Igniting Souls Podcast with Kary Oberbrunner

I'm a Dad of 3, and I as an entrepreneur, I have my laptop with me all the time. But I've never had unlimited Wifi. Recently, we got my son his first cell phone and the first month we were way over our limits. My son convinced me to try unlimited Wifi, and it paid for itself 10 times over. Lesson learned: when you look at purchasing something new, we often look at the cost of taking action. Instead, ask yourself what the cost of not taking action is.

I get poison ivy a lot. And I have to go to the doctor for the medicine. It takes time and money because I'm not able to work while I'm at the doctor. This time, I asked for an extra refill, and the doctor gave it to me. He wouldn't have done that if I hadn't asked. Lesson learned: ask for what you want. You just might get it.

We have learned from running a lot of Facebook ads that there are 3 types of social media commenters: 1\. People who are critical. They are projecting their anger on you. We've learned to engage with them and respond kindly, not defensively, which often wins other people over. 2\. People who are complacent. 3\. People who are curious. Responding to their questions and engaging with them will turn their curiosity into action. For more on how we run Facebook ads and handle social media, check out Business Academy Elite.

What do you do if you're getting kicked out of your job, even if you've done everything right? How do you prevent this? How do you protect yourself from being going from being a key member of the team to being done? In my book Day Job To Dream Job, I talk about having a freelancer mentality vs. a long-time contractor mindset. It's all about how you approach your work. Don't get too dependent. Have a back-up plan. For many that's a side hustle that allows you to make an income from multiple streams.

How much should you charge? Ask yourself this question first: how much do you want to make? You can't depend on someone else to name your value. Then, once you know what your hourly rate is, you can more easily determine when the outsource jobs to save money. Like when I had a leaky pipe. If I would have done it myself, I would have burned two days getting the right tools and figure out how to fix it instead of doing my job. But by hiring an expert with the right tools who knows what they're doing, I was able to do my own job and make money for my company.

I recently found a slow drip in my water heater. It's easy to ignore a slow drip in any area of our life, but this slow drip is already rusting the metal top of the hot water heater! What in your business or life is a constant, slow drip that is eating away at your profits, impact, influence, intimacy, etc. Yes, there's a cost to fixing it, but not fixing it can become more more costly.

Almost every coaching call I have, I ask people about their consistency in exercising. Pushing yourself 3-4 times a week can make a difference in your business and life. If you make the toughest part of your day the workout, then everything else will seem easy. If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, your motivation isn't strong enough. But you can start a new story today. As long as you keep seeing yourself as not fit, not disciplined, not a morning person, then that's what you'll be. Get out and do something. Stretch yourself physically, and you'll see results in multiple areas of your life.

PODCAST: If you're egging someone on, it means you're agitating them — pushing them. We all need an agitator in our lives to keep us from getting complacent, bored and plateauing. Being pushed and agitated encourages us to experience novelty and stretch ourselves. Whether it's a coach, a colleague or a truthteller, invite agitators into your space.

As I prepare to talk to a group of young people about patience, I realize that each generation struggles with patience more and more. Waiting is nver easy. But remember that time is a matter of perspective. In the scope of eternity, your wait is not that long. Whatever you are waiting for today, remember that patience and waiting = trust. It shows that you understand there is someone wiser and more powerful than you that has things under control.

As I'm preparing to speak to a middle school assembly, I'm asking my kids for help because I don't know my audience very well. There are two takeaways from this experience alreadY; 1\. don't be afriad to go outside your normal zone. Stretch yourself. 2\. Invest in the younger generation. Let them know they have the potential to change the world.

I get discounts and upgrades for no reason all the time. By trying to have incredible gratitude, people often want to throw some sunshine back your way.

As the leader (even if you are a solopreneur) it is your job to set the pace. Your team takes cues from you, whether you make excuses, blame shift, show up late, leave early or stay in reaction mode. Try to show up filled up because that is contagious. Whatever the leader is "sick" with, the team is going to catch.

Super athletes often overtrain and they actually need to ease up sometimes. It's the same with entrepreneurs. I'm all for working hard and hustling, but sometimes you need to go slow. For example, today on our 45-mile bike ride, we went slow. It actually gave room for more conversation, more opportunity to think and to not be as exhausted when we were finished. The Bible says that God will speak to us in our quietness. So, slow down and listen.

There are two words for "work" in Latin: Labor, which means toil and Opus, which means masterpiece. Are you able to differentiate between your work and your play, between your labor and leisure? Live your life authoring your opus, living out your masterpiece.

Do you determine whether a decision is good or bad based on the results? Annie Duke, a professional poker player, calls it resulting. If you fail, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad decision and you should stop trying. Life is a series of choices. Sometimes you should play the odds. And remember that not making a decision is actually choosing to stay where you are.