252: Mike Maddock — Is An Entrepreneur Forum Right For You?

We have a returning guest for you today! Today’s guest talks about entrepreneurial forums and how beneficial they can be for your growth as a business owner, but only if you get plugged into the right community. Mike Maddock is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, executive coach, and writer. He calls himself an Idea Monkey because he loves to solve problems with disruptive ideas. His company, Maddock Douglas, INC, has become an internationally recognized innovation consultancy firm and has helped more than 25% of the Fortune 100 create and launch new products. The second best decision Mike made (aside from marrying his wife, Ruth) was joining YPO/EO because he was able to get plugged into a high-level mastermind and get connected with a world-tier of entrepreneurs who understood exactly what he was going through. One of the mistakes Mike made early on when joining an entrepreneurial forum was that he would only network with people who were “relevant” to him or who could help him. This was a mistake because what you really need is diversity of thought. You want to surround yourself with people who ask you tough questions that might get you bent out of shape and/or irritated. They’re forcing you to grow, and think differently. A measure of a good forum is also the ability to get vulnerable. Entrepreneurs put everything in a blender, mix it up, and pray. We need people in our corner who can help us through the professional crisis as well as the personal crisis because it all blends together.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Maddockdouglas.com Flourishforums.com Mike-maddock.com   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed...