Adam Coffey takes us through how to use other people's money to grow your business. He also teaches us how to sell your business multiple times. His insight and deep experience makes for a wonderful conversation. Listen in!

Communication - the most important skill for any business owner or leader! We kick-off a multi episode Masterclass on Communication. You will want to listen in and take action on each of these episodes as we progress. It very well may change your business and change your life!

Book Mentioned in the Episode: The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Matthew Bivens. This is a must listen and must share episode. It still does me good to listen to it. It will challenge and uplift you at the same time! Here are a few of the things we discussed.

Finding Our Purpose

Listen in to the conversation with Matthew and how he walks us through how to find our purpose. This is so important to each of us as we many times get stuck when we do not know what our purpose is. I really like what he wants us to ask..."what do you want to experience in life?" It not only is a better question than what our purpose might be, but it is also a way to get unstuck.

Define Success

We talk about the small 's' and the big 'S' of success. It is important for you to define what success means to you. If we let the world define our success, we can easily be derailed from the paths we should be on. Defining what success means to you is your responsibility. 

"Being intentional on what you want to experience." -...

Why I love this episode...it covers the gamut of all key aspects of a business that a business owner should consider. Listening to Ed speak about what a Real Business should be is enlightening. If you are a new business owner or a business owner that feels like your business is not reaching its potential, this is a must listen to episode. Here are a few of the highlights...

A Real Business

A real business is one that is focused, strategic and has low risk. It is a business that has all the fundamentals of a great business, however can identify clearly its sustainable competitive advantage. In other words, a real business adds values, is solid financially and has some unique characteristics.

Systems and Processes

You have heard many times that the key to a business are the systems and processes. In our conversation with Ed, this was emphasized yet again. A sustainable business can only be maintained with solid systems and processes in place. Of course, the business also has to have...

In our conversation, Bradley and I discuss how to dominate the local market. Listen to hear Bradley's experiences and how he transformed from being a business owner to a marketing expert. 

The Three Main Areas to Focus On for Local Lead Generation

1. Reputation - The way you meet your brand promise is important. You must meet or exceed your brand promise everyday. The perception of past and current clients is important. The overall beliefs and opinions of those who have come in contact with your business is critical for future growth. 

2. SEO - Search Engine Optimization, specifically for Google, is a must to build an online presence. You need to focus on getting in the top three on the listings from the keyword searches that pertain to your product or service. 

3. Retargeting - This is the way you get continued visibility to those who have shown an interest in your product or service. As often is the case it takes many impressions before someone may trust your...

Why It All Starts with a Vision

The conversation with Patrick Johnson starts with him sharing choices he made based on his family vision story. He looked into the future and saw that his corporate career path was leading him in a direction that didn't follow his life plan. He and his family made a change and a new path was formed. Without having a vision spelled out, they could have traveled far down a career path that in the end wasn't a fit. 

"I've always found vision, in the large scale sense of the word, incredibly intimidating." - Patrick Johnson

Brand Promise

If you visit Just Love Coffee, you will experience their brand promise. They have a specific way they great you when you enter the store, and how they guide your through the experience. The brand promise is what they build the culture to support. They communicate to all employees through training and operational systems how to meet the brand promise with each action they take. 

Patrick explained that having a...

Are You an Exponential Entrepreneur?

Listen to this conversation with George Bandarian to find out if you are an exponential entrepreneur. He describes an exponential entrepreneur as one that can go from start up to exit without a lot of stress, while maximizing valuation. As the advance of technology increases, learning the skills of the exponential mindset will be important.

The Five Key Areas

1. Purpose

2. Mind

3. Body

4. Family

5. Health

The exponential entrepreneur is also one who maintains the key areas of his/her life. It is important to maintain self-care, the priorities or life and energy, so the business can be maximized. A business owner with misplaced priorities will never maximize what can be accomplished.

Technology 

George and I discussed several areas of technology that are important to keep track of as they continue to advance. Here is a list of some of the common growth areas

• AI or Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Robotics
• Autonomous Vehicles...

The Stages of a Business

In our work over the years, we have outlined three general stages that a small business will go through as it grows. They are the Technician, Owner and CEO phases. While each of these phases can be broken down into further segments, we will focus on these three overarching stages in this article.

When speaking with Shannon Miles, CEO and Co-Founder of Belay Solutions, we discussed her and Bryan's (husband) journey through these stages. They experienced a three year start up phase. At that point, they had to make some changes in their mental approach to get into the Owner stage. Now they are clearly in the CEO stage. Listen to the episode to learn more. 

While these stages exist and are clearly defined on paper, they may actually blend into each other. There is a definite difference in the skills needed in each stage as well as the mental approach. It will be important to learn, hire and/or develop the skills needed first for you as a leader and...

Up or Down, there is a Way

One thing that is clear in this conversation with Paul Moore, there is always a way to success no matter the circumstance. He shows us that through sharing his journey. He had great success, failure and then success again along the way.

The key is to remain persistent and continue learning. Do not give up and keep doing the work. Sometimes you even have to be a little unconventional in your thoughts and methods. 

Know Yourself

One of the keys to achieving success is knowing yourself. To know your strengths, your weaknesses and what you are apt to learn and do is critical. As a leader, or an entrepreneur, knowing yourself is paramount to making the right directional changes and pivots. In the area of investment, it is also true.

Turn It Around by Giving

Paul found himself in a hole of debt, even after achieving success. He learned as much from that journey, if not more, than from the success. He shared with us how he unconventionally turned around by...

I Double-Dog Dare You

I challenge you to take a big step in your business and life - get a coach! Sure, you may think I am writing this because I am a Coach. To be honest, I risk writing this and sounding self serving, when in reality I am trying to serve you. I truly believe everyone needs a coach along their path of business ownership, among other things. Whether it is me or someone else, you need to find a coach that can guide you. 

My Coaches

I have used coaches for sports (duh!), weight loss, endurance athletics, business, podcasting, farming and recently for being confident on video (listen to episode 30). This is the affiliate link if you want to see my video confidence coach interview me literally right of the farm. Anytime I tackle a new endeavor, I look for someone to coach me. 

Why I Use Coaches

You will spend money and time one way or another, so I have learned that doing it with a coach is the most efficient and effective way possible. I can hear you saying...