The Ikonns

Today on The Ikonns, we have one the most fun couples we know, Dana and John Shultz from the infamous blog - The Minimalist Baker. Dana and John have been running this hugely successful blog since 2012, putting out quick simple recipes 3 times a week, non stop for 7 years. 

Just like looking in the mirror of Alex and Mimi’s life, Dana and John have followed a very similar but also as unique of a journey, to get to where they are now. Which is running a hugely successful and highly creative platform that allows freedom and flexibility in their lives whilst helping others. 

They both come from very humble beginnings, a few miles apart from each other, in tiny villages of around 3000 inhabitants or less, in Texas U.S. Eventually meeting each other while studying in the only slightly bigger city of Wichita. Alex and Mimi dive into the Shultz’s romance story, one that nearly didn’t exist as John was, at first, stuck in the dreaded friend-zone.

As their studies drew close to an end and they realised they wanted more to life, ripping off the bandaid and piercing their comfort bubble they decided to get married and the very next day they moved to Portland.

When they arrived they stumbled upon Portland’s creative scene, finding a community that would show them just how different life could be. This is where the couple would catch the buzz of the exciting and rewarding world that is entrepreneurship and would pave the way for their new careers. 

“I used to think it would be cool to meet all these cool and interesting people, until I realised it’s much better to GO DO cool and interesting things, as you get good at what you’re interested in you start to become surrounded by cool and interesting people” - John [14:40]

Unfortunately their move was badly timed and coincided with the recession, making it very difficult for either of them to find work. This came as a blessing in disguise as it forced Dana to get creative, allowing her to find the world of blogging. She set up a lifestyle blog and John found yet another job that he hated. After not too long they returned back to Texas and John went back to studying Law even though he didn’t want to become a lawyer; as he says 

“Law school is the most expensive way to find out you don’t want to become a lawyer”.

“Starting a business together was one of our best decisions for our relationship, it forces you to have difficult conversations. This gave us a better way to communicate with each other outside of work hours and strengthened our relationship” - John [41.22]

So after years of not channeling what they really wanted and falling short of their pipe dreams, they decided to visualise what they wanted and picture themselves 20 years on. They made solid plans on how to achieve their goals and set about making them happen. This started with taking stock of what was working and what wasn’t. This would mean a rebrand for Dana’s blog, now focusing on quick simple recipes - 10 ingredients or less and all prepared in one bowl.

John set about using all his geekiness to develop the perfect site, with consistency and true effort, The Minimalist Baker would prove to be a recipe for success.

Here’s what we chatted about in this episode:

• What’s it like to founder a company with your partner and work together as a couple every day
• How to get out of the difficult friend zone, for John and Alex
• Why women should take the lead sometimes
• Ripping off the bandaid and bursting your comfort bubble
• The correct way to make connections in a new city
• How to earn money through creativity, even during a recession
• Another dropout lawyer story
• Use your skills to get hired and use the money to fund your own thing
• Stop thinking about the money and think about the happiness
• Turning a problem into a niche marketing strategy
• How to budget a bootstrapped business
• Cutting your expenses to lengthen the runway for success
• How to be just as happy with nothing by doing exactly what you want to do

In today’s episode Alex and Mimi chat about a concept that has proven itself time and time again, throughout both their business and personal lives. May you might want to sing along like in the Disney movie Frozen, as we are going to be discussing - Letting Go. 

Whether it’s waiting for a friend to reply to your important message, asking someone out on a date, to sending a business proposal to client or applying to go to University / College. We’ve all felt the fear of losing out on the one thing we’ve been dreaming about. Often a thought that we’ve put so much energy behind can have us attached greatly to the outcome and even more often this leads to disappointment. We see it in depressed people or people who hold low value of themselves, disappointment seems to be everywhere these days. Too much of this is wrapped up in misread expectations and clinging on too hard to your desires. Maybe you lost your partner or your job and you just can’t seem to; 

‘LET IT ALL GO’  

“You might fail at this at first and that is Ok, you have to keep getting up and doing it because eventually it will work out” - Alex [9:00]

Alex and Mimi share how they’ve had to overcome this time and time again, from negotiating the sale of Luxy hair to walking away from relationships that were not good for them. Mimi shares her Vipassana story and how she learnt the importance of equanimity:

Equanimity - noun

1. calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation.

"she accepted both the good and the bad with equanimity"

1. composure, calmness, calm, level-headedness, self-possession, self-control, even-temperedness, coolness, cool-headedness, presence of mind.

“I understand you really want this and it’s your desire, but because you want this so badly, it’s probably not going to work” - Alex [8:00]

Whether it’s someone bullying you or you’re simply not happy with your job or relationship, or looking to find the perfect place to live, there’s so much you can take away from this episode. 

Here’s what we get into:

• Attachment is most obvious during challenging times
• The truth can hurt sometimes but it’s that pain is your bodies way of  showing you to change
• The importance of meditation and a still mind during times of conflict
• Conflict can be with yourself not just with others
• How desperation seeps into your interactions, how to communicate your intentions
• Sometimes you have to face losing it all to get your dream life
• Outcome dependency reduces your negotiating powers
• Letting go isn’t an instant strategy, it’s a mindset that takes time to become effective
• Only you can set your real value

Letting Go - The Pathway of Surrender by Dr. Hawkins

Linchpin - Are You Indispensable?

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode41

Today’s episode is a classic tale of rags to riches, with Denys Zhadanov, VP of Marketing at Readdle. Readle is a successful app company with over 100 million downloads and a legacy that extends beyond the launch in the App Store, all the way back to the beginning of iPhone. 

Having only just turned 30, he is so young given his accomplishments and his early adoption as one of the first creators of Apps, some that have gone on to inspire the technology we take for granted today. 

We dive into Denys humble beginnings, raised in a small village in the Ukraine, his father worked as a communications engineer for the KGB and moved around from country to country until it’s collapse in 1991. He gathered huge inspiration from his mother's determination to accomplish something great, as she went from consulting farmers to becoming governor of the region where they lived. This would set him and his brother up with the right mindset for creating their business later in life. 

In 1998, him and his brother got their first pc and got to work almost immediately, geeking out on the potential of this new technology and learning to code, by the time the first iPhone dropped in 2007, they’d be one of the first people in the Ukraine to own one and set about making it easier for others to use it, by offering a cloud based solution for things that the iPhone couldn’t do as standard. All the things our phones now do off the shelf but back then didn’t, including apps similar to what we see in DropBox and Google Docs now. Their creativity earned them a prize place on the front page of the App Store on the day of its launch, and as a personal invite directly from Apple, they have been a huge help in the Readdle’s success. In the first few months they had 60,000 downloads and made their first $20,000, which they invested straight back into the company. Bootstrapping their way to the staggering success they’ve achieved today. 

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• From a shared room in Odessa to becoming a Silicon Valley tech giant
• Hard work, intelligence and a whole lot of good luck and good timing
• How positivity and high energy keeps connected with the right people
• Redesigning how we email with Spark Email app
• Innovating fast is the only way to stay ahead, the real David and Goliath story.
• How to become an early innovator that inspires industry leaders like google and apple.
• The correct way to think about the future - with 100 life goals.
• People will share when you offer something with real value
• Why it’s much harder to find peoples problems than most think. 
• How you can accomplish half of your life goals in 1 single year!
• The correct way to cold approach a business connection

Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode with Denys, you can find out more about him here:

Denzhadanov.com

Readdle.com/

Twitter

Denys’s Instagram

Readdle Instagram

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode40

Produced by Jason Sanderson - Podcast Tech

This episode should come with a WARNING, you’ll probably learn more here about how to run successful businesses than ever before... and this was a delight to record too. That’s because today we are talking Marcia Kilgore, the super successful serial entrepreneur of brands like Bliss Spa, Bliss Labs, Soap & Glory, Fit Flop and the revolutionary new Beauty Pie. We can clearly see she is doing everything right. We find out what?

Originally from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, she grew up with very humble beginnings. She and her sisters suffered a sad loss of her father around the age of 11, causing the family to further struggle. But her mum instilled the rule of never complaining - about anything! She’d boldly explain “There are people out in the world that have no legs and have it way harder than you”. 

With this her mum instilled the practice of gratitude and a friend of the family also brought her attention to the importance of discipline, when he introduced her to his gym. So from an early age, these life lessons kept her feet planted safely on the ground. 

“By the time you turn 18 you are your own thoughts, grab a book and take responsibility for them” - Marcia [57:28]

She applied to Study in New York when she was 16, and on arriving in the US her plans fell through, so she found herself on the streets of NYC needing to earn money fast. Already being a regular at the gym, she used her previous bodybuilding competition experience to land herself a personal training role at a fairly prolific gym, which put her in front of many minor celebrities. Including her clients Douglas Keeve and his then partner Isaac Mizrahi of fashion fame. This opened the door to access super models who she’d eventually practice her new hobby on, having recently trained in facial therapy.Word spread fast and at the heart of it was Marcia’s politeness, kindness, warm and friendly service. She sums it up by saying it’s all about delivering the goods and being positive. Oh and the details, people come because of the smallest details. She write personal thank you notes for every client she had.

“It’s up to you to deliver the goods, don’t be half assed about anything, be full assed. Did you ever had a hair colourist call you the next day and ask how your hair is doing? Well if you did, do you think you’d every go elsewhere ever again?” - Marcia [32:55]

She quickly went from a small one room studio with film stars like Uma Thurman sitting and waiting in the halls, to a 3 room studio, then a 10 room and finally a 24 room studio with a booked up schedule 18 months in advance. They’d always be cultural icons like Oprah Winfry, Madonna, Calvin klein and Courtney Love, amongst many more, as regular clients. Then after a decade of building this business from the ground up she sold a stake in the company to french company LVMH, which allowed her to expand into skincare products, creating Bliss labs. Countless skincare products later, under a few different umbrellas like Soap & Glory, Soaper Dooper, Marcia shares her secrets to getting your products stocked on premium shelves, from Harvey Nichols to Douglas and around the world.Her’s what else we chat about:

Taking responsibility for your own mindset and actions

The power of reframing - “you say she’s not interested, I say she was on vacation and missed it”

How business is not just about the details, business is THE details

Hobbies can grow into big businesses very fast

The markup of most beauty brands and not putting the customer first

The value revolution in her new company Beauty Pie

Avoid defensiveness at all costs

The early bad experiences that shaped Marcia’s entire business strategy. 

You can find out more about Marcia here:

Instagram

Beautypie.com

Twitter

Books here: 

• The Work… of Byron Katie, An Introduction.

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode39

Produced by Jason Sanderson - Podcast Tech

It’s important to note that this lifestyle won’t be for everyone. For most people, at 8am they go their different ways, off to a different job, eat lunch with different friends and rejoin their partner come 6pm when it’s time for dinner. The idea of talking shop with their partner in bed can be a huge turn off. Keep work in its place and keep the loved ones as far away from it. It’s just never been the case with Alex and Mimi.

“If you don’t have a common vision, I’m not sure how you can do anything in life, never mind be in a relationship together” - Mimi [7:20]

The ikonns met while working in a bank, so their working relationship far extends their loving relationship. Luckily they’ve found that working together is not only easier but actually proves more productive.

Since starting their first business together, they’ve coincidentally both pulled in the same direction towards a shared goal, each taking on their own challenges with their own unique skills and both have thriving with different strengths. For Mimi she wouldn’t do so well, if she had fulfil an operations manager role, but for Alex, he can be passionate about making sure the business wheels are well greased. Yet Mimi loves to be creative and in front of the camera, often creating the vision and lens through which direction the business is seen. This is harmony for them.

I don’t need to do anything, I GET to do things, It’s a complete mindset shift. When you GET to do things you appreciate them more and your work comes from a different place” - Mimi [11:40]

Even though they both work so smoothly together, it’s also important to note, they both take responsibility for their own self growth and managing what they bring to the table. It’s important that they aren’t relying on their partners to get their own job done. Alex recalls how in the beginning he was working 2 jobs in the business, both his own role and being Mimi’s video editor. This caused friction after a while because he couldn’t focus on the tasks he was meant to be doing. This is a huge lesson to learn. Find your strengths and what you bring to the table, do that and get someone else to do the rest. Another big takeaway we just shined the light on is transparency in relationships and in business. It was so important for Alex to communicate that the video work wasn’t his job, same when the couple chose to stop working from home and get an office elsewhere. Sometimes there’s distractions in business especially if you have a baby in the same room… So communication is key towards growth and navigating the inevitable business challenges.

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode38

Today’s episode is a true adventure, because we are interviewing a true adventurer. We’ve had Louis Coles from the infamous YouTube Vlog ‘Fun For Louis’, around for Dinner. Having visited 85+ countries, Louis is a true free spirit and he holds saint like wisdom, gained from his inspiring round the world adventures. And today he’s going so share his incredible journey with us.

Growing up in Surrey, UK, his teacher parents allowed him to imagine. They gave him the gift of creativity and fostered the idea of being and thinking different. You only have to see this picture of his teenage bedroom to notice the extent of his parents believing in the power of imagination and play.

I think imagination is on the decline for kids today, all the technology we have available to us steals it away. Feeding my imagination when I was growing up allowed me to think differently and outside the box as an adult - Louis [7:29]

Never a fan of prepackaged holiday resorts, the Coles family would drive to the South of France for vacation allowing Louis to soak up culture from an early age. He was inspired by a month long trip they spent in Indonesia and Malaysia, knowing from that moment, travel would become a big part of his life. Briefly working an office job between his college gap year, he got insight into the adult life he knew he didn’t want. Seeing his aged 50+ colleagues trapped in their 9-5 for years on end and also recalling his childhood lessons to always think different, Louis knew the office life wasn’t for him. He had a calling for something much bigger.

The more travelled I became, the broader my perspective of the world, religion, purpose and culture became. Travel is literally the antidote to ignorance - Louis [20:50]

So he bought a mini bus and set about travelling and documenting his life. Along the way helping helping the youths of london to get off the streets with community project work. During YouTubes infancy Louis experimented with different ways to use the platform. After a few bizarre ideas like eating live spiders and frogs on camera, he settled on documenting his adventures and now as veteran of the Vlogging world, he has 2 million subscribers.

Today we chat about:

• The true meaning of purpose and finding it through spirituality
• Religion without the dogma and the rules
• Why you should always be trying to be a good human being
• The campaign for love and social justice
• Adopting homeless people and giving a struggling person their life back
• Travel kills ignorance - the best travel motto for life
• Driving 9000 miles around the USA and driving from London to Beijing
• The anxious trap of having to blog everyday and the importance of slowing down a little.
• Your end path will inevitably go through a few route changes

Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode with Louis, you can find out more about him here:

funforlouismap.com

Twitter

YouTube

Produced by Jason Sanderson - Podcast Tech

Today we have another exciting ‘Ask Me Anything’ episode in which we take your recorded questions that you’ve submitted to our website and we go deep and get totally honest with our answers.  

Today we felt truly alive as the questions were some of the best we’ve been asked, and an added bonus of it being the first time we’ve recorded an AMA from our office - so we hope you love this as much as we did recording it. This week there is only 3 questions but they are super important questions we should be investigating for ourselves.

Here’s what you guys asked:

1. Is there a higher purpose behind what you do, that gives you meaning?

2. How do you stay so positive when you think about the future?

3. How do you deal with the frustration of not feeling good enough?

Is there a higher purpose behind what you do that gives you meaning?

This really should be the single most important question to ask ourselves when we’ve done writing in our journal each morning. Focus on your WHY!?! For those of you who know us, you’ll already know we absolutely love Simon Sinek’s work, his book ‘Start With Why’ is so important to us and is a must read for everyone. Getting to the bottom of your ‘why’ will have you thriving in business and in life. Wash away the things that don’t matter and focus on fulfilling your purpose.

For Alex it’s getting in touch with his inner being, realising the importance of LESS DOING and more EXPERIENCING everything. He reflects on selling the business and how that wasn’t fulfilling their sense of purpose anymore. Sometimes it can be as much about getting rid of things that are not your ‘why’.

“Life happens with or without us to a certain degree, our whole lifetime is just a speck, just a moment of time. That is why I have gratitude for myself and for life. With that I have a sense of purpose” - Alex [5.40]

For Mimi she is more proactive in looking for purpose. She has to be giving value every minute of her day, she feels empty without doing this. Her inner purpose is knowing that she’s helping others find happiness and living a healthier life.

“If you want to change the world, first you have to change yourself”

How do you stay so positive when you think about the future?

Mimi reminds us that we are not always positive, everyone has their moments of feeling down. It’s more important that you realise in the moment that you have a choice of which mood you choose. How do you want to start your day? Will you carry that negativity through out your morning or will you choose to reframe and find positivity in the moment. For Alex this is practice. It’s like a muscle, it has to be trained. The more you look for it, the more it starts to show up everywhere you go. Before you know it - everyday has its positive moments. This is why we built the 5 minute journal, so we could reinforce those moments constantly and be reminded of the precious moments we’d otherwise choose to ignore.

“How can I contribute to the productiveness and positivity in the world, well, I can see the potential and the positivity around me and make it a conscious choice to do so, then others will follow that energy and also feel positive” -  Mimi [12:40]

How do you deal with the frustration of not feeling good enough?

When people derive their self value from accomplishments, accumulating and owning stuff; this only leads to disappointment. Often in life we fail or things break or we lose what is most precious to us. These should not be our defining moments. Here only lies frustration. Instead we need to find value in ourselves for who we are and the love we can share. It doesn’t matter if we are skinny one minute and overweight the next. Rich and then lose it all like a game of Monopoly or find love and then it’s gone....

Finding happiness in ourselves for no other reason than ‘we are who we are’ is the only way to stop being disappointed in yourself. There’s no need to be frustrated. Just try your best and everyday try that little bit more. There’s no need to sprint a mile when you can casually walk all day.

“The only person you’re competing against is yourself” - Alex [ 20:30]

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode36

Today we have one of our favorite episodes so far, we’re totally excited to be speaking with our good friend and podcast veteran Brian Rose of London Real. We dive into the lessons learned from Brian’s 8 years of podcasting. From the drugs and a near death experience to being mentored in a castle and finding a sense of purpose.

His show is the archetype of podcasting. Before Youtube was big and before people knew what a podcast was, Brian took inspiration from other early podcast adopters like Joe Rogan and set about crafting his own original style of interviewing. He knew he wanted to provide value in people’s lives, in the same way his life had changed from being engaged in inspiring long format conversations. Brian’s vision would be realized in 2011 when he launched London Real and he went on to pioneer this media through its early days up to what it has become today.

Things haven’t always fallen into place though. Today we chat with Brian about his dark past, drug abuse and overdoses, leaving California, dropping out of his engineering studies in Boston and becoming a Wall Street banker. Then once he got there, the money never satisfied him and how the aggressive lifestyle forced him to disconnect from society.

‘All the dark holes inside Brian, Brian the kid, all the dark things just weren't going away even though I was earning 100,000’s of dollars’ - Brian Rose [12:30]

One day, the intense lifestyle took its toll and it was time for him to clean up his act. Moving to London would give a chance at a new life away from what he describes as a “shameful past”.

Within the first few weeks of arriving on British turf, he quickly realized he had nothing to do with his time and had to throw himself into something to avoid his addictive tendencies. He found a great mentor while studying martial arts, also allowing him to adopt new traits like accountability, confidence and discipline that shaped Brian and gave him the grounding he needed to start making the podcast.   

“I nearly had to die to get here, everyday I walk through the graveyard thinking what would these bodies have done different if they had the chance to live life over, then I think about what my obituary is going to say, that really pushes me forward” - Brian Rose [40:00]

Brian has interviewed some amazing people in his time hosting one of the longest running podcasts, but in this episode the table is flipped and we get to explore his remarkable life, all the ups and downs and everything in between.

Here’s what else we get into:

• How to create your own huge life transformation
• Finding your own sense of purpose
• Everyone ones shares a baseline, we all want the same things in life
• Comfort leads to transparency
• Transcendental meditation is like holding a mirror up to your real self
• Coming back from the brink of destruction makes you stronger then ever before
• Money, cocaine, heroin, prostitutes - leaving Wall Street for a new life
• Relax, all good things will come in good time
• Why taking more risks is the only way to the top
• False expectations appearing as fear - Dan Pena’s mantra that puts fear in its place

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode35

Today we’ve got a bit of a spontaneous and fun episode as Alex and Mimi answer a wide variety of ‘questions that nobody ever really asks’.

Have you ever wondered how the Ikonn name originated, who Alex’s perfect dinner party guests would be or how Mimi deals with the choice between an aisle or window seat? Get to know them more and see if they get to know each other better in the process as they answer a whole bunch of questions such as:

• Did you have a nickname growing up?
• What is your favourite childhood TV show?
• How do you relieve stress?
• What did you want to be when you grew up?
• What’s the best prank you’ve ever pulled off?
• If you could get back any article of clothing you once wore, what would it be?
• If you could play any instrument which would you play?
• If you could live in one city for the rest of your life where would you live?
• Do you sleep with your door open or closed?
• Do you still watch cartoons?
• When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone?
• What was your favourite concert of all time?
• Do you believe in ghosts?
• Who would you like to see in concert?
• Have you ever won a contest?

We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as us and we appreciate you for listening! As always we would love to hear from you! Head on over to our website at www.ikonns.com and submit a question. Ask anything from a wide variety of topics, business to relationships... so feel free to ask away!

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode34

Produced by Jason Sanderson - Podcast Tech

Today we’re honoured to welcome Susie Ma, Tropic Skincare founder, to the Ikonns Podcast. Appearing on the iconic Forbes 30 under 30’s 2018 list, Susie often left us in awe as she spoke to us about her compelling career story and how her entrepreneurial spirit was carved out by her experiences in childhood.

Born in Shanghai under the one child policy, Susie describes the stark contrasts she faced in early childhood moving from China to Australia and then finally settling in the U.K. After seeing her mother struggle as a market seller in London’s Greenwich Market, Susie’s desire to gain a better life for herself and her mother led to her starting her own business.

“We were in this horrible trap, and I just thought my mum can’t physically do any more work, she’s working the maximum hours that her body can physically handle, it’s up to me now” – Susie Ma

Susie founded Tropic Skincare when she was 15 years old, pursuing the only goal to help her mother out. After creating first home-made skin care products packed in jam jars and originated from her Chinese origins and experiencing some initial success, Susie tells us how her company – the fastest-growing skincare company in the U.K. – was born from her appearance on BBC’s television series The Apprentice in 2011 and how Alan Sugar firing her was also a blessing in disguise.

“Have that vision, believe that you can do it, but you have to be prepared to work damn hard at it” – Susie Ma

We’re sure you’ll experience the same goose bumps we did as Susie’s motivational spirit shines through in every word she speaks!

Here’s what else we talk about:

• The building blocks needed for creating your vision
• Building an honest business with a hands on approach
• Being risk averse and building organically
• Learning lessons from your peers
• The infinite purpose of your business

Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode with Susie Ma, you can find out more about her here:

Tropicskincare.com  

Twitter

Instagram

Full show notes: https://www.ikonns.com/podcast/episode33