You can learn more about the book on Evan’s website and you can check out Evan’s YouTube channel to see how he’s incorporated Believe into his brand and business.

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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. The are your one stop shop for all your web site, 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

Jan 16, 2017

Today’s episode is the second part of our Getting Started series. We’re talking to people who got off their butt and took action to accomplish the dream they have been sitting on for years.

Michael Sacca is President of Crew, a service that matches skilled freelancers with project owners, and co-host of Rocketship.FM, a podcast that dives into funding, growth, culture, sales and everything in between.

Michael expected he would be a developer forever – he never expected to be the chief sales person at a company. Yet, in the first half of 2016, he was responsible for 40% of Crew’s revenue.

He succeeds as a marketer by building relationships with clients and former clients. Those relationships have allowed him to identify where Crew provides the most value and sell the product to higher-paying clients.

Crew is a little different than your typical freelance economy business. They tried to solve many of the problems usually experienced by freelancers and project owners.

For freelancers, things like sourcing work, vetting work, filling out RFPs and bidding on projects is time-consuming. Crew takes over business development tasks so that the freelancers can just focus on being creative.

For project owners, there is a templated system that will help even first time project managers create milestones and schedule check-ins, plus it offers them extra protections. Of course, they are also paired with the most appropriate talent working with Crew.

99% of their projects have been completed on time, on budget and issue-free.

You can learn more at Crew.co, follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelSacca or send him an email.

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

Resources:

 

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We are also 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 web site, 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

Jan 9, 2017

As we kick off a new year, The Impact Entrepreneur Show is kicking off the Starting Up series. We’re talking to people who got off their butt and took action to accomplish the dream they have been sitting on for years.

 

Mike Dillard is Founder of SelfMadeMan.com and host of Self Made Man, the #1 self-help podcast on iTunes.

The mentors in Mike’s life shaped his business destiny by giving him a wake-up call and encouraging him to invest in himself.

He was told that, if he wanted to achieve his goal, he had to become someone who was capable of achieving that result and he had to stop looking for that to come from something or someone outside of himself.

 

The first step towards investing in yourself is knowing what you’re investing in.

How were you manufactured? Find out.

Figure out how you are built and then, once you have that information, you can apply it to whatever you’re passionate about and you can execute in a way that is aligned with how your brain is wired.

 

The second step towards investing in yourself is mastery.

To develop a mastery of any skill:

  • Put your devices away.
  • Get deep into something. Read books for 2-3 hours a day & take an intensive course on the subject.
  • Find the best practices of the best practitioners and create activities that will help you internalize their skills.
  • Take action and see what happens.
  • Do it over and over again, for a couple years.

 

“If you’re just sitting here in learning mode, you’re doing absolutely nothing. The biggest moment of learning or understanding you can have is by actually doing something and failing at it or succeeding.”

If you want to be a self-made person, there’s no big secret. Stop waiting for something outside of yourself, put time into mastering a skill, take action and add value.

I can’t wait to see what you do.

 

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

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. The are your one stop shop for all your web site, 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

Jan 2, 2017

Nicholas Kusmich is the world’s leading Facebook advertising strategist, Founder of H2H Media Group and the League Of Extraordinary Marketers and creator of The Art Of Lead Generation. Nicholas is using his unique ability to understand behavior to create advertising strategies that leverage social platforms.

The most important question you should ask before advertising, but probably aren’t, is do I have a Predictable Profit Process in place that makes it worthy enough to go to Facebook and drive traffic?

More eyes will not always equal more sales. Media platforms like Facebook are accelerators. In order for Facebook to be a game changer for you, you must know exactly what a lead is worth to you and how many web visitors become clients in a predictable fashion. Otherwise, Facebook ads will be your downfall.  

“Facebook is the eyeball store.”

How do you develop a Predictable Profit Process?

  • Who are you trying to serve? The business should not revolve around you or your product, but rather the marketplace you are trying to serve. In order to build a sustainable system, you need to identify the specific steps that prospects take before they become an actual client or customer.
    • Be very specific. Pareto had the 80/20 principle, but that doesn’t work in social media marketing. Nicholas takes it a step further with the 4 percent rule. Building on Pareto’s 80/20 rule, take 20 percent of the 20 percent, which represents 4 percent. The end result is the exact population of the marketplace you are attempting to serve.
  • Get clear on their problems, needs and fears. Learn their four forces: Fears, Frustrations, Wants and Aspirations.
  • Articulate how your product or service gets them closer to where they want to go or solves one of those four forces. Then ask what are the one, two or three conversion events you can put in front of them that will move them from prospect to client.
  • Begin to drive a small number of people there to see if it converts. Track how many people convert for every 100 people who see it. If you know how much each visitor is worth to you, then you now have the magic metric and now have a Predictable Profit Process.

Understand that Facebook is not a commerce-driven platform – it is a socially-driven platform. You can not sell directly on Facebook. There always needs to be an intermediary step.

“The worst thing you can do on a social platform is bring commercial intent to it.”

Nicholas doesn’t follow the rules of traditional advertising copy. The one thing that causes people to buy from you and not your competitors is resonance. They have to know, like and trust you. Good communication is when your ideal prospect or customer feels understood by you. If you are not connecting on an emotional level, your copy will not be well received.

Nicholas developed the Look, Hook and Took approach to writing copy.

  • Look. The most important step a marketer can take with their Facebook ad is with their image, especially in an attention deficit world. Find images that provoke an emotion through story.
  • Hook. It is important is build rapport. A fundamental strategy to build rapport is a methodology called feel, felt, found: I understand where you are coming from. I have experienced this emotion too and I overcame it when I found _______.
  • Took. In every ad, there must be a very clear Call to Action. The language used should be simple, but direct. For example, I want to give this to you. Click here to download, watch, etc.

“In today’s world, the currency that creates transactions is connection.”

If you want to take the next step towards building a marketing strategy that resonates with your audience and has a huge impact, then check out Nicholas’ Behind Closed Doors workshop.

 

 

Resources:

 

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We are also 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 web site, 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

Dec 26, 2016

Over the past several months, we’ve had incredible conversations with New York Times best-selling authors, world champion athletes, award-winning entrepreneurs, Navy SEALs, leadership experts and a variety of other entrepreneurs.

Each and every one of them has provided incredible takeaways and lessons that each and every one of us can apply to our mission to have a game-changing impact in the lives of others.

I created a special episode that features the key lessons from the top 10 interviews and conversations from 2016.

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #10 – The most important question you can ask

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #9 – The importance of humility & not letting your career define you

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #8 – The difference between those who succeed and those who don't

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #7 – Facing and overcoming challenges using the Champion’s Mindset

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #6 – Steps to supercharge your Vision and Focus

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #5 – The favorite and most-used tool for getting unstuck

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #4 – Living Forward: The power and importance of a life plan

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #3 – Set yourself up to learn from other industries’ best practices & how to apply them to have a game-changing impact in your business and life

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #2 – How to stay relevant in a crowded marketplace

 

Impact Entrepreneur Lesson #1 – Commander’s intent & the #1 tool needed to adapt to different personalities

 

Thank you all for being such an important part of The Impact Entrepreneur Show. Without each of you listeners, this show would not happen. I am incredibly grateful and humbled by your participation.

I want to hear how this show and how my guests have impacted you, so please email me at info (at) theimpactentrepreneur.net to share with me your stories about the game-changing impact these guests have had in your life.

Don’t forget: go make an impact!

 

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We are also 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 web site, 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

Dec 19, 2016

We’re changing things up in today’s episode. Justis Earle – innovator, entrepreneur and guest of Ep. 31 – is turning the microphone onto Mike “The Impact Entrepreneur” Flynn.

“We all crave knowledge.
We all recognize that we have greatness within us.
We were born to do great things.
We were not born to be mediocre people.”

The core purpose of The Impact Entrepreneur show is to draw out why entrepreneurs are doing what they are doing and to find out how they are using their platform to have an impact on the world.

Through the process of interviewing these entrepreneurs, Mike hopes that others are equipped with the knowledge to overcome struggle and take the next best step towards realizing their full potential.

“When I have a goal, I’m a bulldog and I don’t stop.”

Mike was inspired to have a greater impact years ago, but he didn’t do anything to pursue that until he participated in Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever program and started setting goals.

After deciding on a goal and setting a deadline, Mike began taking action steps to make it happen.

There were about 12 hours between when Mike said to his wife he wanted to try podcasting and when Mike said to his wife he was going to start podcasting – because he is a bulldog. Mike’s wife is a big fan of the show now, and listening to the podcast has actually helped them both learn and grow together.

Mike craves vulnerable, authentic relationships because they allow you to have an impact on someone – and for someone to have an impact on you.

Throughout the podcast, Mike has developed new relationships with guests, and with you listening. All of you have impacted him so much, and he’s learned a lot.

  • He identifies with being an impatient optimist.
  • We have to be oriented towards others because that’s where we’re going to have the biggest impact.
  • Words have an incredible impact. People don’t always understand the power of the words they speak to others or the words they speak to themselves.
  • We need to address our limiting beliefs.
    • We can overcome our limiting beliefs by setting goals, taking small steps and building a tribe of trusted advisors.

“The impact of your kind words today – you have no idea the butterfly effect they could have tomorrow.”

If you’ve learned anything from the podcast or Mike has had an impact on your life over the past 39 episodes, then please share those stories on Facebook, on Twitter, on the website, or by leaving a review on iTunes.

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

Resources:

 

This episode is 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 web site, 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

Dec 12, 2016

Welcome to the last episode of the Champion’s Mindset series on The Impact Entrepreneur Show. Today’s guest, Dr. Jim Afremow, is a much sought-after mental game coach and the author of two great books about being a champion: The Champion’s Mind & The Champion’s Comeback.

“No one is born with a Champion’s Mind gene, but there’s nothing preventing us from thinking, feeling and acting like them – to be our best, and I think that’s the ultimate gold medal.”

Body language plays an important role in reaching peak performance and developing a champion’s mindset. Your body language affects your mood, so it’s not just fake it ‘til you make it – it’s also fake it ‘til you feel it.

Changing your attitude and body language isn’t just for show. Your testosterone goes up and your stress hormones go down, so the result is that you will actually be more confident and more focused.

“If you sit up straight and put a big smile on your face, it’s not going to make everything perfect – but it’s certainly going to help.”

Socialization also has a significant effect on developing a champion’s mindset. We’re taught to be confident, but not cocky, and conflicting messages from society can negatively reinforce successful behaviors. In a team environment, the person with the best attitude who is working hardest might be negatively singled out.

“When we start to change in different ways, or go outside the norm, and do things bigger and better than before, we get held back a little bit. Socialization really, really affects us much more than we think it does.”

We start to separate ourselves from average when we work to master the things we are most passionate about. This can be in a sport, a business or something else entirely, but at the end of the day peak performance is peak performance. You’ll never maximize your potential by working for the weekend.

When we’re pursuing peak performance, we don’t receive a lot of positive feedback. It’s important to realize that, when you are being tested a lot, you are on the right track.

“Life is supposed to test you, it’s not supposed to praise you.”

In The Champion’s Comeback: How Great Athletes Recover, Reflect, and Reignite, Jim explores the powerful experience of a comeback and how it relates to being reborn. Entertainment and social media can give us a skewed perspective on a champion’s peak performance, but this book reveals the disappointments and struggles that go along with achieving peak performance.

You can be a champion in anything you are passionate about, but it requires effort. Start acting and thinking like a champion, don’t stop when you’re tested and work hard every day.

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

Resources:

 

 

 

This episode is brought to you by SY Partners and Unstuck, helping you make a change by identifying the things holding you up. Their new program “Life Courses” are based on decades of learning about what inspires people to change. It is created by SYPartners, a transformation company that helps individuals, teams, and organizations become the best version of themselves, so they can create massive positive impact in business and society.

To start making your change, visit Life Courses by Unstuck on the web.

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We are also 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

Dec 5, 2016

It’s week five of the Champion’s Mindset series and I am talking to Erin Cafaro MacKenzie. She is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist in rowing and she has podiumed at every World Championship rowing competition that she has competed in – a total of six World Championship Gold Medals and two Bronze Medals. Erin and her husband currently run Power Speed Endurance, a sports-specific training program dedicated to improving skill, performance, fitness and overall potential.

Erin’s definition of the Champion’s Mindset has evolved over the years. At first, it was related to an indomitable spirit – the “X factor” of just going. While that may be a common definition, Erin believes the Champion’s Mindset is something that is more at peace, as opposed to forceful.

“A champion is someone who is doing it not to beat someone else – it’s for them.”

At Power Speed Endurance, Erin and her husband are trying to figure out an equation for each sport to use speed as a monitor for skill. In most monostructural (or endurance) sports – like running, rowing and even skateboarding – the athlete’s balance of friction and connection dictates the speed at which they can perform tasks, and the ability to perform those tasks relates directly to an athlete's skill.

We’ve discussed Grit a lot during the Champion’s Mindset series, and it’s an idea that Erin has been exploring as well. Angela Duckworth has a fantastic TED Talk and book on the subject, but there is also a downside to Grit. Too much friction prevents us from realizing our fullest potential, but just the right amount of friction can propel us to amazing heights.

It’s rare for someone to make the Olympics once, let alone twice, and it’s even more difficult than you might imagine when you consider the adversity and setbacks an intensive athlete can experience. In 2011, a month before the World Championships, Erin broke two ribs; one on the right and one on the left. It was hard for her to stay sane at the time, but, in hindsight, the break gave her perspective on what it means to be a champion.

“If everything was going great and came easily, I probably wouldn’t take as much interest in it.”

After the 2012 Olympics, Erin had to develop a different perspective on fulfillment. Her whole adult life leading up to that was devoted to training and pursuing the win, and then she thoroughly accomplished that. Experiencing depression after a period of great accomplishment or during a big transition is common, and this is a good time to turn to your tribe for support.

“Pain is one of our greatest teachers”

Erin’s ability to endure struggle actually became an obstacle at times, because having a high pain threshold also means having a low ability to evolve and to change. “When it comes to everyday life and you have painful thoughts, and you’re just sitting on them versus actually dealing with them or doing something different so that they don’t reoccur, then that’s when it’s pretty un-functional.”

The greatest lesson that Erin has learned as an athlete is that being a champion is not about being the superstar – it’s about being able to get the best out of your teammates. She is trying to apply this lesson by creating a platform for Power Speed Endurance coaches to share their strengths, reach more athletes and thrive.

I appreciate Erin’s vulnerability and authenticity on this week’s episode, because it shows that even the greatest champions experience struggle and need help picking themselves back up. Communities and adversity can be really powerful tools to help us grow.

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

Resources:

 

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This episode is brought to you by SY Partners and Unstuck, helping you make a change by identifying the things holding you up. Their new program “Life Courses” are based on decades of learning about what inspires people to change. It is created by SYPartners, a transformation company that helps individuals, teams, and organizations become the best version of themselves, so they can create massive positive impact in business and society.

To start making your change, visit Life Courses by Unstuck on the web.

--

We are also 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 web site, 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

Nov 28, 2016

This week’s episode is part four of the Champion’s Mindset series and I’m talking to Rachel Balkovec, the first female strength and conditioning coach in the history of professional baseball. She is also an entrepreneur and an international speaker.

Rachel has worked as a strength and conditioning coach for organizations such as Arizona State University, Louisiana State University, Los Tigres Del Licey Beisbol and the St. Louis Cardinals. Most recently, she has joined the Houston Astros as their Latin American Strength and Conditioning Coordinator.

“I was discriminated against. Was I bitter? Yes. Am I bitter? No. I just realized that it wasn’t ever me, it was just baseball being ready for it and them thinking that the players couldn’t handle it.”

During Rachel’s first day at her first internship with a professional baseball organization, there was a staff member that singled her presence out. There were preconceived notions that players had to behave differently around her, or that they could not handle themselves around her, but she overcame those notions by showing up every day and doing her job well.

“I wonder just how fast we would get to where we were going if we could just say what we mean instead of taking days, months, years, decades to say it.”

Listeners of the podcast know that I have a love-hate relationship with the word passion, because people often use it incorrectly. To be passionate about something means that you are willing to suffer for it – and Rachel is truly passionate about coaching professional baseball. After graduating with a Master’s degree, she spent multiple baseball seasons working in retail and as an unpaid intern, as opposed to taking positions in college athletics. She had a goal, and she was going to do whatever she could do to achieve it.

“I knew whatever I was doing was getting me closer. Even if it was an inch closer I was going to do it. I would crawl and scratch my way to get where I wanted to go, and I would say no to things that seemed like no-brainers. I knew it wasn’t getting me closer to my goal.”

Rachel doesn’t call herself a public speaker, she calls herself a public empowerer. She loves her job and empowering the athletes, but right now there is nothing that fulfills her more than getting in front of a group of women and empowering them. Her business is not “successful” yet, in the traditional sense, but nothing else gives her the same high as seeing a group of newly-empowered young women.

“How many times can you stand to fail and still continue down your path? That’s the Champion’s Mindset.”

Rachel made history and set herself apart from other coaches by, she says, “being a little crazy.” People on the same path as her didn’t put the same amount of time, dedication or intention into getting things accomplished every single day. For example, she wakes up at 4:30 AM every morning and starts the day by immediately starting a podcast. Before most people are even awake, she spends over an hour learning.

“I’ve just been devouring information to make myself better.”

I really appreciate what Rachel is doing, accomplishing and building. I’m excited to see where her Champion’s Mindset takes her, because I see huge things ahead. You can learn more about Rachel on her website.

 

Don’t be a podcast junkie…

Resources:

  • Grit by Angela Duckworth
 

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This episode is brought to you by SY Partners and Unstuck, helping you make a change by identifying the things holding you up. Their new program “Life Courses” are based on decades of learning about what inspires people to change. It is created by SYPartners, a transformation company that helps individuals, teams, and organizations become the best version of themselves, so they can create massive positive impact in business and society.

To start making your change, visit Life Courses by Unstuck on the web.

--

We are also 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 web site, 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

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