Build Your Utopia

We are very pleased to release part 1 of our interview with Ed O'Keefe, entrepreneur, author, and father of 7!

Ed O'Keefe is the 12th of 13 kids, and the youngest boy of 9. His parents are also still together, celebrating 61 years together this month! Ed comes from the background of working in a stable environment. Get a job and join a union so you know where your money is coming from. Ed was also the first in his family to graduate college. That is a major accomplishment!

Ed O'Keefe shares a story about clothing, the tempory tattoos of our day with phrases and thoughts (and corporate messages/logos). Ed was wearing a wrestling shirt with a message on it that struck a cord with his friend and his friend's son. It was so important that this message is now a tattoo on all the members of this family. This led Ed to creating his own line of clothing with messages on it that he and his family support.

Next Ed O'Keefe shares his vision of the future so that from the health supplement point of view people are living longer and healthier, from the clothing point of view that he is working with some great designers and brands that fit with the athlete market, and from his personal point of view having the time, energy, and resources to spend time with his kids as they grow up.

Books discussed in this show:

• Dan Kennedy's Books
• Cory Rudl's Books

Follow Ed O'Keefe here:

• Ed O'Keefe Show (with free gifts!)
• Inspired Wear (with a free gift!)
• Twitter

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are very excited to bring you part 2 of our interview with Kavit Haria, musician, coach, and entrepreneur.

Kavit Haria shares that he is a big proponent of journaling. He loves writing down his thoughts, ideas, plans, and tasks. He feels that once he writes it down it is documented and no longer taking up space in his head. Kavit, Josh, and Ben then dive down a path talking about Evernote, a great app for many journaling features.

Kavit Haria says one of the best ways for him to stay on task and also to make time for himself, is to have an accountability partner. He has a friend the talks with at least once a month and they keep each other on track. He also trained his assistant to manage him. By that, he means that he shares his goals and schedule and his assistant makes sure he stays on topic and focused. At the end of the day, it always comes down to self dicipline. His accountability partner and his assistant can tell him what he needs to focus on, but he still has to be the one doing the work.

Finally, Kavit Haria drops some huge value bombs on us:

• The more clarity you have, the more your confidence will increase.
• Come from a place of humilty.
• Realize you are an incredible unique potential to be the best you can for yourself and the society you live in.

Check out one of Kavit's (and Ben & Josh's) favorite apps, Evernote for iPhone, iPad, and the Mac.

Follow Kavit Haria here:

• Insider Internet Success
• Twitter

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are very excited to share part 1 of this interview with Kavit Haria, musician, coach, and entrepreneur.

Kavit Haria is a professional musician (including playing with Jimmy Page and Paul McCartney), studied genetics in college, coaches other musicians, and a successful entrepreneur.

Kavit Haria shares that he has recently (in the last couple years) started meditating. Ben asks for some of the noticeable improvements or changes that his two hours a day of meditation. This leads to a great insight to the level of focus you can achieve and the quality of work you can perform.

Next, Kavit Haria shares that he currently works only 4 hours a day. He does this by being really good at what he does as well as finding repetitive actions or tasks and automating it with systems. Putting these in place help him stay productive, focused, and successful while only working 4 hours a day.

The conversation then moved into how Kavit Haria accidentally created his first business. He was working as a professional musician and finding success. As more musicians found out about his success and asked for his advice, he started creating products to teach people to find the success that he had, thus creating his first business. He continues and shares the story of taking months off to travel and what happened to the business while he was gone.

Kavit Haria also shares how his business works and how he would like to evolve it in the coming years. It is interesting to hear what he has to say because it echos so much his life philosophy that Josh read at the top of the interview.

Check out one of Kavit's (and Ben & Josh's) favorite apps, Evernote for iPhone, iPad, and the Mac.

Follow Kavit Haria here:

• Insider Internet Success
• Twitter

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

It is the final Friday in the month and it is time for Ben and Josh recap all the great guests from July.

Josh and Ben start the show discussing Jon Schumacher. It was Ben's impression that despite the popularity and success that Jon has with his video podcast, Jon felt like he wasn't good at it. Seems that was all in Ben's head as Josh didn't get that impression at all. Ben then realizes that maybe he is projecting on Jon his own feelings about this show and the success it has and the guests that come on. Ben and Josh then jump into their favorite value bomb from the show.

Next Ben and Josh discuss Mark Sumpter and really enjoyed the conversation with him. Based on some of the stories that Mark shared, it is very important to value your time. Make sure you enjoy what you are doing, or that you are getting paid for what you are doing (and if you're really good, get paid for what you enjoy doing).

Then Josh and Ben discussed their interview with Shawn Manaher. This episode was even more fun for Ben to listen to and edit as he wasn't even on the show. Ben had a short notice work trip and couldn't co-host, and thankfully previous guest Shannon Hernandez joined Josh on the show to co-host. Ben really enjoyed Shannon and Shawn discussing their thoughts on working out.

After that Ben and Josh talked about Zach Obront's interview. This show was also co-hosted by Shannon Hernandez in Ben's absence. Josh shares what one of Zach's value bombs means to him and how important it is to pivot. Things change and it is always important to see those changes and adjust your game plan to compensate for those changes while continuing to move forward and progress.

Finally Josh and Ben recapped their interview this week with Ryan Levesque. Ryan was a great guest and had a great story to tell with his experience in the business world. Ben and Josh were also very grateful for the gift Ryan is giving to Utopians. He is giving away a copy of his book! Just go to AskFormula.com and use the code Utopia to get the book for free and just pay shipping! Let's make sure that we take him up on that offer and clear out all the books he set aside for us!

As a special treat, Josh brought on his son Benji! Ben spent a few minutes talking with Benji about his perfect day, and possibly setting Josh up to make that happen.

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are excited to bring you part 2 of our interview with Ryan Levesque, Entrepreneur, Coach, and Author.

Ryan Levesque continues his interview with move value by sharing his insight with creating his first business. He had a major breakthrough thinking that his first business as a practice business. Once he got into that into his head, he was able to step back and really focus on the processes.

Ryan Levesque shares some person experiences to get his points across. He thinks back to hiring additional staff in his business. To him, it always felt too early. If your time, for example, is worth $100, then you should not spend your evenings doing $10 an hour work packing up envelopes to send to your customers. The main challenge is that hiring someone will eat into your profits, but the benefit of opening up your time to work on your business (instead of in it) will ultimately improve the situation.

Ryan Levesque and Josh then spend some time talking about who to hire and where they are located. Josh is looking into virtual staff finder which finds people from the Philippines while Ryan hires folks in the US. Ryan is quick to point out that there is not a 'one size fits all. The team you have now is the team that will get you from A to B, not Y to Z.

Keeping in form for the interview, Ryan Levesque drops another nugget of wisdom on us. He does not believe in a work/life balance. He believes in only doing a few things very very well. He works very hard to minimize the choices he makes in his daily life to avoid decision fatigue. He gives an example of this based on the clothes he wears.

Ryan left us with these three value bombs:

• Study how people were when they were working to be successful, not how they are now that they are successful
• You don't have to get it perfect, you just have to get it going
• The five most profitable words of Ryan's career "Screw it, just do it"

Here are the books we talked about in the show:

• Essentialism by Greg McKeown on Amazon and iTunes.

Follow Ryan Levesque here and get Ryan's gift to Utopians!:

• RyanLevesque.Net
• AskFormula.Com and don't forget the coupon code Utopia

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are stoked to bring you part 1 of our interview with Ryan Levesque, Entrepreneur, Coach, and Author.

Right out of the gate, Ryan Levesque hits us with a huge message. He and his wife started their first business with just an internet connection and a $500 laptop. Now they run a multi-million dollar a year company. Huge insight that you can come from a humble start and make something giant out of it.

Ryan Levesque then drops another insightful observation in our lap. People tend to over estimate what we can do in a year, but underestimate what we can do in three years. It's amazing to look back and see what happened this past year and compare that to what happened in the past three years.

Ryan Levesque provides us with a great example of how decision making and scheduling can have a trickle down effect on the rest of the day. His day starts (right now) with dropping his son off at school, next he goes to work out, and then starts his work day. He starts with what is most important (family), then moves into what energizes him (exercise), then moves into what he needs to focus on (work).

Ryan didn't figure this out all at once. His first business iteration was a structureless business. He worked when he wanted. Next, he moved to a very structured business plan. Currently, he has a blend of the two. He has milestones and company goals, but can structure the rest of his time around what he wants.

Ryan Levesque gives us a great example of 'riches in niches' and going an inch wide but a mile deep. One of Ryan and his wife's first business was a scrabble tile jewelry business on Etsy. Their insight in the business helped them launch their location free business selling 'picks and shovels'.

Here are the books we talked about in the show:

• Essentialism by Greg McKeown on Amazon and iTunes.

Follow Ryan Levesque here and get Ryan's gift to Utopians!:

• RyanLevesque.Net
• AskFormula.Com and don't forget the coupon code Utopia

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are very pleased to present part 2 of our interview with Zach Obront, Entrepreneur, Editor, and Publisher. We are also very lucky to have former guest and friend of the show Shannon Hernandez guest hosting with Josh!

Zach Obront gave us a great example of how his type of work and desire to create business and processes is a love, but working in that business or process is something that he does not enjoy. He also gives us an example of after living the 'beach entrepreneur' life he needed to get back into creating.

Zach Obront next tells us about the impacts he has had on his business partner and vice versa. It lead to an example of Elon Musk and how he talks about continuing learning and not just in the areas you already know.

Zach Obront shares his value-bombs for all of us:

• Think about your Utopia, once you're there, then what?
• Let go of your Ego, you may have a great idea, but it may not be the best solution.
• Be able to pivot, nothing stays the same, change happens

Follow Zach Obront:

• Book in a Box
• Zach Obront
• Twitter

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are very pleased to present part 1 of our interview with Zach Obront, Entrepreneur, Editor, and Publisher. We are also very lucky to have former guest and friend of the show Shannon Hernandez guest hosting with Josh!

Zach Obront starts the show off with some incredible advice about the enormous lists of things we have to do to get things done. He shares a story about previous guest Ben Altman of Charisma on Command and how they worked up a plan to get done all the things they needed to get done.

Zach Obront then shares how one of his outlets, improv, has helped him beyond his expectations of being funnier or thinking quicker on his feet. Improv has helped him let go of things not going his way, which has made him more relaxed and accepting.

Zach Obront gives us his definition of his Utopia. He was hesitant to start because he feels his vision has changed in the past and continues to change now and sees it changing in the future.

Follow Zach Obront:

• Book in a Box
• Zach Obront
• Twitter

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are very pleased to present part 2 of our interview with Shawn Manaher, Entrepreneur, Coach, Mentor, and Podcast Host. We are also very lucky to have former guest and friend of the show Shannon Hernandez guest hosting with Josh!

Shawn Manaher shares that he is at the start of his 40s and does not feel 'old,' he feels like he is just on the start of his journey. Shawn, Josh, and Shannon discuss how old you are verses how old you feel and act. Huge difference and an important distinction in how you view your life.

Shawn Manaher gives us a great example of a catalyst that lead him down the path he is on now. He had a great job, doing well, getting promotions and raises, but he was also in pain. He went to doctors, got put under, tested and ultimately was told nothing is wrong, he was just stressed and that stress was causing his physical pain.

Shawn Manaher closes out his time with us with three value-bombs:

• Have a forgiving mindset
• Don't lose focus on the one thing you want to do/become
• We only have one life, live it at your highest potential

Books we talked about during the show:

• The One Thing by Gary Keller on Amazon and iTunes

Follow Shawn Manaher:

• Sidepreneurs
• Twitter

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

We are very pleased to present part 1 of our interview with Shawn Manaher, Entrepreneur, Coach, Mentor, and Podcast Host. We are also very lucky to have former guest and friend of the show Shannon Hernandez guest hosting with Josh!

Shawn Manaher starts off the show with some huge value by sharing that it is about the content and creating a following before turning it into a sustainable business. He also calls out a few of his inspirational people like Joe Pulizzi and Brian Gibbs.

Shawn Manaher has a great view of Utopia, he wants to meet his potential on a daily basis. He wants to do his best physically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally to hit that potential every day. Shawn and Shannon take a short tangent and explain how they feel with their physical journey in becoming a healthier and more physically fit person.

Books we talked about during the show:

• The One Thing by Gary Keller on Amazon and iTunes

Follow Shawn Manaher:

• Sidepreneurs
• Twitter

As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!