The Idea Climbing® Podcast

Episode 53!

In this episode my guest, Jonathan Sparks, and I discuss how mentors can help get you unstuck. Jonathan the Founder of Sparks Law that handles business and transactional matters for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Additionally, Jonathan has a weekly podcast and as a musician has released a new single monthly in 2022.

Jonathan believes that all entrepreneurs need mentors. In order to find good mentors you need to be humble. There are people out there that have grown a lot more than you in certain areas and you can learn from their mistakes and successes. Your growth is only limited by how much feedback you can take in without "freaking out" or getting offended. You could grow and have all the success that you’ve dreamed about if you would listen to people that know better than you that have been down the path that you’re trying to travel down. They know where the speedbumps and potholes are and can save you time and energy by avoiding them.

Unfortunately, many people set up roadblocks to mentorship and don’t reach out for help because they’re afraid of their own success. For example, some people will say, “I want a million dollars” but they don’t want it or else they would find a way to get it. To them success is scary. Part of them knows that if they were highly successful, they would lose a lot of their friends due to jealousy.

When you really want to improve yourself, you need to seek out mentors that are on a higher level than you. If you only interact with people that are on the same level as you, they will inadvertently pull you down when you try to grow. The only way to level up is to leave your community and find a new community. Mentors can show you how to do that.

In this episode we also discuss:

How entrepreneurs can create mentoring experiences.

How mentors can help you rewire your brain and let go of limiting beliefs and negative thoughts.

Why many people on levels higher than you appreciate and welcome the opportunity to be a mentor.

One great question that every mentee should ask their mentors.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Sparks is the Founder of Sparks Law. He works as an in-house counsel for small to medium sized businesses. His motivational, self-help weekly podcast deals specifically with improving your life and becoming the best version of yourself. Before forming Sparks Law, Jonathan worked at the United States Department of Justice, the United States Senate Office, the Attorney General’s office for the District of Columbia, and as an attorney at King & Spalding here in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School, where he excelled at Corporate and Business law, Torts, Litigation, and Securities law.

Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn here.

Visit Sparks Law Practice Here

Episode 52! The foundation of great mentoring experiences is knowing how to ask great questions. That’s what I discuss in this episode with Kevin Bruner, a Fractional VP of Sales and the President of Mash Bill Consulting.

Mentoring is about giving you, the mentee, the empowerment to make good decisions based on your experience and knowledge. Mentors help you get out of your own head and out of your own way. Good mentors don’t make decisions for you or tell you what to do. They guide you in the right direction and let you decide what to do and what not to do.

Through Kevin’s experience as a mentor his goal has been to teach a person to fish. He wants the mentees to grow and not come to him with a problem without having thought it through and bringing at least one suggestion for a solution to the problem to the conversation. This helps the mentees think for themselves and helps draw solutions out of their mentees. A great question for a mentor to ask in this situation is “What do you think you should do?”

Mentees also need to have “a seat at the table”. They’re responsible for asking great questions that, when answered, will help them solve problems and create opportunities. Asking questions lets the mentor know that you’re engaged in the conversation and are grateful for their help.

In this episode we also discuss:

Examples of questions that you should be asking your mentors.

What NOT to do during mentoring conversations.

Examples of questions that mentors should be asking their mentees.

How to turn mentoring experiences into mentoring relationships.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kevin Bruner, a forward-thinking Seasoned Entrepreneur with a solid background in business management, operational planning and revenue generation. An accomplished CEO well-versed in assessing risk, developing solutions, and implementing positive changes to achieve sustainability and growth in challenging market conditions. Adept at building and strengthening business and customer relationships. History of streamlining operations, increasing revenue, and reducing costs to maximize business profits. Decisive and strategic leader with demonstrated track record of success.

You can connect with Kevin on LinkedIn here.

“A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.” — Bob Proctor.

Relationship marketing is often overlooked. When it’s embraced it can change the trajectory of your business if you know how to harness the power of it. That’s what I discuss with Jason Abrahams, a fractional CMO, growth strategist, and founder of Next Play Marketing.

Is it business development or is it relationship marketing? Jason believes they’re one in the same. It’s all part of one growth strategy. It’s about nurturing relationships with those people that know you and eventually with new people that don’t know you yet. If you’re not nurturing them and staying top of mind with them, the reputation you’ve built will be forgotten.

A one-time meeting probably isn’t going to lead to a referral or business development. People need to know, like and trust you before they’ll do business with you. That’s where relationships come in.  Relationships are ongoing interactions and that includes how you stay top of mind with the other person in between one-on-one meetings. That can be done in a variety of ways online. That can be an email sharing a book or blog recommendation. Building solid relationships can lead to business development opportunities because when people feel like they know you, they believe that you will follow through with a referral and provide quality service.

In this episode we also discuss:

Why your next client or referral is already in your database.

More ways to foster professional relationships.

How to balance nurturing existing relationships with creating new ones.

How and when to ask for referrals to potential clients.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason Abrahams is a veteran marketing communications executive, growth strategist, and founder of Next Play Marketing. Utilizing his rich, market-tested playbook and the “next play” philosophy, Jason provides fractional marketing leadership to growth-focused small and mid-market businesses. Acting as an outsourced Chief Marketing Officer, Jason has a proven record of building stronger brands, driving client engagement, and attracting more leads while maximizing return on marketing spend.

Before founding Next Play Marketing, Jason led research and strategy and oversaw marketing execution at a Chicago-based full-service marketing agency. He has also held various client-side marketing leadership positions, was an instructor at the Digital Professional Institute at Tribeca Flashpoint, and frequently speaks on marketing trends and best practices. Learn more at https://nextplaymarketing.com or connect with Jason on LinkedIn.

Episode 50!

Mentoring doesn’t have to be a formal program or system; it can be natural and organic. This doesn’t mean that you sit back and wait for it to happen, there are things you can do to create successful mentoring experiences. That’s what I discuss in this episode with Shelby Scarbrough, a serial entrepreneur, author, and mentor.

Sometimes mentoring happens accidentally. How do you know when someone is mentoring you? When they show an interest in your career, professional development and they want to help you succeed. It’s not a transaction, it’s a relationship. When you realize the opportunity it’s your role to nurture the relationship in a positive way. One of the best ways to do that is by expressing gratitude for their mentorship. You can also send thank you notes and share your successes with your mentor. Let them know that in some way they were part of your successes.

While it sounds counter-intuitive, Shelby believes that mentoring isn’t about giving and getting advice. She learned this through the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) which has forums of peers that meet regularly. They don’t give advice, they share experiences. One example of having a mentoring conversation is to not say “You should…”. That means you’re telling the other person what to do. By sharing experiences, the mentee can draw their own conclusions and decide what actions to take.

In this episode we also discuss:

How failures can contribute to your success in a mentoring relationship.

Why teaching the “Why?” of an action is an essential element of somebody learning something.

The importance of setting expectations for mentoring experiences and relationships.

The components of successful mentoring experiences.

How to approach potential mentors.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shelby speaks on topics of leadership and entrepreneurship spreading a message of personal responsibility, civility, and joy to audiences around the world. She was a TEDx Napa Valley speaker on Civility and has addressed a conference on entrepreneurship at the United Nations.

What unites all Shelby Scarbrough’s endeavors is a dedication to civility that she refined while working in the White House, the U.S. Department of State, and in her own business, Practical Protocol.

A renowned speaker on entrepreneurship and civility, Scarbrough was a graduation speaker for her Harvard Business School graduation class of the Owner/President Management program. She has inspired audiences as a TEDx speaker and spent three years addressing entrepreneurs around the world while serving on the global board of Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

In 2021 she co-founded the Global School of Entrepreneurship creating a new way of MBA for entrepreneurs.

Episode 49!

It’s rare that a single person can bring a big idea to life by themselves. You’ll need a team and how to build that team is what I discussed with Bill Haase, entrepreneur, and financial advisor.

How to many big ideas come to life? It happens when you take one small idea and ask yourself “How big can this go, where’s the market?” Here’s a great example: Bill was a mentor in a local high school mentorship program, and they asked him to build a financial literacy program for the school. Bill thought to himself “If I’m going to build a financial literacy program for one, why not build it for all the high schools in the country?” You have to start somewhere, and you may as well dream big! Bill shares more about his story in this episode.

How do you pick the right idea to bring to life for yourself or become part of someone else’s big idea? It comes down to what kind of person you are and what’s important to you. Then it becomes time to build a foundation for your big idea because you can’t build anything else until you have a good foundation. One of the first things you need is to have the right people in the right places, you have to have your product or service ready for public consumption, you need to know who you’re going to market to, where to find those people and more. As Bill shares you have to have all of those things in place before going into the real world because the real world will slap you hard if you aren’t ready.

Once people know that you’re building something, if they believe in it then they want to become a part of it. Some people will come out of the woodwork and tell you how you should be doing what you’re doing, others will be supportive. When people start approaching you as the “big idea creator” you need to hold true to your vision and only enroll other people that share your vision.

In this episode we also discuss:

How to find the right people to join your team.

Why micromanaging people will create problems and how to avoid them.

How to align everyone’s vision so nobody gets “steamrolled” in the process.

Why you need to find people that are great at what you are weak at.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have 37 years background in the financial world with 20 being in the trading pits of Chicago. I’ve worked in Stocks, Stock Options, Bonds, Currencies, S&P futures, and Eurodollars (Interest Rate Futures), helping international traders and banks navigate the financial markets that affect their world.

The last 8 years have been primarily helping individuals, families, and business owners plan their future. I also have a radio show/podcast that helps small to medium size businesses grow from conception to hiring their 500th employee and have started a new business where we will provide a national financial literacy program starting with high school students and beyond. Programs will also include skills like organizational, negotiating, decision making, leadership, and communication in the business arena.

Link to my show:

Wednesday mornings at 9:00 am CST: www.216thenet.com, https://youtube.com/c/216thenet, or https://www.facebook.com/haase.bill

Moving soon to Podcasting and Roku TV

“You’re not selling a service; you’re selling an experience.” That’s what I discussed with Andrew Hays, an entrepreneur and attorney.

What sticks with people is the experience that they have with you. All of your clients should have a similar experience, from beginning to end, which means you’re engaging them with a similar process. A process is a list of things that have to happen in a certain order. A successful process will create successful experiences.

The relationship and the memory of the relationship is what lasts in your clients’ mind. Ten years from now your clients probably won’t remember the terms of your contract, but they will remember how you treated them. That’s what they’ll share with their friends.

In this episode we also discuss:

How to avoid the pitfalls of bad customer experiences.

Why communication is crucial to building client relationships.

The importance of interviewing your clients.

How to choose the right networking groups to join.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew is the managing partner of a boutique Chicago law firm specializing in estate and trust administration and litigation. Andrew founded Hays Firm LLC in 2008 when he was two years out of law school. The firm has grown from a one-man operation to one of the most respected estate and trust litigation firms in Chicago. Hays Firm LLC is currently in a growth stage with the goal of providing the best client experience possible.

Learn more about Hays Firm LLC:

www.haysfirm.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhaysfirmllc/

Or feel free to connect directly with Andy at: [email protected]

Dave Young and I discussed the visionary’s curse, especially with entrepreneurs. Dave is the co-host of the Builder Nuggets podcast, a business coach and entrepreneur. He realized that he was experiencing the curse when he was developing an imposter syndrome.

Dave was really good at developing ideas and coming up with strategies, but really struggled when it came to taking action and following through with the strategies. He had lots of good ideas, lots to share with people but he would get frustrated because he didn’t know how to make the ideas come to life. This problem hit home for him while sharing a new idea with a close friend. Instead of supporting Dave’s idea his friend said, “Don’t even tell me about this, I’m sick of hearing about stuff that you’re not going to do.” Dave told me that in one way it was a punch in the gut, while at the same time it was the gift of a wake-up call.

Dave started to wonder if he was delusional. When you have great ideas, sharing them kicks off a chemical stimulus in your brain. You’re feeling something and you’re excited about sharing a big idea. The downside is that you’re so focused on sharing the idea that you’re less compelled to make it happen because that’s when the real work begins.

How can you solve this problem? By partnering with integrators – people that love to get stuff done. They’re going to want exciting projects to work on and meaningful work in general. This doesn’t have to be a paid position, at first it might be a mastermind group that you can confide in or friends to help you in their spare time.

One thing will hold true with solving that problem: You have to be vulnerable. You have to ask for help. You can’t just “fake it until you make it” because if you project everything as “all is well” then nobody will offer to help you.

We also discuss:

Why you should work on your strengths and not your weaknesses.

The implementor’s curse and how to overcome it when you’re the visionary.

How to “elevate and delegate” instead of just assigning tasks to your team.

How to include vulnerability in your presentations to get more support for your ideas.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave grew up in a small town on Georgian Bay, Ontario Canada but always had big ideas and dreams. As a teenager he became fascinated with Real Estate and bought his first apartment building at age 25. While developing a real estate portfolio Dave launched a real estate technology company to help shift the organized real estate community.

A chance phone call in 2013 led to Dave becoming a Regional Partner with upstart custom home building network, Alair Homes. Today he's the regional partner and business coach in 5 different Alair Homes regions covering North Carolina, South Carolina, Manitoba, and Eastern Ontario. In 2021, Dave and co-host Duane Johns, launched The Builder Nuggets Podcast. Each week they bring together thought leaders to help contractors everywhere build more rewarding businesses.

Dave has been married to Terrilynne for 17 years. They have three teenage daughters and live in Newmarket, ON, Canada. The family enjoys spending summers in Muskoka and escaping to the Exumas, Bahamas in the winter. Dave loves playing hockey, skiing, boating, going on spontaneous adventures, and 'thinking about thinking'.

Connect with David:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveyoung13/

www.buildernuggets.com

Idea Climbing® Podcast Episode 46

Many companies don’t have a sales plan or a strategy to accelerate business growth according to my guest Scott Rosenzweig. Scott is a Sales & Marketing Accelerator dedicated to the growth of small & midsized (SMB) businesses.

Unfortunately, lack of performance from a business is usually related to the fact that they don’t have a plan. The sales playbook is a companion to the sales plan. The sales plan is all about the numbers. The sales playbook is an actionable tool that contains all of the best practices that a company is already doing or best practices that their successful competitors are doing that they want to emulate within their own company.

Scott estimates that only 40% of companies, probably less, have a sales playbook. Why? Because they don’t know how to create one and they don’t make the time to create one.

If you want to create one you need to start by examining and defining your best sales practices. The first element that needs to be in your sales playbook is the Business Model Canvas. In short that is one page that outlines everything about the business that you need to know. Another important element is an analysis of your competitors. What are they doing? What do their processes look like? Then you need to have a follow up process that helps you gain new clients and grow your business.

Once you have your sales playbook outlined you can combine it with your marketing campaigns to create a sales and marketing playbook.

In this episode we also discuss:

What a defined sales process is and how to create yours.

The similarities and differences between your sales and marketing efforts.

The importance of an assessment of your sales and marketing efforts at least once a year.

How to perform your own sales and marketing assessment.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About the Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scott Rosenzweig is a seasoned commercial executive sales/marketing leader & sustainability strategist known as being personable, versatile, and collaborative. Scott spent the first 15 years of his career in publicly traded companies developing strategies to drive global expansion and profitable growth, then joined private equity throughout his next 15 years to lead several companies and teams towards increasing levels of success - both organic and acquisitive.

Having held titles of President, Chief Commercial Officer, SVP Sales & Marketing and more, Scott is now leveraging his experience and network as a trusted B2B Partner for small & mid-sized businesses driving exponential sales growth, profitability, developing winning cultures, and introducing buyers with sellers through his two consulting businesses: Sales Growth Advisors and ESG Core Advisors

Learn More:

) https://salesgrowthadvisors.com/

) scott@salesgrowthadvisors

) 303-225-9303

Idea Climbing® Podcast Episode 45

If you’re an entrepreneur you’re constantly presenting to people. But are you doing it effectively? I recently discussed a component of successful presentations with Joel Weldon, a Hall of Fame professional speaker with over 3,000 paid talks and who has personally coached over 10,000 speakers. Yes, he knows a thing or two about presentations.

A presentation is anything that you’re communicating ideas to someone else. This could be an email, a phone call, a video call, an interview and, of course, live and virtual business presentations and many other formats. All of those are the same in the sense that they need to start some place and end some place. According to Joel, to successfully open and close a presentation you need to have a S.Y.S.T.E.M.

What is that?

“Saves You Stress, Time, Energy, Money”.

Think about the last presentation you made. How did it open and close? Were you strategic? The key tip for opening your next presentation is to always make it about your audience. You know it’s about them if you use one three-letter word and get rid of one one-letter word. Those words are “you” and “I”. When you’re presenting it’s not about you its about them. Consider something as simple as an email. Open your email by writing about the other person. Instead of “Hello Chris, I’m writing you because…” consider “Hello Chris, I hope you’ve had a great week so far and all is well with you.” That’s a simple twist and now you have them engaged in the email.

In this episode you’ll also learn about:

More tips for successfully opening your written presentations.

How to open business video presentations.

A deeper dive into the S.Y.S.T.E.M approach and an invitation from Joel to set up a 30-minute call to discuss your situation and goals.

Why Joel believes that a call to action should never be the closing of your presentations, and what to do instead.

The three types of calls to action to include in your presentations, just not at the end.

22 words of advice for successfully presenting your ideas to your audiences.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joel Weldon:

At age 18--- Joel never stood up in four years of high school and gave an oral report or spoke in front of his class, he was so shy and had no confidence.

At age 28--- he spoke in front of an audience for the first time. It was part of his job. Afterwards, he was told he was the worst speaker the audience had ever heard. If that happened to you, what would you have done?

At age 36--- Joel was inducted into the professional speakers Hall of Fame, standing alongside the world famous speaker Zig Ziglar.

How is that possible?

As of today, Joel has been paid to speak at over 3,000 events and has personally coached well over 10,000 speakers and created an Ultimate Speaking System that works. Plus, he coaches 1 on 1 successful entrepreneurs who are committed to being amazing in their audience's eyes.

You can learn more about Joel here:

http://www.UltimateSpeaker.net

http://www.SuccessComesInCans.com

Idea Climbing® Podcast Episode 44

While many people and publications will tell you mentoring is important, not many clearly define it or tell you how to get started. That’s what I discuss with my guest, Steve Ferman.

When I mentioned mentoring the first thing Steve brought up is that, as a mentee, you need to be prepared for brutally honest and transparent conversations with mentors. Sugar coating the realities of life won’t benefit anyone. That approach might hurt the mentee’s feelings at the time. But when a self-aware person looks back at the blunt advice, they appreciate the honesty.

What do you need to do before reaching out to potential mentors? First, think about what your end goal is. Start there and break it down into smaller bites. Work your way backwards until you’re asking yourself “What can I start doing today?” which leads to “What do I need to know that a mentor might be able to help with?”

Many people have shared with me that they are afraid to ask for help. Often, they don’t think that they have anything to offer potential mentors in exchange for their advice. Steve says the good news is that there are giving people out there. They enjoy the fulfillment of helping people because someone helped them at one point in their life. You need to take the initiative and ask for help.

Steve told me that after his 40 years of being a business owner - starting, running and selling six companies - if he can help somebody else not suffer through some of the things that he’s suffered through he will. What good would it do him to just hold it in? It’s better off to share it and pay it forward.

In this episode we also discuss:

Answering the question: “Do you ask someone to be your mentor right away or let mentoring relationships happen organically?”

Where to go, online and offline, to find mentors.

The top reasons that you should become a mentor when the opportunity presents itself.

How to keep mentoring relationships going after the first conversation.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

If you enjoy this episode please rate us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcasting platform of choice.

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Ferman is the Founder of 4 Pillar Coach and is a Scaling Up Coach as well as a graduate of the Master’s Program for Entrepreneurs - The Strategic Coach.

A serial entrepreneur, Steve started, ran, and sold 6 different technology companies over 40 years. He has a deep understanding of every stage and how technology has evolved. This experience and knowledge led Steve to become a business coach. He currently serves as a Board Member of Entrepreneur Organization EO, New Jersey legal industry providers.

Steve is a Microsoft Certified Professional, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, BlockChain Certified, HIPAA Security and Awareness trained. Steve spent 5 years in the United States Marine Corps., and remains active in the USMC Slattery Detachment.

Steve sings with various bands, enjoys snowboarding, and is an avid golfer for fun. He wakes up every day hoping to be able to help at least 1 person.

Connect with Steve!

http://www.4pillarcoach.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveferman/