This episode was recorded at an exclusive event called PodMAX where founders had an opportunity to share their stories and knowledge.

Special guest host Hoan Thai leads the conversation down a path of insights, solutions, and collaboration.

Join us for our next event at www.podmax.co

Kendall Bazan is She's the Vice President of Marketing at Fund That Flip, an online marketplace for short-term loans. They serve small business owners, entrepreneurs, and people that are actively investing in real estate and are really looking to scale their business.  Today, she talks about how to market yourself and your business so that you can create the business you love.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The Struggles of Women in Business

Women in business can feel the pressure of not going to be taken seriously, whether because finance is a man's game or they don't speak the language, or they don't have the background. There's a higher barrier to entry, so to speak. In Kendall's case, she used her strength in communication to build her confidence.

Networking is key. Find other women and men that will support you and your mission. Join a community of supportive women who are also going through what you're going through. And this helps remove the imposter syndrome that a lot of humans feel.

Seek out mentors and listen to them. Find the micro-community that you can be a part of as well as on a macro level to see what's worked and successful for people you do admire as well.

Trust-Based Marketing

The behavior of your core customer community is constantly changing. And what's going to take you to the next stage of your business is developing a more community-based trust. Find where your customers hang out. Take notice of changes in customer behavior because the dynamics can change day by day.

Advice to Small Business Owners Growing Their Business

Figure out where you want to start. Focus on the market you know and focus your efforts there. You're going to be more effective if you can really tailor and focus your efforts in one place. Otherwise, you're spreading yourself too thin.

As a marketer, understand what is your messaging? And how are you connecting with your core audience? The human experience is so varied and so diverse that you can pull the good elements of your past and be able to apply that to what you're pursuing currently as an entrepreneur.

Resources Mentioned:

Fund That Flip

Mindset by Carol Dweck

This episode was recorded at an exclusive event called PodMAX where founders had an opportunity to share their stories and knowledge.

Special guest host Hoan Thai leads the conversation down a path of insights, solutions, and collaboration.

Join us for our next event at www.podmax.co

David Iglewicz is the President of Prostoig Capital. David has been a practicing pediatric dentist since 2003.  He has been doing passive investing since 2004.  In 2008, he personally lost a significant portion of his assets and knew there had to be a better way of having a better cash flow stream. Then he found the way through investing in Multifamily Real estate.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

What He Saw In Private Equity and Real Estate Investing

The downfall with anybody who's smart is oftentimes that they're too smart for their own good. David was able to drop his ego and invest in something that most dentists and medical professionals weren't doing at the time. He was vulnerable enough to open up and put his guard down. He transitioned and the grass is indeed greener on the other side.

What to Do When You're No Longer Happy With Your Career

Put yourself first in the patient's shoes that when you're talking to that family, you become that patient. And all of a sudden, you relate to them at the same level. This teaches you to be humble and when you do that, you allow opportunities to come your way.

Drop your blinders and feel those emotions and feel the fear. Feel what it does to you because it's not going to do anything. Let those emotions go through you. And all of a sudden, you're going to look left and right.

Why Passive Investing Works

Because of your investments within the apartment buildings, people pay rent so the cash flow still comes in. Then there's a potential upside, too, if the building is sold or refinanced because there's a big payoff, and the monthly or quarterly payoffs throughout. Whereas with a stock or mutual fund, you're only banking on that appreciation and you're not getting any of that cash flow. Not to mention, the tax benefits you’ll be getting from it. 

Sure there are risks, but the benefits far outweigh the risk in apartment buildings. It's a hard asset that produces income. You can produce income in multiple different ways. Not only do you have the income from the tenants, but you can have income from storage, from washer dryers, or you can do a billboard on the building, or do a cell phone tower. Then you can also reduce the expenses. 

By increasing the revenue streams, you're making the building worth so much more money. The asset is protected because the value is intrinsic.

Resources Mentioned:

https://prostoig.com/

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Email: [email protected]

This episode was recorded at an exclusive event called PodMAX where founders had an opportunity to share their stories and knowledge.

Special guest host Hoan Thai leads the conversation down a path of insights, solutions, and collaboration.

Join us for our next event at www.podmax.co

Petru Trimbitas works with people that have different careers, and he teaches them how to code until they become software engineers.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

How Petru Teaches People How to Code

Petru has built a platform that allows you to learn how to code. You get to write your own code, which is then automatically graded. So at no point would you feel lost if you feel like you don't know if your solution or the app you built was correct or not.

They also provide "annoying" support, because they try to get people to think and to ask themselves questions. A lot of people think you need to be smart in order to do code. And the difference in their approach is they teach them how to come up with ideas and how to understand difficult concepts. 

Overcoming Your Fear of Coding

There are a lot of people who can help you. And if you have the right help and the right mentors around you, it's just a question of time and of work. What coding can teach you is the ability to break down complex problems into smaller ones so you can solve every one of those problems. And this is the same way you approach your problems in life.

How Their Curriculum is Structured

They let everyone learn in their own rhythm but they encourage them to create a fixed schedule. So if you block learning time from 8 pm to 10 pm, then you need to do that.

A lot of people don't think they have what is needed for learning how to code. And so, they need to make a mindset shift first, the same as starting your business. They learn about creating routines, building habits. Then they begin to write really simple, yet still challenging programs.

As the level increases, you're starting to write longer and more complex programs. Towards the end, you need to build your first real-world application.

Challenges While Learning How to Code

It's not stupid to ask questions. You have to learn how to be vulnerable so you know where your weaknesses are and you know exactly what you need to work on.

Resources Mentioned:

https://learn.wellcode.com/

Follow Wellcode on Facebook and Instagram.

Matt Rodak is the Founder of Fund That Flip, which provides short term loans for people flipping houses or doing new construction projects. They partner with experienced borrowers who are looking for capital providers to help them scale up their businesses.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

About Fund That Flip

Fund That Flip finances loans through two channels: a crowdfunding platform where accredited investors can invest as little as $5,000 per deal in our projects, and institutional whole loan buyers, like hedge funds and credit funds as well as insurance companies that also participate and purchase loans they've originated.

COVID’s Impact on the Business and The Airplane Analogy

During the COVID season in March, the industry got jammed up across the board. They went from originating tens of millions of dollars to ZERO. And there wasn't any light at the end of the tunnel, particularly in April and May. So they just had to control what they can control.

They have grown quickly over the past three or four years by 5,000% to 6,000%. They've been on the Inc 500 list for last two years. And it's messy when you're growing that fast.

It's like you're building an airplane mid-flight. They've got two options. They either land the airplane and fix everything but risk never getting the airplane off the ground again. Or they can keep flying the plane, piecing different parts on and duct-taping things where things break.

One of the fortunate things about COVID is it forced them to land their plane that caused them to stop. And this gave them the opportunity to really look at what parts of their process they could re-engineer, where are their bottlenecks, where are the inefficiencies, and where they're not communicating well as a team.

Control What You Can Control

They doubled down on their retail side and they found that the retail investors were continuing to look for alternatives to the stock market in real estate. So they almost doubled their retail investor base in three months. They improved their investor experience and their marketing activities.

Resources Mentioned:

Fund That Flip

Follow Matt Rodak on LinkedIn.

Amy Eddy is the Vice President and Executive Agent of BigSpeak, a company that works with top keynote speakers, business speakers, motivational speakers getting them on major stages as well as working with big events to land major keynotes.

Amy advocates for her clients, empowers them to make the right investment, and is energized by the potential of the human spirit.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Happiness is a Choice

Happiness is a muscle you can choose to make stronger or not. This is even backed by science that you can choose to push them in whatever direction you choose. We can’t cure ourselves of all diseases just by thinking positively. But there's a lot we can do. We have way more power than we realize. But many people are hardwired to always look at what can go wrong.

Letting Go of Pessimism

Pessimism is a weight you can choose to let go of but it takes time. People have the tendency to think about what other people think of them but we can make practices to stop feeding that and to cancel out that noise. There are so many variables and thoughts flying around in your mind about all the possible outcomes of what you're saying and how it'll affect that person versus what you're wearing and how it will affect their thought of you.

When you look at several hundred years back, terrible things have happened. Somehow, this gives you a sense of peace in knowing that this is not the end of the world. Things have always been hard for a lot of people but there's always something good that happens despite the bad things. 

The Power of Habits

Our brain doesn't want to change and it wants to be in auto mode where you're not consciously thinking about the physical activity you're doing. We have to work hard and choose to get it to go in a different direction and get it off idle or autopilot. For instance, people always talk about losing weight. We have all the information and facts out there about weight loss but we're the fattest country in the world. And that's because change is hard. You have to go against your brain and what your body wants to naturally do. It takes brain capacity to rewire the system so you can't do a whole lot at once. You need to focus on one thing. 

Defining Success

Be able to define what is success for you. What is success going to look like for you? We may not always be at our best at times, but what's important is you're able to go back to what's good for you. More sales, more networking, and more opportunities are good things. Those aren't inherently bad. But we can get sucked into it and that's not good long-term. And that is not how you should define success.

Resources Mentioned:

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Pessimists Archive Podcast

James Orsini is the President of The Sasha Group, an educational, consulting, and marketing services firm under its umbrella company, the VaynerX. James works alongside Gary Vaynerchuk, its CEO and serial entrepreneur. The Sasha Group runs as a consultancy on the front-end, and an agency in the backend.

James has held previous positions as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Integration Officer for VaynerMedia, a digital agency with social at its core. He has proven himself as a great leader and has authored several business articles including Agency of the Future, Let Leaders Lead, Guided Exploration, and Practitioners Practice.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Delegation vs. Facilitation

Delegation is having somebody do what it is that you should do or can do. Facilitation is taking the time to understand what people do well, and then connecting them with other people who have that need.

The Importance of Positioning

Positioning is very important because the most value comes when everybody feels like they're a winner at the table. It's not when one walks away being the loser, and one walks away being the winner. We find value when everybody walks out of the room and feels like they've won. Therefore, positioning is very important in negotiations, in client-agency relationships, in boss and staff relationships, and in business in general.

Establishing VaynerX as a Holding Company

In order for you to be a $500-million integrated, independent, international communications company, you're going to have to be more than a social media advertising company. You need a structure when you're growing an empire. As a result, VaynerX became the holding company and Sasha Group is under this VaynerX umbrella. There needs to be a clear head at the top of it, with a vision to take it forward. The Bible says that without a vision, the people perish. So the same thing holds for a company.

Gary is the social media guy but you can't be $500 million being the social media guy so he had to be more than that. So he worked hard on it. He acquired companies, spun off a tech company from his media department, and started a new company. On the day he announced  The Sasha Group, they had 4,700 inquiries in 48 hours. He also acquired a company and birthed Vayner commerce. Now, he's got Vayner Speakers and VaynerTalent.

Resources Mentioned:

The Sasha Group

VaynerX

Vayner Speakers

VaynerTalent

Dwight HeckDwight is the owner of Give A Heck Financial and the host of Give A Heck Podcast. His company's mission is to empower you with financial education so that you can live a more purposeful life. They educate and teach you how to live life on purpose, not by accident.

He started his corporate career as a computer consultant and found himself financially strapped all the time. Especially being a single parent, he was living from paycheck to paycheck, leaving himself in quiet desperation as he went to sleep at night and not knowing how to control his financial life. But all of that changed when he made a conscious decision to start a new story of his life, and not a chapter.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Starting a New Book of Your Life, Not a Chapter

If you say you're starting a new chapter, it means that the former chapter is right beside you, and you haven't let go. So change that mindset into starting a new story of your life or a new book of your life because your subconscious mind picks up on it.

An author doesn't ask people to buy their new chapter, but to buy a new book. And the book could be a part of a series. It's now a different journey on that same topic or the same person. It's still you, but you're a new book, with a new beginning.

You have to do things to mentally disconnect from your past. Your future is not indicative of your past. So what are you going to do to differentiate it? You don't want to disrespect your past that happened. But it doesn't have to be your anchor.

How To Live Life On Purpose, Not By Accident

When coaching clients, Dwight does a goal-setting appointment with them. He asks them some leading questions to make them feel more vulnerable in sharing their circumstances. Then in his succeeding appointments, one of the leading questions he asks if they slept any better from their last appointment. And the responses he usually gets from his clients are amazing. Dwight does numerous meetings to help them through the process of living their life on purpose, not by accident.

Be Mindful of How You Say It

It's how you say it. Be able to come to the level of your clients and mimic their energy level. Be close to their energy level, enough that you can still pull things out of them, but not turn them away.

Be Present in the Game

You have to be there for yourself. Because no matter how much you're coached, if you're not into the game, like the coach of somebody saying, you know, get out there and play a ball, but make sure you're into the game. That coach is going to coach you, but you have to be present in that game.

Work on Yourself In Order to Lead

Become a servant of others first before you become a leader. Work on yourself all the time and always be leveling up to be the healthiest, best version of yourself. You've got to have your act together.

Resources Mentioned:

Know more about Dwight Heck on www.giveaheck.com

Give A Heck Podcast

Josh Cary is a business coach, podcast host, speaker, digital media and creative consultant, and entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder of PodMAX (an On Air Brands company), a podcast production and media company that provides training and events catered to entrepreneurs who have a meaningful message to share. Josh is the host of The Hidden Entrepreneur Show and On Air Brands LIVE!

Josh Cary spent 40 years in hiding, showing up in fear, with a 'mask' on in all areas of his life. Today, he’s now on a mission to help others unmask themselves so they can improve their lives and businesses.

Episode Highlights:

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Stop Hiding in Fear

Many people are hiding behind fear so they end up not showing up in every situation. Fear paralyzes them to make the move which they know they're capable of doing. Therefore, take action and power through in every possible way to your fullest extent.

How to Get to Know Your Guests Better, Especially Those You Already Know

Bring them on and talk with them for 20-30 minutes just in a "getting to know" kind of way. You're not talking about business and it makes for a good conversation.

Ask spitfire questions just to bring in a new flavor to the episode. This is exciting from the guest’s perspective. It feels good to be on the receiving end of these questions and get to answer them.

Why Asking Spitfire Questions is Great

There's this non-committal that you're going to go where it goes post-questions. You don't necessarily have to stop the conversation. But you can take it another five or 10 minutes if you want. Regardless, that's the episode and it doesn't have to be rebranded. And that’s a good way to get to know people you already know.

Everybody has a story to tell. So let them tell stories. These types of questions foster thought, which is sometimes missing when you're a guest on a show, especially when they already know your story and you know where the conversation is going to go. By asking spitfire questions, your guest will be excited to share their answers because you, as an interviewer, don't know the answers.

Resources Mentioned:

www.joshcary.com

Mark Stinson has earned the reputation as The Brand Innovator. He's an experienced marketer, persuasive writer, dynamic presenter, and a skilled facilitator. His work also includes brand strategy and creative workshops, and he has contributed to the launches of more than 150 brands, all mostly focused on health, science, and technology. Mark has written multiple books, including Patient Activation, ForwardFast Branding, Customer CHEMistry, and his most recent, A World of Creativity.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

How to Keep Your Business Engine Running

Work on the relationships right now. Do what you can do to keep the foundation going. Don't spend a lot of time thinking about how you need to reinvent yourself. Just take your time to be solid. If you're losing sales or losing ground, figure out what other media are available to you to keep that customer connection alive.

Strategies to Stay Engaged and Creative

1. Work with your clients on their difference. Encourage them to document how special their brand is.

2. Finding these other things about your brand. What if you answered faster? What if you built a better customer relationship? What if you didn't have 17 different buttons to push to get to that department?

3. Do rituals to keep your creative juices flowing. Set some time to meditate. Focus on your heart instead of the thousand things going through your head. Find a quiet space to set some time for yourself to recharge and get away from all the noise.

The Customer Journey: Customer CHEMistry

Connect - Don't just talk, but listen.

Honest - Hear more about the customer's issues and problems.

Easy - Use easy language and easy-to-read fonts. Make your brand easy to deal with. Is it easy to call your company? Is it easy to talk to your company? Or does your company put up a wall and you're defensive?

Motivated - You should feel motivated to take the next step, not cajoled. One of the things that's very motivating with many clients is options. Get them involved. But don't also overwhelm them with choices.

Resources Mentioned:

Mark’s books:

Robin Dreeke is a professional keynote speaker, live trainer, bestselling author, facilitator, and retired FBI Special Agent and Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. As an FBI agent, Robin was recruiting spies, something we only see on television and in the movies. Currently, he is the Founder and CEO of People Formula. He has now become a massive entrepreneur, developing his own brand and helping businesses with his FIVE steps in TRUST and all of these wonderful tools that he has developed to help corporations and other businesses.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Why Recruiting Spies is an Entrepreneurial Job

Working in counterintelligence, Robin's primary job was to recruit spies so his job was to sell a product of American patriotism to a foreign national, who's generally a diplomat at a diplomatic establishment that he's not allowed to talk to.

Every day, he was creating a very specific operation surrounding he could get in front of an individual to sell his product when he's not actually allowed to initiate the contact. So your brain is constantly working on how to create an opportunity. He was basically building relationships and building trust. He had to strategize trust and make it linear so you could pass it on to others.

Can You Speed Up the Trust Process?

The speed of trust is completely up to the other person because if you force it, it now becomes about you. When in reality, it always has to be about them. We are genetically and biologically coded to want to be valued. And when you can demonstrate that you value them, they're going to affiliate with you.

How to Make Sure It's About the Other Person

What is Stempathy?

Stempathy is the combination of stoicism so you understand the cause and effect of your behavior and human behavior – pure cause and effect. But at the same time, you have to have empathy, so that you can understand the context of someone else and build that connection. And once you understand the context, that's what empathy is.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.peopleformula.com/