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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Paul Colaianni is a brave, open and honest personal coach and podcaster who is committed to helping others lead better lives. He’s the creator of The Overwhelmed Brain (TOB) podcast and blog which receives thousands of downloads and views every day.
Paul had always been a dedicated 9-to-5’er until 2013, when as an IT sub-contractor he became fed up with his employer’s broken promises of hiring him on full-time. At the same time, his relationship with his wife was on the rocks. With a career not on track and a wife about to leave him, Paul came to the conclusion that, “The only way that I can have confidence in anything in life is if I do it myself.”
This realization put him on a crash course into entrepreneurship, something he knew nothing about at the time. Paul was unsure of what subject to tackle, until he gained some valuable insight from a professional podcaster who said that if you’re going to be a podcaster, talk about the things you could talk about for hours on end without getting bored. Great insight!
Paul had always enjoyed giving advice to his friends and colleagues, advice which was often very helpful and appreciated. He figured he could help more than one person at a time, and coupled with his love of radio and podcasting, he created TOB.
‘The Overwhelmed Brain’ is a term used for something we all deal with in this day and age. Paul is now helping thousands of people every day through his podcast and blog, where he gives away everything he knows, for free.
Paul’s coaching differs from many other life coaches out there in that he targets people like him who feel that affirmations and positive thinking don’t always work.
We use affirmations to change our inner dialogue and the goal is to consciously change our programming. But, one of the problems with affirmations is that sometimes we can feel like frauds when we’re saying them to ourselves. “I’m a super intelligent person” really doesn’t work for someone who feels stupid. A better affirmation would be, “I feel stupid, but I’m trying to get smarter and educate myself.”
When you’re looking to hire a coach of your own, Paul recommends two points of advice:
As a coach, Paul doesn’t really set out any guidelines or boundaries for his students. This allows the student to express themselves, and it gives him the freedom to catch points of interest as they speak, points that can lead to breakthroughs in the problems the student is facing.
To Paul, being bold is forging ahead without fear of the consequences. When you fear the consequences, you make decisions based on that fear. Eliminating the fear allows you to move forward.
I really enjoyed my time today with Paul and I know you’ll learn much from our insightful discussion.
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Matthew is a super authentic and inspiring entrepreneur and podcaster and we are very fortunate to have him on the show this week.
His podcast called ‘Having It A.L.L.’ (which stands for Abundant, Loving, Life) explores our beliefs, ideas, and mindsets on life and how those influence how we experience life as a whole. For Matthew, “having it all” is a mindset; it’s how he approaches life.
He didn’t always have this outlook, though. As a child he dealt with lots of anger, frustration and sadness. He kept quiet in his emotional moments and never expressed outwardly his emotions, even his mother couldn’t pry his true feelings out of him. He continued to suppress his emotions through high school and college, but once he graduated, these feelings negatively affected the relationships he had. There are three buckets of relationships in life; relationships to self, to life and to others. Matthew was suffering in all three.
In 2013 he was introduced to Day Adeogba, creator of the YourDay Balance Game (YDBG). This was a pivotal moment in Matthew’s journey to living a better life. This is where his healing started, where he learned to question the actions he was taking each day and to determine if they were leading him down the right path.
Matthew finally had to deal with unnoticed bad scripting and negative beliefs that plagued him his entire life. A key one was, “If my partner wasn’t happy, I couldn’t be happy.” He was tying his emotional happiness to that of his girlfriend at the time. He wore this badge proudly, like he was being true to his love of her. But he eventually realized that this made things tougher on her as now she was responsible for her happiness and his as well.
One thing that Matthew uses daily to help him be more authentic, happy and transparent is the Balance Chart he learned from YDBG. Balance is an acronym for 7 building blocks to living a healthy life: breath, aqua, lengthening, anaerobic, nutrition, cleansing and energize. Through daily habit building within each of these building blocks, you’re committing to develop transparency and integrity of doing what you say you’re going to do.
One of th benefits of YDBG is that it helps you to change your life for the better through a public accountability system. Each day you tell the group what you’re going to accomplish and the habits you’re going to work through and everyone encourages each other. They also see when you fail in your accepted tasks and this helps to spur you to action.
One habit that Matthew has taken up is nightly journaling. In his journal he writes about two very specific topics:
“What you put your mind on you create.”
With this idea in mind, Matthew has created his own Mission Statement in life. This mission statement is what he’s playing for in life, it acts as a north star for him as it helps him to live up to his top values in life which are:
Many people know their why in life, but Matthew believes that writing it down as a mission statement causes things to begin shift for you in life. The mission statement goes from a thought in your mind to being a concrete thing in written form. Then you memorize it and lastly begin internalizing it. As you progress through this process different things will happen and even more shifts in your life and mindset will occur as a result. This was a great moment in our chat for me, because I realized that while I’m clear on my beliefs, I hadn’t revisited my mission statement in awhile.
For Matthew, I learned that being bold starts when you’re willing to define what is living your greatest life and being the greatest version of yourself. Once you have this, you go into action to bring these things to life.
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“At the end of life, the person who wins is the one with the most stories.”
This one sentence perfectly encapsulates Sean Ogle’s attitude to life and business. He’s an adventurous and relatable entrepreneur, who has created a strong community and a portfolio full of travel and epic narratives.
Sean started his entrepreneurial journey after an eye-opening trip to Carnival in Rio de Janero. Upon his return to the States he decided to leave his 9-5 job as an analyst and hasn’t looked back.
His genuinity and curiosity led him to befriend Chris Guillebeau of the Art of Non-Conformity Blog, early on. Chris recommended that Sean start his own blog, not for the writing necessarily, but as a means to make his goals public and to add some accountability, kicking him into action.
Sean credits his willingness to connect with those he respects as a great precursor to his success. He gives lots of great advice on how to do this:
Sean developed a three-step process for creating a location independent life after unintentionally going through it himself in the first two years of building his successful blog, Location Rebel. He credits this process as the key to his success:
He decided to put this strategy to use by creating Location Rebel, a course and community for growing a location independent business. His goal is to get all of his members making $100/day. When you’re making this much you have something to work with and build upon.
One of the funnest things about Sean is his ability to accomplish so much and still find time to do many of his favorite hobbies and activities. He would say that in actuality, he doesn’t find the time--he makes the time--as this is what energizes him. He credits doing fun things on a regular basis as helping him overcome resistance to doing work. He’s also consistently putting in at least two hours a day of solid work. It might not sound like much, but when you’re consistent about it, you can accomplish a heck of a lot.
Putting in consistent work like this is a big part of his success, but Sean also credits his relationship to uncertainty and how he’s learned to overcome it. According to Sean, there are three phases of uncertainty:
To Sean, being bold means embracing uncertainty. “If you can embrace the challenge and embrace the unknown then that’s about as bold as you can be.”
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Jodi Ettenberg
It was wonderful having Jodi Ettenberg on the show. She’s an articulate, strong and fun woman who for 8 years has been successfully doing what many dream of: traveling the world, leaving a demanding job behind and making a living as a travel and food blog writer.
It all started with a planned year-long sabbatical to Siberia from her job as a lawyer. Her intention had been to return to work, but after a year came and went, she realized that she had outgrown that path in life, and would prefer to remain on the road.
Her travel blog, Legal Nomads, was also starting to gain some traction. She had initially started the blog so her mom back home could keep up to date with her adventures, but lo and behold, it caught on with people who loved her genuine and sincere personality.
8 years ago when Jodi started her journey, the travel blog space wasn’t as saturated as it is now; growing a following was easier than it is today. But she does have some advice for those who wish to live this lifestyle: Build skills. Figure out your goals, and build skillsets that will benefit you and put you on the path to those goals. Ask yourself:
“How can I get better at what I do so I can use it for my life’s work?”
Her passion and commitment led Jodi to revenue streams that she never even had to pursue or seek out. Freelance writing, books and public speaking gigs stemmed from people being attracted to her personality and authentic writing. Equally important, Jodi cares about her brand so much that she never puts anything out there that she isn’t willing to stand behind, as she knows that the internet is forever.
We talk about the fact that even though Jodi has been all over the world, she prefers the city life most. She feels at home in places like New York, Bangkok and Saigon. The energy in these places is just fun and there’s always so much going on. “You can fall out of your front door and into an interesting situation immediately.”
One word of caution that Jodi wants to pass on to anyone interested in nomadic living, is that travel doesn’t fix any of your problems. People often think that their problems will melt away as they travel and see the world. Nothing could be further from the truth! Wherever you go, there you are, so if you don’t work on fixing what’s inside you, you’ll just take your problems around the world.
“If you travel to escape darkness, it’ll find you.”
Jodi has many exciting projects on the horizon. She’s currently developing detailed translation cards for many more countries to help people with celiac disease eat healthy as they travel. She also has some exciting public speaking gigs coming up, including a speech on storytelling at a Denver conference. And more food maps are on the way!
We chat about living a bold life and she tells me, being bold is unapologetically believing in something and educating people about how you’ve done it, but not being aggressive in how you do so. Not shoving it down their throats. Believe in yourself and do what you care about. That’s Jodi in a nutshell.
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Jeremy is a tenacious and successful podcaster who’s about to take his show the ‘Create Your Own Life Podcast’ from 3 days a week to 5! He’s so dedicated to providing value for his listeners, and he knows that adding the extra two days will give that much more to his subscribers and take his show to the next level.
The ‘Create Your Own Life Podcast’ was born from his desire help others to lead the life of their dreams. The guests on his podcast give usable action steps that listeners can run with to build the life they envision for themselves.
Not only do his listeners get great insights from his podcast guests, but Jeremy does as well. He recently had on Calvin Wayman and one of the lessons that Calvin discussed that really hit home with Jeremy, was the idea of not waiting for things to be perfect before you take action. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be done.
There are many reasons his listeners tune in, but one thing that Jeremy hopes many of them get is a mind shift from thinking and worrying about problems to being geared towards finding solutions. Problems lead to solutions, and solutions lead to potential business ideas. This simple shift also makes the different between feeling hopeless, vs. Constantly seeing opportunities.
Jeremy has worked hard to determine his goals and why he’s pursuing them. When you understand what you really want and why this drives you, you’re motivated to focus on the actions that push you towards your goals. This has led to some incredible success with his podcast.
From the get-go, Jeremy knew that for his podcast to be a success he needed to interview some big names with large followings of their own. He gave us some great tips for communicating with and gaining the trust of influential people:
To make the most of your time with influencers:
Jeremy believes that being bold is ignoring the negativity, forgetting what the outside world is telling you, knowing your purpose and always moving forward. So many gems in this interview with Jeremy, he's definitely one to watch.
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Brandon Nolte is the founder of HealthyHempOil.com and one of the most persistent entrepreneurs I know. Healthy Hemp Oil started as a simple drop-shipping store, but has grown to a 7-figure business with a global team, and a number of new products. As a business owner in the sensitive hemp-based industry, Brandon has faced numerous obstacles along the way, but always manages to barrel through them, and keep his business growing, and his products and services of the highest quality.
His company sells CBD products, which customers purchase to aid with sleep issues, anxiety, inflammation and a range of other symptoms. CBD (Cannabidiol) is a chemical compound found within hemp and marijuana, and Healthy Hemp Oil sells it in many forms: capsules, gums, tinctures, topicals and vaporizer oils.
Before Brandon started HHO, he considered a handful of business ideas. Once a successful Kindly publisher, he decided to pursue e-commerce because of the skillsets it would help him develop: copywriting, product creation, email marketing as well as blog and video content creation. Since he'll be able to utilize these skillsets for years to come, he recommends anyone looking to start a new business from scratch take the same approach. If you've been interested in dabbling in entrepreneurship or creating a side hustle, ask yourself a simple question:
What skills do I want to learn? What business model will aid in the creation of those skills? (And of course, where can I provide the most value?).
It took a lot for Brandon to grow his business into the incredible success that it now has. He credits a willingness to spend money on courses and programs that he believed would give him the skills necessary to achieve grow and improve not just as an entreprenear, but as a person. The education he’s pursued has helped him to radically change his belief systems and frameworks and has shifted his mindset to make room for wealth and success.
Brandon avidly believes that your mindset can shape your actions, and ergo the results of your life. He first learned of this concept in the book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill. It now only empowered him to truly believe in himself, it radically changed the trajectory of his life.
”Anything that you can focus your mind on, you can expand within your life.”
He’s used this idea, as well as affirmations and statements of truth for the future to expand his thoughts and pull himself toward his goals. Getting a business coach, while the cost could be prohibitive to some, was another investment that Brandon claims was well worth the expense.
Eben Pagan and his business courses have really helped Brandon to see things in a different way as well. We all grew up with different habits and self-limiting beliefs like “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Getting rid of these “invisible scripts” will help anyone attain more success. By replacing these beliefs with those of someone who is much more successful, your life can begin to emulate theirs.
Brandon works on building sustainable beneficial habits into his life all the time to ensure constant growth and continued success both personally and professionally. He assesses his habits on a weekly basis and systematically tries to add useful habits into his life while simultaneously cutting out the destructive or wasteful habits that aren’t serving him.
A naturally curious person, and driven by self-improvement, Brandon is constantly pushing himself and evaluating how to live his best life.
“Boldness is finding the edge of discomfort and being willing to push through it... You can tackle anything if you believe in yourself.”
This episode is a must for anyone interested in understanding the hemp industry, or wondering how to get started as a new entrepreneur. Brandon is a fascinating guest, so it was awesome to get inside his head!
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You may know Aaron Anastazi from his incredibly popular Superior Singing Method YouTube channel, where he’s had millions of views and has helped untold numbers of people improve their singing voices.
But what you may not know is that Aaron is also an actor, film producer, author, speaker and coach whose main goal in life, and what he’s most passionate about, is helping people live fuller and freer lives. We were incredibly fortunate to have Aaron join us today to share his hard won success.
Aaron hit a rough patch with his business back in 2011, so he had to pivot from his marketing plan of Google ads to something else. This is when e started giving away his content for free on his YouTube channel.
Admittedly, Aaron was a bit hesitant to give away so much free and valuable stuff in the beginning, but that mindset of scarcity didn’t sit well with him for long. He saw that his confident and trust-inspiring personality in those free videos helped to develop a huge following, and that’s when things really started to blow up for him.
Aaron knows that if his viewers appreciate what he gives them for free and if their lives and singing voices are changed for the better, then they’ll be interested in the other resources he has to offer.
“My goal now is not to sell any one product, it’s to make a fan and create trust in somebody that I do really good work.”
Aaron had to become a different person in order to make the Superior Singing Method a success. The turning point came when his coach asked him, “Who do you have to be in order to get the results that you want?” Aaron realized that grinding it out day after day and working hard wasn’t enough, he had to shift his thinking in such a way that would lead him to getting the results he wanted.
This search for success and improving himself led to Aaron’s first book called ‘The Voice of Your Dreams: Turn Down the Voices of Limitation and Turn Up the Volume of Success.’ It’s written to teach others how to lead themselves in any area of their life they want success in.
For his entire life, Aaron’s been counseling people for free, and inspiring those around him. He never really saw the power that he had for himself because:
“Oftentimes we’re blind to our biggest strengths because we live inside of them and we just assume everyone has the same strengths.”
Seeing his students improve their lives is invigorating for Aaron and it taps into his bigger value of wanting people to live fuller and freer lives.
There was a year in Aaron’s life where he found great success in his singing business, developed a wonderful relationship with his wife and wrote his book. He credits a few principles for this amazing year:
Aaron has so much to share with the world, and you will absolutely get incredible value from this episode.
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We are so fortunate to have Nada Lena on the podcast today to share her inspiring story and all the incredible things she’s doing to help empower people around the world.
Nada learned early about the entrepreneurial lifestyle from her father. As young teenagers, she and her brothers would help him run the myriad of businesses he owned like restaurants and trinket shops. Such responsibility at a young age, coupled with the confidence her father had in her helped to create the self-assured and strong person that Nada is today.
Before she pursued her own entrepreneurial endeavors, Nada traveled the world as a singer, dancer and producer with the Young Americans. This is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower and inspire people globally through music, and she’s still involved in the organization today. In her travels, she met many young performers like herself, but sometimes they would be saddled with insecurities and issues.
This led her to became a mentor to these young performers by being a role model and a positive source of inspiration. She says that it’s often the people you surround yourself with that help to drag you down.
“If you’re constantly hanging out with negative people that are putting you down or that feel really bad about themselves, it becomes a cesspool of negativity.”
At a pivotal point in her life, when all seemed downhill and hopeless, in the middle of a plane flight Nada had an epiphany. She had two options, either quit and go home to cry for months, or she could use her pain as fuel for growth. Of course she chose the latter and this decision manifested into Rise Up For You: a social media network dedicated to empowering women to work towards living their best life.
The first thing Nada did with Rise Up For You was to start a super helpful and inspirational podcast. Her reasoning behind this was to give immediate and free resources to women that they can use to help empower themselves to be better. When she started the podcast, she asked herself three questions to help her guide the show:
Nada tackles 6 elements of life through Rise Up For You:
“If you can find happiness in all six of those elements, you are going to be living your best life possible. And if one of those elements isn’t at its fullest potential, you’re going to struggle.”
One of Nada’s best pieces of advice is, “If you want to go into a field where you help people, give stuff away for free.” And don’t worry about giving away too much for free, because if you’re great at what you do, your audience will want to work with you beyond the free content you give them.
Well, Nada absolutely delivered for us here today, and everyone will learn much from her in this interview. So listen and enjoy!
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This week we have blogger, Digital Marketing Consultant, and creator of the "Year of Fear" challenge, Kendra Wright on the show. Kendra has massively improved her happiness and quality of life by facing her fears, and now she wants the same for you.
Many people know Kendra from her inspiring ‘Year of Fear Challenge.’ This challenge was spawned from her realization that many failures and non-starts in her life came from a fear of failure. She figured the best way to get beyond this was to face her fears head-on, and thus the challenge was born!
Amazingly enough, Kendra was so committed she exercised this daily challenge for an entire year! She's now gone on to complete over 700 "comfort zone challenges, and she'd be the first to admit it was well worth it.
The challenge led her to face fears (like heights), do things she had never considered before (like a police ride along), and she's also knocked-off some of those bucket list items that tend to accumulate in everyone’s life (like hot air ballooning). It even led her to change her peer group as she firmly believes in the saying:
“You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with.”
From the outside it might look like such an adventurous and active person must naturally be outgoing, positive and brave. But that's not necessarily true. Kendra admitted that positivity doesn't come naturally and she’s had to develop some enjoyable daily rituals for self-improvement in the area of mindset, including:
Kendra’s a firm believer in living her own life and doesn’t let anybody tell her what she should or shouldn’t do. Even though she believes that you should say “Yes!” to anything you haven’t done before, you should still pick and choose things you think will be fun and add to your life. She still does things that scare her, but there’s got to be some enjoyment for her to do it and she’s not afraid to say “No.”
Speaking of being afraid, facing her fears and living outside of her comfort zones has led to bigger successes in life. Kendra actually left behind a great job to go full-time in her own consulting business, and went sleepless with worry for three weeks because of it. But it’s been the best thing for her, and she credits her yearly challenges to laying the groundwork for her to believe in herself enough to pursue her dreams. She says that people need to wake up to how their fear holds them back:
“Most people don’t realize what they’re able to do, what their real possibility is ‘cause they never swing the bat, they’re always in the dugout. I’d rather swing and miss and at least going for it than sitting in the dugout. You’re never getting on base if you don’t try.”
Kendra wants people to stop comparing themselves to what they see in social media. She says, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are highlight reels; you only see the best things that people want to put out there. We shouldn’t be comparing our uncut life to the awesomely curated highlight reels of others on social media because everyone has their own stuff to wade through.
“It’s going to be messy, but at the end it will be the biggest beautiful mess you’ve ever seen if you just keep going.”
Kendra is a super inspiring person and I count myself lucky to consider her a friend. I'm positive you'll get a kick out of Kendra's views on life and feel inspired to go out and take your own risks!
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Corey Blake comes on today's episode to share with us the value in being openly vulnerable in today's world, how that's impacted the success of his business and relationships, and how he's spreading the word.
In 2005 he started Round Table Companies, which is a story telling company that supports organizations, CEO’s and thought leaders. Corey believes every successful company or person has a compelling story to tell, and he helps them verbalize it in a way that’s captivating, appealing and leads to deeper connections with their audiences.
Getting back to Core Values, RTC actually has seven of them:
Corey went into detail on three of these values:
Brilliance allows for a black and white approach to the quality of work they produce. “Is it brilliant or not? Do we feel magic in it?” If the answer to either of these is “no”, then it’s back to the drawing board. Love it!
The staff at RTC and their clients are challenged to lean into Courage in all the work they do, to dig in there and do things that might scare them.
Momentum for any creative agency is key in finding the magic and poetry in everything they do. What a fortuitous coincidence, “Momentum” is my theme for the week!
Corey practices what he preaches in a big way, and actually has an executive coach on retainer for his staff of 40 to take advantage of at any time. He firmly believes in developing himself and his team and notes:
“The company is only as strong as I am and the company only has the capacity that I represent as its leadership. As we continue to grow, that expands to the capacity of other people on the leadership team… ultimately we’ll get the company that we deserve.”
In addition to running RTC, Corey is fully invested in the “Vulnerability is Sexy” movement that he's created. It’s a metaphor for the work they do in the world by supporting people that invite their audience into a loving space where they get to know each other’s humanity. The movement is catching on and gaining momentum (there’s that core value again).
“Vulnerability is Sexy” started back in 2014 when Corey and his team created a concept called the Vulnerability Wall after seeing how people at conferences didn’t take risks until the end when it was time to leave. The wall is a huge, blank canvas on display and people can drop their insecurities, secrets, shames and vulnerabilities in a box and his artists will turn them into beautiful representations on the canvas. This helps people relieve themselves of some of their burdens and to quickly honor each other’s humanity.
“When we have the strength to be vulnerable, there’s an opportunity for an alignment check.”
Ultimately, if you’re interested in growth and living a life of purpose, then displaying your vulnerability will guide you to this even though there may be some pain associated with it.
Corey’s a super insightful, caring and open person and we really enjoyed our discussion, as I’m sure you will as well.
Joining me on today is one of the hardest hustlers I know, Jimmy Hayes, who co-founded his business with his best friend and travel companion, Doug Barber. These are two hardworking guys who left New Zealand to develop an incredible high-end travel gear company called Minaal.
They turned their incessant love of travel and their disdain for the drudgery of “normal” jobs into a sustainable business where travel is automatically built in.
Coming up with your own products to sell can be quite difficult, but Jimmy has to give credit to Doug for his passionate dislike for the travel gear he was using at the time, and having the vision and the gall to believe he could create something better. That coupled the great feedback they received from potential customers during the prototype phase (myself included) gave them momentum and pushed them to continue past the inevitable hurdles that come with any startup.
Crowdfunding has been a game changer for the product development industry, and Jimmy threw everything he had at their Kickstarter campaign. They blew past their $30K goal in 6.5 hours, and ended their funding with $343,000 in funding. Unbelievable!
Jimmy credits this successful campaign to the work they did through the testing and sample phase of development. He says that for a successful campaign, you’ve got to be in there with your customer base, soliciting feedback and using that feedback to make your product better. If your target market is included in the process of building your product through their feedback, they’ll have a much greater personal investment in the final product because their direct input went into producing it. You will have created a customer for life by including them in the process.
The seeds for your success come before the Kickstarter. People who help in the development phase write the story of the product, and have incredible buy-in to your success.
Creating products that they would want to use and to be seen using just naturally led to their aesthetic and branding. Jimmy’s big on being authentic in life and business, and this desire unsurprisingly led them to a branding that the average traveler can relate to.
Jimmy considers his job with Minaal done when two customers meet and get married all due to their Minaal bags: “I want a user marriage!”
All joking aside, the future for Minaal is something Jimmy’s thinking about. They’re constantly taking a look at what’s working and what isn’t, and what they enjoy doing as they plan the future. He sees much more customer interactions and being facilitators for a community of people with shared values.
Some of the issues they’ve experienced is not being able to fulfill so many orders. A great problem to have for sure, but it’s something they’ll be working on in the near future.
On a personal (and business) note, Jimmy’s really working on managing the business and his time better while he’s on the road. It’s difficult to get work done while traveling full time, and he’s looking to scale back and strategize his travel more in the coming year, removing the concept that “every ticket is a one way.”
Jimmy’s enthusiasm for building a business around what he loves comes out in everything he says. You’re gonna love this interview with one of my favorite Kiwis!
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Dr. Alexis Shields: TRAVELING THE WORLD AND TREATING VIRTUAL PATIENTS WITH NATUROPATHIC REMEDIES
Alexis studied naturopathic medicine in Portland, Oregon at the Natural College of Naturopathic Medicine, where she earned her doctorate degree in medicine. She found natropathic medicine when her father was faced with health issues and traditional medicine was not providing the necessary results. During his treatment, she witnessed the benefits he found through natropathic medicine and this impacted her so much that she decided to become a naturopathic doctor herself.
After graduating medical school, she started her brick-and-mortar practice. After four years in business, she and her then-fiancé decided to sell off the business and move across the country. Before settling on the East Coast, they wanted to take the opportunity to travel abroad for an extended amount of time. Alexis sold most of her posessions in preparation for the extended trip abroad, and this unfamiliar task actually helped her realize that she could do with a lot less in life - a valuable lesson to learn before starting her nomadic lifestyle.
Alexis’ travels have taken her to dozens of countries where she’s met so many incredible entrepreneurs (like myself) who have opened her eyes to the possibilities of developing a thriving virtual medical practice. Once she learned that it was possible, she and Shannon decided to develop their virtual businesses and continue their world travels, and have successfully done so for almost 3 years now.
Living the nomadic lifestyle can be tough and isolating, even with a partner in tow. Alexis and her husband now have a year long lease in Portugal, surrounded by a small community of like-minded entrepreneurs but over the past few years, they’ve spent a lot of nights in hotels or Airbnb apartments and often it’s tough to meet others and make friends.
The duo has taken it upon themselves to search out groups for support and to develop friendships with other travelers and expats and she emphasizes the importance of creating alone time when traveling with a partner. She spends a lot of time by herself in coffee shops doing work, and there she’s able to meet others and making friends. Facebook groups of like-minded people have also helped her deal with the nomadic lifestyle.
There’s never a perfect time to take an extended journey abroad. Just take the leap and go. You’ll find what you need on your journey.
Staying healthy while traveling is a major component of her nomadic lifestyle. In a new community it’s important for her to find a gym for exercise (and it’s a great way to get to know the locals). She uses some online resources as well, like Yogaglo.com (yoga, meditation, stretching and many other classes) and barre3.com (dance, pilates and weight training) for exercise at home. She uses the Stronglift App as well for strength training on the road.
Having solid nutrition principles to follow every day will really help you stay healthy and fit. Even if you’re dining out a lot, you’ve got to figure out how to eat healthily and seek out food that makes you feel good.
Alexis recommends doing yearly blood work to track your health year over year. Also, commit to doing something every day that brings you closer to your health and fitness goals. Don’t allow the “go-go-go” mentality push you to avoid paying attention to your health.
“People, when they’re healthy and feel good, perform better.”
Alexis has lots of big plans for the future.
Within the next year she’s going to take a team based approach to her business and will build a team to better help her patients. She’s also building out corporate wellness programs for companies that want their employees to be more productive and function at higher levels.
Alexis has radically changed her life and business to suit her desires, and she’s a fantastic example of what is possible when you think outside the box and have the courage to make life an adventure.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Jen Du doesn’t hate Mondays anymore... She hates Fridays! She’s never felt more excited to start her workday…ever.
Why? Jen is the creator of ‘Before’ Elixir, an innovative, all-natural tonic preventing the flush and hangovers resulting from drinking alcohol.
Believe it or not, she actually developed the idea during a Business School project. During 2013, while a business student at Rutgers, Jen participated in a workshop called ‘Lean Startup Machine’. As part of her project, she surveyed hundreds of people and found an overwhelming need in the market for a product just like Before Elixir. To her surprise, not only did she win the competition but she did so with stellar reviews and overwhelming advice to make the product a reality.
Since her plan was always to work at a tech company or in consulting, she put the idea on the back burner. Not for long, though! It was in just her first year at Dell that she got serious about creating the formula and seeking funding. She attended a lot of events, including a meet-up called Co-Founders Austin, a networking event for local people involved in startups. The idea behind Co-Founders Austin is to connect sole-founders with partners who are experts in the areas they need help in. She was looking for a biochemist, and through this group, she was connected to a local angel investor who is a big philanthropist when it comes to entrepreneurship and science.
And with that investment, she was able to start her R&D! She literally made several variations of the elixir and sent them in tiny test bottles to friends, family and literally anyone who was willing to try the product. The overwhelming response was positive and her next step was finding a manufacturing company that made the elixir taste good.
In 2015, she launched Before Elixir through a crowd-funding campaign to finance a full run of the product for sale to the public. She surpassed her goal, with 110% funded and $14,000 in the bank. With those funds she was able to make changes to the taste, the packaging, some of the ingredients, and continues to find ways to improve with each manufacturing run.
Within just the past year, she has gotten Before Elixir into 8 stores in Austin, including a full-service grocery popular in Austin, called Wheatsville. In the first week there, she sold 150 bottles, coming out as the #13 most popular drink out 200+ beverages they stock!
Before Elixir has also acquired Australian distribution and is currently available in 17 countries worldwide. 2016 sees Before Elixir launching on Amazon, and a push to get in even more stores in Texas as well as a drive to reach shelves in California, where currently 40% of their internet sales are generated. In just the first year of business, Before Elixir has received outstanding press from Food & Wine, GQ, Mashable, The Guardian, Bustle, Product Hunt, Brit+Co just to name a few.
On a personal note, Jen has just launched a new site, called The Fierce Founder, where she shares her personal journey of starting her first company, including all the highs and the lows, and what it takes to be a fierce female entrepreneur. Her goal is to share as much as she can to help others accomplish something they’ve never done before.
If you’re listening to the nay-sayers, you’re limiting yourself. You have to throw that fear of failure and judgment out the window to get what you want in life. If you want to feel inspired, and learn how to have your personality shine out to the world through your brand, this episode of The Bold Life Movement with Jen Du is a must.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON'T STOP HERE...
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Anton Kraly is the epitome of a lifestyle entrepreneur. His online business and community, Dropship Lifestyle, is his passion and he’s managed to create a lucrative business around running his own dropshipping e-commerce stores and teaching thousands of other entrepreneurs how to do the same.
Having had several e-commerce businesses that were successful, Anton set out to look for something new. Inspired by Tim Ferriss’ book, ‘The 4 Hour Workweek’, he wanted something that could achieve a little more on auto-pilot. So, he started a drop-shipping business, but he ran up against roadblocks when he was looking for guidance and advice online. He couldn’t find anyone who was doing the same thing who also knew what they were talking about. In fact, had he taken some of the advice thrown around out there, it would have destroyed him.
Instead, he found himeself learning it all on his own and becoming a thought leader in the space. Eventually, he decided to take his information and turn it into an online course and forum, and Dropship Lifestyle was born!
On his website, clients get access to his course as well as the community, so users can ask each other questions. In fact, so many people have built successful businesses using his course that they can actually run the community almost themselves and he rarely even has to moderate or facilitate. That leaves him the time to build out more functional assets for his clients, such as his own Shopify app that automates order-processing, ‘store-front’ fully-customizable templates, and he’s currently working on a Niche Finder app.
His goal is to create the only apps any of his users will ever need to run their own successful ecommerce stores. Dropship Lifestyle’s success has also spun off into some other successful businesses, such as his supplier directory site, live events, and a $100K+ sub-forum for the best-performing sellers.
His goal for 2016 is to grow his community even bigger. There are several clients in the community doing things he didn’t even anticipate when he first put the course out there and he sees what a big impact it has on people’s lives. So, Anton has made the commitment to spend about $30-$50K per month in paid advertising to widen the net and reach more people. He will be building another site this year that shows exactly what that kind of advertising ‘spend’ looks like and how to track it, etc., as another teaching outlet.
Anton and I chat today about his mindset shift from traditional business to online business, why Saigon has been such a lucrative homebase the past few years, and what he sees for the future of Dropship Lifestyle.
The only difference between those who are successful and those who are still waiting is a higher tolerance for risk. Anton has proven his ability to embrace risk and this boldness has served him well.
His enthusiasm for living ‘the lifestyle’ is contagious! He simply loves what he does and isn’t afraid to try new things. Join us for this motivating and fun interview!
Additional Resources:
Trey Stinnett, creator of the ‘Self-Hacker Journey’ lives a life of creation every day. He is here with us today to talk about what that really means and his mission to help others find their true happiness.
As with most entrepreneurs, Trey’s path has been a bumpy one. At just 21 years old, he was a millionaire real estate investor. Getting hit by the economic fall-out was just one loss; at the same time he lost close family members and his wife had a miscarriage. He went into a deep state of reflection and ultimately realized that when happiness is based on ‘results’ in your life, that is a very fragile sort of happiness. He started crawling out of the mire and recreating himself.
It has been 12 years now that he’s been on a path of self-development and raising his consciousness. He’s now constantly and radically happy about his life. His mission is to help as many people as he can to reach what he has attained-to be in a state of creation, to be living in each moment to manifest the desires of your heart.
Trey’s work is all about shifting paradigms to create breakthroughs in our life. Paradigms are the belief systems we have, what we believe about the world and our place in it. The first thing we can do to start this shift is understand that we are not defined by personality types, right and left brain thinking, masculine/feminine energy. All of these things are dynamic and changeable. They are relevant, but not permanent. They do not define us. We define us.
Trey has spent years studying the great thought leaders of almost every discipline. When he first started teaching others, he was imparting all of this information in the way he learned it. Today, his Breakthrough Formula Program focuses instead on creating the framework to clear your past so you can start living in the moment, no matter what kind of moment life happens to be throwing at you. He is also currently at work on ‘Limitless’, a series of in-person events that will be going live in the second half of 2016.
Trey and I talk today about breaking through self-limiting beliefs, not judging ourselves and our past, how he is trying to impart ‘living in creation’ philosophy to his daughters, and the underlying passion in everything he does.
So many of us get in our own way by doing what we’ve always done. We try and shove more in to make ourselves ‘better’ instead of doing the work of clearing out to start anew. It’s bold to embrace a willingness to change, and to do what doesn’t come natural. But it opens you up to new worlds and possibilities. Join us today for this inspiring and thought-provoking interview with Trey Stinnett!
Conferences:
Jenn Gietzen is the creative mind behind Write On! Design, her personal brand, and NovaElle, a partnership created with her friend and professional photographer, Jane.
After graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta in 2008, Jenn went straight into the corporate world where she did graphic design for about 4 years. She later switched careers into a recruiting role, and while she liked it, she realized it just wasn’t fulfilling in the way that she needed it to be and was actually considering alternatives when the company laid her off.
This shocking news was actually a blessing in disguise and just a few weeks later, she met Ginny Branch, a prop stylist and ended up learning under her for many months. By assisting Ginny on shoots, Jenn was introduced to the creative community in Atlanta.
She networked heavily and eventually started using her graphic design interests and hand-lettering skills to redesign websites and later started her own company, penning unique quotes on merchandise. She started selling through a few shops but that became difficult and not cost-effective considering the time it requires to produce unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. Now, her focus is on larger scale custom projects having recently done work for Home Depot and French Connection.
Jenn’s newest project, NovaElle, which she started with friend and photographer, Paige Jones is a charitable endeavor which partners with organizations world wide who aim to support women. Merchandise sold through Novaelle features Jenn’s artwork and proceeds benefit initiatives all over the world that empower women and teach them valuable skills to excel in life. Their mission is to support programs that promote education, development or safety. For example an upcoming donation will benefit an organization rescuing victims from sex trafficking in Nepal.
In this episode, Jenn and I have a heart-felt and honest conversation about moving forward even when you have no emotional support, and how the freedom to be creative and create her own circumstances propels her forward.
If you’re complacent and without fear, you’re not moving forward. Being BOLD is all about pushing through the fear even when you can’t predict the outcome!
Jenn’s Website, Write On! Design: www.jenngietzen.com
Jenn’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/JennGeitzen
Jenn’s Twitter: www.twitter.com/jenngietzen
NovaElle: www.novaelle.org
NovaElle’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/shopnovaelle
NovaElle’s Twitter: www.twitter.com/shopnovaelle
Additional Resources Mentioned:
EventBrite: www.eventbrite.com
It’s a very interesting, transitional time to be a woman in business and Jane Claire Hervey is dedicated to riding the tide to female empowerment, greatness and success.
Jane is the founder and CEO of BossBabesATX, a local community of female entrepreneurs and creatives in the Austin area, which actually went viral when it launched in May 2015.
Discouraged by a lack of available mentors who could help Jane and her friends, all successful recent college graduates with their own businesses, they were inspired to put together a small informal group of women who might also be feeling the same way. To gauge interest and gain a better understanding of what this group could provide, Jane conducted interviews with other women in the community. She picked up on a lot of general distrust; these women didn’t feel they had a ‘safe’ place to go to grow and develop without competition, a place where they could openly support one another.
From these interviews and Jane’s own beliefs in supporting women in their creative interests and business endeavors, BossBabesATX was formed. She completely fleshed out everything before ‘going public’ and having their first meeting. The idea skyrocketed!! Overnight, they went from 10 RSVP’s to 550 and by the end of the weekend, the invite had over 90 RSVPs.
While she believed their first get-together would be small and casual, it drew so much interest and participation that it ended up being the first iteration of what is now a standard BossBabeATX “meet” consisting of hundered of women in the community. Since then, BossBabesATX has continued to grow and more attention than Jane and her friends ever imagined.
Jane credits some of the success of the community to the pillars of branding laid out well before the first meetup. She shares what these pillars are, and why having your mission statement so clearly defined saves you in times of rapid growth. With so many decisions to make and so much feedback coming in, understand the core vision for the company allows you to stay on track and continue serving the community in a really powerful way.
Finally, we chat about her childhood experiences and how they’ve made her so strong as a woman who believes in justice and equality, why she welcomes being challenged and having the ‘hard’ conversations, and why she believes ‘working for free’ is a completely skewed way of having a real sharing economy.
Jane believes that whatever you do, be authentic and aware. Being BOLD and making an impact requires you to admit your shortcomings, genuinely step out, and engage with your community. Come join us for this exciting, powerful and honest interview with Jane Claire Hervey!
Instagram and Twitter: @BossBabesATX
Taylor Pearson is the innovative mind behind ‘The End of Jobs’, a new book that focuses on the rise of entrepreneurship and why it’s a better career choice for today.
Taylor doesn’t consider his path from software developer to self-published author a complete transition. Instead, he’s always thought of his career and life in terms of trajectory, always improving and accelerating to the next level. That’s not to say that he wasn’t a little bit nervous about putting pen to paper! But, he’d prepared himself and felt reasonably confident enough to go ahead and give it a try.
Turns out, he’s pretty great at it. Taking inspiration from the book, ‘The 12 Week Year’, Taylor spent only 9 months on ‘The End of Jobs’, and it has been incredibly successful, quickly rising to the top of Amazon’s business category.
Despite the book’s title, it is not a blueprint on how to immediately quit your ‘day job’ and start your own business. Instead, the premise of the book looks at the four distinct economic phases that the West has experienced and why entrepreneurship is such a great choice. It’s more of a thought process rather than an ‘action list’. So many of us have been trained to follow certain professional scripts but entrepreneurship puts you in charge of writing your own script. That means everyone from the established business owner to the employee can embody the principles of entrepreneurship; it’s about a creativity mindset, a new way of thinking about work and a new view way of viewing the world.
Taylor and I sit down today to chat about lessons he learned during his book launch and how becoming an author has opened new doors for him and broadened his view on what is possible.
Many of us have an internal force, a resistance, that holds us back from ourselves. Going to war with that resistance, driving ourselves forward every day, is BOLD! Sit down, take a listen and get inspired by this episode of the Bold Life Movement with Taylor Pearson!
www.taylorpearson.me/jesusmarketing
https://www.facebook.com/taylor.pearson.904?fref=ts
Twitter: www.twitter.com/TaylorPearsonMe
The End of Jobs: www.amazon.com/The-End-Jobs-9-5/dp/1619613352
The 12 Week Year: www.12weekyear.com/book-info
The War of Art: www.amazon.com/The-War-Art-Steven-Pressfield-ebook/dp/B007A4SDCG
Ray Dalio Principles: www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater-Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf
Anti-Fragile: www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Incerto/dp/0812979680
From struggling DJ to successful business owner, John Ban's entrepreneurial journey is inspiring to watch.
John, AKA 'Sonic', is one-half of the team behind Grass Fed Coffee- the first prepackaged butter coffee to hit market. Popular among entrepreneurs and productivity and health nuts, Grass Fed Coffee is going to revolutionize the bulletproof coffee scene.
Like so many entrepreneurs, John has had a succession of successful businesses, but as a former top DJ in Indianapolis, he didn't plan on the journey that led him to Grass Fed Coffee. In fact, you might even say that had he not experienced a major setback in the music business, he wouldn't be in the beverage industry today.
In 2007, John moved to Los Angeles to pursue music writing and recording. Unfortunately, this was just about the time the recession started and work was really hard to come by. He was eating ramen and living in a studio apartment with 2 other people! Influenced by the food truck culture, he went back to Indianapolis to start the first food truck in that city, West Coast Tacos. It was a huge success, and later he sold his stake and went on to create NY Slice food truck. The success of which led to expansion, and now a booming Indy food truck scene.
After selling NY Slice, He ended up selling that business and came back to L.A. to work with his mentor, now partner, on developing Grass Fed Coffee. They started implementing the idea in 2014, with the help of a beverage consulting company. In December 2015, they launched their Kickstarter campaign.
It took off like wildfire, meeting 170% of the goal within the first month. The campaign will end at the end of January 2016 and shipments will start going out to backers and become available for retail sale on their website.
As with any new idea, John did hit some roadblocks and fits and starts in the development of Grass Fed Coffee, but he's had a very strong sense of willpower and positive mindset since he was a child. Any business owner knows there are a lot of obstacles at the beginning of any project but when you break them, there's no stopping you.
John and I talk about the lessons he's learned about himself and others from his first food truck business to now, what it means to always have integrity, and his belief that we shouldn't be living our lives constrained by something as simple as money.
On this journey we call entrepreneurship, people will tell you your ideas are crazy and that you're going to fail. Don't believe them.
Always be yourself and have confidence in who you are!
Some questions I ask:
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
Don't Stop Here...
Jared Kleinert is the millennial mind behind ’2 Billion Under 20-How Millennials are Breaking Down Age Barriers and Changing the World’, a ground-breaking book, co-authored with Stacy Ferreira.
Jared started his first business when he was 15 years old and has just kept on rollin’. As a member of the Teal Fellowship community, he was inspired to write this book at just 17 years old, after attending a conference where he met thousands of other millenials just like him-ambitious, entrepreneurial, young go-getters.
That conference, and the motivation behind his book, spoke to the 2 billion people in this world under 20 years old. It is a rallying cry to ‘spread the virus’ of innovation among millennials.
Today, that book has become much more-a thriving community and movement of talented millennials has built up around it and Jared couldn’t be more excited! Not only that, but it’s taken on a life of its own, leading Jared to be invited to not just one, but four TED talks and he’s started his own consulting firm, advising ‘Corporate America’ on how to better attract and work with millennials, everything from marketing and recruiting to retention and engagement.
Jared and I talk about ‘everything’ entrepreneurship-the hits and the misses, the valuable lessons he’s learned when it comes to really understanding his audience’s needs and wants, and his mission for building this community of aspiring, amazing millenials.
True confidence comes from not being worried about what other people think and having conscious reasons for your beliefs. And, being confident is bold! This inspiring first episode of The Bold Life Movement with Jared Kleinert is a must for everyone!
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