Breakfast with Champions – 2 Nov 2022

Glenn Lundy, founder | Ramon Ray, publisher | Christina Howard – project manager | plus a team of writers!

Listen to Your Heart’s Desire, Believe in it, Take Action, and You’ll Be Unstoppable –  Megan DiMartino

Have you ever had a dream, a goal, or a desire? Something that you knew in your heart you wanted but everyone around you said it was impossible? Chances are you have experienced this at least once and so did Megan. Since a child, she loved creating things. She knew in her heart that she wanted to create but when it was time for her to choose a school, her parents insisted that she should go to a Catholic School. She wasn’t too excited about it but she went to the fashion department of the school regardless. Later, she had the opportunity to work at Bloomingdale’s. Not only was she learning and growing during that time but she was surrounded by incredible people. In 1980 she got divorced and realized she wanted to pursue a career in the beauty industry. Of course, everyone around her thought she was crazy. But 14 years after she first felt the burning desire to create, she moved to Texas with the experience in sales and marketing that all these roles gave her and gradually started building the foundations of her own business.

Success is all about persistence. Scroll 3 in The Greatest Salesman in the World states, “I will persist until I succeed.” Megan knew she had the burning desire in her heart to create and regardless of the obstacles, she has been holding on to that dream and never gave up. A couple of years ago she bought Jamie Kern Lima’s book Believe IT and she was fascinated by Jamie’s persistence. From the moment she had her aha moment until the moment she sold her business to L’Oreal for $1.2 billion, Jamie was absolutely clear about what she wanted to do. She was often turned down along the way but she never stopped. She never lost the persistence with her goals and desires, and eventually succeeded. 

What dream, goal, or desire do you have in your heart? You need to listen to your heart, believe in what it says, and take action. And never give up! It is never too early or too late to create the life of your dreams. That is the journey of life.

Bullet points (up to 5): 

• Be clear about what you want to do and why you want to do it, and then take action.
• Remember that it is never too early or too late to create the life of your dreams
• Persistence will help you build the skills that you’ll need to achieve your vision

How Mastering Our Emotions Plays Into Our Success – Glenn Lundy

Gratitude is at the heart of every community. But gratitude is a learned quality, not a natural one. We cultivate it in our lives every day and by doing so, we learn how to be grateful even in times of adversity. As Rose Kennedy said, “Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great”. 

Glenn shared that 15 years ago, he learned about the role the conscious mind and the subconscious mind play in our lives. The big breakthrough for him was the discovery that with the conscious mind everything is rational while with the subconscious mind everything is irrational. Your subconscious mind is designed to kick in during dangerous situations and traumatic events. It is the fight or flight process that is responsible for blackouts. Now the problem with the subconscious mind is that it is irrational. Your conscious mind triggers an active response while the subconscious triggers a reactive response. 

We are all born aware of potential but as we grow up, through our subconscious mind we are programmed to believe that we are less. The subconscious mind runs trillions of thoughts a day that determine your present and ultimately your future. Here comes the question: what do we do if we don’t like our present and if we don’t like where our future is headed? 

We need to go back to where it all started and reprogram our minds. If you don’t like the direction you’ve taken and you want to change it, you have to reprogram your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind will be happy if you are an average version of yourself. That is why we need to work every day to reprogram our minds and become the best version of ourselves we can be. So, where to start?

1. Take time to read books every day. You can start by reading 10 pages per day. When you read every day, you gradually begin to shift the subconscious belief systems that you have built for yourself. 
2. Participate in a challenge. The accountability involved in the process will help you immensely.
3. Travel. Go to places you’ve never been to before and experience things you’ve never experienced. It ‘awakens’ parts of your brain and once it’s activated, it opens up your awareness to a variety of new perceptions and experiences. 

When you open yourself to different experiences, stories, and places, it opens up pathways in your awareness that you’ll ultimately need in order to become the best version of yourself you can be. All of us possess immense potential within ourselves from the moment we were born. However, your programming has convinced you that you are less or that you can’t be better. You have within you the seeds of endless glory. All you need to do is choose to do the reprogramming. Challenge yourself every day as soon as you rise. When you do it, you’ll shift the trajectory of every aspect of your life. 

Bullet points (up to 5):

• If you want to change your life, you have to reprogram your subconscious mind.
• Find time to read everyday.
• As you experience new things and places, your awareness of what’s possible will develop.
• Ultimately, your financial level is based on how you feel about money. 
• If you become a master of your emotions, you will become a master of whatever you do in life.

Deep Dive Into the 7 Elements of Effective Communication – Brandon Bowers

Communication plays into every single aspect of our lives. As Simon Sinek argues in his book Start with Why, starting with “why” is the foundation of effective communication. You have probably heard employees complain about the management in their company. Often, the problem is not the management but the lack of clarity around the company’s vision, goal, and actions, or the “why”. So the first element of great communication is explaining the “why” to your team or partner.

Once you give the “why”, you have to provide the context. What should the completed project look like? What’s the timeline? What is the budget? By giving your team the context, you set boundaries but you also let go of control. Nobody enjoys being micromanaged for sure but most of us are guilty of that to some degree. By micromanaging people, you don’t give them space to learn. Letting go of control will scale your business. Here’s an insider tip: when you are training your employees, you don’t have to give them every single detail but you need to provide them with the context. 

The next key element is transparency. When you give the “why” and the context to your team, then communicate transparently about them. If you don’t operate with transparency when it comes to the “why” and the context, you undo the purpose of both. Being transparent will not only help your business culture but also your objectives. 

Then set methods of communication. Have you experienced communication misuse on Slack, email, Teams, etc? To avoid this, you have to set standards for communication within your organization in order to create consistency. For example, if it’s a minor update, use Slack or Teams. But if it’s urgent, pick up the phone and call. 

The next element is the “who”. Start by creating an accountability chart that sets what every member of the team is responsible for internally. The chart should nail down the five key responsibilities of each role. One overlooked tool that Bill uses is a who-to-go-to document. One thing that many of us are guilty of is that we always want to respond at the moment. Instead of responding immediately, you need to let the person know they are not asking the right person. 

Be clear on the message. Sometimes we have so many ideas in our head but we are not clear on what we want to get across. Conversely, people who are very detail-oriented can deliver very confusing messages because they go into every single detail. What everyone can benefit from is someone who is able to break down their message.

Then comes delivery. How do you deliver your message? You should always consider your audience and how they receive information. This is one of the toughest things to learn as a leader. You need to know how a person receives information best because it determines how much they will understand. Are they more logical, or more emotional? What does the person believe in? What are their goals? Are they visionaries or integrators? For instance, if you are working with a visionary, you don’t want to jump straight into the details because they are not so interested in that and would discourage them. 

The last key element is frequency. There is a quote that says, “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them and tell them what you’ve told them”. Make sure to record or document every training because ultimately the training is part of your communication. Challenge yourself to think about how you communicate, how you can improve, and what effect that would have in both your personal and business life. 

Bullet points (up to 5):

• You have to be comfortable with failure and your employees have to be comfortable with failure as well.
• Letting go of control will scale your business.
• When you give the “why” and the context to your team, the next step is to communicate transparently about both.
• Always consider your audience and how they receive information.
• Everyone wants to be helpful but by trying to help even when you are not the right person for it, you are actually creating more chaos.

Repurpose Your Negative Emotions So That You Can Turn Them Into Your Superpower – Martin Reid

Part of being a great communicator involves being able to tap into your self-awareness. You have the ability within you to tap into your self-awareness and identify the elements of your character that can become your superpower. What are some of the negative emotions you are holding that you want to turn into positive ones for yourself? What are the negative things that people say about you? And how can you use those things and use them as a superpower? 

Mastering your emotions isn’t about suppressing them. It’s about taking yourself to the next level. It’s about processing your emotions diligently so that you can express them with intelligence and handle any situation that comes your way. So, how can you improve your self-awareness so you can tap into your hidden superpower?

1. Start with asking good questions. You need to be open to any type of feedback. Demonstrate your eagerness to learn by asking all types of questions. 
2. Listen. You have to be able to listen to the feedback you are given without justifying it right away. Make sure you are surrounding yourself with the people that are going to help you achieve the vision you have for yourself. But if you are not listening to the feedback they are giving you, then you’ve wasted your time and your effort.
3. Be open to change. You can’t become self-aware if you are not actively interested in improving yourself. It takes a sustained effort to achieve your goals in life. Recognize what is going to take you to go to the next milestone. 
4. Identify the personal habits that are holding you back. What are the things you are doing that are contributing or not contributing to the vision you have for your life? The goal here is not to change our habits straight away but to identify them.
5. Embrace your intuition. Listen to your gut feeling, balance it with the facts, and then make a decision. This is like muscle memory for the mind and takes practice.

Your mind can be your worst enemy or your best friend. Be willing to repurpose the things that potentially hold you back so you can turn them into a superpower. 

Bullet points (up to 5):

• Surround yourself with people you can learn from and then demonstrate your eagerness to learn by asking them good questions.
• Listen to the feedback you are given without justifying it right away.
• Try to take something from every single interaction you have.
• You can repurpose the habits and emotions that are holding you back and turn them into your superpower.

30 Seconds or Less: Present Your Story to the World to Build Your Audience – Aurea McGarry

Aurea McGarry, a mom-preneur, shares tips about getting your voice out to your audience. As a business owner, it doesn’t help you if you are the best-kept secret. How do you get your voice out there? Today, the new wave of marketing is all about video and sizzle-reels. You have 30 seconds to stop the scroll and turn potential customers into actual customers. 

The world is crowded now. It’s critical to get yourself out there to your audience. Videos should allow you to connect authentically with your audience. Be personal and share your story. Share how your service or product can uniquely help them. 

Research shows that earlier it used to take at least 4 “touches” to turn a potential customer into a customer. Now, with video and reels, you can connect on a personal level, can cut the process down and convert customers even faster. But now that the holidays are approaching, how can you beat the chaos of holiday sales and still make sales? The trick is to stand out by showing your personality. Give your audience a chance to see who you are and what you can do for them. Give out gift certificates for your services and show them how your service can change their life. Remember, you have a solution to their problem, and they need your service. 

While videos are essential for sharing your business with your audience, podcasting is also a critical tool. Studies show that over 50% of podcast listeners will listen to the entire episode, which is a big deal. Consumers typically have a short attention span in this age, but if you can build a podcast audience, you can create an audience of engaged potential customers. Podcasts are also an excellent way to share yourself with your potential customers and build an audience in a non-salesy way. 

However, you must ensure you’re doing the right podcast for you and your business. Podcasts do not have to be based on the “interviewing” model, there are other models that may work better for you. Think about what style best accentuates you, your business, and your story. 

www.aureamcgarry.vipmemervault.com

Don’t Let Your Emotions Drive Your Business Into the Wall – Alexa D’Agostino

Dr. Alexa D’agotino shares that often it isn’t the lack of talent, desire or drive that inhibits entrepreneurs from reaching their “next level.” Instead,  emotion is the factor that gets in the way of business. Life is real and messy, and everyone has a life they are dealing with, but if you bring your emotions to your business, you are setting yourself up for failure. All business owners deal with stress or insecurities. Still, by focusing on your negative emotions, you’re allowing your emotions to drive your choices, resulting in poor business planning and execution. 

However, emotions can be powerful if you learn to control them. Your feelings can be used to build success. You can  communicate better with customers and employees by tapping into your empathy. When you manage your emotions, you can tap into your intuition and make the best decisions for your business. 

Starting a business is hard. Maintaining a business is even more challenging. The number one thing that prevents you from achieving success is yourself. Many people quit before they can even get started because they allow their insecurities to make the decisions for themselves. Businesses grow slowly and need momentum to build towards success. Most companies fail because they quit before they get momentum. 

Another reason why business owners quit is the misconception that once you find success, problems stop. However, even after you build success, there are always problems to be dealt with. The only way you can succeed through these issues is by controlling your emotional responses and making the best decisions for your business and your audience. 

• Emotions drive motion. If we focus on how we feel, we “drive into” our emotions.
• We are emotional beings. We will have feelings, but we have to control them. 
• Steer the emotions towards your purpose to turn them into energy.
• Psych yourself up, or you will psych yourself out.

Move into a Better You with Daily Challenges and First Experiences – Barbara Majeski

When was the last time you did something for the first time and challenged yourself? Barbara Majeski shares the importance of movement in your daily life. Barbara Majeski’s fitness challenges are a “challenge.” They are not meant to be easy. They are designed to build you up, but people are often intimidated by them because they are hard. 

The thing about challenges and doing something for the first time is that they make you uncomfortable. However, allowing yourself to be uncomfortable and trying new things leads to “momentum through movement.” Becoming your best-self starts with getting out of your comfort zone, which is what these challenges are all about. 

We have to master our emotions to get out of our comfort zone and face a challenge. When we challenge ourselves, we master our emotions and purposefully do something we may not typically “enjoy.” Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in judgment. You prejudge an activity, yourself, or others even before attempting it. 

If you are more open-minded and open-hearted, opportunities will open up for you. Release judgment to open up to abundance and opportunity. Allow yourself to try things for the first time in life. Be uncomfortable and grow. 

Don’t allow yourself to stay safely tucked in your shell. Take advantage of your life and show the world the highest expression of yourself. Once you get moving, you start to realize your potential. This is why challenges are so critical. The more we move, the more we can achieve. It all begins with a movement. 

Bullet points (up to 5):

• Consistency and commitment are the true goals behind a challenge.
• Let go of judgment to open yourself to opportunities.
• Consistent movement leads to better choices.

It’s Not Over Yet! End the Year Proud – Hayley Hobson

Hayley Hobson and Hilde Dunn, life coach at Handel Group, discuss how to end the year proud. You can learn more about Hilde at www.handelgroup.com.

It can be easy to forget who you are when you dedicate yourself to your family, kids, and parenting responsibilities. If you struggle to remind yourself of who you are, it is probably time to reevaluate your life and learn how to become your own person again. This is what Hilde helps people accomplish every day. 

All of us want to wake up and be exceptional. To declare that we’re unique, perfect and extraordinary. We don’t want to say we are “just fine.” Just fine is no way to live. Declaring we are exceptional, however, can alter our brain, and how we feel about ourselves and our actions. 

It can also be easy to take personal relationships in life for granted. However, it only takes a few intentional steps every day to rebuild positive relationships in your life. It all starts with a declaration. By giving yourself a declaration, you give yourself a purpose, taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. 

Everybody is happy to make a declaration at the beginning of the year. But then they forget to recognize the declaration at the end of the year. At the end of the year, people tend to get distracted and “quit” because they did not get the desired results. But when and how you end something is as important as how you begin something. So end proud. You can’t change the past, but you can get curious and allow yourself to learn from it. 

If we allow ourselves to learn from our “failures,” we can learn a lot about ourselves. This is how we become authors of our lives. Stop reacting to your failures and be the author of your success by learning from your failure, ending proud, and beginning again. 

You have to get back to your heart. Your heart is your why. Once you can get your declaration and your why, you can start over. It’s not too late to end this year proud. From now to the end of the year, give yourself a new declaration and write it down so you can remember what you have been striving for these last few months. Listen to what you care about and let go of the other things. 

Bullet points (up to 5): 

• There is power in following through on what you say you will do. 
• Think of 3 things you are proud of each day – this forces people to think of things they could be proud of, which in turn helps them take action on the things they can put on their list. 
• Think of three things you avoid each day. Then try to push yourself to do one of these things every day. As they do these things, they find they can avoid them less. 
• Check out Hilde’s Quiz: my.inneru.coach

Avoid The Trap of Perfection – Push, Not Perfection! – Alexander Gonzalez

Perfectionism is the refusal to accept any standard that is less than perfect. Oftentimes we fail to acknowledge our strengths and capabilities, because we are paralysed in our attempt to be perfect. 

Perfectionism is really a weakness. It makes you feel you’re not good enough because you set very high standards for yourself, so no matter how far you’ve come it never looks like an accomplishment. You never feel good enough. It holds you back from taking risks. It’s like armor, blocking you from releasing your talents. 

You need to undertake new risks because they can pave a way for your goals to come true. If you don’t take risks, you’ll be left with a lifetime’s worth of “Had I knowns”. Challenges help us grow. Perfectionism leaves us wanting more, striving for greatness and doing more than we can handle.

Life is hard, but the journey can be very beautiful. It’s better to struggle than to give up. You need to fight, push, learn and overcome to achieve more because more struggles would eventually come. But it’s never about the struggles and the results, it’s about the lessons learned and wisdom gained.

Push not perfection. Struggle but overcome. Let’s believe we don’t have to be perfect, we don’t have to strive to please. We just need to do everything we can to be a better version of ourselves. Either you recognise yourself as your best version, or you can stay stuck.

Sit with yourself, listen to the small voice within and dream. Get that vision on paper and fight to bring it to reality. Understand the law of attraction and bring people to you. Learn to work towards your dream together as a team. Do what you have to do to live the life that you want to be.

Bullet points (up to 5): 

• Don’t trick yourself into being comfortable with maladaptive behaviors like procrastination.
• Do whatever it takes to live life the way you want to live it.
• Push, not perfection!
• Don’t stay in struggle, recover and grow.
• Recognise yourself in the best version you are meant to be.

Rise to Your Highest Self with Self Awareness – Tara Murney

Self-awareness is the ability to be aware of your impulses, sensations and emotions. It requires paying attention to your inner mind, which is your repressed and unconscious material.

Self-awareness is recognising your inner scope and self-understanding is using that self-awareness to finetune and discover facets of your being. 

Most people don’t pay attention to the present moment. Most times, we only have fleeting moments of self-awareness, but not a lot of people take the initiative to change their behaviors after they become self-aware.

You need to be self-aware of your goals, your being, and behaviors. Meditation and deep contemplation can help you figure out the roots of your emotional triggers. According to research studies, self-awareness has turned out to be more important than IQ. It is also important for a healthy relationship with self, others and society.

Ask yourself: what are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? Why do I act and react this way? Self-awareness is important for everyday living. Lack of it drives you to live a mundane life. Without self-awareness you will live a life of uncontrolled impulses, unquestioned beliefs and strange impulses and then you can develop self-destructive behaviors and emotions.

When you have a strong awareness of self, you understand what you feel, why you feel so and why you relate with people the way you do. It is the stepping stone to understand yourself better. Without this, there is no psychological growth or spiritual growth. 

There are people that look up to and are inspired by you, whether you believe it or not. And this awareness is important to realizing your purpose, achieving your dream and reaching your full potential. The sooner you become more aware, the sooner you let go of limitations that hold you down and rise to your highest self.

There are three simple exercises to become more self-aware.

1. Find yourself someone that easily sees your blindspots.
2. Keep a journal on all your greatest strengths and weaknesses. 
3. Remove all distractions and focus on your inner being. Meditate and be aware.

Bullet points (up to 5): 

• Go back on your day and reflect on everything to hone your self-awareness. 
• Self-awareness can help redesign your inner mind, life and relationships.
• Learn to meditate. 
• Keep a thought and emotions journal.

Tips for Monetizing Through Social Media – Brittany Dke

There are many ways to monetize your skills, even when you’re not creating content and even if people don’t turn up the way you want. Practice makes perfect. Be consistent and show up each day with a new idea, along the lines of:

Collaborating: Oftentimes we like to do things on our own but sometimes we need people by our side. Use platforms like streamyard or melon to get people to collaborate and to bring people on your stream. You might not have so many live views, but people could watch these later when you have gone off-air.

Affiliate Marketing: You may not have large followers but you can promote brands. There are different ways to do this. One way is to reach out to those companies, but you should know what value you want to bring to those brands. If you don’t have the following, leverage your creativity. Do livestreams on products that you have used or recommend for several people – it’s a great way to push useful information and services to your audience. 

Groups: Facebook now allows people to monetise their groups. You could upload your ebooks and create other features that most other groups don’t have. 

Website: This is an effective way to capture emails, addresses, and contact details of your target audience. Build up your contact list and email list using platforms like Mailchimp. Think of different ways to be closer to customers.

If you are just starting up and don’t have a huge following, a great way to gain followers is to create short videos or reels. Promote these on various social media platforms and be interactive. Get a business page so they follow your page instead of your personal account. 

However, don’t rely on a single platform to monetize for the rest of your life, keep on experimenting to see what works best for you. Learn more at www.flowcode.com

Bullet points (up to 5):

• Strategise different ways you can monetize
• Before putting out content, research what people want to see and listen to.
• Devise ways to generate traffic with different forms of content