The Impact Entrepreneur Show

Ep. 145 – A Conversation with My Wife – with Lisa Flynn

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2018 is almost over, and to celebrate, I’m re-releasing my favorite episode of the year – which was also one of the most popular episodes of the year – my conversation with the insightful and lovely Lisa Flynn… who also happens to be my wonderful wife!

 

I will forever be going back to this conversation to draw inspiration for myself, and I hope Lisa is able to inspire you in the same way.

 

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Ep. 144 – Master the Key: A Story to Free Your Potential (Chapter One) – with Mike Flynn

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For this special Christmas edition of the show, I am so excited to share the first chapter of my upcoming book, Master The Key: A Story To Free Your Potential, Find Meaning and Live Life On Purpose. But first, I want to share a little bit more about why I wrote the book.

 

I have spent the last 14 years as an entrepreneur and business owner. I’ve had the great privilege of working with families and fellow business owners interested in protecting what matters most to them – their family and their finances. And beginning in 2009, I felt a call to do something more, to do something even greater.

 

I began to answer that call in 2015 by starting The Impact Entrepreneur Show. The mission of that show was to help myself, listeners, and even guests of the show to have an encounter with the various impact moments of their lives and learn how they’ve responded to them and are now using those lessons to pay it forward to the next generation of thinkers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. I’ve had the great honor of interviewing some of my personal heroes, as well as some of the greatest thinkers and action-takers of our time.

 

I’ve also had the great honor of receiving heartfelt messages from listeners who courageously shared their joys, struggles, victories, and failures with me. Every single encounter has moved me, shaped me, and created even more space for the truth to continue making itself known in new ways.

 

I never imagined I would write a book, but I did envision myself speaking on stages and sharing the insight I recorded on the podcast. So, I began to craft a framework to communicate what I learned from these great leaders and thinkers – PEAK.

 

  • Position
  • Engagement
  • Action
  • Kinetic

As I gave this keynote presentation and spoke about it on various podcasts as a guest, the same question popped up: when are you writing a book? I take these types of questions very seriously because it is a sign that someone may see something in me that I myself do not yet have eyes to see. I started to talk with people and ask them if they would like to read a book that taught something around the idea that we already possess everything we need to perform at a PEAK level in every area of life. And while people kept asking for something more simple and relatable, they also kept saying YES, so off to work I went.

 

Fast forward to today. It’s Christmas Eve and we are a few weeks away from the launch of Master The Key: A Story To Free Your Potential, Find Meaning and Live Life On Purpose.

 

I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would be writing a post sharing something about the upcoming release of a book written by yours truly. But I am! I wrote a BOOK! Okay, so maybe I imagined writing something in my wildest dreams but I had no idea what was within me. A good friend of mine referred to it as a fictional story that leads you to the truth. That is a perfect synopsis. No, I did not imagine this; this is much better.

 

When you begin to master your story, you discover dormant gifts; and when you discover dormant gifts, you feel compelled, driven, and inspired to take action; and when you take action, you begin to see your community for what it is and you either embrace it further or embark on a journey to find or create a new one.

 

All of this is preceded by an awakening event, or what I refer to in Part One of my book as The Call. Like the main character, Steve, my “event” came during the financial crisis, which rocked me to the core in the obvious ways – but also in ways not seen by the naked eye. Yes, those events rocked me, but they also broke free truth that had been buried deep within me. Slowly and surely, that truth has been bubbling to the surface of my heart and mind.

 

I am confident that the key inside you will begin to vibrate with truth as well when you read and digest the lessons within the pages of Master The Key, a parable meant to illustrate lessons like:

 

  • Before you can find your why, you must believe you are worth of one.
  • Amazing things can happen when you free yourself from the status associated with your gifts.
  • Identify what is at stake for you, why it matters, and when it becomes real.
  • Your environment matters, but who you allow in your environment matters more.

 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the audio version of the first chapter, entitled “Shattered.”

 

If you want to be one of the first people to receive a copy of the book, subscribe to my newsletter at https://theimpactentrepreneur.net or send a text to 831-607-1818

 

 

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Ep. 143 – Inside Out Health: Emotional, Physical, & Spiritual Healing – with Dr. Nick Hyde

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Dr. Nick Hyde is a Chiropractic Neurologist with a unique approach to health, but one that we can all embrace for a lifetime of health, happiness, and freedom. His one-stop shop for alternative health solutions, Inside Out Health, focuses on holistic healing of the body, mind, and spirit – and it all begins with The Emergence Process.

 

Dr. Nick first turned to alternative medicine shortly after marrying his childhood sweetheart Clare. She began to suffer from severe abdominal pain that baffled doctors, and even surgery didn’t help. But a Functional Neurologist named Dr. Joseph Smith was able to help, and his wife felt relief for the first time after just one appointment.

 

Dr. Joe told them that instead of being dependent on him for constant relief, his mission was to show the body how to heal itself. Clare went from barely walking to competing in a Sprint Triathlon just a year later – and Dr. Nick knew exactly what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

 

I’ve been Dr. Nick’s patient and experienced the impact of this holistic healing methodology myself, and it really is transformational. Sometimes we get so caught up on the desired outcome that we only focus on the outcome, and we don’t focus on the process(es) to get there.

 

But The Emergence Process that Dr. Nick practices is… well, it’s a process! One that requires we trust the power of one of the most advanced technologies in creation: the human cell.

 

As Dr. Nick says, “More technologically advanced than all of the supercomputers in the world, far more advanced than anything any scientist has been able to do, is the intelligence of a human cell.”

 

You have a trillion of them in your body, and they’re all so incredibly organized, efficient, and communicative. So instead of relying on some other medical technology to help heal the body, The Emergence Process involves removing physical, emotional, and spiritual blockages in our bodies so that our cells can work the way they’re supposed to.

 

It all starts with listening to your body, instead of quieting it. “We are nurtured, in this country of ours, to ignore the symptoms, to medicate the symptoms, to avoid symptoms at all costs… and all a symptom is is a signal! It’s our body’s way of communicating to us that there’s something going on.” Why would we want to medicate that?

 

“People just need to forgive themselves. That’s where the healing happens … We need to practice letting go, and you need to be more serious about letting go than any other practice in your life.”

 

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Ep. 142 – Share Your WILDSTORY – with Marc Gutman

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“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.” ― Erin Morgenstern

 

Marc Gutman has always been captivated by stories, especially the movies he watched with his father. He learned about life through the likes of Ferris Bueller, and he eventually found himself in Hollywood. But, like many of us, Marc was bit by the entrepreneurial bug. He wanted the freedom to architect his own life and and a new story.

 

So Marc learned everything he could about marketing and PR and founded WILDSTORY, a storytelling and content strategy shop that helps spark conversations that change the way people feel about their clients and their clients’ brands (one of whom is former guest Ryan Evans, founder of Inboard Technologies).

 

So what makes a good story, especially online?

 

Take a moment to reflect on the stories that have really impacted you in the past, whether it was a movie or a book or an Instagram post. I bet the first thing you think of is how it made you feel, not how shots were composed or sentences were constructed. This is because the best stories elicit emotion.

 

When you understand this, it reveals that everyone has the opportunity to tell their story in a way that creates an impact – and with the ability to easily create and share all sorts of media online, doing so is easier than ever before.

 

“Think about what we have, in terms of storytelling tools today. The only thing we’re limited by is our storytelling abilities and our imagination.”

 

Now why should we focus on telling stories? If we have a great product and value to add, isn’t that enough?

 

The honest truth is, no, that’s often not enough to succeed as an entrepreneur. As Marc puts it, “Your backstory is your differentiator” – so take advantage of the tools available to you and set yourself apart!

 

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Ep. 141 – Out of the Fire, Into Inspire: Going All-in on Life – with John O’Leary

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“Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.” –Lovelle Drachman

 

I actually have a lot in common with today’s guest, John O’Leary: we have a shared faith, beautiful wives who are more awesome than we’ll ever be, four children, a love for Matt Maher’s music, and an insatiable curiosity… one that manifested as a childhood love for playing with fire.

 

My pyrotechnic tendencies ended after accidentally setting my brother’s clothes on fire. No one was seriously injured, but we learned to stop playing with fire. John, unfortunately, had to learn this lesson in a life-altering away.

 

At age nine, a fire exploded John was launched 20 feet against the far side of his garage, trapped and on fire. When he was brought to the burn center, 100% of his body was burned and he was given a one-percent chance to live.

 

But John fought these extraordinary odds, although he didn’t face this battle alone.

 

He spent five months in the hospital, underwent dozens of surgeries, lost all of his fingers to amputation. He had to relearn to walk, write, and feed himself. “I endured, persevered, and survived – largely because others emerged, served and inspired.” Now, John lives to share the life-giving lessons from this story in hope that he can be a spark for positive change in others.

 

“I share these lessons as a tribute to those who leapt into the flames to save me. Who worked tirelessly to restore me. Who pushed me to write though I no longer had fingers. Who held me close when the days were dark and the nights scary. I share these lessons as an invitation for you to choose to wake up to the fullness of your life, to embrace the amazing gift of each moment, and to celebrate the joy of your inspired life!”

 

We often feel like we have to have things mapped out and scheduled. We’ve been told that we need checkpoints and milestones in order to move forward in life and achieve anything worthwhile – but that’s a big fat lie.

 

So I asked John, someone who could never have planned the experiences he had to overcome, what’s the one thing that we need to move all in and move forward in our lives?

 

“We are in battle every day… but most of us don’t even recognize it as being a battle. We just view it as being the ordinary or the mundane or just my life or just work, and we don’t recognize how sacred the moment is; we don’t recognize how freaking blessed we are to be in the game in the first place.”

 

There is roughly a 1 in 400 trillion chance of you being born in the first place – “Maybe it’s time that we act like it.”

 

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Ep. 140 – Righteous Impact: Putting an End to Human Trafficking – with Nic McKinley (#TheRealJackRyan)

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“Stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learn. Work hard, and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you. These are not cliches but real tools you need no matter what you do in life to stay focused on your path.” – Phillip Sweet

 

After watching Jack Ryan with my wife, the Amazon series based on a Tom Clancy character, we checked out a short documentary series featuring former operators and analysts who worked with the CIA – and that’s where I first saw our guest Nic McKinley, the founder and CEO of DeliverFund and the man who inspired the hashtag #TheRealJackRyan.

 

When Nic was growing up, he wanted to be Batman; “Just a normal guy who used his resources to change the world, and worked really hard to build himself up to be the catalyst that would change the world.”

 

And Nic pretty much got as close to being Batman as anyone gets: CIA special agent. He served as a member of a special unit focused on providing unique capabilities and expertise, regardless of threat or environment, in response to the critical operational needs of the Intelligence Community as part of an overseas unit conducting complex operations in non-permissive countries.

 

Like Batman, Nic did start with some privilege. He didn’t have the entire fortune of Wayne Enterprises behind him, but he didn’t need it. He says, “The ultimate privilege is good parenting – and I had really good parents.”

 

Nic was also a USAF Pararescueman (PJ) for 10 years, but exceptional dedication in the military alone isn’t what got him recruited into the CIA (although it didn’t hurt). He later worked as a consultant for fortune 10 investment banks, where he demonstrated a penchant for finding solutions to hard problems, and these diverse experiences are what made him so appealing for high-stakes operations in high threat countries.

 

But this isn’t even the most awesome impact that Nic has made to protect our country and world.

 

After being exposed to the human trafficking epidemic that is still very alive today, Nic was moved to found DeliverFund, an organization that equips, trains, and advises law enforcement around the world on how they can arrest human traffickers.

 

Together with law enforcement, they work to counter human trafficking, eliminate this horrible market, and really save lives.

 

You can help their mission by going to https://deliverfund.org/donate.

 

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Ep. 139 – Out of Darkness, Shine – with Ike Ndolo

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I’ve known Ike Ndolo for 20 years, and when we first met, he didn’t know how to play a single chord on the guitar. But in September 2018, Ike released his third album, “Shine” – and it is beautiful.

 

Time is truly amazing, and Ike’s journey reminded me of this quote from Colin Powell: “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” And the more you get to know Ike, the more applicable this quote becomes.

 

Ike grew up in Missouri as the son of Nigerian immigrants and, according to his bio, “the life of Ike Ndolo is a woven tapestry of experiences: hymns and Bob Marley, injustice and mercy, discrimination and acceptance. As a result, Ike has become a well-tested navigator of the human experience.”

 

His goal is to share and guide listeners through stories that inform and even reorient their perspective. His music harkens back to his soulful gospel roots, mixing it with new wave R&B, modern influences, and a few choice synth beats to create something “that musically mirrors the many worlds he walks through daily.”

 

When you listen to Ike’s music, he wants you to explore what you think about yourself, consider your negative perceptions, and then choose to SHINE.

 

“We’re all afraid of the unknown and what the world has to offer. But more than that, we’re afraid of what we have to offer. We’re afraid of what’s inside and who we are. We’re afraid of our potential and what we could be and what we’re supposed to be. We’re afraid of how brightly we can shine.”

 

We bury what we want to do, what we can do, under what we feel we ought to do; what’s right, what’s proper, what’s normal. We get so bogged down in these ideas that we never take a risk, look inside ourselves, and figure out what we truly have to offer the world.

 

“Out of darkness and despair and doubt and rejection, shine” – and don’t let that shine be taken away from you.

 

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Ep. 138 – How You Can Use the FBI’s Field-Tested Negotiation Strategies in Business – with Chris Voss

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Chris Voss is the CEO & Founder of the Black Swan Group and author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. But before Chris donned his entrepreneur hat, he was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group.

 

He has used his many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program and team that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world, and today we’re going to learn some of those techniques.

 

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar

 

In reflecting on the Zig Ziglar quote above, I found myself pondering a question: do you need to know what you want before you can help other people get what they want?

 

“Absolutely not,” Chris answered without hesitation. “It’s much more a question of is that the beginning of your thinking or confining your thinking.” What Chris means is that we can’t allow goal setting to narrow our focus because “whatever goal you have in mind is, at best, maybe 80% of what’s out there.”

 

Let’s use an FBI negotiation as an example. In any negotiation, there are two problems: being focused on a goal and being focused on how you’re going to get there.

 

The inherent danger in these problems – things that some might consider common course in their business or life – is that when you know exactly what you want, you can become inflexible and miss out on unexpected opportunities that come up.

 

“Never be so sure of what you want that you wouldn’t take something better,” Chris says. It helps the FBI get the best information, and it can help you get the most of what’s available in business and in life.

 

Conquering Fear

What role does fear play in negotiation, in business, and in life? “THE role.”

Chris says the hardest thing for us to do is admit that we’re afraid of anything. So how do you conquer or overcome that? There are two hacks:

 

  • Chris learned in his time on crisis intervention lines that if you can turn someone from grief to gratitude, regardless of what the issue is, they’ll be almost instantaneously healed.
  • The identification of the negative diminishes it, “every single time.” A study highlighted in the book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time demonstrates that when people simply identify what they’re feeling (whether it’s sadness, disparity, fear, or something else) the electrical activity in the negative part of the brain drops. Not some of the time, but every single time.

 

So how do you deal with a negative feeling like fear? Self-identify it and then reorient yourself towards gratitude!

 

You can learn more incredible hacks like this in Chris’ “The Edge” newsletter.

“The Edge” is a free newsletter that comes out every Tuesday. It’s a short, easy read that will help you keep your negotiation skills up-to-speed.

To sign up, head over to https://blog.blackswanltd.com/the-edge or text “fbiempathy” to 22828.

 

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

 

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

Ep. 137 – Life-Changing Lessons Learned by an Olympian & Serial Entrepreneur – with Eli Bremer

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“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” –Isaac Newton

 

Today’s guest, like Isaac Newton, has certainly stood on the shoulders of giants: his phenomenal parents, his longtime coach Alan Arata, the ‘96 Olympic decathlon gold medalist Dan O’Brien, and too many others to name.

 

With the teachings of these mentors as his rock-solid foundation, Eli Bremer became an Olympian, an Air Force Academy graduate, and a serial entrepreneur specializing in high-impact business activities.

 

These mentors “helped me understand who I was, who I am, and what my potential would be.” They were more than just leaders – they were partners who invested their time and shined a light on his potential, even when Eli couldn’t see it himself, “and that makes a big difference.”

 

Becoming an Olympic Modern Pentathlete

 

If you’re not familiar, the pentathlon is a unique Olympic sport tracing back to the original games.

 

The Greeks valued a well-rounded person, so they created the traditional pentathlon as the culminating event of early Olympic games. Comprised of a number of fighting skills, the traditional pentathlon included a short foot race, the javelin throw, the discus throw, the long jump, and wrestling. It was the ultimate test of the all-around athlete.

 

When the Olympics were revived in 1912, they kept the idea but chose different events for the modern pentathlon: fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, and a combined event of pistol shooting and cross country running.

 

Through the early 2000s, Eli was an up-and-coming modern pentathlete, winning in the 2007 Pan Am Games and earning a slot for the 2008 Olympics. Before the 2008 games, Eli was ranked in the top 10 in the world.

 

Lessons Learned Through Training

 

Through training for this taxing event, Eli learned a few lessons we can all benefit from.

 

“The harder I trained, I didn’t necessarily get better – but the more I learned how to recover and to balance everything out, the more I advanced.”

 

As a result, Eli got better at balancing more things in every area of his life and, ultimately, get more things done – a skill that certainly benefits him today in the entrepreneurial world.

 

Eli also learned to care more about the process than the results. “You just have to learn to focus on the process. Because if you let yourself focus on the outcome, it’s going to kill you.” And as soon as Eli made this psychological transition to committing to the process over anything else, his scores got better, he was more consistent, and he made fewer errors.

 

This last lesson took a longer time to learn, but it’s a goodie: “Quit trying to win and start trying to be good – because good athletes win more often.” Focusing on the outliers too much can put you in a dangerous state of mind, and this is as true in competition as it is in business or personal life.

 

“Winning can happen by accident, but being the best you can be or the best in the world is much more difficult than simply winning.”

 

Overcoming Catastrophe

 

Unfortunately, Eli experienced a disappointing Olympics after a catastrophic horseback riding accident hospitalized him just over a week before the competition.

 

The weeks after the accident were devastating, but those lessons Eli learned through training helped carry him through to one of the best performances in his athletic career. Just two months after his accident, he won a Bronze Medal at the World Cup Final, the top individual medal won by a U.S. athlete since 1979.

 

“The more I was able to rely on the fact that I had integrity with myself and had done everything I could to get ready for that competition, as much as it hurt to have a freak accident take me out, at least I could say that’s what took me out, as opposed to I didn’t do as much as I could to win the medal.

 

“That I can live with… it still hurts, but I can live with it.”

 

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

 

Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.

Ep. 136 – Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared – with Jessica Honegger

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“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” –J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

 

Jessica Honegger is the author of Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared and the Founder of socially conscious fashion brand Noonday Collection, the world’s most successful fair trade fashion brand.

 

And in her book, Jessica shares the powerful story of Noonday: “The story of Noonday is so much bigger than me. It’s the story of artisans all around the world. It’s the story of entrepreneurs in young America. It’s the story of my partner and I and my family.”

 

This story all began with a trip to Washington, D.C., where Jessica was shown poverty firsthand for the first time – “and that was really what sparked bravery in me, seeing this context of living outside of my own bubble, living outside of myself, being willing to go pioneer a new script.”

 

Jessica grew up in a community where everyone followed very traditional scripts that had a narrow view of success, but being exposed to the Church of the Savior, its founder Gordon Cosby, and the greater efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired Jessica to write a new script.

 

She didn’t have the support of everyone she grew up with, she didn’t even have the support of the voice in her head all the time, but she had to walk through her fear to reach the life of impact and meaning that she was destined for.

 

Because we can’t let fear be a red flag, as Jessica describes. We have to view it as a yellow flag that means, no, walk this way and come see what’s on the other side of that fear. “You can’t really walk around fear – you just kinda have to walk through it.”

 

And when you read Imperfect Courage, it will guide you through these same steps so that you can live the life of impact and meaning that you were meant to live, too.

 

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