Success Road

Today’s episode of Success Road features Benjamin Ritter. Benjamin is a leadership and empowerment coach who is also the founder of Live For Yourself Consulting. If you’re wanting to start a new career, or you just want to become a better leader, you’ll really enjoy this episode. 

Benjamin says the most important leader is the one that resides within you. On that note, self-leadership is the ability to lead yourself. However, when most people talk about leadership, though, they often look towards others. The only person that leads you to taking action is you, ultimately. Your brain controls your body. 

The three CS are clarity, confidence, and control. Clarity is what you care about or your values. Then confidence is really just the belief in yourself that you can work towards these things. Too often people just don't take action because they doubt themselves. They ruminate and overthink. The last C is control. No matter how you feel, no matter if you’re having a bad day, or you’re having relationship issues or something, you still have the control to understand what you care about. 

Most people struggle with finding clarity. So to gain a level of clarity, answer this simple question: what drives you? What makes you wake up? Why do you feel stuck at your current position? Why do you feel like it's not right for you? 

Exploring these questions will often give you the clarity that you want. Once you have clarity, just put it into action in the form of goals. You’ll have to be specific. 

What can you say no to? This will help you create more boundaries. When you can say to yourself, “I’m working on the most important thing right now,” you’ll know that you are on the right track. 

Self-leadership focuses on creating an environment that relates to what you care about and it aligns. And so it's about making connections with people that are on the same page as you, or working towards the same thing, or these individuals have already been where you want to be.

When you're investing in those relationships, the other relationships may fall to the wayside, especially your closest relationships if you're not communicating with them. Part of a relationship is finding someone that shares similar values, but that might not always mean that they're interested in the same things.

It’s important to lead with this non-judgemental mindset. Not everyone will actually have the same level of passion or spark that you have for your passion.

There is even more information included in this insightful episode. If you’d like to connect with Benjamin, I recommend you check out his website or connect with him on LinkedIn. 

I highly recommend you listen to it. Thanks so much for listening to Success Road and being a part of this community. Special thanks to Benjamin for being a guest. 

Case Lane is a speaker, entrepreneur and consultant. She also has a podcast called The Ready Entrepreneur and is the author of the book Podcast Discoveries. We will talk about how we can utilize podcasting to help grow our business as well as how you can be a great podcast host and guest. 

Case started self-publishing ebooks while in law school. She was interested in writing and was fascinated by the opportunity that Amazon and Smashwords presented by allowing writers to directly reach their readers. That led her to pursue entrepreneurship and having an online business. 

Case realized that most online entrepreneurs don’t have a clear path they can take, so that’s why she started creating content to help online entrepreneurs. It’s no surprise that she uses her academic background to reach individuals in a way to help them learn. 

For those just starting to learn about becoming an entrepreneur, Case recommends books such as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This book was originally published in the early 1930s and is still very  relevant today. One of the most amazing things mentioned in this book is that people need to have specialized knowledge. A fact you hear all the time today from many online business experts. 

Case also encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to read the biographies and the autobiographies of famous entrepreneurs, such as John D. Rockefeller. When you actually read their stories, you find out that entrepreneurs come from everywhere. They come from every kind of background. They come from all sorts of beginnings. The facts about these individuals helps others learn about real-life entrepreneurship. 

Entrepreneurship is not necessarily being an inventor in your garage. It's about what you have to deliver to others using information-based products. You can teach people how to help other people.

Case compares reaching your customer with a medieval marketplace. Essentially, everybody comes in from the countryside to sell what they have in town. The gates of the city are wide open. Anybody can come in, but then you have to get the attention of the people that are there shopping. 

People today are online all day searching for things that they want or need. They're searching on many websites such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook. They might even just be scrolling around in random places as they are searching for something. The key is to find where the people you want to reach hang out. 

Case says that going to conferences were very important in her entrepreneurial journey. She says when you go to a conference, you realize that there are a lot more people doing the same thing. You get to meet lots of other people and form relationships. Then you have the ability to ask them different questions, such as what apps do you use? Which coaches did you like? What courses have you taken? All of this information proves to be invaluable, especially over the long-haul.

When someone is just starting out with a project such as podcasting, Case recommends telling others that your project is going live at a specific date. This deadline is important because it helps you move forward. It’s totally normal to be nervous when starting out, especially if you are podcasting. Almost everybody hates the sound of their own voice. But as Case has podcasted over the years, she got used to her voice. The same approach applies to

Ready to boost your productivity to new heights? Today’s episode features USA Today Bestselling writer, Russell Nohelty. He is not only an author, he also runs three companies. Clearly, Russell has to be very productive. And in this episode, he’s going to share with you how he does it. Best of all, his approach is actually very simple. 

Russell uses The One Thing approach which was made popular by author Gary Keller. The One Thing focuses on moving one domino or boulder at a time. If you focus your attention and energy on one specific area, you can move past the one challenge that is in your way. And then once you push that domino over, you create momentum. Then you move on to another domino. Most people don’t have one clear intention. They are just very busy. But being busy does not mean you’re being productive. 

For example, Russell wanted to be a USA Today bestselling author. Not so much for the acclaim, he wanted to have this behind his name so get more clients and reach more readers. It took about two years of pushing all sorts of different boulders and working with people to push that boulder over. But he pushed that boulder down in 2018, and says that it felt great. 

Russell uses time blocking during the week to take care of the tasks that are most important. Every block of time is labeled as green time, yellow time, or red time. Green time is when you are working on things that are moving you towards your goal or working with customers. Green time is when you're making money. 

Yellow colored time is focused on activities that are indirectly related to Russell’s income. For example, customer service, shipping something, or doing payroll. Lastly, there’s red time. These activities have no bearing on making money. Some of these things include eating lunch, going to pick up your kids from school, or going to a doctor's appointment. While all of these things have no bearing on making money, these tasks are still essential. 

It is very important to work when you are most productive and have high amounts of energy. Russell says that while he doesn't have any kids, he has two dogs that are very, very needy. They want his attention most between about 6 am and 8 am, and 5pm to 7pm. Because of that, he knows that he is most likely to have a problem with distraction during those times. With this knowledge in mind, he does not schedule his green time during those hours. 

For even more info about Russell’s approach, I recommend listening to the podcast. It’s a great interview. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. 

 To further connect with Russell check out The Complete Creators blog and podcast. This content helps creators build better businesses and then make the best work of their life. And don’t forget to check out his author website which features his fiction work which focuses on fantasy, sci-fi and supernatural stories.

Do you want to scale up your business? Thinking about making that first hire? Today’s episode covers these topics and more. Get ready as JC Hite is going to share his story as well as some really helpful information about how to hire and scale up your business. 

JC Hite started out as an entrepreneur when he was only 14-years-old, and now he leads Hite Digital as Founder and CEO. Hite Digital is all about helping digital marketing agencies scale. They provide SEO, PPC, Facebook, websites, and CRM automation for agencies. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or on Instagram.

 Before you start scaling up your business, it is important to take the time to consider your goals. One way to figure out your goals is to ask questions like, “What do I really want to do?” The answer to this question is key in the scalability of a business. JC’s goal is to create 1,000 jobs. That goal would give his company the ability to serve about 10,000 clients in total. So 1,000 jobs is the goal. In order to reach that goal, JC says that he knows he has to have some great systems in place. 

It is very helpful to ask questions like: 

• What’s the endgame? 
• What do we want to build? 
• Why does it matter?

And then reverse engineer your goals. But that’s not all you need to consider. There’s another important part of the equation.

JC shares that it is also important to consider commitments. For example, what are we committed to in life? There are struggles everywhere. If you have a commitment to something, you’ll do anything for it. You’ll do whatever it takes. 

It’s also important to focus on the big picture, not just the short-term. Our commitments have to be worthy. When you see people like Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King Jr., they were dedicated to one thing. Mother Teresa was committed to helping people. Martin Luther King Jr. was committed to equality. 

I want to grow my team. And whatever the reason for it, they want to grow their team beyond themselves. So how do they get started then being able to transition from working for themselves to Okay, now they're working with other people? How do they make that transition?

If you are hiring other people and scaling up your business, it is essential to know the skills required for a job. If you don’t know how to do telemarketing, how can you hire a telemarketer? You hire an expert who knows a lot more than you and learn what you need to know to hire for that position. 

Communication is also essential. You must improve how you communicate with other people. This takes time. You don’t want to hurry when making that first hire. Don’t hire out of desperation. 

I’ve heard a lot of stories of people that started some sort of small business as a kid - whether that was a bike repair business, or lawn mowing service, or whatever. I never really did any entrepreneurial things like that growing up. But I did like doing creative things and starting projects. I did do a little subcontract work washing windows for a few months when I was 22 and I looked into...

What is one of the most important things you can do to ensure success? It is also one of the most overlooked areas of our lives: mindset. 

Today’s episode features Kimberly Milousis. Kimberly has a great story and a lot of great advice to share the importance of having the right mindset in our lives. 

Kimberly had over 20 years of experience as a CPA working as a senior corporate tax manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Despite having a beautiful office, working with a great staff and earning a six-figure income, she knew something was missing. 

Kimberly and her husband decided to try something different. She left her job not even exactly knowing what her next steps were. She just knew she wanted to do something more. 

Kimberly found herself pregnant shortly after leaving her job. She decided with her husband that it was a good time to sell their home in Toronto and moved into the country. They decided to flip houses and did that for a while during that time of change. 

While flipping houses, Kimberly had purchased some essential oils to make one of the houses smell better. Kimberly had always maintained an interest in natural health products. As she learned more about the products, she became excited about them. She found a business opportunity when she was not looking for one. 

There's also a mental aspect that Kimberly discovered as she started building her new business: that in order to move forward, you must adjust your mindset.

In building her business, Kimberly had to let go of her limiting beliefs. Some of these included having her identity attached to her past career as a CPA for over 20 years. It took her a long time to realize that she had gifts to share with the world that were not attached to her job. 

In addition, Kimberly had to get over her fear of rejection. She says,”I just wanted to be liked, I just wanted to be accepted, so the terror of putting myself out there with the possibility that someone could say no, to me was just overwhelming.”

The act of selling something is very powerful. There are times when we sell our kids on the idea that going to bed is a good idea. And we’re always selling people on something whether we're making a movie recommendation or recommending a restaurant. Kimberly views sales as an act of service. She is more passionate about helping people than making money.  

We often compare ourselves to other people and what we used to do. But the reality is we are often not making fair comparisons. You might be comparing someone else’s ending with your beginning. You can't compare people that way. Comparison truly kills joy. And it also steals motivation. 

Kimberly feels more abundant in all areas of her life now: her physical health, her emotional health, her relational health, her spiritual health and her financial health. No one piece is more important than the other; they are all important. And it is because they are all pieces of a beautiful tapestry that gets woven together to create abundance in your life. 

An abundance mindset can completely change how you view everything. I would like to challenge you to spend some time asking...