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You've watched movies like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and wonder what it would be like to be an archeologist or paleontologist searching for lost history. But what is it really like to search for 'hidden treasure'? Walter Stein is a professional paleontologist and teaches every day people how they can go on the adventure of a lifetime and discover dinosaur bones. In today's episode Walter shares how he turned a childhood passion into a career and along the way blazed his own trail of how to make paleontology not only a career but a business. He shares some crazy stories of his digs, how a dinosaur was named after him, and what a new generation of scientist need to know to make their dreams come alive.LinksPaleoAdventures.comVirtual Dinosaur MuseumPictures of our dig with PaleoAdventuresToday's episode is sponsored by:Skillshare: Visit https://www.skillshare.com/jumblethink to get 2 months free of unlimited online classes.Penji: Use code 'JUMBLE' at https://www.penji.com to get 15% off your first month of unlimited graphic design.OpportunityInChina.com: Visit OpportunityInChina.com to learn how you can study or teach abroad.Walter and his wife Heather started “PaleoAdventures” back in 2005. PaleoAdventures provides a wide range of services to the education, museum, and tourist related industries, including: Dig site tours, commercial internet fossil sales, lectures and educational programs for schools, clubs and museums, museum consultation, contract fossil preparation, paleontological resource assessments, and much, much more.  Walter is a professional vertebrate paleontologist and dinosaur hunter who has discovered, excavated, or prepared over 25 dinosaur skeletons and numerous isolated fossils over the last 18 years. One of Walter’s most famous discoveries is the skeleton of “Sir William” a juvenile Tyrannosaur skeleton collected in Petroleum County, Montana. Sir William is named after Walter and Heather’s young son William. Walter is a graduate of Appalachian State University (BS Geology, 1994), is former president of the Big Horn Basin Foundation, Staff Geologist/paleotechnician at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, Field Collections Manager for Triebold Paleontology Inc. and Curator for the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. For the last three years he has been working closely with the AAPS (Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences), as chairman of their new "Journal of Paleontological Sciences". He is also the author of the book, “So You Want To Dig Dinosaurs; A Field Manual on the Practice, Principles, and Politics of Vertebrate Paleontology, published back in 2002 and"The Top 256 Rules of Paleontology" published in 2009”. See "Resume/CV" for Walter's Online resume and list of credentials.Heather has been a nationally certified massage therapist since 1997. She is a graduate of Suncoast School of Natural Health(1997), Tampa, Florida. She has worked at some of the finest hotels and resorts in the country including the 5 star/5 diamond Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and Saddlebrook Resort & Spa in Florida. She has been trusted to work on many celebrities, and professional sports figures during her career. For the last five years, Heather has been an intergral part of the dinosaur business, working in both the field and the lab.They married in 2002 and have two boys William and Stephen.

Finding purpose is a very tricky thing. The more I talk to people, the more I see people who are living life without purpose. Some want to find purpose, others are content floating through life, yet many more don’t even know what to think about life all together. Living life without purpose is a really sad thing. There are leading thought leaders, speakers, and influencers telling you to ‘Start with Why’ and ‘What’s your What’. While these questions are great questions to answer, they are simply leading you to two things. Purpose and Identity. We’ve talked about Identity a lot over the last few years but we really haven’t talked much about Purpose. So on today’s show, we are talking ‘Purpose’ and more specifically finding your purpose in entrepreneurship.So let’s start by defining purpose. This helps to give us a baseline for the rest of the show. What is purpose?Noun: the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.Verb: have as one's intention or objective.Going a step further, many aren’t just looking for purpose but actually their ‘Life Purpose.’ According to University of Minnesota, Life Purpose can be defined asYour life purpose consists of the central motivating aims of your life—the reasons you get up in the morning.Purpose can guide life decisions, influence behavior, shape goals, offer a sense of direction, and create meaning. For some people, purpose is connected to vocation—meaningful, satisfying work. For others, their purpose lies in their responsibilities to their family or friends. Others seek meaning through spirituality or religious beliefs. Some people may find their purpose clearly expressed in all these aspects of life.Purpose will be unique for everyone; what you identify as your path may be different from others. What’s more, your purpose can actually shift and change throughout life in response to the evolving priorities and fluctuations of your own experiences. - The link to the full article in the episode notes:https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/what-life-purposeSo can you find purpose in entrepreneurship? I think it really depends on how you view your career, goals, and values…but for many entrepreneurs the reason they chose this path was to build things that mattered to them. They wanted to build their ideas and dream. They wanted to impact the world in some way. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to an entrepreneur that didn’t have purpose behind what they are doing. However there are those who I have met who seemed to be searching for purpose and hoped to find it through entrepreneurship. I think they are searching for some kind of fulfillment, joy, or to fill a void missing in their lives. To those people, I hope today’s show encourages you to step back and really figure out who you are and what you value. For those of you who are living your purpose through you journey of entrepreneurship, I hope today’s episode encourages you. Even if you aren’t an entrepreneur there are many powerful takeaways in today’s episode that will help guide you on the journey of finding purpose in your life.Ready to dive into this? So purpose in simplest terms is the object or goal in which you are headed. What you want to accomplish It’s the vision that is pulling you into the future you want to create. Purpose is an idea. It is a belief. The ambition, dream, aim, intent, the ‘end’. The Hebrew word for this is ‘acharit’ or the end. Purpose is the end result of behavior, beliefs, vision. It is where you are going and living fully in the moments to get there.Purpose is really the driving force in life. The reason why so many are searching for purpose is that they are feeling unfulfilled, lacking in some way, without purpose, or missing significance. When you find it, you feel like you are living ‘what you are created for.’ It amazes me how many people say those terms ‘I feel like I’m doing what I was created to do’ when they explain their journey of entrepreneurship. Some of these people believe in a God and others are atheistic in their beliefs. But all feel the same…that they are living what they were created to do. To live their purpose. How are some people able to find this entrepreneurial purpose while others seem to be miserable in life? Why aren’t more connecting with the purpose of their lives? And how can you find your purpose in life and entrepreneurship? We will be right back to go deeper into purpose and answering these questions.Segment 2We are back and talking about finding purpose in entrepreneurship. I want to take the next few minutes and focus now on why you need purpose in your life, especially if you are going to take the leap of being an entrepreneur. Why do you need purpose? According to psychologists at Psychology Today, when we don’t have a sense of purpose in our lives. It makes us more vulnerable to boredom, anxiety and depression. And particularly if we have an addictive personality it can make us vulnerable to substance abuse. Alcohol or drugs are, of course, a way of alleviating psychological discord, but at the same time they can be seen as a way of gaining a very basic sense of purpose: to satisfy your addiction. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201307/the-power-purpose)So are there different types of purpose? Actually studies show that there are several kinds of purpose. Some will benefit you more than others. What are some examples? Survival - This is the most basic of purposes you can give. It’s primal. In this style of purpose you are literally just trying to make it to the next day. In life this looks like food, shelter, water…but in entrepreneurship and business it looks a little different. It could be cashflow and payroll. It could be a difficult deadline. It could be finding the next project or getting rid of a bad project. Any way that you look at it, this kind of purpose in life or business is all about getting through today. ‘Surviving another day.’ Every person and especially every entrepreneur faces this in their lives. It’s a kind of purpose that should be short lived. It’s a reality we all have to face at times, however it isn’t a place we should live for long and we won’t last long if we try to live in the ‘survival’ place of purpose.  Using a Pre-existing model or meaning of purpose - This takes on the belief and driving force of others that are around you or have gone before you. In life this often looks like religion or politics. Now I’m a big fan of religion…I’m a long time follower is Christ’s teaching. I understand that this fills my beliefs with a specific worldview and that I need to be aware of this as I bring my beliefs into business and entrepreneurship. It helps to define my beliefs in a specific standard of ethics. But it doesn’t stop there. As an entrepreneur there are teachings that for many they have adopted as their beliefs and purpose in business. This is neither good or bad (although it can become unhealthy), but it is a specific worldview. Great examples of this is following the reasoning behind ‘funnels’ like Clickfunnels. For others they might pick up a specific purpose in social oriented entrepreneurship like businesses focused on solving the problems of the environment, the needs of the less fortunate, or other beliefs. This can be a strong place to find purpose, but it can also become a dangerous place to find purpose. We need to question the purpose that we adopt from these sources until they stop being someone else’s purpose and start becoming our purpose.  Status or Money: This is purpose focused on what I can accumulate. More money, more stuff, more power, more authority, to become famous. This could be because you want to impress others (external purpose). It could be to fill a desire for ownership or accumulation (internal purpose), but it could also be a purpose for another reason. If this is your driving force for purpose, you may want to stop and really find out what is driving you into this purpose. Is it greed? Maybe it’s fear? It could be consumerism. It could also be selfishness. If it’s one of those motivators of purpose, I would recommend that you find a place of healthy purpose. On the flip side, maybe you are doing it so that you can give to those in need, provide better for your family, or even save for early retirement. And those motivators might not be bad at all. Altruistic / Idealism: This purpose is split into two key area. First you might want to change the world out of your concern for something in society. You want to improve the world. You want justice for the broken things in life. Bring a new idealism and philosophy to the world. Secondly it could be to be to help those in need. This is often when purpose goes from being an internal driver forward and to an external driver to change the world. Your purpose is no longer about ‘just you’ but about the people and world around you. Personal or Spiritual Development: This is purpose that drives you forward into learning. Learning more about yourself, finding new creativity, making yourself a better person. Think of this as ‘self-improvement / Self-Help’ motivated purpose. There is a desire to grow personally. There is a desires to grow deeper into learning and spiritual revelation. So what are the positive side affects of purpose? Give you something to do or move towards. Gives you direction. Keeps you from being ‘bored’ Brings you joy in the ‘doing’ of things to move your purpose forward. Helps others. Let’s you focus on the positive instead of the negative. Gives you challenges that cause you to grow and evolve. Make you healthier physically, emotionally, spiritually. Increases your self esteem. Allows you to communicate a vision or mission to your team. Most importantly it gives you hope. We are going to pause here for a break. When we return, we are going to talk about how you can find your purpose in entrepreneurship and life.Segment 3We are back for our final segment as we discuss how you can find purpose in your life and finding purpose in entrepreneurship. So let’s talk about how you can make this real in your own life. Now we are more focused on entrepreneurial purpose and you may be wondering why? Did you know that the average person spends 90,000 hours over their lifetime in ‘work.’ If you are an entrepreneur I would guess that you actually spend even more time working. So here are my steps to finding your purpose in entrepreneurship. Slow down. Many of us our to busy ‘doing’ that we can’t or don’t take the time to really walk through the process. In the last few years I’ve been saying ‘You have to slow down to go fast’. What I mean by that is that if you do not slow down you will spend most of your time responding to life and business. You won’t have time to find your clarity in your purpose. You won’t have time to create a plan. So you need to slow down. Take stock of where you are. Living a life of purpose weather in life or in business starts with being intentional. You need to know where you are currently. Do you have a vision for the future? Do you have purpose? Many people are simply floating through life. They are hoping to find what brings them fulfillment. The search is even deeper for many entrepreneurs because this is a critical piece for their success. So step back and really think about if you have a purpose. If you do, awesome. If you don’t, then you need to really think about what matters to you so you can define your purpose. Ask a lot of questions. Ask why something matters to you, why you care. Ask why you do what you do. Ask how you got to where you are. Ask if you are happy. What are you good at? What are you bad at? Question everything in life. Figure out what you value, your passions, hopes and dreams.  Explore what you are good at and what you love to do. Often this is a great place to guide you into finding purpose. There are reasons that you are gifted in certain areas. There are reasons you are passion filled in other areas. These passions and giftings may very well be pointing you to your place of purpose. As an entrepreneur this can give you a leg up on helping to build your idea or dream so that you can fulfill your purpose. They will also show you areas in which you may need to grown or ask others to help.  Write it down and refine. This is where you begin to craft your mission, vision, and purpose statement. For some reason when you write things down, they become more real. So write it down. Refine it until it feels right to you. Refine it until it’s clear to you. Refine it until it is clear to others. Get it so that your purpose is really focused. Look at your purpose both in the micro and macro levels. How does your purpose impact the small decisions you make? How does your purpose impact the big decisions you make? Don’t just focus on purpose from a self centered focus but also take into consideration how this impacts the people around you and the world. Make your purpose give others purpose. This is one of the fastest ways you can grow your business. When your purpose gives your team purpose, it will set them on fire to change the world. When your purpose gives hope to the world, you will grow advocates for your customers and beyond. As Mark Zuckerberg once said ‘It’s not enough to have purpose yourself. You have to create a sense of purpose for others.’ As the Bible says: ‘Without vision people perish.’ Create that vision to impact the world around you. Create a plan. How does your purpose impact your life? How does it change your business? What will it take to make this a success? You need to begin to build a plan to turn your purpose into reality. You can not stop with the idea alone. You must push into action. Without a plan you will not see the vision and purpose come to pass. Stop responding and start building. This may mean that you need to shake up your role in the purpose you are building. You may need to put others in roles and trust them with your dreams, ideas, and purpose. This is scary to do, but it is the best way to build your purpose so that you can really reach the fullness you were created for. Check back in with yourself. Finding purpose is a life long pursuit. It will change and evolve as you continue to mature and see how sometimes the unexpected opens up new places of purpose. Don’t be ridged in your purpose. Allow it to evolve and grown and ultimately become even more than you could have envisioned.  I do want to caution you on a few things. First, don’t get so locked up in your purpose that you forget your family and the ones you love around you. You want them to be part of this journey. They will be the biggest supporters and help on this journey. Secondly, as an entrepreneur it’s easy to put our value in our purpose and it’s either success or failure. You need to know your value doesn’t come from success or failure. It comes from understanding your identity and choosing the unconventional path of entrepreneurship. Simply taking the step into the unknown shows that you are willing to take your purpose to the world. Keep going, it’s going to be worth it.And my final thought. People struggle to find purpose all of their lives. One of the quickest ways to find purpose is to get around people who know theirs. Don’t copy their purpose, but instead learn from them. Find out how they discovered their purpose. Ask the for help to find your purpose. You become like those you hang out with, so get around people that are going to push you to become the best at who you are. 

CoWorking is all the rage with companies like WeWork leading the way, but what happens when your coworking space puts a community of entrepreneurship at the core of it's focus. That's what Chris Schultz and Anne Driscoll set out to do when the build the first Launch Pad CoWorking space in New Orleans. Not only did they want to create great work environments but they wanted to reinvent how the city viewed business and entrepreneurship. In today's episode we discuss community, entrepreneurship, innovation, changing how cities view entrepreneurs, how to build culture, work / life blend, and more.Today's episode is sponsored by:Skillshare: Go to https://www.skillshare.com/jumblethink to get 2 months free when you sign up.Penji: Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first month at https://penji.co/About Launch PadLaunch Pad is dedicated to giving people the courage to create the company or career they have always dreamed of. Driven by the power of the internet and global distribution talent, people can work from anywhere.Launch Pad started in 2009, with simple idea that bringing all of the “doers” in New Orleans into the same place to work every day would build community and catalyze the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.It worked. In the last 10 years companies working at Launch Pad in New Orleans have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and created more than 5000 jobs.Today, Launch Pad is opening coworking spaces and bringing its strong community and commitment to the success of our members momentum markets around the US. We define our strategy as – People with Pride, Cities with Soul.Success today requires taking command of your career and working entrepreneurially. Launch Pad is a community of people who will be your first believers. They create a great place to work so you can be productive and get ahead.

How we lead in business is ever evolving but what if our power driven leadership methods are actually hindering our teams and growth? Marissa Orr wants to change the game and redefine healthy leadership to empower our teams and allow them to have the freedom to work with their own personality and strengths. This new model helps workers find deeper fulfillment and joy in the jobs that they do. It also benefits businesses as they see new potential from the perspective of their employees. In today's episode not only do we discuss this new method of leadership but we also chat about true feminism, corporate disfunction, working for tech giants like Google and Facebook, and what is really driving the gender gap.Today's episode is sponsored by...Penji - get 15% off your first month of unlimited graphic design by using the code 'JUMBLE' at penji.comOpportunitityInChina.com - connecting you with learning and teaching opportunities abroad.About Marissa OrrDuring her 15 years at today’s top tech giants, Facebook and Google, Marissa became disenchanted with the steady stream of advice coming from most female leadership programs. Ignoring the real concerns faced by most working women and offering prescriptions for success that hinged on acting more like men. She wrote Lean Out to tell another side of the story of women at work.Lean Out, The Truth About Women, Power, and the Workplace released by HarperCollins Leadership in June 2019. Follow Marissa on Twitter @marissabethOrr and on Medium @marissaOrr.

The Millennial generation is often stereotyped and misunderstood. So what is the truth about millennials in the workplace and life? How can we build startups, businesses, and corporations that engage this generation and drive them further into purpose in their work? Today’s guest, Chris Tuff, helps walk us through the process of moving from the stereotype and into a place where we embrace each other across generational divides. Today's show is sponsored by:Penji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthAbout Chris TuffAs one of the first marketers to work with startups like Facebook in 2005, Chris has built his career surrounded by Millennials while becoming one of the sought out leaders in the digital marketing space.He’s a partner at the advertising agency 22squared in Atlanta, GA where he successfully attracts, motivates and whispers to Millennials every day. When Chris isn’t working he kiteboards, mountain bikes, runs, and spends quality time with his wife and two daughters.Chris’s Website: https://www.themillennialwhisperer.com/Chris on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuff22/Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/christuff

Simplicity is something we have talked about a few times on past shows but it continues to amaze me how people make the process of turning dreams and ideas into reality very complex. In today’s episode we are exploring the art of simplicity in entrepreneurship.Today's show is sponsored by:Penji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.comSo there was this guy Hans Hofmann. He lived between the 1880 and 1966 and was well known as an artist and teacher. His career impacted many generations in both Europe and America. As an artist he both preceded and influenced abstract expressionism. So what’s abstract expressionism??? It’s a post WWII art movement in painting that was the first specifically American Movement that achieved international influence and put America at the center of the western art world. It’s often considered an important predecessor in surrealism and put an emphasis on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation.  Well Hans Hofmann once said this about simplicity… ‘The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.’  When I talk to entrepreneurs and innovators I often hear very complex and bloated ideas that make the initial idea hard to understand or grasp. If you start with a bloated and complex idea it is really hard to move from the concept and into reality all while captivating your audience into action.Now it’s really easy to misunderstand ‘simplicity’ and I want to make sure that I’m clear in saying ‘over simplification can also be detrimental to the process’. What we are shooting for is the process of finding the sweet spot where your ideas and dreams flourish.  So what exactly is simplicity? Simplicity can be defined in so many different ways. Here’s a few examples… the quality or condition of being easy to understand or do. "for the sake of simplicity, this chapter will concentrate on one theory" It brings clarity, clearness, intelligibility, comprehensibility, illumination, straightforwardness, and accessibility to the dream or idea. the quality or condition of being plain or natural. "the grandeur and simplicity of Roman architecture”… lack/absence of adornment, lack/absence of embellishment, unpretentiousness in execution a thing that is plain, natural, or easy to understand. plural noun: simplicities "the simplicities of pastoral living”. straightforwardness, ease, easiness, lack or absence of complication, effortlessness, manageability. For years, simplicity in the complex had been at the heart of Apple. Steve Jobs even addressed this when he said ‘That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.’ Now complexity has become the mantra of today. We have complicated relationships, complex integrations of technology in our lives, complexity that leads to over busyness, and complexity that leads us uncertainty / depression / and burnout. We want to be all things to all people, but in the plurality of being everything to everyone in business and life we loose the power of our identity and focus.Simplicity unlocks many superpowers in the process of turning our dreams and ideas into reality. In this complex world it’s time we stop being on autopilot and start taking the action to simplify the process to unlock a future we want to create.  In a moment we will be back to go a little deeper about the art of simplicity in entrepreneurship.Welcome back, we are talking about ‘The art of simplicity in entrepreneurship’. In this segment I’m sharing 5 ways to incorporate the art simplicity into your journey of life and entrepreneurship. You’ll notice that I mentioned ‘life and entrepreneurship’ instead of just entrepreneurship. While I’m specifically sharing tips on simplicity in entrepreneurship, many of these tips can apply past entrepreneurship and really help you in life too. So if you aren’t an entrepreneur, you can keep listen and you will have some great takeaways for your life.  But before we jump into the five tips, I want to go little deeper into what simplicity is and isn’t.Simplicity isn’t just cutting your idea or dream back to one thing. It is cutting away everything that doesn’t support your core idea and dream.Simplicity isn’t dummying down the idea and dream. It is making it clear so that people can understand and grasp what you are saying and doing.Simplicity isn’t boring design. It is intention design filled with beautiful design that matters.Simplicity isn’t easy. It’s actually a lot of hard work filled with purpose.Simplicity isn’t a shortcut to getting done quicker (although it may do that). It is a process of refinement and perfecting the idea or dream.I could go on, but you get the idea. Simplicity is often much harder to do. Duke Ellington once said ‘Simplicity is a most complex form.’Now I know that some of are are listening and thinking ‘Mike, I get it…simplicity is cool.’ But how do we move into using the art of simplicity as an entrepreneur? We’ll I’m glad you asked because I wanted to share 5 tips to use simplicity as an entrepreneur.Tip number one: Clarify your message.  One of the first areas that many people over complicate their dreams and ideas in through the words they use to communicate their dreams and ideas. To be successful you need to focus on the message you use with yourself, your team, and the people you serve. Messages really only matter if people understand them and can buy into how this will solve a problem for them or the people around them. Often our messaging is based on our presupposed assumptions. Better known as bias. Everything we do is based on bias. If we want to be affective our message must remove bias that steals from the core of what we are communicating.  This requires a deep understanding of the people we are serving. The simpler we can cut back the message to only what the audience needs, the better we will do in converting them to our way of thinking. This in turn will captivate them to engage with our message, product, or service. Unless you are specifically communicating with someone who inherently understands your industry you need to simplify industry speak. Let me give you an example.For several years I would have customers come into our web design and development agency and ask ‘what is the difference between a domain (web address) and the hosting. Often this is a question they had asked over and over again with agencies they had worked with in the past or gotten quotes from. Instead of trying to explain the differences using tech speak, I tried to communicate in a way that made sense to someone in terms they would understand. I would say something like.So you own a house and a friend wanted to come over and visit asked how do I get to your house You give them your address and they plug the address into their GPS and it takes them to your house. Now they are at your house but they aren’t in your house. They knock at the door, you open the door, and they come into the house to hang out. You then take them on a tour of hour house showing them the various rooms and your prized possessions. Now in this story, the domain is your address. It gets you to your house but thats about it. Your house is the hosting. That’s where you store all your stuff (your web pages). The various rooms are the pages of your websites. The stuff in the room are the photos, text, and other content on the site.This action of simplicity was all it took for many potential customers feel like I understood them, was able to communicate with them, and ultimately want to become our customer.When you clarify your message by using simplicity you will often find the right people to be part of your tribe and ultimately be your customer.Martin H Fisher who is well know for his teaching on the art and practice of medicine said this ‘Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.’We must use wisdom to simplify our message. This is key to our success.Tip number twoDeclutter overly complex systems. Many of us act as the chicken with it’s head cut off. We are running around responding to the latest emergency. We are responding without knowing how to prevent the emergencies we face. Our systems either don’t exist or are broken. This is often a side affect of overtly complex or bloated systems. Our systems are a key to the success of our businesses (and lives). We must have healthy simply systems.For me it’s something as simple as having my calendar sync with my wife’s calendar make all the difference in know what is on our schedule and if we can schedule something else on a specific day and time. This system is simple. It just works. However many of us use systems that are bloated, complicated, and inefficient. This steels from our time and energy.Simplifying our systems have two steps. Do we have a system for the things we regularly do? Our our systems working? A few years ago I hired two project managers for our business. One was very inline with our philosophy of simplicity both with working with our clients and in the systems we used to manage their projects. The other project manager wanted to add crazy amounts of systems that were slowing down our process and getting in the way of working with our clients. It was the path of least resistance vs duplication of work and effort. One project manager was right for our company, the other was not.  Let’s talk about a few systems many businesses will have:-CRM (customer relationship management)-Project Management-Time Management-Payroll-Billing, invoicing, and contracts-and if you sell products you are going to have systems around inventory, shipping, online, purchases, and more.I could probably create a list hundreds if not thousands of systems for businesses if I took the time to do that. Simple things that many people forget like who cleans the bathroom or sweeps the floor.A heathy system and be broken into four key areas often called ‘the circle of trust and accountability’. Is this system capable with our company culture and what our customer expects. Can we trust this system to work no matter what we toss at it. Does this system empower our team and company Is there accountability in the system? If you can simplify each system down to answer these questions, then you are building systems that will help build your business.So take the time to think about your systems. Remove the clutter that gets in the way. Remove extra and unnecessary steps. Make the process as easy as possible and then Work The Systems.Tip number threeCut out additional features that are unnecessary. In the startup world we talk about building a MVP. A Minimum Viable Product is critical for the success of your business. Often we are so focused on all the ‘bells and whistles’ that we forget that we are solving our customer’s pain and helping make their lives better. We add ‘extra’ things because we are certain that they will need it. Some may, others will not. The more we can cut back to only the things we need in the products, services, and messages we share, the more likely they are to become big fans and long term customers along the way. I can’t tell you how many projects I’ve worked on where a client said that they ‘needed’ something on a project only to find out that their customer hated it. Don’t always think that you know best. Learn from those around you. They will help you understand what is and isn’t working with your products and services. Ultimately when you cut features that are unnecessary, unwanted, and bloated; you will save time, money, and a lot of headaches. It’s always better to start simple and add what people request versus removing what isn’t working.Tip number fourHyper focus. This one is hard for me. I want to help everyone and solve everyones problems. Often when you so this, everyone will suffer. You will be unhappy, projects will take longer, and your customers will not get what they want. You need to focus on the best uses of your time and energy. You need to learn how to say yes to the right things and say no to the wrong things. So how do you do this. Simplify the clients that you serve and only serve the customers you can serve well. Know what you do and stay in the sweet spot of the products and services that you offer. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something. Learn to say yes to things that excite you and feed your passion. Say no to things that will drain you and steel your joy. Ultimately keeping what you do simple will make you more money, add more time, and bring excitement and joy back into what you do. This will unlock the ability to focus on what matters. You need to guard your time.Tip number fiveAsk this simple question: ‘does what I am doing energize the dream or idea I have?’. If it does then keep doing it. If it doesn’t stop doing it.  You must keep the vision of where you are going in the forefront of what you are building. Often we take side roads because we’ve lost our focus and vision. You need to keep with your vision and then build the things that will get you there. There is a proverb that ways ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18). Not only do I think that people perish (employees that no longer work for you, family breakups caused by divorce, friends lost over disagreements) but I also think that dreams and ideas perish when you have lost your vision. You must keep hyper focused on the vision to see your dreams and ideas come to life. As Dwight Eisenhower once said: don’t let the urgent overtake the important.  So those are my five tips for you today around simplicity in entrepreneurship. In a moment we will be back to talk a little more about simplicity.In my opinion, Simplicity is one of the most important keys to launching into your dreams and ideas. When we keep simplicity as a bedrock of our journey into entrepreneurship, we are more likely to make those dreams and ideas real. So here’s a few questions for you today. What are you doing that is overcomplicating and bloating your big idea and dream? What systems are slowing you down? If you don’t have systems, what systems can you put in place to help you? What are you saying yes to that you should be saying no to? What is the vision and where do you want to go? Simplicity is going to look different for each person and business. What works for one business or team might be a failure for another team. You really need to be intentional about finding and creating simplicity in all that you do.Thanks for tuning into today’s episode. It means the world to me that you would listen to our show. I hope you are feeling inspired to step out into the unknown and make your dreams a reality too.  

Reinventing established industries is difficult and even often impossible, however Kathy Hannun and the team at Dandelion is doing just that. They have set up to make Geothermal a viable solution for many people throughout the country. They are innovating by creating new machines to install geothermal, making better equipment for customers, and finding unique funding solutions to make the technology affordable to install and use for the future.In the episode Kathy shares how you can apply the same principles as Alphabet X / Google X use in their business to innovation and invent in your own business. She also shares how taking big risk can open up new possibilities that you thought were impossible!Links: http://dandelionenergy.comToday's episode is sponsored by:Skillshare: https://www.skillshare.com/jumblethink (2 Months Free for jumbleThink Listeners)Penji: Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.comAbout Kathy HannunKathy is the co-founder and CEO at Dandelion, a fast-growing spinout of Alphabet’s X.Previously, Kathy was a product manager and Rapid Evaluator at Alphabet's X. Prior to Dandelion, Kathy led a team that created technology to extract carbon dioxide from seawater to create carbon-neutral fuel.Kathy has been recognized as one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business, one of Albany Business Review's 40 under 40, and as a Leader of Tomorrow. Kathy graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Computer Science. 

In our last revisit of past episodes we revisit 'Finding Your Created Purpose' and our interviews with Mark Geiger and Erik Seversen.Next week on the podcast we interview Kathy Hannun - CEO at Dandelion and on Friday's episode we discuss The Art of Simplicity in EntrepreneurshipToday's episode is sponsored by Penji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.com

Stepping into the unknown is part of the journey of entrepreneurship. In today's episode we share the unknown adventure we are taking here at jumbleThink as we chase our own dreams and big ideas. We share some big exciting news along with the challenges we are facing as we push into the future.Today's episode is sponsored byPenji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.com

Entrepreneurship can be a roller coaster of emotions, success, failure, and so much more. In today's episode we discuss how you can help make the ride more sustainable and less emotional in the process. Some of the steps, tools, and resources you can use include: The people around you… Know your risk tolerance… Pivot quickly Network, Network, Network Keep perspective Ask for help Be real about how you are feeling Today's episode is sponsored byPenji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.com

In today's episode we are revisiting three more episodes from Seasons 1 & 2. This is a great time to catch up on some past episodes. We revisit our conversations with Jeffrey Shaw, Johnathan Grzybowski, and Chad Frey.Today's episode is sponsored by OpportunityInChina.com Penji (use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first mont)

We are revisiting some great past episodes in today's episode. With many new listeners, it's easy to miss the past episodes with power packed guests. In segment one we chat with Leon Logothetis. He shares his story of going from stock broker to traveling the world on the kindness of strangers. In our second segment with chat with Ryan Williams about the world of influence. In our final segment with chat with former Late Show with David Letterman writer Bill Scheft about his career in writing.Today's episode is sponsored by...Penji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.com

Everyone is told to find a 'work-life' balance, however Tamara Loehr doesn't think this is healthy. As a successful entrepreneur, wife, mother, boss, and active global citizen she realized that balance was impossible. Instead she is blazing a new way by creating the blend of work and life. This has freed her up to become at all of them. Removing the barriers and segmentation in life has opened new possibilities of creativity. In today's episode we talk about this new blend, creativity, being an entrepreneur, building businesses that give back, building an impactful life, defining your values, and finding your freedom.Today's episode is sponsored by:Penji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first month of unlimited graphic design.OpportunityInChina.comAbout Tamara LoehrEntrepreneur and creative powerhouse Tamara Loehr has spent her life making disruptive change for good by ‘doing the opposite’. Now she’s encouraging other women to leverage their personal power for global impact.  Born in Australia into a third-generation mining family, Tamara was raised in a mining town of less than 10,000 people: a culture of hard work and moderate aspirations. She was an artistic, nature-loving free spirit: catching tadpoles, dancing, singing, drawing and dreaming.While her classmates expected to follow their parents into the mines and marriage, Tamara longed for different challenges. As a teenager, she spent long hours in her room writing songs, started a band and performed locally. She was an enthusiastic fundraiser and school council president, later competing in Miss Australia and winning the title of ‘Miss Fundraiser.’ This was when she first realized that she had a talent for making money—and the impact she could create by using that talent for the good of others.Her high school results would have won her place studying Law at university, but she ‘did the opposite’ (to the horror of her parents) and pursued Fine Arts majoring in Illustration, with a minor in Marketing. Graduating with top marks, she was snapped up by a Gold Coast marketing agency as a graphic designer. Less than one year in the job, she realized she loved the work but hated the ego-driven, male-dominated industry. This pushed her to start her own digital marketing agency with a different approach, Mitara Empresa, which she still owns over twenty years later.Inspired by reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Tamara started asset-building in her early twenties. She lived on vegemite and toast to save up the deposit for her first investment property, a site overlooking the river and city where she later built a block of units. While Mitara skyrocketed into the top 2% of marketing agencies in the country, Tamara continued songwriting and worked on projects around the world as an indie writer and recording artist. Performing under the stage name ‘Claire’, Tamara kept her parallel career separate from her marketing clients, who often assumed that the singer they saw on TV and performing at football games was Tamara’s sister! Heading up her own agency gave Tamara the flexibility to go on six-week overseas writing tours while the business remained running under her team. This is when Tamara first started blending: business, travel and music.Retiring from music at 30, Tamara was on her final tour when she met her husband during a stopover in London. He moved to Australia, and when their first child was born he chose to become a stay-at-home father. With her husband delighted to ‘do the opposite’ with roles in their family life, Tamara was able to continue as a passionate entrepreneur and the family breadwinner.She refocused her energy and ambitions on business, getting her first business coach. In 2015 she joined Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and found her tribe. With her typical drive and natural leadership, she became the president of her chapter in only her third year of membership. Through EO she learned about the ‘sweat equity’ model of business and started her first venture in the wellness space, growing a business from under $1M annual turnover to over $10M in less than two years with no capital investment—an astonishing achievement for a first-time investor.Hungry for more, Tamara was accepted to the Entrepreneurs Masters Program (a.k.a. ‘The Birthing of Giants’) at MIT in Boston, where she completed a three-year course with fellow entrepreneurs from around the world. Here she focused on defining her values, establishing her mandate and creating her legacy project. Jeff Hoffman (guest lecturer at EMP, founder of Priceline.com and advocate of ‘Business for Good’, regularly representing entrepreneurs at the UN) agreed to mentor Tamara to transition into her next growth phase: global impact. Feeling limited by the model and partners from her Australia-based business, Tamara sold out and moved on to expand her investment in ethical wellness, through capital raising and breaking into the United States market. With her instinct for picking brands that elevate the industry, Tamara invested in a gut health functional snack food company called Gutsii, and premium vegan haircare brand Hot Tresses. Within 12 months of launching Hot Tresses in the States, the products were available at a range of premium outlets such as Nordstrom and Hudson Bay and featured on QVC’s Beauty IQ. Gutsii was launched more recently and has also achieved amazing results out of the gate, picking up 600 stores in six weeks from launch date and being available in-store in four countries.Forever determined to ‘do the opposite’, Tamara has set her sights on disrupting the beauty industry with her Dollar Beauty Tribe. Tamara believes the purchasing power of consumers in the beauty industry can abolish animal testing, set a new ethical standard for beauty brands and positively impact the world. In 2018, Tamara was accepted into the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO), becoming one of 25,000+ global members turning over an average of $45M across their businesses. Sadly, only approximately 10% of members are female, a disconnect from the fact that 40% of households in the States are now supported by a female breadwinner. This revelation prompted Tamara to write a book to empower female breadwinners to play a bigger game in business, titled Balance is B.S. In the book, Tamara shares her personal formula for building a work/life blend (not balance!) in order to scale your business without burning out.The book also addresses the recurring issues women (and many men) face as entrepreneurs: the reality of losing more than we win, the need to take a stand against bad behaviour in business, and misconceptions around having to ‘compromise’ as a working parent.A major share of Tamara’s profits from the book are being donated to Buy1Give1. For every 200 books sold, a business loan will be provided to a female in a developing country. From a frustrated creative spirit in small-town rural Australia, to the leader of a global tribe of beauty influencers, Tamara’s passions and priorities have remained the same: “Doing the opposite”, disrupting old patterns to create positive change, and leading other passionate people to create a legacy that changes the world. 

Many business owners feel like they are providing the best customer service possible, however only 8% of consumers feel like they are getting the experience they want. Why is there such a delivery gap? In today's episode Jill Raff shares how businesses can begin to use customer experience to change the game. Today's episode is sponsored byPenji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.comMore about Jill RaffJill Raff, founder and the driving force behind The Jill Raff Group, is a highly experienced CX Strategist (Customer Experience) and published author. For over 25 years she has been delivering world-class customer service and experiences. Jill developed her customer-first philosophy growing up in the “McDonald’s family.” In 1959 her family opened store #150 in Ocala, Florida. From age seven, while shadowing her father and working her way around every station in the restaurant, she experienced first-hand the results of founder Ray Kroc’s philosophy of QSC & V (Quality, Service, Cleanliness & Value). Jill was raised with a robust understanding of a strong work ethic and knowing what good customer service can ultimately do for a business.Jill has made a name for herself by empowering businesses to create company cultures that deliver extraordinary customer experiences so that customers will become obsessed with doing business with them. This work has been led by the creation of her proprietary 7 Ingredient Customer Experience Transformation process.

Throughout Martin Dugard's life, running has been a consistent place he always returns. He's written for Outside, Sports Illustrated, and Runner's World about the world of running. He recently updated and rereleased his best selling book 'To Be A Runner'. Since his start as a writer, Martin has gone on to be a New York Times bestselling author writing books with Bill O'Reilly, James Patterson, and Mark Burnett. In today's episode we chat about his rereleased book, taking the risk to leave a corporate job to chase his dream of being a freelance writer, the process of writing, collaboration with others to write books, and his tips for those who want to take the risk and go 'all in' on chasing their dreams.TODAY'S EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY Penji - Use code 'JUMBLE' to get 15% off your first monthOpportunityInChina.comAbout MartinMr. Dugard is also the author of the critically lauded memoir To Be A Runner, a series of essays which takes the reader around the world as he recounts his personal journey through the world of distance running. It is a book about life itself, and how the simple act of stepping outside for a run is a metaphor for our daily desire to be the best possible version of ourselves, step by step.This attribute can be seen in the diversity and depth of Mr. Dugard's body of work. His writing and research into global exploration resulted in The Explorers (Simon and Schuster, 2013), an engaging narrative about the motivations for pursuing adventure — even at the risk of death.His ten years covering the Tour de France resulted in Chasing Lance (Little, Brown, 2005) a travelogue combining history, sports and gastronomy. Other works include the New York Times bestseller The Murder of King Tut (with James Patterson; Little, Brown, 2009); The Last Voyage of Columbus (Little, Brown, 2005), which tells the riveting tale of the legendary Admiral’s final, ill-fated journey in crisp, swashbuckling fashion; Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone (Doubleday, 2003), Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook (Pocket Books, 2001), Knockdown(Pocket Books, 1999), and Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth(McGraw-Hill, 1998). In addition, Dugard lived on the island of Pulau Tiga during the filming of Survivor's inaugural season to write the bestselling Survivor with mega-producer Mark Burnett.Mr. Dugard is the writer and producer of A Warrior's Heart, starring Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2011.An adventurer himself, Dugard regularly immerses himself in his research to understand characters and their motivations better. To better understand Columbus he traveled through Spain, the Caribbean and Central America. For Tut he explored pharaohs' tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. He followed Henry Morton Stanley’s path across Tanzania while researching Into Africa (managing to get thrown into an African prison in the process), and swam in the tiger shark-infested waters of Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay to recreate Captain James Cook’s death for Farther Than Any Man. And for To Be A Runner, he ran with the bulls in Pamplona, suffered electric shock and hypothermia as part of Britain's Tough Guy competition, and explored Japanese WWII bunkers on the island of Saipan.On the more personal side of adventure, Dugard competed in the Raid Gauloises endurance race three times, and flew around the world at twice the speed of sound aboard an Air France Concorde. The time of 31 hours and 28 minutes set a world record for global circumnavigation. Dugard’s magazine writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, among others. In 1997, Dugard was awarded the Dallas Area Press Club’s Katie Award for Best Magazine Sports Story.Mr. Dugard spends his afternoons as the Head Cross Country Coach at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, California — a position he has held since 2005. His boys and girls squads regularly qualify for the California State Championships, and his girls team won the state title in 2010, 2011 and 2012. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the USA Track & Field Foundation, charged with growing youth distance running in America. Martin Dugard and his wife live in Orange County, California. They have three sons.