This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Anna Parker-Naples. Anna is he host of the #1 international podcast, Entrepreneurs Get Visible. She is the #1 best-selling author of Get Visible: How to Have More Impact, Influence and Income, and Podcast with Impact: How to Launch Your Podcast Properly.
She has been recognized as the National Businesswoman of the Year and finalist for SME’s National Entrepreneur of the Year. And if that is not enough, her audio skills have caught the attention of Hollywood and she’s been honored there.
But Anna’s story has some major twists and turns and what I love most about her is how she learned to blend strategy and mindset together to overcome massive challenges and achieve greatness. Of course, she’s not too bad at teaching entrepreneurs how to seriously grow their visibility and I can’t wait to get into all of this with her.
www.EntrepreneursGetVisible.com
Anna came into the entrepreneurial space a few years ago. 4 years ago, she was working as a voice actor receiving awards on the red carpet in Hollywood for her work. 6 years before that, she was told after a complication with a pregnancy that she would never walk again. To be fully recovered and at the top of her game on the red-carpet years later made her realize that others can do what she did and that there was a process to that success, so she started her business, podcast, and speaking.
How did you from being not being able to walk to walking on the red carpet? What was the transformation?
At the 9 min mark, Anna tells a story about she was carried into a job interview and how it was presented to her to have a home studio to do her work.
At the 10 min mark, Anna and I discuss the power of the mind what working on your thoughts can do for you.
At the 14 min mark, we talk about how everything begins with an idea, a thought in our lives.
How have you learned how to blend your mindset with strategy to exponentially grow results?
Is there a process for envisioning?
Listen at the 18 min mark as Anna goes through the 10 pillars.
“Make sure you are not positioning yourself at the bottom for the heap. Strive for the top. There is much less competition there.”
Confidence is key to get visible, explain that…
Talk to us about gaining visibility and things people should be doing to stand out…
Best practices to start, run, and grow a successful podcast?
What are some of the things you’ve learned about entrepreneurship and success on your journey?
How important is playing the long game?
Best Quote: Make sure you are not positioning yourself at the bottom of the heap. Strive for the top. There is much less competition there.
Anna's Misfit 3:
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Krista Ripma. Krista is the founder of the digital marketing agency, Authentic Audience, which helps transform clients’ businesses by implementing innovative marketing strategies focused on authenticity, storytelling, and selling the truth. She is also the host of the Authentic Audience podcast.
Krista and Authentic Audience have been featured everywhere from Forbes to Entrepreneur and her passion for helping others tell their stories and share their truth through radically honest marketing is un-matched.
Radically honest. We don’t see that as much as we should these days, and it’s important to make sure we are being true to ourselves and our businesses, so I asked Krista to come on the show to discuss what it truly means to be authentic and honest in today’s world.
Krista has always been in to sharing stories and sharing stories. She studied communications and film in college and went to work in film in LA. But the whole industry was inauthentic. She loved the stories, the scripts she read, but the world around her was fake. She did all sorts of jobs and learned what it meant to work hard.
From there she went to working with TV networks in health and wellness. During this time, she met a Yoga star who needed help with her brand and Krista helped her grow the brand. She loved it and realized that is she is what she wanted to do. Help people grow their brand in an authentic way.
Define Authenticity…
How does someone transform their business through authentic? What do they do?
What is working and what is not in marketing strategies and launches today?
Is there a formula that you use for launches?
How does someone get leadflow and build a list to market to?
At the 31-minute market, Krista gives her best advice on selling, both online and in general..
At the 38 min mark, we discuss “asking for the business.” It’s best to just listen… Shifts in online selling?
Best advice for entrepreneurs in today’s world?
Best Quote: Authenticity is standing in your truth and opening your heart up so others can do the same.
Krista's Misfit 3:
Show Sponsors:
The Good from Caldera Labs
www.CalederaLab.com/MISFIT (allcaps)
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Harma Hartouni. After listening to Harma and his story today, you will have no excuse for not being able to keep going and reaching your goals. Harma grew up in Iran during the Iraq-Iran war taking shelter from bombs every night. He later had a traumatic accident that crushed his lower body and took him a year to come back from. And I will let him tell you about everything else that has happened to him in his life. But this guy never quit.
And today, Harma is a self-made millionaire entrepreneur and developer, owns a real estate company employing hundreds of residential and commercial real estate agents in Southern California, and runs the #1 ranked real estate business in his region. His real estate practice exceeds $1B in sales volume and he is also the founder and CEO of multiple companies servicing the local real estate industry, His businesses include financial services, technology and coaching. If that is not enough, he is the author of Getting Back Up: A Story of Resilience, Self-Acceptance & Success. Fittingly, those are the topics we are going to discuss in this episode.
Harma was born in LA and within 30 days moved to Iran. Shortly after, the revolution happened and his mother lost all her rights and they were stuck in the country. At 18, Harma got into a car accident and did not get hurt, but when he got out of his car, another car hit breaking both his legs and mangling his lower body. He was not supposed to walk again. He did everything he could to get back to walking and was able to move to the US.
He ended up in Glendale, CA. He had a lot of struggles and it took him a year and half to become confident enough to come out to his family and reveal he was gay. He quit dental school against his families wishes to be a real estate agent.
He’s been in real estate for 18 years and his business now does over $1.2 billion in sales a year. His passion has grown to really building the business and he has the top agents in the nation working for him. He’s married and had 3 kids.
I’ve heard you say that “everyone is a survivor.” Explain what that means.
You talk about not letting yourself become a victim. Talk to us about the difference between being victimized and being a victim.
There are of people in the same situation you have been in that don’t break out and reach their full potential and accomplish successes like you. A lot of people would just give into their state and accept it and stay there. Why didn’t that happen to you? How did you break out?
At the 22-minute mark, we talk about the peaks and valleys of entrepreneurship What are a couple of your favorite lessons from your book?
Talk to us about the principles you use to build a business…
Every year, your business does over a billion in real estate sales. Talk to us about selling in today’s world.
Thoughts on the real estate market at this time?
Best Quote: Run towards your fear. Accept it and own it. If you start doing that, you cannot be a victim.
Harma's Misfit 3:
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5 Minute Journal:
www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Journal
This week’s Lesson for Hannah
Hannah, I want to share something with you that I learned a long time ago but have been amazed at how true it is. There are a lot of things that separate top performers from the rest of those out there. What is that allows some people to do more, accomplish more, push further, and endure more than others or what people think is possible?
I talk a lot of about Discipline, Consistency, and Persistence or Perseverance and have called it the DCP formula. In my mind, the most important part of the formula is the P. Because no matter how disciplined and consistent you are – you will run into major walls or seemingly insurmountable challenges. And if you are not willing to persist or persevere through them, then you will plateau. You will become stagnant.
You see this a lot in companies. When they begin and really nail their product or service and model, they grow quickly and have enormous success, but many, after a while stagnate. Usually, it is after the founder or owner steps down or steps back. Apple was a good example of this. For many years, Apple was the upstart and was so innovative that it continued to nail the market with its products and grow. But, then after the “professional managers” took over and essentially expelled Steve Jobs from his own company, the company plateaued. It got stagnant and comfortable just making Macs. But others begin to make PC’s just as good or even better and the company started to wither to the point where its stock got to just a couple bucks. Of course, the shareholders blasted the board, and the company became a place of turmoil. Reluctantly, the company brought Steve Jobs back and well…you know the rest of the story. Steve reimagined the products and reimagined how to change the world with technology starting first with the iPod and then iPhone and so on.
The company had not been willing to persist or persevere through its biggest wall – the need to reinvent itself into a company with totally different offerings. But Steve was willing to and guided it through.
So, where am I going with this?
There is a rule that has existed throughout human history. It has been called many things, but the name I like for it best is the 40% Rule. In fact, the place where I saw it coined best was in a book from a Navy SEAL named David Goggins.
The Rule is pretty simple: When you think you’ve given it your all or are exhausted and your mind is telling you are done - Telling you that you cannot go further, you are only 40% done. You have 60% more left in you.
Wait, what? Yes, what I am saying is that when you feel you are most exhausted, and you have given everything – you still have 60% left.
How can that be? Because our limitations exist in our minds. I’ve said before that what you focus on expands in your live. The bible says, “that which gaze upon you become.” What we believe and tell ourselves becomes our reality. So, when our mind is saying we are exhausted and cannot go further – guess what happens? We don’t go further. But, what if when the thought pops into our heads that we cannot go further and have given it all, that we tell ourselves, “No, I haven’t. I am only just beginning. And we repeat that over and over as we take our next step, etc.” What will happen? We will not be done. We will keep going. Winston Churchill once said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” This is the essence of the 40% Rule. Keep going.
In my life, I have sought ways to seek opportunities to test this rule and expand my capacity to endure. I hope you will do the same.
One way I have done that is through Ironman racing. A full Ironman is a 2.4-mile swim, followed by 112-mile bike ride, followed by a marathon. Every race has new challenges. No just in navigating a new course, but the risks around you from others (look up Ironman bike crashes) and being pulled and stretched in completely new ways mentally and physically. For example, my last full Ironman brought completely new challenges and almost broke me until I remembered the 40% Rule. First, the swim was like no other in that there was a stinging jellyfish bloom in the water. Imagine swimming 2.4 miles navigating jellyfish, even in a wetsuit, getting stung on your face, feet, hands, really any exposed area. Then getting out of the water and getting on a bike for 112 miles with the pain from it and your body reacting to it while you ride.
I admit, it was my fastest swim ever! Then, on the bike the headwind picked up to almost 20 miles an hour, forcing me to have to work harder than normal to maintain my pace. And if that wasn’t enough, the original temperature for the day was to be in the high 60’s. Pretty ideal weather. Well, about the time I was ending my ride, the overcast clouds parted, the sun came out, and it shot up into the 80’s. Needless to say, after the swim, hard bike, and now it being 20+ degrees hotter, I was not feeling that well as I got start on my marathon. In fact, about 5 miles in. I started feel dizzy. I stopped running. I tried to walk but felt completely exhausted.
I have never not finished a race. Ever. But, in those moments as I sat down in the grass on the side of the road – every impulse in me told me to quit. My mind had all kinds of thoughts going through it. Things like “You’ve got nothing to prove. Don’t hurt yourself. Just quit. No shame in it.” Or “You’ve got another 21 miles to go, there is no way, etc.”
I sat there for 10-15 mins getting all the fluid I could in me. I could not even look at another energy gel pack. I was at my absolute limit. Or so I thought. I noticed the thoughts circling in my head and stopped them. I chose to get up and take the next step. I chose to embody the 40% Rule.
I wish I could say that I got back up, ran my best marathon ever and set a new personal best time, but that is not what happened. Do you know what’s worse than running a crappy marathon? Walking a crappy marathon. 5 hours later I crossed the finished line with my slowest time ever. I attempted to jog the last half mile and even that was ugly. But finished. I crossed the finish line and went straight to the med-tent. After some fluid and a little care, I was back on my feet. An hour or so later, I was pounding a horde of fast food satiating my unending hunger and feeling pretty good. In fact, I had plenty of energy – even though it was midnight and I had basically exercised for 14 hours.
It was in this moment that I realized how true the rule is. I had more left. A lot more. And now this lesson fuels me not just in my racing, but in business, life, and everywhere.
The 40% Rule is something we can and should all live by. We should push ourselves and our boundaries and learn to dig deeper and push ourselves further than we ever thought possible – because we can.
I think the real secret to success in anything lies in this Rule and we each have find it for ourselves and Hannah, I hope you find it in your own special way.
I love you,
Daddy
Best Quote: The 40% Rule is something we can and should all live by. We should push ourselves and our boundaries and learn to dig deeper and push ourselves further than we ever thought possible – because we can.
Misfit 3:
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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Shawn Finder. Shawn is an interesting guy. He grew up as one of North America’s top tennis players and ranked 2nd best at one point. He was literally competing to be the next Andre Agassi. At age 23 that he was told that he had to decide whether to try and become a tennis professional or get an MBA. He chose a university education.
You see Shawn is an entrepreneur at heart and he knew that was his calling. At age 24, he started his first venture importing packaging and selling to retailers, but his real passion was selling. So he started a list building company to help salespeople called Exchange leads, grew that to huge success and then started AutoKlose which he just sold to Vanillasoft.
I brought him on to talk about his journey, what he’s learned, and how to get more leads and business.
Shawn was top ranked tennis player playing world-wide and go to the age that he needed to make a choice to make it a career or go to school. He got his MBA in finance. And this has served him well as an entrepreneur. He started out working for a company as head of sales, came up with the idea for his first business, Exchange Leads, his 2nd day on the job and 18 months later had built it into his first company.
You’ve bootstrapped all of your businesses to success. What is your best advice on how to bootstrap a business?
Tell us about some of the pitfalls or things you would do differently if bootstrapping again…
Lessons learned going through the acquisition process?
At the 12 Min mark, Shawn explains working capital and how it impacted his sale…
What did playing tennis teach you about success, business, and life?
Talk to about selling in today’s world? What works? What doesn’t?
What should people know about the CRM and lead management systems out there and how best to use them?
Best ways to boost sales?
Tips to increase conversion rates?
You have an E-book with over 25 entrepreneurs and sales leaders. If you had to pick the top piece of advice from the book what would it be?
Best Quote: People don’t acquire you just because of the money you are making or your MRR/ARR. You need to value every area of your business. Your team, your clients, your income, your IP, etc.
Shawn's Misfit 3:
Invest in real estate at a young age. It is a great investment over the long term.
Bootstrap your company lean and profitable. Build a team that has an amazing culture.
Don’t focus on hiring quickly. Hire people you would hire into your family.
Show Sponsors:
The Good from Caldera Labs
www.CalederaLab.com/MISFIT (allcaps)
ROI International: