Measure Success Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Persevering from a basement full of spiders to building a 7-figure business, with entrepreneur Steven Pemberton Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

Big, scary, spiders. This is when you know you've hit rock-bottom: when you have no other place than to live in a basement full of them! For entrepreneurs, how they respond to that situation (and that location) is often the most important piece of their business journey.

And no one knows the peaks and valleys of the entrepreneurial journey quite like our latest guest. Steven Pemberton is an entrepreneur who's generated over $3 million in revenue on e-commerce platforms. He now helps coaches and business leaders get in front of their ideal customers to accelerate their impact through a system called "Challenges."

Listen to the full episode for more on Steven's backstory (from losing all his money and living in a basement, to building a 7-figure business), some of the top characteristics the most successful entrepreneurs have in common, the dangers of pride, and more.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

More about Steven's approach to helping entrepreneurs grow their impact and increase their sales
Why you don't have to have a ton of money in order to get started on your entrepreneurial journey
An idea of the conversion percentages that Steven's clients have experienced by using his "offer drop" tactic
More on Steven's backstory, including he and his wife losing everything and how that first taste of "failure" held him back from getting back into business later
How Steven's wife went from no experience to making $1 million in revenue — and why she convinced Steven to once again go into business
Why gross revenue doesn't tell the full story of a business
Why Steven says success in business can come down to the intersection of skillsets, opportunity, and perseverance
Why pride can get in the way of business success, and why transparency is so important when it comes to gross and net revenues
The difference between providing value and ideas, and why authenticity is so important
How Steven measures success in his business and in his personal life
Some of the habits that Steven has integrated into his daily life to be at his best

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Hollwco.com
Steven Pemberton on LinkedIn
Steven Pemberton on Facebook
Steven Pemberton on Instagram
"The Blessed Life: Unlocking the Rewards of Generous Living" by Robert Morris
"No Pain, No Gaines: The Good Stuff Doesn't Come Easy" by Chip Gaines
"Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" by James Clear
40 Strategy
Contact 40 Strategy
Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

How Steve Tague discovered his Kryptonite, and changed his habits to become a masters rowing world champion Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

We all have habits that are our Kryptonite - just like the green, crystalline material that weakened Superman. And those habits prevent us from reaching our greatest potential.

Steve Tague discovered his Kryptonite, late in life — and it transformed his future.

We often think of endurance as something only elite athletes possess — but it's actually a mental skill we can all cultivate. And nobody better to teach us how than our latest guest, Steve Tague.

Steve is a masters indoor rowing world champion and a world record-holder. He's also the owner of Rowed to Fitness; a certified rowing, fitness, and sports nutrition coach; commercial photographer and owner of Steve Tague Studios.

Listen to the full episode for more on Steve's journey (both as an athlete and as a business owner), a surprise discovery about his diet that led Steve to fulfilling his athletic potential, how to cultivate more endurance, and more.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

How Steve got started in photography, even when he didn't have much "direction" in high school
More about Steve's transition from a small town in Southern California to moving to New York City to pursue his photography career
Why Steve eventually moved back to the West Coast and settled in Bend, Oregon
More about Steve's entry into local news, and then the banking business
A story from Steve's childhood sports career, and what it taught him
How Steve figured out his food allergies, and how that discovery led to him feeling "like Superman"
The backstory of Steve getting involved with masters rowing at age 55 and why he was "devastated" when he placed seventh in the world at a competition
How Steve measures success in his life
Why so many limits are mental constructs, and why endurance can be such a powerful characteristic, both in life and in business

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

How to use both outcome and process goals to reach success, with strength and conditioning coach Bill Maxwell Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

So many business owners fall into the trap of focusing only on the end outcome: are sales up or down, did the product sell or not sell, are we profitable? But in reality, we should be focused on measuring the stepping stones along the way that they can control: sales leads collected, on time delivery, managing discretionary expenses, etc.

In this, business is much like sports. Focusing solely on the end outcome (did you win or lose?) can only get you so far. You also need to focus on what you're doing in the lead-up to the games. Our guest this week is an expert in preparing athletes for those moments — and helping them measure progress along the way.

Bill Maxwell is the Director of Athletic Performance for Olympic sports, with a primary focus on men's basketball, at the University of Iowa. Before that, he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Kansas, where he oversaw strength and conditioning programs for the Jayhawk Olympic sports, including basketball, baseball, and swimming and diving.

Listen to the full episode for more on how a Division I strength and conditioning coach measures success within his program, the difference between outcome goals and process goals (and how to set both), some of the technological advances that have been made in the strength and conditioning industry, and more.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

How Bill got started in strength and conditioning as a profession
Some of the ways that the strength and conditioning world has progressed over the past couple decades
The impact of wearable technology for athletes
How Bill and the rest of the team at Iowa measures athletes' nervous systems, and the impact that rest has on performance
The most important key performance indicators that athletic programs should measure
More about the reactive strength index, and how it serves as the standard for the student-athletes at Iowa
How Bill answers the question "how do you know your program is working?"
The mindset shifts it takes to be a top-performing athlete
The difference between outcome goals and process goals, and why both are important within an athletics program
How sleep impacts performance
Some of the personal habits Bill has integrated to keep himself at his best every day
How much water intake you should really have
The 3 action words Bill tries to practice each day, and what each of those words mean to him

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Iowa Olympics Sports Strength & Conditioning
Bill Maxwell on LinkedIn
"Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" by James Clear
"Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't" by Simon Sinek
"The Brain Always Wins: Improving Your Life Through Better Brain Management" by Dr. John P. Sullivan
40 Strategy
Contact 40 Strategy
Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

The top 3 keys to dramatically improve your leadership and make a bigger impact, with global leadership guru Dov Baron Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

The beginning of each year is an opportunity for rebirth and growth. And the process for making dramatic steps forward in your life or business is actually quite simple — it's just not easy. This episode will give you a roadmap for the difficult things you can do to improve as a leader, radically change your life, and make a bigger impact on your company. And that advice is coming from one of the world's top experts in the field.

Dov Baron is the founder and CEO of Dov Baron International. He is a preeminent expert in helping leaders create life and work meaning. His models and strategies of the Emotional Source Code and the Anatomy of Meaning are used by leaders in business and government worldwide. He's also been named a Top 30 Global Leadership Guru five times and an Inc. Magazine Top Leadership Speaker twice.

Listen to the full conversation for more on how to establish your priorities, how to actually dedicate time to those priorities, the top ways leaders can show up and make a bigger impact on their businesses this year, the power of curiosity to empower your success, and more.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

What leaders can do personally to have an amazing impact on their businesses heading into 2023, plus an exercise Dov suggests leaders do in order to establish their priorities
Why Dov says everybody is out of balance all the time — and what leaders can do about that
Why Dov says "obligations and traditions are nothing more than peer pressure given to you by dead people"
The importance of asking your partner (in life or business) the question "Where am I failing?"
The questions that someone can ask in order to evaluate how they're doing in their most important relationships
The relationship among trust, vulnerability, and courage
Why curiosity is one of the most significant characteristics you can cultivate if you want to be successful in your life
The power of questioning and challenging your own belief systems, and being curious about where they came from
What it means to be a "deeply connected self-leader"
Why innovation doesn't happen without crisis and curiosity

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

How to embrace moonshot thinking (and failure) and innovating the way we speak, with Yoodli co-founder Varun Puri Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

We often think of a business only in terms of whether it "succeeded" or not. But some of the best ideas, companies, and concepts have all been built from a culture of setting giant "moonshot" goals — and frequent failures along the way.

Someone who knows all about the concept of "moonshot thinking" is our latest guest, Varun Puri. Varun is co-founder of Yoodli, an AI-powered speech coach. Varun is on a mission to empower people to improve their lives with more effective speaking. You will love this podcast and hearing from this extraordinary leader's drive to positively impact people.

Prior to Yoodli, Varun was a Product Manager at GoogleX, where he worked on a project to bring internet to rural areas using invisible lasers. He also ran special projects for Sergey Brin, one of Google's founders.

Tune into the full episode for more on why thinking big (almost *too* big) is so important for innovation (and building a successful business), what he learned from his time at GoogleX, and why failure is so important for ideas and companies that eventually succeed.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

The story behind the founding of Yoodli, including how Varun's background informed his desire to start the company
Some of the biggest business lessons Varun took away from his time working at GoogleX, and how he's taken "moonshot thinking" into his new ventures
The power of celebrating failure and why it's important to set "absurd" goals
Why acquisition and retention are the concepts Varun measures at Yoodli
What's possible with Yoodli in the near future
How much Varun works per week and the habits he's integrated to maintain his performance
Why sleep is so vital to Varun's work and the role that wearable technology plays in his life
How Varun measures success in his personal life and why it's important for him to go back and read his previous journal entries

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Yoodli.ai
Yoodli on LinkedIn
"Shantaram: A Novel" by Gregory David Roberts
"Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" by James Clear
40 Strategy
Contact 40 Strategy
Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

How to build a brand people will remember, with TEDx speaker Isabelle Mercier Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

Every business owner has heard the word "branding" — but do they actually know how to build an effective, memorable one? Most don't. And that lack of good branding is keeping great ideas, products, and services from reaching more customers.

But our guest this week is on a mission to help organizations build brands that people remember — and that their customers want to connect with. Isabelle Mercier is a "no-nonsense" dynamo, born to catapult heart-centered entrepreneurs and business leaders to build impactful brands, businesses, and lives. As one of North America's top business influencers, bestselling author, two-time TEDx speaker with over 3 million views, and TV show host, Isabelle brings over 25 years of branding, marketing, and customer experience expertise.

Listen to the full episode for more on the essential components of great branding, the downside of having a "mission statement" (plus how a business can improve on that concept), and how Isabelle's childhood prepared her for her current career.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

More about Isabelle's company, LeapZone Strategies
What a "brand foundation" is, and how entrepreneurs can use that to create the "new normal" they want
Why Isabelle considers branding to be the "journey of alignment"
The "3 P's" of branding and why each is so important at a company
How Disney has created one of the most iconic brands in the world, and what other businesses can learn from them
Why "mission statement" is a swear word at Isabelle's company
How Isabelle measures success in her life, plus more about her "units of happiness" concept
More about Isabelle's childhood, and how it helped shape her approaches to branding, risk-taking, and her business
How Isabelle's TEDx talk (which has been viewed more than 3 million times) has impacted her life

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

LeapZone Strategies website
Isabelle's TEDx talks
LeapZone Strategies on LinkedIn
"Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown
"Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most" by Greg McKeown
"Sitting on the Fence: How To Love Without Limits" by Margarita Romano
40 Strategy
Contact 40 Strategy
Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

How to reduce conflict and build effective workplace communication to reach your goals, with Antoni Lacinai Jan 03, 2023

Show notes

So many problems within a workplace can be traced back to one issue: communication. Leaders who can master this skill are the ones who reach their goals, develop better teams, and steer their organizations towards greater success.

Our guest this week is one of the top experts in helping leaders become better communicators. Antoni Lacinai is an international keynote speaker and workplace communication expert, at the cross point of conscious leadership, customer focus, and employee engagement.

Listen in to the full episode for more on the importance of empathy within work environments, the "communicative superpowers" that leaders need to develop in order to effectively lead their teams, why most arguments or confrontation in the workplace can be traced back to misunderstandings, and more advice from Antoni for company leaders.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

The top reasons, according to Antoni, why people don't get along, especially in the workplace
How to develop more empathy within a work culture, plus the importance of self-awareness
More about the 3 communicative superpowers - energy, empathy, and clarity - and which one Antoni thinks is the most important
The key to sustainable leadership that actually gets results
Antoni's top recommendation for a leader or manager who has already identified they can do better in leading their team
The power of habits when it comes to leadership and team development
How Antoni measures success with his clients
Some of the personal habits Antoni has integrated to keep himself performing at a high level professionally and personally
Why Antoni says people should skip New Year's resolutions — and what they should replace those resolutions with

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Antoni Lacinai's website
Antoni Lacinai's books
Antoni Lacinai on LinkedIn
Antoni Lacinai on YouTube
"The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" by Charles Duhigg
"Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" by James Clear
"SPIN Selling" by Neil Rackham
"The Secret Life of Trees: How They Live and Why They Matter" by Colin Tudge
"Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know" by Adam Grant
40 Strategy
Contact 40 Strategy
Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

How to change business, hiring, and the world through a "culture of caring and accountability," with Gil Winch Dec 20, 2022

Show notes

What if most businesses have been going about their hiring, retention, and culture-building strategies all wrong? And how should today's organizations rethink the traditional processes that might not actually be helpful?

Our guest this week is someone reimagining many of those "traditional" way of doing things — and for the greater good. Gil Winch, Ph.D, is the founder of CY (Call Yachol), a unique, 100% underdog company composed primarily of people with severe disabilities; a keynote speaker; and author of "Winning with Underdogs: How Hiring the Least Likely Candidates Can Spark Creativity, Improve Service, and Boost Profits for Your Business."

Listen to this episode for the full conversation about what businesses typically get wrong about the hiring process, how to build long-term employee engagement, strategies for keeping a team aligned around common values, and more.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

The backstory behind Call Yahol's founding — and why it wasn't originally built to be a business
Why it's important to treat people "as they will be," rather than "as they are" and how that relates to paying higher wages for people with disabilities
Why the "business isn't personal" philosophy isn't actually helpful or realistic, according to Gil
The employee engagement data from Gil's company, and why those statistics are so much higher than most other companies
The problems with traditional screening processes in the hiring world — and how Gil's company has reimagined those processes
Why having a "culture of caring" is so important for employee engagement and retention
The strategies that Gil's company uses to keep employees behaving according to the organizational values
More about the "48-hour mourning period" at Call Yachol after someone makes a mistake
Why Gil's business is a means to an end, not the end itself
What keeps Gil motivated to do the difficult things, in his personal or professional life

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Learn more about Call Yachol
Gil Winch on LinkedIn
"Winning with Underdogs: How Hiring the Least Likely Candidates Can Spark Creativity, Improve Service, and Boost Profits for Your Business" by Gil Winch
Gil's TED talk, "How we can use the hiring process to bring out the best in people"
"Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt, and Other Everyday Psychological Injuries" by Guy Winch
"Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World" by Adam Grant
40 Strategy
Contact 40 Strategy
Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

How to build (and keep) a rockstar team, with CEO Darrin Jahnel Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

With all the recent talk about labor shortages and a chaotic job market, organizations worried about recruitment and retention aren't alone. But there is plenty you can do as a leader to ensure you attract the best of the best, grow your company sustainably with top talent, and retain the cream of the crop.

In this episode, host Carl J. Cox talks to Darrin Jahnel: he's the founder and CEO of Jahnel Group, a 150-person software consulting company headquartered in upstate, Schenectady, New York. He's also learned all the lessons associated with growing a company from 1 or 2 employees to triple digits.

Tune into the full episode for more on those lessons, tips for top-level employee recruitment and retention, how to maintain productivity with a team full of remote workers, and more.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

More about Darrin's business, Jahnel Group, and how his background led him to co-founding the software company with his brother
What Darrin learned in the early stages of his company, plus the hiring milestones that happen along that journey (and the lessons to take from each of those)
One fact about the human mind and its capacity to remember — and how that impacts company growth
Jahnel Group's approach to remote work, and how that has changed during or after the Covid-19 pandemic
How Darrin's company has evaluated effectiveness within remote workers
Why Jahnel Group's "recruiting engine" takes a similar approach as a college football program
The secrets to employee retention, after a wine-and-dine recruitment cycle
Why zero turnover at an organization isn't always a necessarily good thing
How Darrin measures success in both his personal life and his company
Some of the personal habits Darrin has integrated into his daily life to maintain his productivity and effectiveness
Why habits and the journey are more important than the goals you set

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Why so many business owners barely pay themselves — and how to fix the problem — with Tuesday P. Brooks Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

Even when companies are raking in 6- and 7-figure sales, too many business owners end up working so many hours, and paying themselves so little of the profits, that they actually make minimum wage (or lower). Our guest this week is an expert in helping entrepreneurs reverse the trend and actually pay themselves what they're worth.

Tuesday P. Brooks, MBA is a business owner, educator, and trusted tax and accounting advisor whose company, AJOY, is committed to improving profitability of women-led micro and small business enterprises.

Listen to the full episode for more on Tuesday's company, her tax advice, why business owners have been thinking about profit all wrong, and more.

Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:

More about Tuesday's company, AJOY, and who they help
Why accounting and taxes end up being such a big problem for business owners, and the role that fear plays
The rough percentage of Tuesday's business owner clients who are actually making approximately minimum wage
The problem with the "reinvesting in the business" philosophy that so many business owners operate under
What it means to have "pretty financials"
The benefits of paying taxes as a business owner — and the biggest misconception around tax-paying that entrepreneurs have
Why so many of Tuesday's clients struggle to come up with financial goals and why it's often so hard for them to accept that it's okay for them to make more money (instead of just "reinvesting" it)
Why day-to-day impact is the biggest measurement of success in Tuesday's business
More about Tuesday's program that helps train women in Africa about the basics of business and accounting in the U.S.
The habits that Tuesday has integrated into her daily life to keep up with everything she has going on

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

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