October 27th is National Mentoring Day, and two days later, on October 29th is International Mentoring Day. To honor and elevate mentoring, I am sharing with you three groundbreaking conversations about a mother and daughter team that have brought mentoring to a level of inclusive excellence. They role model what they preach, teach and write. They are Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring in their newest book by the same title. Dr. Lois Zachary is an internationally recognized expert on mentoring and has been cited as “one of the top 100 minds in leadership” today.

WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST

Mentoring Excellence with Dr. Lois Zachary

Episode 293: An Aspirational Gift in Tragedy with “The Amazing Hondo” We all have something in common, six categories of universal human needs. When our needs for connection, physical well-being, honesty, play, autonomy, and meaning go unmet regularly, we become unhappy. The contrary is also true. When our needs get met regularly, we feel affectionate, excited, confident, inspired, joyful, refreshed, peaceful, engaged, and hopeful. Feelings give us clues to help us better meet our needs and, by extension, learn to meet others’ needs better. “The Amazing Hondo” Hughes implemented a survival strategy when a primary need for connection with his parents became disrupted. He permitted himself to get his needs met outside of his family of origin. Mentors in sports, math, and magic encouraged Hondo to develop his gifts and talents and share them with others. Legendary Billy Peterson was Hondo’s baseball coach.  Facebook Part of Hondo’s longevity is his innovative and creative marketing practices to leverage client relationships. When you are only as good as your next big gig, meaningful conversations can increase incoming calls by 50% and turn one gig into many. Business mentoring from Mark LeBlanc has also deepened Hondo’s business sense. A penny analogy underscores how to grow your business exponentially. There are pearls of wisdom sprinkled throughout our conversation as Hondo talks about building a career through his craft of magic with a message. Three tips for building your portfolio are one example. And, imagining yourself where you want to be will increase the odds of getting there was a piece of advice from a mentor. Hondo recalls a treasured memory of visiting Muhammad Ali at his home. Muhammad Ali said he was forming a comeback and jokingly says to Hondo, “With all your jive, I’ll take you in five.” In his 40s, tragedy knocked on Hondo’s doorstep. Two police officers deliver the news of his youngest brother Mark’s death by suicide. The aspiration for Hondo’s magic came from Mark. Mark was a gifted guitar player, singer, comedian. Early in Mark’s life, he became interested in magic and took lessons at Eagle Magic Store with Al Schneider and brought Hondo to the store. As if one tragedy weren’t enough, Hondo’s mother died of lung cancer two years before Mark’s death, and his Dad died a few years later. Each death prompted an inward focus and a ‘stop doing’ and ‘start being’ kind of human focus. His performances took on new meaning, and his audiences include Mark’s presence and Hondo’s gratitude. I leave you with two exercises you can download and complete: Universal Human Needs Exercise and WeMentor Workaholism Quiz. And Cat Stevens’ lyrics to Where Do The Children Play. Tune in to find out why this song meant so much to Mark and Hondo. DOWNLOAD Where Do The Children Play by Cat Stevens Well, I think it’s fine, building Jumbo planes Or taking a ride on a cosmic train Switch on summer from a slot machine Get what you want to if you want, ’cause you can get anything. I know we’ve come a long way We’re changing day today But tell me, where do the children play? Well, you roll on roads over fresh green grass For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas And you make them long, and you make them tough But they go on and on, and it seems you can’t get off Oh, I know we’ve come a long way We’re changing day to day But tell me, where do the children play? Well you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air Will you keep on building higher ‘Til there’s no more room up there? Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry? Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die? I know we’ve come a long way We’re changing day to day But tell me, where do the children play?    Please do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below. Podcast Sponsor Strategies to Grow Your Business Monthly Bookkeeping Payroll Services Back Office Strategies and Support Contact Us Now Episode Resources

An Inspirational Gift in Tragedy with “The Amazing Hondo”

Episode 292: The Magical Life of “The Amazing Hondo” I met today’s Guest Mentor performing magic at an outdoor networking event four of us co-hosted. Dan DeMuth’s place was a perfect spot for the gathering. Actually, the event was Coach Dan’s idea. His backyard is a huge putting green. Perfect for a magic show before throwing golf clubs and developing new relationships.    “The Amazing Hondo” showed me a blank card and then placed it on the ground in front of me. When I bent down to turn it over, the card wasn’t blank. The card was a picture of me. I am still scratching my head in wonderment. A magic entertainer’s life has always intrigued me. Today, we will uncover how John Hughes becomes “The Amazing Hondo,” who has performed for some greats like Mohamed Ali, Harvey McKay, Bob Hope, and Dinah Shore. DOWNLOAD John grew up in what he describes as a 1950s authoritarian and unstructured home where he learned to be obedient and play it safe, as did his three other siblings. Early on, he realized an independent streak that I would identify as an entrepreneurial characteristic. A desire to forge one’s own path and take the necessary financial and self-leadership risks to make a living from your craft. Before he could exercise his entrepreneurial tendencies, he played it safe, like he was taught. He became a good student realizing he loved math and had an inner sense to teach others and have fun. Practicing magic card tricks became his teen hobby and sports an outlet for camaraderie and competition. Professionally John started his career as a math teacher and coach at Cretin-Durham Hall, his alma mater. Hall-of-Famer Paul Molitor and MN Twins catcher Joe Mauer attended the same school. The performer in John began emerging as his two favorite sports of basketball and baseball were fodder for solving probability equations in math classes. What was Joe Mauer’s batting average? Let’s figure it out. Applying real-life situations made math come alive for his students. Magic card tricks were the reward incentivizing his math students to complete homework assignments and promote teamwork.  “The Amazing Hondo” arose out of a request from peers to perform his “Mathemagic” show at a national conference in San Francisco. John practiced 35 hours for a 2-hour magic performance in front of a three-way mirror where his hands could take on a life of their own as John moved into a meditative state. Memory work and mental gymnastics are steady companions. There was no stopping John. He went from Mr. Hughes, the amazing teacher, and coach to “The Amazing Hondo,” speaker and entertainer. “The Amazing Hondo” took advantage of opportunities that helped him hone his craft, release debilitating beliefs, and springboard out of a life ‘playing it safe’ and into the magical world of entrepreneurship. When does it make sense to take your next leap of faith? “The Amazing Hondo” has some answers for you. Please do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below. Podcast Sponsor Strategies to Grow Your Business Monthly Bookkeeping Payroll Services Back Office Strategies and Support Contact Us Now Episode Resources Eagle Magic Store (founded in 1889) Eagle Magic and Joke Store – The Oldest Magic Shop in America! – Eagle Magic Store  Escape Rooms “Mystery Mansion” by Breakout Games – Minneapolis in Minneapolis – St. Paul (worldofescapes.com)Trapped Puzzle Rooms Dan DeMuth's Podcast Episodes Secrets from Golf Whisperer and Business Coach, Dan DeMuth | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST How Over 52,902 People Changed Their Lives with Dan DeMuth as Their Coach | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST Oprah's Book: The Path Made Clear The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose: Winfrey, Oprah: 9781250307507: Amazon.com: Books Paul Molitor Paul Molitor – Wikipedia Hondo & Muhammad Ali

The Magical Life of “The Amazing Hondo”

Episode 291: 3 More Steps to Becoming An Idea Detective with Barbara Winter Last week, you heard the first three of six steps to becoming an idea detective. Find your curiosity, invite ideas, and the third step, my favorite. Auditioning ideas is a productive way of framing our ideas and getting feedback on new profit centers. Today we discuss the other three steps. Barbara Winter believes in putting fun titles to everything. It is part of her living joyfully jobless formula. Her Winning Ways newsletter is the longest self-employment publication of its kind. Long-time readers keep the issues as a catalog of ideas to retrieve for inspiration and new insights along the self-bossing journey. She has a technique for building a prosperity consciousness worth hearing. Her small is beautiful philosophy comes through in generating ‘doable’ ideas like the $100 hour. You can change the number to any number. Why not start with an achievable number and build your way up? What dollar bill do you have in your purse or billfold? The next three steps we share deal with getting traction with your ideas and expanding revenue streams. Stay constantly curious, no matter what. Start with questions to ask yourself when you get up in the morning. Did you know 49M people do not want to go back to the office? They like working at a home office. Maybe it is your natural habitat and a way of fostering curiosity. Protect your ideas from the naysayers. Use discernment when it comes to who you share ideas with before auditioning them to a larger audience. Barbara has a strong view about this. The sixth step to becoming an idea detective is keeping your MPC’s alive and knowing when to ditch them. Creating Multiple Profit Centers or multiple streams of revenue bridge cashflow gaps and build a foundation of viability. It can be your response to a changing world and staying vital and vibrant. Tune in to our conversation so you ‘don’t waste time watering dead plants.’ DOWNLOAD Please do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below. Podcast Sponsor Strategies to Grow Your Business Monthly Bookkeeping Payroll Services Back Office Strategies and Support Contact Us Now Episode Resources Barbara's 3 Other Podcast Conversations Employee Mindset vs. Entrepreneurial Mindset | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCASTIt Is Time To Explore Multiple Profit Centers | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCASTPortfolios of Inspiration | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST  Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring After listening, do the following three C.A.L.M. Activities: Take this risk or do this adventurous task: Implement the next three steps in becoming an idea detective. Start with formulating strategies to stay constantly curious, protecting your ideas from naysayers, and strategies to keep your Multiple Profit Centers (MPC) alive (and a strategy for when to pull the plug on a revenue stream). Then, implement the strategies and refine them as you go. Apply Self-Compassion: Choose one of your strategies and love it. Gush about how much you love the strategy. You are more likely to implement strategies you love.  Welcome Appreciation: “I appreciate the creativity and brainstorming of ideas Barbara sprinkled into our conversations. I appreciate her attitude that small is beautiful. I appreciate a reminder not to water a dead plant. Those ideas that are not likely to succeed need to be discarded for new ideas to pop up. I appreciate Barbara. She is rocking our world with her enthusiasm, grace, and brainstorming.”       Your Turn. Start with, “I appreciate what I heard from today’s Guest Mentor, Barbara Winter. I appreciate this week’s adventurous task because….”“Most of the problems in our lives and world are caused by relational dysfunction, a dysfunction in how we relate: as social groups, as individuals, to animals and the environment, and even to ourselves. Therefore,

3 More Steps to Becoming An Idea Detective with Barbara Winter

Episode 290: 3 Steps to Becoming An Idea Detective with Barbara Winter Barbara Winter is back as a pioneering self-employment advocate, writer, and teacher who has spent the last thirty years pondering the question, “Why aren’t we all self-employed?” Helping others discover a Joyfully Jobless life is her favorite occupation. Barbara says, “nine out of ten of us in the 1900s grew up in entrepreneurial homes. Now, the numbers are reversed; nine out of ten people are employed.” One way to promote your entrepreneurial spirit is by becoming an idea detective. Barbara and I hear clients on two separate sides of the idea spectrum. The first side is, “I have too many ideas and don’t know what to do with them all.” The second side is not having enough ideas or a strategy to gather ideas to explore opportunities. I asked Barbara to share three of her six steps to becoming an idea detective so whichever side of the idea spectrum you are on, you can advance your ideas with a strategic approach. We discuss three of six steps to becoming an idea detective. The other three will arrive next Monday.  Find your curiosity. We discuss where our curiosity might have gotten snuffed out and how to bring ideas to life. We are born curious. Many quiet the curiosity voice growing up. Pondering life keeps our imagination fed. You can make friends with your curiosity again. Stay on alert and keep searching for new ideas. Be deliberate. Invite ideas. “Think of your business as a laboratory and not an assembly line,” says Barbara. Pay attention to ways you can capture new ideas. Barbara wakes up with this brain-engaging activity every morning. She asks herself, what’s missing? And, what do I want to change today? You can keep your ideas moving with questions.     We discuss how to solve inertia. You will hear what effect 19 months of isolation have had on Barbara and her creativity. She has solid strategies that help her move forward and discover new things. She even offers Brainstorming sessions, which I took her up on, to keep moving my book ideas forward. Audition Your Ideas. Auditioning my ideas has given me a structure to rolling out new ideas. A way to test them out on audiences to see if they are worthy for the next steps. Barbara is one of the wisest and most fun idea detectives I have ever met. I always pick up new ideas and strategies in being joyfully jobless. Let me know how implementing these three steps go. DOWNLOAD Please do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below. Podcast Sponsor Strategies to Grow Your Business Monthly Bookkeeping Payroll Services Back Office Strategies and Support Contact Us Now Episode Resources Barbara's 3 Other Podcast Conversations Employee Mindset vs. Entrepreneurial Mindset | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCASTIt Is Time To Explore Multiple Profit Centers | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCASTPortfolios of Inspiration | WeMentor Mondays with Nancy PODCAST  Barbara Sher Barbara Sher Hugh MacLeod Hugh MacLeod, Ignore Everybody  Steven Pressfield Steven Pressfield, The War of Art Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring After listening, do the following three C.A.L.M. Activities: Take this risk or do this adventurous task: Implement the three steps in becoming an idea detective this week. Find your curiosity if you buried it. Invite ideas by asking yourself two questions Barbara asks herself each morning, what’s missing? And, What do I want to change today? Audition your ideas by finding an audience to test out ideas. See what happens. I’ll have three more steps for you next Monday. Apply Self-Compassion: Acknowledge the enthusiasm building within as you implement your first three steps as an idea detective.  Welcome Appreciation: “I appreciate the joy and enthusiasm Barbara infuses into our conversations. Her delight in life and passion for helping others live a joyfully jobles...

3 Steps to Becoming An Idea Detective with Barbara Winter

Episode 289: Matt Mueller’s Reimagined Life: Out of Amway and into Glo Lighting Minnesota, Part II “We like to illuminate our lives in many ways,” says Matt Mueller. He is illuminating neighborhoods and businesses with an Architectural LED lighting system for accent, holiday lighting, game day lighting, and security. Glo Lighting Minnesota brings Matt back home from Phoenix, where our second conversation starts. Matt is an excellent example of dual innovation. He is redefining who he is while launching a new business. You will hear the freedom he feels from designing life on his terms out of his lessons. “In order to become confident and capable adults, it helps enormously to have grown up with steady and predictable parents, writes Dr. Bessle van der Kolk in The Body Keeps The Score (2014). He expands his thoughts by adding, “parents who delighted in you, in your discoveries and explorations; parents (or caregivers) who helped you organize your comings and goings; and who served as role models for self-care and getting along with other people. Defects in any of these areas are likely to manifest themselves later in life. A child who has been ignored, for example, or chronically humiliated is likely to lack self-respect.” In Matt’s case, he grew up in a home with steady and predictable parents, so when his world turned upside down after his marriage and network marketing venture imploded, he used the opportunity in Phoenix to restore his well-being. A sign of respecting oneself. He utilized new mentors to move from an intrapreneur, using the resources of Amway’s network marketing company to launching Glo Lighting. His vision is to build a 1st class service organization that makes work easy, lucrative, and fun while treating everyone’s property as their own. The primary differences between intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs are the risk one takes with their finances and organizing resources within a company. I use the most famous example of an intrapreneur, podcast guest mentor, Art Fry. He invented Post-it Notes® while working at 3M. You can find our podcast conversations and a definition of intrapreneurs in the Episode Resource section for this episode. Enjoy Matt’s explanation of his reimagined life. DOWNLOAD Speaking of Restoring well-being after trauma, I feel compelled to say that we missed a massive opportunity as a nation to find ways to restore our well-being after the terrorist attacks twenty years ago (September 11, 2001). If we had focused on restoring our nation’s well-being first, we would have healed the world. Instead, we armored up with a revengeful mentality and rolled out policies and plans that nourished a fear-based mindset that demonized our Muslim brothers and sisters, armed the Taliban, and caused the world harm. We unleashed our superpower vengeance. We are still paying the price of messed-up priorities. What we can do now is keep doing the work to heal our hearts and practice healthy relating, and implement our new learnings to create a world based on love and understanding instead of fear and hate. We need to focus on the light, maybe Matt’s light, where he has created space for dual innovation.  A clarification. Jellyfish Lighting is the company Matt has a license to sell his LED Architectural lighting systems. There are licensed dealers in 20 markets. Minnesota is the 15th state to offer this outdoor and commercial lighting system. After listening, complete below, the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities. Podcast Sponsor Would you like to take charge of the path you are on to create an enduring legacy? You can redefine how you lead and mentor while you redesign your business. We’ll show you how. Interviews are taking place NOW! Get one-on-one Strategic Mentoring Join a WeMentor LAB Assert Self-Leadership...  Start HERE! Episode Resources Best Selling Trauma Research The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind,

Matt Mueller’s Reimagined Life: Out of Amway and into Glo Lighting Minnesota, Part II

Episode 288: Matt Mueller’s Reimagined Life: Out of Amway and into Glo Lighting Minnesota, Part I Matt Mueller was approached in college to a compelling financial model called network marketing, or multi-level marketing. An opportunity to direct sell household and personal products to consumers that would pay for college. In network marketing, you not only sell products. You also recruit and train new people to be direct salespeople building their own networks. You then have two ways of making money. Getting commissions from selling and also earning a commission from what your downline of sellers sell. The network marketing company that chose Matt, as he would say, was Amway and their affiliated personal development company, Worldwide Dream Builders. Amway is a family-owned consumer goods manufacturer and direct selling company founded by Richard DeVos and Jay Van Andel in 1959. According to Forbes magazine, direct sellers generated $8.4B in sales revenue for Amway in 2019. My experience with network marketing came through Mary Kay Cosmetics in college and one of my three sisters getting involved in the network marketing business. Mary Kay Ash founded her empire in 1963 and has provided millions of women the opportunity to support themselves and their families. Matt thought he found the ultimate jackpot. Marrying into a family already successful in a business he had grown to love, Amway. What he didn’t anticipate was how the legacy he was building would come to an abrupt end.   Pleasantville is how Matt describes his upbringing in Cold Spring, Minnesota. His reference is not connected to the 1998 film Pleasantville, with Toby Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as teenagers finding themselves in a 1950s sitcom. Matt refers to his rural hometown as a pleasant place to grow up with two siblings and 55 cousins. A stable and safe place with a solid work ethic. Matt’s German Catholic parents recently retired from a hairstyling business and his dad from construction to spend the winter months in Arizona. Matt says, “the Sedona vortexes pulled me in,” where he found respite after his six-year marriage collapsed and the network marketing enterprise they were building with his inlaws imploded. Sedona provided the geographical space for Matt to recover and reimagine his life. Eighty-nine percent of direct sellers work part-time, so Matt was grateful he had two other ventures to support him at the time: inflatable carnival business and tanning company. Matt describes this part of his life as a phenomenal chapter of great lessons learned and memories to cherish. A life without regrets, just learning. Hear the strength and grounded confidence he brings into our conversation. DOWNLOAD  Next week we discuss how Matt rebuilds his life with a new entrepreneurial venture, Glo Lighting Minnesota.  After listening, complete below, the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities. Podcast Sponsor Would you like to take charge of the path you are on to create an enduring legacy? You can redefine how you lead and mentor while you redesign your business. We’ll show you how. Interviews are taking place NOW! Get one-on-one Strategic Mentoring Join a WeMentor LAB Assert Self-Leadership...  Start HERE! Episode Resources Network Marketing Amway (forbes.com) World Wide Dream Builders WWDB Review (2021) (ecosecretariat.org) What is Direct Selling (dsa.org) WeMentor LABs WeMentor LABs Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring After listening, do the following three C.A.L.M. Activities: Take this risk or do this adventurous task: Are you making progress in your life? This could be a loaded question when you are challenged to start over. What if setbacks and broken hearts are instrumental steps on a path toward higher consciousness? Matt was challenged to disentangle his business relationships at the same time he dissolved his marriage. A four-year process to reimagine the new life ...

Matt Mueller’s Reimagined Life: Out of Amway and into Glo Lighting Minnesota, Part I

Episode 287: Mike Kabeya’s Reaction to My Entrepreneurial Upbringing Mike Kabeya responds to my entrepreneurial upbringing. He recorded me in the studio and became teary-eyed as I expressed a farm accident that threatened my brother’s life. Mike has been trained as a spiritual director and approaches our conversation with empathy and insight. I feel heard, seen, and understood. I first spoke of this farm accident on air on December 11, 2017 (Episode 103). This was a podcast conversation where Mike and I discussed a traumatic event with a clinical hypnotherapist and alchemist, Debbie Unterman. Our conversation was about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “PTSD is an anxiety disorder that a person may develop after experiencing or witnessing an extreme, overwhelming traumatic event during which they felt intense fear, helplessness, or horror.” PTSD was triggered when I would go out for a run many years after the accident. Debbie suggested the reoccurring memory of Mark jumping from his tractor and the steering wheel landing on his arm, pinning him to the ground, was triggered because I ran to get help, and Mark was screaming out to me, “Don’t leave me.” I ask Guest Mentors to describe how trauma was handled in their family of origin to normalize conversations about trauma. If we are more than the bad things that have happened to us, and we are more than the bad things we have done, then who are we? It is our responsibility to find out.   What gems did I learn that soothed and replaced the harmful psychological experience on that summer day in 1975? I now have a new insight. Mike gave me another way to look at my brother’s accident. Mike viewed the tractor flipping accident from my brother Mark’s perspective. Viewing the accident from Mark’s perspective unlocked my fear-based mind so I could remember a few more details. I can now view myself as a heroine saving my 16-year-old brother’s life when I was 14. It is never too late to claim your hero or heroine status. Thanks to the growing field of neuropsychology. An explosion of studies on mental health is propagating our world. We now know our brain changes after trauma and what treatments help reconnect our brain to our bodies from this newer field. One way to connect the fear-driven mind with the brain and body is through yoga. Yoga helps us reconnect by gently allowing memories to release themselves as we move our bodies. Yoga revitalizes my spirit and helps me trust my body and feel the depth of my emotions. Each time I get on the mat, I know I am safe to explore whatever comes up as I gently move and stretch in ways that support a flexible mind and ignite my imagination, which gets shut down after a big trauma. Other modalities like dance and creative expression through art are being studied as treatment options to heal trauma. DOWNLOAD   Talking with those knowledgeable about trauma gives us the language to understand our experience. The next step is to use various modalities to reconnect your mind, brain, and body. If your body is craving to heal through movement, sign-up to do fall yoga with me HERE.  After listening, complete below, the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities. Podcast Sponsor Would you like to take charge of the path you are on to create an enduring legacy? You can redefine how you lead and mentor while you redesign your business. We’ll show you how. Interviews are taking place NOW! Get one-on-one Strategic Mentoring Join a WeMentor LAB Assert Self-Leadership...  Start HERE! Episode Resources Trauma Resources The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. (2014) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Podcast Episode with Debbie Unterman Therapy of the New Future with Debbie Unterman WeMentor LABs WeMentor LABs Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring After listening, do the following three C.A.L.M.

Mike Kabeya’s Reaction to My Entrepreneurial Upbringing

Episode 286: My Entrepreneurial Upbringing I’ve been asked to answer some of the questions I ask Guest Mentors. The timing correlates with writing my transformational nonfiction manuscript and interviewing for a new September WeMentor LAB. I am integrating my life experiences through a resilient lens. Did I grow up in a resilient home that promoted an unshakable core of calm, strength, and joy? No. I grew up in a home like most, where we were all in survival mode. Chaos and rigidity were silent partners that provided diversions from knowing ourselves and being deeply seen, loved, and cherished. I was 13 years old when we moved to a dairy farm. My mom was pregnant with her sixth child, and the field of psychology focused on identifying what is wrong with a person. Positive psychology hadn’t yet taken root. No one talked about raising resilient children. My parents had their hands full. Our family focus was on figuring out how to make a living in the newly formed family business. A single-focus was the strategy to survive, and we did. I learned how to jump into any situation and swim like hell to a false sense of safety. Eventually, I learned to create a safe haven within and attract beneficial experiences that expand my ability to live a resilient life. You will understand more about the silver linings as I share what I enjoyed growing up in a big German Catholic entrepreneurial family, describe a life-changing event at age 14, and the roles and responsibilities that equipped me to launch WeMentor in 1992. I start with a popular mindfulness box-breathing exercise that calmed me before taping. Do this exercise with me to engage with your breath more deeply. A way to take charge of how you breathe, especially when you feel it is the only thing you can control at the moment. Notice if you are grasping or have a shortness of breath or if you find it easy to become relaxed as you listen and breathe. A Pioneering Legacy In 1991, shared copies of a collective Meyer-Nathe family ancestry were distributed to Meyer and Nathe families. My cousin, Mary Lee (Meyer) Garbe, dedicated the booklet to her parents, Frank and Loretta (Nathe) Meyer. She began collecting family stories during a 1984 trip to Oldenburg, Germany. Like Mary Lee, I had grown to appreciate my German Catholic entrepreneurial heritage dating back to 1853 when my great, great, great grandfather and grandmother acted upon their dream to come to America. As most dreams, when implemented, shift with circumstances. John went first, and little did Elisabeth know, she would never see him again. Instead of letting the dream die along with her husband, Elisabeth decides to revive the dream by sending her two living sons, Herman and Henry, to America. They sent her money to make the journey, and thus, my paternal ancestors pioneered a path for us to carry on. In many immigrant families, names and spellings of names change once they arrive. The spelling of Meire was eventually changed to Meyer over the years, so it took me a while to realize that a small town in Minnesota, Meire Grove, was named after my great grandparents, Herman and Bernadina Meier. As captured in Mary Lee’s booklet, the story is that Herman and Bernadina donated 5-acres of their land to build a Catholic church, school, and cemetery, which is still there. The tiny community decided to call the town of 201 residents (2021 census) Meire Grove. Another part of the legacy my ancestors left behind is The Meire Grove Band. The Meire Grove Band was established in 1883 and is the most extended continuous community band in Minnesota. It explains why I love brass instruments and played the trumpet and baritone in high school and college. Playing piano has also been a lifetime hobby where I have played on and off in church choirs. I appreciate all kinds of music. My maternal grandparents on the Vornbrock and Welle side also immigrated from Germany to the same area around the 1860s.

My Entrepreneurial Upbringing

Episode 285: Consumer Behavior Has Changed: Up-Level Your Product Brands with Ann Anderson With so many creative people making products people love, why are some brands making them on retail shelves and online stores while others never get their products into the average consumer’s hands? Ann Anderson has been in the retail industry for over 30 years and explains how big-box retailers have changed, current trends in consumer behavior and which group of consumers are leading these trends. Learn how to Level-Up your product brands to bridge the gap between brands, retailers, and consumers. Ann’s positivity and joy radiate through the sound waves as we start with how she separates her identity from her business cash flow fluctuations, from one product launch to the next and from one client to the next. We continue with Ann’s experience as a new business owner and what her retail expertise and services can do to get your products on store shelves and in the hands of consumers. The flow of our conversation is organized so you can engage in learning without feeling overwhelmed. Ann is a fast talker releasing a plethora of valuable content. I found myself inspired to take notes as I listened several times. Leveling-Up topics we discuss: What Leveling-Up your brand means and how to do it. What it takes to get products into specialty stores, grocery stores of all types, regionally expand and increase chances of getting into mass retailers. The gestation period for getting products online and on big-box retail shelves. Certifying your business, if you qualify, can be a game-changer with big-box retailers. Certification websites are outlined in the Episode Resource Notes. Social media from the client perspective or consumer, and what big-box retailers look at and consider when going with a brand or not. Benefits of pro bono work as a brand strategy. Wholesale Case Study: How to modify a product strategy from two perspectives; a retailer perspective and a channel perspective. Building Buyer Relationships. Ann’s extensive database of buyers and different levels within big-box retailers (the chain of command) and what you need to know. E-Commerce Product Process: determining where you are. Supply Chain Logistics: scaling capabilities, quantity, timeliness to replenishing store shelves. What to be aware of right now within supply chains. Marketing and Customizing Brand Sheets. What information to include when approaching a retailer. Handling Negotiations. What you need to know. Product Differentiator. Sustainable products and packaging are in: reduce, reuse, recycle. Find out how else you can differentiate your products and services. Trends Affecting Big-Box Retailers and Consumer Behavior. Do a quick search exercise on Target.com. Being responsive to consumer behavior changes. We finish with Ann highlighting critical Up-Leveling strategies so you can close the gap between your brand, retailers, and consumers. DOWNLOAD       After listening, complete below, the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities. Podcast Sponsor Would you like to take charge of the path you are on to create an enduring legacy? You can redefine how you lead and mentor while you redesign your business. We’ll show you how. Interviews are taking place NOW! Get one-on-one Strategic Mentoring Join a WeMentor LAB Assert Self-Leadership...  Start HERE! Episode Resources Black-Owned Beyond Measure Brands at Target Black-owned or founded brands at Target: Target Certification Websites LGBTQ-owned businesses (sba.gov) Minority-owned businesses (sba.gov) Native American-owned businesses (sba.gov) Veteran-owned businesses (sba.gov) Veteran assistance programs (sba.gov) Women-owned businesses (sba.gov) Perks of Registering as a Women-Owned Business (nextdoor.com) Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program (sba.gov) Small Business Administration Guide

Consumer Behavior Has Changed: Up-Level Your Product Brands with Ann Anderson

Episode 284: Getting Products in Big-Box Retailers with Ann Anderson “New products are hitting store shelves every two minutes,” says Ann. How are entrepreneurs gaining expertise quickly? By hiring a retail specialist. Ann Anderson, MBA, and founder of Retail Partner Solutions, LLC, gives a brief overview on what we need to know about getting our products on Big-Box retailer store shelves like Walmart, Costco, Lunds & Byerlys, Hyvee, Petco, Target, Specialty Stores, to name a few. Entrepreneurs with new product brands need Ann’s retail expertise, resources, and strategies that accelerate growth. She has a proven record of succeeding across many categories, including launches of kid’s snacks, home essentials, pet products, coffee, ethnic products, and beverages. Here are some of the questions Ann answers: What is needed to get your finished product ready for Big-Box Retailers? Why not approach Big-Box Retailers yourself? When is a good time to hire a retail specialist? Do you have your channel strategy worked out? What is the priority of your brand from a channel perspective? What is the timeline to get new products on retail shelves? What elements do you need to organize? Online operates differently; in what ways and what do you need to consider? What is involved before and after getting our products on store shelves? I ask Ann about closing the door on corporate employment and planting her feet solidly in business ownership. It is an essential step in succeeding with a new venture after leaving a fulfilling legacy in corporate America. Owning each part of how you redesign your future is exercising bravery. Listen to her answer. DOWNLOAD A Note About The First-Year Pandemic Toll on Small Business Ann Anderson is not alone in starting a new business during these unpredictable times. In 2020, the Census Bureau cited “an explosion in new business applications, reaching nearly 4.5 million by year’s end—a 24.3 percent increase from 2019 and 51.0 percent higher than the 2010-19 average.” Before 2019 new business applications hovered around 2.5 million. In July of this year, the Federal Reserve released a report on the number of small business closures during the first year of the Pandemic to be below 200,000. Historically normal levels of annual closures are around 130,000. The 200,000 closure number is about one-quarter to one-third above routine establishment exits. If you compare the historical percentages of new businesses formed and closed in 2020, you can see we gained more new businesses than those closed. That’s the good news. If we further analyzed the numbers to look at the industries hardest hit in 2020, it would definitely be restaurants and storefront retailers, and they are still recovering if they haven’t closed. Entrepreneurial activity fuels our economy promoting innovation and evolution, critical in helping us quickly adapt to local and global changes. I am hopeful about our economic future, even with the Delta variant moving through our communities. From the above statistics and talking with experienced and new business owners, we know how to keep people safe while doing business: taking the vaccine, wearing masks in public inside spaces, physical distancing, and hand washing. The Work Ahead: What we need to do now is focus on women and minorities. Women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic globally, as tracked by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). GEM has over 22 years of data tracking entrepreneurial activities across geographies. Wendy Teleki of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi)  believes in women as change agents, job creators, and drivers of economic growth. Her team is sponsoring, along with others, GEM’s 2020/21 special report on women’s entrepreneurial activity. They will find out the effect of the pandemic and learn more of what entrepreneurial women need going forward. What Wendy knows right now is “COVID-19 has exacerbated existing barriers that h...

Getting Products in Big-Box Retailers with Ann Anderson

Episode 283: How Your Aspirations Are Connected To Resiliency                The ANDERSONS: Matt, Howard, Ann, and MaggieThis summer, I have been working to satisfy an element of resiliency called ‘relating.’ Relating skillfully to others and our world makes us feel safe and connected and helps us bounce back from failures and heartbreak. According to Rick Hanson, Ph.D., resilient individuals have three strengths they exercise when relating: courage, aspiration, and generosity.I have committed to fulfill a longtime aspiration of mine: publishing a book. When we started hearing stories of Olympians competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, I thought about how early the seeds of dreams are planted. Some Olympians like Sunisa Lee started as a six-year-old.I may be too old to become an Olympian, but I am not too old to write about a process I have been mentoring others in for decades. These Olympians are helping me put my aspirations into context. Inspiration builds momentum and comes from many places.Sunisa Lee became a U.S. gold medalist in the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around category at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on July 29th. The first Hmong-American gymnast grew up in St. Paul, MN, basically in my backyard. July 30th was Sunisa Lee day in Minnesota. The magic beyond what we envision. A six-year-old girl achieves her dream at age 18.Like most huge dreams that take years to create, the path to reaching our aspirations is plagued with disappointment, upsets and setbacks, tragedy, possible injuries, temptations to quit, and enough silver-lining moments like luck, supportive mentors, and miracles that keep us going. What are the odds? Simone Biles, the most outstanding athlete in the world, asserts self-leadership when making an incredible mental health decision to step down, and just like that, new opportunities and challenges surfaced as the stakes increased for the other U.S. Team gymnasts. Champions, like entrepreneurs, know when to seize the moment.Simone’s mental health concerns appeared in the form of depression and ‘twisties.’ Not the snack food brand, twisties is a mental block that affects a gymnast’s performance. While in the air, they lose their space and dimension. This causes the performer to lose control of their body, doing unintended twists or turns and feeling disoriented, as Simone acknowledged feeling after a vault. Imagine how unnerving that would be and dangerous. You don’t know how you are going to land.Simone’s decision to put her well-being first created space for Jordan Chiles and another Minnesotan, Grace McCallum of Isanti, to step up and realize their aspirations by winning U.S. Gymnastic Team Silver Medals along with Sunisa and Simone (who competed on the vault). And they won individual medals too. Mykayla Skinner won a silver medal for vaulting and Sunisa a bronze for her performance on the uneven bars. There is more than one way to make history and reach your goals. Simone’s encouragement and blessings cleared the path for new champions to emerge.Today’s Guest Mentor, Ann Anderson, MBA of Retail Partner Solutions, LLC, had her own derailed experience with an injury as a gymnast in high school. You will hear how she reshaped her aspirations with courage. Ann says about her upbringing, “I come from a family of strength.” She and her husband, Howard Anderson, have raised two resilient adult children.There are few people I have talked with who enjoyed corporate life. Ann is one of those who excelled in a wide variety of roles at TIME, Inc., spanning 31 years. Her leap from corporate executive into solopreneurship in 2019 has been a vast energizing learning curve. Her ability to find humor in what she is learning about herself helps. A new dream in the making and a champion in her own right.You will hear how Ann cleverly packaged her retail expertise and got busy connecting with entrepreneurs in the food, beverage, kitchen, and other miscellaneous industries.

How Your Aspirations Are Connected To Resiliency

Episode 282: Phil Mattison Innovated His Way Out of the Pandemic  Phil Mattison, founder and President of CORE Products International, Inc., is back to talk about how he and his staff innovated their way through the coronavirus pandemic. His life is different from our last podcast conversations in 2018. What hasn’t changed is Phil’s sprightliness. He has an uncanny way of landing on his feet.We start with his move from Wisconsin to Florida and end with new therapeutic products soon to be available this year and an announcement from me.Before I go on, I want to share an essential aspect in healthy relating that surfaced in my conversation with Phil. We are more than our individual beliefs and the systems we were born into. To find safety in our connections, we do not need to agree. Instead, we need to be heard, show respect, and strive to understand what each person tells us to meet their needs.I may disagree with someone’s hobby because I find it harmful. However, my opinion does not mean I can’t appreciate the joy Phil finds in being an outdoorsman and fisherman. I am not here to judge or force my beliefs onto Phil. We all grew up in a meat-eaters world full of traditions supporting the industry. I understand how Phil developed his hobby.I am here to connect with Phil and understand the intensity of his journey over the past few years sharing what he has learned with you and offering insights where it makes sense. I have tremendous respect for Phil and appreciate his leadership, innovativeness, savvy business acumen, the therapeutic comforts he manufactures for others, and how he has implemented an employee stock option plan (ESOP) for employees. A win/win for his employees, leadership team, and himself. Are you ready for his fishtail?Moving from Wisconsin to Florida and re-engaging Phil’s love of fishing. I find Phil sitting in his car in Crystal River, Florida, hoping the rain won’t start during our conversation, which it doesn’t. The house he purchased is not what it seems. A few touches turned into an extensive remodeling project. Phil developed a love of flying from his Dad, who was a professional pilot in the military. The fishtail begins here. You will learn about specialized trout and redfish in the Gulf and Charles from Trinidad and Peacock bass, Galy, arctic char, fish in the Amazon, and swimming in rivers with piranha. This fishtail sounds true.Phil uses a cow analogy to calm COVID’s pandemic fears. Now we’re cows? This is how an innovative mind works. Coming up with analogies that fit the population you work with, something about Manhatten’s population of 1.63M people in 23 square miles and 70,869 people/square mile compared to Polk County, where two of Phil’s manufacturing companies are located in Chetek and Osceola, WI. Polk County is 956 square miles and has 44,000 people or 46 people/square mile. They are already physically distanced by proximity, Phil emphasizes. That analogy might have calmed the fear of some employees but didn’t keep Phil and other employees from getting COVID. Phil discusses what happened when COVID arrived at CORE Products International, Inc. and how their sales volume percentages changed between healthcare providers and consumers. It is worth hearing how they scaled up and down their manufacturing production of masks and hand sanitizer finishing with a surplus of products when product demand changed.Divorce and Divvying Up Ownership Assets.Initially, Phil was concerned that his divorce would destroy his $20M business. Find out how he worked out ownership and saved CORE Products.Education and Employee Profit Sharing Plans (ESOPs).At CORE Products International, Inc., Phil implemented an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) that can reduce wealth and wage inequality, economists say by educating employees on the business’s financial structure and seeing their monies potentially grow from year to year. However, the Toronto subsidiary of CORE Products is set up differently.

Phil Mattison Innovated His Way Out of the Pandemic

Episode 281: Beyond Carnism with Dr. Melanie Joy Today’s conversation is about an aspect of relational literacy confronting us every day: a relational paradox that begs an answer to these two questions. “What enables caring people to participate in, or otherwise support, practices that harm others, be they human or nonhuman beings? And what, then, could help shift this psychological orientation?” Questions Dr. Melanie Joy found answers to by researching the psychosociology of eating animals, a phenomenon she named carnism. What Dr. Joy concluded is this. “Eating (certain) animals results from extensive social and psychological conditioning that causes naturally empathic and rational people to distort their perceptions and block their empathy so that they act against their values of compassion and justice without fully realizing what they’re doing. In other words, carnism teaches us to violate the Golden Rule without knowing or caring that we’re doing so.” By deconstructing the carnistic system, she learned how violent or oppressive ideologies are structured. (Powerarchy, 2019) When Melanie was twenty-three years old, she ate a contaminated hamburger (campylobacter) and became severely sick, needing hospitalization. Surviving this incident—and questioning other aspects of how she and most of the rest of us were raised—took her on a journey from meat-eater, vegetarian to vegan and activist, theorist, author, social entrepreneur, and the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award for her work on global nonviolence. The Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela received this same award.  Today, our purpose is not to transform you into eating a plant-based diet. However, the evidence is compelling if you do not want to die from heart disease, lung disease, digestive cancers, infections, diabetes, high blood pressure, liver disease, blood cancers, kidney disease, breast cancer, suicidal depression, prostate cancer, Parkinson’s disease, or Iatrogenic causes (dying from Doctors who know how to treat acute diseases, broken bones, and chronic infectious diseases but, do not know how to prevent disease)¹. So instead, we are here to create an awareness of Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows. Dr. Joy’s book was first published in 2010, and a tenth-anniversary edition was released in 2020. We discuss the global plant-based movement 10 years later and her work in over 50 countries. You can get beyond carnism by bridging the gap between our professed values and those values we practice and by understanding the many ways carnism conditions us to be nonrelational. We discuss: The tenants of carnism and how these tenants are woven into our systems. Being trained to psychologically distance from our empathy. Classifying animals as edible and nonedible. How the dominant culture oppresses and what it teaches us about moral superiority. What does eating meat have to do with nonrelational relating? Do we think eating meat is normal or abnormal? Becoming an Ally and being as vegan as possible. An affirmative conversation you can lean into to get beyond carnism. DOWNLOAD Podcast Sponsor Strategies to Grow Your Business Monthly Bookkeeping Payroll Services Back Office Strategies and Support Contact Us Now Episode Resources How Not to die by michael greger, M.D., FACLM ¹How Not To Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger, M.D., FACLM and founder of Nutriontionfacts.org with Gene Stone (2015) Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring After listening, do the following three C.A.L.M. Activities:1. Take this risk or do this adventurous task: Three important relational values are respect, dignity, and integrity. Notice in your daily interactions if there is a gap between knowing these three values and implementing them.You can know that respect, honoring dignity, and integrity is essential values, but not live them when interacting with others.

Beyond Carnism with Dr. Melanie Joy

Episode 280: A One-Stop Conversation in Building Relational Literacy Since our 19-year-old daughter, Olivia, turned me on to Guest Mentor Dr. Melanie Joy, I have been devouring her books, podcast conversations, and TEDTALKs. I appreciate her so much and am thrilled to share our transformative podcast conversation. Melanie is an amazingly gifted, brilliant social psychologist, theorist, educator, and international award-winning author of six books. She is a pioneer with a global mission in raising awareness of the obstacles preventing people from interacting in ways that create a sense of mutual connection. These obstacles are both internal (psychological) and external (social), and they are a key reason why we act against our own interests and the interests of others—often without realizing that we’re doing so. With awareness, we can think freely and act compassionately to create healthier and more fulfilling relationships and a more equitable and sustainable world. She says, “Most of the problems in our lives and world are caused by relational dysfunction, a dysfunction in how we relate: as social groups, as individuals, to animals and the environment, and even to ourselves. Therefore, developing relational literacy—the understanding of and ability to practice healthy ways of relating—is essential for personal, social, and ecological transformation.” She has been influential in raising my awareness and has helped me transform my behaviors in three areas we talk about: how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the world at large.  Today we discuss one of her six books. A one-stop guide to building relational literacy, Getting Relationships Right: How to Build Resilience and Thrive in Life, Love, and Work. We haven’t been taught relational literacy. As a result, we are in the dark ages. You will understand more as you listen. Our conversation will facilitate your ability to move the pendulum toward healthier relating, even a little bit of movement makes a difference. Some of the gems in our conversation include: How we have bought into the narratives that drive unconscious choices. The mentality and thinking behind nonrelational behaviors. Two sides of the nonrelational and relational coin. The Formula for Healthy Relating. Tips for Healthy Expressing. Solving life’s more pressing problems start with learning relational literacy. Hear how that is possible and how it relates to the problems you are solving through your business entity. Melanie joins me in conversation from Berlin, Germany, where she lives with her husband and colleague, Sebastian Joy. They are interdependent, powerful together, and apart. Successful in their own right and connected in their life work. You will learn how they practice healthy relating personally and as world leaders. Sebastian is transforming food systems by working with world leaders replacing conventional animal products with plant-based and cultured alternatives. Melanie is building relational literacy facilitating transformation in how we participate in the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions us to eat certain animals, known as carnism. A term coined by Melanie in 2001.  A transformative conversation you won’t want to miss. DOWNLOAD Podcast Sponsor Strategies to Grow Your Business Monthly Bookkeeping Payroll Services Back Office Strategies and Support Contact Us Now Episode Resources Relational Literacy Relational Literacy — Melanie JoyBeyond Carnism – Q&A with Dr. Melanie Joy! | Facebook Sebastian Joy VEBU, German Vegetarian Society – Sebastian Joy – Bing video Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring After listening, do the following three C.A.L.M. Activities:1. Take this risk or do this adventurous task: Bring awareness to relating and interacting with others this week. Turn your focus inward and ask yourself, do I feel emotionally connected and secure with the person I am talking with?

A One-Stop Conversation in Building Relational Literacy

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