Embracing Uncertainty

Mike Ciorrocco is a professional speaker, performance coach, author, and thought leader. Mike's background is in the mortgage industry and he recognized that social media was the fastest way to build an audience. He shared that importance with his team, but he wasn't doing it himself.

Mike recognized the importance of practicing what you preach so he started a podcast. His podcast took off and now Mike is well known for his concept of "rocket fuel." At this point in the podcast, we learn Mike came from a broken home and as a child, he spent a lot of time at home. While this was lonely, he learned the value of positive self-talk.

He learned to use his peers and own negative self-talk, as rocket fuel to propel his success. Listen as Mike talks about leadership, using words like "we" "us" and "our." He shares his passion that comes from a team environment and working with others. Mike's true passion is to propel energy and success for others!

Joe Semaan is considered a secret weapon in business, but his career did not begin in a high-performance role. Rather, Joe was the youngest of 4 children, born in Peoria, Illinois. He knew that nothing would be given to him. He moved to Chicago and Joe found himself in tax sales.

The sales came fast for Joe, but it was also in the middle of the tech bubble. Like many others, his decline was as quick as his rise. Then he realized that if he was going to be broke, he could do it anywhere.

Joe moved to L.A. and found his footing in the mortgage industry. He experienced his second bubble. Joe learned the value of self-awareness which can help us recognize the trends around us. Joe stressed the ability to form long-lasting relationships and learning from those around us, instead of transactional relationships.

Listen to the very end where Joe tells us his definition of living a life of significance. Hint: it starts with the education system.

Dave Ferrera is a founder, inventor, entrepreneur, and engineer. Dave had a life-changing event in college. His grandfather had a stroke while in surgery and during a conversation with his doctor, he asked Dave about his future.

Dave wanted to go into engineering, but the doctor suggested he shift his focus to healthcare. Daves thought changed completely. He found employment in the medical products field and his career took off. After being called to join a start-up, Dave moved to California and was forever bitten by the startup bug.

This is where Dave discovered the foundational relationship of teams, doctors, and engineers. Collectively they could solve any problem. Dave also shares his story on mentorship and the values he learned from mentors, he now shares to those he mentors.

As we finish the podcast, Dave shares his version of living a life of significance.

Peter Taunton is the founder of Snap Fitness and Lift Brands. Lift Brands currently has over 6000+ locations in 28 countries, but Peters journey started from humble beginnings. Peter shares the story of when he was 8 years old selling popcorn in his fathers business.

Peter shares that a lot of what he learned about business, started with that experience. 

His business career started when he quit his professional racquetball career. He went back to his local club and told them "if you ever want to turn around this failing club, give me a call."

A year later, they took him up on that offer. 7 years later, he sold those clubs and started the journey of building Snap Fitness.

In this episode, he shares that journey and you won't want to miss as Peter shares with us his meaning on living a life of significance.

Connect with Peter: https://www.instagram.com/peter_taunton/

Connect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveleclair/

Embracing Uncertainty: https://linktr.ee/embracinguncertainty

Henry Kaminski is the founder of Unique Designz, a design and branding agency. While we learn that Unique Designz is a multi-million dollar business, Henry's story starts with humble beginnings. Henry grew up in a blue-collar family but his parents wanted more for his life.

Henry started Unique Designz in 2008 during the economic crisis. Fortunately for Henry, his business was like a rocket ship and he had to hold on for dear life. He shares that he found his niche in night clubs but after creating success, he found himself overleveraged on the verge of losing it all.

Henry knew the importance of asking for help and completely transformed his business into what it is today. As the podcast goes on, Henry shares with us the importance of branding and why it's vital for your companies future.

At the end, Henry passionately shares his opinion on living a life of significance. His answer will inspire you to rethink your own stance on living a life of significance.

Connect with Henry: https://uniquedesignz.net/

Connect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveleclair/

Embracing Uncertainty: https://linktr.ee/embracinguncertainty

Lonnie McRorey is the co-founder and CEO of Framework Signs. Although Framework Signs was founded 3 years ago, the company has scaled quickly due to its ingenuity. Lonnie has disrupted the software development, engineering, and IT industries.

After his bad experiences outsourcing IT companies, he saw an opportunity in the marketplace. Lonnie viewed the problem of IT outsourcing as a mathematical equation. Once you subtract corporate greed from the equation, you can allocate that to top talent. These are his digital cowboys.

They are free to create and solve complex problems with autonomy. For Lonnie, significance is about having an impact on others around you.

Connect with Lonnie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonnie/

Connect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveleclair/

Embracing Uncertainty: https://linktr.ee/embracinguncertainty

Michael Maximoff is a serial entrepreneur with expertise in digital & email marketing campaigns. Michael was born in Ukraine and left in his 20s to pursue his education. After returning to Ukraine he pursued a job in IT before his true growth began. He learned the importance of taking care of yourself, as it was the only way to survive.

Michael shares that Ukraine has become an IT hub. He found himself creating great lead generation campaigns for other companies, before taking the plunge and starting his own IT company with a partner that had complementary skills. Listen as he explains how they measure success within their company.

Finally, listen as Michael explains his true passion to impact the world. His goal to achieve that is by developing solutions to people's biggest problems.

Connect With Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-maximoff/

Connect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveleclair/

Embracing Uncertainty: https://linktr.ee/embracinguncertainty

John Azar is an industry leader in real estate, private equity, and sales management. John's journey started in copier sales which led to an opportunity in copier sales. In 2004, he discovered an opportunity focused on raising capital for real estate developers. His company was off to a fast start before 2007 happened. His company did not survive and John had to go back to the drawing board.

John took a traditional job but kept paddling. He shares that pain and heartache are universal feelings. In 2014, he made the leap into entrepreneurship again, joining his brothers company. According to John, working with family is a blessing and a curse. It is easy to have trust when working with family, however, it is a balancing act to separate business and family.

Eventually, John decided to launch his own company and pursue his own happiness. He shares with us how he stays centered and tells us his opinion on living a life of significance.

Connect with John: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalalazar/

Connect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveleclair/

Embracing Uncertainty: https://linktr.ee/embracinguncertainty

Nuno is an engineer, consultant, and venture capitalist. In this episode, he shares the 3 different phases of his career, and how none of it was planned. He shares that his progression has been a byproduct of him pushing people to take action and tells us that communication is one of his unique superpowers.

He also tells us that he's learned to look at his own career from a distance. By keeping yourself at a distance, it forces you to remain neutral and less emotional with your decision making. He goes on to give us techniques on how to return to neutral and how to turn your anxiety into opportunity.

When you move from performance and  happiness, you are on the path to what he calls "True North." He says life is not about balance, it's about flow. At the end, he shares his opinion on living a life of significance and shares the importance of giving back by helping others.

Connect with Nuno: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nuno-goncalves-pedro-69732a/

Connect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveleclair/

Embracing Uncertainty: https://linktr.ee/embracinguncertainty

Ray McKenzie started as a road warrior, traveling weeks at a time managing a global IT team. One day, he noticed people dining, enjoying themselves, and not rushing back to work. This led Ray to ask, "ow is it possible to have such a work/life balance?" The answer was self-employment.

He didn't have a plan, but one day he got a call from 2 CEOs requesting that he join their teams. Ray's goal was to work for himself so one of the CEOs offered him a consulting contract, and that's where Red Beach Advisors was born.

Not everything went smoothly for Ray. In year 2, contracts started ending and he had to learn to hunt for sales. This is where he learned the importance of perseverance and relationships.

Ray also tells us about his next startup, and his thoughts on life in this new world.

Connect with Ray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymondmckenzie/

Embracing Uncertainty: https://linktr.ee/embracinguncertainty