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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: August, 2018
Aug 27, 2018

One of the most popular pieces of advice in the entrepreneurial world is to hustle, hustle, hustle – what our guest Christopher Lochhead describes as “one of the dumbest pieces of advice of all time” – to reach a place of financial freedom and then coast.

 

This paradigm, then, is working hard now for the ultimate goal of not working... but I don’t think that’s really being an entrepreneur. That’s just making money.

 

And Christopher Lochhead – a retired three-time CMO, the co-author of both Play Bigger and Niche Down, and the host of Legends & Losers – knows a thing or two about being an entrepreneur.

 

Many of the leading “entrepreneurs” will teach us that success is having the freedom to sit on a beach drinking mai tais all day, but the unfortunate reality is that a lot of people are just trading comfort for aliveness.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong. Drinking mai tais on a beach can be a lot of fun (although I’d prefer a whiskey) – but there comes a time when doing nothing, or “trolling around in your net worth,” as Christopher describes it, is just boring.

 

And on a more existential level, that kind of comfort doesn’t come with a purpose or real fulfillment – because “who we are is a direct function of the difference that we make.”

 

The mistake almost everybody makes is that they get fooled into believing that the pathway to success is fitting in.

 

When in reality, “it’s the people who are different that make the difference” – and that’s true in entrepreneurship and in life.

 

Legendary entrepreneurs are known for the niche that they own, not their product or service. That comes later.

 

Too many entrepreneurs make the mistake of trying to compete with their product or company, so don’t make the same mistake – making the biggest difference comes down to being the most different.

 

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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

Aug 20, 2018

Cara Miller doesn’t choose when and where to make inquiry about her impact – she’s awake to her purpose every day, and using her coaching skills to help others make better sense of the world, become more useful, and be of greater service.

 

And when Cara is working with other businesses, she’s sometimes the only person who is, in the moment, aware of the ultimate benefactors of that work. Whether you work at an investment firm or in food service, there is someone being directly impacted by what you do.

 

The simple fact that you’re using your gift has an impact on others, no matter what your gift is, and being aware of the multiple impacts of your gift can provide you with a great sense of fulfillment and gratitude, regardless of your role.

 

Too often, we get stuck in the middle, stuck in the minute-by-minute stuff that we’re doing, and we forget the people who are impacting us and the people being impacted by our actions.

 

So if you ever find yourself getting stuck there, take a moment to pause and recalibrate. Cara suggests holding onto three things, as they are here and now:

 

  1. The me. Can you stay in your physical body? Can you take a look at your sense, your judgements, your conclusions, your thinking?
  2. The we. What is going in on the space between you and everyone else? What is happening? What is the dynamic? Can you empathize with the shared experience?
  3. The thee. Can you connect and check in with where the spirit is present now? What is the spirit up to? Where is the spirit moving? Where is source? How is it moving here and how can we join that? What is God up to in this?

 

“I am trying, with everything in me, to hold tight to what’s going on in me right now, what’s going in with us right now, and what’s going on with the spirit right now so that I might join more fully with all of those layers.” And the closer you can do this to the moment the more effective it will be.

 

Cara shares another important mantra and exercise during this conversation, useful for when you need a reminder that your circumstances don’t define you.

 

It all starts with a simple question: Are you approaching the world as if it’s happening to you or it’s happening for you?

 

It can be a lonely and crippling thought that world is happening to you, falling on you, defining you, and limiting you. That line of thinking can also cause you to lose all responsibility and agency toward your actions.

 

If you can, instead, see that everything happening is creating opportunities for you to become an actor, influencer, and impacting force in the world, your perspective changes – all responsibility comes back to you, you have agency in every move you make, and you have to actively construct the way you move in the world.

 

And you can use this line of inquiry at any time, in any situation. It’s simple, sure – but powerful.

 

If you are interested in bringing more of this kind of inquiry into your organization or life, check out what Cara has to offer at inquiryp.com.

 

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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

Aug 13, 2018

Like previous guest Jesse Itzler, Cara Miller, MDiv, PhD, has spent time in monasteries. One particular time, she spent the bulk of her week shelling almonds. As encouragement, she was asked to reflect on a question: What is this task doing to you? Not why are you doing this task, but what it this task doing for you?

 

The answers to that question, Cara realized, are infinite – and the possibility for that reflection isn’t hidden away in a monastery! Considering who you are doing a task on behalf of and why you are doing what you are doing can – and should – be an everyday practice.

 

This kind of reflection is what you’ll find in Cara’s work, too, as a professor, executive developmental coach, and the Founder of Inquiry Partners.

 

Cara draws on developmental psychology to coach people in many contexts, uses adaptive leadership theory to consult diverse organizations engaging in change efforts, and is committed to practices that support the sustainability of this integrative work.

 

These commitments, disciplines, and liberating structures reflect Cara’s desire to continually teach and practice an embodied form of leadership that brings alignment to her own and others’ spiritual and psychological development. Her ultimate purpose across these roles is to grow as an ongoing reflection of the deep, glorious, complex source of love – and to invite others to do the same.

 

And as an added bonus, Cara will be back again for part two of this enlightening conversation next week!

 

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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

Aug 6, 2018

Dave Evans teaches Designing Your Life, an open enrollment class at Stanford and one of the most popular electives on campus, and co-authored the New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-lived, Joyful Life.

 

The “design thinking” methodology taught in the class and book is a process and a way of thinking about tough-to-solve problems, rooted in the principles of product design that Dave used while building products (like the original computer mouse) at companies like Apple and Electronic Arts.

 

Designing Your Life is a class unlike any other, and in a way that’s a shame – because there aren’t a lot of places where young people can talk about and learn about designing the life they want, but there should be.

 

It’s not exactly a complex philosophy, but it flies in the face of how most people solve problems, in any area of their life.

 

Most people tend to start with problem solving – however, in design thinking, you start with problem finding. The problem with traditional problem solving is that we tend to frame problems with an answer or a situation, and your assumed answer may be a bad answer or the situation may be entirely unavoidable (like gravity).

 

This is just one of the dysfunctional beliefs rampant in our society; a collection of popular Shoulds and Ought Tos that don’t actually contribute to much of anything. As Dave playfully describes, “There are really many fewer rules than they tell you. If you can stay out of addiction, jail, or trouble with the the IRS – you’re paying your bills, you’re not violating the law – the rest is actually up to you.”

 

It all comes down to one question: Do you live in the land of Is or the land of Should?

 

Designing Your Life starts with is – because the only place you can develop anything is reality.

 

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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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