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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: 2017
Dec 25, 2017

Last week, I started counting down my five favorite impact moments from the show in 2017. Today we’re wrapping up the year by reflecting on the words of a truly incredible and inspirational person: Mel Robbins.

 

Mel is an expert on leadership and defeating doubt, a motivational powerhouse, and the best-selling author of The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage.

 

The #5SecondRule is unbelievably simple, but practicing it can change the way you approach life – and I don’t know if there’s a better New Year’s Resolution than choosing to implement it in your daily life.

 

Don’t remember what the #5SecondRule is? Here’s a refresher...

 

The first thing you have to understand is that your whole life happens in five second windows.

 

Throughout your day, whether you’re flying high or down in the dumps, you’re making decisions… and when you’re not paying attention, you make decisions based on self-doubt, procrastination, fears, excuses, and feelings.

 

However, within any five second window, you have the choice to ether let self-doubt pull you back down the path or beat the habit of self doubt and take a step forward. “Once you understand the power to these five second decisions, you have the secret to changing absolutely everything.”

 

How does The Five Second Rule work?

 

It’s incredibly simple: the moment you are facing a decision and you are beginning to doubt yourself, count 5-4-3-2-1 in your head.

 

Don’t count up, because you can keep going – when you count backwards, your brain is allowed to shift gears; you can turn off the interior region of the brain where habits are encoded and self-doubt lives, and turn on your prefrontal cortex.

 

By counting, which is an action, you are already making a different decision than listening to self-doubt, and by counting you are moving in a direction that is opposite of self-doubt. As dumb as it may sound, the actual act of counting is incredibly powerful.

 

Bring your resolution to the next level with the 5 Second Journal

 

The 5 Second Journal was created for real people who might miss a couple days of journaling, have a desire to quit forgetting their best friend’s birthday, and want to bring out the badass within by using a simple and science-back solution proven to get the important (and real life) sh*t done.

 

Get your own journal and start 2018 off right by going to 5secondjournal.com.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Dec 18, 2017

2017 has been a wild ride, and I am so grateful that you all have been going on this journey with me. To celebrate the year’s end, I’m sharing the five most impactful moments from the show this year.

 

#5 - Ep. 64 – Getting Motivated at Halftime - with Coach Lou Holtz

 

My conversation with Coach Holtz aired in the middle of the year as part of our Halftime Series. If you had a chance to listen, you understand he knows what it takes to lead and he knows what it takes to win. He taught us that there are three powerful keys to motivation: belief, choices, and dreams.



 

Not only did Coach Holtz succinctly describe the motivation process, but he also precisely highlighted that, at the end of the day, only one person is responsible for our choices. So, as is evidenced by his winning record, he is adept at drawing the very best talent out of people, but he also possess the ability to lead people to greatness. And while the title of leader may be given to you from someone else, true leadership is earned.



 

#4 - Ep. 48 – The Secret to Disrupting Human Performance – with Steven Kotler

 

Steven is the best selling author of books like Rise of Superman, Abundance, BOLD and Stealing Fire, and my conversation with Steven was part of our Disruption Series. His core mission is to design a way for you and me to get into a flow state. When our normal sense of self and time vanishes, we are freed from the drudgery of daily life, we possess a sense of effortless motivation, and are able to tap into a level of inspiration that is normally unavailable to us.



 

Think this stuff is all hocus pocus? Well right now the US Government, the Navy SEALs, Apple, Google, and many others are heavily invested in creating and developing environments around this concept in an effort to massively uplevel human performance – to the tune of $4 trillion.



 

Another incredible factoid that Steven dropped has to do with anxiety and excitement. The chemicals our brain releases when we feel anxious are the same as those that release when we feel excited. The difference in how we experience those chemicals is how we frame the event. Seriously… that was awesome.

 

#3 - Ep. 70 – Giving, Purpose, and Fulfillment & Ep. 71 – Mastering Behavior Change: Tap into Your Purpose & Potential – with John Berardi

 

Dr. John Berardi, co-founder of Precision Nutrition, actually joined us for episodes 70 and 71, in which we talked about purpose. In episode 70, we discussed Precision’s marketing philosophy and why they have grown to be as successful as they are. It’s pretty simple: it’s give, give, give, give, ask. And if you have ever signed up for one of their programs, you know they give a ton away. In fact, just recently, they gave away a 70,000-word document that could have surely been a NYTimes best seller – But their marketing tactic is to give.



 

One of the most important lessons they learned early in the business has to do with Scale. Scale is another one of those buzz words, but what happens if you experience the rewards of success before you have the infrastructure behind you to back you up? In PN’s case, they had a HUGE sale that quickly became their greatest weakness. The proceeds from the sale ended up getting flagged and held by their merchant and, over the course of several months, they sold nearly a half a million dollars in product without receiving a single penny.

 

The first episode with JB was so awesome that I had to bring him on again to talk about his approach to goal setting and planning, as well as what drives real behavior change. Instead of focusing on a specific five year plan the achieve X goal or work with X client by X time, JB and his team focused more on being interested than being interesting, when everyone else was being needy, too aspirational, or all about money and getting paid.



 

#2 - Ep. 72 – Living Life Curious, Fulfilled, & with Purpose – with Marie Forleo

 

The wild and successful Marie Forleo’s has had quite a journey: from NYSE to bartending to choreographing hip hop to launching her digital education company to ultimately being dubbed by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation.



 

And finally, coming in at number 1...

 

...well. actually. you’re going to have to wait until next week when I play that episode in full.

Until then, I wish you Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

 

Now go make an impact!


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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. 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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

 

Dec 11, 2017

The creative mindset is powerful – and guess what? We all possess it.

 

Those who have tapped it may sometimes seem as if they possess superpowers but they don’t; they are just normal people like you and me. The creative mind is simply a way off seeing and engaging in the world around us.

 

Put another way, the creative mindset is a powerful thought process that can open doors and enable us to see opportunity where it seemingly did not exist before. In some cases, it can even make the impossible possible.

 

Think for a moment about all the lessons that Rebecca Jackson, the Juilliard-trained violist, learned during her journey and imparted to us through the stories she told back in episode 87. Rebecca has used music to honor Holocaust survivors, unite refugees, and empower children. She’s very much creating a positive Sound Impact in communities all around the world.

 

Learning to play music taught Rebecca many valuable lessons as a child, all of which helped her get to where she is today. Regardless of our skill, abilities, knowledge, or education, there is always room for growth and we always have something more to learn.

 

Who can you learn from? Well, in Rebecca’s case, in addition to learning from her immediate family, her fellow musicians, and the incredible teachers and mentors she encounters along the way, she is also able to learn from the stories of others: the stories told through voice, through music, and through community.  

 

We have to learn to play together to create a collective, beautiful sound, beautiful product, or beautiful community. This requires an important degree of humility and open-mindedness to hear and see other people’s vision.

 

The incredible artist, Blake Jamieson, shared with us in episode 88 that despite growing up in a creative household, the idea of being a successful professional artist seemed outside the realm of possibility. So he pursued a degree in economics and ended up as a digital marketer helping make other people’s dreams a reality.

 

But that voice inside of him, the seed that was planted in him on the day he was born, kept nagging and he knew he needed to make change. The only thing he knew for certain was that his relationships would be a critical element to his success as an entrepreneur.

 

None of us have to follow the paths forged by others – we can all take action, make ourselves more accountable, and treat our ventures as art so that we can achieve the impact we want to have in the world.



 

The eclectic and talented Lauren Mayhew joined us in episode 89. As an actress and performer, Lauren encounters and manages changing environments on a regular, sometimes moment-by-moment, basis. She shared a ton of insight about developing the ability to be fully present in any situation, making your own opportunity, dealing with rejection, managing her own expectations, and much more.

 

These are not just skills for performers; they are life skill that we all need to develop and hone – not just so we can survive, but so that we can THRIVE.

 

Perhaps the most important insight Lauren shared is the importance of following direction. In her case, she receives a script and reads the script based on her interpretation of the character, the environment, the time, the place, her emotional state, etc. Her ability to adapt to the change, to be flexible to those guiding her, can be the difference between landing the role or not. The same is true for all of us.

 

Whether it is a relationship, a business deal, or any other kind of venture, life will throw us curve balls, deals will fall apart, and relationships will change. If we are too rigid, it can prevent us from adapting and ultimately succeeding in life.

 

This is not to say that you should simply toss in the towel if something falls apart. We should pause, listen, learn, and then respond.

 

This is the perfect time to slow down.

 

As many of you know, I am a Christian, and one of the reasons I launched this show is because I want you and I to realize our God-given potential. It is the season of advent in the Christian tradition. This is a period of time when we wait in hope of the birth of our savior, Jesus.

 

But it is not a time for being idle; it is a time of preparation. Prepare your heart, prepare your mind, till the soil, pick the weeds, and remove the rocks in your heart, mind, and soul to make way for new seeds that will bear great fruit.

 

This is not an easy task because it requires us to become quiet in a very noisy world, and reflect on the rocks and weeds that are preventing the seeds God has planted in us from realizing their full potential, from fully blossoming, from bearing the fruit they are intended to.

 

Regardless of your faith, I invite you to examine your heart and mind, and identify the things that are holding you back or preventing the seeds in your heart from bearing the fruit they are intended to.

 

Until next time, go make an impact!

 

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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Dec 4, 2017

Lauren Mayhew is a powerfully positive person with an eclectic background. She is an actress, a former member of a girl band (that performed with the likes of NSYNC and Destiny’s Child), a TV host, and an EDM performer.

 

Even with all of those notches in her belt, there’s still so much more that Lauren wants to do – “There’s still so much more to accomplish.”

 

Sometimes moving forward means looking back. There’s a reason why cars have a rearview mirror that is smaller than the windshield: it’s important to reflect on the past and see what’s behind you because that informs where you’re going.

 

People like to try to bury the past, but reflecting on both successes and failures can help you in the future – even rejection can be an opportunity.

 

As you move forward, it’s important to stay positive, strive for improvement, and be consistent... although it’s not always easy.

 

Start by identifying the things that will make you more successful, or more well-rounded as a person, and then act on that.

 

“You have to keep driving at it, and that’s what makes the difference. You may not be where you want to be in six months, but you’ll definitely be substantially farther than you were when you started.”

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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 website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

 

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Nov 27, 2017

Blake Jamieson grew up in a creative and artistic household, but he had convinced himself that art wasn’t a viable career path. He worked as a digital marketer for eight years until, just a few years ago, he quit to follow his passion – and stop using his skills to build other people’s dreams.

 

Now Blake is an entrepreneur and an artist. He didn’t have a plan, but he needed a change.

 

During the transition, relationships were everything. “I think the way I was able to transition from a digital marketing nerd to an artist has all just been because of the relationships that I’ve built,” whether those are relationships with other creatives, entrepreneurs, or patrons.

 

Blake’s relationship with himself has also changed dramatically. “I’ve gotten a lot better at self-talk, getting myself ready for the day, and keeping myself accountable (because no one else is doing it).”

 

I believe that we are the ones who are accountable for our choices, and one of the most powerful choices that an entrepreneur, artist, or parent can make is how they talk to themselves about what they are capable of achieving.

 

“I do not have to follow a traditional artist’s path to be a successful artist.”

 

For Blake to achieve his desired reality, painting every day, he had to forge a new path – one that strayed from the traditional artist’s path.

 

Blake’s unique path is creating art for businesses, and he promotes himself through social media, primarily LinkedIn. And, really, LinkedIn is about as unconventional as it gets in the art world.

 

None of us have to follow the paths forged by others – we can all take action, make ourselves more accountable, and treat our ventures as art so that we can achieve the impact we want to have in the world.

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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. 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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Nov 20, 2017

Rebecca Jackson grew up in a family of self-taught artists, with diverse backgrounds – the intersection of Midwestern fiddle jams and South Korean karaoke.

 

Music has given Rebecca a lot over the years, and now she is using music as a tool to give back as Co-Founder of Sound Impact, a collective of musicians dedicated to serving communities and igniting positive change in the U.S. and abroad through live performances, educational programs, and creative collaborations.

 

Rebecca is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Music in May, an annual festival serving the Santa Cruz community with chamber music, and a violinist with the Ensemble in San Francisco, a collective of talented Bay Area musicians who make chamber music hip again.

 

Learning to play music taught Rebecca many valuable lessons as a child, all of which helped her get to where she is today:

 

  • Humility. “You never stop growing. You always have something more to learn.”
  • Teamwork. “You’re not the only voice and you have to learn to play together to create a collective, beautiful sound.”
  • Perseverance. “Because some days are tough and you just have to keep on going, and trust the process and your teacher.”
  • Communication. Learning to have a stage presence teaches both verbal and nonverbal communication skills.
  • Mentorship. The student-teacher relationship is really important in learning music, and it’s a good introduction to the idea that there’s always someone to learn more from.

 

Sound Impact

 

Rebecca Co-Founded Sound Impact because she believes music is an incredibly powerful tool for changing, healing, and uniting communities. It’s so much more than notes on a page – it’s capable of bridging nationalities, religions, and ideologies.

 

Rebecca has used music to honor Holocaust survivors, unite refugees, and empower children. She’s very much creating a positive Sound Impact in communities all around the world.

 

Below you can watch a video of Sound Impact playing “Haim” by Polina Nazaykinskaya. Rebecca commissioned this piece to remember the incredible life of David Arden, the sole survivor of his family during the holocaust and one of Rebecca’s mentors.

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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. 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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Nov 13, 2017

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked to some incredible warriors with powerful stories and huge hearts. I’ve come up with three things that I’m going to do to help me develop a warrior’s heart, and I hope you’ll join me.

 

I’m also going to challenge all of you to share how these Warriors have encouraged you:

  • Create an Instagram story sharing how any of the guests I’ve had on my show have impacted you.
  • Tag me: @theimpactmike

 

  1. Find mentors – Each of our guests developed strong relationships with mentors from an early age, and continue to cultivate those kinds of relationships to this very day. Mentors matter because they can accelerate your success, and they can do that in three ways:
    1. Showing you the path.
    2. Helping you understand and adapt to the environment.
    3. Quickly identifying opportunities and threats.

 

  1. Don’t fall victim to the “comparison conundrum” – Each of our journeys is intensely personal, and it’s because of that very fact that we need to fight the tendency to compare ourselves or our experiences to others. Comparison will do nothing but steal our joy. Here’s how we can kick that habit to the curb:
    1. Choose to – because our choices are incredibly powerful.
    2. Develop greater self-awareness so we can easily identify situations that may cause us to compare ourselves or our experiences to others.
    3. Practice gratitude, because it kills negativity.
    4. Begin taking inventory of our skills. We all possess talents and strengths, and they don’t have to be huge things.
    5. Embrace imperfection.
    6. Enjoy the journey! When you’re fully present in the moment, you’re able to enjoy the process of growth.

 

  1. Say NO to the comfort zone – You don’t have to be the biggest person or the smartest person, but you do have to have what Jason Redman calls a “No Quit Attitude.” You must drive forward, find a way to accomplish your mission, reach your goal, and never quit. We all want to be confident, but the only way we can develop our confidence and grow is if we take action, try new things, embrace failure, and learn from it. It’s only in the possibility for failure that you’ll find the possibility for incredible amounts of success, growth, and development.

 

In the next episode, we’ll be starting The Creative Mindset Series, which will feature some incredibly talented artists and musicians from a variety of mediums. You’ll learn a tremendous amount about entrepreneurship by hearing how they approach and deploy their craft on a daily basis.

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Previous episodes in The Warrior’s Heart series:

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Nov 6, 2017

Carey Lohrenz grew up in a high-performing military family. Her dad was a former United States Marine Corps aviator, and she grew up hoping to be an “awesome warrior aviator just like him.”

 

When Carey grew up, she achieved her dream – she became the first female F-14 Tomcat Fighter Pilot in the U.S. Navy.

 

Today, Carey is a speaker and author who inspires others to do more by sharing the fundamentals that helped her achieve success in the cockpit at Mach 2.

 

Carey never accepted the notion that she wasn’t capable of anything, although people didn’t expect much from her. Her family was told, repeatedly, that she would live a very limited life because she was born without fully-formed hips.

 

Carey spent the first two years of her life in a plaster cast, but her family persisted until, against the odds, she was able to walk.

 

“When you’re growing up and you see pictures of yourself and hear stories of how many people said you weren’t ever going to be capable of anything, it’s going to do one of two things: it’ll either break you or light a fire under your tail.” –Carey Lohrenz

 

In Carey’s book, Fearless Leadership: High Performance Lessons From the Flight Deck, she she walks readers through the three fundamentals a leader must possess to exhibit real fearlessness: courage, tenacity, and integrity.

 

Developing those fundamentals requires action. High achievers aren’t just lucky – they try and try again, even when they’re stuck. Simply stated, “The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”

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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. 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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 30, 2017

Jason Redman is a retired naval officer and U.S. Navy SEAL, and author of The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader. He shares the leadership and life lessons he learned in his business, SOF Spoken, and inspires wounded warriors to overcome with his nonprofit, Wounded Wear.

The process of becoming a SEAL has changed over the years, but the ingredients that make up a good candidate remain the same. During that time, the military has spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out the difference between an individual who completes training and an individual who doesn’t.

Despite all that money, the attrition rate has stayed about the same since SEAL training started – about 75%.

So why don’t more people pass SEAL training?

There’s no one answer, but Jason believes it’s a cultural problem – “As a nation, we are not allowing America’s youth to grow up and encounter failure, and navigate their way through adversity on their own … that cultural shift is having a direct impact on the grit of this current generation.”

Jason credits his own success to grit and tenacity. “I’m definitely not the smartest guy, the biggest guy, or the strongest guy … but I will drive forward, and I will never quit. It doesn’t matter what you tell me – I will figure out a way to get there, and I think that is truly the key to success.”

Jason sees people quitting way too easily in today’s society, and that’s a big problem because you don’t grow when you’re in your comfort zone.

The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader

In his book, Jason is extremely vulnerable and brutally honest about his journey – from not being accepted into the SEALs or Army on his first attempt to his first mistake as a military leader to getting struck by machine-gun fire at point-blank range – and how overcoming those challenges allowed him to grow into a more effective leader.

SOF Spoken

Jason founded SOF Spoken after retiring so that he could share the lessons and abilities learned by Special Operations Forces with leaders, entrepreneurs, and communicators, and the company is built on the idea that leadership is forged by experience in the most difficult moments.

How can entrepreneurs apply these lessons?

  • Tenacity is required – You have to believe in yourself and what you’re doing. Sometimes this means understanding the difference between quitting and falling back.
  • Communication is key – If everybody you work with is informed about what’s going on, you foster better relationships and invite potentially critical feedback.
  • Develop an overcome mindset – “Leaders figure out what they need to do, and they get it done … they evaluate what needs to get done, and then they put the steps in place and discipline themselves to accomplish it.”

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Resources:

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

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 23, 2017

Josh Mantz returns for part two of our conversation in this series about the Warrior’s Heart. Last week, we discussed why Josh became a soldier, the day he died, and the decade-long emotional struggle that inspired his mission to help veterans and non-veterans alike recover from the emotional wounds that severe trauma can cause.

Today, we dig into Josh’s imminent book: The Beauty of a Darker Soul: Overcoming Trauma Through the Power of Human Connection. Josh wrote this book to help others uncover and validate the true source of their pain, and to give them a shared language they can use to express that pain productively.

How Josh Found Meaning in the Suffering

1. Trauma is complex, cumulative, and personal.

That’s why we need to fight our natural tendency to compare ourselves to others. Your experiences are unique and powerful, and you shouldn’t invalidate your trauma by telling yourself the story that it’s less than someone else’s experience.

2. Trauma isn’t always what it seems.

The experience of dying isn’t what caused Josh’s decade of trauma, and it wasn’t the most difficult part for him – it was living with the incurable immune disorder Crohn’s Disease, going through a divorce, and other failed relationships.

That’s why it’s important that you do the deep (and, yes, difficult) forensic work necessary to uncover the root of your trauma, because it may have started 10 years ago and you didn’t notice (because, as we’ve mentioned, it’s also cumulative).

3. Suffer productively

Although trauma is a very personal experience, you don’t need to go on the journey to overcome it alone. If you try to suffer alone, the paths you take can be dangerous, and even irreversible at times.

“Every moment of my life, even times when I adamantly believed that no one could possibly understand the depths of what I was experiencing, there was always someone in my life who proved me wrong. There’s always someone who had the courage and strength to plant healing seeds inside my mind that would eventually start to grow. They had the strength to be vulnerable, and I really believe that that vulnerability is what binds us together at the core of the human experience.”

There’s nothing more powerful in the resolution of trauma than the power of human connection.

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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. 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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 16, 2017

This week we kick off our series about The Warrior’s Heart with Josh Mantz, who was shot and killed in Iraq but came back to life – now he’s on a mission to help veterans and non-veterans alike recover from the emotional wounds that severe trauma can cause.

Two mentors and role models had a significant influence on Josh’s life, and his decision to be a soldier.

The first was his stepfather, a police officer and former infantry officer who brought Josh into a military and police family. He had an incredible positive influence on Josh’s life, and got him thinking about the military as a possibility.

Second was a gentleman named Sergeant Major Doug Van Der Pool. After retiring from the special forces, where he ran anti-drug operations in South America, he took over the Junior ROTC program at a small high school in Pennsylvania.

SGM Van Der Pool and Josh’s stepfather drove home the importance of appreciating foreign cultures, appreciating the capacity of human beings wherever they come from, learning language, understanding cultural norms, and understanding empathy.

Josh entered West Point in 2001 and graduated in 2005. His class is considered “the class of 9/11” because they were freshman on that fateful day, and four years later there was no doubt that they would be sent to fight.

Josh and the other cadets wanted to quit the academy – not to leave the fight, but to enlist and ship off immediately – but, for the most part, they waited and graduated.

The Day Josh Died

Because Josh majored in Arabic, his unit was partnered with the local Iraqi police force and tasked with training them.

One day, they were on a humanitarian mission to deliver school supplies. The operation went off without a hitch, and the Iraqi police did a great job. On the way back, a RPG was fired at an American unit.

While investigating, they noticed a suspicious vehicle driving in the area. They stopped the car, and then they were engaged by an enemy sniper. A bullet ripped through the aorta of the Staff Sergeant and then severed Josh’s femoral artery.

At first, Josh didn’t know he was shot. Time and sound were distorted. “I could only hear the muted sound of the sniper shot and my own voice calling for a medic.”

Despite a brilliant evacuation effort, Josh started to die. “I consciously knew that was it. I took my last breath, said my last thought, and I died.”

His last thought was, “Please take care of them.”

Two days later, Josh woke up in the green zone. He had flatlined for 15 minutes straight and, while he survived, his Staff Sergeant did not. “I would soon come to learn that the experience of dying would pale in comparison to the decade-long emotional struggle that I’d go through as I sought to find meaning in a second life.”

The Beauty of a Darker Soul: Overcoming Trauma Through the Power of Human Connection

Trauma isn’t always what it seems.

It took almost a decade of struggle for Josh to uncover the meaning in his second life – and to admit that the experience of dying wasn’t the source of his trauma… It was the guilt in his ability to heal when so many others in the hospital couldn’t.

This may seem like an unimportant distinction, but when it comes to the resolution of trauma, it’s incredibly important to do the forensic investigation and piece the sequence of events back together, in context.

Josh wrote his upcoming book, The Beauty of a Darker Soul, to help others uncover and validate the true source of their pain, too, and to give them a shared language they can use to express that pain productively.

You can join the Darker Souls community and get news about the release of the book at DarkerSouls.com.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 9, 2017

For the last several weeks, we’ve been studying the power of belief, how we can develop it, and what is required of us. We’ve talked about how small shifts can lead to massive change in our lives.

 

It's been said that if the Earth shifted its Axis by even 1°, it would alter the landscape and environment permanently. Fortunately, the Earth sits perfectly on its axis… But what if we could tilt the landscape of our mind, our beliefs, and our actions by 1 degree? What would your life look like? Who would you be surrounded by? What kind of impact would you have? How fulfilled would you be? What choices would you make?

We kicked off the Belief series with the incredible Tom Bilyeu, Co-Founder of Quest Nutrition, which he helped grow to a BILLION dollars in revenue over the course of 2 years.

 

He was called to do more, so he started an internet TV show called Impact Theory about mindset, peak performance, and fulfillment. This was my second conversation with Tom and it was just as powerful and inspirational as the first interview.

There were two key moments that stood out in my mind.

  • If you want to take advantage of your latent potential, it’s important to shift your beliefs. You can’t necessarily do everything – but you can learn how to do anything, if you put in the effort.
  • Far too many gifted people quit just because someone is better. How bad do you want it? If you’re willing to put yourself on the path and do the hard work for years (or even decades), you can achieve the most extraordinary results. Most people are too afraid to suffer, give things up, and accept that long period of hard work.

 

Dr. Colby Jubenville, co-author of the book Me: How to Sell Who You Are, What You Do, and Why You Matter to the World, joined us to address how he is working with college students and executives across America to bring an end to this self-belief crisis.

 

Dr. Jubenville had his share of adversity from the time he was born; He had a vision problem and was essentially blind, but through continuous support, improvement, and struggle, Colby taught himself to see through the cobwebs in his eyes. Colby said we live in a society where belief isn’t appreciated, intentional, or taught, but Colby believes that the two greatest opportunities we have in life are:

  • Helping people find their voice (and voice is the intersection of talent, passion, conscience, and need in the world)

  • After they find their voice, teaching them to develop, protect, and maintain their confidence.


If you can help someone do both of those things, there’s nothing they can’t do.

 

Kevin Hall, author of Aspire: Discover Your Life Purpose Through the Power of Words, joined us to talk about… well, words. It may sound simple, but this is one of the most powerful episodes I have done on this show. His work literally changed my life 6 years ago, and I continue to talk about it on a daily basis.

 

Our words – internal or external – precede our action, so first it starts with understanding the power of the words we use when we are speaking to ourselves or others.

 

One of the most powerful words Kevin has encountered is the word GENSHAI, which means never treat another person in a manner that will make them feel small, including yourself.

 

I think this world could use a lot more of that, but here’s the thing: it starts with yourself. In other words, I am not going to wait around for someone else to treat me with dignity before I begin treating others with dignity.

 

Doing so leads directly into the power of the word BELIEVE, which means to Be Love. When you believe in yourself, you love yourself. When you believe in others, you love others.

 

I know some of you might think that is corny, but why? Why do we think that way? In order to break the cycle of limiting belief that we’ve been living in, we must start loving ourselves and others.

Now you might be feeling overwhelmed or thinking to yourself that there is a bunch of stuff you need to do. Don’t I need a vision? Don’t I need a mission? Don’t I need a purpose? No!

 

You just need to start taking action.

 

As Dr. Albert Bandura says in his Self Efficacy Theory, the fastest way to build self confidence is to move from ‘I think I can,’ to ‘I know I can,’ to ‘I can.’ And the only way to do that is by taking action.

 

Once you get comfortable taking action, then you will have developed the fundamentals to being to build a vision, a mission and a purpose.

 

Mel Robbins, author of The 5 Second Rule, ties TNT to the common motivational content ubiquitous in the entrepreneurial world and detonates it. Mel is trying to rid the world of the notion that one can just sit around and wait for some fairy godmother to do the work for them.

 

Too often, we allow ourselves to get stuck, but Mel’s 5 Second Rule is so simple and powerful there is no way to really argue against it: “Either you’re somebody who wants to change, or you’re someone who wants to bitch about it. “ Which one are you?

 

Finally, once we get comfortable with taking action and begin to build a vision and discover our purpose, the fastest way to accelerate achievement is to understand how we are wired or manufactured. Gary Vee talks about this, Mike Dillard talked about this back in January, Dr. Jubenville talked about it a few weeks ago, and he specifically mentioned the power of the Harrison Assessment.

 

I am a huge fan of assessments because they use innovative processes to ask you questions you might otherwise not ask yourself, and the answers uncover your key strengths and areas you might need to examine.

 

In my episode with Julie Scher, managing partner of Harrison Assessments and Co-Founder of Peak Focus Coaching, you were able to listen into a private conversation where she picked apart an assessment I took analyzing my key strengths and areas of growth. What have you done to assess your innate skills, gifts and talents?

Next week, we’re starting a new series on The Warrior’s Heart. Our guests will include:

  • Josh Mantz, who was shot and killed in Iraq but came back to life and is now on a mission to help veterans and non-veterans alike recover the emotional wounds severe trauma can cause.
  • Jason Redman is a NAVY SEAL and author of The Trident, where he shares the dangerous effects of ego and the leadership lessons he learned after nearly losing his Trident, and how those lessons ultimately helped him regain the respect of his brothers, become a leader in the team, and aided in his recovery after nearly dying from a gunshot wound to the face.
  • Carey Lohrenz is the US NAVY’s first female F14 Tomcat Fighter pilot, and we will discuss the lessons she learned to become a Fearless Leader while in the midst of a great many obstacles.

If you want to join the movement to have a game changing impact in the lives of others, head over to theimpactentreprenuer.net/join to learn more.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Oct 2, 2017

One of the quickest ways to accelerate achievement and progress in your own personal development is to understand how you are manufactured. We touched on this idea in Episode 77 when Dr. Colby Jubenville discussed his experience with the Harrison Assessment.

Today we’re diving deeper into the power of self-awareness, and Harrison Assessments specifically, with Julie Scher, a die-hard entrepreneur and a Founder of Peak Focus, a business coaching and consulting company.

Julie’s first experience with Harrison Assessments was about 15 years ago, when she was a shareholder in a startup company. There was a major internal management conflict, so they brought in a Harrison expert. It was an extremely painful experience for everybody involved, but the assessment helped them resolve the conflict.

“At that point, I was just sold on Harrison. It was an amazing tool. It not only helped us all understand ourselves – it helped the team understand how our behavior impacted ourselves and impacted others.”

After the conflict was resolved, Julie left the startup, pulled her father out of retirement, and started Peak Focus. They became managing partners of Harrison Assessments so that they could help others resolve similar conflicts.

It all comes down to developing self-awareness around how your behavior impacts other people, and understanding that behavior is a choice. We can choose to adapt and behave differently, if we are aware and willing.

So what exactly is the Harrison Assessment?

The Harrison Assessment helps you understand your strengths, challenges, enjoyments, and interest levels – and it provides a roadmap of the next steps you can take to get where you want to be.

Specifically, it gathers data to measure the strength of behavioral tendencies, which is your preference level for specific behavioral traits. From one assessment, a Harrison expert can generate multiple reports that will enable you to explore your successes and challenges, and the reports describe your likely behavior based on your answers to a questionnaire.

This will give you insight into specific, actionable behaviors that you can use to further your personal development; an opportunity for self-awareness.

There are two theories behind Harrison Assessments:

  1. Enjoyment-Performance Theory – When we enjoy a task, we do it more often, and when we repeat a behavior, we tend to get better at doing it. This results is positive recognition and feedback, which further increases our enjoyment of the behavior. On the flip side, we tend to avoid the things we don’t enjoy, and we don’t usually do them enough to get better or improve.

  2. Paradox Theory – Paradoxical traits are those that may seem to be contradictory, but in fact are complementary and synergistic. According to this theory, a trait can either be constructive or destructive, depending on other complementary traits. For example, when frankness is complimented by diplomacy, it takes the constructive form of being forthright and truthful… however, without the complementary trait of diplomacy, frankness can become bluntness. There are 12 sets of paradoxical behaviors, and each of these pairs consists of a dynamic trait and a gentle trait.

What’s wrong with Mike Flynn (AKA Mike’s Development Report for the Analyzes Pitfalls trait)?

If you want a better idea of how these assessments work, here you can view a report analyzing the development area of Analyzes Pitfalls, or Mike’s tendency to scrutinize potential difficulties related to a plan or strategy.

The first part of the report is an assessment that concludes, “If you keep a balance of optimism and scrutinizing potential pitfalls, you are much more likely to achieve your goals at work and in your personal life. Although strategic decision-making is usually only important in the workplace for management positions, each of us could benefit from better strategic decisions in our personal lives.”

Following the assessment is an exercise Mike can use to analyze the potential pitfalls of a plan or strategy.

If you are interested in working with Julie for personal or professional development, head over to PeakFocusCoach.com.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Sep 25, 2017

Mel Robbins is an expert on leadership and defeating doubt, a motivational powerhouse, and the best-selling author of Stop Saying You’re Fine and The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage.

Nine years ago, things weren’t going quite as well for Mel. She lost her job, and she was on the verge of divorce and bankruptcy. As things started to go off the rails financially, her attitude, habits, and ability to cope followed. “It was a major crisis of confidence, of belonging, of career, of marriage… of everything.”

When we experience adversity, the problems can feel so overwhelming that we don’t know how to solve them… and, in those moments, we will fall back on our habits, good or bad.

If Mel had discovered The Five Second Rule earlier in life, she would have been equipped to respond to that adversity a little differently.

So how can we use The Five Second Rule to get past setbacks or disappointments?

The first thing you have to understand is that your whole life happens in five second windows.

Throughout your day, whether you’re flying high or down in the dumps, you’re making decisions… and when you’re not paying attention, you make decisions based on self-doubt, procrastination, fears, excuses, and feelings.

However, within any five second window, you have the choice to ether let self-doubt pull you back down the path or beat the habit of self doubt and take a step forward. “Once you understand the power to these five second decisions, you have the secret to changing absolutely everything.”

How does The Five Second Rule work?

It’s incredibly simple: the moment you are facing a decision and you are beginning to doubt yourself, count 5-4-3-2-1 in your head.

Don’t count up, because you can keep going – when you count backwards, your brain is allowed to shift gears; you can turn off the interior region of the brain where habits are encoded and self-doubt lives, and turn on your prefrontal cortex.

By counting, which is an action, you are already making a different decision than listening to self-doubt, and by counting you are moving in a direction that is opposite of self-doubt. As dumb as it may sound, the actual act of counting is incredibly powerful.

After Mel started implementing the five second rule, everything in her life changed. She was changing your decisions, five seconds at a time.

Nine years later, she and her husband have gone from facing divorce and bankruptcy to celebrating 21 years of marriage and launching two multi-million dollar companies together.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Sep 18, 2017

Kevin Hall’s book, Aspire: Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words, changed my life… and I don’t use those words lightly. There are very few events or books that have impacted my life in such a profound way.

When I was gifted a copy of Aspire, I was intending to leave the financial services industry – however, I devoured the book, and I came away re-committed and re-engaged. The book taught me just how powerful our words are, and how they can change the way we believe about ourselves and impact the world.

Embark on a Journey To Fulfill Who You Are Meant to Be

In Aspire, Kevin writes, “Understanding, as well as appreciating, our unique calling is critical. The two most important days of our life are the day we are born and the day we discover what we were born to do. That’s the day we catch the vision of who we are meant to be.”

There are two words that helped guide Kevin to his unique calling:

  1. Genshai - Originating in India, Genshai means that you will never treat another person in a manner that will make them feel small – including yourself. “When I believe in myself I love myself, and when I love myself I treat myself with respect.”
  2. Inspire - The earliest origin to ‘-spire’ is breath, and inspiration is a way to breathe life into someone else and their dreams.

 

3 Questions That Will Guide You

  1. How can I bring more joy into my life each day?
  2. How can I become greater at what I’m greatest at?
  3. How can I best serve others?

Five Affirmations to Get Ollin

Ollin is a word from the Aztec calendar that means you have to move and act with all your heart. It engages your heart, and the more senses you can get engaged with an intention, goal, or dream, the more likely you are to achieve it.

  1. I am worthy.
  2. I am capable and grateful.
  3. I forgive (myself and others).
  4. I am abundant.
  5. I trust myself.

As you embark on your journey, remember these eight words: Act as if it is impossible to fail.

Do you want to help this podcast make an even greater impact? Click here to go to patreon.com/theimpactmike and show your support.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Sep 11, 2017

We’re suffering from a crisis of self-belief in which people limit themselves and what they’re capable of achieving.

The entrepreneurial world focuses heavily on casting a vision, as if your vision is the #1 reason you’re either going to succeed or fail. That vision is certainly important, but before you can have a vision, you need to believe you’re capable of achieving something.

Growing up, Dr. Colby Jubenville could barely see and he didn’t think he was enough. However, a support system that instilled resilience and perseverance helped him work through the adversity and restore his self-belief. In this conversation, we explore how he was able to make such a powerful transformation, adversity’s role in change, and why self-belief is so vital.

Colby is an accomplished author, international speaker, professor, business advisor, entrepreneur, and inventor. He holds an academic appointment at Middle Tennessee State University as Special Assistant to the Dean for Student Success and Strategic Partnerships in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences.

When Colby was born with an eye condition, the doctors told his parents that he was technically blind and the best he could achieve was functional literacy.

Colby’s parents never believed that. Through continuous support, improvement, and struggle, Colby taught himself to see through the cobwebs in his eyes.

Colby’s coaches, teachers, and parents did three extremely important things to help restore his self-belief:

  1. They made him have conversations he didn’t want to have
  2. They made him do things he did not want to do.
  3. They believed Colby could be something greater than he thought was possible, and they reinforced that belief.

We live in a society where belief isn’t appreciated, intentional, or taught… but Colby believes that the two greatest opportunities we have in life are:

  • Helping people find their voice (and voice is the intersection of talent, passion, conscience, and need in the world)
  • After they find their voice, teaching them to develop, protect, and maintain their confidence.

If you can help someone do both of those things, there’s nothing they can’t do.

People want personal change, and they’re not necessarily afraid of change – but they are afraid of the transition between their current reality and their desired reality. People tend to make that transition bigger in their head than it actually is, so how can we make that transition feel smaller?

Colby says changes comes from “Do. Feel. Think.

  • Colby changed what he did in the weight room and in practice.
  • That changed the way he felt about himself and what he could become.
  • Eventually, that changed the way he thought about what the future could look like.

“To really be an entrepreneur, you have learn how to use adversity to accelerate growth.”

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Sep 4, 2017

There are some people who say you’re either born an entrepreneur or you’re not – we reject that theory entirely here at The Impact Entrepreneur Show, and so does our returning guest, Tom Bilyeu, CEO of Impact Theory and Co-Founder of QuestNutrition.

Tom is passionate about pulling people out of “The Matrix” by helping them overcome the limiting beliefs that hold them back from expressing their true potential. And the belief that you are born one way, or not, is one of the most fundamentally limiting beliefs that you can have.

If you want to take advantage of your latent potential, it’s important to shift your beliefs. You can’t necessarily do everything – but you can learn how to do anything, if you put in the effort.

“I believe that humans are this big bundle of latent potential, and the meaning of life is to see how much of that potential you can actually transform into action and accomplishment.”

A Healthy Growth Mindset

Tom also experienced an important mindset shift related to money and growth.

As a kid, Tom promised himself he would be ripped and rich. He ultimately succeeded, but he realized that money wasn’t really what he wanted. Money can’t affect the way you feel about yourself.

“The moment of generating wealth in your life is like having the greatest bowl of ice cream you’ve ever had. It’s awesome… and then it will wear off more rapidly than you can imagine.”

However, money is still an incredibly powerful tool and its ability to facilitate is unparalleled. Bill Gates may actually cure malaria, but he’ll only be able to do it because he has access to massive resources.

By itself, money is inert... But once you have a mission, and build a business around that, the money becomes an incredibly empowering force.

The most important thing you can do before launching a new business or platform is finding your mission – your Why – so that you can use it as a filter to guide your strategy.

Conquering Your Fear

Many people don’t achieve their true potential, or even try, because they’re afraid. So many of us look up to high achievers and make excuses about why we’re not able to do as much.

But if you’re willing to put yourself on the path and do the hard work for years (or even decades), you can achieve the most extraordinary results. Most people are too afraid to suffer, give things up, and accept that long period of hard work.

Will you let fear prevent you from creating a massive impact?

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Aug 28, 2017

Our lives have meaning. We are called to do something. We can do more than we can possibly ask, think, or imagine. And if you even hope that last statement is true… why wouldn’t you choose to lean into that belief?

This is the last episode in the Find Your Purpose series, in which we reflect on the most important lessons that our guests shared. This series is meant to stoke your thinking, inspire you to ask questions, and show you that it is possible to be an entrepreneur driven by a strong purpose and mission, while serving others and living the life that you want.

The major thread tying all of these episodes together is that aligning your goals with a purpose greater than yourself, what you are creating, or the amount of money you have in the bank can give you the perspective and mindset necessary to achieve success in almost any environment.

The other thing that sets high achievers apart is that they know what they stand for – they have a set of core values that drive them, and that they can refer back to when they are going astray or times get tough. Create your own list and ask yourself: Am I living these values right now?

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Did you miss an episodes in the Find Your Purpose series? Click the links below to listen on TheImpactEntrepreneur.net, or subscribe to the show on iTunes or Google Play so you never miss an episode.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Aug 21, 2017

Cole Hatter is an entrepreneur and the creator of Thrive: Make Money Matter, the conference for entrepreneurs and business professionals who want to discover practical income-growing business strategies, create a positive impact in the world, and leave a lasting legacy.

We explore Cole’s story, what you can expect from Thrive 2017, and how he uses his platform to have a game-changing impact in the lives of others.

Finding Your Community & Making an Impact

At a young age, Cole’s family and community exposed him to a life of giving, making an impact, and living a life of purpose. This made a big imprint on his life, and it’s guided his career course.

Even if you didn’t grow up in a supporting community or don’t have one now, it’s not too late to find a group of people that share your core values and wants to make a difference in the world. It’s just a matter of plugging in and finding those communities.

We all have habits, hobbies, passions, and careers, so it’s just a matter of identifying what those things are and finding people to share them with you. You have to take a quick survey of who you are to find connecting points.

Turning Adversity into Impact

When Cole was young, he had two car accidents in two months that left him physically broken, and he was emotionally broken after losing two friends. Cole knew he couldn’t waste the rest of his life feeling sorry for surviving, so now he lives life big enough to honor all three of them.

Thrive: Make Money Matter

Cole’s life is dedicated to changing the world, and he saw that there were a lot of other people who also wanted to own businesses that do the same. So he decided to start an event, called it Thrive, and tried to fill a room with entrepreneurs who want to make money AND make their money matter.

Cole started the first Thrive because he wanted to share this message with the world, and he put $500,000 of his own money on the line to make it happen.

The event gets awesome speakers – previous speakers include Gary Vaynerchuk, Jack Canfield, John Lee Dumas, Grant Cardone, Lewis Howes, and more  – but, surprisingly (and appropriately), attendees say that their favorite part is the community of like-minded individuals who want to change the world.

If you want to attend Thrive 2017 from September 29th to October 1st in Las Vegas, head over to AttendThrive.com to reserve your spot!

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Aug 14, 2017

How does a volunteer english teacher from Oregon end up starting one of the world’s most premium leather bag companies, in Mexico of all places?

It all starts with the spirit of adventure and optimism that was instilled in our guest, Dave Munson, CEO of Saddleback Leather Co., at a young age.

You’ll notice throughout this conversation that Dave raises his hand and says “Yes!” a lot.

Dave’s first introduction to tough leather was on the back of a bull, during a bullfight… while he was fighting the bull. Then he relocated to be closer to his fledgling bag business, and soon found himself in an encounter with a corrupt Federale, who quickly became a friendly (but still corrupt) Federale.

At every step of his incredible journey, Dave’s confidence and willingness to accept new challenges led him to new opportunities. He believes that trying new and unfamiliar things is one of the keys to success in every area of life.

“It’s kinda weird when I see someone being self-centered. You’re really missing out, buddy!”

Saddleback Leather started as just Dave and his dad fulfilling orders together, but now it’s a thriving company with 70 employees and a factory in Mexico. Of course, he can’t pilot that ship alone. Dave understands the value of keeping wise counsel, asking great questions, and letting the sailors sail the ship.

Following his passion for producing the perfect leather bag did come at a cost – he had to stop working directly with youths, and he felt like helping children was his mission in life.

As it turns out, Saddleback Leather supports a much larger ministry than Dave was ever able to alone. Instead of Dave around a campfire with 30 kids, he can financially support dozens of campfires surrounded by kids. On top of that, he’s able to provide free daycare for employees in his factory, offer classes to employees internationally, and support a vocational training program in Rwanda.

“The more you step out and try things, the easier it is to say yes.”

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Aug 7, 2017

Marie Forleo’s is a wildly successful coach with the mission to live a full life as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, and help others do the same. She didn’t get there overnight, though. The journey took years, an incredible amount of hard work, and humility.

Her entrepreneurial journey started in a flurry on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, when Marie realized that she was not being the person she wanted to be. Marie had to quit her job on the floor of the NYSE and pursue her purpose.

She then went from the trading floor to bartending to Condé Nast to choreographing hip hop for MTV to being one of the world’s first Nike Elite Dance Athletes – then she went on to write an international bestseller and launch a digital education company that caused Oprah Winfrey to dub Marie as “a thought leader for the next generation.”

Curiosity is Essential

“You have to be curious and you have to stay curious, if you want to continue learning and growing and, most importantly, innovating.”

Curiosity is one of the keys to long-term success, and Marie’s multi-passionate career is driven by an insatiable curiosity.

If you believe you already know everything, you’re going to fail. You may fail in six months or six years, but you’re going to fall on your face.

The Future of Entrepreneurship

Soon, more and more people will have to behave in an entrepreneurial manner, even if they’re not necessarily founding a company. There are more freelancers than there have ever been, more people working with flexible schedules, and intrapreneurs are becoming increasingly valuable within organizations.

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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.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Jul 31, 2017

John Berardi, PhD, CSCS, Co-Founder of Precision Nutrition, is back for round 2! In the last episode, we discussed the importance of mentorship and how John uses Precision Nutrition as a vehicle to help others find the relationships they need to make meaningful changes in their lives.

This week we’re digging into what John and his team have learned about mastering behavior change, and applying that to industries outside of the fitness and nutrition space.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water...

When John is talking about behavior change, he likes to use the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Essentially, that adage means that, unless someone wants to drink the water, unless they want to change, nothing else can have an impact.

But John disagrees. You can’t make the horse drink – but you can make it very, very thirsty.

That’s what coaching behavior change is: you can’t force or trick anyone to change, but you can put them in a position where they decide to change themselves; you can make them thirsty.

Coaching with Psychology

Most fitness and coaching programs are very prescriptive: eat this, don’t eat that, do these exercises, and do this number of reps. The coach positions themselves as an expert who tells the person being coached what to do.

It’s the easiest possible way to coach, but it’s not effective. People join programs, lose focus from other parts of their life, “fall off the wagon,” then go back to the gym... But now they’re less fit, more dejected, and their behavior hasn’t changed. It’s a vicious yo-yo.

Precision Nutrition does things differently, and they incorporate change psychology: building practices and habits that integrate with your life as it is today to develop skills that you can take with you into the future.

They want to engage with the client in a way that recognizes the realities of their life and helps them make changes that are lifestyle-based, instead of project-based.

Practice > Skills > Goals

Practice leads to skills, and skills lead to goals.

You can use Precision Nutrition’s style of coaching to achieve any goal, not just fitness goals. First you develop skills or habits, then those skills help you achieve your goals. But the development of those skills doesn’t come naturally. It comes through daily practice.

Willpower is Irrelevant in Real Behavior Change

John says that willpower is irrelevant in real behavior change because it speaks to the very thing that he wants to avoid when trying to coach change.

He doesn’t want you to white knuckle your way to any lifestyle change – he wants it to feel like a natural part of your existence.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Jul 24, 2017

Today’s guest, John Berardi, PhD, CSCS, is Co-Founder of Precision Nutrition. His purpose is making health and fitness something that's achievable and attainable for every type of person, from every walk of life.

Mentors helped John completely change his life and start his path in nutrition, so the company is his vehicle to pay that forward and help others find the relationships they need to make meaningful changes in their lives.

Give, Give, Give, Give, Ask

Precision Nutrition’s marketing has a specific cadence and ratio for how much they want to give before they ask for anything in return. It can be summed up simply as Give, Give, Give, Give, Ask.

It’s strategic, but it also reflects the idea of giving without expectation of return on a huge scale. This changes the business at its core, and it impacts how other people perceive the business.

Be a Mentor and a Mentee

The mentor-mentee relationship is extremely important for personal and career development. Mentors have something valuable to offer people who are trying to follow a similar path, and it’s only good to share that.

Mentors also get a lot of value in seeing their mentee implement the teachings and grow, so it becomes a mutually rewarding relationship.

However, even after you have a lot of value to offer, it’s still important to look at the people farther on the path than you and find your own mentors. This will help you continue to grow, and it will help you offer the most to your own mentees.

Precision Nutrition: Give Yourself an Opportunity to Continue

The precursor to Precision Nutrition was a dial-up era website, Science Link, attempting to link regular people with the helpful information discussed in scientific research.

They weren’t selling anything but, two years later, they had 40,000 people subscribed to their newsletter, and they were building a reputation in the industry.

Precision Nutrition officially launched in late 2006. They consolidated their teachings into the Precision Nutrition System, created an online support community, and created a series of books. Their greatest success – a huge sale – quickly became their greatest weakness.

Because the fitness industry is known for scams and there are frequent chargebacks, the sudden success got flagged as a scam and their merchant company held the money. Over the course of the sale, which went on for a few months, they sold nearly half a million dollars in product without receiving a single dollar.

This taught John an important lesson: the ability to keep doing what you love doing is fragile. Even a big success can topple it so, if you love what you’re doing, you have to give yourself the opportunity to continue.

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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

Jul 17, 2017

Brad Stulberg researches, writes, speaks, and coaches on the science of human performance. He explores the principles of mastery that transcend capabilities and domains – the underlying practices that are necessary for sustainable success – and helps others implement those practices.

Brad writes about performance in New York and Outside magazines and co-authored Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success.

“It’s very, very hard to go full tilt without giving yourself time to rest and recover.”

High performers are often driven or passionate, and we’ve discussed passion a lot on The Impact Entrepreneur Show, but we rarely discuss the dark side of passion.

When we’re truly driven by a passion, we may not have the ability to turn it off or detach from it. This is dangerous because, inevitably, you will burn out and fall short of your peak. That’s why rest is a vital ingredient in sustainable success.

In Peak Performance, Brad writes about The Growth Equation: Stress + Rest = Growth. (Stress, in this context, doesn’t mean something negative – in biological terms, it is any stimulus or challenge to an organism.)

Balance doesn’t really exist, so we’re not going consider this equation in terms of balance. Instead, the challenge is finding just the right amount of friction to keep going without experiencing so much friction that you stop completely.

All world-class performers are aware of this cycle. They understand that achieving a goal requires leaving their comfort zone (stress), but what separates the best performers from those that fall short is that the best performers also have the courage to rest.

So how can individuals and organizations prevent their passion from turning into obsession and figure out The Growth Equation?

Aligning your goals with a purpose greater than yourself, what you are creating, or the amount of money you have in the bank can give you the perspective and mindset necessary to achieve sustainable success.

The first step is to reflect on what your core values are, or guiding principles for how you want to live your life and function as a person.

  • Examples of common core values: Creativity, community, intellect, health, knowledge, power, humility, love, relationships.
  • Reflect on one or two values that really resonate with you and what they mean to you, and put a personal spin on it. Then you can ask yourself, “Am I living these core values?”

When we combine this sort of visualization and reflection with presence, powerful things can happen.

“All great performers have figured out the value of single-tasking.”

The key to maintaining presence, especially in today’s notification-heavy digital age, is single-tasking.

Whether you’re having an important conversation with your romantic partner, writing a white paper, pitching a client, or building a financial model, if you are completely focused on what you are doing you tend to have significantly better results and output.

One of the simplest tricks to make single-tasking easier is to simply remove temptation. Even when we’re not using our phones, for example, their presence has an effect on our brain and our focus. If we remove the possibility of distraction, and another decision, we don’t have to rely on our willpower to be productive.

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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

Jul 10, 2017

This episode marks the end of the Halftime Series. Mike reflects on the biggest lessons our guests taught us about not giving up, growth, and serving others.

Halftime is over. Get ready for kick-off and remember to grab the opportunity bull by the horns and ride it into submission. You can start by heading over to The Impact Entrepreneur Show page on Facebook and sharing what you are going to do with the rest of your year.  

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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

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