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Episode 37: Balancing Your Work and Personal Life | Alex Navas from AlexNavas.com

Alex Navas helps people and business owners determine what is important in their business and personal lives. It’s not easy balancing your work and personal life.  The most successful people are able to find a healthy balance between the two where they are able to accomplish a lot at work, but not to the detriment of their families.  Learn more from Alex on business and what it takes to be successful in Episode 37 of the Defining Success Podcast.

Alex Navas Balancing Your Business and Personal Life Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn

Alex Navas

Alex Navas is nationally recognized for his financial expertise and exceptional small business marketing methods.  He has been active in finance, marketing, sales and personal development for 10 years.  He is now an energetic and charismatic speaker, trainer and business coach.

Alex started his entrepreneurial career installing car stereos for his friends and from that point on he knew he was destined for a life in business.  At 21 years old he started his first business, a mortgage company.  He and his wife did really well in the mortgage industry and he learned his passion was helping other business owners become successful by holding bootcamps for real estate agents.

Alex helps businesses by taking a look at their assets.  When he explains assets he means the positive things you have in your business.  After analyzing your assets, Alex can point to some opportunities you’re missing out on which could help you grow your business.

By understanding where a business is at, Alex can help businesses expand faster using less resources.  A lot of times success online depends upon taking advantage of the right opportunities and being able to identify those opportunities is critical to the success of any business.

A lot of entrepreneurs make decisions based on illusions.  A common challenge entrepreneurs make is they think they know the answer about something before the event even takes place without acting on it first.

Their are a few key things to achieve exponential growth.  Your mindset is important to the success of any business owner.  One of the key ways to grow exponentially is by choosing who you’re going to serve, because it gives you the opportunity to serve who you were not meant to serve.

Alex owns the Christian Business Academy and purposefully narrowed his focus because he knew that he was meant to serve those people.  In return, it has become easier for him to attract the clients that he wants because they are attracted to his purpose and mission.

One of the things that Alex is really good at is creating profitable partnerships and he works with a lot of coaches and consultants and he helps them leverage what they’re doing.  Alex created an online training program with another business coach in order to help people create experts in the industry.

When Alex was running his mortgage company, he was working from 7am to 11pm.  One day he was sitting with his son and he realized that his business was taking him away from his family and he vowed not to let that happen.  We’re passing up opportunities to say that some day we’ll have time to spend with our family.  Balancing your work and personal life is critical to the happiness of an individual.

Alex has seen so many successful people, but their personal lives are in shambles.

Most business owners are overwhelmed and overworked. Most business owners are doing way too much work.  Once you get focused and narrow down your goals then it becomes easier to achieve your goals and you’re doing less work.  No matter what Alex does at work he thinks about the people he’s serving and how he can help them.

Balancing Your Business and Personal Life, Alex Navas on the Defining Success Podcast

Alex Navas

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • How important is balancing your work and personal life?
  • What is more important?  Your business or your family and friends?
  • Who is the target market for your business?  Why?

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Alex Navas – “Whether you already know who I am or not, I’m ultimately here to serve you and I have a lot to tell you that will shed some light on who I am and how I can help you experience more joy, happiness and fulfillment in your life and your business.”
  • Christian Business Academy – “C.B.A. (Christian Business Academy) was founded to gather Christian entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals and empower them to create more fulfilling, profitable and purposeful businesses through the Word of God in order to create lasting change around the world using their businesses as the catalyst.”

Success Quotes:

  • “When you have fun in your business, you’re never working.”
  • “We all have a reason why we’re here beyond us.”
  • “Success comes much easier when you’re having fun and operating in your purpose.”
  • “85% of business owners are doing way too much.”
  • “It’s a lot easier to work with what you have than to start from scratch.”

Special Requests:

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Episode 19: The Importance of Learning from Your Mistakes | Brian Roberts from In-Store Radio

Brian Roberts, aka “The Voice,” is the announcer for the Defining Success Podcast, but he also manages his own business, In-Store Radio which are custom radio stations for retail locations. As an entrepreneur, Brian knows the value of learning from your mistakes and shares with us why making mistakes are some of the most important things you can do.

Brian Roberts - Learning From Your Mistakes

Brian Roberts

Thank you for visiting the Defining Success Podcast.  Please download, subscribe and rate our podcast on iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-success-podcast/id619459909 Thanks for listening!Recap:

Recap:

Brian Roberts is the owner of In-Store Radio, which creates a customized radio station for retail and corporate locations.  He also happens to be the voice you hear at the beginning of every podcast for the Defining Success Podcast.

Brian ran Goodwill Industries in Central Florida and at 33 Brian decided to come out to L.A. to become a rock star.  His dreams as a rock star weren’t really working out and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to keep his dreams and his family.  Someone told Brian he had a great voice and suggested he be a voice actor.

The idea to run In-Store Radio came when he visited Walmart and Walgreen’s and listened to their customized radio station.  He then began to think of the opportunity that he could create a customized radio station for smaller businesses and thus In-Store Radio began.

His association with Goodwill Industries got his business started and being somewhat of a computer geek, Brian was able to create a usable system for small businesses to have their own customized radio station inside their business locations.  His love of computers, Goodwill and entrepreneurship helped him build the foundation for his business.

Brian was then able to set up a live radio stream into their business and as long as the location has access to the Internet they can get access to their customized radio station.  Brian is trying to get into 1,000 locations by the end of the year.

A great success story Brian likes to share is that every year they had an event which never seemed to get a lot of visitors.  The first year that they had Brian create a short advertisement and for the first year ever they sold out their tickets and the next year they increased ticket sales by 300% selling out again.  For Goodwill Industries, Brian was able to encourage shoppers to donate and encouraged those who donated to become shoppers.

When talking about learning from your mistakes . . . Early on in his career, Brian offered a deal to a friend of his that was unsustainable.  Once Brian realized he couldn’t deliver on the deal he offered his friend he told him he couldn’t do it and they re-negotiated.  Brian felt awful, but he learned a valuable lesson that mistakes are acceptable and as long as you learn from your mistakes and move on that you can never fail.  Learning from your mistakes is an important skill to have as an entrepreneur and business owner.

Brian has two children and Brian thinks it’s interesting that when his kids were younger they would constantly make mistakes and they were encouraged to do so, but that as they got older he became less willing to encourage his children when they made a mistake.

Brian’s mom was a teacher and he had a complex early on about asking teachers questions.  And for his entire ninth grade year he was lost in Algebra and sometime during his junior year he finally raised his hand and said that he was completely lost and asked for help.  The teacher helped him understand the material and afterwards many of his friends came to him saying they were having the same problems.  It taught Brian a lesson that it was ok to ask questions because if you had a question, it was likely others had the same question as well.

Being an entrepreneur taught Brian that he can do pretty much anything he can put his mind to.  It taught Brian that all along he had a unique gift that he could offer the world.  Once he learned that he could make money as an entrepreneur it became very freeing.

Brian believes that he has certain talents and has developed particular skills.  His singing ability has helped him become a successful voice actor.  He was able to find the emotional connection in his writing just like he did when he was a singer.  The computer has been invaluable to Brian’s success in business as well.

Procrastination and over-thinking got Brian in a lot of trouble early on in his business.  The way Brian describes the way business should be done is “Ready, Fire, Aim.”  Meaning that as an entrepreneur, it’s important to take action first and then analyze your results.

In-Store Radio - Learning From Your Mistakes

In-Store Radio

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • What mistakes have you made?
  • What is the importance of learning from your mistakes?
  • Do you think “Ready, Fire, Aim” is a good strategy to use for entrepreneurs?

Links to Great Stuff:

  • In-Store Radio – Brian’s mission is to spread the “Good News” of not only Goodwill, but of ALL businesses throughout America and abroad through In-Store Radio.  That mission will put a custom-designed and professionally-produced radio show into every retail store and waiting room around the globe.
  • Voice123.com/BrianRoberts – Brian’s voice is varied and strong. He has the ability to do all types of work from the “Classic Announcer” to “Young punk” and anywhere in between!
  • Goodwill Industries – “Goodwill® works to enhance the dignity and quality of life of individuals and families by strengthening communities, eliminating barriers to opportunity, and helping people in need reach their full potential through learning and the power of work.”
  • Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce – “The Chino Valley Chamber offers a wide variety of opportunities for members to market their businesses, a strong legislative action committee, and a commitment to the continuing education of a diverse workforce. For additional information, check out our convenient links to city websites, selected businesses and current projects.”

Success Quotes:

  • “Success is being happy . . . Nothing matters unless you’re happy.”
  • “I really love helping people accomplish things they didn’t know they could accomplish.”
  • “I was perfectly content being an employee and letting someone else tell me what I was worth until the fire was lit.”
  • “I’m completely unemployable . . . because there is no possible way I can survive working for someone else.”
  • “There are a lot of people who are bound up by their fear of looking silly that they pay this horrible price.”
  • “The more mistakes you make the more money you make.”
  • “What business owners do better than the people that don’t own businesses is make mistakes and are ok with making mistakes.”
  • “The reason entrepreneurs succeed where other people don’t succeed is because they understand that as long as they didn’t quit, they didn’t fail.”

Special Requests:

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Personal Branding | Rich Hammond from the Orange County Register

Rich Hammond is the USC sports reporter for the Orange County Register and has wanted to be a sports journalist all his life. Pay particular attention to a story Rich tells about former Los Angeles Dodger player, Lou Johnson. Lou had problems with substance abuse and lost his World Series ring as a result. Listen to the podcast to learn how Lou Johnson got his World Series ring back and to learn about personal branding and what it takes to make it in the highly competitive field of sports journalism.

Thank you for visiting the Defining Success Podcast.  Please download, subscribe and rate our podcast on iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-success-podcast/id619459909 Thanks for listening!

Rich Hammond from the Orange County Register - Personal Branding

Rich Hammond from the Orange County Register

Recap:

Rich Hammond always knew he wanted to be a journalist.  He loved reading and writing at a young age.  Once he began writing for his junior high school newspaper, he knew that was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Sports writing is a highly competitive field and Rich knew that he needed a strong foundation in his writing abilities and got lucky with some opportunities that were presented to him.  He attributes his success to the fact that he always seized opportunities when they came to him.  He encourages others to do the same.

He attended the CSPA (California Scholastic Press Association) Workshop and established some great connections that helped him along the way.  He goes back to volunteer his time every two weeks during the Summer’s at the campus at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Each day is a challenge writing and every day presents new opportunities for Rich and he tries to make the most of them.  He enjoys successed every day and feels very fortunate that he’s been able to cover numerous memorable sporting events.

Being a journalist is interesting in the sense that you have to understand people’s motivations and you need to distinguish who’s telling the truth.  Often times Rich feels he made mistakes because sometimes he was too cautious about using sources or sometimes he has taken sources at their word and it’s “bit (him) in the butt.”  Typos are also a concern to Rich and he knows the value of making sure to avoid typos.

The coolest part for Rich about being a journalist is going to major sporting events for free.  People pay money to attend these events and he feels very lucky that he’s been able to attend some of the greatest sporting events.  It also gives Rich the freedom to travel, see different parts of the country and a lot of interesting people.

Although journalism is changing the fundamentals are still the same.  You have to be able to tell a story, be accurate, to relate to people, to ask good questions, to be aware and you have to be able to communicate.  We are now in a 24-hour news cycle, if something happens, as a reporter, you need to be on that story.

One of the biggest changes in journalism is the more personalized relationship with their readers.  During the age of newspapers, all people would see was the persons name in print, but now writers appear in T.V., more pictures are shown, they appear on podcasts and establish more of a personal connection then what was done in years past.  Your online reputation is important and now everything you do matters.  With the easy to use Google searches, Facebook pages and LinkedIn accounts it is now more important than ever to establish your online reputation.  When people look for you online, what are you going to find? Personal branding is critical to the success of businesses in the online world.

For Rich, success was working hard, enjoying what he did, and being happy doing it.  For him, it has nothing to do with money.  If money, or titles determine your success than there will always be something that you don’t have.

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • How Do You Know What You Were Meant To Do?
  • How Do You Know if You’re a Success?
  • How important is personal branding?

Links to Great Stuff:

Quotes of the Episode:

  • “Your name becomes your brand . . . your name is your currency.” – Rich Hammond
  • “If you can go to bed at night being happy with who you are and what you’ve done then I think that’s what makes you a success.”

Special Requests:

Rich Hammond at the CSPA Workshop

Rich Hammond at the CSPA Workshop

THANK YOU!

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