The Impact Entrepreneur

Our lives have meaning. We are called to do something. We can do more than we can possibly ask, think, or imagine. And if you even hope that last statement is true… why wouldn’t you choose to lean into that belief?

This is the last episode in the Find Your Purpose series, in which we reflect on the most important lessons that our guests shared. This series is meant to stoke your thinking, inspire you to ask questions, and show you that it is possible to be an entrepreneur driven by a strong purpose and mission, while serving others and living the life that you want.

The major thread tying all of these episodes together is that aligning your goals with a purpose greater than yourself, what you are creating, or the amount of money you have in the bank can give you the perspective and mindset necessary to achieve success in almost any environment.

The other thing that sets high achievers apart is that they know what they stand for – they have a set of core values that drive them, and that they can refer back to when they are going astray or times get tough. Create your own list and ask yourself: Am I living these values right now?

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Did you miss an episodes in the Find Your Purpose series? Click the links below to listen on TheImpactEntrepreneur.net, or subscribe to the show on iTunes or Google Play so you never miss an episode.

• Ep. 69 – Why Peak Performers are Driven by Purpose – with Brad Stulberg
• Ep. 70 – Giving, Purpose, and Fulfillment – with Dr. John Berardi
• Ep. 71 – Mastering Behavior Change: Tap into Your Purpose & Potential – with John Berardi
• Ep. 72 – Living Life Curious, Fulfilled, & with Purpose – with Marie Forleo
• Ep. 73 – The Origins of Saddleback Leather: Saying Yes & Giving with Purpose – with Dave Munson
• Ep. 74 – How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive Together & Make Money Matter – with Cole Hatter

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Cole Hatter is an entrepreneur and the creator of Thrive: Make Money Matter, the conference for entrepreneurs and business professionals who want to discover practical income-growing business strategies, create a positive impact in the world, and leave a lasting legacy.

We explore Cole’s story, what you can expect from Thrive 2017, and how he uses his platform to have a game-changing impact in the lives of others.

Finding Your Community & Making an Impact

At a young age, Cole’s family and community exposed him to a life of giving, making an impact, and living a life of purpose. This made a big imprint on his life, and it’s guided his career course.

Even if you didn’t grow up in a supporting community or don’t have one now, it’s not too late to find a group of people that share your core values and wants to make a difference in the world. It’s just a matter of plugging in and finding those communities.

We all have habits, hobbies, passions, and careers, so it’s just a matter of identifying what those things are and finding people to share them with you. You have to take a quick survey of who you are to find connecting points.

Turning Adversity into Impact

When Cole was young, he had two car accidents in two months that left him physically broken, and he was emotionally broken after losing two friends. Cole knew he couldn’t waste the rest of his life feeling sorry for surviving, so now he lives life big enough to honor all three of them.

Thrive: Make Money Matter

Cole’s life is dedicated to changing the world, and he saw that there were a lot of other people who also wanted to own businesses that do the same. So he decided to start an event, called it Thrive, and tried to fill a room with entrepreneurs who want to make money AND make their money matter.

Cole started the first Thrive because he wanted to share this message with the world, and he put $500,000 of his own money on the line to make it happen.

The event gets awesome speakers – previous speakers include Gary Vaynerchuk, Jack Canfield, John Lee Dumas, Grant Cardone, Lewis Howes, and more  – but, surprisingly (and appropriately), attendees say that their favorite part is the community of like-minded individuals who want to change the world.

If you want to attend Thrive 2017 from September 29th to October 1st in Las Vegas, head over to AttendThrive.com to reserve your spot!

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Resources:

• Reserve your spot for Thrive 2017
• Connect with Cole: ColeHatter.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
• Watch Cole’s touching video about giving a great gift to his father
• Little Voice Mastery: How to Win the War Between Your Ears in 30 Seconds or Less and Have an Extraordinary Life! by Blair Singer
• Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini

How does a volunteer english teacher from Oregon end up starting one of the world’s most premium leather bag companies, in Mexico of all places?

It all starts with the spirit of adventure and optimism that was instilled in our guest, Dave Munson, CEO of Saddleback Leather Co., at a young age.

You’ll notice throughout this conversation that Dave raises his hand and says “Yes!” a lot.

Dave’s first introduction to tough leather was on the back of a bull, during a bullfight… while he was fighting the bull. Then he relocated to be closer to his fledgling bag business, and soon found himself in an encounter with a corrupt Federale, who quickly became a friendly (but still corrupt) Federale.

At every step of his incredible journey, Dave’s confidence and willingness to accept new challenges led him to new opportunities. He believes that trying new and unfamiliar things is one of the keys to success in every area of life.

“It’s kinda weird when I see someone being self-centered. You’re really missing out, buddy!”

Saddleback Leather started as just Dave and his dad fulfilling orders together, but now it’s a thriving company with 70 employees and a factory in Mexico. Of course, he can’t pilot that ship alone. Dave understands the value of keeping wise counsel, asking great questions, and letting the sailors sail the ship.

Following his passion for producing the perfect leather bag did come at a cost – he had to stop working directly with youths, and he felt like helping children was his mission in life.

As it turns out, Saddleback Leather supports a much larger ministry than Dave was ever able to alone. Instead of Dave around a campfire with 30 kids, he can financially support dozens of campfires surrounded by kids. On top of that, he’s able to provide free daycare for employees in his factory, offer classes to employees internationally, and support a vocational training program in Rwanda.

“The more you step out and try things, the easier it is to say yes.”

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Resources:

• Learn more: SaddlebackLeather.com | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Marie Forleo’s is a wildly successful coach with the mission to live a full life as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, and help others do the same. She didn’t get there overnight, though. The journey took years, an incredible amount of hard work, and humility.

Her entrepreneurial journey started in a flurry on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, when Marie realized that she was not being the person she wanted to be. Marie had to quit her job on the floor of the NYSE and pursue her purpose.

She then went from the trading floor to bartending to Condé Nast to choreographing hip hop for MTV to being one of the world’s first Nike Elite Dance Athletes – then she went on to write an international bestseller and launch a digital education company that caused Oprah Winfrey to dub Marie as “a thought leader for the next generation.”

Curiosity is Essential

“You have to be curious and you have to stay curious, if you want to continue learning and growing and, most importantly, innovating.”

Curiosity is one of the keys to long-term success, and Marie’s multi-passionate career is driven by an insatiable curiosity.

If you believe you already know everything, you’re going to fail. You may fail in six months or six years, but you’re going to fall on your face.

The Future of Entrepreneurship

Soon, more and more people will have to behave in an entrepreneurial manner, even if they’re not necessarily founding a company. There are more freelancers than there have ever been, more people working with flexible schedules, and intrapreneurs are becoming increasingly valuable within organizations.

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Resources:

• Learn more at MarieForleo.com
• Watch MarieTV
• Ready to grow your dream business? Check out B-School

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

John Berardi, PhD, CSCS, Co-Founder of Precision Nutrition, is back for round 2! In the last episode, we discussed the importance of mentorship and how John uses Precision Nutrition as a vehicle to help others find the relationships they need to make meaningful changes in their lives.

This week we’re digging into what John and his team have learned about mastering behavior change, and applying that to industries outside of the fitness and nutrition space.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water...

When John is talking about behavior change, he likes to use the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Essentially, that adage means that, unless someone wants to drink the water, unless they want to change, nothing else can have an impact.

But John disagrees. You can’t make the horse drink – but you can make it very, very thirsty.

That’s what coaching behavior change is: you can’t force or trick anyone to change, but you can put them in a position where they decide to change themselves; you can make them thirsty.

Coaching with Psychology

Most fitness and coaching programs are very prescriptive: eat this, don’t eat that, do these exercises, and do this number of reps. The coach positions themselves as an expert who tells the person being coached what to do.

It’s the easiest possible way to coach, but it’s not effective. People join programs, lose focus from other parts of their life, “fall off the wagon,” then go back to the gym... But now they’re less fit, more dejected, and their behavior hasn’t changed. It’s a vicious yo-yo.

Precision Nutrition does things differently, and they incorporate change psychology: building practices and habits that integrate with your life as it is today to develop skills that you can take with you into the future.

They want to engage with the client in a way that recognizes the realities of their life and helps them make changes that are lifestyle-based, instead of project-based.

Practice > Skills > Goals

Practice leads to skills, and skills lead to goals.

You can use Precision Nutrition’s style of coaching to achieve any goal, not just fitness goals. First you develop skills or habits, then those skills help you achieve your goals. But the development of those skills doesn’t come naturally. It comes through daily practice.

Willpower is Irrelevant in Real Behavior Change

John says that willpower is irrelevant in real behavior change because it speaks to the very thing that he wants to avoid when trying to coach change.

He doesn’t want you to white knuckle your way to any lifestyle change – he wants it to feel like a natural part of your existence.

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

Resources:

• Learn more at Precision Nutrition: Free Articles

• Join the Precision Nutrition Newsletter

• The Precision Nutrition System

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We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

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Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Today’s guest, John Berardi, PhD, CSCS, is Co-Founder of Precision Nutrition. His purpose is making health and fitness something that's achievable and attainable for every type of person, from every walk of life.

Mentors helped John completely change his life and start his path in nutrition, so the company is his vehicle to pay that forward and help others find the relationships they need to make meaningful changes in their lives.

Give, Give, Give, Give, Ask

Precision Nutrition’s marketing has a specific cadence and ratio for how much they want to give before they ask for anything in return. It can be summed up simply as Give, Give, Give, Give, Ask.

It’s strategic, but it also reflects the idea of giving without expectation of return on a huge scale. This changes the business at its core, and it impacts how other people perceive the business.

Be a Mentor and a Mentee

The mentor-mentee relationship is extremely important for personal and career development. Mentors have something valuable to offer people who are trying to follow a similar path, and it’s only good to share that.

Mentors also get a lot of value in seeing their mentee implement the teachings and grow, so it becomes a mutually rewarding relationship.

However, even after you have a lot of value to offer, it’s still important to look at the people farther on the path than you and find your own mentors. This will help you continue to grow, and it will help you offer the most to your own mentees.

Precision Nutrition: Give Yourself an Opportunity to Continue

The precursor to Precision Nutrition was a dial-up era website, Science Link, attempting to link regular people with the helpful information discussed in scientific research.

They weren’t selling anything but, two years later, they had 40,000 people subscribed to their newsletter, and they were building a reputation in the industry.

Precision Nutrition officially launched in late 2006. They consolidated their teachings into the Precision Nutrition System, created an online support community, and created a series of books. Their greatest success – a huge sale – quickly became their greatest weakness.

Because the fitness industry is known for scams and there are frequent chargebacks, the sudden success got flagged as a scam and their merchant company held the money. Over the course of the sale, which went on for a few months, they sold nearly half a million dollars in product without receiving a single dollar.

This taught John an important lesson: the ability to keep doing what you love doing is fragile. Even a big success can topple it so, if you love what you’re doing, you have to give yourself the opportunity to continue.

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Resources:

• Learn more at Precision Nutrition: Coaching | Free Articles | Twitter | Facebook

• Join the Precision Nutrition Newsletter

• The Precision Nutrition System

• The Hero Handbook: A Crash-Course in Building a Badass Body, Getting Your Shit Together, and Living the Life of Your Dreams by Nate Green (free)

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We are also brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

Brad Stulberg researches, writes, speaks, and coaches on the science of human performance. He explores the principles of mastery that transcend capabilities and domains – the underlying practices that are necessary for sustainable success – and helps others implement those practices.

Brad writes about performance in New York and Outside magazines and co-authored Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success.

“It’s very, very hard to go full tilt without giving yourself time to rest and recover.”

High performers are often driven or passionate, and we’ve discussed passion a lot on The Impact Entrepreneur Show, but we rarely discuss the dark side of passion.

When we’re truly driven by a passion, we may not have the ability to turn it off or detach from it. This is dangerous because, inevitably, you will burn out and fall short of your peak. That’s why rest is a vital ingredient in sustainable success.

In Peak Performance, Brad writes about The Growth Equation: Stress + Rest = Growth. (Stress, in this context, doesn’t mean something negative – in biological terms, it is any stimulus or challenge to an organism.)

Balance doesn’t really exist, so we’re not going consider this equation in terms of balance. Instead, the challenge is finding just the right amount of friction to keep going without experiencing so much friction that you stop completely.

All world-class performers are aware of this cycle. They understand that achieving a goal requires leaving their comfort zone (stress), but what separates the best performers from those that fall short is that the best performers also have the courage to rest.

So how can individuals and organizations prevent their passion from turning into obsession and figure out The Growth Equation?

Aligning your goals with a purpose greater than yourself, what you are creating, or the amount of money you have in the bank can give you the perspective and mindset necessary to achieve sustainable success.

The first step is to reflect on what your core values are, or guiding principles for how you want to live your life and function as a person.

• Examples of common core values: Creativity, community, intellect, health, knowledge, power, humility, love, relationships.
• Reflect on one or two values that really resonate with you and what they mean to you, and put a personal spin on it. Then you can ask yourself, “Am I living these core values?”

When we combine this sort of visualization and reflection with presence, powerful things can happen.

“All great performers have figured out the value of single-tasking.”

The key to maintaining presence, especially in today’s notification-heavy digital age, is single-tasking.

Whether you’re having an important conversation with your romantic partner, writing a white paper, pitching a client, or building a financial model, if you are completely focused on what you are doing you tend to have significantly better results and output.

One of the simplest tricks to make single-tasking easier is to simply remove temptation. Even when we’re not using our phones, for example, their presence has an effect on our brain and our focus. If we remove the possibility of distraction, and another decision, we don’t have to rely on our willpower to be productive.

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Resources:

• Connect with Brad: Website | Twitter | Facebook
• Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success by Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig

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We are also brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

This episode marks the end of the Halftime Series. Mike reflects on the biggest lessons our guests taught us about not giving up, growth, and serving others.

Halftime is over. Get ready for kick-off and remember to grab the opportunity bull by the horns and ride it into submission. You can start by heading over to The Impact Entrepreneur Show page on Facebook and sharing what you are going to do with the rest of your year.  

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We are also brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

It’s the middle of the year… are you still on track to meet your goals? Many of us have gotten off track but now is the perfect time to determine how the rest of the year will go. It’s time to grab the opportunity bull by the horns and ride it into submission with the help of these inspiring guests. Get ready: this episode is part of the Halftime Series.

Steve Sims is an international speaker and the visionary founder of Bluefish, the world’s first luxury concierge that delivers the highest level of personalized travel, transportation, and cutting-edge entertainment services to corporate executives, celebrities, professional athletes, and other discerning individuals interested in living life to its fullest.

What is cutting-edge entertainment with concierge service? Well how about a 16-day trip to the International Space Station, or a submarine trip to the wreck of the Titanic. Those are the types of experiences that members of Blue Fish can look forward to.

“The perfection is in the imperfection.”

Steve grew up in a modest family from East London, and three generations of his family worked in the family construction business… but that wasn’t enough for him, and he wasn’t going to let it hold him back.

After a few stumbles, which led to Steve jobless in Hong Kong, he wanted to get a job at the bank (where the rich people were). To get that job, he started throwing exclusive parties for wealthy people – the seed that eventually grew into Bluefish.

“If you want to kill passion, work out how you can make money out of that passion.”

Steve continued to throw clandestine parties for much of the 90’s and 00’s before Bluefish was officially founded in 2008.

Every time Steve started to change, or monetize his passion, he would stumble. When he listened to his gut and remained authentic, his ability to form relationships propelled him to great success.

You have to own your story if you want other people to listen. Give them the real you – don’t give them the filter.

“There’s been no thought or intelligence that’s gone into Bluefish in the past 50 years – it’s all been gut reaction, keeping things primitive, and doing s&!% you like doing.”

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Don’t be a podcast junkie…

Resources:

• Connect with Steve: UglySims.com | Twitter | YouTube | Facebook
• Learn more about Bluefish: TheBluefish.com | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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We are also brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info. 

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters

It’s the middle of the year… are you still on track to meet your goals? Many of us have gotten off track but now is the perfect time to determine how the rest of the year will go. It’s time to grab the opportunity bull by the horns and ride it into submission with the help of these inspiring guests. Get ready: this episode is part of the Halftime Series.

Today our inspiration is Ken Kannappan, Executive Vice Chair of Plantronics. He is an incredibly thoughtful leader with a wealth of insight about humble leadership, generosity, and smart working philosophy.

In a former life, Ken Kannappan was Senior Vice President of Kidder Peabody. He then took a massive pay cut and jumped into the entrepreneurial tech space. As President and CEO of Plantronics for nearly two decades, Ken helped transform the company from a manufacturer of contact center headsets with annual revenues just over $100M into a global audio communications leader with annual revenues of approximately $1B.

As G.I. Joe very nearly said, understanding is half the battle. In every area of your life, you can make better decisions and communicate more effectively when you understand what other people are saying and what they want.

If you want to understand, you have to listen – and it’s important to listen with your ears AND your eyes. People say more with nonverbal communication and tone than they do with their words.

In the workplace, understanding what other people want is one of the most valuable skills you can have, which makes collaboration and communication with others imperative. The best developer can’t sell an app if it doesn’t appeal to others and the most creative person in the world can’t create something valuable in a vacuum.

“In the real world, creativity that comes from understanding what people want is going to be very successful in the market”

A sad truth of leadership is that, as people move up the ladder, their ability to listen and understand often diminishes. This is because understanding is heavily correlated with humility.

Humble and open-minded leaders can simply do more. The more humble you are...

• the more open you are to what other people are telling you.
• the more you are listening and learning all the time.
• the more likely you are to notice when things are going off target.

“Focus on your vision. Focus on what you want to accomplish. Focus on what makes you happy… then the fit’s going to become natural. You’ll wind up doing something you love and you’ll be very happy.”

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 Resources:

• The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
• The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg
• How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen

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We are also brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters