How'd it Happen?

In this episode of the How’d It Happen Podcast, Mike Malatesta shares the inspiring story of Joe Polish, a recovering addict turned marketing genius. Mike discusses four key takeaways from Joe's book, “What's In It for Them,” that can benefit leaders and entrepreneurs alike. 

Despite a challenging start as a carpet cleaner with no money or experience, Joe's commitment to learning and connecting with others led him to become a successful entrepreneur and super-connector. Mike’s takeaways from this book will help listeners build valuable relationships and achieve success.

Mike delves into Joe’s unique approach to relationships and how he emphasizes the importance of helping others without expecting anything in return. Joe categorizes relationships as either ELF: easy, lucrative, and fun, or HALF: hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating.

Join Mike as he explores Joe' Polish’s journey of resilience and determination and his insight on how to build meaningful relationships beyond just networking.

Episode resources:

Book: What’s In It For Them by Joe Polish

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As a high performer that may be running a business or calling the shots for a company, you have a lot of decisions to make. It is easy to get overwhelmed and experience decision fatigue, or struggle with indecisiveness, not knowing what is truly the best option. This episode is for you if you want to learn how to make quicker and better decisions in any area of your life. Hasard Lee is a former fighter pilot who has spent years making high stake split-second decisions and he wants to teach you how. 

Hasard Lee has spent his career flying both the F-16 and F-35. In 2016, he was selected as the 'Top Instructor Pilot of the Year' for the Air Force's largest F-16 Combat Wing. In 2017, he returned from Afghanistan where his squadron dropped the most ordnance since the war's opening days. He has flown 82 combat missions and has 4 Air Medals. Hasard has the distinction of being the only fighter pilot to ever employ two different types of jets in combat on the same day. He is also a content creator with one of the largest defense channels on YouTube. Hasard's first book, "The Art of Clear Thinking" was recently released, and it focuses on how to use fighter pilot decision-making in everyday life.

Hasard speaks on air combat, human performance, decision-making, mental toughness, and how to debrief. From reading his book, Mike had many takeaways, and couldn’t wait to get Hasard on the How’d It Happen Podcast. In this episode, Hasard shares his dream of becoming a fighter pilot since he was a kid and the rigorous training he went through to make that dream a reality. 

Key highlights:

• Hasard’s first experience with a jet when he was 5
• The physical and mental challenges of flying the airforce’s fastest and most expensive jets
• Decision-making
• Mental toughness
• Debriefs
• The book-writing process
• The “Dream” sheet

Connect with Hasard Lee:

Website: hasardlee.com | hasardx.com

Instagram: @hasardlee

Podcast: The Professionals Playbook 

YouTube: Hasard Lee

Get Hasard’s book: The Art of Clear Thinking

To Connect with Mike:

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In this episode of the How’d It Happen Podcast, Mike shares nine reasons why Jay Leno has more meaning than money. From his humility to his hard work, Jay's qualities are explored in depth. A lot of wealthy people and celebrities have the opposite where they have more money than meaning, and end up feeling very unfulfilled in their lives.

Join Mike as he delves into the topic and reflects on the importance of having more meaning in our lives.

To Connect with Mike:

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Do you want to know what it takes to create something truly magical from absolutely nothing? Building a remarkable business from the ground up requires focusing on being better than what is already out there. But here is the key: you can’t just be slightly better than your competition. You need to go all in on being 10 times better than what is currently already being done. This is the mindset that Kevin Gibbon operates from and it has served him very well.

Sometimes the misplaced step offers the most profound and lasting insight. Innately entrepreneurial, Airhouse CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Gibbon got his start in tech developing software for major aerospace players like Boeing and Raytheon. After a few years, he set out to carve his own path, building Shyp, attracting $62.1M in funding, and landing on Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list. Unfortunately, Shyp was a bright star that ultimately burned out, but Kevin walked away from the experience equipped with reams of priceless insight. At Airhouse, he’s applying that insight to revolutionize the way DTC e-commerce brands scale logistics.

In this episode of the How’d It Happen Podcast, Kevin is sharing how he stayed so optimistic and confident while his first business Shyp, was about to close down. He took the priceless lessons that he learned from building a running Shyp, to go on and build the very successful company, Airhouse, and has been introduced as the next Jeff Bezos. What Kevin learned is that many entrepreneurs focus on the wrong things, such as building a great service or product, but where we need to focus is on our ideal customer. What do they need? How can we make their lives easier? Focus there, truly understand that problem, figure out how to solve it, and your chances of success will be much higher. 

Key highlights:

• How Kevin got started in Tech
• Kevin’s thoughts on whether AI will replace creators
• How to use AI to your advantage as a creator
• The Uberfication of everything 
• The magic of building something from nothing 

Connect with Kevin Gibbon:

Website: airhouse.io

LinkedIn: Kevin Gibbon

Twitter: @kevingibbon

Instagram: @kevingibbon

Podcast: Second Time Founders

To Connect with Mike:

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Who doesn’t love receiving a gift from another person? It doesn’t have to be an actual physical gift in order to be special. In fact, the best gifts humans can give cannot be bought. In this solo episode, Mike talks about the best gifts humans can give one another. 

He was inspired to do this by an American journalist and novelist named Oren Arnold. Mr. Arnold wrote a piece on the best gives to give, so Mike puts his own spin on it and shares why he agrees that these are the best gifts we can give to one another. There are certain intangible gifts that are incredibly special to those around us, and we can even give very powerful gifts to ourselves. Tune in for more!

To Connect with Mike:

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You might be thinking what do all these rhyming words mean together? Snap, nap, tap, clap, recap is a powerful 5-step system for improved vitality created by successful well-being expert David Lindsay. Each step serves an important purpose in building a strong mind and body and being present and resilient no matter what life throws at you.

David Lindsay has changed the lives of 10s of thousands of people throughout the world. He has been obsessed with changing how we view health and vitality by disrupting how we see the links between fitness and workplace productivity. David is a personal trainer, keynote speaker, author, award-winning coach, and all-around good guy.

David played Rugby League for many years, but suffered 2 knee reconstructions at an early age, cutting short his Rugby League Career. He put this setback behind him and went on to train as a Professional Arm Wrestler until an unfortunate accident occurred, which put the breaks on his dreams once again. He then went on to pursue martial Arts and received his Black Belt in Wing Chun, Purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, train in Submission wrestling, and has had several MMA fights. In the last ten years, David has studied many successful teams and individual athletes, and they all in their own way, follow a similar structure to David’s "5 Step System Towards Improved Vitality in the Workplace". David has personally used this System many times to achieve results outsiders said were never possible. These 5 little hacks are easy to implement and keep established in the long term.

In this episode of the How’d It Happen Podcast, David Lindsay shares what it was like to experience not one, but two serious injuries as an athlete, and what he took away from each of those challenges. David’s competitive nature and drive for success have served him well as he aimed to look for lessons in all of the difficulties he faced. Tune in and learn how to apply Snap, Nap, Tap, Clap, Recap to increase your vitality and get closer to your goals.

Key highlights:

• David’s accidents, his wife’s motorcycle accident, and how they overcame each obstacle
• What is vitality? 
• Why David wants to share his message with as many people as he can
• How can you take a crisis and turn it into an opportunity?
• 5 steps for improved vitality- snap, nap, tap, clap, recap
• Losing isn't losing, losing is learning 
• How to have a business that doesn’t lose and only evolves

Connect with David Lindsay:

Website: davidlindsay.com.au

LinkedIn: David Lindsay

YouTube: David Lindsay

To Connect with Mike:

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Leaders have a great deal of responsibility not only in just leading, instructing, and delegating, but also in setting the tone for their team and being an example for those that they are leading. Whether you’re leading a company, coaching a team, or even leading your family, there are 4 very important qualities of effective leaders.

This solo episode was inspired by a webinar by coach Nick Saban, who is the head football coach at the University of Alabama. He shared 4 qualities that he believes all leaders should have, and in this episode, Mike shares his thoughts on each of them. Those 4 qualities are: leaders are committed to doing things the right way, leaders set a good example, leaders are never late, and leaders take care of their responsibilities. Tune in to hear about each of these more in-depth, and let us know if you’d agree with them, or have anything to add!

To Connect with Mike:

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What exactly does it mean to live an “agile life?” Let’s start with the definition of “agile” which means “marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace.” That sounds like something that all entrepreneurs strive to be. We want to be agile in the way that we can move quickly to meet our customers' demands and recognize when it’s time to shift directions or processes. Simon Severino is the author of the book “Strategy Sprints: 12 Ways to Accelerate Growth for an Agile Business” and he shares what he thinks the most important factors are to having an agile business and life in general.

Simon Severino is the author of "Strategy Sprints" and CEO of the consulting agency Strategysprints.com. He is also the creator of the Strategy Sprints Method, a TedX Speaker, and a coach of coaches. He has been in entrepreneurship for 19 years and executed hundreds of go-to-market strategies with B2B teams around the globe. Simon has helped thousands of entrepreneurs reach financial freedom and have a firm that runs without being dependent on them. Today, he shares his blueprints with business leaders.

In this episode of the How’d It Happen Podcast, Simon emphasizes the importance of having great systems and processes in not only your business but also in life. He believes that goals are not the answer to success and don’t actually help you. According to Simon, “You don’t rise to the levels of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” The present moment is all we have, and there is much out of our control, so the key is to focus only on what you can control and make sure there is a great system in place for that. 

Key highlights:

• Why Simon is such a believer in processes
• How Simon became an entrepreneur
• How Simon creates processes in his business
• Why processes are more important than your goals
• What does it mean to have an “agile business”?
• Simon’s thoughts on Elon Musk and Tesla
• How Simon uses AI for his business
• Why our country relies on entrepreneurs to solve the problems we have
• How you can work with Simon as a business coach

Episode resources:

Check out Truflation.com for current inflation rates

Connect with Simon Severino:

Check out Simon’s mastermind: strategysprints.com/jvc

LinkedIn: Simon Severino

Twitter: @simonseverino

Instagram: @strategysprints

YouTube: Simon Severino

Get Simon’s book: Strategy Sprints: 12 Ways to Accelerate Growth for an Agile Business

To Connect with Mike:

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We all have cool things about ourselves, but how often do you take the time to list out the cool things about yourself? Chances are, it’s probably not very often, but after listening to a podcast with Dean Graziosi, Mike felt inspired to reflect on the cool things about himself. In Dean’s podcast episode, he talked about an exercise he called “10 Cool Things About Me” and listed them. It is easy to forget what's cool about you because you might be focused on everything wrong with you, or wrong in your life or business. Mike encourages you to go in the opposite direction and take the time to sit down and list 10 (or more) cool things about yourself. We all have them!

In this solo episode, Mike reflects on the 10 cool things about himself and what he is proud of. This is a fun and insightful exercise because it allows us to see the positives in ourselves when things may not be feeling very positive around us. We all have unique traits, talents, and things that are important to us, which makes us all special and very cool. You might be thinking that it feels like you're bragging or being self-centered to focus on what is great about you, but we all deserve to celebrate ourselves and appreciate the cool things about us. So what are 10 cool things about you? Write them down, and send us a message on Instagram @malatesta.mike and we’d love to hear about the greatness in you.

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In the entrepreneur and personal development space, we often hear people talk about the importance of finding your true purpose and making sure your life is aligned with that. This has become such an important topic because for most of us, this is not something we learned about in school. Now that we have social media and people idolizing and wanting to model their life after an illusion of someone else’s life, this doesn’t set us up for a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life. So how do you know if you are following your purpose? It can be a long journey, and that’s okay. Ted Bradshaw is here on the How’d It Happen podcast to share his journey and insight on how to find your purpose through the 6 life essentials: Mind, body, soul, nutrition, money, and relationships.

Ted Bradshaw served as an executive with Xerox and IBM, then left the Fortune 500 world to explore entrepreneurship. What he found was a long string of success that looked great on the surface. But underneath it all, he felt anxious, exhausted, and stressed, chasing money wherever it led and wondering why he never felt fulfilled. Along his journey, Ted gained valuable insight into how a person can achieve fulfillment in all aspects of life and he shares those insights with his best-selling book, Stop Chasing Squirrels. Ted now lives his passion in helping others find theirs. Ted is a speaker, author, Expert EOS Implementer™, and Community Leader for EOS Worldwide. 

In this episode, Ted shares why he built and left 7 businesses, and his belief that everything truly happens for a reason. Ted guides us through uncovering our purpose, and what needs to be aligned in order for us to understand that purpose and live a life that is fulfilled. With Ted’s passion for finances, he also shares strategies for re-evaluating your relationship with money to ease any stress you have surrounding the topic of money or budgets. Ted is full of wisdom and insight, and you don’t want to miss tuning in to this one.

Key highlights:

• Why Ted spent 2 weeks selling alarms to people that didn’t want them
• Ted’s humble beginnings and reconnecting with his dad after losing touch
• How a short-lived sales job taught Ted to compel people to do something they didn't want to do for their own benefit 
• How Ted got started at Xerox
• The serendipity of life and why everything happens for a reason
• Why Ted started and left 7 businesses 
• What is the hack to get started finding your purpose?
• The 6 essentials to understand our purpose
• Re-evaluating our relationship with money

Connect with Ted Bradshaw:

Website: TedBradshaw.com

LinkedIn: Ted Bradshaw

Twitter:@ted_bradshaw

Instagram:@tedbradshawco

To Connect with Mike:

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• Get Mike’s book: Owner Shift

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