The Startup Sessions with Michael Knouse

Fear of failure causes most people to avoid situations where they could face possible rejection. This week’s guest is Andrea Waltz and she discusses the relationship you have with the word “No” and how what you think and feel when you hear the word “No” is the single most important factor in determining the level of success you will achieve in your business.

“YES is the destination, NO is how you get there.”

– Andrea Waltz

Andrea Waltz is the premier expert on overcoming the fear of rejection and the dealing with the word “no.” She is the co-author of the bestselling book Go for No!, along with her husband and business partner, Richard Fenton. They both travel the world sharing their message with live audiences of up to 10,000 people. Andrea and Richard founded Courage Crafters Inc. and believe that courage is the single most important virtue on which everything else in life is built.

Struggling to earn more money in your business? Dealing with money blocks? Hit a new income plateau? Money mindset work is essential for all entrepreneurs.

Denise Duffield-Thomas is your loving but no-nonsense Virgo best friend. You can expect real talk and total honesty from her when it comes to dealing with your money shit. She’s the secret weapon of many successful entrepreneurs when it comes to helping them get out of their own way so they can charge beautifully for their impact on the world.

“Once you identify a money block, you can release it”

“You don’t need to be busy to be successful.”

Denise Duffield-Thomas is the money mindset mentor for a new wave of entrepreneurs. A speaker and author, she has several books including ‘Lucky Bitch’ and ‘Get Rich, Lucky Bitch.’ Denise works with her clients to release their fears about money, set premium prices for their goods and services and helps them get control back of their finances.

Christina Salerno believes that we are dynamic, multi-faceted, exquisitely messy creatures. Yet, if we don’t conform to rigid societal expectations, criticism often awaits to make us feel like something is wrong with us.

What if the very parts we try to hide are the best parts of us? What if sharing our quirkiness was the key to unlocking joy, love, acceptance and success in business and in life?

This episode will explore that undefinable ‘something’ within each of us that makes us perfectly unique and capable of expanding beyond the conventionally labeled boxes that have confined us.

“If you want someone else to love and appreciate you, you need to allow love and appreciation for yourself.” – Christina Salerno

No matter where you are at this moment, there is always a choice to live another way – your way. Christina Salerno sums this up as “living quirky,” and believes that everyone has elements that make them unique and quirky. She believes in showing up as honestly as possible, which includes being vulnerable at times. To encourage openness and avoid stereotypes, Christina started an online community, Living Quirky, to help others find a place where they can be messy and show up authentically in life.

As an entrepreneur, turning ideas into action is what counts. Charlie Gilkey is an authority on the topics of self-mastery and personal effectiveness and he is going to share how to how to channel your time, energy, and attention into finishing the stuff that matters most.

“We all have the same amount of time, some people just make different choices with the time they have available.” – Charlie Gilkey

Business Growth Strategist, Charlie Gilkey, helps people and businesses find out what matters most and then focus on executing against it. He offers coaching, consulting, workshops, and products that help people start finishing the stuff that matters. Charlie helps us learn how to finish the projects we start and leverage them into the next, best version of our work.

“By trying to do all the work yourself, you are depriving someone else of doing the work that they love to do.” – Charlie Gilkey

Nick Hughes is a multi-faceted founder and entrepreneur. With several projects and start-ups currently underway, Nick shares some incredible strategies for managing your priorities, preventing distractions and thriving as an entrepreneur.

“If you allow distractions to control you, you’re subject to someone else’s agenda.”

“You’re either choosing your priorities or they are being chosen for you.”

Nick Hughes is a serial entrepreneur from Seattle with business achievements in e-commerce, media, digital payments and technology start-ups

In addition to his work with Founders LIVE, Nick is currently cofounder and CEO of Code Alley, a DevOps Engineering Service headquartered in Seattle and is also working on Callin’it, a cool new app for sports fans.

As a sought after advisor, entrepreneurial speaker and writer with guest appearances on popular technology and media outlets, Nick enjoys helping others discover their unique entrepreneurial path.

Hillary Rubin provides insight into what it takes to create a business while being true to ourselves, embracing our fears, and making the best of our current situation.

 “If you’re in business and you haven’t done the inner work, you’re essentially building a mansion on a swamp.”

Hillary Rubin is a spiritual life and business coach, mentor, creator of the Art of Becoming a Coach Training Program as well as the host for The Art of Business for Coaches Podcast. Her message is that you can transform your past, create your future, and start living fully as you create your life and business richly in the present.

Through overcoming some tough life experiences, Hillary realized that she had the power to change and design a truly fulfilling life where she uses all of her gifts, talents and experiences.

Are you currently building a business and finding yourself working 40, 50 or sometimes 60 hours a week to make it successful? Jenny Shih is an uncompromising business coach who will help you succeed at doing work you love without having to make sacrifices in your life.

“Success without sacrifice is deliberately creating what is most important to you without giving up what is most important to you.” 

– Jenny Shih

“Ideas are great but unless you back them up with action, they don’t matter.”

– Jenny Shih

Jenny Shih is an uncompromising business coach who works with smart entrepreneurs who are fiercely committed to their own success. Step by step, she shows clients how to create a successful online business without having to work long hours or make huge sacrifices. Jenny believes that with the right systems and strategies, it’s possible to make money doing work you love, one that supports a live you love.

I love the lyrics of the song ‘Hands’ by Jewel. The song starts with the words…

If I could tell the world just one thing

The song goes on and the words that I remember most are repeated twice…

In the end only kindness matters

In the end only kindness matters

A couple of weeks ago I was attending the annual World Domination Summit in Portland where Jonathan Fields kicked off the conference by delivering a powerful message that I needed to hear. He focused on 5 BE’s for living a good life:

I could relate to all of these but ‘Be Kind’ was the one that stood out. Kindness was a recurring theme throughout WDS this year. Everywhere I turned, people were being kind to one another.

It seems so simple. We all have a choice in every moment to either be kind or something else. And over and over, all weekend long, the people around me were choosing to be kind. 

It was in-between the speaker sessions at the conference where I began to notice how the people around me affect how I feel, how I act and what I believe. I know many of these people and they truly practice kindness – not just at WDS, but in their everyday lives.

And this realization had me asking a question: how important is it to surround ourselves with genuinely kind people?

This I know for sure. The people we choose to surround ourselves with end up having a huge impact on our lives. I’ve heard this quote over and over, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I’ve probably heard this over a thousand times but for some reason, these fews days at WDS taught me that surrounding yourself with “kind” people is the quickest path to a happy life.

With this in mind, I would like you to think about the people you’re spending time with.

Some people are more selfish, uncaring and maybe even unhealthy to be around. They are constantly focused on themselves and how everyone should be paying attention to their needs. You know the ones.

You can spend time trying to please these people or hope that they’ll change or you can choose to spend your time with people who are already kind. I’ve tried both and the later is much easier and more conducive to creating an amazing life.

So what makes someone a “kind” person? And what are the benefits of surrounding yourself with “kind” people?

Our ‘posse of awesomeness’ at the WDS conference in Portland

Kind people aren’t saints, or at least they don’t have to be. They might spend their winter holidays feeding the hungry in their local soup kitchen or they may simply encourage you to follow your dreams. But the kind people in your life are positive, happy, supportive and easy to be around.

They are the ones that will inspire you to become a better person, provide you with motivation to achieve your goals, empower you to make the changes you need to succeed and cheer you on when you need it the most.

One of the kindest people I know is my wife Jill. She constantly inspires me to become the best version of myself. And she always makes people feel better after they’ve spent time with her. She exudes kindness. And I am lucky to have her as my wife and best friend.

My grandmother (Nana) was also kind. She passed away just over a year ago. She was 93 years old. Nana always made sure that my sister and I had a fun place to go after school. She and my grandpa took us to the beach every spring break. She was at my sporting events cheering me on all the way through high school. She came a visited me when I went away to college. She bought me my first drink when I turned 21. Nana made everything special because of her kindness. She didn’t have to do these things. But she chose kindness over convenience.

And my good friend Michael always chooses kindness. He recently stayed with Jill and I for a few days after returning from a cross country bike tour. He was constantly offering to pick up items from the store or help out in any way that he could. He even groomed our hairy dog one morning. And while we were away last week, he came and walked Maggie every day. No one asked him to do it. He did it because he’s kind.

Write down the qualities of the people you spend the most time with. Would you call them kind people? Happy people? Now think of how they interact and affect you.

Do they make you feel like you have what it takes to succeed?

Do they support you?

Do they make you feel attractive?

Do you feel happy and energized after spending time with them?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, you’re probably already surrounded by kind people.

People are different. There are things that make you happy that might not make me happy. Your idea of kindness and support may differ from the next person’s. The key is finding the people that are good for you.

So how do you do that?

Remember that like attracts like. As one of my good friends likes to say, “your vibe attracts your tribe.”

As Jonathan Fields suggests, you also have to BE yourself. This will lead you to the people that are right for you. Your kind of people.

And when you’re surrounded by kind people, you’re surrounded by the best that life has to offer. You’ll be less stressed and find more joy. You’ll surrender to ease and stop trying to push so hard. You’ll feel more in the flow.

Make a commitment to start spending more time with the genuinely kind people in your life. You will be enriched beyond measure and you just might bless others in the process.

Here’s one thing I know for sure…

In the end only kindness matters.

Live bravely,

Michael

I invited Rebecca Tracey to come back and share her best tips and strategies to help you create smart, consistent messaging, determine your niche, do smart market research and create smart packages that sell.

“It’s important for you as a business owner to be able to articulate what you’re selling.”

– Rebecca Tracey

Let’s face it… it can be hard getting your business started. There is so much advice out there, but most of it is confusing for the new business owner and many people get stuck in the first stages of business because they have no idea what to do or what order to do it in. You want to make sure that you’re doing the right things, in the right order, based on the stage of business that you’re in.

Rebecca Tracey is the founder of The Uncaged Life, where she takes a no BS approach as an adventurous, independent entrepreneur who started her business out of the back of a van. Her services to clients include digital courses, one-on-one and group courses, mini courses and retreats, all offering help with creating clear messaging and killer content, as well as creating a plan for getting paid clients. If you’re a new entrepreneur and you feel like you could use help defining your business, Rebecca’s program Uncage Your Business will help move from uncertainty to success.

Do you struggle with how to package your skills, expertise and knowledge? Alina Vincent is joining me this week to talk about her favorite subject: helping entrepreneurs leverage their expertise through systems and programs.

“If you’ve ever taught or mentored someone, you can create a program.”  – Alina Vincent

Growing a successful business can take years of dedication and focus. But what if you could shorten the path just a little bit? This week’s guest is Alina Vincent and she she works with business owners to create big impact and profits and shorten their path to success.

Alina is a Fast Growth Business and Technology Strategist and she helps savvy entrepreneurs position their brand to effortlessly attract premium clients and cash. An Amazon #1 Best-selling Author of 2 books, Alina is gifted in her ability to simplify complex ideas into actionable results-generating strategies.

Alina works at the intersection of logic and imagination. She wants her clients to make the most of their own talents and gifts to create their best business success edge.