The Managing Happiness Show

I’m very happy to welcome Kim Walsh-Phillips to the Managing Happiness show! Kim is an incredible woman who has built a super successful business from scratch while raising her first daughter. Kim is an award-winning Speaker, Author, Podcaster, and CEO of Elite Digital Group. Get your daily dose of inspiration from her amazing story!

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Kim Walsh-Phillips

Kim Walsh-Phillips is an award-winning Speaker, Author, Podcaster, and CEO of Elite Digital Group, a direct-response social media agency. Kim has brought in more than a billion dollars through her clients with her laser focus on increasing their revenue through direct-response marketing.

She is the author of “No B.S. Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Guide to Producing Measurable, Monetizable Results with Social Media Marketing,” with Dan Kennedy.

Kim also leads the top-ranked podcast, “Facebook Sales Strategies,” on iTunes. She resides with her very tall husband, who is often asked to get things down from the ridiculously tall cabinets in their house, and their two glitter-and-all-things-pink-obsessed daughters, Bella and Katie, just outside of NYC.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:15] – About Kim Walsh-Phillips

[00:50] – In the first 10 years of running her business, Kim struggled a lot to find customers. She would go to networking events and always compromise on the price of her services.

[02:04] – Kim had her first daughter Bella and couldn’t go to networking events anymore.

[02:30] – One evening, Kim’s bank informed her they wouldn’t cover her overdraft and she relied upon it for her payroll.

[03:15] – “I’m a woman of faith and I believe I was put in that situation on purpose so that something would change. I call it “my light moment”.”

[03:40] – Kim couldn’t just go to another event and hustle, she didn’t have any funds or inheritance or VC funding, so all she could do was pray.  

[03:53] – A friend gave her Dan Kennedy’s book No B.S. Direct Response Marketing and this changed her life completely.

[04:27] – Dan’s book helped Kim increase her agency’s revenue 337% while working from home and taking care of her daughter.

[04:55] – Kim met Dan in person and he was so impressed how she implemented his strategies that they wrote the No B. S. Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing book together. This is Dan’s best-selling book of all time.

[05:25] – “My daughter’s birth not only was an incredible blessing because of the love and purpose it brought into my life but it also forced me to change the horror which was the way I operated my business.”

[07:30] – “My mission is to multiply the mission of other businesses by giving them the opportunity to reach the world with profitable marketing. It’s focused on my Why being their Why.”

[07:50] – Kim realized that her business’s success didn’t depend on her doing more of the same work. She had to change the way she operated her company.

“It wasn't about me running faster up the mountain, or doing longer runs or getting better sneakers. I actually needed to find an entirely different path to get to the destination I was seeking. My goal and mission are to reach as many businesses as I can to tell them that story.”

[08:25] – She had a vision of reaching 10,000 businesses and showing them they could accomplish marketing without budget and resources and without having to bang their heads against the wall.

[09:30] – “We’ve already served in the last 90 days 6,200 people, so before the year is out I would have served that 10,000 that I didn’t even think it was possible. My goal is to meet and tell all of them so that they can go and tell others. Think about that butterfly effect.”

[09:53] – When we a light is shown in our lives of something that dramatically impacts us in a way that brings us peace and prosperity, it’s our responsibility to share it with other people so that they can have that same epiphany moment.

[10:52] – “For our family, my goal is to use my gifts to serve others so that they may be blessed and, in turn, serve others.”

[11:20] – “We were given incredible gifts that are truly unique to us. Truly unique. There’s a reason why our fingerprints are different.”

[11:39] – “We were each given incredible gifts that are meant to be part of an overall ecosphere. If we try to emulate someone else, we’re ignoring what we’re created to do, but if we can recognize what we are created to do and use that gift to serve others so that they can, in turn, serve others, we stop thinking of things like buying and selling and we start thinking of things as though all that we do to accomplish our entrepreneurial goals is to serve. It’s an incredible way to grow your empire in a way that’s built on trust and relationships versus transactions.”

[14:55] – “We only work on accounts that we’re willing to be a customer of, we’d donate our own money to or vote for. If we can’t say that about their business, we wouldn’t represent them. My staff can do the same thing.”

[16:07] – MaxCDN would let their employees vote if they would agree to have pornography companies as customers.

[17:10] – Kim has rejected many political campaigns and products that wanted her agency but didn’t relate to her purpose. She admits that money is important for her but it will never be her driver.

[18:28] – Kim got divorced after being married for 8 years. Her first husband wasn’t as driven and ambitious as her. Thus, she knew that if she would get married again, it would be a man who would appreciate her being a driven female entrepreneur. Her second husband is very supportive.

[20:10] – There still has to be one person in the marriage who’s the primary caretaker of the children. Kim’s that person in her family. The primary caretakes has to make sure he/she is always there for the children no matter what.

[22:56] – Never tell your kids you HAVE to go to work. Instead, explain that they will always be the most important thing to you but you are a multifaceted human and there are other things in life which are also important.

[25:20] – Kim’s has a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old.

[25:30] – Kim’s family core values are:

Love God.

Love your neighbor as yourself - everyone is equal and we should make them all feel loved and respected.

[26:26] – Kim teaches her children to be compassionate and not to feel entitled to what they have. Her daughters have 3 jars where they put their daily allowance – spending, saving and giving.

[28:05] – Kim uses reading before bedtime as a way to reinforce certain values in her daughters. She believes that storytelling is the best way to give lessons to your children.

[38:35] – Which are the 3 books that have influenced your life the most?

The Bible

Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

[31:15] – How do you deal with stress?

“My secrets to success are coffee, prayer, laughter and a great team.”

[32:05] – Being accountable helps Kim keep her stress level low. Her team and she have started a Google spreadsheet where everyone puts in their one personal goal to stay accountable to.

“I can lie to myself and give myself excuses but if I’m trying to be an example to my staff, it makes a big difference.”

[34:22] – Kim’s new podcast show is called The Morning Coffee Marketer.

[34:45] – Kim’s new book is called Game Changer and it tells you how to get 10,000 new real fans in 72 hours and turn them into your next cash-paying customers without a marketing budget.

[35:51] – Kim gets $7+ on every $1 she spends on her latest campaign. Her lesson learned is that giving people a measurable value upfront is a great way to win their trust and make them go through the entire buyer’s journey.

3 Key Points

Sometimes the issue isn't that you don’t work hard enough, it’s that you’re not doing the right thing.

Each of us has been given unique talents and it’s our responsibility to use them to serve others.

Stay true to your beliefs and deliver value to the world.

Resources Mentioned

Elite Digital Group – a direct response social media marketing agency

The Morning Coffee Marketer – a marketing podcast

Game Changer – a book by Kim Walsh-Phillips

No B.S. Direct Response Marketing – a book by Dan S. Kennedy

No B. S. Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing - a book by Dan S. Kennedy and Kim Walsh-Phillips

Facebook Sales Strategies – a podcast by Kim Walsh-Phillips

Follow Kim Walsh-Phillips

https://www.facebook.com/KWalshPhillips/

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

https://www.instagram.com/kwalshphillips/

https://twitter.com/KWalshPhillips

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

I’m very happy to welcome on the show Tenko Nikolov, the CEO of SiteGround. SiteGround is a web hosting company powering over 800,000 domains of customers all over the world. How did Tenko manage to grow from a tech support agent to a CEO of the company? Find out in the next episode of Managing Happiness!

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Tenko Nikolov

At the age of 13, Tenko and a friend of his managed to hack into a large US corporation for fun. Instead of doing anything wrong, the two boys decided to inform the company about the breach and help it enhance its security.

Within days, a representative from the company contacted the boys offering them money in return for their know-how. Money wasn’t of interest to the young hackers. They asked for a dedicated server and that’s how Tenko’s love affair with web hosting started.

Tenko Nikolov was the 4th employee at SiteGround. He started working as a technical support agent back in 2004, while in his second year in law school. But one cannot resist true love when he meets it and for Tenko this was definitely the world of technology. Today, Tenko is the CEO and one of the masterminds behind the success of SiteGround.

In addition, he’s a proud husband and a dad of two. When he’s not at work, he loves spending time with his family and taking care of his newborn baby.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] – About Tenko Nikolov

[00:55] – Tenko started out as a technical support agent at SiteGround and made his way to becoming a CEO.

[01:15] – SiteGround was founded in 2004 in a dorm room.

[01:27] – “SiteGround was founded out of the desire to make it easier for everyone to build better, faster and safer websites without worrying about managing hosting.”

[01:48] – SiteGround powers over 800,000 websites of companies of all sizes.

[02:05] – Tenko joined the company a month after it was founded and became the CEO one year later.

[02:50] – SiteGround has over 460 employees, growing with 100 people this year alone. The company has two physical offices – one in Sofia, Bulgaria, and one in Madrid, Spain.

[04:02] – “We believe in giving a damn about our clients, colleagues, environment and about our mission to give hassle-free web hosting solutions to our customers. We’ve always been driven by curiosity and passion. Our purpose has always been to make an impact, and not just score and reach targets. We’ve always loved what we do and we take big pride in our work. We’ve always tried to deliver more than what is expected, more than just working web hosting.”

[04:50] – SiteGround wants to change the stereotype of working at an IT company.

[05:05] – “We know the importance of having fun and not taking ourselves too seriously. So, everything we do, we make it count. Our mission is to make both our customers and colleagues happy […] and to continue changing the web hosting sphere so that everybody can actually have a website.”

[05:55] – Your values shouldn’t be something that you communicate only verbally. You need to incorporate them into the work environment and have people feel them.

[06:30] – SiteGround’s first office was so crappy that Tenko had to keep a bucket in his room to collect the water falling from the ceiling. Despite all that, employees loved the atmosphere and didn’t want to move to the shiny new building.

[07:50] – You need to do what you believe is best for your employees. They might resist the changes in the beginning, but if you do your job right, they will feel better off at the end.

[08:45] – Many of SiteGround’s procedures are based on negative previous experience. For example, developers don’t commit on Thursday or Friday, in order to have enough time to debug before the weekend.

[09:40] – “I try to avoid that employees work over the weekend. There is nothing that can replace a weekend with your family.”

[11:27] – “For 12 years we hadn’t hired an outside manager. We’ve always upgraded somebody from inside the company. This way, you don’t need to sell the company values to this person. They already know and endorse them.”

[13:00] – “It was a chaos back then. We wanted to do the right thing and there were so many right things to do.”

[13:45] – At SiteGround, they have 5-6 different career paths and when you join the company, you know where you can end up. When you don’t hire outside management and you give people the opportunity to grow, they feel rewarded for their hard work.

[16:20] – SiteGround measures customer satisfaction through the replies they get. Also, they participate in an anonymous survey for employers.

[17:50] – SiteGround was awarded a prize for Bulgaria’s Best Employer in 2016.

[20:18] – Normally, night shifts are considered something unpleasant. However, Tenko’s experience shows there are people who prefer working at night.

[22:00] –  Why don’t you sell the company? What keeps you in the game?

[22:36] – Tenko tells the story of how at the age of 13 he hacked the security server of a US company.

[25:12] – “Turning your brain off when you’re running a big company is not an option. It’s always there, you’re always thinking of something. The question is can you actually disconnect and spend time with your family while you’re still doing what you do.”

[25:40] – Tenko used to work long hours, work at night and during the weekend. After he burned out 2 times, he learned how to avoid that. When his first kid was born, he decided that he would leave the office at 5 pm every day and he does it ever since.

[26:15] – In the beginning, Tenko was making a conscious effort not to work during his family time. Gradually, he got used to it and now he finds it fairly easy to put a boundary between family and work.

[27:58] – “Nobody can build up a good work-life balance for you. Every human being is different and what works for me won’t necessarily work for you.”

[29:30] – Tenko has been slowly learning to cope with stress and not let small issues get on his nerves. He’s much better at focusing on solutions rather than problems.

[30:23] – Kids teach you to be patient and help you to be a better leader and entrepreneur.

[32:45] – Which best practices from business do you apply to your family life?

Daily meetings with his wife

Speaking up about issues

Communication

[33:45] – “Communication is the biggest thing that keeps your family together. Then come love and happiness and everything else. If you don’t communicate, even if you love each other like crazy, it won’t last.”

[35:15] – Not speaking up about issues or speaking up without offering a solution can cause a lot of friction in a relationship.

[36:30] – “If you have to yell, your arguments are too weak.” – David’s father.

[37:05] – People who are late for meetings buy breakfast for the rest of the SiteGround team.

[38:35] – Which are the 3 books that have influenced you the most in life?

Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

The Everything Store by Brad Stone

What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack

3 Key Points

Company values should be more than spoken words and writings on the wall. They should be something that can be felt in the work environment.

Try to promote people within the organization rather than hiring outside management. This way employees are more motivated to work hard and see the results of their efforts.

Good communication is what keeps a family together.

Resources Mentioned

SiteGround – a web hosting company with 800,000+ domains.

Follow Tenko Nikolov

https://bg.linkedin.com/in/tnikolov

https://twitter.com/tnikolov

https://www.instagram.com/tknikolov/

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

I'm excited to welcome a female founder on the show! Amber Anderson is an extremely successful corporate executive turned entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of a strategy consulting firm, where she works side by side with her husband Kai-Saun Anderson. Amber and Kai have a lovely son called Kayson. What are the challenges of being a mom and an entrepreneur and how to achieve work-life integration? Find out from Amber and Kai.

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Amber Anderson

Amber Anderson is the founder and CEO of Kayson, a product management and strategy consulting firm in Phoenix, Ariz., and MORE, a community that helps entrepreneurs enjoy both family life and business. Amber brings more than 12 years’ experience in scaling organizations and managing all areas of the product and service lifecycle. She has created a portfolio that makes or saves her clients more than $1 billion per day.

Amber has a background in business analysis, strategic planning, marketing, user experience and product management and growing successful companies. She started Kayson in 2012 to bring this expertise to the small and medium-sized business community. She has led multi-million-dollar projects for Apollo Education Group (formerly Apollo Group, Inc), Edgenuity (formerly Education 2020), The University of Kansas and more.

About Kai-Saun Anderson

Kai-Saun Anderson is the founder of Kai-Saun Photography, a professional photography company based in Phoenix, AZ that captures lifestyle images for entrepreneurs, businesses, agencies, and families.

Alongside his wife, Amber Anderson, Kai-Saun has founded three businesses, including MORE. He is the digital creative director for MORE: the retreat and the lead photographer and photo editor for the MORE Movement.

Time-Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] – Intro

[00:40] – Amber grew up in a working-class family in Chicago which taught her that hard work is the key to success. Thus, Amber always envisioned herself as a CEO or Executive of a Fortune 500 company.

[01:22] – Amber thought that she had achieved the American Dream.

[02:00] – Kai and Amber had been together for 12 years when they decided to have a child.

[02:07] – Amber gave birth to their son Kayson prematurely when she was 31 weeks pregnant. The baby was in a coma for a few weeks. This was a turning point for Kai and Amber and they realized they had to shift their priorities in life.

[03:21] – “I thought that I was going to slow down. I just felt like I had more time. I planned on it. […] But we just didn’t have the opportunity to do it.” - Amber Anderson

[03:51] – Amber tried to go back to work after she gave birth, but she realized that she couldn’t be as good as she wanted to in both being a mom and a businesswoman.

[05:28] – “For years, women didn’t have opportunities. Now we do have opportunities to grow and scale and do all these amazing things. Then motherhood comes into the picture and you realize you are the only one that can breastfeed. You’re the only one that the baby wants sometimes.” - Amber Anderson

[06:23] – “I wanted to be a mother and not knowing if I’d ever have that experience again was something that made me think about what my priorities were and what was really important to me.” - Amber Anderson

[07:43] – Have you clearly defined your roles and responsibilities in the family?

“We are very good at utilizing each other’s strengths.” – Kai-Saun Anderson

[08:20] – Amber and Kai have family strategic planning sessions every year. In the beginning, Kai didn’t see the value in it, but Amber insisted because she had seen the value of it in her job.

[09:00] – “In the beginning of our relationship, it caused a lot of conflicts because I would just force him to sit in a room and he would just want me to get to the point. The more we did it [family strategic planning], the more we were able to realize where our personalities fit into and what were our strengths. Then, we were able to allow each other live in our roles.” - Amber Anderson

[09:25] – “We naturally are a solid team and we mimic the corporate environment where you have people that are strategic and you have more tactical teams.” - Amber Anderson

[11:46] – Kai and Amber do their family task management in Asana.

[12:34] – Amber and Kai have a 5-year strategic plan, which they discuss at their annual family retreat. They also do quarterly check-ins. Kai manages the finances.

[13:58] – Amber, Kai, and Kayson have their individual goals, which are part of their strategic plan. They have family mission and vision, a relationship bucket, a business bucket and a finance bucket.

[17:40] – “Our goal is to be able to spend as much time as we can collectively with our family doing the things that we want and the things that we love. We find happiness with each other. We’d like to figure out ways to use each other’s strengths to continue to engage in activities that make us happy.” -  Amber Anderson

[18:50] – While at the hospital, Amber and Kai realized that the most important thing for them was to be present and to support each other in hitting their individual goals.

[19:48] – Amber and Kai didn’t want to put Kayson in daycare because they wanted to get to know him and understand his needs and wants. Amber takes care of him in the morning and Kai has him in the afternoon when she’s working.

[21:30] – How do you entertain your son 7 days a week?

[23:30] – Amber and Kai are planning to homeschool Kayson. They arrived at this conclusion after looking at statistics and data: 1 in 3 Afro-American boys born in the US after 2002 goes to prison in their lifetime.

[25:23] – “That’s the kind of stuff that we discuss in our strategic sessions: What do we need for our family to be successful? And that sometimes means thinking out of the box.” - Amber Anderson

[23:05] – “Every single family is different. Every business is different. You can bring in a consultant to give you guidance but you need to understand what your dynamics are, what are the things that are influencing your ability to be successful, what does your resources look like. From there, let’s come up with a plan that helps you, guys, live your best life.” - Amber Anderson

[28:20] – “Do not say the word “can’t”. You may not want to, but you can.” – Kai-Saun Anderson

[31:30] – The focus of MORE is to create an environment where people can grow personally and professionally without having to leave their family behind. 40% of women in the US are the breadwinners in their families.

[32:50] – Milk, Beer, Wine is a networking series for families by MORE.

[33:33] – They also hold an annual family-friendly business conference where they combine business sessions with personal growth sessions.

[34:15] – Amber and Kai are planning on opening a family-friendly co-working space in 2018. The focus of the space will be to make sure that your family is running efficiently.

[35:44] – The conference looks more like a retreat and Amber and Kai will announce the date soon.

[37:10] – The solution to work-life balance is work-life integration. If we look at work and life as two compartments, we get in too much complexity. At the end of the day, we know exactly how much time we have after we subtract the hours for eating and sleeping. We just need to make the most of the remaining time.

[40:30] – Kai comes from an entrepreneurial family but he himself didn’t want to be an entrepreneur until Kayson was born.

[41:20] – The American society is shaped around the idea for the American dream, but Kai and his family don’t want to live that way.

“Amber and I are going to invest everything we have in our family and everything else will fall into place from there.” – Kai-Saun Anderson

[41:50] – “Instead of building somebody else’s dream, we’re going to build our dream.” - Kai-Saun Anderson

[44:42] – Which are the books that have had the biggest impact on your life?

3 Key Points

The solution to work-life balance is work-life integration. If we look at work and family as two separate compartments, life gets too complicated. Think of creative ways to combine them and make a living.

Each of the two partners in a relationship has their strengths and weaknesses. Identify those and utilize them to become a more solid team.

In business, people make decisions based on stats and data. The same principle could and should apply to our personal lives.

Resources Mentioned

Kayson – a strategy, marketing, and management agency

MORE – community of people, companies, and organizations committed to providing more support to working families and caregivers

Kai-Saun Photography – a professional photography company

The New MORE – Kai and Amber’s podcast

The One Thing – a book by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

How I Built This – an entrepreneurship podcast

The Big Leap – a book by Gay Hendricks

Follow Amber Anderson

http://www.amberanderson.me/

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

https://twitter.com/amberanderson02

https://www.instagram.com/amberanderson.me/ 

Follow Kai-Saun Anderson

http://www.kaisaun.com/

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

Aaron Ross is an extraordinary man, who combines the brilliant career of a best-selling author with raising 9 children! In this episode, he will share how having a big family is very similar to running a startup.

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Aaron Ross

Aaron Ross is the #1 best-selling author of "Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine With The $100 Million Best Practices Of Salesforce.com" (called the “Sales Bible of Silicon Valley”).

He co-founded PredictableRevenue.com, a software & consulting company that accelerates outbound sales, based on the Cold Calling 2.0 outbound process that added $100M+ in extra revenue at Salesforce.com.

He graduated from Stanford University, lives in Los Angeles with his wife and nine children, and (usually, but not always) keeps a 25-30 hour workweek. His latest book "From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue" was released in February 2016.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] - Who's Aaron Ross?

[01:45] - Aaron was already taking care of Jessica's children when they decided to get married and had their first baby together.

[03:15] - Aaron and Jessica decided to adopt a child 6 months after their baby was born.

[03:36] - "Most people have a lot of fear and anxiety about adoption."

[04:07] - "It's not biology that determines whether you are a father or a mother." "Every kid is different whether they are biological or not."

[04:32] - Jessica has 2 kids from her prior marriage, she and Aaron have 3 kids together and they adopted 4.

"I never use the term "stepdaughter" or "stepson", it's always "my kids". That's part of my belief."

[05:12] - Aaron never expected to have such a big family. He was open to life and it happened to him.

"It's a ton of work. In some ways, it's like in business - you put a lot of work in and then you get a lot out."

[06:28] - "There are way too many kids in the world that don't have stable families or loving parents."

[07:18] - Aaron believes that education doesn't help as much as expected people who come from unstable families. Thus, kids having stable families is even more fundamental than education.

[08:22] – Aaron shares that there were moments in his childhood and adult life when he felt lonely, which is part of the reason why he has such a big family.

[09:03] - Having a big family is interesting and fun. There is a lot of diversity in Aaron's family in terms of ages and races and kids learn a lot from each other.

[09:38] - Aaron and Jessica adopted their children because it felt right for them. They didn't plan for it or had some logic behind it. 

[10:39] - "Just like in business, you can create your plan and your vision but you have to be open to how it unfolds because it's always changing."

[11:15] - "One of our dreams is to have a farm with a bunch of kids." 

[12:28] - Do you have any tips for new parents?

"We just figure it out day by day. We just get through it. There is no way to make it easy."

[12:52] - Aaron and Jessica adopted a baby whose mother was doing prescription drugs.

[14:15] - What helps Aaron and his wife a lot is that they have defined well their roles and responsibilities. 

[15:40] - "It takes so much effort to figure things out day by day. The more that you can have some kind of responsibilities, schedule, and plan, the better."

[17:10] - Do you have a system to track what is going on in your family and in the life of your kids?

Aaron's main responsibility is to make money and take children to different extracurricular activities. Jessica takes care of the children and handles the adoptions. 

"We definitely divide and conquer."

[18:30] - In a bigger family, there is this paradox when you need a system and a structured approach to managing everything that's going on, but chaos itself becomes part of the system. It's just impossible to plan everything.

[19:36] - Having a big family really helps you prioritize the values that you want to teach your children. There is not enough time and energy to teach them everything.

Love

Relationships

Everybody helps with chores

[22:23] - "We make mistakes all the time. Every day is a new adventure, what worked last week may not work this week."

"One of the essential things as a parent or an entrepreneur is the confidence that if there is something going on you can figure it out and be OK."

[23:05] - Aaron talks about "the Ross travel curse"

Kids getting lice

Missing the plane to London

The missing visa in Brazil

[27:13] - "You can have your systems but there is this chaos element of unplanned crises that come up. Once you go through them, you realize you can deal with them, and they help you become stronger, or smarter, or more adaptable."

[27:54] - "Being a great parent or an entrepreneur, or a human is not about not having problems. It's about how you deal with problems because they always come up." 

[29:38] - Does your experience running a big family help you run your team at work?

"Having lots of kids is like a super accelerated life learning system. It's like taking 50 credits to college every quarter."

[30:49] - Having a big family has been an extreme motivation for Aaron to get him to figure how to run the business and make more money. Every time he and his wife want to have another kid or adopt, they think about ways to make more money.

[31:40] - Since he has a big family, Aaron feels more gratitude and appreciation for the people he works with because in a way their work helps him sustain his family.

[32:57] - Aaron shares that raising 9 kids in Los Angeles is extremely expensive.

[33:24] - Aaron used to be driven by his desire to learn and succeed in life.

[34:57] - "The things that really crystallize my motivation are deadlines and forcing functions."

[35:57] - Motivating stress (deadlines, partners) vs. bad stress (drama, business).

[37:08] - One of the challenges, when you have a big family, is spending one-on-one time with each family member.

3 Key Points

1. It isn't biology that determines whether you are a parent or not. It's the love, time and effort spent to raise a child.

2. Being confident that you can handle any situation, any crisis is essential for both being a parent and an entrepreneur.

3. Family could be a great motivator for success in business.

Resources Mentioned

PredictableRevenue.com - a software & consulting company that accelerates outbound sales, based on the Cold Calling 2.0 outbound process

Predictable Revenue - a book by Aaron Ross

From Impossible To Inevitable - a book by Aaron Ross

Follow Aaron Ross

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

https://twitter.com/motoceo

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

I’m very excited to have Jon Vroman on the show! He inspires others to Live Life In The Front Row™ by teaching the art of moment making. He is an award-winning speaker, #1 bestselling author of The Front Row Factor, fellow podcast host and founder of Front Row Foundation. Jon is a committed husband and father of two. In this episode, he will tell us how amazing it can be to live life in the front row.

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Jon Vroman

Jon Vroman is on a mission to show you how to Live Life In The Front Row™ through the transformative art of moment making. He is a social entrepreneur, committed husband, father of two, and an ultramarathon runner.

Jon is the founder of the Front Row Foundation, a charity established in 2005 that creates unforgettable moments for individuals who are braving life-threatening illnesses. The organization empowers individuals to “live life in the front row™” by providing recipients a front row experience at the live event of their dreams.

As an award-winning speaker, Jon has given more than 750 keynote presentations for many companies, organizations, universities, and associations. Jon brings a refreshingly effective and modern motivational edge that genuinely connects with his audience as he ignites their enthusiasm, and challenges their status-quo.

Host of the popular Front Row Factor Podcast, Jon’s interviews help you strengthen your mindset, relationships, and environment so you can excel in every area of life. Jon is a fierce community builder who hosts live events including The Front Row Dads Retreat, the Speaker Trainer Experience, the Front Row Personal Transformation and Co-Creation Summit, and the Front Row Foundation Celebration.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] - Who's Jon Vroman?

[00:45] - Jon telling the story of how he started the Front Row Foundation.

The Jason Mraz concert

The desire to give back to the community

The 52-mile marathon

The fear of sleepwalking through life

[06:55] - David sharing a similar story about his motivation to start the Managing Happiness course and podcast. 

[12:05] - Jon launched Front Row Dads in an attempt to make his world more harmonious, integrate work into his personal life and spend more time with his family.

"I think a question all entrepreneurs need to be asking is: How can I lay out all the things I want to do; things I feel called to do; the ways I can make money as an entrepreneur and take care of my family? How do I want to contribute to the world? Lay all of them out and ask: How are all of them connected?"

[14:10] - The moment when Jon realized he was putting more time and energy in his business than in his family.

"Where is my Family Folder?"

[14:46] - "I'm a dad, I'm a husband. That's what I actually do in life. When I'm not doing that I happen to speak and write and run this charity ."

[15:05] - Jon got his priorities right.

"I wasn't a speaker and an author who had a family. I was a family man who had a speaking and writing side thing."

[15:29] - Many people say that family comes first but it's not true until their way of life reflects that.

[15:58] - Jon is looking for success at all levels, but if he had to choose between being successful in business or being the best dad, he'd always pick the latter.

[16:52] - Jon and David talking about The Four Agreements book.

[17:26] – David realized that during his weekly planning he'd always give 100% in business and expect that family would magically run itself.

[19:22] - Life is an ecosystem where everything should function together. 

[20:05] - David talking about being a yes-man and how he changed that by adopting a clear mission and vision.

[21:40] - Jon presents the mission and vision of the Foundation through the stories of the people they help.

[22:35] - The story of the 4-year-old Sophie who was suffering from a brain tumor and whose dream was to meet Kelly Clarkson. With the help of the Foundation, she met Kelly before she lost her battle to the disease.

[23:44] - One of the missions of The Front Row is to serve as a family to every person who joins the network and keep the memory of all its members forever alive.

[24:18] - "This is our family, made of unique DNA, unique people coming together for the common goal of being moment makers."

[24:34] - "Tomorrow is guaranteed to nobody. We don't know how many moments we have. So, let's make the most of the ones we've got."

[25:00] - The people in The Front Row network say that the mission of the Foundation is to amplify the good to silence what's not.

[25:23] - There are things in life that you can't change, that you need to accept and move forward. Jon gives an example with the amazing story of Nicky.

[26:50] - Jon shares that he's constantly surrounded by people with an incredible perspective on life. The Front Row is a metaphor for supporting the people around you.

[32:00] - Jon talking about introverts and extroverts.

[34:17] - Reading inspirational stories helps you choose and adopt a new and better way of being.

[34:58] - There are 3 forces which help people achieve positive transformative change:

The power of hoping for the future - having hope vs. wishful thinking

The power of celebrating the past

The power of managing the moment - using the future and the past to bring power to the present

[39:59] - Not everybody accepts your gifts.

"Giving is actually a little bit of work. Giving comes with challenges just like everything else."

[42:22] - The "Who is in your Front Row" philosophy:

Define the top 8 people in your life right now

Ask yourself "What is the number one dream/goal of the people on my top 8 list?"

Ask yourself "What am I doing to help them achieve their dream/goal?"

[46:57] - "If you help enough people get what they want in life, you will get what you want in life."

[46:20] - Which are the 3 books that have influenced you the most in your life and which was the last book that you read?

[48:50] - "Forget what you are supposed to do. Be your own Chief Marketing Officer. The world is trying to market to you, and advertise to you, and tell you how you are supposed to be. You be your own CMO."

3 Key Points

1. Life isn't guaranteed so you better make the most of every moment you are given.

2. Reading inspirational stories leads to a positive transformative change. They help us bring power from the future and the past to the present moment. 

3. The act of giving can be challenging and people should be prepared for that. Not everybody accepts your gifts and giving itself requires a little bit of work.

Resources Mentioned

The Front Row Foundation - a charity creating front row experiences for individuals who brave life-threatening illnesses

The Front Row Dads - a brotherhood of like-hearted dads

The Front Row Factor - a book with inspiring stories, compelling science, and life strategies that teaches you about the power of hope for the future and celebrating your past to bring power to the present moment

The Four Agreements - a book based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - a book by Susan Cain

Ultramarathon Man - a book by Dean Karnazes about the human potential

The Miracle Morning - a book by Hal Elrod

Essentialism - a book by Greg McKeown about the things you say yes and no to

How to Raise an Adult - a book by Julie Lythcott-Haims

Follow Jon Vroman

http://frontrowfactor.com/about/about-jon/ 

https://www.facebook.com/jonvroman 

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

https://twitter.com/jonvroman

https://www.instagram.com/jonvroman/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjwW9N7sreGVdB1WiUUf_PA/featured 

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

I’m very happy to welcome Eddie Geller on the show! He has been an investor and entrepreneur in the online world since 1994. He made a $15M exit in 2011 and now is the CEO of Tinybeans. Eddie follows his passion for helping parents raise their children for a living. He is happily married and has 4 boys. In this episode, he will share how to make every moment with your children count.

 

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Eddie Geller

Eddie Geller has been an entrepreneur and investor in the online world since 1994. Eddie was the founder and CEO of Unique World. A successful management consulting business that grew to a 100 person, $15m business before successfully exiting to a large US company in 2011.Since then, Eddie has been actively involved within the startup community and was the founding investor/director of LayPay.

Over 2012, Eddie mentored the Tinybeans team and fell in love with the opportunity and decided to invest and become active. Through 2013, Eddie drove the commercial aspects of the business which enabled him to take on the CEO role in early 2014. Now he drives the organizational strategy, partnerships and growth prospects and has aspirations to create the largest nurture network in the world reaching 100M users by 2020.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] - About Eddie Geller and Tinybeans (an app and web platform that enables families to share safely the joy of their children’s moments and help their little ones grow).

[01:25] - Eddie joined Tinybeans because he also felt the need to share the life of his children with his family in an easy and selective way,

[03:00] - Tinybeans is a combination of a sharing tool and great content on child development tailored to the children’s age.

[05:13] - The power of “firsts” in children’s lives - first steps, first tooth, etc.

[06:45] - “I’d be surprised if Emma even uses Gmail, my children are older and they don’t even touch email.”

[07:04] - “Email is like the fax of the past.”

[07:43] - Parents can make their lives a lot easier if they define their roles and share their responsibilities.

[09:36] - Tinybeans’ values - being humble, authentic, supportive and more.

[11:50] - “We are all about the special moments. Every day is a special moment.”

[12:26] – “If you are not stable, or comfortable, or confident, personally or in your family, you have no chance of being successful in business.”

[15:06] - Eddie encourages his team to start every meeting with good news.

[16:27] - Tibybeans’ mission is to help families through the journey of parenting.

[16:59] - “Our vision is to build a very significant, large, trusted space for parents and families to access content, services, resources, personalized to the age of the child.”

[18:15] - Do you make decisions based on your values? Do you say No to potential partners who don’t share your values?

[21:30] - Eddie’s core principles - transparency, servant leadership, being adaptable.

[24:20] - “Who Moved My Cheese”, one of Eddie’s favorite books on embracing change.

[24:55] - The 3 types of people in business - gorillas, military people, police officers.

[27:07] - Eddie telling the story of his consulting business Unique World.

[31:25] - How do you manage to go through tough times?

[32:53] - “You need to have a very strong relationship with your partner to really succeed as an entrepreneur.”

[35:09] - Eddie is a proud dad of 4 boys.

[36:14] - Bringing a dog to the office has a positive impact on the company culture.

[37:13] - Eddie applies some business principles to his relationship with his kids.

[44:53] - Eddie uses NPS in his business and is very transparent about the results.

[46:20] - Which are the 3 books that influenced you most in your life and what was the last book that you read?

[49:29] - Tinybeans has just opened an office in NY and is hiring!

3 Key Points

Birthdays and “firsts” are big events in life but we should learn to appreciate every moment because life itself is special.

In order to succeed in business, you need to have a very strong relationship with your life partner. There are too many ups and downs and without someone to rely on it is extremely hard to make it work.

Think about different and creative ways to communicate with your children. Don’t just ask them “How was your day?”. Try something specific like “How was your day from 1-10?”, “What did you learn at school?”, etc. This way they will be more willing to share.

Resources Mentioned

Tinybeans - an online baby journal that grows with your family

Unique World - a consultancy firm founded by Eddie which he sold in 2011 for $15M

Who Moved My Cheese - a book by Ken Blanchard

Good to Great - a book by James C. Collins

The Great Game of Business - a book about open-book management by Jack Stack

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - a book by Patrick Lencioni

Growth Hacking - a book by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown

Follow Eddie Geller

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

https://twitter.com/eddiegeller

https://www.facebook.com/eddie.geller.7

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

I’m very excited that my fellow podcast host Peter Awad is my next guest on the show! He is known as the Godfather of the entrepreneurial work-life balance and hosts the Slow Hustle Podcast. Peter is a serial entrepreneur and a happy dad of 4 children. In this episode, he will share how incorporating slowness into your personal and professional can boost your happiness and creativity.

 

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Peter Awad

When he is not traveling the country with his wife Melissa and 4 kids, Peter is challenging what it means to raise a family in the connected economy.

Founder and Host of the Slow Hustle Podcast, he interviews founders to dissect how they are managing the responsibility of scaling a business while also incorporating slowness into their business and personal lives.

He is also the Co-Founder of a mission-based snack food company, Mission Meats and the Founder of an eCommerce automotive parts business, Import Auto Performance.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] - Peter Awad - the Godfather of entrepreneurial work-life balance[01:50] - Peter and his wife are driven by the need for autonomy - do what they want, how, when and where they want.[04:20] - “For me, it (slowness) is having the margin and space to stop and think, and spend time the way you want to spend time”.

[05:29] - Creativity happens in the boredom. [08:10] - How do you achieve your state of slowness?

[09:00] - It is important to set parameters in your calendar and allow yourself to have recurring space.

[12:10] - Why family life doesn’t “magically happen” and the concept of “planned spontaneity”[14:22] - Peter shares how he manages to travel the country with his family and, yet, stay focused and productive.

[18:08] - Mission meat’s mission.

[20:20] - The pros and cons of food donation programs.

[24:37] - The negative effects of meat production on the environment and David’s idea for a clean food label.[28:33] - Peter shares how his family manages to homeschool.[36:25] - Work-life balance tips from the Master.

[42:45] - Which are the 3 books that influenced you most in your life and what was the last book that you read?

[45:34] - “We literally become what we think about most of the time”.

[52:00] - Join Peter’s What’s Your Mission Initiative (https://missionmeats.co/pages/whats-your-mission)

3 Key Points

Take the time to incorporate slowness in your life. Slowness is having the margin and space to stop, think and spend your time the way you want to spend your time without feeling distressed.

Creativity happens in the boredom.

Ask yourself what are the amazing things about your life and what are the things that cause you stress and anxiety. Figure out why this happens and find the way to do more of the first and eliminate more of the second.

Resources Mentioned

The Slow Hustle podcast - a podcast for tips on work-life integration

Mission meats - a healthy meat snack company with a mission

The 4-Hour Workweek - a book by Tim Ferriss

Bold - a book by Peter Diamandis

The ONE Thing - a book by Gary Keller and Guy Papasan

The Psychology of Winning - a book by Denis Waitley

Follow Peter Awad

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

https://twitter.com/peterawad

https://www.facebook.com/slowhustle

https://www.instagram.com/slowhustlepodcast/

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

Ted Rubin is a successful marketer, entrepreneur and a master of making personal connections. He is the co-author of Return on Relationship and How to Look People in the Eye Digitally. Ted is a co-founder of Prevailing Path and a CMO of Brand Innovators. He is divorced with 2 daughters and in this interview, he will tell the emotional and inspiring story of how he fought for the right to see his children.

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Ted Rubin

Ted Rubin is a world expert in relationship marketing, a leading Social Marketing Strategist, Speaker, CMO of Brand Innovators, & Co-Founder of Prevailing Path. He used to be the principal shareholder of Collective Bias until the November 2016 acquisition by Inmar.

Ted is famous for his emblematic hashtags which grow into entire social movements. In March 2009 he started using and evangelizing the term Return on Relationship, hashtag #RonR. According to Ted, ROR is the value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship.

Another popular hashtag by Ted is #ThisDadWontQuit, referring to the problematic relationship he had with his ex-wife and 2 daughters. In this interview, Ted opens up about his divorce, his children and the things that kept him going despite all obstacles.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] - David introducing Ted Rubin[00:41] - Nobody has figured out the answer to happiness[02:04] - Do you have a personal mission statement?[05:00] - There is more uncertainty in your personal life than in your business[09:31] - Expressing your vision, mission, and values through #hashtags[12:16] - Building deeper relationships by being vulnerable[15:29] - Many people fail to understand how social engagement on social media works[16:02] - Kids have mastered digital communication[20:50] - Ted tells the emotional story of his divorce and his relationship with his daughters[31:10] - Ted’s 3 pieces of advice to dads going through divorce[35:30] - Planning is very difficult when it comes to divorce[43:20] - "No matter whatever happens with my daughters, nobody can ever take away from me what I feel in my heart. Nobody can take away from me the fact that I know that I was there every weekend."[44:03] - How Ted convinced his daughter not to block his messages[45:53] - "What I’ve learned to do is that I’ve learned to change my expectations to find good in what I get."[49:33] - How did you gain the emotional strength to cope with your family situation?[01:00:47] - Which are the 3 books that influenced you most in your life and what was the last book that you read?

3 Key Points

If you go through a divorce, everything you say or do should be in your children’s best interest.

Change your expectations to find the good in what you get in business and your family life.

Nobody has figured out the recipe for happiness. Life is a constant battle and you need to keep going no matter what. There is no let-up.

Resources Mentioned

How to Look People in the Eye Digitally - a book by Ted Rubin on becoming more successful in building relationships on social channels.

How to Make Friends and Influence People - a book by Dale Carnegie

Prevailing Path - a shopper media company co-founded by Ted Rubin that partners with forward-thinking brands to win the digital path to purchase

Brand Innovators - a blog where brand marketers go to learn, share and connect

Collective Bias - an influencer marketing company

The Winds of War - a novel by Herman Wouk

Follow Ted Rubin

http://tedrubin.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/tedrubin

https://www.facebook.com/tedrubinpage/

https://twitter.com/tedrubin

https://about.me/tedrubin

https://www.instagram.com/tedrubin/

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

Greg Raiz is the founder and CEO of Raizlabs, a web and mobile app development company with a focus on user experience. Greg is a passionate UX designer and a well-known figure in the design and mobile community. He is the founder of DrinksOnTap and a great supporter of AltConf. He is married and has two daughters.

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Greg Raiz

Greg Raiz founded Raizlabs in 2003 with a vision to improve lives through technology and design. The company has grown substantially over the last decade and is viewed as a leader in the Boston and San Francisco technology, web, and mobile communities.

Greg started his career as a Program Manager on Windows XP. In 2003, he quit his job and started Raizlabs - a development company with the mission to build awesome software.The company hit its stride in 2007 with the launch of Apple’s iPhone. When its first app rose to the top of the AppStore’s charts, Raizlabs secured its place on the industry map.Greg is passionate about impacting the tech community and remains active in Boston and SF’s development and design communities. Beyond founding AltConf and DrinksOnTap, he actively speaks at engagements in conjunction with MIT, MobileMonday, HBS, Bentley, and Olin, as well as companies like Microsoft, Fidelity, Staples, and others. He sits on the boards of BostonCHI and UXPA Boston and continues to cultivate Raizlabs as well as his newest venture, AppBlade.com.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[00:11] – Who is Greg Raiz

[00:50] – Greg started Raizlabs because he wanted to make a positive impact in the world through better software and technology.

[03:40] – He’s focused on UX because he believes that the human interaction with the product is what really makes a difference.

[05:53] – The products Raizlabs is most proud of are those that align with their mission/vision to make transformative change through technology and design.

[08:30] – Raizlabs’ mission and vision evolved over the years as the team kept adding extra layers of purpose.

[12:14] – Greg and his team have incorporated their mission, vision and values in their hiring process, decision-making and business development.

[13:58] – Greg uses the Gallup Q12 survey to measure his employees’ engagement.

[18:43] – How AltConf was born

[23:03] – What drives you to do what you’re doing?

[24:45] – Building features vs. building a community of loyal customers

[30:00] – Greg is a happily married man with 2 daughters.

[31:00] – Being a good CEO and leader requires different qualities than being a good father and husband.

[37:22] – Which are the 3 books that influenced you most in your life and what was the last book that you read?

[43:25] – Raizlabs is hiring iOS developers, Android developers, web developers and product managers. Learn more: https://www.raizlabs.com/careers/

3 Key Points

Building an amazing software product is not about having the best algorithm, the best design or tons of features.It’s about building meaningful products which are easy to use and help people in their day-to-day lives.

Effective communication is the key to great teamwork. The more we are aware of the potential communication dysfunctions that can occur, the less friction will there be in the team.

Being a good CEO and leader requires different qualities than being a good father and husband.

Resources Mentioned

Raizlabs - a software and mobile app development company

AltConf - a community-driven event, assembled to serve developers and a product-driven community

DrinksOnTap - a social meet up for the mobile developer community

How to Win Friends and Influence People - a book by Dale Carnegie

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - a book by Patrick Lencioni

Work Rules - a book by Laszlo Bock

Beneath a Scarlet Sky - a book by Mark T. Sullivan

Gallup Q12 Survey - a set of yes/no questions used to measure employees’ engagement

Follow Greg Raiz

https://www.raizlabs.com/about/greg-raiz/

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

https://twitter.com/graiz

https://plus.google.com/+GregRaiz

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/

Dan Golden is a veteran digital marketing executive, a regular conference speaker and a proud dad of 2. He is the co-founder and President of the digital agency Be Found Online.

Welcome to the Managing Happiness podcast!

My name is David Henzel and I’ve been an entrepreneur for my entire life. I’ve built and sold my company, which seems to be the dream come true for most entrepreneurs. However, I believe my greatest achievement is that I’ve managed to create and maintain a balanced life with my wife and daughter through the stressful days of starting and running the business.

In this podcast, you will listen to fireside chats with inspiring entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and lessons learned in search of work-life balance.

About Dan Golden

My guest in the 8th episode of the Managing Happiness show is Dan Golden, a veteran digital marketing executive, and speaker. Dan is the co-founder and President of the digital agency Be Found Online (BFO). He is a rock star in his field and has been featured in publications such as Forbes and Mashable among others. He taught the Google Agency Training Program and is a fellow YC member.

In this interview, he will share how he manages to have a happy family life with his wife and 2 kids while running a successful digital marketing agency.

Time Stamped Show Notes

[01:05] – Where are you located?

We're on the north side of Chicago, close to Wrigley Field, a neighborhood both my team and I are big fans of.

[03:19] – Why did you start your business? 

I come from a family of entrepreneurs. I started the business (BFO) as a side gig. I found a niche, found some demand and followed it. It was something I always had in me and I wanted to do. The company has evolved based on the mentality of finding opportunities and going for them.

[04:43] – How big is your organization today?

We have about 40 full-timers in the US, about 25% of our employees are remote. We've got an office in London with 20 people and one person in Singapore. We've got an army of writers and contractors we work with as demand scales. I’d like to say we’re the perfect size. We're big enough to matter, we can hang with enterprise accounts. We still see a lot of room for growth in a bunch of areas. We celebrated our 6th year in a row on the Inc. 5000 list. We were also #1 in the Inc. 5000 list for best agency to work for last year. Of every kind of honor or piece of recognition, this certainly means the most to me. Building a place where people can feel fulfilled at.

[07:58] – What are your company core values?

We have our value statements on the wall. We practice 'open book management', we want everyone at our company to feel and act like owners. We’re very transparent through the good times and the challenging times. It's less about 'here's what we did, let’s pad ourselves in the back' and more about looking forward. We're fanatical about projecting out the next month and the next quarter and breaking it down into tangible things that any person here can affect. We talk about our Cost of Goods Sold (CGS), we talk about what the expenses are. Everybody here knows how to read a balance sheet. Everybody feels like an owner and everybody can speak up and have a state in the outcome. I don’t want to be greedy. I want people to share the pain of being a business owner. We’ve had our good years.

Earlier this year was very challenging. We fired one of our biggest clients for being awful to our humans and that put us in a real financial crunch. We shared with the team like ‘here’s the fiscal cliff in 3 months if we don’t make some drastic changes in terms of winning new business and cutting costs’. We did an all-day appreciative inquiry session getting everybody brainstorming. How do we save on salaries and benefits without firing people? Humans first, what do we do? They came up with a lot of things and we’ve had the best first half of the year we’ve ever had.

[12:34] – Can you tell us a bit about EOS and how are you going to use it?

The entrepreneur's operating system is a methodology that summarizes everything we spend 15 years fine-tuning. It's a very practical approach to managing a business with entrepreneurs involved. It provides a framework for guys like me to give things away, put more trust in the processes and add a layer of accountability. This makes giving things away a lot easier. EOS and the book 'Traction' are more of a process and a blueprint on how to run any kind of business.

[14:28] – What do you think makes sense to take from the EOS business model and apply it to your personal life?

Transparency, collaboration, and measurement of different initiatives. Communication is one of the key factors in the family and home issues. Communicating schedules, communicating needs and wants, that misalignment seems to be the root of a lot of struggles.

We’re all overscheduled. Prioritizing home time is something you have to manage like you do a presentation that is due or a report that has to go out.

I don’t try to balance work and family. If I got all my work done before I went home to pay attention to my kids, I’d never see them. You have to prioritize the things that matter at the same level as keeping the lights on with business. If your home life is miserable, you are going to be a bad boss and not do great work for your clients.

[17:13] – Do you schedule family time in your calendar?

I do it in some ways. Bedtime is something very important to me. I always make time to get home for dinner and put the kids down. Even if that means to get back to the office or work at 8 pm. I use Doodle and Calendly. I don’t schedule meetings before 9 am because I am with the kids. For me, the exception can’t be when I get to see my family. This has to be the rule.

[20:53] – Do you agree that being a father makes you a better entrepreneur?

Yes. Before I had kids, it was really tough to unplug. And now, during the time I have with them, I have to. I’ve certainly increased my capacity to be patient and deal with maddening situations. Staying organized and efficient in how you use your time, kids force you into that.

When kid #1 arrived, I stayed home for 6 weeks. I saw a lot of dads that take the 2 weeks off and sit there on the couch watching TV while the baby slept and then 2 weeks later they are back full-time. This doesn’t make sense. Babies sleep a lot and during that downtime, I stayed on top of sh*t. I had zero inbox and I had never had that.

I find myself less stressed out when I have the things taken care of. A certain level of checking in and staying on top of stuff can make things less stressful than fully unplugging.

[32:49] – Any hacks for dealing with stress and pressure?

Hanging out with your kids, I love playing music and anything that helps you unplug from work. Take deep breaths, remind everybody that everything is going to be fine, talk about outcomes instead of problems. Try and see the best in situations and people. Have empathy for difficult clients. It's easy to let emotions take over.

[41:46] – Which are the books that had the biggest impact on your life?

Small Giants, Conscious Capitalism, The Great Game of Business.

3 Key Points

If you can foster a company culture where everyone in the company feels and acts like an owner, it is a lot easier to go through the tough times and the good times for the business.

Being a father makes you a better entrepreneur because it teaches you patience and it helps you to unplug from work.

The best way to resolve problems and deal with stressful situations is to focus on the outcomes instead of the problems.

Resources Mentioned

Be Found Online (BFO) – a full-service performance digital agency founded by Dan Golden and Steve Krull

Small Giants - a book by Bo Burlingham about the companies that choose to be great instead of big

Conscious Capitalism - a book by John E. Mackey about the inherent good in business and capitalism

The Great Game of Business - a book by  Jack Stack, Bo Burlingham about open-book management

Follow Dan Golden

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangolden/ https://twitter.com/thegoldendanhttps://www.facebook.com/goldendan

Follow David Henzel

https://www.davidhenzel.com/

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

https://www.facebook.com/david.henzel

https://twitter.com/davidhenzel

https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/

https://www.youtube.com/davidhenzel  

https://plus.google.com/+DavidHenzel

Learn more about the Managing Happiness Course

https://www.managinghappiness.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Managing-Happiness-695467660602905/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/22329666/