Boss Dad Podcast

Welcome to the brand new Boss Dad podcast. I have been wanting to put this out into the world for a few years now. There are so many amazing entrepreneurs that are also dads and while there are a crazy amount of mom entrepreneur podcasts I felt like the dads out there weren't getting a chance to share their stories about how they were not only making an impact through their business but also on the next generation. So here we are. Prepare for some amazing conversations and a few solo shows from me, the founder of Boss Mom, to talk about how to actually grow your business. 

Welcome to episode 2 of the new Boss Dad podcast. Jon Vroman, the founder of the Front Row Foundation, is the perfect start to our first season. His journey from in debt to #1 college speaker in the nation is a journey you are going to want to hear. Have a listen as he talks about discovering his passion to help men create better communication and connection with their family and show you how to be a family man with a business as opposed to being a businessman with a family. 

Jay Alders is an internationally acclaimed artist whose distinctive style is recognized around the world. His work has been featured on TV, magazine covers, and albums and does live painting on stage with rockstars. Jay was brought up by an entrepreneur and talks about how he started working at a young age, how he was able to make his dreams come true, and how twin boys changed things. 

Every entrepreneur wants to build a legacy, what do you want to be remembered for? What can you do to grow your business right now? And how much time do you invest in the things that truly matter? On this episode, Richard Shuster shares his personal experience of raising his son and building a business around helping others and making this world a better place.   3 Things We Learned From This Episode Get involved in the local community  (03:40:04-40) Get involved in mentorship in the local community. You won’t have a clue about what others don’t know until you start a conversation about it. Many of us end up not helping others and missing out on opportunities to get recognized locally because we assume our help is not needed. Create a legacy that will make your children proud of you (15:08-16-08) Entrepreneurship isn’t just about making more money and having more free time. It’s also about building a legacy your children will be proud of. Make sure your work focuses on bringing solutions to people’s problems and you’ll leave this world a bit better than how you found it. Make time for the things that truly matter (16:50- 17:27) Entrepreneurship doesn’t always equal freedom, especially at the beginning of your journey when you’re struggling to make a name for yourself. But make sure that in the process you don’t lose sight of the things that matter the most. Be there for your children when they need you. They won’t remember how much money you made, but they will remember if you skipped their games or recitals.   Building a business is not only about the well-being of you and your time. By finding solutions to common problems and educating others, you can make world a better place. When business owners get involved in the local community and with non-profit organizations, they build a positive reputation and lift others up in the process.   Guest Bio- Dr. Richard Shuster is a dad of two and an entrepreneur focused on educating parents and teachers alike on how to help children reach their true potential. He is the founder of The Daily Helping podcast and the creator of Every Kid Rock, a non-profit organization that will soon be launched and has as a purpose of helping schools with funds to dedicate to children who need extra care. You can win an hour of coaching with Dr. Richard Shuster by entering his monthly contest for free at https://www.thedailyhelping.com/contest/

Building a business and maintaining a growing family at the same time might sound scary, but it can also help you prioritize the things that truly matter. Is having less time an opportunity to set boundaries for your clients? What happens when you have a long waiting list yet you no longer have that much time? How can having a family teach you what’s actually your time worth? On this episode, Joe Sanok shares how his family helped him find his purpose.   Setting boundaries around what’s best for my family not only was fine for my business, but I actually felt more alive because I was just working the nights I wanted to. -Joe Sanok 3 Things We Learned From This Episode   How having children can teach you to set boundaries in your business (01:10-02:03)   Having a new member in your family can teach you how to make room for family time. Suddenly, it’s easier to say no to your clients and set boundaries when you know there’s someone at home who you need to spend more time with.   2 . Know what your time is worth (02:30- 03:29)   Having a family teaches you what your time is worth, because out of the blue, you won’t have that much time anymore. If you have a long waiting list, raise your rates. This way, you will make more money while working less.   How to cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit in your children  (09:30-10:40)   The liberty of making decisions, having to deal with the consequences, and making mistakes is the best way to teach your children about entrepreneurship. Building a business is all about making decisions, stepping out of line, taking huge risks, and having to deal with the consequences.   In business, focusing on the right strategies and tactics can determine how fast we grow and how happy we are with our life. We only have so much time to implement and try new things, but when we force ourselves to do more in a smaller period of time, we force ourselves to prioritize. As a result, we only do the things that we know will bring revenue.     Guest Bio- Joe Sanok is the father of two beautiful girls, a mental wellness counselor with over 7 years of experience, and an entrepreneur. He helps small private practice businesses grow and scale, even when on a budget.  If you want to find out more, check out his video on how to start a private practice business for only $200.

Entrepreneurs often speak about freedom, but few manage to achieve it. How can you gain your free time back as a business owner? How does working less affect your business mindset? How can you block negative or doubtful thoughts? In this episode, Rich Brooks shares how he made time for his two daughters while leading a business.   There is nothing keeping you from making that choice of spending more time with your kids. -Rich Brooks   3 Things We Learned From This Episode   Set a schedule that gravitates around the things you care about the most (04:06)   From the beginning, it’s important to set your schedule around your family. This way, it’s easier in the future to make time for the important events in your children’s lives. One of the advantages of being an entrepreneur is that even though you might work more than a 9-5 employee, you can also learn to work less. It is possible to become more productive and be able to take days off to spend with your family.   How working less can lead to smarter hiring decisions (06:00-08:00)   Forcing yourself to make the decision of taking more time off to spend with your family will influence your hiring decisions. You may find yourself more likely to hire people who are self-starters and are capable of getting things done. You’ll see the value of employees who can come up with new ideas and bring more revenue to your company without you having to be there all the time.   How to block negative thoughts (23:56- 25:00)   Anyone who is successful struggles with some self-doubt. Reframing and meditation can help you block the inner critic and enjoy life as it is.   When you are working less, you are forced to become more productive and find people who don’t require much guidance. As a parent and a business owner, it’s crucial to find self-starters and people who can come up with new ways to make your business grow. If you want to make more money while working less, you have to find people who are willing to go the extra mile for their success and, ultimately, yours.   Guest Bio- Rich Brooks is a digital marketing & social media consultant, author, and the founder of flyte new media & The Agents of Change. He’s been leading a company for over 20 years, and along the way he’s produced content and managed for Social Media Examiner. You can find out more about Rich at https://www.takeflyte.com/about/staff.

Becoming a parent changes a lot about our lives-- including our businesses. How does being a dad impact the dynamic of how you interact with your business? What can our children learn from our work? How do we build an amazing family oriented work culture and a thriving business at the same time? On this episode, Tailwind CEO and co-founder Danny Maloney shares how being a father evolved his business and himself. And how he co-built an exploding business that keeps adapting to an ever-changing industry.   There are so many issues in the world with equity and gender gaps. I want to expose my daughter to as many of those concepts as possible so she’ll be prepared to live whatever life she wants to live when she gets older. -Danny Maloney   3 Things We Learned From This Episode   1. Parenthood helps you focus your priorities (11:59 - 13:08) Being a parent while being an entrepreneur forces you to be more intentional with your time. You have to focus on the things that are most important and avoid distractions or time sinks. You might find yourself delegating more. The best thing you can do is focus on the things where you can add unique value.   2. Putting family first also benefits your whole company (13:39 - 14:26) If you create a company culture where family is important, it filters through to the actions people take in the business. They will be happy to take up the slack when your family needs you.   3. Never give up on creating your own business. Tailwind wasn't Danny and his business partner's first business. They talk about how the first business didn't work, what they learned and how Tailwind was born and grew. Knowing you want to create something amazing in the world and solve valuable problems, all while being your own boss is the true entrepreneurial dream, so never give up.   It’s also important to remember that our entrepreneurship can have a tremendously positive impact on our children’s development. It exposes them to responsibility, accountability, creativity and problem-solving skills in a huge way. Sharing the skills and tools that help you to be successful in business can also help you raise smart, creative kids.   Guest Bio- Danny Maloney is an entrepreneur who loves to help improve lives and careers with technology. He’s the CEO & Co-founder of Tailwind, a service that helps manage your visual marketing on platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram. Go to http://Boss-Mom.com/tailwind to learn more!

For a long time, companies were seen as machines that could be tweaked to improve their performance. However, this approach has failed to take the human element into consideration. How can we see a company as a living organism instead of a machine? Why is personal development so important? And how can we help a low-performing team grow? In this episode Jon Berghoff, the CEO of Flourishing Leadership Institute, speaks about how we can make our employees happier and more productive. The thing you miss when we treat everything like a machine is the humanity. -Jon Berghoff   3 Things We Learned From This Episode Personal development is the key to business success  (03:36-05:50) Our income will never exceed our personal development. The more we work on ourselves, the higher the chances of success. Life doesn’t get easier, but our coping skills can get better. Think of your business as a living organism,   (13:01-15:00) The people are the most important element of any business. Think of yours as a living organism where each part is connected and dependent on other parts. Teach your team everything you know (10:00-12:30 ) We are often impatient when it comes to reaching our goals, and sometimes we can feel slowed down by our own team. Still, in the long-term, it’s harder to do everything by yourself. Make sacrifices now and invest your time in teaching your team everything you know. It might take longer, but you won’t have to do all the work yourself in the future.   It’s important for us to embrace the human element of our businesses. Investing in our team’s development can have significant returns. It’s hard to grow if there are only a few people aware of how the system works. Plus, our employees want to feel productive and valuable to the company. And the best thing we can do for ourselves and them is to share our knowledge.   Guest Bio- Jon Berghoff is the co-founder of Flourishing Leadership Institute and the executive educator at Weatherhead School of Management. He previously worked as a national sales manager at Vitamix, where he had massive success, and now he uses his knowledge to teach others to become accomplished by holding the Best Year Ever events. If you have any questions, you can contact him at hello@leadflourish.com

Loving ourselves, finding the will to change, and chasing our goals can all be achieved if taken step by step. How do we find the will to change when we don’t love ourselves enough to believe we can do it? Why shouldn’t we dwell on the past or make predictions about the future? And why does everyone around us seem to be so negative? In this episode, Bryan Falchuk talks about how he fought obesity and disease in his family while finding the power to be a good father and a supportive husband despite the hardships. You can't move your life forward if you don’t think you deserve it and are capable of it. -Bryan Falchuk   3 Things We Learned From This Episode Without your “big why”, you won’t make a big change (08:20:09:40) Finding your “big why” is not always about your desires and needs. Sometimes it’s about helping others. Even if you are the type who puts others first, you need to be a healthy human being both physically and mentally in order to be effective for others. The dangers of being trapped in the past and being fearful of the future (15:13-17:00) Traumatic experiences can trap you between the pain and loss of yesterday and the fear that everything will repeat itself again tomorrow. Since you can’t predict the future, there’s no reason to play a pessimistic scenario in your head, as it might never happen. You’ll end up wasting your energy on something that only happened in your imagination. Society rewards negativity  (17:40-19:00) Many people refuse compliments and spend their time talking only about how bad their bosses are and how hard they work without being rewarded. Negativity is part of society and we spend too much time focusing on what’s going wrong with our lives.   The building blocks of an accomplished life are finding your true motivation, setting meaningful goals, and loving yourself. You have to ask the right questions about why you feel the way you feel about yourself, what would motivate you to do more, and what realistic goals make you excited. Your first answers will probably be wrong, but they will give you a direction. It takes time and a lot of introspection to find out the root of your suffering as well as what you can change to make you happy.   Guest Bio- Bryan Falchuk is a best-selling author and life coach. He has been featured in publications like Inc Magazine, Chicago times, and LA Times, and he has been invited to share his story on over 100 radio shows and podcasts. His first book, Do a Day, has received several 5 stars ratings from authoritative publications and won the Literary Titan’s Silver prize. Bryan is also the host of Do a Day podcast and can be contacted at http://www.bryanfalchuk.com/#contact. Find him on social media http://www.twitter.com/bryanfalchuk http://www.instagram.com/bryanfalchuk  http://www.facebook.com/bryanfalchuk.

Showing gratitude changes lives, and it could change your business as well. What is genuine gratitude, and how do we show it? Why do people care about our “why”? How can sending cards grow your business? In this episode, John Israel talks about how he made showing gratitude central to his business. People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it. -John Israel   3 Things We Learned From This Episode Make time for your friends and family (07:00-09:00) As a business owner, you make the decision of how many hours you’re going to work. Don’t wait too long to enjoy the relationship you have with your kids and family. Gratitude is powerful  ( 16:00-17:00) Gratitude not only makes people feel appreciated in your personal life, but it also builds loyalty in your clients. Mailing cards to your clients can help you lower the cancellation rate and build long-term relationships. Daily habits build the business  ( 25:00-27:00) You create the security in your business by cultivating habits that attract and retain clients. Put together a plan and set aside some time every day to cultivate a habit that will constantly improve your marketing and customer retention. Showing gratitude is easy, and it can change lives. Invest a bit of time every day in showing gratitude to those who deserve it. Most people are never thanked for their hard work, and you never know how you can touch someone deeply just by saying the right words at the right time. Cards can also be used to show your database that you care about them and appreciate their loyalty.   Guest Bio- John Israel is the Chief Gratitude Officer at Mr. Thank You. His goal is to elevate the level of gratitude by 1% and help people express their good thoughts towards others via send out cards. Over the years, he has attracted the attention of various media outlets, including Fox News, NBC, Good Morning America, and MarthaStewart.com. If you want to get started using send out cards but you don’t know how, join the 30-day send out card challenge.

Our parents shape the way we see the world around us, and they can also teach us lessons that are applicable to our businesses. How can we help our children get a better understanding of the world around them? What’s the best way to pass on the lessons we’ve learned? And why is it so important to allow kids to help us with smaller tasks? In this episode, I talk about the lessons I’ve learned from both my biological father and stepfather about life and business.   If you want a consistency of income in your business, then create a consistency of habit. -Dana Malstaff   3 Things We Learned From This Episode   Why we should let our children see what we do for a living (03:40-05:00)   Bringing our children to work doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Our children can learn about responsibility by helping us do a few small tasks. At the end of the day, we teach them that their work is valued and appreciated from an early age.   Why people and numbers are the pillars of every business (06:00-07:00)   Running a business is all about being in touch with the right people and knowing your numbers. You need to track everything in order to know how many people you need to talk to, what your conversion rate is, and how much work you have to put in to reach a certain number.   Kill your “darlings” (07:40-09:20)   We often have to kill our ideas and start all over again. It could be the way we write or the fact that we use too much jargon. Whatever we do, it has to be in line with what our audience expects and wants from us, not what we want.   The most important lessons our children learn from us aren’t necessarily the ones we intend to teach them, but the ones they get from experience. Allowing them to hang around us and giving them small tasks to take care of makes them feel useful and valuable. Our children want to spend time with us and imitate us, and what better way to prepare them for adult life than by allowing them to lend a helping hand?

Being an entrepreneur requires sacrifice, and we may often that sacrifice may include time spent with our families. How can we be both successful in our business and intentional about how we spend time with our families? What are the three golden rules for spending quality time with our kids? In this episode, Jim Sheils talks about why it is difficult for business people to find work-life balance and what can be done about it.  Rhythimize your life around highest priorities and the people of most importance in your life.-Jim Sheils   3 Things We Learned From This Episode    Create a rhythm that serves your highest priorities  (09:50-11:00)   If we find it ridiculous to ignore one of our biggest clients, why do we stop nurturing the relationships we have with our family? Aren’t the people we love even more important than our clients? We need to create rhythms around our highest priorities and the people who we care about.   Spend time one-on-one with the people you love (18:50 -20:00)  Make time for the people you love because this is how relationships are strengthened. It prevents rivalries between siblings, and your spouse will be glad to enjoy more dates or other quality time together.   Schedule everything, including your personal life (20:15-21:00)  Everything should go into our calendar—our self-love time and family time. Otherwise, it’s easy to find excuses and say we’re too busy at the moment. We have to prioritize our family.   When we are spending time with our family, we must remember to not just be there physically, but to also be mentally present. Be involved. There are three rules when it comes to spending time with your kids: no electronics, let them pick the activity, and put aside some time for reflection and focus. At the end of the day, you don’t have to spend money on expensive vacations to be with your family. Just be involved and show caring in your interactions.   Guest Bio- Jim Sheils is a speaker, author, consultant, and the founder of Crazy Glue. His belief is that nothing is more important than the relationships we build during our lifetimes. And our success as entrepreneurs can keep us away from the people we cherish the most. He talks about this in his book The Family Board Meeting: Is Business Success Hurting Your Family? Jim also helps busy entrepreneurs via one-one coaching and team consulting. You can find more about it here.

Podcasting can be an effective way to build an audience and spend time with our loved ones. How can it help us build relationships with the people we would like to work with? How can we establish ourselves as experts in our niche by associating ourselves with other experts? How do we share information that gets remembered by our audience? In this episode, Pat Flynn talks about how podcasting can be a powerful tool in both our personal and business lives. Even if you start from scratch, a podcast is a great way to build an audience. -Pat Flynn   3 Things We Learned From This Episode   Podcasting can help us develop a better understanding of what our audience needs (13:30- 15:10)Podcasting is a great way to achieve clarity on what our audience wants before we launch products or services. It also helps us with our branding efforts. If we have time and need exposure, podcasting can be a great way to build our business and brand. Tactics and strategies are more memorable when told in the context of a story (19:00-20:00)People are more likely to remember what we say when we use a story or put a quirky fact next to it. When we interview our guests, it’s important that we don’t just ask questions about how they succeeded, but also talk about their background story as well Each podcast should have an end goal (20:10- 22:00) Having a goal in the back of our mind helps us set the tone of our podcast. We need to know from the beginning what we want to achieve so each episode is not just a shot in a dark, but a step closer to a goal.   A podcast can be a great way to get a better idea of what our audience really wants, to get more exposure, or even to capture moments with our kids. Podcasting also provides us with clarity and the freedom of playing with multiple points of view. It’s easier to serve our audience when we have this avenue to know what they want. Podcasting enables us to better understand the people we want to serve, and ultimately start a conversation with them.   Guest Bio- Pat Flynn is an entrepreneur, blogger, and podcast host. He is best known for his website Smart Passive Income, where he shares tactics and the results of his business experiments. Last year, Pat was on the list of 25 Marketing Influencers to watch in 2017 by Forbes, and his podcast has consistently ranked in the top 10 on iTunes in the business category.Recently, he started All Of Your Beeswax, a podcast about business for parents and kids, with his 8-year old son, Keoni.

Many of us reach a point in our lives where we aren’t happy, even despite making money. We may have financial power, but no time for ourselves and our families. How can we create more opportunities for ourselves that don’t make us slaves to our work? What are the three levels of income generation? What are the steps we can take to get paid for “being”? In this episode, Michael Koenigs talks about financial freedom and the how to reach the highest level of income generation.   Knowing isn't enough. Doing isn't enough. At some point, you get paid for being. -Michael Koenigs Things We Learned From This Episode The chaos around us impacts our business  (10:30-13:00) The biggest enemy of productivity and growth is the noise around us. We have to eliminate the chaos in our heads in order to get things done. Chaos can come in many forms, including stress, comparing ourselves with others, family issues, etc. We have to understand that creating order in our lives comes first. Without it, we’ll always run at half capacity.   Opportunities come when we’re ready for them (13:21-15:28) We can’t create opportunities for ourselves when we don’t have the necessary skills, or when we aren’t in the right place. When we work for people who don’t appreciate us or fail to spend enough time on our personal growth, there’s no room for greater opportunities. One of the best ways to attract success is to think about the conditions under which we’re most likely to thrive and be appreciated.   The more we ask, the more we receive  (28:00-30:20)How much we ask sometimes limits our capacity for receiving more. Many of us fear of upping our rates, not being aware of how much value we bring to the table. There are many clients out there who find value in what we offer. If we don’t at least try to negotiate our rates, we’ll never receive more.   There are three levels on which we get paid. Anyone who gets paid by the hour is a “doer”. The next level is getting paid by “expertise”. Expertise has a ceiling as well, as there’s only so much value it can bring. The highest level is getting paid by “being”. A good example of this level are athletes who manage to make an income even after retiring— people who use their influence and brand to generate income just because of who they are as a person. In the online environment, influencers are a good example of being paid by "being".   Guest Bio Michael Koenigs’ passion and obsession as Chief Disruptasaurus of You Everywhere Now is helping business owners get attention, get found, seen, heard, watched & read on any device, anytime, anywhere & on demand so that they can start and grow profitable businesses, become bestselling authors, highly-paid coaches, consultants and advisors, in-demand speakers and information marketers. Mike is an 13-time #1 bestselling author, international speaker, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, filmmaker and patented inventor. An active philanthropist, Mike has raised over $2.4mm for the “Just Like My Child” foundation.

Building a business isn’t always about the money. It’s about having the freedom to do what we love, surround ourselves with people we actually like, and spend more time with our families. How can we teach our children that their passions aren’t something they should only do in their free time? Why is accountability so important when we get started? How can we increase our income by teaching others to reach the same level of success we have? In this episode Lou Mongello talks about how he left his law practice and followed his passion to write about Disneyland.   We become magnets for the kind of people we want to attract. - Lou Mongello   3 Things We Learned From This Episode   What we love to do can become financially viable  (11:15- 12:15) Many of us were raised with the notion that we should get an education, graduate, get a job, and do what we love only after finishing work. That’s if we have any time left for the things we love. But by building our businesses, we teach our children that we can take what we love and turn it into what we do for a living. Building a business gives us the freedom to choose who we surround ourselves with (12:30-14:00) Choosing to work on our passion leads to having better control over who we surround ourselves with. The people around us can either give us wings or deplete our energy. The difference between the two is important.   There are many people out there who want to find out how we did it (18:00-19:40) One of the most valuable things we as entrepreneurs can do is share our knowledge with others. Not only because it’s a win-win situation for us as coaches and for our students, but also because building a business can be a lonely journey.   The best way to start our own business journey is to have someone who keeps us accountable. As parents, it’s easy to fall into the trap of having too many things to do, and when we do have to start working on our business, we get anxious because of the massive amount of work that needs to get done. However, there is a remedy for this: experimenting with a realistic schedule. We should find out what we can and can’t do within a day, and celebrate each win.   Guest Bio- Lou Mongello is a speaker, coach, author, entrepreneur, podcaster, and Disney expert. He’s been featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Boston.com, VentureBeat, and many other media outlets. He also helps other business owners follow their passions and turn their what they love into what they do for a living with his branding business. You can find more about Lou here.

For busy working parents, going to the gym isn’t exactly the easiest thing to fit into our schedules. However, we can still get in a workout without leaving the house. Why is virtual training such a great new way for entrepreneurs to stay fit, and why is it something very few people know about? How does virtual training help us stay accountable to our fitness goals? On this episode, virtual personal trainer Jeff McMahon shares on how he started his business, and why this type of training is so great for entrepreneurs. The accountability is the main thing a virtual trainer offers, along with convenience. -Jeff McMahon   Things We Learned From This Episode How Jeff connected with influencers (04:59 - 06:05) Training Pat Flynn for free, for a year, was a strategy to get a powerful testimonial and to connect to other influencers and entrepreneurs looking for a great personal trainer. It may not have brought in business instantly, but it did pay off in the long-run.   The biggest problem virtual training solves (06:29 - 07:43) Going to the gym is not complicated, but people are often too busy to make it happen. At the same time, working out on our own lacks the accountability that takes us to the next level. A virtual trainer solves this problem very well.   Why a virtual trainer helps us know more about our body (12:48 - 13:13) Most people don’t know how to listen to their bodies, and it's often unclear where to look for reliable information and guidance. A virtual personal trainer represents a wealth of knowledge, and an understanding of how to apply that knowledge to your needs and goals.   A lot of moms and dads spend their time putting everyone else first, to the point that they start neglecting themselves. The truth is, we’re only hurting everyone else because they don’t get to see us at 100% happiness. A virtual personal trainer can make it easier for us to take that time for self-care, while helping us to reach or maintain our fitness goals with better consistency than we could on our own.   Guest Bio Jeff is the founder of Total Body Construction and a virtual fitness trainer to the stars. He works with online entrepreneurs looking to maximize their health for their business by allowing them to workout at home and get right back into their day to day tasks. He holds people accountable and make working out convenient.  Go to http://tbc.fit for a free assessment and to http://tbc.fit/bootcamp/ to find out more about the bootcamp training.

It’s so easy to hate the hard moments we’ve had in our lives, but there’s so much value in what we get out of them. Why is it important that we don’t immediately try to reframe the adversity we face? How does embracing the adversity in our lives actually change us for the better? On this episode, author of Crucible’s Gift: 5 Lessons from Authentic Leaders Who Thrive in Adversity, Dr. James Kelley talks about his journey, his book and why the painful moments in our lives help us grow, become more self-aware and treat people better. When you have your “crucible moment” and you pull it apart, learn to love it, and you find the good, you’re actually developing your self-awareness. -Dr. James Kelley   Things We Learned From This Episode How James grew from his own crucible (06:11 - 07:29) James lost his dad at 20, which led to some difficult moments including a drinking problem which culminated in a DUI. The DUI forced him to reevaluate his life, figure out what hole he was filling with alcohol, and learn that honesty and addiction don’t go together.   The lessons from the loss take time to reveal themselves (21:45 - 23:05 ) A crucible is never a catalyst in the moment. If the crucible is a gift and it’s wrapped, then you have to unpack it and figure out what that pain is about. It’s not about reframing something in the moment because that’s more denial than healing. The healing won’t happen in the timeframe you want it in and that’s okay.   Why we shouldn’t rush the process of developing something  (24:32-  25:01 ) The process of developing an idea may not be perfect, but it is necessary and valuable. It’s never about that first idea, it’s about talking to someone about that first idea that spurs on the next set of ideas, and gets us to THE idea.   It’s easy to find the bad in in adversity, but the real gold is in seeing the good in it. We have to have our adversity moments, and we have to love them and live them, pull them apart and figure out what the good is in them. Leaders that embrace their adversity, grew their self-awareness, started to act with compassion because their adversity made them understand people better. This doesn’t just make us better in business, it makes us better in life as whole.   Guest Bio Dr. James Kelley is a professor of marketing at the United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, Dubai, the host of the Executives After Hours podcast, and the author of The Crucible’s Gift: 5 Lessons from Authentic Leaders Who Thrive in Adversity. The book is based on interviews with 140+ executives, from Fortune Two companies to entrepreneurs and everything in between. The book unpacks the journey a leader takes to become a more authentic leader, starting with their crucible moments as the springboard. Go to https://www.drjameskelley.com/ for more information. Get a free chapter of the book and companion worksheet here https://www.drjameskelley.com/.

Getting speaking engagements is a big deal for entrepreneurs because it does amazing things for our reach. How does speaking solve many issues in the space of lead generation and marketing? What does it take for us to build a system that leads us to the stage and also allows us to scale past it? How do we figure out what our ideal stage is? On this episode, Pete Vargas shares his amazing story of entrepreneurship and fatherhood, as well as how we can use speaking to generate new customer acquisitions with a predictable system. A dream stage is defined by the majority of the people in the audience being your ideal client. -Pete Vargas Things We Learned From This Episode  1. The moment Pete fell in love with the stage and saw the power of speaking (07:26 - 09:47) After having a difficult relationship with his father for years, Chris became a youth minister. His ministry helped a lot of people through counseling and great speakers. There was one particular speech and message that caused Pete to experience a turnaround. His relationship with his father was healed because of that message that was the day, and Pete became passionate about the stage.   2. How to speed up the sales cycle (22:54 - 24:16) All business owners have to one-on-one conversations with potential clients, so why not turn that into one-to-many conversations through the stage? Instead of talking to one person and dealing with a long sales cycle, we can create a talk that is phenomenal, drives content home, and delivers the message to hundreds of people. This can expedite the sales cycle significantly.   3. Why being good on stage is only one third of the whole game (24:57 - 27:17)   There are 3 things that go into making sure being great on the stage translates to more business: being good at the speaking, getting ourselves to the stage, and then scaling past the stage. All three of these need to be dialed in for it to work.   There’s no question that being on stage will advance our businesses. People are buying from people they trust. Considering that the online space is crowded and people are craving real connections with the people they buy from, getting in a room with people and having their undivided attention is so powerful. There’s so much value in having a face and a story to tell, creating trust, helping people and being impactful. If we want to create that killer talk, we have to think about more than the stage. We must consider the systems around what we do and the products we sell. We have to build our talks based on the steps we take to move our clients from ordinary to extraordinary.   Click Here for Pete's FREE gift of the 1-Hour Launch Workshop!   Guest Bio Pete Vargas is an entrepreneur who helps people grow their businesses and spread their message through stages. He is the founder and CEO of Advance Your Reach, an organization with a shared vision of impacting 1 billion people across 7 spheres of influence. Since 2003, he and his team have booked over 25,000 stages worldwide–and generated tens of millions of dollars of revenue through those stages. Pete has booked legendary speakers including Ryan Deiss, and Shark Tank’s Daymond John. He’s also shared stages with titans such as Michael Phelps, Robert Cialdini, Howie Mandel, and Brendon Burchard. Pete believes that your Signature Talk is the most powerful marketing tool you have and that stages are the fastest way to grow your business. Pete is the expert in knowing what to say on stage, how to identify and win the right stages, and how to scale the stage–generating revenue and impact. Through years of testing, he’s perfected the “Stage to Scale” system that helps speakers, entrepreneurs, financial advisors, service providers, nonprofits, small business owners and many others land speaking engagements and leverage stages to grow their businesses and organizations. Go to advanceyourreach.com/bossdad for more information.

In a world that’s become so hyper-virtual, people still want a face-to-face, in-real-life experience that inspires them and gives them memorable moments. How did Michael Stelzner lean into this and build social media’s most well-known conference? Why is it so important to focus on doing less things, excellently, over more things done moderately? How do we balance the love and passion we have for our businesses with being there for our kids? On this episode, Social Media Examiner and Social Media Marketing World founder, Michael shares on his Boss Dad journey. If you’re doing too many things, you’ll accomplish nothing. If you do a few things with excellence, you can accomplish more than you could ever imagine. -Michael Stelzner   3 Things We Learned From This Episode How the internet revolutionized marketing (05:59 - 08:02) Before the internet, marketing was about physical things you mail to people. It was all about packaging physical products like brochures. For a brand to reach the masses, they had to put out costly ads in magazines and publications. The internet completely changed this and even replaced some industries.   Balancing time with our kids and our passion for our businesses (10:30 -11:16) A lot of entrepreneurial dads weren’t there during the formative years for their kids. Even when they are there, they sometimes misplace the love and put more into the business than the children. It’s important to find a way to keep the love we have for our children and our business in balance so our kids don’t get only bits and pieces of us.   Cultivating entrepreneurialism in our children (16:14-16:29) As our kids get older and take on different hobbies and interests along the way, we have to let them discover who they want to be and just support them.      In our businesses, we are the tip of the spear. That means as we move through the air we have to observe, learn, and make sure we land in the right place. Everything we do has to have a strategy and a purpose, even if it means doing less and cutting things down to make what we have excellent.   Guest Bio- Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner, author of the books Launch and Writing White Papers, and the man behind Social Media Marketing World–the industry’s largest conference. He’s also host of the Social Media Marketing podcast, founder of the Social Media Marketing Society, and the central character in The Journey, an episodic documentary. For more information go to https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com  and for the podcast go to https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/shows/.   To watch the show, go to http://journey.show (Michael suggests that you start at s02e02). To register for the 2019 Social Media Marketing World, go to https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld/register/.

As business owners, the most work we do is cutting through the noise so that our audience can find us. Why is podcast one of the best ways to go from unknown to trusted expert? What are the things that determine whether a podcast marketing strategy can actually succeed and have predictable results? Why are podcasts the best marketing opportunity for introverts? On this episode, Interview Valet founder, Tom Schwab shares his Boss Dad journey and why every entrepreneur should be leveraging podcast interviews. Instead of trying to break through the noise, which adds to the noise most of the time, why not get in on the conversation they’re already listening to? -Tom Schwab   Things We Learned From This Episode 1. The power of podcasts in relationship-building (08:43 - 09:34 ) Podcast interviews aren’t just transactional, they can be a platform for long-term relationship we can have with the host and listeners, and many times that is the biggest opportunity.   2. How podcasting helps us refine our message (12:36 - 13:38 ) When we are new in business and still a little nervous about our message, podcast interviews actually give us a chance to become more comfortable telling our stories and test out the message while we still get exposure. By repeating our stories they become more refined, and this gives us confidence to tell more stories as we grow.   3. Why podcasting is perfect for introvert entrepreneurs  (15:29 - 16:09 ) The podcast is the greatest place to hide behind as an introvert. You can be in the comfort of your own home or office, and you can open up just enough without being overwhelmed by being in front of a large crowd.   The definition of an expert is someone who knows more through training, education or life experience than the average person. When it comes to our businesses and what we do, we are all experts and we all have stories to tell to the right listener. That makes us great candidates for podcast interviews, and gives our businesses a massive opportunity to connect with people. What makes people succeed in podcasting is message, marketing and machine and if one of these is weak, the whole strategy will be weak. Have a story to tell and not just a product to sell, be targeted and focus about the opportunity and make sure your website and social media actually proves that you’re an expert.   Guest Bio Tom Schwab knows how to build an online business. Marketing at its heart is starting a conversation with someone who could be an ideal customer. Drawing on his engineering, corporate, and ecommerce inbound marketing experience, Tom helps thought leaders (coaches, authors, speaker, emerging brands) get featured on leading podcasts their ideal prospects are already listening to. Then, he helps them to turn listeners into customers. Go to https://interviewvalet.com/ for more information or connect with Tom on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasmschwab/.