Small Business Answer Man

Christina Vitagliano is the founder of Monster Mini Golf. She created, designed, and is responsible for a nationwide franchised chain of indoor, glow-in-the-dark, monster-themed mini-golf family entertainment centers. She is also the author of Every 9 Minutes: A Memoir.

Introducing Christina Vitagliano

1. What problem do you solve?
   • I help solve how you can start a business when you're sitting on just scraps.
2. What three questions are you going to answer for us today?
   1. How do you make money out of those scraps?
   2. How do you have the drive to thrive?
   3. How do you use your trauma to your advantage in business?

Show Notes:

• Christina just needed to survive which drove her to make the decisions she did.
• To have a book professionally published, you need to get it professionally edited.
• What do I have?
• What can I make?
• How can I make it work?
• Christina learned how to franchise by searching online and meeting with someone in Chicago.
  • She learned about each aspect of franchising.
  • She thought about how to franchise as fast as possible.
• What's the worst that can happen?
• You don't have to follow all the little rules when you're trying to start a business.
  • You don't need to have an end date either.
  • If you're moving forward, you're moving forward.
  • You do need goals, but you shouldn't just stop if you are progressing.
• Don't listen to your friends, family, and neighbors when they say you can't do something.

Christina Vitagliano's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? She stays ethically and morally healthy in business.
2. If you had one do-over, what would it be? Christina wishes she wouldn't focus on her mistakes so much. You have to just move on and not take it so personally.

Connect with Christina:

Christina's website: 123christinav.com

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Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/

From flipping hamburgers on Main Street to leading HR for Wall Street, Paul has continually reinvented his distinctive voice to thrive within the craziness of our ever-chaotic world.

As an Impostor Syndrome survivor, Paul has learned to tame his fake and fraud voice and has successfully coached hundreds of leaders and teams to celebrate their Impostor and find their voice of confidence so that they share their inspiration with others.

His practical, and sometimes laughable, life experiences led him to author the award-winning coaching book, "Find Your VOICE as a Leader"™ (2016, Aviva Publishing).

Paul's coaching portfolio includes working with the talented global teams and leaders at Twitter, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, SAP and Cisco along with many successful life entrepreneurs looking to make their mark on our world.

A certified Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Center Coach, a contributing author with Forbes Coaches Council, and the Founder of the Find Your V.O.I.C.E. as a Leader™ Institute, he offers transformative coaching journeys to find & use your distinctive voice of strength to be your best self.

Introducing Paul N Larsen

1. What problem do you solve?
   • He is going to help people celebrate their imposter syndrome so they can thrive with it and not just survive.
2. What three questions are you going to answer for us today?
   1. What is impostor syndrome?
   2. How do I know when I'm experiencing impostor syndrome versus just having a bad day?
   3. What are the steps I can do to integrate it, celebrate it, and overcome it? What can I do that's easy?

Show Notes:

• An easy way to think of impostor syndrome is that it's when we think we have to be somebody else to be successful.
• You can be a very confident impostor.
  • It's what is happening inside us in our mind that says, "No, you have to be somebody else in order to be successful."
• The pandemic has offered us an opportunity to open our mind and ask what are we thinking in here?
• We are so choosy.
• We let any thought in.
• The average adult can process more than 12,000 thoughts a day.
• If we let thoughts nest, they fester.
• Thoughts have a negativity bias and often come from the day before.
• We experience impostor syndrome when we have feelings that we're kind of a fake and a fraud in what we're doing.
• 90% of successful professionals have experienced impostor syndrome at least once in their life.
• New experiences can make you feel like you're faking it.
• We feel like we'll be "found out" and someone will say they realize we don't know what we're doing and we must leave.
• Realize that you are not a fake or a fraud. You have FEELINGS that you are.
• At the heart of hearts, impostor syndrome is trying to protect us from messing up (if we mess up we can learn).
• It's a part of me, so I'm gonna make it work for me.
• Celebrate the voice and realize it means you have room for growth.
• Take baby steps to help dilute the voice.
• Recognize impostor syndrome for what it is.
• Recognize the value of who you are.
• Stop and take a breath.
• If I can do it, then anyone can.

Paul N Larsen's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Paul's biggest habit was finding his voice. He then discovered his values, established his outcomes, demonstrated his influence to himself, revealed his courage, and created a lasting expression.
2. If you had one do-over, what would it be? He would spend more time with the people that really matter.

Connect with Paul:

Paul's website: paulnlarsen.com

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/

Jennifer Shaheen is the founder and President of The Technology Therapy Group. She is recognized as an expert in planning, implementing, and translating digital marketing and technology. She is a digital transformation expert, user experience enthusiast and data insights specialist, expertly guiding business owners through the intersection of marketing and technology for the past 20 plus years.

With unique expertise that combines technical prowess, entrepreneurial insight, and marketing acumen, Jennifer's marketing strategy, brand development, and small business operations skills have aided companies in the retail, manufacturing, hospitality, luxury, and travel industries.

A highly sought presenter, Jennifer has appeared on MSNBC's Your Business and writes for several industry publications. Jennifer has been a contributor to and quoted expert in notable publications such as Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, CIO, Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

In June of 2020, Jennifer joined the board of C. F. Martin & Co.®

Introducing Jennifer Shaheen

1. What problem do you solve?
   • I solve the problem of understanding where to start and what to use when it comes to digital technology.
2. What three questions are you going to answer for us today?
   1. What platforms should we be or should not be using in digital marketing?
   2. What are some tips for each of the marketing channels?
   3. Where does data play into things when it comes to marketing?

Show Notes:

• People are trying to do everything, but we can't do everything.
  • We don't have enough people and resources.
  • Business owners want to do more than they're doing.
• What channels are working for my business and what aren't and why?
• You don't have to be on everything.
  • You should create an account on everything and protect the platforms, though.
  • If someone asks about you on one platform, you can redirect them to another.
  • There's nothing wrong with setting up a platform and not using it.
• What platforms are growing for your audience?
• What is the path for your business?
• Social platforms are great for discovery and search platforms are great for seeking.
  • Know how to nurture both types of clients.
• People don't go from discovery to purchase. There is not a straight path unless there is a sense of urgency.
• Ask yourself, "I have this kind of business, what are the steps in consideration to purchase?"
  • Build that into your marketing.
• Do you look at all your analytical data together?
  • Don't look at your data in silos. If you look at it together, you can better understand your customer.
• Use Google's data studio.
  • Bring your data from many platforms into a central system.
• Organic marketing takes time because you're dealing with algorithms.
  • Organic doesn't give you insights the same way because Google doesn't share with you what key words people use to find you.
• Work smarter, not harder.
• Spend a little money on digital advertising because it'll give you data insights you won't get organically.
• Reflection is extremely important.
• What's working for you?
  • Set a goal for moving one of them (not all) forward a certain percentage.

Jennifer Shaheen's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Jennifer had to learn how to create habits because she was a little too scattered in her life.
2. If you had one do-over, what would it be? Jennifer wishes she had created better systems earlier on. She has a lot in her head and she needs to systematize it and get it out.

Connect with Jennifer:

Jennifer's website: technologytherapy.com

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/

Beginning his entrepreneurial journey at age 19, Jeremy used his free time to interview hundreds of successful people across the country, learning from their expertise and acting on their advice. As Jeremy's business development and sales expertise grew, he decided to write his first book in order to establish authority, generate leads, and increase his credibility. The result? His business exploded and Jeremy knew he had found his calling - empowering leaders to share their stories.

Introducing Jeremy Brown

1. What problem do you solve?
   • I help people go from an idea in their head to a book in their hand.
2. What three questions are you going to answer for us today?
   1. How important is your top goal?
   2. Your life is telling a story. What's that story telling?
   3. What questions are still in your mind from 2021 that you need to eliminate?

Show Notes:

• How important is this to you?
  • It's okay if it's not important. You need to identify that.
  • It's not what can I do but what do I want to do.
• Your priorities may shift for a year, a season, or even a day.
• How we tell a story determines how we approach it and attempt to solve it.
• Stories often start with a loss or a leap.
• You want to know your story because it can help you connect with others.
• If we leave questions floating around in our mind and don't answer them, they can cause confusion and a lack of clarity.
• A lot of people struggle with their purpose.
• Decide: Am I going to answer this right now? Am I going to come to a conclusion soon? Or will I put it aside and answer it later?
• What's underneath this that's not letting me coming to a conclusion?
• Faith is a substance. It's a real, actual thing.
• If you listen to people well, they will tell you their story and discover their reason themselves.

Jeremy Brown's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Jeremy's habit is having a written habit that he keeps in his pocket.
2. If you had one do-over, what would it be? He would put himself around the right people sooner. Getting yourself around the right people will make a big difference in your life.

Connect with Jeremy:

Jeremy's website: thronepg.com

LinkedIn

Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/

The time has come again to do a recap. With the fourth quarter of 2021 just wrapping up we are going to do a season recap on the sixteenth season. It's hard to believe that we have released more than 200 episodes!

Each guest that we have had on the podcast has taught us something different. Below are just a few of the highlights from our sixteenth season of podcasts.

For over 30 years, Richard Flint has been speaking and changing lives. Richards' has a passion for helping anyone who is tired of wandering through life and feels like they are lacking the clear understanding of what it takes to rise above normal and achieve a life of accomplishment, freedom, success, and a personal wealth of knowledge that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Richard is the author of 19 books and numerous webinar programs. He is also the host of his own podcast - Let's Talk Human Behavior.

Show Notes:

• Richard was prepared to be a person of presence and of value.
• He has a list of 16 laws that hold his life together.
  • One of these is to never stay anywhere where his presence isn't appreciated.
• Richard has traveled and shared his research for the past 32 years.
  • He calls it his crusade, and not his mission, because a crusade is where you go and make an impact.
• Life is continual education.
• You have to look for the opportunities and the moments that challenge you.
• Most people live from the outside in.
• In most audiences, they don't want to improve, they want an excuse.
• Richard created his own definition of stress that says that stress is anything in life that makes you uptight.
• Routines make us feel safe and comfortable but can also be traps.
• People who work to eliminate stress create stress.
• People who try to control stress make it their friend.
• Are you moving faster than you can manage?
• Slowing down for most people is a real challenge.
• You have to build your life on a foundation of trust in yourself.
• You can handle change and turn it into improvement if you bring 3 A's to your life:
  • Adapt
  • Adjust
  • Align yourself
• Behavior never lies.
• The essence of truth is not what you talk about, but it is what you do.
• We have to be honest about our behavior.
• Most people want honesty as long as it's not honest.
• Richard has four important guiding questions:
  1. What do I really want?
  2. Why do I really want this?
  3. What price am I willing to pay to have it?
  4. What behaviors will I have to improve to get there?
• You can't just sit down and write a goal. Use Richard's four questions to clarify what you want with life.
• Writing a goal does not create direction,
• Richard's number one philosophy says "Why spend energy being a carbon copy when you're an original."
• He wants to have a positive presence that is present when he's not present.
• Clutter is the number 1 dysfunctional behavior in human life.
• Clutter is anything that holds you as a hostage to yourself.
• You can't improve in chaos.

Richard Flint's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Richard Flint is disciplined.
2. What's the simple positive action that you take each day to move forward to achieve your goals? He doesn't do a to-do list he does an achievement list.
3. What's your biggest life lesson and what have you learned from it? He is an original and he is perfectly designed to achieve what he needs to achieve.

Connect with Richard:

Richard's website: richardflint.com

LinkedIn

Facebook

Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/

Adeyinka (Yinka) Adegbenle MBA, PMI-PMP is a former financial services professional turned Author | Excellence Strategist and Excellence Coach.

Her goal and life's purpose is to equip leaders with transformational

habits and systems of excellence. Yinka believes that excellence is choosing to rise above average or mediocrity. A person or organization will start to see measurable improvements and results, once a concrete decision is made to rise above being average. She has helped many to obtain outstanding measurable results through teaching and equipping them with dynamic habits and systems of excellence.

Show Notes:

• Yinka had a perspective change when her doctor told her that whatever it is that she was doing, she needed to stop because he'd be worried for her health.
• She thought to herself that she needs to do the best she can in the areas she has control in.
• Yinka helps others through the principal systems of excellence.
  • She wants to help others with roadblocks so that they can get the momentum to change their lives for the better.
• We're all people of excellence.
• As a leader, you should be skilled at what you do.
• Know your worth.
• Do your best and keep learning.
• Influence carries a lot of responsibilities.
• Leaders should be accountable.
• Leaders should have steady, controlled emotions.
  • A leader should know their emotional stance and know their triggers.
• Leaders should be vulnerable.
• Habits make up our belief system and are shown in how we live life daily.
  • Having the right values and actions is an essential base.
• Words have power. You can't use them recklessly.
• The words we use create our world, and we can build up or tear down with them.
• To operate at an optimal level, you have to keep growing.
  • Yinka has to keep learning until the day she dies.

Yinka Adegbenle's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Yinka plans her day, her week, her month, and her year. She makes goals because her well-planned weeks are her most productive ones.
2. What's the simple positive action that you take each day to move forward to achieve your goals? She exercises and gets outside.
3. What's your biggest life lesson and what have you learned from it? Excellence attracts excellence. When you strive for it in all you do, inevitably you get that back.

Connect with Yinka:

Get Yinka's book Joab, King David's Top General

Yinka's website: YinkaAdegbenle.com

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/

Matthew Turner is a British author who wrote his latest book, 'Beyond The Pale' on the back of interviewing hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, authors, investors, and thought-leaders. As well as writing his own books, Matthew ghostwrites both articles and books for other successful entrepreneurs and thought-leaders, in-between spending time with his two children.

Show Notes:

• Matthew always struggled with writing in school which caused him to have a fixed mindset.
  • Now Matthew is a writer, and he writes every day.
• Matthew interviewed 160 entrepreneurs about failure and how they overcame it.
  • This spearheaded his business and inspired his writing.
• He wrote a fable because he wanted to combine his two writing styles.
  • Matthew feels that his fiction writing is his art and that he can let his imagination roam and his non-fiction writing is the way he educates others.
• Matthew knew that Beyond the Pale is a book he had to write.
  • He asked successful entrepreneurs what they were reading, and they said that they read philosophies, histories, biographies, and fiction.
• People like being taught by stories and not having another 7-step process stuffed down their throats.
  • How do I relate to this character?
• People think they need to work a lot, but that's toxic.
• The real toxic nature of hustle in today's world is being constantly connected to the online world and to others.
  • It makes us always compare our worth to others' perceived worth.
• Shut yourself off from distractions.
  • It is so hard to sit and enjoy the sound of silence.
• Hustle stops us from thinking about what is really going on inside of us.
• Take a step back, reflect, and think about what success means to you.
• You may realize that you're already there, so then you can step back and enjoy it.
• Do 5-minutes to focus on your mind, body, and spirit by doing things like reading, walking, and meditation.
• Start now.
• Matthew learned from interviewing entrepreneurs that self-sabotage is more common than we think.
  • Part of us is conscious of our self-sabotage.
  • Sometimes we do it because we feel we don't deserve what we have.
  • Our inner voice may tell us that this isn't what we need.
    • We may have achieved what someone else wants. Not what we wanted.

Matthew Turner's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Matthew journals. He just sits down, sees what comes into his mind, and writes it.
2. What's the simple positive action that you take each day to move forward to achieve your goals? Walk to walk. Enjoy it and take in your surroundings.
3. What's your biggest life lesson and what have you learned from it? Define success and realize what really matters. When you do this, you work less, earn more, and live more fully.

Connect with Matthew:

Matthew's website: beyondbook.co

With us today is Joe Sanok, author of the new book, Thursday is the New Friday: How to work fewer hours, make more money, and spend time doing what you want. In this book, Joe empowers readers with a practical, evidence-based methodology to create their own work schedule and dedicate more of their precious personal time to pursuing their hobbies and spending time with their family and friends.

Show Notes:

• Are the institutions we hold dear stable or shaky?
• Joe talked about how the evolution of how we work and how we use our time.
• The old way of thinking is that there were only five ways to be more productive and that you had to do thing x.
• Joe said that he has shifted his perspective to view things more as a menu
  • Start with your internal inclinations.
  • Move outward into slowing down.
  • Our best ideas don't come when we're stressed out and maxed out.
  • A three-day weekend can help us do more when we're actually working.
• Don't delay it.
  • You'll learn so much during the process.
• People overvalue work and how much of their identity is part of it.
• How do you rein in good ideas and put in the time to your best work?
  • Work expands to fit the time given.
• Extra days off force us to see how much time we've been putting into work.
  • What needs to be handed off to someone else?
  • Who am I outside of my work?
• Think through what you're doing.
  • What works for you.
• If you take a one-minute break every twenty minutes, you don't lose focus as easily.
  • Multitasking is a myth.
• What kind of break do you need?
• Look at this future weekend, add something and remove something.
  • Add something means doing something like finally reading a book that you've been meaning to read.
  • Removing something means doing something like not getting coffee with that friend who always drains your energy.
• The best thing you can do to recharge is to slow down.

Joe Sanok's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Joe Sanok meditates and takes morning walks with a neighbor.
2. What's the simple positive action that you take each day to move forward to achieve your goals? We are disconnected physically from each other, so he texts someone that is meaningful to him.
3. What's your biggest life lesson and what have you learned from it? He sees himself not as his memories or his trauma, but having awareness of his own awareness is who he is.

Connect with Joe:

Joe's website: joesanok.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/

Steve Hoffman (Captain Hoff) is the Captain & CEO of Founders Space, one of the world's leading startup accelerators. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines.

Hoffman is also a venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and author of several award-winning books. These include "Make Elephants Fly" (published by Hachette), "Surviving a Startup" (published by HarperCollins), and "The Five Forces" (published by BenBella).

Hoffman was founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, served on the Board of Governors of the New Media Council, and was a founding member of the Academy of Television's Interactive Media Group.

Show Notes:

• Steve has experience working in many different environments; he has worked in the U.S. and Japan.
• Steve began Founders Space by posting answers from people on his blog.
  • He created a space to help others and help other entrepreneurs.
• If you can make a profit, you are self-sustaining, and if you can make a profit and scale, you can have an enormous impact.
• Steve wants to help entrepreneurs have a mission driven mindset.
• An entrepreneurs job is not just to come up with brilliant ideas.
• A great way to start a business is by searching for a demand.
  • If you can fill the need, that's good.
• If you want a business that grows rapidly, you need recurring revenue.
• The hardest thing to do is to acquire a new customer.
  • Don't let go of your customers. Keep providing value to them.
• Build an ecosystem where the more your customers participate the more value they give to all the other participants.
• Surround yourself with amazing people.
• If you surround yourself with amazing people, they'll do the rest.
• Most businesses don't last longer than 30 years.
• Startups fail not by trying too many things but by sticking with the same thing for too long.
• If you want to know if your product works, ask 100 people.
  • Who is the person that most need what I have?
  • If all your customers say, "That's nice. That's good. That's interesting." then they're just being polite.
  • You need to hear at least 25% of people say, "OMG I need that!"
• Pick a direction in which you think you can make a difference.
  • You don't have to have all the answers.
• The first thing you need to do is to build your team.
  • 90% of your time should go into finding people that will help you execute your vision.
• Next, you have to engage with your customers. Learn as much as possible as fast as you can.
• Then, experiment with your customers until you get the spark.
• Finally, take your data to investors and raise capital.

Steve Hoffman's Recharge Round

1. What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Question everything. Don't accept the status quo.
2. What's the simple positive action that you take each day to move forward to achieve your goals? He looks at the people around him and imagines what they need to feel good and perform well. Then Steven asks them questions.
3. What's your biggest life lesson and what have you learned from it? If you are not headed in the right direction, it doesn't matter.

Connect with Steve:

Steve's website foundersspace.com

Check out Steve's FREE video series: The Ten Commandments of Raising Venture Capital

Get Steve's books Make Elephants Fly, The Five Forces, and Surviving a Startup

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/