Taking the Leap

Jim Martin and Joe Darkangelo are both successful Bonvera Entrepreneurs who are radically changing the gig economy space with the banner of “Home Is Business”. 

Some of the topics discussed in this podcast are:

• Navigating and learning how to adapt as business owners during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Adapting, growing, and overcoming as entrepreneurs
• Connections and relationships in a virtual environment
• Being prepared for the rapidly changing economy
• Keeping a high standard of excellence in business
• The importance of connecting and building relationships
• F.O.R.M. (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Motivation)
• Insights into becoming a successful entrepreneur

Book Recommendations:

• Speed of Trust - Steven Covey 
• DNA of Relationship - Gary Smalley
• Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
• How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big - Scott Adams
• Radical Candor - Kim Scott

Follow Bob Dickie on Twitter @RobertDickie

On Episode 26 of Taking The Leap Podcast, host Bob Dickie interviews Triniti Gawthrop. Triniti is the CEO and founder of Ami Wellness, a plant-only wellness company that empowers women on their wellness journey. Triniti's own personal journey ranges from living the “hippie” lifestyle as a child to working in New York City as a Director of Marketing. This contrast has given her key insights into both eastern and western medicine practices that has inspired her approach to wellness. 

Some of the key points Bob and Triniti discuss are:

• Flexibility, tenacity, consistency, and dedication in all aspects of life
• Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic
• Advice for young girls to female executives
• The entrepreneurial leap into creating your own business
• Plant-based wellness 

Book Recommendations:

• Think Like A Monk - Jay Shetty
• The Third Door - Alex Banayan
• The Leap - Bob Dickie
• Love Your Work - Bob Dickie

Follow Bob Dickie on Twitter @RobertDickie

Albert “Bud” Ayers is a lecturer at San Jose State University where he teaches social dancing. He has been dancing since 1990 and has taught thousands the joy of dancing as well as the physical and social benefits. Bud truly believes that if more people danced the world would be a better place because dance is an expression of joy. What separates Bud from the other dance instructors are his words of wisdom or life lessons he incorporates at the end of each class. He inspires his students to take risks, accept failure and be better at communication, and understand that dance is a metaphor for life. His varied experiences in manufacturing, distribution, personal growth, sports, communication, entertainment, entrepreneurship, public speaking and ballroom dance give him a unique supply of resources and perspectives on life. He is known for his passion for sharing his love of dance as well as helping others navigate their personal life challenges. Some of his students who took his class as a mere curiosity have taken his words and have changed their careers to become either professional or competitive ballroom dancers. He is happily married to his wife Deborah Borlase (whom he met dancing) and has three children and seven grandchildren.

Key Learnings: 

• Dance can help you be confident, and it brings joy to life.

• It’s also about communication, learning your partner, and how to work together in relationships.

• Life and dancing cross in showing us how to take risks, be afraid, and do it anyways.

• People’s thoughts don’t hurt them.

• Fear kills more dreams than death.

• Life is not just success. A lot of failure precedes the success.

• It’s about learning the struggle in the journey. 

• Knowledge is the vehicle, passion is the gasoline.

• We reap more benefits when we live in the moment, not being focused on worries and preoccupations. 

• You know what's expected of you. You know what's right.

• The seven C’s of life: Choice, challenges, character, change, charity, community, courage.

Links:

• Napoleon Dynamite & Can’t Buy Me Love, other classic dance movies 

• Bud Ayers Dance Website

• Become a Fan of Bud Ayers on Facebook  

• Words Matter website 

• Tiger Mom, or Tiger Parenting

• What’s In the Way Is The Way 

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.

April Zeilinger is helping to keep her husband’s family legacy alive in the challenging arena of American textiles. She is not only the Vice President of Operations but also the heart and soul behind the Brand Awareness and Marketing for the company. April is the creator of Foodie Yarn, a fun yarn line that is dyed the colors of food and launched it during the pandemic. Zeilinger Wool Company is a fourth generation fiber mill producing thousands of pounds of natural fibers per week into yarn, socks and other items enjoyed within the craft and wool lovers market. April worked 20 years in financial institutions before leaving everything that was comfortable around her, for half of her salary and took the risk to join her husband Jon in his family business. The business had no presence on social media and a twelve year old website to start her entrepreneurial journey. She is a self-taught business gal who never wants to stop learning with a certificate in leadership from Great Lakes Bay Hispanic Leadership Institute through Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan.         

In this episode, April shares how she came into her own and stepped up in her career journey. 

Key Learnings: 

• A break-up with your job isn’t fun, but you have to break-up sometimes.

• You will experience resistance, so get ready for it. 

• Don’t let fear guide your decisions. 

• When you work with your spouse, you learn to have a mutual respect for each other’s strengths. 

• Learning to take knowledge and experience it in action is true learning. 

• No one tells you how to be an entrepreneur; you figure it out. 

• Ask people, especially women, where they see their career going. 

• Write good things to yourself and speak them to yourself. 

• Two things to do to grow in your own leadership abilities? Spend time by yourself and be curious.

Links:

• Zeilinger Wool Company 

• Myers Briggs Personality Test

• Great Lakes Bay Hispanic Leadership Institute 

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.

Joe & Laura Darkangelo left corporate America in 2005 and haven’t looked back. Most of their days consisted of reaching someone else’s goals and dreams, and they found little time for each other or for their children. With Joe in the sales department for a large distributor and Laura in the airline industry AND owning their own pizza franchises at the same time, they were spent. With exhaustion and an unfulfilling life, they started their entrepreneurial journey. Today, they’re entrepreneurial giants leading teams in Bonvera. 

In this episode, they recount their personal journey to entrepreneurship, and they hash out the dreams, the struggles, and the victories.

Key Learnings: 

• Stress is one thing; entrepreneurial stress is another. 

• We justify a job rather than taking a leap to entrepreneurship. 

• I noticed a lot of people in entrepreneurship, and they had better marriages, were always learning, and had good relationships. 

• I learned more in entrepreneurship more than I ever did in college.

• Negative motivation doesn’t work. Positive reinforcement works best by lifting others up and encouraging them. 

• Education saves us from becoming who we don’t want to be. 

• I’m different from everyone else, so I can’t be like this author or that. But I can use their teachings and apply them to myself.

• It’s your time that matters and what you do with it that’s important.

• Live your priorities. 

Links:

• Dream Big by Bob Goff

• Love Does by Bob Goff 

• Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa Terkeurst 

• Live in Love by Lauren Akins 

• Phyzix MD 

• Bonvera’s Global Impact Initiative

• Hard Easy by Arthur Coombs III  

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.

“Discipline is really about doing what you don’t want to do until you often find joy in what you do.” - Anne Beiler

Anne Beiler is the creator and founder behind the world-renowned franchise, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. Most wouldn’t know this about her, but she started this incredible company with no business plan, no capital, and no education. Growing up in an Amish community, she only received up to an eighth-grade education and got married when she was 19 years old. Years of baking cakes and breads for her large family taught her how to make some of the world’s tastiest pretzels, and what started out as a small business and dream grew to be a global sensation.

In part 2 of this interview series, Anne shares her professional experience learning and growing from a founder and creator to a manager and business woman. She shares her keys to success and her biggest takeaways from managing a global enterprise of tasty pretzels. 

Quotes:

• Overcoming personal challenges helped me to know I could overcome other obstacles I’d face.

• I didn’t know anything about training, writing a mission or purpose statement, or franchising. It was going back to my roots -- discipline and hard work. 

• A list is good no matter your age.

• If we can’t manage the small things right now, we’ll never be able to manage the bigger opportunities coming.

• The appetite for learning is a part of your personal growth, your professional growth, your emotional growth, and your spiritual growth. You have to grow in all those areas to become truly successful.

• I define success as are you doing what you love to do? 

• At the end of the day, can you put your head on the pillow and can you say I did my very best?

• Training isn’t barking out orders. Training is role modeling. Training is talking to your people to help them understand who you are. 

• Create relationships with people and train them to be excellent in what they have -- loving, respecting, and honoring them.

• It’s about role modeling what is important to you, and you do that with grace and kindness. People will come flocking to you. They’ll carry out your purpose. They’ll do it without you being the boss. 

• The very seeds of your greatest victory are being planted right now.

Links in this episode include:

Anne Beiler

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Anne Beiler Store

The Secret Lies Within: An Inside Outlook at Overcoming Trauma and Finding Purpose in the Pain

Blog from Anne

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.

“With faith and hard work, all things are possible. That’s what truly makes you successful.” - Anne Beiler

Anne Beiler is the creator and founder behind the world renowned franchise, Auntie Anne’s pretzels. Most wouldn’t know this about her, but she started this incredible company with no business plan, no capital, and no education. Growing up in an Amish community, she only received up to an eighth grade education and got married when she was 19 years old. Years of baking cakes and breads for her large family taught her how to make some of the world’s tastiest pretzels, and what started out as a small business and dream grew to be a global sensation.

But her story of entrepreneurship and professionalism grew from experiences she was going through personally and spiritually. She overcame so much trauma, suffering, and pain in order to become the person she is today. Having sold Auntie Anne’s, she now shares her personal experiences and testimony to help others overcome their own obstacles and challenges with hope in this part 1 of 2 interviews.

Quotes:

• The successful entrepreneur will do what others don’t feel like doing.

• Most of the time, I was the obstacle. I limited myself because of my pain.

• Perseverance is the point. You don’t stop when you feel like it. You don’t stop when you think you can’t do something.

• Life is hard. God is good. I’m not confused about that anymore. 

• If I would have stayed there and didn’t have the courage, there would be no Auntie Anne’s.

• What I discovered was that stepping outside of that box, there is so much more room out there to be who God created you to be.

• We spend so much time wishing we were somebody else that we don’t take time to be ourselves and use our gifts. Be who God made you to be.

• Out there, it is limitless. Whining about what we don’t have is wasted energy. Understanding what we do have is enough. Focus on what we do have instead of whining about what we don’t have gave me boundless energy.

•  Salt doesn’t speak, it only makes things tasty. Light doesn’t speak, it only draws people in. 

Links in this episode include:

Anne Beiler

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Anne Beiler Store

The Secret Lies Within: An Inside Outlook at Overcoming Trauma and Finding Purpose in the Pain

Blog from Anne

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.

“I always think there is so much more to see. I’m so excited to be alive, and there is always potential to be cultivated.” - Reggie Leonard 

Reggie Leonard is an education, tech, and learning fanatic. He’s a young millennial leader influencing the way we think about education, technology, AI, and the entire learning process. Reggie received his undergraduate degree from Bowie State University where he was the treasurer and founding member of the men’s soccer club. He attended Liberty University following, and he got his Master’s degree in Counseling. Today, he works at the University of Virginia, and he serves as the Associate Director for Career Connections and Community Engagement for the School of Data Science and Engineering.

Bob and Reggie don’t waste a minute as they dive right into the heart of education and how it’s changing especially with the onset of COVID-19. They discuss the paradigms of education and learning, and they have an interesting dialogue about how it’s changing and what the future could really hold. Together, they banter back and forth about insights they’re learning and influencing in today’s world.

Notes and Quotes: 

• Make sure that the decisions you’re making are in line with the vision for your life. The earlier you ask the questions about who and how you want to be in the world, the more defined your path and direction will be.

• For those that don’t have strong social capital or access to opportunity, college is a great opportunity for that. To not go to college is to have a sense of resilience and ingenuity. Our education system hasn’t trained people in that way, it’s trained them to check the boxes. College is the most linear.

• Imagine living in a world where you can never take your shoes off. It’s one thing to have protection on your feet, and it’s another to feel safe taking off your shoes and can kick back. There is efficacy in creating safe spaces - comfort, belonging, camaraderie. There is a difference between peace keeping and peace making.

• “People are easy to hate from a distance, move in.” - Brene Brown

• That’s the word -- strengthen and practice. The way to be great at something is to practice something. We don’t often think about practicing things like resilience or having enough or being uncomfortable and learning how to operate like that. We don’t seek that out nor fully exist presently while we experience them.

• Most people do their jobs, but they don’t think about their jobs. That’s what separates professionals from workers.

Links in this episode include:

About Reggie

Reggie Leonard, Bio at the University of Virginia 

The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts 

MBA In a Book 

Trello board, project management tool

New Way MBA 

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek 

The Art of Gathering

Winners Take All 

Substack

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.

“The number one reason you’re going to succeed is because of your passion.” - Gino Wickman 

Gino Wickman has been an entrepreneur since age 21, and even at an early age, he’s had an obsession for learning what makes businesses and entrepreneurs thrive. At 25, he took over the family business, which was deeply in debt and in need of help. After turning the company around and running it for seven years, he and his partners successfully sold the company. He then set out to help entrepreneurs and leaders get what they want from their businesses. Based on his years of real-world experience, he created the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical method for helping companies achieve greatness. He has personally delivered more than 1,900 full-day sessions for more than 135 companies, helping them implement EOS. He’s also the author of the award-winning, best-selling book Traction: Get a Grip On Your Business, as well as Get a Grip, Rocket Fuel, How to Be a Great Boss, and What the Heck is EOS?, which have sold more than one million copies. As the founder of EOS Worldwide, an organization that helps tens of thousands of businesses implement EOS with the aid of an international team of over 350 professional certified EOS Implementers and online support. There are almost 100,000 companies using the EOS tools worldwide. 

He’s now devoting his time and energy toward helping entrepreneurs-in-the-making get a jump-start on taking their entrepreneurial leap, which is why he created Entrepreneurial Leap. The mission of Entrepreneurial Leap is to find all of the entrepreneurs-in-the-making, at any age, wherever they are - to help them realize their purpose and live the life they were born to live.

In this episode, Bob and Gino break down Gino’s latest book, Entrepreneurial Leap, and they talk about the principles and philosophies of what makes an entrepreneur. It’s really an inside peek at his new book and a unique conversation with the author first-hand.

Notes and Quotes: 

-Responsibility is really this -- you tend to look at yourself when something goes wrong, and you dive in to solve your problem.

-The first thing to do is discover your passion. Do some soul searching. Get clarity about what you’re built for. A simple exercise is to evaluate your 3 greatest successes, your 3 greatest failures, and what life has prepared you for. 

-Success as an entrepreneur is greatly accelerated and improved with a mentor. It’s undeniable.

-A mentor wants to leave a legacy. Show them appreciation, give them feedback on how you’re applying what they’re giving to you, and put in the work. 

-Make a 10 year goal, and then work backwards from there. You’ll find you get to your goal faster, better, and more peacefully.

Links in this episode include: 

Entrepreneurial Leap Information

Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) Worldwide

Letting Go: The Pathway to Surrender by David Hawkins

Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Entrepreneurial Leap: Do You Have What It Takes to Become an Entrepreneur?

Take the Free Entrepreneur-in-the-Making Assessment

Subscribe to the Entrepreneurial Leap YouTube Channel

Visit www.e-leap.com for more information.    

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.

“There are no crops without both the sunshine and the rain.” - Bill & Jann Newton 

Bill & Jann Newton are a dynamo duo as Bonvera co-founders and leaders. Married for 44 years and with 33 years in the relationship building business, they know a thing or two about working together and overcoming trials and tribulations. Both from Kansas, they met when they were in high school and stayed together through their university days at Texas A & M. Bill was an all star javelin thrower in college, and he was bound for the Olympics. Yet, he and Jann started their journey together and were called to help the family farm in Kansas. Together and with their family, they grew their farm equipment business to a hugely successful venture. In 1980, they were one of the largest tractor dealers in America, and a year later, they were the largest combine dealer in America. Today, they’re speakers, sought after mentors, teammates, and leaders to one of Bonvera’s largest Kansas teams, VIP United. They’ve got sage wisdom and they’re leaving a legacy. 

In this episode, Bill and Jann join Bob in the Bonvera HQ home office studio. The key thread woven throughout this episode is wisdom. In this dialogue, Bill and Jann talk about lessons they learned through their business, even when times were hard and difficult. They recount the early days of meeting one another, and Bill unpacks what it was like to be a college athlete bound for the Olympics with a javelin in one hand and big dreams in the other. Leaving a legacy is important, and in this episode, you’ll learn why. 

Notes and Quotes: 

-Problems aren’t bad. Every successful venture has come about because of a problem. 

-When you go through obstacles, ask yourself: what could I have done differently? 

-Don’t look at others to blame or make excuses. Look to yourself. 

-I’m enthralled with information as I am with application. 

-It’s okay to be down, but don’t stay down.

-There are no crops without both the sunshine and the rain. 

-Pain is a great motivator if you use it properly. 

Links in this episode include: 

Bill & Jann Newton Leadership Profile

Bill Newton, Bonvera Board Member

What is the ICAA?

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question book on Amazon 

New Way MBA, the new way to pursue continuous education online for any entrepreneur

To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.