I’m thrilled to connect with James Kyson and to be able to bring you his story in today’s podcast. You might know James from his starring role in the NBC hit show, ‘Heroes,’ and since then he’s made many other appearances on the big and small screens.
According to James, there's actually a lot of overlap between the life of an entrepreneur and an actor. He’s learned a lot from his time in Hollywood, and one thing in particular is how to deal with the rejection and struggle that actors often face. Some actors dread the necessary but ultimately painful act of auditions, but not James. He’s learned to reframe and relanguage the experience: Instead of an "audition" it's simply "an appointment to share." He’s not going out there to try and win some thing, but instead he’s sharing himself with others and any job that comes from that is a byproduct or “icing on the cake.”
Entrepreneurs can use this mindset when thinking about their products or content, and therefore can take the pressure of. Share value (do your research to know it's valueable) and avoid concerning yourself with haters or rejection for what you're putting out there.
James also embodies an intentional entrepreneurial mindset in that he finds freedom within the structure of the morning ritual he's created with his wife Jamee. Their mornings are blocked off for time spent with each other doing things that enrich their lives like exercise, breakfast, reading and meditation. By the time he hits the computer and email at 11am he’s already had a very productive and enriching day. These morning rituals ensure that his personal life is fed first and that spills over to his professional life as well.
In addition to his morning routine, James habitually keeps his phone on airplane mode and then batches reactive tasks throughout the day. He'll also combine these mandatory to-dos with other activities he enjoys to further create the type of life he wants to be leading. For example he’ll make all his calls at once, but do so while he’s out for an hour long walk. This practice of avoiding the distractions of email, texts and instant messenger requests has led him to being much more productive.
“When things are focused and allocated to a specific structure, you allow yourself to be more honed in and more productive within that time frame.”
One of the great things about batching and doing things on your own schedule is that people just get used to it, they adjust to your pattern. What you do and how you respond will become their expectations of you.
A great practice that James has is taking stock of a typical week and seeing how his time is spent because what is measured can be controlled. This comes in two steps:
If he knows he’ll have a computer-heavy week, he’ll make adjustments for balance. “Human beings weren’t meant to live in a series of boxes.” Many of us are stuck in a terrible cycle: waking up in a box, driving to work in one, sitting all day in one, heading back home and spending the next 12 hours in one. Look for ways to break this pattern and do the things that humans were meant to do like move around, get sunlight, enjoy nature and communicate with others.
In addition to his acting, these days James keeps busy working on a handful of projects with his wife, Jamee. One example is a series of videos they are developing focused on finding your soul mate. He says that the first step for those looking for love is to first come to a place of love within yourself. With online dating and social media nowadays, it’s very stressful looking for the perfect mate. Why not instead ask yourself, “What is the best partner that I can become for somebody else?” When you focus your energy and time into that journey, dating and romance takes care of itself.
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I’m so excited to get the chance to catch up with Dan Norris in today’s podcast. He’s the kind of guy who knows how to get stuff done and this was a great interview as he shares with the audience how he attains much of his success.
Dan started his online career through blogging. He’s always been a content machine, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that he started writing great content that gained traction. This traction led to his first book, and perennial best seller, ‘The 7 Day Startup.’ He’s never been able to sit on content after it’s created, so as he wrote the book over a handful of weeks, he would publish parts of it as whole articles on his blog to see what stuck with readers.
When it comes to creating content, Dan doesn’t have any kind of daily rituals to force him to churn it out. Instead, he writes in short bursts when he feels the inspiration to do so, and only on things that really interest him. (that's the key!) “It’s quite easy to write a lot when you’re actually really into it.”
Of course the book turned out great, and with the aid of a community Facebook group, he was able to get the word out about it and elicit many great reviews. He now has two versions of popular 7-Day Startup membership groups; the free Facebook group, and a paid membership site where users get advanced support on their business and access to educational content.
To help manage these groups, he depends on the support of his assistants. This is another process that Dan leverages to free up his time: utilizing low cost support to do the bulk of the necessary tasks that help with nurturing the group. Some of the things that his VAs handle within the group:
Outsourcing is a cheap way to get really good people. He works with a small team in the Philippines where the cost of living is much cheaper, so the lower wage is actually quite good.
Protip for outsourcing: For each task you hand off to your VA, Dan recommends creating a set of instructions using text, images and video detailing exactly how it should be done. There’s some hand holding in the beginning, but repeat tasks get learned quickly and you’ll eventually start saving yourself loads of time.
Dan is definitely a doer, and a go getter and he embodies the boldness that is being the person that will put themselves out there while others sit back and watch. He believes, If you do this enough, you will get rewarded. He notes that for someone like him, the entrepreneurial life is naturally where he belongs. He felt out of place doing anything but, and he likes the freedom of being an entrepreneur and the rewards it brings.
“The people who get rewarded are the people that just do the work”
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Best known for his best selling books, $100 Startup, Art of NonConformity, Happiness of Pursuit, and now Born For This, Chris Guillebeau is an impressive guest on so many levels. He's also one of the most humble humans I've ever met.
As anyone who attends one of his events can see, the foundation of Chris’ work is connection and community. A question that he’s always asking himself is, “How can I be a part of someone else’s life?” He enjoys connecting with people who are already excited and motivated but who might lack a tool, resource or accountability.
He’s all about practically helping motivated people to become more awesome or to find another expression of their awesomeness by giving them what they might be lacking, and that's why we connected on his recent book tour, and he's now gracing The Bold Life Movement Podcast with his unconventional view on the world.
Chris’ most recent book, ‘Born for This’ is an essential tool for anyone who is looking to find the work they were born to do. One idea that I loved was this concept of resigning from your job every year. Since we often get stuck in a situation, neither too bad nor too good, that we don’t attempt to get out of, this is a great rest to ensure that we're always intentionally choosing our own circumstances. This is a beneficial because now you can look forward to the coming year knowing you’ve actively made the best decision for you.
As a child Chris found much inspiration from his father. Nowadays he draws inspiration from people in the community that are doing awesome stuff and are on a journey or a project of their own. These inspirational people are just regular folks who do the work because they’re committed to it. Their sacrifices and struggles are what truly inspire him.
One of the things that attracted me most to Chris, is that [he too] has always had an issue with authority and is generally a non-conformist. He began to see this as a gift for himself, which since has led to extensive world travel and many great life experiences. His entrepreneurial journey started as a search for freedom at first, but has evolved into a life purpose, became a way to serve the world. He's constantly looking for ways he can add value to others.
Chris’ message reaches such a broad audience, and he actually goes as far as to say that you don’t have to niche-down for success. “Who you are is much broader than any niche.” Whether you go broad or focus on a niche, though, the message you deliver is critical. Your message is your beliefs, and you’re putting them forward as an invitation or a challenge to those who resonate with it. The message is not optional, his advice is to focus on this more than anything else.
To Chris, being bold is taking risks, being afraid and doing hard things that lead to good things in life.
”Once you go down the road of adventure, you don’t always know where you’ll end up. You may get where you’re hoping to get but you may get even further or to a totally different, interesting and exciting place.”
Chris has made tremendous impacts in the lives of thousands, and he’s a man of much humility with a powerful message to share. It was so surreal and humbling to connect with someone whose message and whose story is so empowering.
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I’m excited to introduce Lori Darley to the listeners. She is a leadership coach and trainer who uses her skills to foster communication within the organizations she works with. Her coaching focuses on communications and giving and receiving feedback within the organization.
For a long time now, Lori has been involved in conscious capitalism; the idea that we can conduct business through mindful social, economic and environmental practices. She runs her business, Conscious Leaders, LLC this way and it’s a part of the values she coaches her clients and their employees in.
“When you pay attention to the value that everybody brings to the organization, and they are seen and heard as valuable individuals, then they become more engaged.”
The purpose of her company is to evolve the consciousness of the entire planet. Quite a goal, but Lori is absolutely capable of affecting this type of evolution.
To make any type of transcendent evolution or even just to solve a problem you’re facing, Lori recommends to change your perspective and look at things from the future as if you’ve already accomplished what you want to do. Ask yourself, “What was the first thing I did to overcome the problem?” When you do this, a pathway unfolds that wasn’t present for you before because you were stuck within the problem.
People can often be resigned to the career they’ve chosen, their problems or the life they’re living. They’re stuck in an unhappy place, but don’t know how to get out. Lori gives a few questions to ask that might illuminate a direction to head to break out of this funk:
Lori will soon release a book called ‘Dancing Naked: A Journey for Conscious Leaders’ (to be released this fall). Fitting the writing of a book into her schedule is darn tough, but she decided to hire a team to support her in the process and to get beyond the resistance. “They light a fire under my butt that I can’t put out on purpose.” The team that she has is a circle of rigorous support. Having support like this makes it easier to keep your promises as they hold you accountable and don’t let up that easily.
Lori has a few habits she’s put into place to help her stay aligned with her beliefs:
Lori believes that a bold person is one who continuously steps into their fears and won’t back down from a challenge that scares them. This was a great interview with Lori, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy our little chat today.
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Simone Sauter is a broken heart coach who uses her own life experiences to help women get beyond the end of a relationship. She’s the creator of DatingRocks.de and she was a terrific, insightful and authentic guest for the show.
Simone went through a terrible breakup at the end of her 10-year long relationship with the man she thought she would marry. She wallowed in depression for a long time after that, until a couple years later she unexpectedly had her “epiphany moment” where she suddenly felt relief and was able to finally let the relationship go.
She decided at this moment that she would now dedicate her life to helping other women deal with heartbreak. To educate herself in this new line of work, she began reading countless books, going to seminars, seeing a therapist, and even went as far as hiring her own broken heart coach. All of these experiences prepared her for landing her first client.
One of the things that Simone teaches is that dealing with loss is all about your own mindset, and your mindset is something you control. “I’m the only one who can give permission to myself to be happy.” Happiness doesn’t come from the outside, but the inside.
Simone knows first-hand that no two clients are alike, so she caters her coaching to the individual. Everyone deals with heart break and betrayal differently, and there are actually 3 main causes for breakup suffering that Simone helps clients deal with:
At the beginning of every potential new client relationship, she starts with a quick 15 minute call to see if she and the new client are compatible. If they decide to continue the client/coach relationship, then her coaching is focused on three aspects of healing:
Even though her clients have many heart-breaking stories with many of them mirroring what Simone went through, she’s able avoid her own emotional past coming up and overwhelming her. She can do this because she’s fully forgiven herself and her ex for the past, and she’s able to see the light at the end of the tunnel for her clients. She knows that eventually, no matter how bad things are now, that with her expertise the client will get beyond this.
“Everything needs to fall apart to fall into place.”
When I asked Simone what being bold meant to her, she said that it is to fully loving yourself yourself as you are, knowing what you want to change in the world and working to make it happen. “If we all do our part, this world will be a better place.”
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