Think Like an Entrepreneur - Become a Sparkplug

Meet Ben McDougal, an experienced entrepreneur and energized entrepreneurial ecosystem builder.   

He is passionate about the art of connection, accelerating entrepreneurs, and evolving ideas into reality. Ben has been inspired by thousands of fellow founders nationwide and wrote this book to help you champion change on the timeline of now.  

Ben's latest adventure, being an author. His new book, "You Don’t Need This Book: Entrepreneurship in the Connected Era," is now available!  Ben is passionate about accelerating entrepreneurs. As the field of entrepreneurial ecosystem building has emerged, Ben’s professional community building experience has helped entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial support organizations, government and educational organizations learn how to evolve through collaborative economic development.   

Ben is an energized expert who uses systems thinking, radical inclusivity and trust-building generosity to inspire vibrant startup communities and united entrepreneurial ecosystems. His fresh perspective is brewed from rural, mid-sized and large entrepreneurial ecosystems throughout the United States.

Are you wanting to be a startup community? A community that supports entrepreneurs and builds an entrepreneurial economy?   

There are two elements that you need for you to be a successful startup community. If you do not have these two factors, you will not attract entrepreneurs or their families.   

If you want to build an entrepreneurial economy, join us. We help communities design family-friendly, youth-centered places that attract entrepreneurs. 

We do this by teaching you how to Think Like an Entrepreneur.

Welcome back Gloria Russell.  Gloria is one of our most popular viewed guests.   

A woman entrepreneur and marketing genius, Russell Resources (writer.mn) was formed 7 yrs ago; serves business owners with digital marketing content and other writing for marketing efforts to get their message out to ideal clients and grow their business.   

Follow along as Gloria tells you how the words that you use can increase your business three fold.

There are times where communities do not know or recognize the value of the local entrepreneurs.  

Communities have a habit and culture of not looking at the expertise that is right under their nose.   

Meet Denise O'Brien.  

 Denise a farmer and community volunteer from Atlantic, Iowa. She has farmed with her husband, Larry Harris, for 45 years.  She is a wife, mother and grandmother. Denise and Larry maintain seventeen acres of the original Harris farm, 5 of which are in certified organic fruit and vegetable production incorporating a high tunnel and greenhouse for starter plants. O’Brien also raises turkeys and chickens for meat and egg production. Denise loves the physical and mental challenge that organic vegetable production offers.  

By farming, Denise has had numerous opportunities to work within the agricultural community by working on policy development on the state, national and international level and becoming involved in the community of local food systems and conservation issues.  

Throughout her farming career, Denise has been involved in her community as well as in the agricultural sector. She is the co-founder of Women Food and Agriculture Network. She is past Chair of the Board of Directors for Pesticide Action Network of North America. Denise also helped found and served on the board of Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, an organization that uses easements to preserve land for food production in Iowa. She currently serves on the board of the Iowa Organic Association, is the Chair for the county Democratic Party and is an Assistant Soil and Water Commissioner. 

O'Brien served as an Agriculture Advisor in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012 and used that experience to deepen her knowledge of women farmers on an international level.   

Denise has received numerous awards for her community achievements and accomplishments and was inducted into Iowa's Women's Hall of Fame in 2000. She has run for numerous public offices from school board to the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture in 2006 to running for the Iowa Legislature in 2018. Never winning but always willing to step forward!

Have you ever been to a motivational seminar and walked away excited and feeling that you can accomplish all of your dreams?   

You might think that this is just Foo Foo stuff. But you had better think again and make this the center of your entrepreneurial efforts.   

That is how you need to support entrepreneurs. If your community does not have that type of energy, you need to learn how to create that type of energy.   

Follow us to learn how. Do your economy a favor and start to build this type of environment in your community.

The future is not what it used to be!!!   

When your community is recovering out of COVID, what questions are you asking?   

Are you asking "How are we going to do this?" or are you asking the question that you should be asking?  

When you define the "Why," you define the emotional charge that attract people. 

Those that want to help and those that want to be a part of what you are doing.   

Ask "Why" before you ask "How!"  You will change the world.

Conflict in families, in business and with yourself is inevitable. But, you do have a choice as to how you respond to it.  

Working with a coach can recover the energy currently drained by conflicts and struggle to renewed energy that fuels your productivity and your relationships.  With conflicts resolved, you find freedom.  

Conversations improve. And the quality of your conversations determines the quality of your life.  There IS a way to deal with it so that you can get unstuck.  You can BE the change you want to see in your life.

Our guest - Leah Zimmerman from Stepping Stool Coaching. 

Do you know the Profit Engineer? If you don't, you can meet her right now!   

You know the point of owning a business is not to just “make enough” but to put "funds-your-dreams" cash in your pocket while effortlessly covering all your bills.  

When you created your business, you expected ease and freedom while making a difference for your family and community, but the reality is not what you expected.  You have so much of the business right, but it needs adjustments so that all the components are working in concert towards your purpose.  

Jen Kline Clark has the formula:  

Harness Your Secret Sauce.  Be The Magnet.   Boss Your Business.   

Want to know more?   jenklineclark.com   

The Pandemic has uncovered many challenges and opportunities for rural communities. But one of the most important and critical needs that has finally been noticed is the need for quality early care and education.   

The issue of "who is taking care of our workforce's children" has been a area of impact in our efforts to help rural communities grow for more than 25 years. Without this critical infrastructure put into place, a business would not have any workforce.   

Childcare matters because when employees and business owners feel their children are in a safe environment while they work, they will function far more productively, efficiently, and safely.   

As we continue to celebrate #Women​​’s History Month, our guest is Shirley Urich, Community Development Specialist for West Central Community Action: Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R), where she serves 17 SW IA counties.   

Iowa's Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agency is offering providers and entrepreneurs a way to enter this rewarding field with Child Care Ready.  Child Care Ready by CCR&R is designed to help individuals seeking a career in early childhood education.   

This accelerated professional development series includes coaching, mentorship, and best practices to help individuals become Child Care Ready! Child care providers will serve children and families in your community while making an income from home.   

This educational series offers all the pre-certification training required to start as a child care center staff or start a home child care business. The Child Care Ready series can assist communities in building child care solutions.

Everybody loves success but nobody loves failure. Here's a tip. You can't have one without the other.   

Times can be tough for entrepreneurs. All entrepreneurs will fail. It is a given  

What do you do to help them as a community? Do you reject them? Tell them that you knew that would fail?   

Do you support them? Do you go to their business and be interested in their success?   

Do you wait until they are successful and then support them?   

What about those that might be on Federal or State assistance? Do you support them or do you judge them as lazy people not wanting to work? 

It does not matter what people failed at, what matters is how people are supported after they fail.