The Professional Failure Podcast: Recent Episodes

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My story of failure: Not telling a babysitter where I was going.

Mitchell graduated from Evangel University with a bachelor's degree in Business Management. He started with AGCU in 2012 and has served many roles inside the mortgage department, including Loan Officer, Processor, and Underwriter. Before moving to AGCU, Mitchell spent his career helping operate his family's businesses, learning a diverse set of skills that would help him in his roles at AGCU.

Mitchell and his wife, Heather, have lived and worked in Springfield their entire lives. They have six children, Ella, Bentley, Parker, Thatcher, Juniper, and Adalyn. The Swanson Family enjoys outdoor activities, playing games, going to the lake, and spending time with friends and family.

In today’s episode Mitchell talks about:

• falling into lending
• working for his parents
• having someone follow through with him and offer him a position
• taking a pay cut to get his foot in the door
• focusing on lending now
• working for Mitch
• growing up in the business with friends
• great memories of working
• being a part of a small family business
• pushing a broom as a kid in the shop
• coming to basketball practice smelling like strawberry popcorn
• hard work ingrained at a young age
• not eating popcorn for 3-4 years after leaving
• his dad as a mentor and instilling doing the right thing
• taking care of and serving people first, no matter what
• “Even if there’s an easier way, you do the right thing no matter what.”
• Royal Rangers and pinewood derby
• unshaped wood
• building his self confidence at a young age
• Paul Ebbish as a mentor
• Fail forward fast
• being strategic as a small business
• not enough words
• being fortunate to have some direct mentors
• passive mentors
• lunch with more experienced people
• don’t chase the dollars
• growing organically over the last decade
• sharing different perspectives ten years in
• nice to be able to share now
• helping set him apart
• being an overbooked market
• doing the right thing and replicating with others
• buying a house is not a short term deal
• being the highest of integrity through the process
• coming from a family of five kids
• taking care of six high energy kids
• his wife Heather and him wanting four kids in the beginning
• being scared from a physical standpoint to have more kids
• going from fostering to adoption
• never anticipating six children
• the same serving principle translates to home
• being entrusted with children
• the ultimate goal is to be there for his kids
• wild days and making breakfast
• his wife being a champion at home
• worth the stress and hair loss
• the willingness to enter the madness
• driving and listening to podcasts
• pouring in passively
• coming into the industry in 2012
• everyday failures
• humbling in the beginning
• thriving in failures
• seeing rates in the threes
• lenders being overwhelmed
• “There’s no excuses. You grind and figure it out.”
• being forced to look into the process
• sharpening himself through the process
• wouldn’t have grown without the hard work and failures
• some of the sharpest people in the industry
• trying to solve it first and then helping
• unicycle without training wheels
• getting hung up on
• a tough and character building time
• the exciting thing right now in weird economic times
• earning favor and building out a team
• the fun of watching a team succeed
• hard to imagine where he is now
• something he needs to work on
• like to look back and see that he hasn’t lost his roots
• giving back like he was given
• finished building their house
• the excitement of a new home
• enjoying what God’s created and 1/4 mile walks
• continuing the dating pattern and growing together
• sparking a love for traveling
• a podcast with kids

Mitch Swanson - LinkedIn

www.agcu.com

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My story of failure: Getting a hernia from lifting weights in high school.

About Rachel Cooper: Sharing all amazon finds that I love and think you would as well. From fitness equipment, to health and wellness items, and all things in between. Follow me to catch my livestreams here on Amazon for interactive demonstrations and live workouts!

In today’s episode Rachel talks about:

• living an unhealthy lifestyle
• making the shift to eating healthy
• wanting to expand and change to an online presence
• Amazon Live
• comparing to QVC
• seeing the product being used in real time
• starting from sheer vanity
• operating her business out of a country club
• “When your physical health aligns, you want everything to align.”
• the main ways to make money through Amazon Live
• water bottle example
• shopping from an Amazon carousel
• videos and creators
• passive income is not so passive
• her cousin being a mentor early on and to this day
• story of failure about starting a YouTube documentary
• working with a filmmaker for future profits
• being ghosted by a filmmaker
• why it’s good to go for things
• getting kicked down and pivoting
• being consistent
• why it’s about pressing forward
• what’s the alternative?
• working on her own website
• building your business off the back of another platform
• renting vs. owning
• affiliate marketers and why they’re successful
• www.rachelreviewsitnow.com
• the flow of website traffic
• SEO and email marketing
• what she does with free products
• not promoting products she doesn’t use
• what she hopes for RC Fitness
• personal and group training via Zoom and in person
• Zoom training sessions
• training in an affluent community
• the convenience of training online
• the limits to training online
• multiple categories of Amazon Live
• getting into Amazon Live Program
• more about engagement than followers
• the success of live streaming in China
• why we’re intrigued by what other people are doing
• a huge audience makes for a big profit
• RCfitness.nyc
• why she does free live workouts on Amazon Live
• genius marketing
• buying a dumbbell set and watching previous videos

www.RCfitness.live

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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My story of failure: Backing my parents SUV into our pastor’s truck.

Emily K. Louis is a worthiness coach, wife, mother, and host of the Abundance Grace Podcast! Emily helps people confidently be themselves! She wants people to own their worth so they can stop feeling like they need to be strong and have it all together. She offers individual and group coaching.

In today’s episode Emily talks about:

• an unlikely worthiness coach
• being annoyingly rule following
• the “good” checklist
• growing up under an abusive pastor
• not working to prove her worth anymore
• stepping into what God calls us into
• getting past the pressure
• The Pressure is Off
• trying to handle the question with grace
• grateful for where she is
• mentored in a narrow box
• a church that thought they were the only ones that had it right
• being genuinely afraid of truth
• being safe even though she’s wrong
• finding mentors after almost wanting to quit
• Gretchen H. as a mentor
• borrowing belief from mentors until we own it ourselves
• seeing what God has for someone before they do
• the mental checklist that becomes a task list
• not finding our identity in the place that it should be
• the roller coaster that will burn us out
• Lauren Dangle’s Song You Say
• constantly being aware of turning anything into a checklist
• speaking the Gospel over herself daily
• words having the power of life and death
• recognizing patterns faster
• laying new foundations
• laying a new foundation takes work
• story of mistake setting up childcare
• not having the right support
• the negative thought that came to her head
• owning the mistake but not letting it be a story
• not letting failures mean more than it should
• making failures lighthearted
• complimenting yourself for trying
• “If beating yourself up was going to help you succeed, it would have worked already.”
• goal to be on a TedX Stage
• growing the Abundance Grace podcast
• having four littles at home
• perfecting what she already has
• downplaying your hard and it not being healthy
• praying for God to expand our capacity
• the trap of comparison
• comparing other people’s hard
• easily bypassing our emotions
• her struggle a couple of weeks ago
• texting two people and sharing what was hard
• which one do I text? Why not both?
• we are worth taking care of
• how does Emily recharge?
• Sabbath being important and why it’s profound that it’s the tenth commandment
• remembering
• setting aside time and creating margin
• going for long walks, talking to God, and journaling
• not liking to be boxed in
• The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner
• why she loves connecting with people
• the podcast not being her identity

Abundance Grace Podcast

Instagram @emily.abundantgrace

www.emilyklouis.com/professionalfailure

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My story of failure: Hitting a tree with a baseball bat and killing it.

Clayton Rothschild is an entrepreneur from Springfield, MO. He is very interested in the creative destruction and disruptive effect technology has on everyday life. His favorite topics are those that are perhaps undergoing the most disruption: accessibility, economics, consumer behavior, and regulation.

He is passionate about product development. He is also the co-founder and co-owner of CloudPano, the standard in 360º virtual tour software. CloudPano has been seen on Redfin and Zillow, and has clients across the globe.

In today’s episode Clayton talks about:

• why we failed at the in person interview
• Clayton’s back problem in last podcast attempt
• training for his first marathon
• co-foundng CloudPano
• virtual tour software
• expanding the CloudPano concept to other industries
• working tech consulting
• making his first website in 4th grade
• serving Fortune 500 companies
• hustles that didn’t hit
• the story of the Baylor Information project
• story of Corpus Cristi Roofing leads
• loving that Clayton took a chance and went after a project
• why it’s about executing well
• building a communications platform for frats and sororities
• building a fake honor society
• what a 21 year old is expected of early on
• a bias toward action
• sharpening your axe
• a networking only available to college students
• why startups are able to succeed
• delivering value and innovation faster as a startup
• the obvious answer of a mentor
• his dad and mom being entrepreneurs and teaching him early on
• talking business at the table with his parents
• his mother making a rule at home that business can’t be spoken at the dinner table
• reading The New Yorker and Wall Street Journal as a teenager
• meeting Clayton at a coffee shop
• informal mentorships
• mentored by a manager
• delivering electricity to customers
• putting supply on the grid and forecasting
• trying to become a professional that creates value
• a high degree of responsibility
• learning how to lead and operate teams
• leadership is a balance
• mission first plus discipline
• mentors model
• his business partner as a mentor
• why he can be a little pessimistic
• how a sales person and tech guru can form a great partnership
• cultivating the foil
• why CloudPano’s success is about execution
• 100% sales and 100% product
• bring on the rejection!
• a college student selling Cutco knives during the summer
• perfect code doesn’t fully affect revenue
• basically married to your business partner
• reflecting on failures
• “Where has there been an abject failure in my life?”
• story of starting his career as an accountant and pivoting
• general business literacy of accounting
• making a space website in 7th grade
• starting his first job and realizing that accounting wasn’t for him
• building a transition log
• the last of a generation of corporate employees
• the conviction of entrepreneurship
• having the courage to recognize that your career choice may not be the right thing for you
• restarting his career
• why he grateful for his time as an accountant
• the journey of an entrepreneur
• “Suffering is a huge component of entrepreneurship.”
• story of waking up early and grinding at Starbucks
• “The entrepreneurial journey has many moments of discouragement.”
• making assessments at the weekly or monthly level
• suspending emotion in the day to day
• what does God have in store for me?
• why working out teaches entrepreneurship
• what is Clayton looking forward to
• why he wants acreage and wants to homestead
• okra
• praying with discipline and physical posture
• being ok with the suspense
• it can take a year or two to execute your goals and that’s ok
• having the discipline to say no to other projects

LinkedIn - Clayton Rothschild

www.claytonrothschild.com

www.cloudpano.com

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

See clips from this episode at The Professional Failure YouTube Channel!

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My story of failure: Not correctly tying my shoes and tripping over them.

Dave Snyder is the CEO of CopyPress. His background in SEO, social media, and content marketing led Dave to look for a better way to scale and create content and market it. That search led to the formation of CopyPress. Today CopyPress is one the most trusted content marketplaces online working with brands like Sears, Macy's, Linkedin, Zenefits, and IHG.

In today’s episode Dave talks about:

• getting a creative writing degree
• teaching and starting a website
• doing fantasy sports writing
• learning SEO
• faking it till you make it
• tripling revenue in eight months at 28
• starting his first agency
• building the original blueprint for Copypress
• getting kicked out of Blueglass
• struggling for ten years out of the gate
• being ahead of the market
• penny a word content
• figuring out their niche
• needing time to figure out your identity
• how AI effects businesses
• why AI can’t think of new things
• an inherent issue with capital
• figuring out what products people want
• not letting your eyes fool you
• scaling up but having money issues
• start slow and perfect as you go
• going after the premium market
• having enough humility
• do it, fail, and then do the next thing
• structure chaos and building on what works
• the only reason Dave had a partner in business
• not being the grind guy
• not wanting to let everyone down
• confidence vs survival
• why Dave developed into a good salesman
• being genuine and transparent to a fault
• not trying to sell people
• not a one size fits all solution
• the biggest failure for Dave with cashflow
• cashflow problems
• merchant credit account loans
• predatory loans for businesses
• floating loans revolving for five years
• being concerned with the interest rates and people taking loans
• having to personally guarantee short term loans
• figuring out cash forecasting
• having to cut expenses and getting profitable
• three years to pay down loans
• building his own software to forecast cashflow
• making sense from a risk perspective
• AI not being creative
• AI not creating anything wholly new
• how AI could potentially replace developers
• spammers and AI
• kids using ChatGPT to do homework
• moving apart socially
• some form of this has always existed
• outsourcing tweets and social media to Fiverr
• capitalism will figure itself out
• burst of people doing dumb stuff and then fading out
• the end of social media?
• an exciting time for business owners
• automating tasks
• AI sourcing and plagiarism
• NFT’s and copyrights
• people suing over lack of accessibility
• why you have other cryptocurrencies
• the stability of Bitcoin
• only worth what someone is willing to pay for it
• nothing that keeps Bitcoin from going to zero
• the lack of utility of Bitcoin
• every investment carrying a risk
• FTX and the exchange being gone, and being too wild west
• regulating Ripple and why it would stabilize the market
• why you might as well gamble
• why Dave likes building product
• how he’s going to help his employees grow and make more money
• creating cool product
• giving up social media and why

email: dsnyder@copypress.com

www.copypress.com

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Story of failure: Accidentally killing a baby kitten when I was younger.

Today’s guest is Dr. Chase Kelly!

About Chase:

I am proud to serve my hometown community of Springfield, Missouri, by providing an environment where patients feel safe and where they can trust me as their lifetime dentist. I desire for all of my patients to be excited to visit the dentist and understand the long-term benefits of oral health. My team and I focus on the patient as a whole, and want them to feel we are different from the dental experiences they have had in the past by getting to know the patient as individuals we respect and care for. I believe that listening to our patients and understanding their needs, goals and lifestyles helps my team provide better overall care and achieve better results for our patients.

I spend hundreds of hours each year learning new techniques for patient care related to orthodontics, dental technology and materials, cosmetics, implant dentistry, and team building. When we meet as a team to work on the patient experience, I really feel it brings our team together so we may continue to work better to streamline and make it easy to become a lifelong patient at Kelly Dental.

I achieved my bachelor’s degree from Drury University before attending UMKC School of Dentistry to earn my Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. While in school, and even since graduation, I have spent time teaching other students and dentist techniques related to operative dentistry and dental photography.

In today’s episode Chase talks about:

• why it’s hard to answer questions seriously with Justin
• thought he wanted to be brain surgeon
• why someone directed him to dentistry
• buying a practice from a retiring dentist
• drinking though a firehose
• ignorance was bliss early on
• having a previous dentist as a mentor
• not liking payroll
• why teeth only have one response
• feeling like a fake Doogie Howser
• don’t forget to be yourself
• seeing people you grow up with in professional settings
• patients aren’t a giant tooth walking in the door
• “If people like you, people will keep coming back.”
• why Chase wanted to be a brain surgeon
• connecting circuitry and wires to solve problems
• like the Oscars and Grammys
• why his grandpa was such a big mentor for him
• his grandpa starting in the cotton fields
• trying to keep his grades up
• “If your axe is dull, you just gotta swing harder.”
• story of organic chemistry as a class 40% of you won’t be here tomorrow
• “It’s always easier the second time.” Grandpa Kelly
• his parents being mentors
• seeing a Godly marriage with his parents and how they made it
• not sure how to move forward with his practice and why he paid someone to help them
• having a coach/mentor
• why it’s important to find someone that’s been successful and learn from them
• Chase’s Dentist Episode
• Chase’s story of failure
• the anxiety of dental school
• seeking out mentorship from his family
• growth failures with his practice
• humbling himself down to learn
• leadership failures
• having that gut feeling
• messing up but giving yourself grace and asking for forgiveness
• a mindset of thankfulness after a mistake
• being able to know when you screw up
• “You point the finger, and there’s four fingers pointing back at you.”
• why Justin has disconnected with people in the past
• why you never make it as a leader
• Why President Obama has charisma
• identifying where your flaws are
• how Chase overcomes the discouragement of failure
• giving yourself grace in moments of failure
• the mental toughness of improving
• not loving delegating but needing help
• “When you think you’re a good leader, think about hiring someone that does what you do.”
• filling out the space he currently has
• doubling in the last two years
• why leadership and fear of failure can be intimidating
• wanting someone to stick around
• what Chase is looking forward to telling himself in five years
• getting rid of the golden handcuffs
• why he likes to still ride is bike
• Justin’s mountain biking failure story
• Chase’s favorite places to ride
• why he likes Fellow’s Lake
• why he likes NW Arkansas to ride
• Slaughter Pin trails in Arkansas

www.kelly-dental.com

Instagram - @kelly_dental

The Dental Practice Heros Podcast - Chase Kelly

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Story of failure: Sitting on and breaking my newish pair of sunglasses.

Dr. Rosemarie Downer is a dedicated follower of Christ who aspires to having the closest relationship with Christ possible. Her service in the body of Christ primarily involves teaching and preaching. She also spent well over 30 years serving in youth ministries. Other focus areas in her ministry include women and single adults. As well, she often ministers on issues that address emotional healing and well-being. She counts every opportunity to minister an ultimate privilege from God the Father and does not take it lightly.

She is the founder and former President of BRYDGES (Building Responsible Youth by Delivering Genuine Enrichment Services), over which she functioned as the President for 15 years − 2001 through 2016. She is a published author of The Self-Scarred Church and several parenting handbooks. Additionally, she is the author of a comprehensive ministry development course – Find and Occupy Your Place and the Continuum of Care Youth Ministry Development Handbook.

Dr. Downer served at The U.S. Department of Agriculture as a social science researcher for 20 years and as an adjunct professor at Bowie State University for 24 years. She is now retired from both positions and is currently a private consultant doing grant writing and research and evaluation. In addition, she is doing what she dreamed of doing for years, and that is to write books to edify the body of Christ.

Dr. Downer writes inspirational nonfiction books that are based on the Word of God. Her main reason for writing is to make a permanent record of what our heavenly Father has to say to His people through her pen of a ready writer. Her deepest desire is that the readers’ lives will be transformed as, by faith, they apply the words from the pages of her books.

In today’s episode Dr. Downer talks about:

• first academic book about parenting styles
• first non-fiction book being written in 2009
• having to forgive your offenders
• the mandate of forgiveness
• “Writing is easy, the rest is what’s hard.”
• why it’s never worth telling the story
• skip the story and tell the victory
• her vehicle for healing
• hurt getting in the way of her relationship with the Lord
• obeying the mandate to forgive
• hearing her mother singing at the kitchen sink to God
• crying because she loved the Lord
• asking for Baptism at age 7
• her mom’s strongest message to her
• never being pressured to be married
• when her mom was the proudest
• Evelyn Marshall as a mentor
• Samuel Carson asking her to preach
• on the preaching rotation first woman not ordained
• “if you can teach, you can preach.”
• a lack of understanding of the scriptures
• distinguishing teaching from preaching
• being a passionate person
• teaching is how deep you go into the concepts
• her latest book, D’s and F’s won’t do
• doubt, distraction, discouragement, depression
• frustration, failure, fear
• the sword to put out the fiery darts against us
• setting the foundation and getting it right
• “We have all failed. Just cut out the pride.”
• failure story when she defended her PHD
• why her mom said she needed to go back to Jamaica so she could feed her
• her pet peeve and why cheapen things
• being an overachiever and perfectionist
• too much data, not enough findings
• not knowing how she drove home that day
• waking up in the middle of the night and figured out a way forward
• failure is not final
• “Failure teaches us lessons…don’t overcomplicate it.”
• don’t give in, don’t give up
• “In order to overcome failure, we must be resilient.”
• failure happens to us, not in us
• how do you handle the failure?
• the driving scenario
• you’re going to hit some potholes, sharp turns, and bad weather
• skipping rocks by myself by the lake
• “Failure is supposed to make us stronger.”
• there are no small failures
• failure is failure
• “Failure does not devalue us.”
• Jesus’ mission
• setting her standards really high
• mediocre is not in her vocabulary
• impact is what we’re aiming at
• why are we overcomplicating it?
• what Dr. Downer does in her down time
• why she loves walking trails
• her favorite travel places
• why she loves Israel
• the deep experience for a believer
• doing more conferences and retreats
• starting her next book
• writing two books a year
• topics coming from prayer
• making sure what she writes is inspired by the Lord
• not wanting to minister out her intellect
• wanting to die empty
• why she believes whenever the word of God is dispense, something should change
• why she wants something supernatural to happen

www.booksbyrosemarie.com

Facebook - Dr. Rosemarie Downer

Rosemarie Downer Amazon

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Story of failure: Trying to protect our car from hail damage but getting a bigger dent instead.

Today's guest is Clinton Young! As an Internationally Recognized Professional Speaker and Self-Leadership Expert, I am humbled by the opportunity to positively impact the hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of people from stage.

Through my research, I’ve found that too many people, (even some of the most successful), are moving through life unconsciously, feeling stuck, lacking direction and belief in themselves.

With a mission to inspire an awakening and elevation of consciousness in the world, my keynote speech “Reigniting Your Human Spirit” inspires you to question unexamined assumptions about what’s truly possible and discover limiting beliefs holding you back. Through dynamic storytelling and engaging content, I combine unconventional wisdom gleaned from experience with actionable insights to instill confidence, empowering you to unlock your full potential.

Rather than provide a mere training where participants learn a new technique to implement in their life only to receive an incremental gain, my message allows for a paradigm shift. This shift provides a whole new lens through which to see the world resulting in exponential gains in personal fulfillment and organizational performance.

A recent audience member declared, “You challenged my mind, touched my heart, and inspired my soul”! Another proclaimed, “This is a Message for Humanity!”

With a lofty vision of co-creating a global shift in positive consciousness, I’ve recently spoken to over 50,000 people globally, sharing stages with some of today’s top thought leaders.

It would be my honor to speak for your sales conference, corporation, university, association, entrepreneur group, pro sports team, church group, service club, or network marketing organization, delivering a world-class keynote speech, groundbreaking team building half or full day program, or powerful and intimate leadership retreat.

In today’s episode Clinton talks about:

• full time RV’er and pickle ball coach
• living in a van down by the river
• story of who he is and what his purpose is
• having success as an entrepreneur and then 2008 happens
• losing his business and credit score within 3 months
• seminar leader telling him that he was dead inside
• always followed his intuition and where that lead him
• buying real estate for all the wrong reasons
• thinking that his intuition failed him but what he learned
• black sheep habits
• a Harry Potter lightning bolt
• failing his intuition
• walking in nature and rest
• getting the tingles and following them
• personal growth and development
• feeling very deeply
• sharing the Black Sheep habits
• meditation and closing your eyes
• quieting your mind and being present
• being in three areas
• level of confusion
• contemplating and negative ion exchanges
• allowing thoughts to emerge
• benefits of journaling
• patterns in what you’re writing
• the concept of natural flow
• The Flow Profile
• being in alignment with flow
• grounding and walking on the beach
• visualization and what it does
• story of Michael Phelps and visualization
• winning in your mind
• the most important part of visualization
• finding something that lights them up
• The Discovery Process formula
• story of Clinton being in grad school and cross-cultural studies
• being a psychology geek
• wanting to study overseas
• having a mentor that questioned everything he wanted to do
• talking to anyone that could help him
• “Who do you know that I should talk to about this?”
• “If you want what you want in life, you have to be willing to courageously step into the unknown.”
• within three months, living an working overseas
• having belief that what he thought was possible
• the power of inspiration
• interests turn into passions
• surrounding yourself with people that are ahead of you
• little kid confidence
• Napoleon Hill “The mere thought of a desire is it’s proof that it’s possible for you.”
• universal principals
• “That thought can turn into that thing as long as you believe it’s possible.”
• having to take action
• how he found the RV lifestyle and pickle ball
• sometimes wise people give the wrong advice
• wanting to experience more mobility
• renting a 40 foot RV and falling in love with the RV life
• traveling around the US playing pickle ball
• looking for a way to exercise with his wife and not feel like working out
• story of how he found pickle ball in a dentist chair
• everyone smiling an laughing
• learning to play pickle ball
• Major League Pickleball
• story of the beginning of Pickle Ball 4 Life
• there’s no crying in pickle ball
• why he was crying about pickle ball
• limiting belief of his life being over competitively
• feeling good and helping other people find things that make them feel good
• a catalyst for positive change in the world
• why we need more things for adults to act like kids
• Chicken and Pickle
• Dreamland in Austin, TX

www.clintonyoung.com

Instagram - @clintonspeaks

Facebook - Clinton Young

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Story of failure: Formatting an SD card from a trip to Costa Rica.

Erik Cabral left corporate America after 20+ years. He jumped head first into real estate investing in order to achieve financial freedom. Educating himself, building networks, and analyzing hundreds of deals he purchased his first multi-family building in less than one year. He’s a partner in the Renault Winery & Resort, which is the 2nd oldest winery in the US, offers private capital to his network of investors for various projects and looks for opportunities to expand and grow his network.

Erik is the founder of the media agency, On Air Brands; the innovative networking and podcasting event PodMAX; the real estate investment company Mindado Investment Group; host, co-host, and producer on multiple shows: Entrepreneurs Circle, Capital Hacking, Cashflow Ninja, and VaynerMedia’s Chief Heart Officer Claude Silvers’ show, “Emotional Optimism: Living in the Silver Lining”. With multiple businesses, partnerships, and podcasts Erik is the quintessential “serial entrepreneur” who spends much of his time helping others grow their businesses, brands, and reputation.

Erik loves to share his decades of experience in creative, branding, and marketing strategies as well as helping others leverage the power within the podcasting platform.

Erik sits on the board of a 1,000+ member real estate investor group called SJREIA. He is also a proud member of GoBundance, which is a tribe of millionaires seeking to share all successes, struggles, ambitions, and failures without being judged.

Erik holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and lives in Central NJ, with his wife and two daughters.

In today’s episode Erik talks about:

• celebrating on the 100th episode
• On Air Brands podcasting agency
• being a graphic designer before real estate and podcasting
• two decades of climbing the corporate ladder
• loved getting in the weeds
• scary exciting
• saving along a runway before leaving his job
• assessing his monthly “nut”
• left brain vs. right brain
• Erik’s wife trusting him to succeed in real estate
• could have easily married someone different but lucky to marry his wife
• making the right decisions when it matters
• mentors in the form of managers
• Angelo Ritocco as a mentor
• modeling his management style after a previous mentor
• trial by fire in real estate
• dropping a lot of coin on real estate education
• aligning with whoever was in the front of the room
• squeaky wheel type guy
• local guy named Rick that mentored Erik
• writing deals on napkins during lunch
• Napoleon complex from short managers
• curmudgeon type of men but getting past the hard shell
• certain personality types that lean towards helping people
• you just have to ask
• getting a little cocky and moving on from mentors
• moving towards syndication and larger deals
• how tricky it is to value previous mentors and still move on
• staying in touch with previous mentors
• embrace the “f” word
• shiny object syndrome
• not cool to be unfocused
• not loving real estate, but loving the returns
• liking passive investment
• starting On Air Brands
• clients wanting to interview people he knew
• getting everyone in the same room
• live podcasting events
• assembling a great team
• VaynerMedia starting to pay attention
• Gary V telling Erik he doesn’t have patience and that his product stinks
• Podmax
• not liking a business model and punting on an idea
• Caleb Silver scheduled as next event and cancelling
• so much happening from creating a company that stopped working
• getting into the network of some great people
• trying is better than not trying
• anything is possible, but there are levels of difficulty
• discerning source and experience of advice
• “Oh, this is what focus looks like.”
• making the decision to shift his focus and business model
• letting clients go
• why you’re saying yes a lot in the beginning
• focusing the teams energy on what will grow the company
• GoBundance events taking a lot of time
• knowing what he needs to do and why it’s difficult
• how starting a company can get boring
• doing things that are repetitious and predictable
• putting a book into motion
• the importance of a personal brand
• getting the business to a stable point and not needing him
• building blocks of consistency
• having a weekend fling
• on the fast track to burnout
• four shows every week for a year and a half
• creating something of value
• hearing new stories every podcast
• pod-fading away
• committing in the beginning
• knowing that I needed to do it for a year
• the many benefits of podcasting
• having to spend money to gain experience in the past
• how podcasting helped his speaking skill
• putting the reps in
• reaching milestones in business
• always being vulnerable in business
• learning so much in a previous venture that would catapult to the next thing
• “Diluted focus equals diluted results.” Gary Vaden
• focusing vs. being focused
• less travel and more time at home this year
• something to give

Free Guide Best Tips And Practices For Being a Guest/Host on Podcasts

www.erikcabral.co

Erik Cabral - Instagram

Erik Cabral - Facebook

Erik Cabral - LinkedIn

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Story of failure: Giving the wrong code to an AirBnb guest and locking them out the entire night.

Jake Ingledue is a United States Air Force veteran, entrepreneur, real estate investor, host of The Growth Circle Podcast, and much more! He is originally from Oregon, currently lives in Springfield, MO, and is a self-improvement enthusiast! He’s also a self-proclaimed ‘average dude with above average dreams!’

In today’s episode:

• average dude with above average dreams
• having a podcast and pest control business
• not stressing out paycheck to paycheck
• being in control of his time
• joined the military forces out of high school
• worked with The Reapers in the military
• going on a two-year church mission
• from Oregon
• met a girl on the mission and got married three months after he returned
• going to school to be a dentist but decided not to finish
• door to door pest control sales as a college student
• dropped out of college and started a pest control business
• not currently living the lifestyle he wanted
• owning a job, not a business
• creating systems in order to get back time
• reading about real estate deals in college
• buying a house knowing it would be a rental someday
• thought it would be fun to have a podcast
• getting deeper with conversations and being more vulnerable
• not having many good mentors in the beginning
• good parents but struggled to pay bills
• reading books and books as mentors
• a lot of mentors that don’t know they’re mentors
• having a mentor in your pocket
• the easiness of the way
• listening to a book and reading at the same time
• writing concepts and teaching himself on whiteboards
• Favorite Podcast: Ed Mylett Show
• Favorite Book from 2022: 100 Million Dollar Offers
• sharing mistakes and mishaps is where learning happens
• story of failure: door to door sales
• being a naturally gifted salesman
• a summer leading the way in sales and then losing motivation
• going through a depression state
• “I wish that I would have grinder a little harder.”
• searching for purpose beyond money
• possibly being OCD and thinking through that
• enjoying the ride of entrepreneurship
• the American culture and stigmatism of work ethic
• creating a schedule helps a balanced lifestyle
• “I think you can grind and have more harmony in your life.”
• hyperfocus
• giving himself grace and knowing he’s human
• having a personal vision
• slowing down and being consistent
• systematizing his life
• getting ready to launch new podcast Pest Control Podcast
• helping young entrepreneurs
• focusing more on creative routines
• the two-day rule
• one minute and five-minute miracles
• Slight Edge Book
• small tiny things that lead to big miracles
• why success is relative
• asking a no question
• achieving a certain level of success relative to him
• serving a two-year mission
• sharing the message of Jesus Christ
• no girls, no dates, no movies
• serving with younger guys
• learning that he loves teaching
• asking inspiring questions and connecting with people
• story of guy answering the door with a shotgun
• uncomfortableness of wearing a white shirt and riding a bike
• overcoming what people think of him
• story of man coming into a home and breaking things because he was mad at ex-wife and mother
• having the inner battle of a missionary
• “Enjoy the journey and be more present and intentional with your time.”
• struggling with chasing the future

Instagram - @jakeingledue

Jake Ingledue - TikTok

Growth Circle Podcast (Episode w/ Justin)

417 Pest Control

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Story of failure: Losing my Dad’s antique anchor in the water.

Dan Nunney lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife and three kids. He is the founder and owner of Golf Cart Garage, an online business dedicated to selling golf cart parts with superior customer service. He is also the founder of Side By Side Garage, and is a co-founder of The Long Game Fund, a crypto fund dedicated to investments in the cryptocurrency space. Dan is also a former attorney and has worked on Wall Street with a hedge firm, bringing him perspectives that few people possess. He attended Indiana University and received his law degree from Northern Illinois University.

In today's episode Dan talks about:

• from Cleveland, OH and married with three kids
• always wanted to be a business owner
• wanting control over his freedom
• cleaning golf clubs and mowing lawns as a kid
• a Craigslist for Universities
• making all the mistakes possible with a new business idea
• getting a real job and working for a hedge fund
• after 2008, going back to school
• getting a law degree and working too much
• walking through life without a purpose
• not wanting to be like the guy a sat next to at work and how it woke him up
• quitting and starting a golf cart parts online store
• working in the back office of the hedge fund and learning with open eyes
• always being interested in learning
• mistake of not having enough mentors early on
• always wanting to do the opposite of everyone else
• Jesse Itzler as a mentor NetJets
• Misogi Year of Challenge
• story of a kid scoring 8 goals and how he improved
• 5 minutes a day
• spending quality time with each of his three kids
• owing his son $27.50
• teaching his kids skills and working with them at least five minutes a day
• why it’s easy to forget you’re a good parent
• a local friend as a mentor
• Bob Campana as a mentor
• living with intention
• prioritizing goals based on value
• climbing the ladder on the wrong building
• why he couldn’t do a side hustle with law
• writing his time down every six minutes
• burn the ships route
• a photo of a guy he didn’t want to be like in his closet
• letting his law license expire
• starting a crypto fund
• like the early days of airplanes
• being very much into Bitcoin
• different crypto funds for investors
• the current bloodbath of crypto
• sitting in cash and not getting impatient
• giving credit to his OG partners
• picking the right partners
• not orange pilling people anymore
• why everyone will come to Bitcoin in their own time
• comparing Bitcoin to the early days of the internet
• why it’s hard to be associated with crypto
• thinking of Bitcoin as a massive computer network
• why Dan doesn’t make any price predictions anymore
• if macro is bad, everything is bad
• massive growth over the last two years and dealing with repercussions
• why losing focus is bad
• positive green shoots in business
• “I go into action and start trying to figure out the problem.”
• “I am just seeing the results of not putting in great effort.”
• “Every single day, get a little bit better, and those efforts will compound.”
• how bamboo grows and compounding effects
• being patient in the root building years
• why cold plunges intimidated him in the beginning
• doing one hard thing in the morning, making the rest of the day easier
• done wiping butts and changing diapers
• having to be a different dad to each of his kids
• a brand new challenge everyday
• trying every single day to get better
• wanting to have the same relationship with his wife and kids five years from now
• hoping 2023 is the year of relationships
• sending three messages a day to people you care about
• checking off the box on his daily tracker

www.golfcartgarage.com

www.sidebysidegarage.com

The Long Game Fund

Facebook - Dan Nunney

dnunney@gmail.com

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Story of failure: Not having a conversation with my mom in a respectful way.

Levi Skinner is a real estate investor and guru from the great midwest. He lives with his wife Lindsay, and their dog Leo and cat Xena, in Springfield, MO. Levi was a standout athlete in high school and college, and pursued a degree in accounting. Once in the accounting world, he decided to make a change to real estate and hasn’t looked back. He now spends his time looking for real estate investment, helping clients, and helping businesses and investors understand their numbers.

In today's episode Levi talks about:

• growing up with siblings on a farm
• leaving accounting to pursue real estate
• leveraging his CPA background in real estate
• what is a billing analyst?
• creating systems in excel spreadsheets
• trying to be as efficient as possible
• getting into the numbers of a real estate deal
• what is underwriting?
• helping others build spreadsheets
• having a good dad as a mentor
• having a brother as a mentor
• being a momma’s boy growing up
• mom being a big supporter
• story of mom yelling in a basketball game
• Levi giving the story of Justin being a mentor
• being a head case freshman year
• being a perfectionist in baseball and working through it
• Justin getting heated as a fill in coach
• having professional hopes in baseball
• “Failures have taught me how to bounce back.”
• “You’re going to fail a lot in your life.”
• story of failure - second year of marriage
• not treating his wife in the best way and realizing it
• starting to clean the kitchen after midnight in anger
• quitting his job after his wife urging him to
• needing to take a step back
• a failure that lead to something cool
• communicating more effectively with his wife
• surrounding himself with good people and sharing failures and succeses
• having a close group of guys across the country
• learning from other people
• starting a new storage unit
• what is a storage unit?
• having a goal setting meeting with his wife
• overcoming being a penny pincher
• investing in marriage
• wanting to travel more
• loving God and proving the best possible life for your family
• being grateful for being blessed
• being a podcasting pro
• watching the Professional Failure podcast grow

LinkedIn - Levi Skinner

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Story of failure: Spilling green matcha all over my new white shirt.

Hi, I’m Ian Barnard, a hand lettering artist and calligrapher. I have a passion for inspiring, entertaining and helping people to get better at their lettering skills through videos on my Instagram and Youtube channels and also creating and selling digital lettering brushes for the iPad.

I also am co-host of a popular creative podcast called The Honest Designers Show, where we give you a transparent look into life as a modern designer. You can find us on most podcasting platforms or check out our website honestdesigners.com

I live in a small town just outside London, England with my wife and 2 kids. Attend and help out at my local church and try to balance my love of food by running and riding my mountain bike.

In today's episode Ian talks about:

• originally being a graphic designer
• leaving his job to freelance on the same day his son was born
• decided to teach himself a hobby
• teaching himself calligraphy
• using Instagram to get feedback on his progress
• starting to get work inquiries after he improved
• getting paid for his hobby
• getting paid not based on client income
• starting into the world of stock design assets
• making products to sell on Creative Market
• figuring out effects on certain products
• going all in on selling products online
• progressing to typefaces and Procreate assets
• the journey of setbacks
• self-critiquing your work
• being ok with a product not doing well and moving on
• sense of being down and working through it
• learning through the process to get to the higher mountain
• loving the adrenaline of releasing a product
• seeing further into the hope of the future
• a healthy competition
• producing things that he likes and not what will necessarily just sell
• getting inspiration from Pinterest
• realizing he’s good a problem solving
• lessons from the spinning beach ball
• being ok with the fact that there may not be a solution
• the journey of hits and flops
• hard to stay positive when you’re down in the valley
• his willingness to try
• a teacher being a mentor growing up, Big Zach
• his dad being a head master growing up
• the mentorship of a man from Uganda
• creating a font, releasing it, and making another one
• failures with fonts
• learning shortcuts and learning how to build
• “You think you failed…and then you realize it was worth it in the end.”
• free font that was given away being the most popular
• story of a free font showing up on a store window
• story of his font showing up on Krispy Kreme and getting free donuts
• the skill of typography and learning the process
• teaching lettering in the UK
• teaching his own kids lettering
• his son playing soccer and not forcing him to do anything
• playing in the park during the middle of the pandemic
• his son not wanting to train, just playing for fun
• “I think that’s where you learn the best, when you’re having fun.”
• “The best ideas have come when I’m just having fun.”
• making lettering out of rubix cubes
• realizing your creativity through playing
• doing courses online and making his own leather wallet
• being intimidated by a custom typeface for a client
• not being great with client relations
• “I just want to create and deliver the goods.”
• the back and forth battle of an artist
• client liaisons and the trickiness of not having them
• the pandemic breaking his consistency
• more natural being on video and hearing his voice
• the steps to good YouTube videos
• the laborious process of videos
• releasing a video every week and a product every three weeks
• the anxiety of the pandemic
• familiar things feeding his creativity and the lack thereof during the last couple of years
• some people not being affected
• should have started the cat typography videos sooner!

Instagram - @ianbarnard

Twitter - @ian_barnard

YouTube - Ian Barnard

Dribbble

www.ianbarnard.com

www.ianbarnard.net

The Honest Designers Show Podcast

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Story of failure: Getting my eye brows singed from lighting a bonfire.

Sean Williams is an artist, standup comedian, carpenter, and future movie star and prop maker. He lives in Kansas City, MO with his wife Shelby, where he dreams, creates, and brings unique characters into the world. His work has been seen on The Pat Mcafee Show, and Undisputed, with Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless. Sean continues to dream up amazing creations and bring them to life. You can reach Sean though his Instagram @the.world.of.sean.

In today's episode Sean talks about:

• doing test run podcasts with Sean
• cousins-in-law?
• getting into art and sports growing up
• mom teaching third grade
• there was always some sort of art in his life
• having an artistic family
• applying competitive thinking to art
• story of dad teaching him the shape of a face
• comparing football with art
• where there’s a will, there’s a way!
• “How do I do that, rather than can I do that?”
• the original Mike Tyson pillow that lead to Mahomes
• the process of coming up with a weird end game
• getting in front of Gracie Hunt and giving her a deal
• making Chief pillows for old and new team members
• getting into stand up comedy
• his weird life plan laid out
• wanting to solve a problem by going on stage
• writing and telling jokes
• getting locked in and getting over insecurities
• “If you really want to do something, you just figure out how to do it.”
• telling standup by subject, instead of chronological
• not having the experience, and getting past the early stages
• Norm McDonald and his influence on his jokes
• avoiding the low hanging fruit and doing a little more work
• the skill of failing well
• the philosophy of stoicism
• preparing yourself for the bad things to happen
• preparing to frame cease and desist letters
• tricking your brain on enjoying the hard part
• “It’s the journey, not the destination.”
• the old guys were on to something
• “Success is a byproduct of you doing what you enjoy.”
• the story of the mask of Skip Bayless
• art is literally constant failure
• drawing in a weird sketching motion
• trying to draw Tom Hardy
• me trying to paint Steph Curry
• art theory class in college
• a photography of an apple isn’t a real apple
• communicating to someone through art with the right elements
• “Well, that didn’t work. Try something else.”
• “Once you stop failing, you’re not going to do anything.”
• not having the juice, or needing to get better
• the lesson of the dog gladiator sculpture
• learning to mitigate loss and pivot easily
• why he thinks at some point that his art looks terrible
• battling anxiety
• getting advice from knowledgable people to get to the finish line
• first getting out of college and getting ahead of himself
• procrastinating in school and getting away with it
• forming bad habits and having to break them
• the story of Picasso in the market
• people don’t value your skills unless you value your own skills
• trying to make a rod puppet
• the intimidation of figuring out something new and making a career
• the caretaker in Harry Potter
• wanting to give the memorable line in a movie
• elements of people making up a mentor
• his dad building draw bridges out of cardboard
• why he wants to tell himself, “It worked.”
• what kind of tea?

Instagram - @the.world.of.sean

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Welcome to 2023!

Today's episode feature no guest, but I share one of my favorite, if not my favorite, story from 2022. It's called The Story of the Fisherman, and it really helped my solidify futures goals and perspectives of success. I hope it helps you stop and think as well!

You can also find the story in written form here on my blog.

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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No guest today! A belated Merry Christmas!

Story of Failure: Justin shares a story of when he was young and pouted about not getting what he wanted. He tells why he is so thankful his dad has the courage and foresight to discipline him.

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Story of failure: Burning vegetables in the air fryer.

Mr. Robert “Cujo” Teschner is a combat veteran. He’s a former F-15 “Eagle” instructor at the prestigious U.S. Air Force Weapons school—the Air Force “Top Gun” program. He’s also a former F-22 “Raptor” fighter squadron commander, having commanded one of America’s precious few operational F-22 fighter squadrons.

During his time teaching at the Weapons School, Cujo served as the U.S. Air Force’s Subject Matter Expert on the practice of team accountability. His published work from that time is still in use throughout the Air Force today. Specifically, Cujo authored “The Vocabulary of the Debrief” and helped mold the Methodology of the Debrief, defining the language and accountability practices that the Air Force uses to the present day.

A 1995 distinguished military graduate of the Air Force Academy and a 2013 distinguished graduate of the National War College, Cujo retired from the Air Force in December 2015, achieving the rank of full Colonel. But because of a battle with colorectal cancer, Cujo and his family decided to retire from the Air Force early. Team Teschner’s ambition was to focus on Cujo’s health and to accommodate the fact that his body was largely broken. This led to Cujo’s introduction to entrepreneurship.

Back when he was teaching at the Weapons School, Cujo believed that the principles he was teaching applied to a much wider audience. In fact, as Cujo started to refine and update the Accountability practices he would teach for the entirety of his time at the Weapons School, he also started thinking about translating those principles to business. Once cancer forced him to give up his ability to fly high-performance fighter aircraft, he pivoted to teaching businesses the principles that allow all teams to thrive in disruption. And he’s never looked back.

Cujo is now the founder and CEO of VMax Group, an international leadership training company. He is also the national bestselling author of Debrief to Win: How America’s Top Guns Practice Accountable Leadership … and How You Can, Too! His second book, Aiming Higher: A Journey Through Military Aviation Leadership also immediately went to #1 on the Amazon bestseller list. Cujo has built his growing company from scratch, and everyone in the company is committed to the company’s purpose: To teach and inspire real teamwork so that teams thrive in disruption and keep our economy strong.

In today's episode Cujo talks about:

• watching Star Wars as a kid in St. Louis, MO
• identifying with Luke Skywalker
• Top Gun and the roar of fighter pilots
• disappointment of not getting accepted into the academy at first
• fighter jet with 104-0 record in combat
• teaching in flight school
• commanding a fighter squadron
• getting colon cancer diagnosis and pivoting
• the pain of colon cancer and having to retire early
• deciding to live someplace close to family
• raised as a Cardinals fan
• becoming an entrepreneur
• how do you build a team that wins?
• building the VMAX Group
• life is always going to be hard but how do we deal with the challenges?
• the importance of the debrief
• “The best teams on the planet know how to learn well.”
• failing in a positive way
• as a fighter pilot, it’s impossible to do everything perfectly
• twice the speed of sound
• passing another fighter in the sky
• 9 times the force of gravity
• your blood being pulled out of your brain and eyes
• the dangerous environment of training
• the story of a practice dog fight
• the fighter pilot objective
• the mechanism to make the next mission better than the last
• reinforcing the good
• Excellence In All We Do
• free from pride and ego
• humble, approachable, and credible
• nobody’s ever going to be perfect
• the one debrief of Top Gun and why it has changed
• teaching teamwork principles across America
• “The best leaders are the best instructors.”
• a team with a willingly vulnerable leader
• times of not being a good instructor and learning from it
• his dad as a big mentor
• his dad winning a bronze star in Vietnam
• loving being around JAG officers at the base
• Gary Langford as a mentor
• squadrons with strong commanders and leaders
• doing something epically wrong and learning through it
• all that needed to be said about a mistake
• movie to watch: 12 O’Clock High
• failing consistently and early and bouncing back
• painting some degree of calm
• doing something that would highlight you
• trying for the Wings of the Blue Parachute Team
• getting a cold before the first high altitude jump
• getting sick on the wrong day
• conditioning himself to know nothing goes according to plan
• “How are you going to bounce back and be resilient?”
• graduating #1 in pilot training and making it to F-15 school and working through failure
• story of failure: tape review after his first practice battle
• doing the exactly wrong thing while thinking he was doing the right thing
• the X-ride
• over G-ing the aircraft
• passing the Elimination Ride
• working from the bottom of the bottom
• on the cusp of elimination
• taking full accountability
• willing yourself
• “You don’t know how you’re going to respond to something until you’re in that situation.”
• “Once the mission is done, it’s done.”
• centering on team purpose at home
• how cancer drew his wife and him even closer
• the epic failure turning into a tipping point in his journey
• a prayer in the early phase of the diagnosis
• Cujo’s ongoing ambition
• helping America dream again
• showing people the way
• you can’t be defensive in the debrief
• telling himself “You were right! And it’s working!”
• lucky to have a great family
• new team members to VMAX

Book - Debrief to Win

www.RobertTeschner.com

www.Vmaxgroupllc.com

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Story of failure: Driving off with a gas pump handle in my car.

Rocky Lalvani officially retired from corporate America (hooray!), but he has plenty of hobbies that keep him busy. He loves traveling with his wife of 24 years and two kids, flipping and/or renting houses, coaching two high school robotics teams, and volunteering in his community.

Although he’s always been passionate about managing his own money, personal finance has recently become one of his main interests (#Fincon, anyone?). He started a podcast a couple of years ago called Richer Soul that talks about life beyond money.

So while he’s interested in money, he’s always seen it as a tool, as something that can open countless doors if managed well. Without understanding money, his dad wouldn’t have been able to sustain a family in America. Rocky wouldn’t be able to live out his dream of taking his family on a vacation across Italy.

Rocky has seen how much of a difference understanding money makes in his own life. And he’s now made it his goal to help others open doors, solve problems, and gain freedom through understanding the finances for their small business.

Rather than only making money off of telling other people what to do, he’s truly lived out the experiences of both working a corporate job, working independently, and managing a small business. Now, Rocky wants to take this knowledge and share it with other small business owners at a fraction of the cost that it would be to hire a dedicated full-time financial manager.

In today's episode Rocky talks about:

• looking backward and connecting the dots
• being an immigrant
• things you don’t appreciate until later
• living on the wrong side of the tracks at the beginning
• his parents getting together with friends and talking about money
• occurring conversations
• not ever being held back
• seeing people in different financial situations
• deciding he wanted to be rich as a kid
• learning how to do things himself
• selling products when he was young
• playing with spreadsheets as a kid and teaching accountants
• from paper ledgers to spreadsheets
• the skill of building spreadsheets
• good is the enemy of evil
• selling dictation equipment early on
• understanding working with contractors and what to look for in real estate
• finally taking action after twenty years
• why do people struggle with money so much?
• “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” - money mindsets
• wanting to help people with money
• nobody wants to get rich in ten years
• reading spreadsheets like stories
• why my brother loves spreadsheets
• assuming everyone knows how to do something
• running two podcasts
• an hour of free advice
• the benefits of podcasts
• Richer Soul and Profit Answer Man Podcasts
• growing up in the age of the Marlboro Man
• accepting advice and doing thing more quickly
• masterminds taking him a step further
• is this true and is it worth it?
• always being frugal
• “If you can get a book for $25, don’t even think about it. Just buy it.”
• reading through the mind of an author
• “The biggest failures I’ve had were in not starting.”
• being cautious in nature
• needing that first kick to get started
• the friction of starting
• story of failure: real estate rental story
• first mistake: buying rental properties he liked
• not screening a tenant
• taking note of red flags and doing something about them
• having a manager in real estate and not following up enough
• having a tenant trashing a place and having to evict
• getting the highest price on the street
• just keep showing up and understanding you can fix anything
• “Is my worrying going to fix anything?”
• taking ownership of a mistake
• 10x the attention
• how are you so calm throughout all of this?
• me not doing my part
• coming to the point where it’s ok if things go wrong
• an age and financial thing
• money isn’t going to make you happy, but it can solve problems
• Dave Ramsey principles
• not wanting to deal with broke people
• staying on message
• how do you buy a house with cash?
• with any luck, he’s a grandfather
• having the freedom to be close to his future grandkids
• why are more parents not having more fun?
• something to be grateful for
• taking over himself, not the world
• we all have that negative critic and conquering that voice
• how breath interrupts patterns
• High Performance Habits
• everyone’s on meditation and breathing
• heart rate variability monitor
• breathing being a tell
• business owners that need help beyond our capacity
• understanding how money flows through your business
• similarities with Marcus Lemonis

google: Rocky Lalvani

www.profitcomesfirst.com

Twitter - @rockylalvani

Instagram - @richer.soul

Profit Answers Man Podcast

Richer Soul Podcast

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Story of failure: Not eating enough fiber and getting hemorrhoids.

Alex Demczak is a former SEC quarterback for the Missouri Tigers. Alex graduated with a degree in Communication and a minor in Business.

Alex is an inspiring communicator, facilitator and trainer who challenges businesses, schools, sports teams, and non-profits to maximize their potential and make a difference.

Alex is the author of Thrive U. The inspirational book is a collection of stories from 100 collegiate and professional athletes from across the country. The book has been used by many youth groups, schools, and businesses as a resource to help others maximize their platform and Thrive rather than simply survive.

Alex Demczak is a top keynote speaker and trainer for the Jon Gordon Companies. He frequently delivers keynotes and conducts training programs based on The Power of Positive Leadership and The Power of a Positive Team with the goal of helping leaders transform their teams and change the world. Alex is an innovative entrepreneur that has a knack for starting new ventures such as Thrive U, Coach’s Corner, MU Courtesy Carts, Thrive, Speakers, Ignite small groups, and collaborates with multiple startups.

Alex is passionate about helping high-performance leaders take the next step in their leadership journey. Alex has worked with some most successful companies across various industries. Some of Alex’s past clients include The Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, Veterans United Home loans, OneCoast Retailers, O’shea Builders, and many others. Alex’s mission is to help people increase their performance, enhance their leadership, and maximize their life.

In today's episode Alex talks about:

• Mizzou football and growing up as a sport fanatic
• the sweet spot of life souring
• the meeting going into his junior season
• a coach telling him he wasn’t good enough
• two bad options to choose from
• feeling called to stay
• the humiliation of getting cut
• trying to make a positive out of a negative
• the yellow flag
• are you kidding me?
• serving to the best of his ability
• getting back on the team as a senior
• “Leadership requires no title.”
• coming through humiliation
• we will all experience trials
• Thrive U - daily devotional for athletes
• working at Kanakuk Camp
• who’s telling the stories of D-1 athletes?
• sharing his story and testimony
• sending a copy to Jon Gordon
• are you willing to work for free?
• managing Jon Gordon’s inquires and helping
• speaking on Jon’s books
• writing The Sale together with Jon Gordon
• what is The Sale?
• overview of the Sale
• Matt and Kendra
• getting the chance to make the sale of a lifetime
• growing up in a supportive family
• Nathan Buxxman - Athletes in Action
• Jon Gordon as a mentor
• Randy in The Sale
• Randy Sutterland
• when you do things the right way, it comes back to you
• working at a great company but…
• knowing that he was called to go out on his own
• “God had me where He had me for a reason.”
• not looking back with regret
• what are the things holding you back?
• trusting God in situations
• going all in on something
• people tending to forget about failures
• thinking back to when he first started thinking
• putting yourself in the arena
• Jeff Nelson - pastor preaching with no notes
• trying to take one or two things and learn every time he speaks
• how can I adapt?
• “Speaking leads to more speaking.” - Jon Gordon
• being open to criticism
• cool things on the other side of fear
• leaving things on the sideline
• trying, failing, and learning
• “The message is more important than me.”
• how can I serve the audience?
• Streamline books
• the daunting task of publishing a book
• worth the stress to run a business
• helping people tell good stories
• The Chosen
• a team around you writing a book
• being proud of the fact of going for it
• trudging forward in the unknown
• following and trusting God in the unknown

www.writemybooks.com

www.alexspeaking.com

Twitter - @AlexDemczak

Instagram - @alexdemczak

LinkedIn - Alex Demczak

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Story of failure: Electrocuting myself while changing a light fixture.

Tony Castillo’s journey began as an overweight middle schooler. This continued throughout high school until he decided to jump on a “diet.” Unfortunately, this resulted in unsustainable weight loss. His weight fluctuated in college due to lack of nutrition knowledge, but this inspired him to understand how nutrition played a role in the human body.

Tony’s passion today is to teach others how healthy lifestyle modifications optimize performance in ALL areas of life. After working at the University of Florida and then with the Toronto Blue Jays, Tony focuses on helping you to become an elite performer. Being an elite performer in your field can take many forms, whether you’re the owner of an investment firm or a professional athlete trying to become an MVP. Tony’s plan is to teach his clients how to sustain their weight goals without counting calories or macros.

Tony graduated from Florida International University in Miami with a B.S. in Biology, B.A. in Chemistry, and an M.S. in Nutrition and Dietetics. He is credentialed by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as a Registered Dietitian. Tony continues to hone his practice and regularly mentors with colleagues and professionals such as Tony Stephan, RD and The Dietitian Mentorship program.

And did you know? Tony’s parents are from the Dominican Republic, and Antonio is fluent in both English and Spanish.

In today's episode Tony talks about:

• his story of why he got into nutrition
• getting checked out by a female doctor
• leaving the urologist confused and frustrated
• working through mental health issues
• losing weight and gaining confidence
• trying all the diets and working out
• breaking his foot dancing after malnutrition
• learning about nutrition and getting a masters
• what are the secrets to athlete’s nutrition?
• having a good relationship with food
• working at the Toronto Blue Jays
• teaching kids how nutrition can impact performance
• building a plate composition
• long term habits for eating
• reframing how he saw food
• bodybuilding.com forums and weeding through information
• premium or regular gas?
• feeling confident through food
• Paul Landrum as a mentor
• crying in front of another man
• mentor from the Toronto Blue Jays - Stephanie Wilson
• waiting for a smoothie machine until 2 AM
• failing to prepare for presentation and working through it
• selling himself short because he didn’t feel like he was ready
• only Spanish speaking kid in 1st grade
• being told he would never be able to speak English
• his dad working through med school barely speaking English
• hating reading and writing because he was forced to do it
• always being a fighter
• never, never, never give up
• going to english school instead of going to baseball
• getting an A in English in college
• only speaking Spanish in the house, but you still need to learn English
• feeling weak after failing
• “Always be prepared.”
• “If we can ask better questions, we can get better results.”
• asking questions and getting feedback
• helping athletes learn
• keeping up with the latest challenges of the sports world
• the power of ‘I don’t know’
• being open and honest
• the courage of saying I don’t know
• branch chain amino acids
• making a protein with 20 amino acids
• lucine amino acid
• would you water your plants in the middle of the rainstorm?
• bird feathers supplement
• being open to chaining his opinion as long as the research backs it up
• seeing a therapist
• Cam Hall - Leadership Consultant
• “Are you doing it to them, for them, or with them?”
• never being taught how to run a business in school
• reforming the way he asks for help
• why am I eating this way?
• pausing before he speaks
• overly communicating with yourself
• how and why?
• just doing what you’re told
• the intimidation of writing a book and lunching a podcast
• helping build authority
• Christiano Ronaldo choosing water
• wanting to work with athletes that have a great opportunity to promote good change
• not being inhibited by my typing skills
• you made it, you survived
• not coasting, but achieving

www.nutritionfp.com

Email: tony@nutritionfp.com

Instagram - @coach_tonycastillo

YouTube

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Story of failure: Losing a piece of furniture on the highway.

Jake Williams is a former teacher, and football coach, with background in sports and art. Jake is also the author of Organic Reconstruction, where Jake details a time in his life where he felt stuck, and the journey he took to overcome his fears.

About Jake: In case you’re wondering, ‘Trustin’ isn’t some made up moniker. It’s my actual middle name. Some of you know me as Jake Trustin, others know me as Mr. or Coach Williams from when I used to teach high school art and coach football. Most of you probably just know me as Jake. Art has always been a huge part of my life. I started as a little kid drawing pictures of superheroes, then athletes, and then anything and everything else.

The older I get, the more I realize life is more of a DIY kinda thing than a playbook you can follow. That’s why, a few years ago when I was feeling particularly stuck in life, I decided to set up my own DIY tour through America and Europe. I backpacked 45,000+ miles by way of planes, trains, and automobiles bringing a journal and sketchbook with me to document the experience. When I came back, I made a bunch of paintings and wrote a story to go with it. That’s what my book, ‘Organic Reconstruction’ is about. You should check it out.

Lately I’ve been really into painting pictures of ancient statues and landscapes from the places I visited along my travelling. I don’t know how far this art thing will take me, but I still find as much satisfaction from making things that I did as a kid.

In today's episode Jake talks about:

• • his background in art and sports
• • teaching high school art and coaching football
• • feeling stuck in life after tearing his ACL
• • three years of rough surgeries and not being able to control life
• • feeling the pressure to be married
• • comparing himself to other people and feeling stuck
• • growing up thinking he had to be a perfect person and the weight the comes with that
• • his parents being concerned about his well being
• • something he thought he’d never share with anyone
• • Skyping artists around the world while teaching
• • Voka and visiting his place
• • planning the trip to Europe and friends bailing on him
• • not wanting to look crazy to Voka when meeting him in person
• • being honored to learn from Voka
• • his closest mentors being his parents
• • why it helps hearing from people that aren’t family
• • Stephen Holland as a mentor
• • not caring about artists or art history growing up
• • famous people being normal
• • Norman Rockwell and his routines
• • there’s no guarantee that problems will ever go away
• • “failure is just unmet expectations.”
• • “Sometimes finding success in failure is just shifting our expectations.”
• • finding an interesting story through being stuck
• • not being married when he thought
• • opening up about going to a counselor
• • the constant of expectations
• • writing a book and fearing no one will want to read it
• • starting the podcast and knowing it’s going to suck at first
• • Brock Frizzel
• • his dad telling him to go to counseling
• • just work through it and don’t be soft
• • the value of counselors
• • what if I’m not messed up enough?
• • the story of tearing his ACL and his recovery
• • working hard to do everything exactly the way they asked in rehab
• • tearing his ACL again in front of a gym full of people
• • focusing on other things rather than reliving high school glory days
• • you can make all the right moves and sometimes it still doesn’t work out
• • the good thing about setbacks being empathy
• • stuff happens you can’t control
• • working through discouragement and talking with those close to him
• • praying through tough times and refocusing
• • being a teacher is a hard thing to do
• • stepping back and resetting yourself
• • the intimidation of chasing art full time
• • getting into Youtube videos
• • what I work hard and nobody pays attention?
• • “You have to give yourself permission to say, ‘this is going to be really bad for a while.’”
• • the first reaction of quitting teaching
• • feeling passion towards the book and feeling like it was important
• • looking forward to trying as hard as he could
• • letting things in our head overtake action
• • spending 4.5 years working on his book
• • his former student working with Jake to design his book
• • going into it with few expectations
• • it’s as simple as trying

www.jaketrustin.com

Jake’s Instagram - @jaketrustin

Organic Reconstruction Book

Link to Jake’s Paintings

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Spraying my nephew in the face with an old can of silly string.

Kerry Siggins is the CEO of StoneAge, Inc. a fast-growing manufacturing company based in Colorado. She was fortunate enough to be named a Top Influential CEO in 2021 and was a finalist for Colorado’s CEO of the Year in 2017. StoneAge is recognized as a top 100 company to work for by Outside Magazine. Kerry sits on several boards and is a member of Young’s President Organization (YPO). She delivers keynotes on how to create employee-centric cultures where it’s safe to speak up and show up as your whole self. Kerry hosts several podcasts, including the wildly popular podcast Reflect Forward. She is an author, blogger, and contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Authority Magazine, and BIC Magazine, and myblog is visited by thousands of readers each month.

Finally, but most importantly, I am the mother of an amazing kiddo named Jack, and the wife of Ryan Siggins, a serial entrepreneur whose latest adventure is SoCo Wood & Windows, a where we sell windows, doors, and high-end custom millworks.

In today's episode Kerry talks about:

• growing up as a child and her dad leaving
• getting attention through positive and negative ways
• dad telling her she wasn’t smart enough to graduate
• getting a softball scholarship
• being lost without purpose
• overdosing after college
• mom loving but being tough on her
• her mom being her biggest supporter
• not going to be that person with dad issues
• feeling unlovable and working through that
• doing everything with gusto
• a high functioning addict
• not being able to go to work after the overdoes
• believing in yourself and reflecting on herself
• being a driven human being
• seeking attention through being the life of the party
• the self-destructive persona
• her mom being the hardest working person she knows
• instilling work ethic in Kerry
• her mom being uncomfortable pushing back
• needing more boundaries as a teenager
• why coming home to her mom meant so much
• having an authentic conversation with her mom
• her mom giving her unconditional love
• “If I’m not failing, I’m not living.”
• not being scared of failing and putting herself out there
• story of her marriage almost failing because of honesty
• “Everyday there’s something you can better.”
• never having a problem expressing herself
• the consequences of hurting your spouse and not taking feedback
• not wanting a failed marriage like her parents
• what she learned working through her marital issues
• cracking open her marriage through honest communication
• her son Jack and how he understands people as a 10-year old
• adult conversations with her son
• not carrying other people’s baggage
• her son Jack wanting to play professional baseball
• playing softball and coaching her son’s team
• it’s all about mindset
• telling yourself alternative stories
• forcing yourself to consider different possibilities
• working through discouragement with exercise
• writing her stories down
• “Just because you think it doesn’t mean it’s true.”
• there can be two truths at the same time
• challenging herself with alternative stories
• a million different ways things can play out
• how do you be empathetic?
• setting a goal of creating a thousand millionaires, and reaching a billion in evaluation
• the intimidation of big goals
• having to stay focused on the bigger picture
• how do I get to my next double?
• chunking goals down to not being overwhelming
• wanting to look back and be a good mom
• why she wants to spend her time right
• having a husband entrepreneur and how to balance
• connecting every single day over making dinner
• communicating wins and challenges
• unwavering support of each other
• her husband sacrificing for Kerry and believing in her
• honoring and respecting each other through individual decisions
• living your life by design instead of just living
• $100,000 in credit card debt after overdosing
• setting goals for yourself and designing your life
• one small step at a time

www.kerrysiggins.com

Instagram - @kerry.siggins

LinkedIn - Kerry Siggins

Reflect Forward Podcast

Reflect Forward Podcast - Justin Skinner

www.stoneagetools.com

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Story of failure: Embarrassing a teammate after a blunder as a new leader my senior year of baseball.

David Poland was originally born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He moved to Springfield, Missouri when he was 15 years old, and attended Hillcrest High School. Athletics were always a big passion of David’s as a kid. After winning a state championship in high school baseball, David decided to keep pursuing his passion at a collegiate level. He attended Evangel University in Springfield, MO and played baseball for the duration of his schooling. David graduated with a Recreational & Physical Education degree in the Spring of 2007. During that time, he developed a passion for fitness and health and decided to pursue it as a career.

As soon as David graduated, he became certified with I.S.S.A & N.S.C.A, and his personal training career started. This passionate focus for fitness and health opened up a whole new world of growth, not only for himself, but for others as well. David has been training full-time for twelve years now, and has enjoyed every minute of it. He’s been fortunate enough to help hundreds of clients over the years, both in person and online, achieve all different types of goals. From fat loss, building muscle, sports specific goals, improved mobility, rehabilitation, to most importantly, nutrition. David has competed in four NPC fitness shows, the last one being at a national level. I also a fitness advisor for KY3, where I do regular fitness segments with Paul Adler on Fit Life, a segment of Friday morning’s local news. After having a few years of personal training under his belt, David opened up his own private studio in 2010. XFit has been an amazing journey of hard work, along with great teamwork from his amazing staff and clientele. These people have made XFit what it is today. David is excited for many great years to come and hopes to be able to help you in the future!

In today's episode David talks about:

• getting into personal fitness shortly after college
• pivoting from teaching and coaching to owning a gym
• starting his own facility in 2010
• trying to pulling away from attaching from outcomes
• small steps and small improvements for long term goals
• detaching yourself from the outcome
• winning the day
• sports helping him in business
• the value of hard work and discipline in athletics
• his dad being a mentor to him growing up
• working with successful people and learning from them
• learning from anyone
• failure is just data (“I really don’t think there is failure, it’s just data.”)
• God’s timing being perfect above his own
• learning when things don’t go his way
• life is going to hit you, it’s how you react to it
• processing failure through data
• handling situations in the right way
• real estate deals going south sometimes
• being frustrated in the moment
• today is a new opportunity
• resetting the next day and moving forward in spite of failure
• keeping your mind centered and progressing forward
• 5 AM Club - Robin Sherman
• 20/20/20 Formula
• “What am I learning currently?”
• keeping yourself centered when things don’t go your way
• “It’s never going to be perfect.”
• having a better headspace
• the game changer
• Nixa, Missouri facility going really well
• bring value to clients and helping the community
• what set XFit apart from other training facilities
• picking people that care and that enjoy helping others
• story of 80 year-old woman that started training
• not giving up
• the before and afters of the fitness realm
• a mental shift in people
• guiding people through the process of transformation
• losing 30-50 pounds and life transformation
• building on a little self confidence
• let us be the one to figure this out for you
• thinking back on the last five years
• The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
• compounding small actions over time does big things
• the magic of compound interest
• living in an instant gratification culture
• you have to pay for success up front in full
• “Success will come, I don’t need to worry.”

Instagram - @xfitspf and @xfitnixa

Instagram - @extremedavid

www.xfitmo.com

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Story of failure: Knocking a backup hard rive off my desk and breaking it.

Juliet Hahn grew up in Moorestown, New Jersey, a quaint town just outside of Philadelphia. She had a fulfilling childhood and her parents, Marc and Barbara, showered their five children with love, support, and humor. Juliet enjoyed being active which led to her year-round involvement in sports. She brought her love of athletics to Rowan University where she starred as a two-sport athlete. After graduation, she moved to New York City and began a career in advertising. Juliet embraced New York City’s culture, diversity, and energy and made it her home for fourteen years. It also happens to be where she met her future husband, Dan. Currently, they reside in Remsenburg, New York with their three children: Montgomery (16), Truman (14), and Penelope (12) and two Boxers.

Juliet started her coaching career as a virtual health and fitness coach. After gaining 65 lbs with each pregnancy and her body changing after 40, she made a conscious effort to exercise and eat a more balanced diet. The results truly changed her life, and it was her mission to share her formula with others. In 2015, she began a new adventure as a virtual health and fitness coach supporting women to lose weight, become stronger, and regain their confidence.

In 2021, Juliet decided to pivot away from health and fitness coaching and into helping people connect to their passions. She offers a workshop called “Your Next Stop” (YNS) that empowers people to find their creative passion and turn it into a business which she believes everyone has the ability to do; they just need the correct tools. In addition to her workshop, she uses her YNS Podcast and YNS Live to highlight people who have turned passions into careers. This platform shares inspiring stories from people all over the world.

Through these conversations, Juliet guides people to explore their past in order to connect the dots to their own story. Everyone has a story and it is through sharing, active listening (and sometimes laughing) that people connect and learn from one another.

Combining these two paths has led to a partnership with NFL Thread to create a series that explores the lives and stories of NFL spouses and partners. This series chips away at the perception of NFL women and showcases their talents, initiatives and missions.

In today's episode Juliet talks about:

• meeting at Podfest
• stories at what make people go ‘round
• third grade story and being one of five
• speaking vs. writing with teachers
• dealing with dyslexia in school
• working with Dr. P and being away from the other kids
• Blue Dolphin book
• kids playing while she had to read Blue Dolphin
• telling herself she wasn’t creative
• never being with her group of friends in school
• excelling in sports and hating reading out loud
• teacher asking her, ‘what are you retarded?’
• remembering how her mom responded and said how proud she was for standing up for herself
• calling a teacher a bad word
• looking around the room and not understanding what the teacher was talking about
• learning how to fake it
• having a dyslexic dad in the military
• dream of playing sports in college
• guidance counselor telling her she couldn’t go to college
• playing sports at elite level but doing school at a lower level
• being a terrible test taker
• having the SAT’s read to her
• constantly being short of her goal on the SAT’s
• going Division III instead of going to Maryland
• struggling in math and science
• dysgraphia
• her dad making relationship despite being called dumb
• adhd processing
• having a son that learns in spite of dyslexia
• teachers not realizing the power of their words
• just sit and try harder
• acknowledging and teaching
• the more you ask questions, the more you don’t get it–clearly I’m dumb
• the public system is broken
• Your Next Stop Podcast
• storytelling is an art
• taking other people out of their crazy life
• understanding what she was meant to do
• streaming on Fireside app
• NFL series with the LinkedIn of NFL Spouses
• interviewing NFL player spouses
• Pivot Podcast - Leaving the NFL
• interviewing Ricky Waters and his wife
• society needs to think about the good things
• how players are effecting by fans in good and bad ways
• her mom being her biggest cheerleader
• having two really close friends encouraging her
• high school coach that was really hard on her, but it was what she needed
• her husband being a big mentor and cheerleader
• having to run with an idea in her head
• NFL Fashion show and interviewing in Arizona
• the NFL Hall of Fame show
• “Just keep creating and see what happens.”
• “I don’t harp on failures.”
• story of failing when putting together a website
• wanting to focus on her family trip
• starting the website without the meat
• getting the fire going
• failures as seminars
• growing up and doing stupid things
• “If you can’t change it, don’t stress on it.”
• pray that it’s all going to work out
• not dwelling on failure
• working with HR on the interview process
• loving her kids sporting events
• the problem of not hiring the right people
• rolling out something new
• most nervous about figuring out how she is able to carry out her vision
• goal of retiring her husband and giving him a choice
• wanting to be there for her kids and not missing big things
• setting up for the Super Bowl show
• not seeing the ’t’

www.iamjuliethahn.com

Your Next Stop Podcast

YNS Live Podcast

Twitter - @iamjuliethahn

Instagram - @iamjuliethahn

YouTube

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com!

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Story of failure: Accidentally starting a field fire in my front yard.

Zach Lush is a brand strategist, mental toughness coach, and serial entrepreneur with over 17 years of business building experience. He runs a digital marketing agency with the focus on helping mission driven coaches and consultants scale their impact, influence and income by leveraging the power of their personal brands.

Born and raised in Boston, MA Zach grew up playing ice hockey and baseball — later playing baseball at the collegiate level and professionally with the Florida Marlins.

After his professional baseball career, Zach owned and operated a sports performance training facility for twelve years training thousands of athletes many of who went on to play at the collegiate and professional levels themselves.

A lifelong student of human performance and mental toughness, Zach is constantly encouraging his clients to bring more passion, purpose, and meaning to their life's work.

Zach is a husband and father to 3 children who lives in Cocoa Beach, Florida. When he’s not at his kid’s sporting events, Zach loves to scuba dive, hit the gym with his teenage kids, or attempt to fix his horrendous golf game.

In today's episode Zach talks about:

• building business over the last 17 years
• running a digital marketing agency
• leveraging the power of a personal brand
• learning the power of mindset and having clear goals
• going from a nobody to making something of himself as a professional athlete
• newly married with three kids
• watching SpaceX launch rockets
• growing up in Boston watching the Bruins and Red Sox
• not offers his senior year and having a dream of playing at Boston University
• being ignored in both sports and what he did to overcome
• having Tim Wakefield as a mentor in baseball
• doing whatever it takes to earn and keep a spot on the team
• getting drafted after his junior year
• story of Tim getting Zach a tryout with the Marlins and becoming a professional baseball player
• similarities of being a catcher and a goalie in hockey
• him and his brother playing sports growing up
• gravitating to sports that give you a weapon
• story of me trying hockey
• mentorship of coaches early on
• Tim Wakefield teaching him the mental side of the game
• Aaron Walker as a mentor
• studying old school coaches like Phil Jackson, Lou Holtz, and John Wooden
• being banned by his wife from conferences
• “People are faster than books.”
• “Just help the next guy.” - Tim Wakefield
• doubting yourself and overcoming that
• Big A’s authenticity and genuine care
• the lost art of being there for people
• authentic is better than perfect
• “Vulnerability is a strength.”
• the mountain goat that constantly gets knocked off the mountain
• losing a gym after scaling it from nothing and taking it hard
• “If your hearts not in it anymore…it’s probably time for a pivot.”
• learning how to lead and inspire a team
• having a background in aviation and working for a drone company
• when you get knocked down, surround yourself with good people
• the importance of taking action
• Ted Lasso - the memory of a goldfish
• the team chemistry that is missed
• “Reality is messy.”
• the road is rising to meet you
• How to Fight a Hydra book
• The Alchemist book
• who you become is more important than the destination
• helping 10,000 mission-driving consultants
• outlining a book for the last 18 months and trying to stay disciplined
• American Underdog movie
• learning to tell his story
• timeline of when he wants to release his book
• figuring out when to write
• Tom Brady quote - “The next one.”
• being able to look back and be grateful
• Be Heroic
• indirect vs. direct modes of leveraging your platform
• helping people find the thing that lights them up
• just get on the field
• “The hardest part of the journey is to start.”
• shallow on the back end
• over-delivering for clients
• small, digestible action steps
• control what you can control
• just go play catch
• teaching his son how to ride a bike by chinking it down to the basics

Branding Toolkit - www.coachlush.com/branding

Learn more at: www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Seeing my wife’s emotions as a weakness.

Kendra Joy Skinner is an entrepreneur, short term rental expert, and exceptional artist! She is also most importantly my beautiful wife! Kendra grew up in Springfield, Missouri and comes from a family of eight! Three brothers and two sisters. Kendra also excels in interior design and started Lilac Paperie, which sells her original artwork and prints through her online shop.

In today's episode Kendra talks about:

• growing up in a family of six
• praying for a sister for so many years
• meeting Justin in elementary school
• getting a degree in ceramics at College of the Ozarks
• running AirBnb short term rentals
• feeling like a fake sometimes in interior design
• hearing the vision of design clients and working through the purpose
• knowing what a space is going to be used for
• Project Rescue Loft
• her parents as mentors and always hosting
• not being a morning person
• seeing her mom praying and reading in the morning
• her parents allowing her to repaint and redo the house
• having creative grandmothers
• Justin mentoring her
• story of her children’s line of clothing
• changing her thinking from what can stop her to finding a way
• the story of the pillow business
• printing her own designs on fabric and selling pillows with fancy zippers
• the most beautiful amazing pillow
• learning to filter ideas
• seeing pillows and making us laugh
• struggles of the last couple of years
• listening to Sam DeFord’s episode
• trying to have kids for over a decade
• God drawing her out of a dark and heavy time
• testing your faith in the hard times
• not knowing how to stop what was happening
• living in a spiritual world
• “If I’m feeling this way..what are other people going through?”
• we are managers of God’s grace
• an opportunity to extend God’s love to someone else through a hard day
• refining confidence through life
• remembering how people made you feel
• the process of grieving and seasons of no way out
• opening up to friends about what is hard
• delayed fertility and planning around having kids
• a peace in writing and stripping away emotion
• the scariest thing of writing about delayed fertility
• purpose in the pain
• being obedient today and not worrying about the future
• what Kendra looks forward to telling herself
• hoping to improvements in areas of life that mattered the most
• being intentional in decisions in life
• what in the world are we going to be in five years?
• C.S. Lewis books
• quote from C.S. Lewis
• “Why love if losing hurts so much?”
• “The pain now is a part of the happiness then.”
• stewarding all that she’s been given

www.lilacpaperie.com

Instagram - @kendrajoyskinner

Learn more at www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Scraping my arm with a bow string while practicing.

Aaron Owens is the co-owner of Alpha Realty in Springfield, Missouri. Aaron’s background is in graphic design and marketing. He jumped into the real estate world after seeing Adam Johnson’s passion and excitement for the industry. After hitting the ground running, he was able to sell 35 homes in his first year as an agent. Since then he has been apart of hundreds of real estate transaction, ventured into real estate investing around Springfield and building relationships with other go-getters in the area. He loves the Kansas City Chiefs, music, coffee and all things Apple.

In today's episode Aaron talks about:

• working in a family business growing up
• getting into graphic design and being homeschooled
• learning Corel Draw
• Adam Johnson getting Aaron into real estate
• starting Alpha Realty with Adam
• pivoting on a float trip
• growing up in a homeschool family
• traveling and exploring the country as a homeschool kid
• reading and listening to podcasts
• the struggle of finding a mentor
• losing his dad in 2007 and the mentor his dad was
• two brothers as mentors
• Craig Groschel - pressure to be a mentor
• learning a lot from as many people as he can
• each person bringing a good perspective
• "Do I want what they have?"
• his dad being a giving guy
• profit is not a dirty word
• leaving a legacy
• growing up on a big farm and the example of hard work
• the strong relationships of his family
• figuring out how to make money doing the things his dad loved
• coming up with new business ideas and failing along the way
• failure is not final, it's just a step
• story of starting a company for a digital business card
• being naive in business
• the advice of not taking money from family for a business idea
• his pride taking a hit during a business family
• multilevel marketing and shirt subscription companies
• consistent things that carried them through failures
• Mariano Rivera's story of how he dealt with failure
• taking the sting of failure away
• story of his monthly shirt subscription business
• ModFund company story
• timing and execution
• the Sevenly company
• running with an idea and realizing when to cut the cord
• approaching business different now
• loving the idea of new businesses but having a process
• why Aaron and Adam selfishly created Alpha Realty
• basing a Alpha around faith and family
• relationships over real estate
• big enough to stand out but small enough for relationships
• not recruiting but by word of mouth
• a team environment without having teams
• growing by God, not by Aaron
• buying a new building in Springfield for Alpha
• everything scares him a little bit
• investing and property management futures
• moving into different market centers and the complexity it brings
• taking inventory
• trying not to lose the culture of Alpha
• Chik-Fil-A culture and keeping that alive
• working as an owner to keep culture
• the scary part of the real estate market in general
• properly budgeting for lean times
• goals to reach by his 40th birthday
• strong relationship with God and family
• developing systems to duplicate himself
• empowering people to goals and not using them
• seeing the inner workings of Alpha

Instagram - @aaronowens10

www.alpharealtymo.com

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Story of failure: Flipping and crashing my uncles four-wheeler in the woods while chasing a turkey.

Jon Dwoskin is an executive advisor, business coach, author and keynote speaker who’s been called the “business whisperer” for his skilled and compassionate insights into what can keep a corporate culture from thriving. At age 23, he created one of the first Internet marketing companies in America, then went on to great success at two national real estate firms. Jon has built, trained, expanded and restructured both sales teams and corporate structures, but after 20 years in a C-suite, knew it was time to make a business out of being himself. His Jon Dwoskin Experience teaches the secrets, hard work and discipline required to “Think Big. Very Big!” A prolific business blogger, Jon is the author of “The Think Big Movement,” a fable about getting unstuck and transforming a business. A 16-year cancer survivor, he lives with his wife and two children in Michigan, where he is active in community organizations. He’s been included in the prestigious Crain Detroit Business’ 40 Under 40 list and named Alumnus of the Year by Eastern Michigan University, where he double majored in economics and journalism..

In today’s episode Jon talks about:

• Jon growing up in an entrepreneurial home
• his dad being a dentist and all his dad’s friends worked for themselves
• the article on Jon in Forbes
• Brian Tracy tapes that his dad gave him
• putting his foam walkman headset on
• spending an hour a day studying and listening
• just knowing what his path was
• dealing with dyslexia and retaining audio at a high level
• always enjoyed talking with people, especially older people
• the power of observing and listening
• knowing and retaining information in his 20’s
• knowing he learned differently
• not having helicopter parents
• figuring out how he learned
• rollerblading to class and listening to books on tape
• leading and growing sales teams outside of school
• learning discipline in school
• getting rollerblades during the pandemic
• his family being his mentors and keeping him grounded
• being told he was the smartest person in the world and how it helped
• getting his first business coach in his late 20’s
• his family always encouraging
• losing his mom at 25 and losing his dad
• not looking things as failures
• failures being seminars, some more expensive than others
• story of selling his business and having to write a $100,000 check
• why his instincts have always lead him
• $100,000 class
• not letting failures get in the way of family
• story of evolution of perspective
• working in commercial real estate and managing his office
• taking a 12-week class and halfway through laughing at something no one else laughed at
• being the only one that laughed at a joke
• realizing the amount of influence he had in the group
• a movie of things that he needed to clean up
• being very conscious of jokes and witty comments at someone else’s expense
• a life changing moment for Jon
• connecting through sarcasm and navigating that
• his mission is to help people grow, not to make them feel small
• laughter is the best medicine, but not at other people’s expense
• going back to intent
• meditating in the moment and making the best decisions
• the more he takes time to think, the right way tends to present itself
• not pausing when it’s easy, pausing when it’s hard
• his upcoming second book
• mastering time management and building a routine in his book
• all about simplicity
• his goal with his new book
• not typically getting scared by projects he’s doing
• hoping people see the value in his advice and courses
• launching a private coaching group
• making something affordable to everyone in the world
• not wanting to turn patients or clients away
• what his coaching group entails and building a community
• building on demand 8-week courses
• canceling your netflix account
• having a team and only doing what he loves to do
• having a virtual team that works for him
• Coffee w/ Jon and Grow Your Business Faster with Jon
• Streamyard
• “I look forward to enjoying the journey.”
• helping a billion people get coaching
• creating a flow of routine
• Norman Rockwell

www.jondwoskin.com

Text or Call - 248-535-7796

jon@jondwoskin.com

Think Business with Jon Dwoskin Podcast

Twitter - @jdwoskin

Instagram - @thejondwoskinexperience

Learn more at:

www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Letting fear stop me from singing when I was young.

Brian Beers is an entrepreneur, investor, podcast host & father.

He grew his small family franchised auto repair business into an enterprise with ~30 locations.

He’s on a mission to teach other entrepreneurs everything he knows about growing a business and creating passive income through investments outside of Wall Street.

Join him every week to learn from other successful entrepreneurs on the Business with Beers Podcast.

In today’s episode Brian talks about:

• running a chain of automotive repair franchise Midas
• legacy family business
• going to college and studying entrepreneurship
• the state of the business when he joined after college
• taking over operations in 2016 and growing from there
• reading it and doing it are different things
• starting his podcast Business with Beers
• teaching people to run franchises
• working with his brother
• countering each others faults
• the sad part of business coming between family
• having the same goals and building off that
• people might disagree on the path to get to your goal
• his dad being a big mentor early on
• the built in community of franchises
• having a business coach
• talking through what’s holding him back with his coach
• understanding the concept of fear
• the abundance of life
• understanding which bucket is holding me back
• the fear of nobody signing up vs. creating value
• at the end of the day, most people only care about themselves
• Derek Jeter and his mindset
• trying to ask yourself what you can learn from your experience
• thinking of failure as going to seminars
• the story of losing $300,000 in a business venture
• learning what a distraction is
• who is going to buy a business losing money?
• the negative of a franchise and signing long term deals
• selling the franchise for cheap to get our from under it
• not getting distracted from shiny objects
• your focus is a flashlight
• learning to negotiate in franchise deals
• having another business to support their venture failure
• the due diligence process in franchises
• don’t agree to any of the penalties
• splitting your capacity and the downfalls of juggling
• working through the loss of money with his dad and grandad
• coming up with a solution through the failure
• the higher cost of learning through failure
• not giving your energy away
• working through a morning routine with his phone
• creating a coaching program and clarity within it
• what do you choose to talk about?
• if you’re all over the place, people question what you’re about
• what problem do you solve?
• turning decades of experience into days of learning
• a good amount of pressure
• results over information
• making sure you have the confidence and you will delivery
• selecting franchises and buying existing businesses
• doubling sales by bringing in new systems and energy
• solving one problem for someone, not all problems
• how do you create a system to support people
• groups and subgroups
• being surround digitally with like-minded people
• the hardest part is consistency
• dedicating the time to create content
• moving forward in consistency
• consistency and execution
• the same process on every phone call, with every customer
• “Consistency creates success.”
• boring can be exciting
• making sure to spend time with his wife and kids
• the whole point of the business, and proactively planning vacations
• building a great team instead of running everything himself
• hiring a COO and how it helped
• stair step growth visualization
• getting people to think
• focusing on high value action

Brian Beers Newsletter

Business with Beers Podcast

Twitter - @brianbeers

Instagram - @businesswithbeers

www.brianbeers.com

Learn more at:

www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Laughing at a friends expense in high school.

In the last three years, Kase built a real estate development company that flips 60+ homes per year, acquired 120+ rental units and hit financial freedom. He focuses on firing himself everyday.

Kase's wife, Laura, is seriously patient. Since the start of the pandemic, he's purchased a commercial airplane fuselage, a 42' school bus, an ambulance, imported $900k in classic Land Rover Defenders, and purchased 14 cubic yards of winter beanies.

Kase & Laura, their two sons and their dog plan to live/travel in their Toyota Tacoma 4 months of the year starting in Nov 2022.

In today’s episode Kase talks about:

• trying to fire himself out of every project
• getting into real estate as an agent
• selling too much and starting a team
• doing taxes and understanding where he made his money
• 80/20 Sales and Marketing
• moving full time into flipping 2018
• handling 60 flips per year
• the checklist of things to do on a daily basis
• having very few things that he doesn’t want to do
• when he fires himself, what he fills his time with
• the integrator and the visionary
• not working on Sundays
• working from 5 AM - 9 AM and from 1 PM - 3 PM
• a schedule built around nap time
• goal of traveling 4 months out of the year
• paramotoring and flight
• having an affordable family and a reasonable budget
• his dad retiring early and how it impacted him
• did you buy another poopy house?
• intentionally teaching his children
• living in West Michigan
• Detroit is awesome
• why Detroit is awesome
• “the failures that we’ve had are often small when we listen and look for red flags.”
• “The more my ego gets in the way, the bigger the failure is.”
• story of starting his own real estate brokerage and the failure that happened
• the wrong person in the seat
• why am i doing this?
• why bringing in additional mentors
• the difference between two teams
• the positive of bringing on a partner
• creating waves and messes
• creating departments where people have the ability to make decisions
• not hiring someone like yourself
• going from a team of 16 to 3
• going from delegating to automating
• overcoming our laziness
• If this, then that
• simplifying complex actions
• how do we make sure every lead doesn’t fall through the cracks
• productive lazy
• avoiding the proper sets and building systems to overcome those
• eat the frog!
• trying to scale down his time in the flipping business
• it’s a lot of work to grow
• what is ten years from now?
• not knowing what’s next
• “The scariest thing is often one of the best.”
• not sleeping at night is a very bad thing
• the challenge of matching income and lifestyle
• opening yurts in Michigan (short term rentals)
• big value add projects and project management
• buying classic Landrovers
• creating a job out of anything in an hour
• creating a system when buying and automating buying Landrovers
• almost buying an airplane from Kase
• trying a lot of things because it doesn’t cost a lot of money or time
• building yurts because of buying an airplane
• 150 miles at 5 mph
• “Sometimes failures happen and it leads to realization. Sometimes it doesn’t.”
• “Sometimes knowing what you don’t want to do is a good place.”
• getting thrown in jail?
• why he hates running but loves finishing
• continuing to push himself

Instagram - @overlandinvestor

www.overlandinvestor.com

www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Betting everything I had gambling on a cruise.

Fran Racioppi, CPP, CBCP, is the Chief People Officer at Analytix Solutions, a 800+ person firm with offices across the globe. Fran also serves as the performance development coach for Boston University Men’s Rowing and leads leadership programs under his own company, FRsix. Fran previously led Genius Fund as the Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer, a vertically integrated cannabis company in Los Angeles, CA. Prior to Genius, Fran served as the Director of Global Security for Snapchat where he was recruited to professionalize and scale the security organization across the globe, earning recognition from the FBI and DHS.

Fran holds an MBA from New York University. He graduated with honors from Boston University with a BA in Journalism and a minor in Political Science. Fran served 13 years in the United States Army as a Green Beret, deploying three times to Iraq and spending several years operating across Africa. A lifelong sailor, Fran volunteers teaching Veterans to sail as the Race Director for Sailahead a Veterans service organization dedicated to reducing the Veteran suicide rate.

In today’s episode, Fran talks about:

• spending 12.5 years in the army and the last part in special forces
• remembering working on project seen in the news
• From ‘I can do anything’ in the army to transitioning to the world
• do you know what a balance sheet is?
• the troubles of not getting hired after the army
• why he went to business school
• soft skills vs hard skills
• a demonstrated pattern of success
• hire for character, train for skill
• looking for a resume coming to life
• why 50% of what’s written on your resume is fake
• trying not to throw tantrums
• The Solid Seven Podcast
• starting a podcast at 9 PM and ending at 1:00 AM
• The Jedburgh Podcast
• getting back to his days of broadcast journalism
• why he enjoys talking to people and chases new things
• The Talent War
• figuring out what to call his podcast in the early days
• who are the Jedburghs?
• the story of the Jedburgh Operation in World War 2
• the teams of Jedburgh and how they trained in sabotage and subversion
• slowing down the German forces
• dissolving into the CIA and becoming the first Green Berets with JFK
• stories of modern day Jedburgh’s that change the world
• The Normandy Resistance Movement
• EP 15 of The Jedburgh Podcast - Link
• short forms and long forms of the podcast
• Rick Nelson as a mentor
• Major General Jim Lender as a mentor and life as his aid
• Major Lender and Dave Gibbs
• a southern gentlemen from South Carolina
• two guys with two different backgrounds hitting it off
• “you get a lot more done in life with a smile and a handshake, rather than coming in and telling someone what to do.”
• experience matters and listening to people is crucial
• watching how General Lender interacted with high level people, along with everyday soldiers
• respect for everyone, no matter their position
• why I pay attention to the quiet people
• doing the right thing and creating impact
• we make our own lives difficult
• approaching life with an intent to do the right thing
• this is the best I can do with what I know
• creating complexity
• macro failures
• his biggest failure being a husband and a father
• separating with his wife for 7 years
• finding himself personally during those hard years
• being 25 years old in Iraq and the impact that had on his life
• feeling like he missed a defining point in his life
• being a volume dial, all in at 10
• the tremendous sense of failure after failing in character
• filling the gap he felt he never had
• what it took to get back together with his wife and family
• moving to his mom’s house for a year and the impact it had
• “Can I wake up with clear eyes and look in the mirror and like the person looking back?”
• being resilient through failure
• all credit going to his wife and daughter
• growing up and figuring out the priorities life
• “How can I make impact in the world if I’m destroying myself?”
• from a grenade to an MRE
• “If I’m not scared or intimated by it, why am I doing it?”
• growing the podcast and the support of Jersey Mikes
• fighting the algorithms of Instagram and Social Media
• Scott Dickers, founder of The Onion coming up on the show
• Special Episode on September 11 - A Lifetime of Service
• Boston had a fire department before there was an America
• working with analytics and building out a leadership development programs
• Retro Fitness Program and Blackrock
• building an elite mindset
• starting the season for Boston’s mens rowing
• Chris Schmidt - Best Self Statement
• when are you at your best? when are you out of your comfort zone?
• why he’s at his best when juggling flaming chainsaws
• the journalism behind the podcast
• why it was worth it and why he cares about impact
• the most impactful part of his journey
• why the podcast is impactful and the feedback he’s received

LinkedIn - Fran Racioppi

www.jedburghpodcast.com

Instagram - @jedburghpodcast

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Story of failure: Making a dumb bet with my nephew, and not following through with it.

Amit Gaglani PT, OCS is the National Director of Payor Relations at Alliance Physical Therapy Partners, where as a founding father, he helped launch Alliance in 2017. Presently, Alliance has successfully grown offices from Maine to Washington state with aggressive growth plans for acquisitions and new offices throughout the country. With his proven success in business and over 20 years as a physical therapist, Mr. Gaglani negotiates insurance contracts and is instrumental in opening new offices across the country. Through his business experience and acumen, he uses his skills to raise capital for investments. Initially, he would evaluate alternative investment deals for his personal investments. Soon others noticed the benefits and unique offerings that Mr. Gaglani was able to cultivate with risk mitigation, tax efficiencies, high returns and ownership stakes. Now after numerous successful deals, Mr. Gaglani has a group of over 40 accredited investors that partner with him on investments. He is very passionate about investing in the alternative investments space with unique crafted deals. He welcomes other accredited investors to join his group and experience the negotiated high returns that they have been accustomed to attaining. When not connecting with investors, you'll find him investing time with his family on the tennis court, golf course, riding arena or on a plane.

In today’s episode, Amit talks about:

• taking a test in high school and learning that physical therapy might be an option
• loving gym class and sports, and helping in that area
• working one-on-one with the patient
• balancing therapy with medicine
• something clicking in his junior year and grade improving
• being educated vs learning
• applying himself and digging into physical therapy
• the competitive nature of PT school
• attending Cane College in New Jersey
• story of taking Chemistry and realizing someone was cheating off of him
• story of me getting an F on paper in college
• friend going to school in Scotland
• the best experience in his life
• stationed in the granite city
• checking out local castles in Scotland
• the Royal Mile in Edinburgh
• passing the board and starting his first job
• running the clinic and taking on more responsibility
• reading the book Rich Dad Poor Dad and changing his mindset
• reading the eMyth
• opening up his own clinic and learning that he didn’t know anything about business
• finding an applicable program and the right training in Florida
• trying to learn while your practice is going south
• “If I don’t do this to improve myself, I will stay stuck in the same rut.”
• Sean Kirk as a mentor
• having different coaches for different things
• making you the best you can possibly be
• what specifically coaching does for an individual
• good coaches guide you and bring it out of you
• growing from one office to multiple offices
• helping more people by hiring more people
• having to evaluate his process
• “When do I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor?”
• talking to advisors to figure out how to valuate businesses
• leveraging his experience around the country
• being considered the utility player
• lots of failures when starting off in business
• story of employee causing ripple effect problems
• always interviewing instead of hiring out of desperation
• taking notes on people he interviews
• finding talent anywhere
• the loss of communication skills in recent years
• story of office manager stealing money and what went wrong
• letting something go on too long before handling it
• story of friend getting stolen from in real estate
• outsourcing until finding the right person
• a higher valuation based on lower expenses
• private equity exit and making choices on his next passion
• losing the passion of physical therapy
• Josh McCowan from Accountable Equity reaching out and asking Amit to join
• what keeps him up at night - excitement
• walking away from years of study and work in physical therapy
• chasing his passion
• creating his own fund at Accountable Equity reverse engineering
• CDF - Collateralized Debt Fund
• When do you take your chips off the table?
• making 6-10% on hard money loans
• LBI - the Hamptons of New Jersey
• getting returns for the rest of their life
• not accepting no for an answer and pushing through
• willing to have the capacity to figure things out
• making his list and weighing positives and negatives
• you need to find something with purpose and passion
• the picture of a sunset in Hawaii

www.accountableequity.com

agaglani@accountableequity.com

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Story of failure: Discouraging through a compliment.

Mo Ismail is an learned entrepreneur originally from Cairo, Egypt, and owns the company he co-founded called Makers of Content, MOCS for short. He helps authors grow an audience and become sought after thought leaders using video content marketing. Mo is a wealth of knowledge and continues to grow in his craft and knowledge of the business world.

In today’s episode, Mo talks about:

• migrating to the Untied States from Cairo, Egypt
• why his goal was to become an academic
• how being a creative made a difference in his decision
• story of laying on the couch and thinking through his future
• if you fail, academia will not go away
• when he started freelancing as a photographer
• started doing vlogs and had businesses reach out
• deciding to move on from production after the pandemic
• always wanted to be an influencer and online personality
• the hybrid of MOCS
• “people make a change when staying the same hurts more than making the change.” - quote
• listening to the clues of change
• it’s not easy but the upside and fulfillment is worth it
• shiny object syndrome and how to overcome it
• Justin’s stock photography story
• the muscle of learning to stay in it
• Seth Godin’s ‘The Dip’
• being an academic came easy, but entrepreneurship took a lot of work
• constantly resetting the compound effect
• milestones and muscles
• growing up in Egypt with religious conditioning
• being taught to bet on yourself
• working through the fear of others when starting something new
• moving to Pittsburg during the snow
• watching his mom’s grit and grind through the tough seasons of new
• micro risks at scale
• Chris Doe as a mentor and his key lesson
• being okay and not assuming failure defines you
• you’re not good enough yet and you don’t deserve it
• the difference between a ‘learned entrepreneur’ and a ‘thoroughbred entrepreneur’
• developing that failure muscle
• sometimes business decision don’t work, and that’s ok
• getting rejected and working through ego
• understanding the mindset around entrepreneurship
• Gary V - “once you understand who you are…”
• you have some learning you have to do
• failures are lessons
• story of failure from selling a business
• didn’t know what he wanted out of being an entrepreneur
• two cultures colliding and not knowing how to navigate
• “Be slower to pulling the trigger.”
• come back to us in a year
• the hardest decision was breaking up with his best friend
• not allowing everyone to blossom
• making the best decision for the greater good
• certain decision need to be made fast but you have to way the risks
• being significantly more curious
• there’s a honeymoon phase in everything and you have to be able to see the step after
• able to look at things with a dialed eye
• tendency to take all the blame and why you need to give yourself grace
• what am I doing well and what am I not doing well?
• objective as humanly possible
• “The best failure is the greatest lessons that leads to the greatest success.”
• seeking counsel from people you trust
• being challenged with questions you’re uncomfortable with
• the scientific method and how it applies to entrepreneurship
• you have to make a decision and have to kill something (-cide)
• “You stay the same, or make a change, and anxiety lives in the in-between.”
• Renee Brown - “Choose discomfort over resentment.”
• “Confidence breeds success, success breeds confidence.”
• the importance of humility
• a mixture of ego and vulnerability
• “Where can I find the answer?”
• analogy of listening to a 14-year old on TikTok
• I know I don’t have all the answers, therefore I must need counsel
• your lack of humility is what’s causing your suffering and inability to move quickly
• full walkthroughs of video games
• getting to the juice faster
• the power of team and the intimidation that comes with it
• the disillusion of control
• balancing spending money and forming young
• overcoming being the bottleneck
• what makes or breaks a successful person
• lack that is so ugly
• alcohol - suppressing all of the bad and the good
• learning and becoming who you need to become
• how failure connects us

Instagram - @moismai

www.mocs.media

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Story of failure: Not believing that I could improve my speed.

Nolan Williams is a 12-year old, 7th grade student on NCA in Springfield, Missouri. He is one of four children and the oldest kid in the family. Nolan’s playing tackle football for the first time this year and preparing the head into high school!

In today’s episode, Nolan talks about

• attending NCA in the 7th
• different hobbies Nolan and why likes them
• the best part of Legos and why they’re so fun to play with
• making cars with Legos and having battles
• his parents as mentors
• what his parents teach him and how they encourage him
• getting nervous and mad about joining a football camp
• why he was nervous about messing up in front of other people
• learning why he needs to move on after a mess up
• “you’ve got to encourage people and not focus on whether or not you’re going to mess up.”
• story of doing karaoke drill and messing up
• older kids helping younger kids at Chargers Lighthouse Football Camp
• why new things are hard for him because of the fear of failure
• being prepared and why it’s important
• doing things wrong with his siblings
• trying to get over being in a bad mood with his siblings
• putting aside his bad mood and enjoying the time
• people around him encouraging him through hard times
• the intimidation of starting football
• nervous about getting hurt in football and messing up in front of others
• why he wants to play quarterback
• Tom Brady and why he does a good job
• the upper hand and how Brady thinks through things
• what Tom Brady does better than anyone else in history
• not just focus on him being good but focusing on the team
• there’s always something you can learn from the other person
• God always has a plan
• You just got to lean on Him through hard times

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Story of failure: Failing to keep a game app alive in the app store.

Jason Romano is the Director of Media with Sports Spectrum and the host of the popular Sports Spectrum Podcast. For 17 years, he was an Emmy-Award winning Producer and Senior Manager at ESPN. He has created and produced content for shows such as SportsCenter, Monday Night Football, Mike and Mike in the Morning, Sunday NFL Countdown, College Gameday, NFL Live, MLB’s All Star Game and many more.

In today’s episode, Jason talks about

• the story of why he left ESPN and the impact it had on his life
• his 17-year career at ESPN
• story of what happened in 2015 in Nashville at a Christian gathering
• hanging out and listening to other people doing things for a great purpose
• thinking how cool it would be to do a job for God
• the halftime of work (and life) and what that means for Jason
• Brad Lomenick and his advice given to Jason
• Giving tours of ESPN and why he loved it
• what happened after giving Brad a tour of ESPN
• ‘Be careful because you don’t understand’
• grateful to be a two-time author and speaker
• spending the better part of a year exploring what Brad’s advice meant
• working on Mike and Mike In The Morning
• really enjoying his job but knowing there was something else for him
• having the time of his life at ESPN in the last year but knowing God was nudging him
• calling as many leaders as he could to gain insight for his future
• leaving a job, taking a 40% pay cut, and losing benefits
• working through details with his wife and having a peace about the future
• the mode of trusting God
• still not making the same amount of money he did when at ESPN but he has never been happier
• the story of Sport Spectrum and where it came from
• Dr. J had the idea of Sport Focus (video clip?) with Bobby Jones
• Sport Focus Magazine
• Pro Athletes Outreach
• wanting to host a podcast but being unsure at first
• dreaming of hosting his own sports talk radio show in college
• “Don’t ever count God out.”
• having dreams and thoughts for Sports Spectrum’s future
• a lot of reps means you’ll be a lot better in the future
• what he’s learned from being a host over the years
• it’s a good sign if you don’t get to all of your questions - it means you listened well
• story of interview with Carson Wentz with zero prep
• tell me your name
• people are afraid to mispronounce names but people need to ask
• Dr. J starting the first NBA chapel service
• failures are were you learn and were you stretch your muscles
• failures from moments in life and lessons learned
• story of thinking he was being on track to be a manager at ESPN
• the worst mid-year review he’s ever had
• other opportunities opening up from a bad season of life
• you’re glad you went through it because you appreciate the good times
• taking his daughter to college and a new season of life
• failures = that’s what makes you better
• I can work all things together for good. Are you sure?
• “Those difficult moments are not wanted, but they’re needed in life.”
• why ‘that was meant to happen for a reason’ drives Jason nuts
• Jason’s grandfather passing away in 2007 and why it was so hard for him
• the shock and sadness of a passing
• watching how people honored his grandfather at his funeral
• why he’s a better dad because his dad wasn’t a good dad
• “You don’t ever want to go through the pain…but you’re usually better for it.”
• when and where the holy spirit shows up
• writing a letter in honor of his grandpa and trying to read it
• losing his brother-in-law suddenly to a heart attack
• the story of speaking on behalf of the family at his brother-in-laws funeral
• sharing the gospel at a secular family funeral
• getting emotional when remembering Randy and almost breaking down
• why God gives us hope through His son Jesus
• praying in a way that someone hadn’t heard and having a peace over him
• working through tragedies and difficult moments
• full circle moments
• the anchor and assurance in Christ
• the intimidation of being an empty nester–remembering how to be married again
• growing Sport Spectrum and how to get more eyeballs on the brand
• there are a lot of people that love sports and love Jesus
• finding the 30%
• why Jason is an ‘in the trenches’ guy
• more for Sports Spectrum to do and thinking through what that looks like
• dreams and vision of the future with open hands
• 30 years of history but also being a startup
• media and ministry
• crawling isn’t so bad as long as we’re moving
• keep on keeping on for God
• becoming a better husband and growing in a relationship with God
• understanding that we flawed

www.sportsspectrum.com

Twitter - @Sports_Spectrum

Instagram - @sports_spectrum

YouTube - SportsSpectrumMag

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www.jasonromano.com

Instagram - @jasonromano

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Story of failure: Losing my composure during competition (and cursing).

My name is Jeni Hopkins and I was a coach for 24 years and have loved every minute of it. Yes, of course, there are a lot of highs and lows in coaching, but the rewards and the privilege of working with such outstanding student-athletes, assistant coaches, managers, athletic directors, athletic trainers, officials, table workers, and many more are what I valued the most. The intangibles and intricacies of sports deserve to be explored and a voice needs to be given to coaches, players, officials, and others that play such vital roles in the arena of sports. This is about giving that voice.

I am also currently the Media Coordinator of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association and have a lot of pride in the promotional mission and advocacy of that organization for coaches. I have been on their executive board for over 20 years. Check out our website at www.mobca.org.

I am also a proud member, and president, of the board of directors of the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame. This is a non-profit organization that recognizes excellence in sports and in turn raises funds for youth sports. Our website is www.springfieldhof.com.

Another adventure is that I am a color analyst for Mediacom and MSHSAA.tv and am thrilled to work with them during basketball season while getting a front row seat to the best basketball! I have also worked games, both play by play and color analyst, for Evangel University, Southwest Baptist University and Drury University. I also broadcast the Norm Stewart Classic on ESPN3 from Mizzou Arena. I love broadcasting basketball and have also enjoyed bringing volleyball and track and field to the air waves, too.

I also am the founder and director of a basketball luncheon every two weeks, Court Talk, during basketball season. This luncheon promotes basketball in Springfield and includes all of the city high school and college coaches, plus Southwest Baptist and College of the Ozarks. For more information, click here. '

I am also the founder and director of CHAMPS (Champion Humans and Mentoring Partnerships for Success), a mentoring program for seniors in high school. For more information, click here.

I am currently the Interim Assistant Director at Greenwood Laboratory School, my Alma Mater. I love those Bluejays!

I am also a Sports Counselor and have been for multiple years. I love assisting athletes with the mental side of their game!

My favorite role is with my FAMILY. My husband of over two and a half decades is Scott Hopkins. He is a farmer and very involved with children’s charities, in particular the Shriners. My daughter, Hailey Jo, is a graduate of the University of Arkansas and my son, Hayden, is a college student at Missouri State University.

In today’s episode, Jeni talks about

• why she got into coaching after being a collegiate athlete
• playing handball at Missouri State and wanting to be a female reporter
• how marrying a farmer changed her path
• jumping right into the coaching world
• being a coach for 24 years and pivoting from there
• going out on her own terms and retiring from coaching
• color analyst and broadcasting shows and working with other coaches
• the difficult decision of leaving her coaching career
• “sometimes you have to jump and take a new adventure in your life.”
• CHAMPS Leadership program and how it works
• the post game talk as a coach
• mentoring young kids and the best part of the CHAMPS program
• how her dad (professional NFL player and super bowl champion) was a big mentor
• sports counselor for 20+ years
• how she is addicted to her mother’s opinion
• Paul Mullins as a mentor
• David Oatman as a coach and mentor in high school
• sports are the platform but coaches teach life
• stealing coaching styles and making it her own
• story of a coach humbling Jeni and making sure she was on time to class
• the respect of calling you out when needed
• the respect of being on time
• why she wouldn’t have any success without failure
• the best lesson you get from sports is coping skills
• being a mentor and coach without ultimate ‘success’ of state championships
• why she loves seeing former players and still being a part of their lives
• having her team watch the movie Meet The Robinsons
• how can I fail forward?
• why younger students don’t want to put themselves in a position to fail
• why showing examples is important
• failure of people misunderstanding her intentions and why she feels bad about it
• finding a way to let go of what she can’t control
• failure is growth, congratulations!
• changing obstacles and adversity into opportunity
• being asked to lead the mental health initiatives for the state of Missouri
• finding balance as a coach
• inconsistant confidence
• “it’s failure that makes it sweet.”
• pressure from parents and our environment affecting young kids
• working with all athletes
• how can you be perfect in baseball?
• specific help for specific players
• building your physical and mental skills
• reaching your max potential
• if the mental isn’t there, the physical doesn’t matter
• why Jeni’s teams beat teams that they shouldn’t have won against
• in the final four with a 5’ 6” center
• her father having a doctorate in sports psychology
• kids are different now and that’s why you need to be different
• why her favorite role is being a mom
• trying to be the best parent she can be to her two kids
• talking to her kids about trying different sports
• coaching with her daughter in a backpack
• why she wanted to find the value of the health and fitness of sports
• being a part of a team in sports

www.acoachsperspective.com

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Story of failure: Falling out of the top of a tree when I was young.

Linh Podetti is a Vietnamese Social Entrepreneur living in Sydney, Australia. She’s the Founder of Outsourcing Angel, and Co-Founder of Dawn Media Productions–and also mother to three kids!

Her life wasn’t always so easy. She was born and raised in Vietnam with very little, so her family migrated to Australia in search of a better life. Upon arriving in Australia, her parents forced her into child labor helping them in their sewing home-based business from the age of 10 and through to her teenage years. She ran away from home multiple times and eventually became pregnant at the age of 19. She was disowned by her family with no financial or emotional support which forced her to a life on the streets as a single mum.

Despite the challenge as a young single mum, she managed to complete university and got herself a corporate job. After few years of working in my corporate job, Linh realized that it didn’t give her the flexibility and lifestyle that she want for her and her son. That was when she decided to make a choice, take the leap to starting her own business, and change her life. Fast forward to her life now, she has grown my company Outsourcing Angel to a 7 figure business and has created employment for hundreds of people over the years.

In today’s episode, Linh talks about:

• going from single, broke mom to
• rebelling and running away from home
• not coming from an entrepreneurial family
• parents not encouraging to achieve and not being born to be rich
• the challenge of having a child and working
• starting a business with a kid
• her superpower of outsourcing
• specializing in remote work
• how do you transform business and staff members
• virtual assistants being a people’s game and solving problems
• the culture of asians and following instructions and how it effects
• being the shiest kid in Vietnam and working on it in Australia
• practicing public speaking and videos and getting good at it
• being surrounded by unsupportive people and using her belief in herself
• self learning from books and videos
• story of her first business in nail polish and what she learned
• learning from getting ripped off from website business
• outsourcing locally isn’t always the right thing
• creating a meet-up and moving forward
• figuring out that people look up to you when hosting
• giving advice and how it turned into a business
• solving the problem and worrying later about the other stuff
• having no other way out in life
• starting Outsourcing Angel
• “businesses fail because people think they can set and forget. It’s not like that.”
• starting a company with a partner and having different goals
• how to choose the right partner in business
• needed skills in partnerships and not just having a good time
• values and ethics will take you through most but goals have to be aligned
• business should be scalable
• scalable, values, and skillset
• working through failure by journaling, feeding your mind, and exercising
• the happiest CEO
• ‘sleeping in’ at 4:30 AM
• new business’s as a newborn and starting again
• no matter how experience you are, when you launch a new business you have to hustle
• you have to love your baby business
• at a place of wanting to give back
• “How to you help people become successful but still enjoy life?”
• can’t wait to see her new business baby grow up and thrive
• her relationship with her parents now
• forgiving her parents and writing a letter that she never gave

www.linhpodetti.com

Linh Podetti - Facebook

Linh Podetti - Twitter - @linhpod

Linh Podetti - Instagram - @linhpod

Linh Podetti - YouTube

Linh Podetti - LinkedIn

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Story of failure: Striking out in the best comeback I’ve ever been a part of.

Jeremy Wells is a Partner at Longitude°. In 2020, he authored the book “Future Hospitality” – focused on how branding can create more impactful guest experiences. This book is used at Cornell University’s Vision & Concepting graduate course. He’s also an honored member of the Boutique & Lifestyle Leaders Association (BLLA) Education Committee and has spoken at industry events and associations including AAHOA, Global Hospitality Summit, Hospitality Talks, and more.

In today’s episode, Jeremy talks about:

• only lasting in college for a year and then getting a job offer
• starting his last year as an employee in 2013 and getting let go
• stuck in the hamster wheel
• joining as a partner at Longitudeº in 2018
• closing on a hotel project in Branson, MO
• thinking through different real estate projects through the years
• Darren Pierce, owner of Pinnacle Sign Group as a mentor
• story of when he first met his first mentor
• gratitude when thinking of a mentor
• successful people being protective of their time
• putting mentor’s words into action
• lessons learned helping him avoid missteps
• reading books and gaining insight
• Brandon Goodwin as a mentor
• the limit put on you as an employee and the multiple bosses of entrepreneurs
• is it more safe to control your own business or work for someone else?
• the biggest failures of his life leading to the next phase of his life
• God opening new doors if you allow him to
• failures are launchpads to the next big thing
• story of a personal failure during his power lifting days
• being physically fit, but not being there for his family
• his first book about training, diet, and exercise
• starving himself to get in shape for shows
• being stressed out on a body building trip in Columbus, Ohio
• breaking down mentally during a show and then quitting on the spot
• realizing the importance of not being consumed with himself and his own desires
• not losing site of God’s plan in his life
• rededicating his life to God and his family
• when good things become bad things
• encouraging others through stories of his mistakes
• being an overly optimistic person
• no one wants to fail
• failure is an event, not a person
• continuing to grow his perspective
• intimidation of the hotel project coming up
• delivering on promises and expectations
• James 4 - not boasting about the future
• work like it depends on you, and trust like it depends on God

LinkedIn - Jeremy Wells

www.longitudedesign.com

8 Valuable Lessons I Learn From Buying My First Hotel

Future Hospitality Podcast

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Story of failure: Cutting myself while clipping my nose hairs.

Kurt Theobald is the CEO and Chief Strategist at Classy Llama. Through his commitment to a true agency culture, in which the agent acts in the best interest of its clients without consideration for private gain, the team at Classy Llama has continued to develop greater efficiencies and value opportunities for their clients. Within Classy Llama, Theobald has established the understanding that what makes or breaks an agency is the quality of its relationships.

In today’s episode, Kurt talks about:

• having the entrepreneurial bug when he was young and almost losing it
• checking out of college when it wasn’t for him
• had to learn lessons a different way
• reigniting a passion for learning through reading
• from real estate, to business failures
• jumping from one frying pan to another
• being close friends with failure and how that impacted his life
• helping people see the valleys in between the peaks of the journey
• expecting to fail but overcoming at all times and getting back on the horse
• story of how one idea led to another opportunity
• the irony of a good company
• learning how to lead
• the transition from Magento to Adobe Commerce
• having his older brother Kyle Theobald as a great mentor
• mentors through books and some of the greatest minds of the past
• being the dumbest guy in the room and asking for help
• there are a lot of people out there that want to help
• seeing that passion to learn and supporting others in their journey
• go for the people in the margins and the blue ocean strategy
• the failure of a mentor relationship
• Jack Stack - The Great Game of Business
• retrospectively learning from a past mentor
• the failure of arguing, instead of listening with humility
• the truth of a mistake and pride issues when learning
• recognizing that he didn’t have it all together
• the falsehood of overnight success and the long ramp to success
• “God, don’t make me successful until I’m ready to carry it well.”
• needing far fewer failures than what was needed
• the story of a failed business of touch screen kiosks
• story of taxi advertising, selling the product, and trouble with the permits
• tendency of thinking what’s possible and making it too big
• the big mistake of not losing the deal and not doing market research
• the heaviness of losing other people’s money in ventures
• Johnathan Hodges and learning through his reading
• why you need different messages for different people
• going through personal bankruptcy at 23 years old
• why you need sales and revenue before culture
• “Most times the shadow is greater than the object itself.”
• prepare for judgement from people around you
• “You have to eat the meat and spit out the bones. The bones are the judgement.”
• Tiger Woods habits - 6 steps to celebrate or commiserate
• Ray Dalio - Principles
• “When you go through failure, forget the pain, and remember the principles that you learned through it.”
• the night is darkest right before the dawn
• asking people to tell him about their failures
• the fundamental belief of ‘this is what I was designed to do’
• always stepping onto the next edge and being uncomfortable
• the amount of money printing in 2020 and how it affects business spending
• being early to the spending and working through low close rates
• just keep swimming
• when you find out who is willing to go through the journey with you
• the pruning of the vine
• living true to who he is

www.classyllama.com

Twitter - @kurttheobald

LinkedIn - Kurt Theobald

Medium Articles

1. One Simple Change That Improved Performance By 15%
2. Get All The Answers Wrong Neutralizing Your Fear of Mistakes

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Story of failure: Not staying in the place we were meant to be.

Katy Kelly is the founder of Refresh Organizing, an interior organizing agency focused on helping you create free space in your home, your workplace, and in your life.

After training directly under Marie Kondo, I became Southwest Missouri’s only professional organizer certified in this world renowned approach to home organization: The KonMari Method.® I work with clients in various life stages - including busy families, empty nesters, professionals, and those about to sell their homes. This one-time tidying journey results in a decluttered, refreshed space and state of mind.

As a mother, I am well aware of the critical role our home plays in our overall quality of life. The more we own, the more we must manage — and I believe we were made for more than simply acquiring and managing our belongings. When working together, I guide you in cultivating a peaceful, supportive home environment that is sustainable long-term; therefore, allowing you to focus your time and energy on the people and passions that bring the most joy to your life.

In today’s episode, Katy talks about:

• the Marie Kondo method
• how she always been an organized person
• story of organizing as a kid on trips
• how she went from the pharmaceutical industry to an organization business
• why she felt like she was always organizing at home
• who is Marie Kondo?
• keeping things for guilt driven reasons and how to let it go
• only one of two KonMari Consultant
• having an aunt as a mentor
• a former boss as mentor and how he taught her many aspects to business and how to say goodbye to the corporate world
• her aunt giving Katy her first Bible
• confronting materialism and her own decisions by learning from clients
• analogy/story of canoes and when it’s time to turn their canoes around
• where am I going and do I want to go this way?
• working with extraordinary woman navigating big life changes
• the burden that accompanies stuff
• being able to observe others
• “anybody who’s ahead of you in life or business that says I could do it all over again, then you just stop and listen to what they have to say.”
• a holding space and not carrying other’s burdens
• not having an emotional investment in the things
• the failure of getting exactly what she wanted
• not knowing how to sell a large equipment and the grueling part of travel
• learning humility when apologizing to a director
• gracious and disappointed
• something always being a missed opportunity
• getting through people pleasing and discouragement
• the intimidation of starting a school from scratch
• Capstone: Acton Academy
• what she loves about Acton
• the first graduates of Acton Academy
• curious, happy, successful human beings
• keep walking
• walking in the dark with a headlamp

www.refreshorganizing.com

Instagram - @ourliferefreshed

www.capstoneacton.org

@capstoneacton

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Story of failure: Not listening and asking questions.

Steve Kelly has a diverse banking expertise in: commercial lending, credit risk management, commercial credit/underwriting, collections/problem loan workout, operations leadership, and M&A due diligence/planning/integration. Assisted with due diligence, planning, and integration on three bank acquisitions totaling $2.4 billion in assets since 2010. Most importantly, a husband to Katy, my amazing wife who dedicates her life to raising our two boys Anderson and Turner.

In today’s episode, Steve talks about:

• hearing about Acton Academy from Hal Elrod
• not being able to get past what they had learned
• moving to Springfield, Missouri with Arvest
• transition from banking to starting a school
• embarking on a new adventure
• self-directing learning model
• focusing on character, grit, and celebrating failure in school
• Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln growing up in a one-room schoolhouse
• the problem of fearing failure in school
• celebrating older students teaching younger students
• teachers as guides and redirecting questions
• fostering a life long love of learning
• creating an environment where students figure things out on their own
• being mentored from CEO of Butterball Turkey
• encouragement in ways to help other people
• learning to take career “risk” from his dad
• life is short and you don’t know when things can happen
• no wanting to have any regrets
• generation of steady men and learning from them
• all successes have been correlated to lessons from his failures
• story of his biggest failure when starting a real estate company in 2008
• humbled to start over in his banking career and leading to one of his greatest successes
• trying a business and it not working out was the best thing
• success made up of the bricks of failure
• a hero isn’t a celebrity
• building confidence through failure
• having the clarity to walk through another open door
• using faith to get through his struggle and failures
• why looking up is a good place to be
• a community of learners
• homeschooling is tough
• continuing to expand Acton once people learn about the process
• growth of Capstone: Acton Academy after year one
• giving himself a pep talk and self encouragement
• the hard and narrow path
• just keep walking
• affiliate of Acton Academy

www.capstoneacton.org

Instagram - @capstoneacton

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Story of failure: Punching my brother when we were younger.

Jordan Moorhead has been an Entrepreneur since he was a kid.

He had a lawn business when he was 13 and walked around putting flyers around the neighborhood. Jordan went the traditional route for a few years and worked jobs while he went to college. Getting laid off while in college was the best thing that ever happened to him.

He started investing in real estate in 2016 and was immediately hooked. He’d wanted to be a real estate investor since his early teens but listened too much to others to wait for the “right time”. The right time is always now.

Jordan’s focus now is growing The Moorhead Team, investing in real estate and helping others get started in real estate as a Realtor or real estate investor.

In today’s episode, Jordan talks about:

• story of getting started in house hacking in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• buying a duplex for his first investment apartment
• renting a porch on Airbnb for 10+ days
• meeting people while hosting on Airbnb
• couch-surfing
• the profitability of short term rentals
• starting in Louisville and Minneapolis, and moving to Houston, Texas
• trying to put himself around people who did big things and feeding off that energy
• Andy Noble as a mentor and how his work ethic helped
• how his dad encouraged him to take risks and work hard
• story of how his dad went through 2006-2008 and work through it
• playing sports growing up like lacrosse and track
• his parents always giving him enough but not giving him everything he wanted
• paying more attention to learning investing
• scaling up and building a team in multi-family investing
• you could be a multimillionaire if…
• story of running a real estate team in Austin and the failure of not following up with people
• 36 touch points throughout the year and consistency
• 7 out of every 100 people will need your service
• failure of not having a capital expense budget up front
• running over on budget effecting cash flow
• the timing of the market when selling
• the importance of fixing things the right way when investing and when to have a plan to wait
• getting lucky in the market
• working through the discouragement of failures
• learning providing opportunity and failing is a good thing
• the visualization of targets and trying
• why he’s never really failed because he pivots
• learning from a guy who went through bankruptcy
• not going for the best proven people and why that is
• shifting his mindset on hiring people and being responsible for people’s salary
• intimidation of your failures effecting other people and working through that
• the scary part of prices in real estate staying the same and interest rates going up
• not being in the same place wth inventory in real estate compared to 2020
• if less people buy houses, more people need to rent
• crazy low interest rates of the last few years
• median home price difference in different areas
• why he would love to spend a month every year in a different country and have kids
• France and Thailand, and the time difference
• taking action and letting it take shape

Instagram - @jordan_moorhead

Twitter - @Jordan_Moorhead

LinkedIn - Jordan Moorhead

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Story of failure: Using mothballs to get rid of squirrels in our attic.

Aaron Walker is a businessman and Life Coach who has inspired many through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. He enjoys helping others and believes experience is a great teacher. 42 years of entrepreneurship and marriage have given Aaron a wealth of experience. Aaron continues to reach new heights and broaden his perspective of the terrain by examining his experiences and growing from them.

For more than two decades and counting, Aaron has taken classes from and has been coached personally by his friend, financial guru, Dave Ramsey. Spiritual mentors David Landrith and Bob Warren have impacted his spiritual life beyond measure. Two other disciplined mastermind groups, 48 Days led by friend Dan Miller and The Torch have played a role in his understanding of how to live a significant and successful life. Aaron incorporates education and learning opportunities into his daily routine, remaining informed of the latest tools and trends available.

In today’s episode, Aaron talks about:

• why he doesn’t believe in coincidences
• his family background
• raised a poor kid with amazing parents
• why his dad was a terrible business man
• starting working early in life and then opened his own store at age 18
• sold his business at age 27 and retired
• broker than a convict to retired at 27
• why a mastermind group he was in encouraged him to coach
• going from one to fifteen mastermind group with Iron Sharps Iron
• Bob Warren was a personal mentor
• David Landrith as a mentor
• dodging landmines with mentors
• being a mentee or mentor
• learning what a mastermind group was and why being vulnerable was such a gift
• sharing ideas with his mastermind and modifying as needed
• the perspectives and unique trials of others
• Jeff Hoffman (Priceline.com) telling him that 10% of everything he reads doesn’t apply to him right now, but it gives him a different perspective
• a new perspective opens new opportunities
• drinking out of a firehouse
• construction project at his home and how to solve the problem they were up against
• core value: everything is figure-out-able
• the value of an unbiased, trusted advisor
• what he attributes most of his success to over the years
• no one is perfect, we’re always learning
• trust me, I’ve been there before
• why his wife Robin has been his biggest cheerleader
• delaying gratification in the early years of his marriage
• being willing to subject himself to others’ scrutiny
• Dave Ramsey quote about living today
• we’ve only got one life so why not maximize it?
• why failure is found in not trying
• if you don’t try out, you won’t make the team, guaranteed
• launch, tweak, and pivot
• maybe the timing isn’t right and that’s all there is to it
• being obedient to the leadership of the holy spirit
• Carol Dweck - Mindset
• surrounding yourself with a growth mindset
• being successful at the wrong thing
• coming home to a house full of strangers after focusing on financial accomplishments
• the trouble with moving the bar
• offering his family on the alter of sacrifice for more financial status
• killing a pedestrian in an accident at 40 years old
• bigger, better, faster and why they don’t scratch the itch of happiness
• being a high D personality and wanting to be challenged
• wanting to make a difference today vs. when he was younger
• his heart towards helping younger men skip failures he’s experience in the past
• why do you like to make money?
• not wanting to give out of compulsion
• I’ll just be happier when…
• money doesn’t change the heart, money magnifies it
• discouragement can immobilize you
• Angela Duckworth - Grit Study
• story of when he decided at 15 years old that he didn’t want to go to school, he wanted to work
• graduating early through summer and night school
• why grit makes all the difference
• no today, not tomorrow
• not being the sharpest tack in the box and not settling
• “Can’t couldn’t do it and could did it all.”
• why his mom never allowed her children to say “can’t”
• no longer seeing failure as failure
• no naysayers or gossipers in his inner circle
• one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch
• looking at things in a new lens
• always needing to be on the edge of being uncomfortable
• growing and stretching your mind and abilities in business
• why you should never accomplish your goal in its entirety
• building the infrastructure to double in 18 months
• isolation is the enemy of excellence
• we don’t know what we don’t know
• borrowing other people’s courage, perspective, and insight
• why it’s arrogant to say that I have it all figured out
• when life throws you a curve, who do you turn do?
• life in community vs. life in a silo
• why you don’t grow through osmosis
• hiring coaches to broaden his skills and push his perspective
• wanting to be on the cutting edge
• life is a constant journey and why it’s
• the message won’t change but the methodology will change
• why he looks forward to telling himself good job for not quitting
• not wanting his legacy to be about him but about others

www.viewfromthetop.com

Twitter - @VFTCoach

Facebook - @CoachAaronWalker

LinkedIn - aaronwalkerviewfromthetop

YouTube - @aaronwalkervftt

Instagram - @isimastermind

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Story of failure: Breaking our kitchen window playing baseball.

Ethan Bryan is a storyteller whose narratives explore what it means to live a good story.

At the age of six, he lost all of his hair due to an immune-system disorder called alopecia. Ethan knows about overcoming personal obstacles and being bullied. He also understands the power of hope, persevering through hundreds upon hundreds of manuscript rejections.

The author of ten books, his writings earned him an opportunity to speak at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, an invitation to the White House for the Royals World Series championship, and endorsements from several former MLB players including Jim “The Rookie” Morris.

Ethan has appeared ever so briefly in an ESPN 30-for-30 (#BringBackSungWoo) and as a background ballplayer in an Emmy-award winning documentary (First Boys of Spring). He still dreams of playing baseball (throwing out a first pitch) for his beloved KC Royals.

A major fan of both Dr Pepper and donuts, Ethan was one of the best benchwarmers on his high school junior varsity baseball team.

In today’s episode, Ethan talks about:

• his first Royals baseball game his parents took him to when George Brett hit a walk-off home-run
• battling Alopecia as a kid in Kansas City
• asking his dad if he could play baseball without hair
• retiring from baseball at age 16
• playing golf and winning conference as a senior at Kickapoo High School
• taking students to baseball games while attending Baylor
• how the idea of A Year of Playing Catch came about
• how playing catch with his daughters formed his writing and vision
• why he’s thankful for his daughter’s influence on his writing
• asking a news anchor to play catch and what formed after
• why playing catch is good for the body and brain
• why playing catch develops trust
• being in a flow state while playing catch
• the toll of playing catch on a daily basis and how it strengthened
• playing catch with his dad at the Field of Dreams
• meeting Stan Sipka and not breaking up a no-hitter
• cancelled interviews and in-person meetings being cancelled
• writing 90% of A Year of Playing Catch at The Mudhouse in Springfield
• finding his name in an obituary online and his thoughts and actions that followed
• sending a book to let a grieving family know that someone was thinking of them
• being the inspiration for Dan Bryan (not related) and why he played 365 games of catch in his son’s honor
• story of playing catch with Dan Bryan after his son’s memorial
• the story of 99 and a God wink moment with Dan
• Robert Benson as a writing mentor (The Echo Within)
• story of meeting Robert Benson and thanking him for his work
• going to dinner with Robert Benson and his inspirational quote
• an inside the book home-run!
• being a first born, type A personality
• story of a B- on his report card
• Ethan’s definition of success and why
• relationships and community around you to help guide you through failure
• the wisdom and warmth of a benchwarmer
• story of getting rejected with his new novel and the lessons he’s learning
• not giving up in the face of failure
• wearing his emotions on his sleeve and how he works through it
• processing failure and emotions through sweat
• Grip’n’Rip baseball league
• working on the sequel to A Year of Playing Catch and why it’s intimidating
• catch playing mentorship program
• a play deprived culture and a loneliness epidemic
• why kids stop playing baseball
• how to fix the radical distrust of others
• the science behind playing a game of catch
• The Life-Saving Adventure of Graceland Gordon and Her Dog
• the scavenger hunt of a lifetime
• the day my shoes melted during catch

Twitter - @ethanbryan

Facebook - @EthanBryanStories

www.ethanbryan.com

Dan Bryan’s / Ethan Bryan's Game of Catch

MiLB Article

The Echo Within

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Story of failure: Failing to write consistently.

Cindy Louisette Johnson is a painter, mixed-media artist and writer. She lives with her husband two children and chocolate standard poodle in a woodland getaway. The forests offer sanctuary and stimulation for her creativity. Books have also played a major influential role in Cindy Louisette’s life from the time she was a small girl. The richness of words, ideas, pictures, adventures and people’s stories engaged her mind and broadened her horizons.

Nothing pleases Cindy more than a stroll through her gardens, cooking something wonderful for family or friends, a good book or a whimsical surprise.

Her writing and art deal with the issues of her heart as it travels through life, sharply contrasted by traumatic turmoil due to severe childhood abuse and wondrous love and beauty. She is continually challenged to make her theology her biography.

In today’s episode, Cindy talks about:

• developing businesses together with her husband

• adopting two children

• journaling about her life and her abusive upbringing

• how she learned to stand on God’s promise of sending a counselor

• what she would say to Jesus why she would hold him to His truths

• the incredible journey of communing with God

• the miracle of her healing

• whatever the enemy intended for evil has to be filtered through God first

• why she’s chosen her trials as gifts

• we all have stuff and who we can overcome those issues

• the intricacy of her mixed media art in her book

• the six year project of illustrating her memoire

• helping develop her signature for her art

• just doing a piece of art wasn’t allowed when she was young

• the testimony to the power of God

• the lion with wings and how it was carried out

• hanging on to the spirit for dear life

• how do you illustrate the holy spirit?

• charging against the gates of hell

• mentors in art, spiritual, and financial

• reading constantly and gaining authors as mentors

• books have been her friend from the time as a small child

• her greatest mentor in her life, her husband

• get the difficult things out of the way first

• observing people and how they handle other individuals

• people being multipliers or subtractors

• watching how to work with people and rise up to their potential

• the principals of being financially independent

• Bob McKewen

• what kind of message do you send out to the people around you?

• trying to accomplish things in her own power

• we’re each created for a purpose

• the red flags of stress and anxiousness

• why her life hasn’t been easy and why that’s ok

• the horrific memories of her past and the courage it took to heal

• walking away for a little while and recalibrating

• being still and listening to God

• the power of nature and how much she loves birds

• the different leaf shapes and how they thrill her and show God’s presence

• why everything that’s new intimidates her and why it’s easy to sometimes procrastinate

• why she’s compelled to move forward

• conquering the next goal and fear

• building a social media platform to market her book

• why she’s proud of herself for facing her fears

• choosing to not be a victim

• continuing to offer gratitude to almighty God

• the hope of her story and what it should bring them back to

• in the poetry section of Barnes and Noble

• multiple awards for the book

• already working on her next book

www.cindylouisette.com

Instagram - @cindylouisette

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Story of failure: Playing too many video games early in my marriage.

Alaura Lovelight is an American R&B recording artist and performer. Based out of New York City, Alaura has performed all over the US for over 100,000 people as well as worked alongside Grammy award winning producers and #1 Billboard artists. Alaura trained classically on the piano for over 25 years and studied music composition professionally at The University of Northwestern.

In addition to performing, writing and recording she works with people of all ages through her courses, private consulting and coaching to teach others how to use music to build a life they love.

In 2018 she founded the You Matter Movement to use music to empower and inspire the youth and has since worked with hundreds of youth through after school music empowerment programs, teen empowerment workshops, and individual music lessons for songwriting and performance.

As well as a recording artist, she is also a 2 time published writer with Addicted2Success the #1 motivational and inspirational website globally with over 315 million visitors, along with publications on Newsbreak, Thrive Global and Music Matters Blog.

In today’s episode, Alaura talks about:

• playing piano since she was little and before she could read a book

• why music has always been a part of her and why it came naturally to her

• why she loves piecing music together since she was young

• her mom being an amazing pianist

• jazz always being on in the background while cooking

• story of her grandmother playing jazz at the pool

• Whitney Houston and Lauren Hill being big influences for her

• the start of the You Matter Movement

• what defines us as people

• working with kids and talking about feelings and futures

• visiting schools, provoking conversations, and how important it is for kids and even teachers

• the ten-year plan for the You Matter Movement and the coming workbook

• listening to podcast, audiobooks and personal development

• with the internet, there’s so many people that can be mentors

• her admiration of Oprah

• Louis Hay, Wayne Dyer, Joe Dispenza, and Abraham Hicks as mentors

• Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself

• pray from a place of knowing, not needing

• shifting her perspective on God and learning to trust

• following the flow of the day and journaling every morning

• why it took a long time to listen to people with more experience

• why she loves to seek advice and opinions of people that have gone before her

• deciphering if someone has authority on a subject

• sometimes you have to fall on your face and fail

• failure is uncomfortable but if you can embrace it, that’s the sweet spot

• grow through the fork in the road

• what can I learn from that and how can I do better?

• music and sports are the only arenas where people judge you for things they can’t do

• having an anxiety of hoping people like it

• you only have to win 51% to win the presidency

• you have to focus on who does like and not who doesn’t

• story of failure with pursuing a major label company and relinquishing control

• the quicksand of the music industry

• walking away from what she had created to gain freedom

• why it’s hard to walk away from something that you haven’t seen a return from

• the experiences are the return

• trusting that it’s going to come back at some point but not here

• being extremely discouraged and upset and how she worked through it

• the vulnerability of putting yourself out there

• story of being made fun of while playing at bars

• its unrealistic to think that you won’t be disappointed

• working on a television project and the intimidation that comes with it

• stepping into her worthiness

• quickly talking yourself out of a blessing and having positive thoughts

• big on taking a walk and connecting to nature

• talking yourself out of the old wiring and unlearning what we’ve told ourselves in the past

• working on being present and observing the feeling

• the theme of the gap between the thought and the feeling

• getting to the root of things and making space for the feeling

• writing letters to herself from her future self

• relax, it’s fine, and it’s going to be ok

• writing your own eulogy

• we get to write our own story

www.lovelightsoundmusic.com

The You Matter Blog

Instagram - @alauralovelight

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Story of failure: Jumping off a ski lift after losing a ski in Colorado.

Craig Valentine is a world champion public speaker, a motivational speaker and a best-selling author of the book World Class Speaking! Craig coaches speakers across the country and is known as one of the best teachers in the subject of public speaking. He’s an amazing story teller and has honed his craft over the last 24 years. As a motivational speaker, he has spoken in the United States, Taiwan, Canada, Jamaica, Qatar (Doha), England, Bahamas, Hong Kong, China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia giving as many as 160 presentations per year. He is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking for Toastmasters International. Craig Valentine is also the Co-Founder of the World Class Speaking program, which helps up-and-coming speakers and speech coaches turn their presentations and programs into huge profits. Craig is the author of the groundbreaking book, The Nuts and Bolts of Public Speaking, Co-Author of the books, World Class Speaking and World Class Speaking In Action, and contributing author for the books Guerrilla Marketing on the Front Lines, Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars, and Guerrilla Marketing Remix.Craig has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.

In today’s episode, Craig talks about:

• story of when he was 10 years old and his conversation with Mr. H

• being told not to talk anymore because he sounded like Daffy Duck

• the same people that kicked you when you were down will pat you on the back when you perceiver

• confrontation with Mr. H after winning the world championship

• why he wouldn’t be the speaker and man he is today without Mr. H

• how he got past his lisp with Dale Carnegie

• reading a book emphatically and working at it

• why your brain can work things out when you sleep

• Winston Churchill - “The farther back we look, the further ahead we’re able to see.”

• putting gum balls in his mouth and running hills to work on this speaking

• a lot of his mentors were in books

• Steven Covey, Dale Carnegie,

• when he was in prison (visiting)

• Will Rogers - “You might be on the right track, but if you stand there, you’ll get run over.”

• story of trying to get a speaking coach

• checking the price of doing something along with the cost

• what got me here won’t get me there

• having bad engagements lead to improvements

• story of flying out first class for his first speaking gig and the pressure that came with it

• making $3,500 for a speaking engagement but only delivering a $150 speech

• how a coach meets you where you are

• the biggest lesson for Craig

• The Way of the Peaceful Warrior is his favorite book

• thoughts dissolve when they hit the present

• being in the present moment

• it’s not about perfection, it’s about connection

• opposite of stale is fresh

• story of a speech in Montreal and the failure that was

• not realizing the majority of the audience would be the same

• all in his head after a failed speech and realizing he one person throw him off in a speech

• switching up in the moment to move on to something else

• Bill Gove - first president of national speaking association

• I’m responsible to my audience, not for my audience

• Craig’s biggest failure and taking people’s time

• the moment he wanted to quit

• a lady capturing his failure in a drawing

• playing college basketball

• the true test of a person is how they handle adversity

• how imagination gets him through failure and discouragement

• being an events planner in the mid-90’s

• story of setting up chairs and visualizing himself speaking in front of a crowd

• today I move the chairs, tomorrow I move the audience

• if you have a strong enough vision, you know that failures are just stumbling blocks along the way

• being prepared or not prepared for the opportunity

• you’re going to rise or fall to the level you see yourself

• intimidation of developing an app

• the inner circle for speakers

• why it’s exhilarating to live outside your comfort zone

• story of delayed flight and what happened when he cut off a lady in line

• sitting down with a stranger for three hours and having a conversation

• some people have 30 years of experience and some people have 1 year of experience 30 times over

• all in place for speaking and growth in his upcoming app

• state it and then illustrate it with an example

• seeing a story and concept in action

• intimidation of investing and marketing and seeing a return

• the difference between an investment and expense

• winning the different levels of toastmasters

• are you going to win the next one?

• why I never reached for the trophy, but I always reached for the life

• how he’s going to touch many lives

• there’s only one winner per year and you can touch lives now

• leaving a legacy

• a positive ripple effect

www.52speakingtips.com

Twitter - @CraigProSpeaker

Facebook - Craig Valentine

LinkedIn - Craig Valentine

YouTube Channel

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Story of failure: Losing our keys on the beach in Cape Cod and being stranded for two days.

Amanda Heal is from Canberra, Australia and is a resilience speaker and author of Seeing By Vision, Not By Sight. Amanda helps leaders and their teams overcome uncertainty and increase resilience by building their courage. She’s also scaled a 10,000 foot mountain. And by the way she’s blind. In today’s episode, Amanda talks about:

• being born premature at 26 weeks and weight 1.9 ounces

• because she was so small, they gave her too much oxygen and it caused blindness

• her parents lobbied the government to allow her in public school

• being made redundant that started her journey

• climbing in Nepal with a Paralympic athlete, white water rafting, riding an elephant, and petting a baby rhino

• lots of training before climbing 10,000 feet

• the hardest part of the climb being the altitude

• why Kenyan runners do so well

• the most unpolluted air she has ever experienced

• dancing around in circles on top of the mountain

• the best thing about being blind and why it’s her superpower

• her life’s purpose of inspiring and encouraging others

• John Maxwell being a mentor to her

• Jesus Christ being a mentor to her

• story of taking a photo with John Maxwell and getting a one-armed hug by John

• always being raised with a Christian background and when it changed at a healing service

• worship songs only being three lines long

• being prayed for sight but receiving Jesus instead

• Jesus being her CEO

• being laid off from her legal career after a lengthy career

• having to apply for a job that she already held

• not being truly happy in her job but discerning her life purpose

• living out what God created her to do

• excess to requirements and not needed anymore

• hearing Nick Voyachik speak

• why she used to get upset when people called her inspiring and why that changed

• what other people think of her has nothing to do with me

• it’s ok for other people to have thoughts different from you

• reaching out to Nick via email

• the failure that helped changed her response and her life

• why she used to cry and pray a lot, and let herself be sad

• the thing that keeps her life on track

• how can I do that better or how can I learn from this?

• wanting to get paid speaking work and why that scares her

• questioning herself on whether she’s worthy or not

• I told you you’d get here

• goals of keynotes, international travel, holidays and good income

• coming off being paid well as a lawyer and asking how much do I really need that gadget?

• the blessing of having her income decrease

• not realizing she was paying for two gym memberships

• why she wants to support her mother in the comfort she would like

• her silent business partner

• taking her mom on a holiday in luxury

• going on their first cruise for her mom’s 90th birthday

• wanting to write a book on courage

• You Don’t Need Sight, You Just Need Vision

• when God told her to stop messing around and to speak

• Seeing by Vision, Not by Sight

www.amandaheal.com.au

www.purposevisionfuture.com

Twitter - @amanda_heal

LinkedIn - Amanda Heal

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Story of failure: The thought failure of driving by a roofing sign and Kendra not noticing.

As a Madison Ave ad man, John Follis, spent the first 7 years of his career getting fired and the next 25 getting famous. Despite his rough career start he ultimately co-founded one of New York's most awarded agencies and was selected one of Madison Ave's "12 Best" by The NY Ad Club.

John’s high impact creative has helped sell everything from Coke to God and his high impact campaigns have been covered in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, TIME, The Harvard Business Review, and a Prentice-Hall marketing textbook.

As a requested speaker John has addressed The World Business Academy and The Yale Entrepreneur Institute among others. He's also had the remarkable experience of being honored at both The White House for his exceptional public service work.

But, in the first seven years of his career John was fired 4 times and told he'd never succeed in the business. How he overcame those harsh rejections to achieve his exceptional success is revealed in John's acclaimed video series “True Stories in Advertising.”

In today’s episode, John talks about:

• spending his career in advertising in New York, Atlanta, and Chicago

• a 25-year career on Madison Ave. in New York

• why he kept getting fired early in his advertising career

• why he loves creating things and how he got into video

• early days of iMac movies and still images

• creating fun animations and telling the stories of his career

• almost got a book published in the mid-90’s after signing a book deal with a top New York publisher

• 22 rejections when pitching his book

• stories that were collecting dust and wanting to do something with them

• the start of true stories in advertising

• why he doesn’t have to focus on making money and can simply create

• story of the most bizarre evening in advertising history

• the Cleo Awards in the advertising business

• $250 ticket in the early 1990’s

• packed in like sardines with no air conditioning at the awards show

• why the head caterer acted as the master of ceremonies and why bread rolls we thrown

• the band playing Danny Boy while bread rolls fly

• the eventual theft of the golden statues from the stage

• the mad dash for the Cleo Awards

• having no idea if he had won an award and why he got a certificate a year later

• why one of the most frustrating thing in his career was not being able to find a mentor

• being hired at a top agency and being excited about a possible mentor that didn’t pan out

• why his dad was a supportive figure and mentor for him in life

• attending Syracuse University and learning a lot in the world of advertising

• Steve Jobs talking about connecting the dots

• if he had not been fired, he would have not started freelancing which led to a lot of success in his career

• a big part of his success was due to a great business partner

• what a good partnership looks like

• being able to focus on becoming a good copywriter and the production of ads

• story of the first advertising course he took at Syracuse

• why his instructor told him that he sucked and didn’t understand advertising

• why you can’t dismiss a teacher telling you you’re not going to make it

• advertising 101

• why discouragement didn’t feel like an experience he could learn from at the time

• taking the course again with a different instructor and brushing off the failure of the first

• sometimes you just don’t get along with people

• looking at things analytically and processing a way forward

• trying to look at other paths forward to reach your goal

• in order to get fired, you have to first get hired

• why he never stopped trying to improve his portfolio

• developing and creating as a creative

• speculative ads and the role they play in a portfolio

• at the point in his life to do whatever he wants

• playing the guitar and playing in a band in front of people

• certain songs that people know and like that you don’t have to play well

• knowing what his vocal range is and playing stairway to heaven

• the key is picking the right audience

• you can’t sing classic rock songs to kids in the 20’s and 30’s because it won’t connect

• why he wants to spend the next five years productively

• why sharing experiences makes him feel good and why he wants to inspire people

John's Vimeo

John's YouTube

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Story of failure: Getting rejected by banks when we were first starting out asking for a $10,000 business loan.

Hugh Carnahan is a finance enthusiast, investor, creator, and the head mustache at Hillbilly Millionarie! He’s been featured on BiggerPockets and is the President and owner of Greater Ozarks Realty. Hugh currently lives in the great state of Missouri.

In today’s episode, Hugh talks about:

• military school from age 10-22

• went to college, got a degree, and went into corporate America

• moving to California and learning software and customer support

• wheels falling off his marriage and coming back to manufacturing

• learning all about 2 Second Lean and eliminating waste from his life

• looking into buying solar panels and then pivoting into real estate

• listening to BiggerPockets to learn real estate

• buying 26 crack houses in north Springfield

• successfully BRRR-ing several houses

• the brand Hillbilly Millionaire and how he got there

• scaling so quickly with 2 Second Lean

• why his brand connects with people who feel left out

• appealing to people with a sense of humor

• smart people refuse to believe how simple 2 Second Lean can be

• small changes over long periods of time moves mountains of waste

• bringing 2 Second Lean to communist China

• running the largest 2 Second Lean meeting in the world with 350 people

• starting Greater Ozarks Realty and the first decentralized real estate company

• process engineers instead of employees

• respecting people and empowering the team to make changes themselves

• rearranging a linen area and saving 114 miles per year, per employee

• internet personalities, such as Brandon Turner and David Green, being mentors

• Paul Akers being a mentor to him in 2 Second Lean

• story of running his company in China, needing help, and what happened when Paul Akers showed up after reaching out to him

• surpassing where most people quit

• why Paul Akers blamed everything on him when they met

• we can only go up from here!

• tweaking the lens of a magnifying lens to shift the focus

• why he fails 50-100 times a day and why he does this

• fail fast, fail often

• Bob Taylor (Paul’s mentor) - “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.”

• just try it to see if it works before doing something complicated

• if I don’t see failure, then I know something is wrong

• how his biggest failure is his first marriage and why

• red flags he brushed aside

• learned a lot about himself and life through his failing marriage

• compromising his career and blocking friends

• learning to be highly selective, guarded, and humble

• why the right people and communication is so important

• givers and takers in life

• if you want to be happy, get rid of the takers in your life

• it’s ok to be selective

• changing the minds of human beings

• you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink

• what you’re saying to givers if you keep takers on the team

• stilwell paradox

• holding out hope that you will prevail in the end while being able to look at the fact

• how hobbies got him through his failed marriage

• losing $40,000 because someone burned down a house

• how ignoring the problem led to more problems

• zooming out and knowing the regardless of the situation his team will prevail in the end

• goal of scaling his YouTube past 1000 subscribers

• writing a book on 2 Second Lean

• the only real failure is not trying

• Buy Rehab Rent Repeat - BRRR

• BRRR’ing farmland and figuring out how to make it work

• restoration agriculture

• why land the size of Kansas needs to be converted to farmland

• don’t let commas scare you

• following his vivid vision

• why he wants everyone on his team to be millionaires and work less

• being a 57 millionaire as a byproduct of growing and developing people

• a millionaire adjusted for inflation

• having just enough money and not too much

• entertaining education channels

• wearing an American flag speedo

YouTube Channel - Hillbilly Millionaire

www.hillbilly-millionaire.com

Instagram - @hillbillymillionaire

How to Retire in 3 Years (After MANY Mistakes) with Real Estate - BiggerPockets

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Story of failure: Catching a popper on fire while working at Ozark Mountain Popcorn.

Michael Sonbert is an entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and founder of Rebel Culture from New York. He’s on a mission to transform the way team communicate and operate to increase employee satisfaction, team performance, and overall success. In today’s episode, Michael talks about:

• being a coach and entrepreneur in self-improvement

• talks about crippling anxiety attacks as a teenager and the effects it had on him

• sitting with his physiologist and encouraging him to hyperventilate

• how he discovered drugs and alcohol in his 20’s to escape the anxiety

• story of when his mom died and how it impacted the trajectory of his life

• “who do I want to be for the rest of my life?”

• how he wanted to do more good for people than what they did for him

• how he wants to learn about people, even if he never got the chance to share his story

• living two different lives within one

• how he was addicted to cocaine for almost a decade

• how he quit cold turkey once he made up his mind

• how he had to land on what was driving his behavior and how it lead back to the lack of relationship with his father

• how his lack of relationship lead to confidence issues

• how his uncle mentored him and important figure in his life after his mom’s passing

• how people are always afraid of something, and if you weren’t scared, you wouldn’t be normal

• how teachers and principals taught him how to be a decisive leader

• how his coach named Josh Miller helped him work through an opportunity

• fear forward and don’t let the fear stop you

• how speaking and flying still gives him anxiety but he just works through it

• how he used to avoid failure like the plague because he never wanted to feel bad

• why his fear of taking the last shot in basketball would cause him to not have the opportunity to take the shot

• why he would act like he was trying hard just to throw people off the scent

• how grades in college prevented him from taking classes

• why for the longest time he avoided situations that had a chance of failure

• “nothing great can be achieved if you’re not willing to fail”

• it took him learning to fail before he succeeded

• attending a Mets game with his daughter

• baseball being a sport of failure

• pretending to pitch while playing right field in middle school

• having a home that roots for both the Mets and Yankees

• how it took a while to learn how to work through failures

• reading reviews on his recent book and what it made him realize

• why to model yourself after people you admire

• impenetrable forcefield towards the negative things people say

• on the other side of failure is success in any field

• there’s no such thing as an overnight success story

• story of Florida trip and the failure that came with it, and what he learned through it

• there’s another opportunity around the corner

• the bigger the game you play, the more people won’t like you

• Derek Jeter joining Twitter and getting criticized

• playing music in front of people

• why your story doesn’t resonated sometimes with people

• Rebel Culture launch working with school leaders and teachers

• working with marginalized kids across the country and giving them opportunity

• finding rebel leaders and not caring about the great resignation

• why he’s scared launching a new project but why it also doesn’t matter because it’s the right thing to do

• why wishing our weeks away shouldn’t be the narrative

• why everyone has something to add and bring something to the conversation

• regardless of what his organization has achieved, they were committed to doing good in as many ways as they could

• his thoughtful and heartfelt dedication to his kids from his book

www.rebelculture.com

@rebelcultureleaders

www.skyrocketed.org

Follow me here:

Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Getting rejected over and over again when uploading stock photography.

Dustin Heiner is an entrepreneur, coach, investor, husband, father, and podcast host! He’s been successfully unemployed from the age of 37! Dustin currently lives in Phoenix, AZ and attended Fresno State University. In today’s episode, Dustin talks about:

• quitting his job at 37 years old

• how he’s alway had an entrepreneurial bug

• why getting a degree and career wasn’t for him at the end of the day

• having a newspaper route as a 13 year old kid, skateboard manufacturing company, graphic design company, and a convenient store as a young kid

• having hour kids and working a desk job

• going on paternity leave and then getting back to work and soon getting let go (by the government)

• the long walk to the boss’s office and seeing a co-worker leave with a piece of paper and noticeable distraught

• thinking through the idea of failure as a provider

• looking for another job and providing for his family

• realizing that his value came from his God, family, and himself

• moving forward as an investor

• making his way and building his passive income with real estate

• why his value was worth so much more than what his company paid him

• giving his boss his two week notice of quitting

• making money without working

• leaving work for the last time and walking on clouds

• knowing he would never need to go get a job again

• Just Over Broke - J.O.B.

• the mindset shift in valuing himself

• having the most stable job but still getting laid off

• why it’s risky to not invest

• a wise man learns from other’s mistakes

• having five businesses that make him money

• not ever wanting to retire because he loves being rewarded for hard work and building his own business

• why we all tend to limit ourselves and why we should open our minds to what else is out there

• why his greatest mentors were found in books and audiobooks

• story of going to a infomercial guru and buying what they were pitching

• learning through the school of hard knocks

• being able to learn from the mistakes of the experts through podcasts and books

• the first book that woke him up was Rich Dad Poor Dad

• changing your mindset of what’s out there

• reading your Bible, The Richest Man in Babylon, and How to Win Friends and Influence People

• giving a fictional story while teaching life principles

• why he doesn’t enjoy failing but he appreciates it

• playing football in college and sports in general

• why losses and failures in sports hurt so much

• why he hates doing things wrong

• how failures have helped shape him to be a better investor

• why he doesn’t invest for appreciation but for cash flow

• having a property manager that stole from him

• building a business first and the right way to do things

• analogy of a convenient store and why you build a business before buying inventory

• finding the right area to invest and finding management before just buying real estate

• why giving up was not the answer

• learning from failures is one of the best things you can do in life

• would you want to live in that state?

• just because you don’t like a certain candy bar doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t like it

• providing good housing for people that want to live in that area

• hire slow, fire fast

• why not having a good property manager means not investing in certain areas

• why a good property manager is like a quarterback

• why passing on a deal could be a good thing

• looking to others through failures and finding advice from people that have done it already

• why he talks to as many people as possible if he’s doing anything

• loving to learn from everyone else and not wanting to be the smartest person in the room

• Tommy Boy - “you’re either growing or dying.”

• the intimidation of creating a seven figure business

• why his wife doesn’t want him to give his time away for free

• being able to quit his job because of his goal

• why he’s not driven by money

• his goal of helping a million people become financially independent

• the four legacies: money, time, relationship, and service

• the more people he serves, the better his life gets

• so many properties to go around

• being a team sport kind of guy

Free real estate course - text: rental to 33777

www.masterpassiveincome.com

@thedustinheiner - Instagram

Successfully Unemployed Podcast

www.successfullyunemployed.co

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Story of failure: Getting a Uhaul stuck in our backyard.

Isar Meitis is an entrepreneur, small business coach, speaker, and host of the Growth Accelerator Podcast. He’s also a former F-16 fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force. He helped raise $40,000,000 for someone else through podcasting and now runs his owns business to help others do the same! In today’s episode, Isar talks about:

• leaving the Israeli air force f-16 pilot to join a small tech startup and moved to the U.S.

• starting his own business

• didn’t like the culture after a business sale, so he started a podcast because he missed talking business with other bright minds

• how the first Top Gun is completely unrealistic

• having his dad and previous boss as big mentors in his life

• practicing what you preach and action people

• having access to a CEO of a billion dollar company but his door was always open

• if you develop the right culture in a company, it will help make the company successful

• how his dad was one of the hardest working guys he knew and how he always wanted to do the right thing

• allowing people to grow and giving them the freedom to get things done

• the story of the second time being recruited by his former boss

• why finding the right person is more important than finding a role

• hiring the best talent, not the best people on paper

• why a person’s drive can be more important than technical skills

• the hardest thing in the Israeli air force

• why it’s so hard to tell people what you’ve done wrong and how we’re rigged to avoid telling people

• the thing that makes us better is understanding why you failed

• taking mental notes on everything he does to avoid failures in the future

• pure gold in the business world

• everybody makes mistakes but the question is if you repeat the mistakes

• the executional aspect of what you’ve learned

• the unnatural feeling of sharing failures in the air force

• why a supportive environment make all the difference in failure

• doesn’t matter who makes the mistake, it’s all about learning

• story of failure: coming to U.S. with very little and buying an apartment in Florida in 2004

• why he feels like he popped the real estate bubble in the U.S.

• lost his entire life savings while betting on real estate to go up

• why he didn’t sleep for 6 months after his loss

• when he first learned about stress beyond his control

• whatever is putting pressure on you or scaring you, you have to deal with the practical aspect of it

• why he got in more debt to educate himself and change the amount of money he could make in the future

• the short sale of his Florida house and not be in debt on the house anymore

• take about the big ugly monster into small actionable steps

• why the banks need money in the bank and not houses

• what happens if I get fired tomorrow?

• cost of living and salaries in Israel and his ability to save money there

• how do I mitigate risk?

• education and networking with an MBA

• running a business with two partners and the challenge of that business

• betting your resources to try something new

• return on culture

• pivoting the name of his podcast and why it needs to serve a purpose

• creating a weekly talk show for companies and defining who the audience is

• community driving sales

• why most companies that see value in relationships care about culture

• niching down / business growth accelerator

• why it’s ok to lose followers if you have a goal

• first time going to Podfest

• whatever the goal is, figure out how it serves the process

• what they do for their clients and how they help them be intentional

• he’s looking forward to helping as many companies as possible

• relational over transactional

• the relationship flywheel and gaining momentum

• what makes a flywheel spin and the co-creation of value

Isar Meitis - LinkedIn

Podcast - Business Growth Accelerator / Return on Culture

www.bethestage.live

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Story of failure: Setting up the in-person interview with Brandon.

Brandon Goodwin is a brilliant mind and thoughtful, consistent creator from Springfield, MO. He has started numerous companies, created YouTube videos with millions of views, and now primarily focuses on his latest venture, Cave State. Also, just to note Brandon gave me advice after our interview that I incorporated immediately and it has been helpful in every episode I’ve done going forward! The advice? Ask people to “tell me” instead of asking them a question. So good! In today’s episode, Brandon talks about:

• story of the daily announcements at Hillcrest in the late 90’s and how he got his start in video production and media

• why he wound up quitting everything else to focus on media and being an edit bay rat

• creating original content with Cave State and beginning a new chapter in his life

• burning himself and starting a new thing

• story of BlipCast, KickStarter, and how the idea came to life in 2009

• building a plane but not getting it off the ground

• blowing 10 years of savings on a project but what he learned from it

• story of being at consumer electronic show and when it became obvious on Kickstarter that the project wasn’t going to work

• what happened when people realized that he was in a moment of failure

• why he’s not been great at seeking out mentors

• why he thinks he could be further if he had sought our a specific mentor

• why he has a hard time asking for help in general

• his dad’s wisdom of not going below zero

• why he needs to experience the mistakes

• lucking out on marrying the right person

• why he’s been motivated by the people around him

• wanting a yoda mentor

• how he can be overconfident in figuring things out

• why failure is everything and why he spent 10 years screwing things up

• doing things before social media

• why we have less freedom now to make mistakes in the online world

• the reason he’s glad there wasn’t YouTube when he was in high school

• why he’ll get coffee with anyone that wants to learn video production

• why you shouldn’t publish all of your work and make progress behind the scenes

• optimal learning includes a 20% fail rate and a C+ or B- grade

• too much success doesn’t lead to learning

• why he hasn’t participated in social media in a long while and why he doesn’t watch news

• if you’re not online, you’re not stressed out with online drama

• why it’s really fun to learn new things about people and why reading the cliff notes on people’s lives takes away from that

• story of BlipCast, going big, and why it didn’t work out

• how he figured out that he didn’t love technology

• the thing you need to understand about inventing

• snuggie blankets and competition

• if you’re not willing to compete and have fun with it, don’t do it

• find the thing you love more than most people because you’ll stick with it

• what is your unfair advantage?

• his passion for storytelling

• reframing mistakes into lessons and giving himself a break

• his wife and his method/joke of giving himself grace

• the story of the farmer and who’s to say what’s good or bad?

• all of your successes and failures are linked together and the ending of the story depends on when you stop the story

• Thomas Edison’s mindset after watching his lab burn down

• coming up with 2-3 ideas a day and pitching those ideas to his wife

• distracting himself with new ideas

• building empathy with individuals and audiences

• transitioning from client work to personal work

• why your own ideas are hard vulnerable

• balancing work with having a 10-month old at home

• waiting or wasting time

• the pattern of pivoting and starting new things every several years

• the war of art

• just start moving forward and you can’t plan out the whole thing

• not missing out on the special time with his daughter

• being grateful for anything and looking around when he gets anxious

• why being grateful will snap you out of anything

• speaking kindly to yourself and faking it probably isn’t the best way

• how school teaches us to avoid failure

• a little business card that floats around if they want to get in touch with him

• show your work to friends and learn

• why it’s ok to copy off your heroes and learn

• how creativity turns into craftsmanship

www.cavestate.com

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Story of failure: My pinewood derby car being dropped and losing.

Jacob McLauchlin is a dentist, family man, and golfer extraordinaire. He grew up in Nixa, MO (same city as Jason Bourne) and currently owns Mac Dental. He’s a father of four and a husband to an amazing wife! In today’s episode, Jacob (Jake) talks about:

• married his high school sweetheart
• went on to dental school and came back home to Nixa
• story of why he chose dentistry over being a doctor
• asking friends about the path for his life and why he should check out dentistry
• why he wanted to own and operate a business but have the quality of life he wanted
• why he doesn’t have a weird fascination with mouths but it was an opportunity for his family
• going into college without mentorship
• how his failure of not going into college with a plan turned into success
• how his father-in-law has been his greatest mentor and has left a legacy
• words of blessing and encouragement
• the life-changing mentorship of Bob
• spending periods of time in his life of getting misinformation of what a mentor is
• a network of mentorship
• being vulnerable and quick to share with trusted mentors after messing up is important
• how he’s a huge fan of continuing education and not trying to reinvent the wheel
• how reading is such an important part of his life and continuing education
• a great book, podcast, or share from a friends can have a big impact
• story of failure of 2009 when his wife Janae and him tried to replace a roof with a crew of their own friends
• how he learned to do it right the first time around with the right person
• how he works through discouragement with grit and fight but not wallow
• how his network of men don’t let him stay in discouragement
• why diving into the investment property world can be intimidating
• why he invests his resources and his future
• why he looks forward to laughing at himself
• how Matt Chandler has been a mentor for him even thought he’s never met him
• why making it can make us arrogant and why he likes looking back five years and laughing at himself
• the rising tide
• pickle ball failure :)

www.macdental.com

www.matrimonyeveryday.com

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Story of failure: When the dang deer ate our baby garden plants.

Jordy Clark is a real estate investor, broker, and host of the Financially Free Investor Podcast! He’s a husband and father of three, and currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. He’s flipped over 40 houses and transacted over $45,000,000 in real estate as a broker.

In today’s episode, Jordy talks about:

• how he got his start in real estate
• how he learned to surf while remodeling a house
• deciding to step away from pre-med after a sabbatical
• frustration of not getting ahead
• how Rich Dad, Poor Dad blew his mind
• asked himself “why” about formal education
• how 6 months turned into 7 years
• $45,000,000 in sale in real estate, along with a flipping company and staging company
• why his best failure was not graduating college
• how his dad taught him hard work growing up
• story of how he learned to calculate flipping houses
• continually learning the lesson of communicating with his wife
• story of Bison hunt drive with his dad and brother
• the difference between men and women in conversations
• learning to take failures in stride
• how a mentor taught him not to over improve properties and improve for return
• how he saved millions from what a mentor taught him early on
• how we can move forward through failures or we can let them stop us
• a fancy treadmill when flipping houses
• how borrowing money in a different way could save him a lot of time
• raw story of failure when he wasn’t pouring into his wife and was too focused on work
• how his work almost destroyed their marriage by causing a wedge
• story of sitting in a marriage counselors office and almost on the brink of divorce and having the realization that what he wanted most was his wife, not projects or money
• how showing up as a spouse/dad and fixing that area of his life allowed everything else to fall in place
• figuring out how to grow with the right people
• building a parachute on the way down
• targeting $100,000,000 in volume
• taking as much time as you can to spend time with kids and travel with them
• taking every day off possible while his kids are little

Jordy's Instagram - @jordyclark_rei

The Financially Free Investor Podcast

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Story of failure: Mispronouncing Nirup’s name...and then doing it again.

Nirup Alphonse is the lead pastor of Lifegate Church in Denver, Colorado. He’s a speaker, great storyteller, and a gifted communicator. He’s most importantly a husband and a father! In today’s episode, Nirup talks about:

• Growing up overseas and in Chicago, IL
• Why he left the corporate world to join the ministry
• staying in Indiana longer than expected
• why you should think your church is the best in the country
• his dad being a real life mentor and man of wisdom
• why he seeks to find a sage in different areas of his life
• finding mentors through content
• thinking about who’s a step ahead and how to get there
• learning from people that have a different temperament
• sages and kings
• who can say no to you?
• why he surrounds himself with people that ask great questions
• why he doesn’t let church get his primary/best time
• why he always wants to be approachable
• humility is a practice
• why we should teach our kids that they’re not the most important thing
• why people remember how you saw them
• orate your life to see people
• why Jesus didn’t take himself too seriously
• the negative of ascending people to places of power too quickly
• story of failure when he promoted someone to quickly within the church before knowing their character
• how giving people too much, too quickly can be devastating
• how small character leads to big character
• character is developed over time
• biggest test of character is someone’s word
• surrounding yourself with good friends is key when you’re facing adversity
• building rockets instead of trains in church
• why the church is not responsible for your formation
• why Lifegate doesn’t do small groups
• being radically hospitable
• most important room in the house
• thinking of yourself as a college recruiter
• story of snow breaking branches on a tree outside the church
• why we’re not designed to carry the weight of other’s burdens
• how his wife holds stories without feeling the pressure to carry the burdens
• everything you’re learning is something you’re always learning
• how do I keep learning?

Instagram - @nirupalphonse

Instagram - @lifegatedenver

www.lifegatedenver.com

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Story of failure: Arriving at the wrong airport in Orlando.

Jake Martin is the COO of Invo Solutions, a video banking solution that allows financial institutions to better serve their customers. He’s a husband, a rock star dad, and a great friend! In today’s episode, Jake talks about:

• how his career seem to have gone backwards, like reading a book backwards
• building skills along his journey
• how he’s competitive by nature with sports and music
• story of how he started playing the saxophone at age 11
• how coaches and mentors taught him the steps to success
• how he learned hard work from his dad, who served in the army and was a truck driver
• finding salvation and his God-given purpose
• why failure is the scariest thing for him, but also a big driver
• how looking to others helps him avoid failures
• how being 90% different from his wife is actually an advantage in their marriage
• story of his 20th anniversary trip and seeing a different perspective
• how unique and different skill sets are needed in business
• the challenge of being underprepared
• story of being underprepared while presenting new clinical data to doctors
• how you can’t be in control of everything except yourself
• why you need to be prepared in more ways than one
• why it’s wrong when our expectation is perfection
• sharing a raw story of his lack of contentment at a time in his life
• sharing his gift of optimism and relationships
• why he’s a highly sociably-capable introvert
• why his optimism helps him through failures
• how he lives in the silver linings and how discouragement is a fleeting feeling
• how his optimism can be an encouragement to others and a force multiplier
• your BSG - big, scary goal
• the intimidation of putting together a large multi-day event and managing stress
• why growing the kingdom guides his decisions in business
• the pressure of one event and how it could impact the future
• what level of failure is ok?
• fueling up the flux capacitor and willing to stop and listen to God
• supporting his family and being there for his family over the next five years

Jake Martin - LinkedIn

www.invosolutions.com

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Story of failure: Paying a professional to plug in a dishwasher.

Adam Broussard is a husband and father along with being a practicing pediatric anaesthesiologist. He is the host of the Dads Before Doctors podcast and is also an investor in businesses and real estate. In today’s episode, Adam talks about:

• the story of how he found his career path

• not getting into med school the first try

• why he started the Dads Before Doctors podcast

• talking about things that aren’t talked about

• why it’s hard to talk about certain things as doctors

• story of his dad working at Winn Dixie

• attending a Tony Robbins event

• how books are important mentors for him

• why he and his fellows are still close

• how small things that happen change the course of your life

• thoughts of being rejected and timing of receiving the rejection

• story of rehabbing a house and having a bad contractor that didn’t finish

• why moving forward is the only way

• giving grace to his 2-year old son and himself

• multiple people in the same situation with different outlooks

• why it’s easy to work when life get’s hard

Let’s go!

Dads Before Doctors Podcast

www.dadsbeforedoctors.com

Dads Before Doctors - Facebook

Dads Before Doctors - Instagram

adam@dadsbeforedoctors.com

www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Experiencing failure in the game of golf.

Paul Sloat is the CEO and Family Wealth Strategist at Green Drake Advisors. Paul attended the Wharton School in Pennsylvania and publishes a monthly newsletter that focuses on the economy and building wealth. He is also becoming the CIO of a new multifamily office. In today’s episode, Paul tells the story of getting let go by Blackrock while managing two billion dollars in assets, and the next steps to Green Drake Advisors. He also talks about his advisor at Cornell University and how he helped direct his path to finances and wealth management. Paul talks about having the attitude of Thomas Edison, how he learns when an investment goes wrong, and his mindset of moving on and adapting after a failure. He also tells the story of an oil acquisition gone wrong and the lesson he took from it. Lastly, Paul tells how he leverages the wonder of the internet to live the life he wants, from anywhere he wants. Let’s go!

Green Drake Advisors

Views From the Stream Newsletter - Blog

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Story of failure: Not taking care of my pet rabbit and letting it freeze to death.

Sam DeFord is a lead pastor at The Parks Church in McKinney, TX. Sam and his wife Audrey have four beautiful children, and talented, deep roots in the arts. He is a highly skilled musician that has collaborated with, and spent time with artists like Shane and Shane. In today's episode, Sam talks about how he got into ministry after seeing the impact it had on the community and how we are made for music. He also talks about his struggles with imposter syndrome and how he is constantly trying to move past that. Sam gives the story of living with Shane Bernard (of Shane and Shane) and wife Beth and how that shaped him musically and spiritually. Sam points out the difference between advice and counsel, and what to look for in a mentor. Sam encourages people to ask the big questions to themselves and how it will help you gain a better vision for your life. He also shares the story of the early relationship with his now wife Audrey, and how he views his handling of their relationship early on as one of his biggest failures. Lastly, Sam talks about how love is death, how a lasting love is one that’s worth sacrificing for, and why God has made us to need each other. Love it! Let’s go!

Sam's Music on iTunes

Sam's Music on Spotify

The Worship Initiative

www.theparkschurch.com

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Story of failure: Grabbing an electric fence while on the set of Extreme Home Makeover.

Mike Ayala is an entrepreneur, investor, and speaker currently living in Austin, TX. He hosts the Investing For Freedom podcast and is the co-founder of Four Peaks Capital Partners. By age 24, Mike founded his first construction company and has been involved with over 2,000 projects totaling over a billion dollars. In today’s episode Mike talks about his journey to Investing for Freedom and how we can learn from our losses and negative experiences. He also talks about growing up in a broken household and how amazing his mom was to see him through it. Mike tells the story of work at Denny’s and how his manager taught him so many great lessons, even when it just pissed him off. He also shares a story of failure when a gold mining operation he was a part of went into bankruptcy and how to worked through that difficult time. Mike talks about remembering your anchor principles in times of failure and what the worst thing you can do in the middle of failure. You’re going to love it! Let’s go!

www.investingforfreedom.co

www.michaelayala.com

Youtube Channel

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Story of failure: Failing on my dream of playing professional baseball.

Ashton Owens is an entrepreneur, designer, and brand manager for pro athletes and companies. He works to help create impactful stories and products that move people to action. He recently found Good Month Labs and has recently launch the BAZ Tour, an NFT project at the intersection of Web3 and golf. In today’s episode Ashton discusses the NFT minting process, and talks through his idea of a golf shoe that’s made for his style. Ashton also talks about how his father was his first mentor and new mentors helped him through after losing his dad in an accident. He talks about the point when he got caught up in being an entrepreneur and started too many projects. He also talks about why he isn’t driven my financial goals and what he truly looks forward to in the future. I know you’ll enjoy this discussion and gain valuable insight into the mind of a successful man of action. Let’s go!

BAZ.golf

Twitter - @goodmonth.eth

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Story of failure: Failing multiple times while trying to upload book audiobook to Audible.

Natalie Brunell is a rock star in the Bitcoin community! She is a veteran news journalist that recently left her full time job to pursue her own journey as the host of the Coin Stories podcast. She has an immense knowledge of Bitcoin and macroeconomics and is a leading voice in educating the masses. In today’s episode, Natalie talks about her parents leaving their communist country to pursue a better life in America and how they moved up the ladder steadily, only to lose it all in 2008-09. She talk about her early years as a reporter, the rejection and criticism that came with that, and how bad she performed her first times on camera. But you know what? She kept practicing and improved greatly along the way. Natalie also talks about her passion for Bitcoin and how it can bring real, positive change to the world. She also answers the question of “Can Bitcoin be stopped?” Let’s go!

www.talkingbitcoin.com

Coin Stories Podcast

Instagram - @natbrunell

Twitter - @natbrunell

Youtube - Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell

Books Noted

The Real Crash by Peter Schiff

The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous

Feel free to leave a rating for the show and follow me @justincskinner

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Story of failure: Setting a lunch appointment without noting the person I was having lunch with.

Vince LaPelusa is a chemical engineer by trade, the owner of Fresh Steeps, and the host of the OpTEAmized Podcast! He grew up in Chicago, Illinois and started Fresh Steeps back in 2019, which is dedicated to bring the benefits of tea to athletes across the world. In today’s episode, Vince talks through how he started his tea drinking journey after taking pre-workouts and drinking too much coffee in high school left him feeling jittery. He also explains why athletes can benefit from drinking tea for energy and how most health problems can be avoided with tea as well. Vince also tells the story of how his dad instilled entrepreneurial skills within his offspring and how he tries to learn from everyone he interacts with! He also covers the risk and intimidation of leaving his full time job to go all in on his business! Let’s go!

www.opteamizedpod.com

www.freshsteeps.com

Instagram - @freshsteeps

TikTok - @freshsteeps

When you get a chance, feel free to rate the show, send feedback, and follow @justicskinner

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Story of failure: Jumping and slipping on a railing while at Big Cedar Lodge.

David Pere is the host of the From Military to Millionaire podcast and was in the Marines for 13 years prior to becoming a full time real estate investor! He spends his time helping service members, veterans, and their families learn how to build wealth through real estate investing, entrepreneurship, and personal finance. In today’s episode, David talks about how Rich Dad, Poor Dad changed the trajectory of his life and how he leverages his network for great mentors. He also tells the story of how his podcast came to be and how Brandon Turner spoke into his life and encouraged him. David also speaks about how his first flip didn’t go as well as planned and what he learned from it. Lesson from David: keep moving forward, even when there are multiple bumps in the road! Let’s go!

www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com

From Military to Millionaire - Youtube

From Military to Millionaire - Instagram

From Military to Millionaire - Twitter

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Story of failure: Telling the truth about why I couldn’t attend a friend’s wedding.

Amby Lewis is a mother, entrepreneur and founder of the non-profit A Girl Like Me Network, which provides space and connections to young girls and women to teach them how to cope and grow from their past. In today’s episode Amby tells the story of trying and failing in her first non-profit and the lesson she learned. She also talks about how it’s important to learn from good and bad people, and how her mistakes got her to where she is now! She also goes into her new tea and yoni steaming business! I never knew this existed…Let’s go!

Amby Lewis Twitter

A Girl Like Me Network

Queen City Teas and Steams

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Story of failure: Flipping a snowmobile trekking up a mountain in Colorado on the way to the peak.

Cameron Jones is a partner at Parks Jones Attorneys at Law, and specializes in estate planning and 1031 Exchanges. He is a father of two and has immense knowledge in the world of real estate. In today’s episode, Cameron talks about how much he admires his wife and the mentor she is to him, and also shares the story of facing his failures when not making the grades he wanted when taking the LSATs. He also mentions how much of an impact his mom and dad made and why his mother doesn’t seem to cry anymore. Lastly, he talks about navigating being a problem solver when people don’t want solutions, they just want to be heard. All of that and more! Let’s go!

www.parksjones.com

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Story of failure: Ramming by 1980, blue Ford F-150 into my parent's garage when I was 17.

Nick Johnson is a former nuclear power plant engineer and now the COO and consultant for a family real estate office. He is a father of three and lives in Quad Cities, Iowa. In today’s episode, Nick talks about how his parents taught him not to smoke by actually smoking themselves and the importance of being around supportive people. Nick tells the story of one of his failures when he booked a cheap hotel room with his family on a road trip, even though he had plenty of money to stay somewhere a little nicer. He also tells a story of hearing Ed Mylett tell his audience to learn to give themselves grace for their intentions and not focus so much on the result. Nick is a wonderful person and an inspirational story of how small steps and choices add up to massive growth and transformation. Let’s go!

Nick's email: thefriendlyhomesale@gmail.com

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Story of failure: Losing $10,000 on a stock trade I was sure of.

Jessica Ollis is co-founder of Spring Branch Kombucha, southwest Missouri’s first commercial kombucha brewery. She and her husband Chris founded the company in 2017. They started Spring Branch to give an alternative to sugary soda drinks after Chris was trying to kick the diet soda habit. Jessica grew up in Dallas, spent time in Portland and now calls Springfield home. She talks about dreaming of owning a business with Chris on a trip in Destin and the story behind how Spring Branch Kombucha started in their basement! Jessica also shares the story of what she feels are her biggest failures with her children and how she doesn’t allow herself to sit in her failure when it happens. Let’s go!

www.springbranchkombucha.com

www.professional-failure.com

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Story of failure: Not encouraging my nephew after spilling some custard on my truck seat.

Josh Bailey is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Dwell, a Bible app dedicated to helping people spiritually thrive in a technologically driven world. He lives with his wife and three children in Dallas, TX. In his spare time Josh is pursuing a degree in the classics and is learning latin. In our interview today Josh opens up about how following his passion early on led to failure and a valuable lesson. He also talks about using failure as a verb, not a noun, and how feelings are a great servant but a terrible master. He also shares the story of the lesson he learned after he lost thousands of dollars betting on penny stocks. Josh has an insightful mind and is an amazing entrepreneur that takes action. Let’s go!

dwellapp.io

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Story of failure: Contracting a parasite in Alaska after drinking from a stream.

Aaron Wyssman was a former high school math teacher that transitioned to real estate full time. He is the owner of Ozark’s Remodeling and Design in Springfield, MO and actively invests in real estate, and is a father of three. In today’s episode Aaron tells the story of meeting his business coach and how his mentors gave him the tools and courage to leave his teaching job to pursue his own business. He shares a story of losing $16,000 in one deal and how it’s crucial to understand the market at all times. Aaron is a wise man and shares some valuable lessons about life, business, and real estate. Let’s go!

Ozark's Remodeling and Design

Order the Professional Failure Book

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Story of failure: Building an app from scratch and failing miserably all while losing thousands of dollars.

Jon Barratt is the CEO of Project Rescue Foundation in Springfield, MO. Project Rescue is an organization whose mission is to rescue women and children from sex trafficking. Jon was a fifth-round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and played professional baseball for six years before fully transitioning to Project Rescue. Jon and I have known each other since middle school and have grown up competing with and against each other. We've seen each other at our best and in our worst and he's an amazing mentor that's able to challenge me in ways most people can't. He has a sharp mind, intense spirit, and still has the quickest arm I know! Let’s go!

Project Rescue

Project Rescue Instagram

Project Rescue Facebook

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Erik Hardy is the author of the Amazon best selling book The Being Equation, in which he teaches people how to discover who they are and create who they want to be. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife. Erik stops by to talk about how everyone has the potential to be mentor, both in a positive and negative way. He tells the story of how a mentor in real estate opened his mind to self-improvement and how it paved the way to his book. Erik also talks about being a perfectionist and how he overcomes that feeling in order to release his visions into the world. Let’s go!

The Being Equation

ErikHardy.com

The Ninja Planner

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Peter Ostapko is the founder of The Kinsmen Journal, a luxury magazine dedicated to inviting men to lead lives of transformative faith, redemptive fatherhood, and honoring work. The Kinsmen Journal’s journey began many years ago and it’s first publication was released in 2022. Peter has worked in the banking industry for many years while seeing this important project come to life. Peter’s passion for bringing raw, real stories to men all over the world is apparent and he shares the story of how it came about. He also tells the story of how he let his fear of failure hold him back early on and how he overcame it. And Peter explains why we throw away generic greetings and why hand written notes mean so much more! Let's go!

The Kinsman Journal

The Kinsman Journal Instagram

The Kinsman Journal Facebook

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Brian Luebben is a “young” entrepreneur, with a past in corporate America, haling from Atlanta, Georgia. He hosts the Action Academy Podcast where he interviews highly successful people in business and shares their millionaire advice. Brian talks through his journey to the top of the corporate ladder and the life he’s leading now. He has a knack for extracting and applying advice from some of the world’s most successful individuals, and also shares his vision of living in Greece for an entire year! His self-confidence and belief that he can do anything is inspiring. Let’s go!

Action Academy Podcast

Instagram - @actionacademypodcast

Instagram - @brianluebben

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Join me for a conversation with Sam Wegert! Sam is an entrepreneur, business owner and real estate investor from Charlotte, North Carolina. Sam is one of 8 children and was brought up homeschooled, where his parents sought out mentors to help him craft his entrepreneurial skills. Sam owns Up Level Martial Arts and specializes in real estate with co-Living homes. His passion and excitement for life is evident and the sky’s the limit for Sam! I know you’ll enjoy hearing his perspectives on business and failures and what has helped him get to where he is today. Let’s go!

Instagram - @samwegert

Facebook - Sam Wegert

Up Level Martial Arts

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Join me for a conversation with Chris Seegers! Chris is a missionary capitalists, acquisition entrepreneur with a focus on oil and gas entrepreneur from Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also invests in real estate and is a deeply spiritual family man. His wisdom on mentors and dreaming big will put you on the right path to becoming the best version of yourself you can be! 

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Join me for a conversation with my dad, Jim Skinner! My dad grew up on a dairy farm in the small town of Hartville, MO. He talks about the importance of relationships, the tool of money, and lessons learned from some of his missteps. I was so fortunate to have a dad that poured time and wisdom into my life from a young age. He was a great example and I think you’ll enjoy his perspective on several topics and failure. Let’s go!

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Join me for a conversation with my mother Julie Skinner! She grew up on a dairy farm in the midwest and raised four rambunctious children. Julie shares stories of lessons learned in past relationships and what’s she’s looking forward to, including starting a book! Let’s go!

skinnerjulie9@aol.com

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Join me for a conversation with Ricky Meinhold! Ricky was a talented two-sport college athlete, a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals, coached with the New York Mets and now is the director of pitching for the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball League. Ricky has a brilliant baseball mind and is one of the hardest working and disciplined guys I know. He opens up about failures, success, and how the path to success doesn’t always look the way you imagined. Your loss Mets! Let’s go!

Instagram - @rmeinhold

Twitter - @rmeinhold

Lotte Giants

www.mykbo.com

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Join me for a conversation with Kurt Bechert! Kurt grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and now reside along beautiful 30A in the Florida Panhandle. He’s a family man, a real estate investor, and retired at the age of 35. Kurt’s perspective on life and what’s truly important will give a reason to stop and think about what’s important in your own life. Let’s go!

@kurtbuc

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Join me for a conversation with Dan Sheeks! Dan is a high school marketing and entrepreneur teacher from Denver, CO. He’s the founder of SheeksFreaks, an online community to help young people live their best lives by making smart money decisions. He’s also the author of the new BiggerPockets published book First to a Million: A Teenager’s Guide to Achieving Financial Independence. Dan is passionate about investing, real estate, and helping others find their own financial path to financial freedom.

First to a Million Book

www.SheekFreaks.com

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Join me for a conversation with Carlos Rovira! Carlos is an accredited investor from Miami, Florida and owns Rovira Realty Group. He opens up about his Cuban background and how humble beginnings taught him valuable lessons in life and business. Just because it’s possible to fail, doesn’t mean you should never try!

Rovira Realty

RG Capital Partners

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Join me for a conversation with Huy Le! Huy is a doctor, farmer, and investor from Orlando, Florida. Huy works with his wife, who is also a doctor, in a practice owned by his father in-law. He is a first generation immigrant from Vietnam and a practicing Buddhist. Huy talks through working with his wife, his early mentors, and the worthwhile risks his mother took to get to America. 

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Join me for a conversation with Doug Pitt! Doug is an entrepreneur and investor residing in Springfield, MO. He owns several companies and also founded Care to Learn, a non-profit helping kids get basic hygiene necessities without all the red tape. Doug opens up about his early mentors, what drove him to success, where he is now, and even crypto! I know you’ll enjoy the many wise lessons Doug shares during our conversation!

Care to Learn

World Serve International

Pitt Development Group

Pitt Technology Group

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Join me for a conversation with Chase Replogle. Chase is the host of the Paster Writer Podcast, author of the new book The 5 Masculine Instincts, and pastor of Bent Oak Church in Springfield, MO. He talks us through his journey of his first manuscript being rejected, how he pressed on, and how he continues to strive for consistency in being a husband, father, writer, and pastor. Get inspired by Chase’s wisdom and willingness to share his failures!

Get Chase's new book, The 5 Masculine Instincts.

Listen to the Pastor Writer Podcast.

Take the 5 Masculine Instincts Profile.

www.chasereplogle.com

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Join me for a conversation with Adam Hill, author of the new book Shifting Gears, in which Adam opens up about his battles with anxiety and addiction and how he overcame them to compete in an Iron Man World Championship Triathlon. He is also a performance coach and speaker that has built systems from his experiences in fitness, mental health, and business to help people transform their mindset to discover and achieve their goals. Adam's openness and his willingness to talk through difficult topics is sure to inspire you!

Get Adam's book here: Shifting Gears Book

Learn more about Adam: www.adamhilltri.com