Kelsey Humphreys is a perfect fit for our audience: enthusiastic, encouraging and freely shares her expertise in moving in the right direction as a driven entrepreneur. We were very fortunate to have her on the podcast.
If Kelsey could choose a super power, it would be super speed. But, even though that’s not possible, there are ways that we as entrepreneurs can apply the essence of super speed to our lives. What she recommends is getting organized right from the start of your journey. Organization early on allows for outsourcing your work sooner, which is the real-life way of multiplying yourself and getting more done.
When Kelsey started her entrepreneurial journey, her passion allowed her to accomplish a lot, but the lack of direction meant she didn’t attain any great success. She knows first-hand that many entrepreneurs go through multiple course corrections before finally understanding their true passion and using that to guide them.
Kelsey’s book, ‘Go Solo’ is all about how to start your own small business while you keep your day job. Anybody can do it, all you need is an Instagram or a blog where you curate the content you’re interested in. As you do so, she recommends curating your content to where you want to go. That’s how she built up her fan base on her business success blog KelseyHumphreys.com.
If you’re going to be a successful entrepreneur, one of the skills she recommends you build is your “figure it out” skillset. She was first introduced to this by her entrepreneurial father, an actual Church Growth Consultant back when you had to travel around to do that (pre-internet). He always had the attitude of “figure it out” and “make it happen.” If you don’t have this for yourself, it’s actually a muscle you can build. Every time you’re confronted with a situation where you want to shut down, stop yourself and say, “Alright, this is part of delivering my message, so I’ve got to figure it out.” The more you do this, the easier it becomes and the sooner it turns into a healthy habit.
Kelsey’s “Success for the Rest of Us” mantra is all about avoiding overwhelm in business and making success possible through 2 doable, short and digestible steps:
This is the message she sends through her podcast The Pursuit and through her YouTube video channel. She gives one tip through each episode, something that the average Joe or Jane can take and run with to move them forward.
This was a fun, impactful and interesting interview with Kelsey, and I’m sure after listening to this you’ll be a fan of hers if you aren’t already.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Jon Vroman is a super passionate speaker and coach and he was a blast on the podcast. He believes in giving big of himself and his expertise, and has incredible passion for helping others live a present and meaningful life.
Jon started out as your average corporate employee until he encountered what he calls “the trifecta” that led him to entrepreneurship:
These three events opened his eyes to who he really was and his passions in life. He discovered his “why” through these three events, and after this he couldn’t not pursue this journey. So, he left the corporate gig to pursue speaking, coaching and running the charity he created called The Front Row Foundation.
Jon credits his habit of getting “silent” to helping him find direction and to accomplish so much with his foundation. When you find ways to change your environment and get away from the distractions, it frees your mind to envision your future and to get focused on what you can do now to lead you to your goals.
Jon’s true passion in life is the foundation. He started it back in ’05 with the intent of giving people facing critical health challenges a front row experience at the event of their dreams. This foundation combined his greatest fear with this passion: dying early and living your best experiences.
Starting a foundation is surprisingly simple, but it’s keeping it strong that’s the real challenge. You start with passion and dedicated supporters and that can build momentum and some early wins. But it’s tough to keep up this momentum over time. Donations start to dry up as do volunteers and community support. There are two things that Jon recommends to get you past this:
Jon developed a powerful acronym out of the FRONT ROW:
This was a fun, insightful and impactful podcast with Jon that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
It was lovely having Susie Miller on the podcast. She’s a successful entrepreneur, podcaster, author and a Huffington Post contributing writer.
Susie’s super power is her willingness to discuss openly and honestly any topic. She feels that when people share and talk openly about what they’re feeling it builds collaboration and community, benefitting everyone.
She knows first-hand how hard it is to have a spouse and run your own business at the same time. “Entrespouse” is a term gaining in popularity and is something that Susie speaks to quite a bit. Often a spouse can feel like they’re competing with the business for the attention of the entrepreneur in the couple. This can really hurt the relationship.
In her work over the years with entrepreneurs, she found that “A lot of people were bankrupting their relationships in pursuit of success.”
Because of this issue, she found a way to tag the entrepreneur’s natural concern for profits to their personal life. This lead Susie to the P.R.O.F.I.T. Method.
Priorities – We have plans for business or work, but not for our relationships. The things that are important to our spouses should be important to us. Every entrepreneur needs to understand how their actions communicate to their spouse.
Rekindle – Over the years relationships can go from romance to roommates. We often get consumed with all we do for our businesses and we neglect our spouse. Rekindling the romance in the relationship has long-term benefits for the marriage.
Open-up – Communication skills are of utmost importance in business and in maintaining important relationships. Having conversations, whether serious or fun and silly, are important as long as what’s being discussed is meaningful to both of you. Be aware of sharing too much or too little.
Focus – Being present is an important part of business success, and it’s also a major part of relational success. When you’re at work, be there 100%. When you’re in your relationship, be there 100%. You also need to learn how to get back to the present moment when something pulls you away temporarily.
Intentional Interactions – Be intentional in your interactions, and you can even utilize the technology you use daily in your business to bring you closer to your spouse.
Tenacity – It takes hard work for a relationship to stay strong over time. You have to be tenacious and be willing to work hard on it. Be honest with your spouse in what will make your relationship be a lasting one.
Susie said something that will strike home with many entrepreneurs:
“Entrepreneurship is like a high-wire solo act, and marriage is about sharing and stability and two becoming one. They are so diametrically opposite that you really have to pause and think about it.”
Susie was a delight to speak with and she’s so insightful and experienced when it comes to helping entrepreneurs develop and maintain their relationships outside of the businesses they run. I learned so much from her and I’m sure you will as well.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
I was fortunate to have Anthony Iannarino on the podcast this week. He’s a successful blogger, podcaster, public speaker and writer. He shares with us his wisdom regarding success, nurturing relationships, mindset, using your time wisely, and having an “other-oriented” sales outlook.
Anthony’s entrepreneurial journey is all about helping people by doing meaningful and purposeful work. He first found success in blogging with his ‘The Sales Blog’ website through consistently putting out great content related to sales and nurturing relationships with your clientele. Now Hhe’s also putting his message out through his podcast ‘In the Arena’ where he interviews successful people in the sales and entrepreneurial world.
While success is different for everybody, Anthony thinks there are a few key questions to guide you on your path:
Entrepreneurship is about finding an area where you can make a difference and a contribution, one in which you can use your passions to fuel your work
When it comes to helping sales people, Anthony knows firsthand the pain associated with not achieving the outcomes you desire. He suggests that you avoid emotional attachment to outcomes by being flexible and detached from sales process. Maybe you envisioned things going one way, but the client said “no.” It’s time to pivot and find another angle to approach the problem from. You can accept temporary defeat but choose to stick with it; play the long game and win later.
Anthony wrote a great article about this called “Why Fast Is Slow.” It’s about slowing down the sales process and working at a relational level with the client. Human relationships are built on trust, and moving fast doesn’t build trust; it takes time.
There are two levels of selling:
One huge downfall of the sales process that Anthony discusses is the self-oriented way salespeople often approach their clients.
“The more self-oriented you are, the less other-oriented you are. The more other-oriented you are, the greater the benefits accrue to you and the faster you get the things you want.”
This idea has been around for a long time, and it rings true even more today than ever before. The more you help and support others, the more you’ll receive.
Another thing that Anthony is passionate about is controlling what he spends his time doing. We all have the same amount of time and your choices are your own. You have the time to get stuff done provided you can ignore the distractions. Instead of one hour on Facebook, spending that time more productively can produce tremendous results:
“I don’t have the time” means you’re saying yes to small things but no to the big things. Being consistent and doing a little bit everyday will get you there. “500 words per day will get you a book in 90 days.”
Anthony put this idea to work in creating his upcoming book, ‘The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need’ coming out October 11th, 2016. It’s about what you need to do now to sell well. The first half of the book is personal development and “Me Management.” The second half is full of workable sales strategies organized by “pick your weakness” chapters.
I truly enjoyed my talk with Anthony and learned a lot from it, as I’m sure you will as well.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Cameron Herold has taken 20 years of experience operating some of the biggest business success stories in North America and turned it into a flourishing career as both a motivational speaker and management consultant. Cameron is a business coach and mentor to several companies, and a CEO coach to large corporations globally. He is also the best-selling author of Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less.
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
I’d pick the one my oldest son has and it’s his smile. Every time he smiles, the whole world stops.
Was there an impact moment that led you on this journey to being an entrepreneur?
I was groomed by my father to be an entrepreneur, but the real moment that showed me that being an entrepreneur was where I wanted to be was one day my dad took me to a golf course in the middle of the day. He pointed out to me all the people who were playing golf at twelve o’clock, and what company they owned. His lesson was, the people who could play golf in the middle of the day are the ones who control their free time, and the way they control their free time is by controlling the way they make their money which is by running their own company.
How has mentorship impacted you and influenced your outlook?
The mentoring for me comes in various forms. The first is focusing where I’m going, the second is having a mentor board of advisors that I could always learn from, and the third is surrounding myself with others in masterminds who are learning in the same focused area.
Entrepreneurs are wired differently than the rest of society:
Most have the following traits:
Those aren’t necessarily traits that describe entrepreneurs. They are actually clinically diagnosed traits for bi-polar disorder. Most entrepreneurs have the traits of manic depression. We also have a lot of the signs of attention deficit disorder.
According to the medical community, we’re disasters. We should be medicated. The reality is we are sane. We’re wired exactly the way we’re supposed to be wired. They should not be medicating us. We should learn how to actually leverage those strengths and not call them weaknesses anymore because they’re absolutely strengths that we have.
What we need is for the entrepreneurs to rise up and say, “Stop medicating our kids. Stop saying there’s something wrong with them. Maybe they’re wired exactly as they’re supposed to be. Maybe this is how they’re supposed to think.”, and starting to show the education system they can actually function in high functional ways if they would try to accommodate for those styles.
How can entrepreneurs get supercharged focus?
We need to give ourselves a little bit of a break and allow ourselves to hyperfocus for maybe 8 hours a week, do some buffer work for 16-20 hours a week, and then have lots of free time & breaks scheduled in between just to recharge our brains.
How can entrepreneurs and leaders approach leading teams that consists of four different generations?
We need to understand how each generation works & leverage their strengths, and also teach each other. Traditionalists and baby boomers can learn a ton from Gen X, Gen Y & Gen Z on leveraging technology. Gen X, Y & Z can learn a ton on business processes, planning, and leveraging networking the old fashion way & truly building deep relationships.
How did you enroll “the dream manager” into 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
On day one, get your employees to write down their bucket list. Your role is to help coach people and connect them to people, and get them to start crossing things off their bucket list.
Imagine you could start getting people on your team to achieve the things they want to do before they die, and how much more engaged they’d be in the company.
In your book, you talk about the 5 stages of the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship. How can entrepreneurs approach that Crisis of Meaning (questioning the meaning of life) stage, and what are the steps they should follow to get to the Hopeful Realization stage?
You need to relax your brain and take disconnect times from work or you’ll never be recharged enough to hit the ground running.
Why is important to take time and reflect on the past?
Instead of being busy and learning from everybody else, it’s important to dig deep and ask, “What have I learned from me?”. Instead of reading a book of someone else’s experience, why don’t we tap into our own experiences.
I am probably the best mentor I can have for myself if I will allow myself to be introspective and look at my contributions to my successes and failures.
How will you measure your life?
Right now it’s on my ability to raise good kids. Our role is to raise nice young adults, and to raise happy, healthy children so they can leave the nest.
Last words of wisdom
At the end of the day, let’s not take ourselves so seriously. Can we just wake up in the morning and start having fun with what we do? Let’s leave others that we touch every day with a sense of our smile, our fun and our healthy enjoyment of life cause at the end of the day none of us are getting out of this alive. We might as well have fun along the way.
Show Links
Cameron’s Website - CameronHerold.com
Meetings Suck, Cameron’s newest book on Amazon
“Let’s Raise Kids to Be Entrepreneurs” Tedx Talk
Commit To 3 App - CommitTo3.com
FocusTime (Pomodoro app) - FocusTimeapp.com