The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Innovation Discovery, Carlo Rivis. Innovation Discovery is a strategy think tank that works with two pillars. They help founders become the best versions of themselves through skills and attitude/mindset work, and they help to innovate technology roadmaps to bring new tech to the market. If you don’t innovate and future proof today, you won’t make it in the next few years, Carlo shares. Josh and Carol explore the fact that there’s a serious amount of misinformation in the tech space today. It’s harder now than ever to even research tech solutions, especially as an entrepreneur. Founders are having to sort through dozens of tech options and generally don’t end up happy with the results. This is why there is a need for a better vertical search engines that can accurately research these tools. Innovation Discovery offers a database of these tools and tech options to take the pain and trial and error out of finding tech suites for your company. Carlo and his team take the time to research exactly what their client is looking for, with the background understanding to get the most accurate and specific tools required for business growth. Instead of using keywords, Innovation Discovery encourages its clients to write out exactly what they need so that they can find the absolute best tech solutions and tools out there. Innovation Discovery’s tools work whether you’re a high-performance, advanced company with 1,000 or more employees, or if you’re a start-up looking to get a competitive edge through targeting excellent tech solutions. If you’re interested in Carlo’s work at Innovation Discovery, check out their website and sign up free to try out their search tool. It will take 24 hours for them to get back to you with results, but access to the user interface is granted instantly.According to their website, Innovation Discovery is a unique boutique with the aim to boost and diffuse the most advanced technologies and design new disruptive innovations. The company is composed of a team of consultants who develop strategies for international markets, manage teams in different countries, and develop opportunities for innovative ideas. Innovation Discovery wants to provide users with the opportunity to discover how innovations can be incorporated into users' daily lives. The company’s mission is to connect the world’s innovations to make them more diffused and successful. When users join Innovation Discovery, they gain access to innovations, technologies, innovative talents, dealers, installers, consultants, joint venture partners, testers, incredible skills, updates, and insights.Want to learn more? Check out Innovation Discovery’s website at https://innovation-discovery.com/. Check out Innovation Discovery at https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovationdiscovery/. Check out Carlo Rivis on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlorivis/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence: We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE. Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with Ericka James. Ericka James helps her clients get clear about what they were set out to do, and then she helps them build extraordinary things. She does this through her speaking and training business, The Convergence Center, through her women’s business network called The Alliance, and through hosting her show. Ericka began as a keynote speaker and in corporate work and training. She shares that while she loved being on stage and inspiring others, she also had a passion and skill for helping people access their greatness and manifest. Twenty-one years ago, Ericka realize she had a passion for professional coaching. She was a single mother and needed to figure out a way to bring the information online. She has built online courses and training options ever since. Now, she builds community and pours herself into her members and the groups she has built. Ericka explains that she starts where other coaches finish. First, she helps her clients figure out what’s in their head, heart, and their body. By the time people find Ericka, they usually already have a vision they’ve been working on. Their work focuses on scaling and bolstering these visions, especially in business. Ericka also shares that while running a mentor group two years ago, she had a private session with someone discovering their vision. She hadn’t worked in quite some time on her business and her savings account was empty. Ericka shares that in a year and a half, this client was making 7-figures. In a short time, she went from broke to successful because she lived up to her own vision and potential. According to her website, The Ericka James Show: Life on Purpose is not just another talk show. It’s a process. It is an experience designed to lead you right into living your destiny and fulfilling your life’s purpose. This is a show for those who know they were created for more. If you believe that there is something more in you to share with the world, this show is for you! Along with sharing her gift of prophecy, Ericka brings her depth of wisdom to bring solutions and guidance to help viewers understand why they were created and how to manifest their purpose. In addition to Ericka, the show’s guests share their biggest lessons, mistakes, insights, advice, secrets, and internal shifts they had to make along the way to create, sustain and grow their success. The best life is a life lived on purpose and this show will help the audience know they can do it.Check out The Ericka James Show: Life on Purpose at https://watch.erickajamesshow.com/apps/3851/158710. Want to learn more? Check out Ericka James’s website at https://erickajamesshow.com/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence: We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass. 

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CEO of Scale Architects, Scott Ritzheimer.Scale Architects helps entrepreneurial companies find the right coaches for where they are in their business growth. Beyond that, they train their coaches to understand how what stages they work best at. This means Scale Architects matchmakes their clients and coaches so that they have the best people providing the right help at the right time. Scale Architects have seven formal stages of business development that they follow. Stage one, naturally, is ‘early struggle.’ Every business, no matter how successful, started small and struggled in the beginning at times. As a business grows and overcomes these challenges, they move into the next stage: ‘ organic fun.’ Most entrepreneurs would agree that this stage of experimentation and scaling is exciting because it’s all about getting yourself out there. Delivering quality, again and again, leads into the next stage, ‘white water’ complexity. Suddenly, all the go-to levers you might have used in the past don’t work anymore. Now you have to strategize solutions that don’t affect your profitability. You can’t outsell your way through this complexity, Scott shares. You have to take a step back and look at how to actually address the issues behind that complexity; this comes with systems and processes. You can’t tackle a systemic problem from the front end. Mistakes and systemic failure happen where the decisions are made. It could be senior leadership or an executive team, but either way, your decision-making has to match your execution. The truth is, when you’re in this stage, even the most senior executive, needs the systems and processes just as much as anyone else (maybe even more.) But what do you do during the ‘white water’ stage? You have to reduce complexity and enjoy the ‘fun’ stage, or you can do the systemic work to scale and reach predictable success. Revenue goes up during this difficult stage, but systemic failure begins to occur chronically. You might lose valued clients or talent; there is no one event that triggers this stage, but many small failures of the system that build up as complexity grows. You have to bring others into the decision-making process during this stage. Scale Architects works with businesses at a team level to help get them through the white ‘white water’ stage of growth to help launch businesses into the final stage later on, ‘predictable success.’ Want to learn more? Check out Scale Architects’ website at https://www.scalearchitects.com/. Check out Scale Architects’ free book Predictable Success at https://www.scalearchitects.com/free-book/. Check out Scale Architects at https://www.linkedin.com/company/scalearchitects/. Check out Scott Ritzheimer on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-ritzheimer/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass. 

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the founder and General Partner of Mendoza Ventures, Senofer Mendoza.Mendoza Ventures is on a mission to help underrepresented founders ‘write the check.’ Mendoza Ventures is an artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and fintech venture capital firm. They’re based in Boston, MA but invest globally. Amazingly, 100% of their GP team are minority or female! Senofer shares that she and her partner were founders who scaled and exited from more than one successful venture. However, they also saw the cracks and faults within the venture capital space. Senofer shares that there seems to be a lack of transparency between the people writing the checks and the internal teams of the startups. Mendoza Ventures started because Senofer and her business partner wanted to build a firm around the act of supporting a small business. This required a new level of transparency at all levels of venture capital. By operating this way, they’ve created actional support for founders so that they always have the help they need, no matter the circumstances.Senofer shares that she loves her work and that she is passionate about dedicating her time to helping underrepresented entrepreneurs connect with investors who value transparency and effective communication. Mendoza Ventures seeks to be at the forefront of inclusivity in the venture capital space. Their company is designed to be inclusive and has been from the beginning. Statistics show that diverse teams often outperform, Senofer explains. Senofer and her team set out to raise 10 million dollars during their second round of funding, and they were oversubscribed by another 4 million dollars.  Much of this, she explains, is because they are at the forefront of diversity in venture capital. They are now being championed both on social media and by investors, who are happy to write the check.Josh and Senofer stress the importance of pursuing a diverse workplace within your company. The statistics don’t lie; it will hurt your performance if this isn’t part of your core principles as a business. Bias can feel like a risk, Senofer says. You have to intentionally create an environment where everyone on your team can be heard. If you can inspire a diverse group of people to pursue the same cause, you have a strong cultural foundation that will boost your business’s performance. You have to be committed to pushing your team to grow in the same direction with the same goals, no matter what walk of life they come from. Want to learn more? Check out Mendoza Ventures’ website at https://mendoza-ventures.com/. Check out Mendoza Ventures at https://www.linkedin.com/company/mendoza-ventures/. Check out Senofer Mendoza on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/senofermendoza/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the co-founder of eLearning Partners, Hector Simoudis. eLearning Partners is committed to helping companies create internal training programs and courses that their learners will love. They aren’t a tech platform, learning management system, content library, etc. eLearning Partners focuses on the professional and strategical development behind creating these courses. They also help their clients know what resources they have available and how to use them effectively.Josh and Hector explore the biggest mistake in eLearning. Hector stresses that it’s not just small businesses who experience this blunder, but even enterprise businesses can have this issue. This mistake is the misconception that it’s all about the technology and finding the right learning management system. While these aspects are important, they should not be the driving force behind the development of your eLearning. Avoid falling into this trap by making sure your learners are part of your decision-making process. What drives your eLearning development shouldn't be finding the perfect learning management system, but rather you should focus on your learners. They should be a part of your development process from step one. You absolutely must understand who your learners are, what they want, and what they need before you start developing a course or program. Hector explains that there are two types of eLearning. There is internal eLearning, which encompasses things like onboarding, training, and continued education. The other type is eLearning to generate revenue – you’re taking this to market to create a recurring revenue stream. It’s absolutely imperative that you give content to your learners for free when developing this type of course. Don’t ask your prospect to ‘marry you before dating you’ – your lead magnet should be your stellar content so that your prospects can get to know you. When you give them high-level content for free, you’ll see your purchase rate go up.eLearning Partners offers their free masterclass, "Create and Launch a Successful eLearning Program, Online Course, or Virtual Training" on their website by following this same principle of giving away high-value golden nuggets. This masterclass teaches you how to guarantee success in every course and program you create. You’ll also learn the three pillars of eLearning. People think that eLearning just requires steps – but it’s not steps, it’s pillars. You need to develop these pillars simultaneously, all while keeping the most important element in mind: your learner.Want to learn more? Check out eLearning Partners’ website at https://www.linkedin.com/company/elearning-partners/. Sign up to watch eLearning Partners’ masterclass "Create and Launch a Successful eLearning Program, Online Course, or Virtual Training" at https://www.e-learningpartners.com/masterclass. Check out eLearning Partners on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/madewithmerit/. Check out Hector Simoudis on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/hectorsimoudis/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass. 

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Merit, Adam Vasquez. The basics of the ‘market’ is community, Adam shares - Merit literally creates markets in order to solve problems for like-minded individuals. Merit facilitates market growth for their clients and also for themselves. They’re passionate about innovation and seek to create other market inventors who can change their industries as they know it. Merit is leading the charge in how the conscious economy affects sales and marketing. Marketing is outdated, plain and simple. If you’re not already the leader in a market, you’re very truly just emulating the market leader. If you’re not the market leader, your advertising will only serve to send business to the market leader. You need your own market. This starts with building community. Authenticity is critical now more than ever, and the transparency of the internet is shifting the marketing and advertising spaces. Merit doesn’t just consult with their clients, they eat their own dog food and create their own markets.But how do you demonstrate that you’re a market leader and innovator? Any aspect of your business can be negatively impacted by the market leader – many entrepreneurs get caught up in the fallacy that the market leader is the ‘standard’. Flip this misconception on its head; innovators don’t copy their processes or products from others. Innovators look at problems that others have already tried to solve and look at things from a different perspective. This is what sets them apart and turns innovators into market leaders. Market invention is about recognizing opportunities and collecting perspectives and insights from those who have created markets before. Market invention is more holistic and not only addresses opportunities but actually seeks to change the status quo on a wide scale (this is where innovation comes in!)According to their website, most marketing and advertising agencies rely on decades-old formulas where they swap out businesses and logos and collect fees. Merit believes in strategic marketing with purpose, where the goal and outcome is sector leadership. Can a company move from fifth place to first in market share within the average CMO tenure of 41 months? According to Merit, yes. Market Invention is their philosophy and practice. Adam and his team seek to understand the business of your business and then get to work growing your brand to create or own your market.Want to learn more? Check out Merit’s website at https://madewithmerit.com/. Check out Merit on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/madewithmerit/. Check out Adam Vasquez on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamvasquez/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass. 

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the President of Capitol Integration, Gene Moran. Gene helps companies achieve dramatic outcomes when selling to the federal government. Gene is also an author of several books, including Make Your Move. Gene shares that as a result of his experience as a Navy veteran, he felt unfulfilled after he left active duty. This is what drove Gene to get into entrepreneurship, which has given him great success.Gene shares that most contractors don’t understand the process of actually securing a contract with the federal government. Gene’s work focuses on funding, which comes long before a contract does. If you don’t understand the ins and outs of where your money is going and what policies will affect it, you absolutely should not seek out a contract.Josh and Gene also talk about the sales cycle of the federal government. The federal government operates in fiscal years with three budgets in motion at any given time. These budgets can be in development, review, or execution at any time, as well. Gene shares that if you get involved during the review or development stages, there is often a lot of room for influence and opportunity. According to his website, when you’re pitching your defense product or service solutions to the U.S. Federal Government, you have more success when you think as your customer does – you need a plan! The best results are achieved when your plan includes the entire federal process, not just the capture. Walking into an opportunity without understanding the budget environment and complexity of the terrain, you will likely be disappointed with your government sales. This is where Gene comes in.Gene and Josh explore how veterans are some of the perfect candidates for entrepreneurship and becoming a contractor for the federal government. It requires hard work and grit, which is something that veterans would be familiar with from their time in the military. These skills have serious value in the corporate and business world, but many of these people undervalue their skills. Don’t overlook your own unique strengths that you learned from your time serving. If you want to avoid wasted investment, lost time, and flat or declining federal sales, don’t spend another minute spinning your wheels. If you need help receiving funding from the federal government or need a policy change in order to sell your product or service, reach out to Gene and the Capitol Integration team here. Want to learn more? Check out Capitol Integration’s website at https://www.genemoran.com/. Check out all of Gene Moran’s books at https://www.genemoran.com/make-your-move/. Check out Capitol Integration on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/capitol-integration/Check out Gene Moran on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/genemoran/ .Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to Earl Flormata, who runs marketing operations at Mogul Productions. Earl shares that he was raised in computer science and has been programming since he was five years old. By the time he was 25, he had been programming for 20 years. At that point, he realized he wanted a career change, so he turned his attention toward marketing and sales and never looked back. He's been marketing for 20 years since and couldn’t be happier!Mogul Productions is a community based around the entertainment industry. They help artists, music creators, entertainers, and movies find funding and audiences for their work. They help these artists convert their work to the NFT/crypto space so it can eventually be put to market. Earl explains that much of the media and content Mogul Productions helps to put to market is very unique and highly creative because it breaks from the mold of mainstream media. This allows their users to let their creativity shine through and stand out, rather than conform for the sake of funding. An NFT is a non-fungible token. An NFT is proof that you own an irreplaceable item of some sort. For example, you can own an NFT that represents ownership of a famous dress or pop culture item. Those who buy NFTs want to be part of something bigger than themselves and wish to support the artists they want to purchase the tokens from, Earl explains. Anyone can make an NFT in theory, but you have to own the license in question in order to sell the NFT. These tokens have to be acquired from a reliable source with access to these licenses, Earl says. The structure behind this crypto phenomenon is decentralization. If all of this lived in one database, it would be highly susceptible to cyber-attacks. This decentralization comes in the place of the blockchain across millions of computers, which is also what maintains the valuation of the NFTs. Mogul Productions sell NFTs that equate to production rights and ownership in films as one of their services, which also in turn helps to fund the production of the film directly. If you’re an artist looking to launch your film, album, piece of art, or other creative venture, reach out to the team at Mogul Productions to see if the NFT space is the funding solution for you. Want to learn more? Check out Mogul Productions’ website at https://www.mogulproductions.com/. Check out Mogul Productions on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/mogul-productions-incorporated/. Check out Earl Flormata on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/earlflormata/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with Talking With Teri’s Teri Karjala.Teri shares that she was a therapist for 25 years before she combined her therapy background with energy psychology and applied principles of quantum physics. Teri’s work combines understanding the business, transformational, and spiritual aspects of entrepreneurship. Often, we get in our own way when it comes to getting our business to the next level. Teri shares the top five negative blocks she sees when it comes to being our own greatest obstacles. These blocks are self-limiting beliefs, self-sabotage, fear overwhelm, burnout, and imposter syndrome. Teri explains that one of her clients brings in 78 billion dollars annually – but has terrible self-esteem. Working with Teri has helped her bring up her own view of herself – and has helped her get out of her own way. Teri explains that many business owners and thought leaders have trauma from the industries they work in. This is what leads to issues with self-esteem or any of the five blocks, especially in high achievers. Teri shares that she’s interviewed entrepreneurs from all walks of life, and they all experience these types of blocks. If we don’t address these blocks, it will get to a point where you can’t grow anymore. As Teri says, ‘a new level creates a new devil’. How we address these blocks not only directly impacts your quality of life, but also your business. Stop to consider what your business would look like if you didn’t stop yourself out of fear. How many more discovery calls might you have booked or connections might you have made? When you lead with generosity and love, you don’t need to be afraid of asks. You might still have fear as you work on your blocks, but Teri reminds us that fear is a warning sign. Accept that fear and appreciate that you have a comfort zone that you’re taking steps out of, but take those steps anyway. We weren’t put here to stay the same, Teri says, so ground yourself with growth and evolution. Teri invites our audience to ask themselves ‘what’s right about this that I’m not getting?’ Your brain will naturally seek out the answer - this will teach you slowly how to gather important, positive insights from a negative situation. She also invites our audience to remember that your brain will find what it seeks; when you perceive something is negative, ask yourself ‘how much better can this get?’ This opens your mind and energy to more possibilities through this perspective of gratitude. Want to learn more? Check out Talking With Teri’s website at https://talkingwithteri.com/. If you would be interested in listening to Teri on her podcast, check it out at https://talkingwithteri.com/podcast/. Check out Teri Karjala on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/terikarjala/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence: Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the CEO of Video Supply, Dallin Nead.Video Supply is an on-demand video production services marketplace. Users can sign up on their website for free and shop for the specific video production services they need, whether it's a one-time request or a regular custom project. Video Supply helps brands all around the world create professional, high-level content to effectively promote any product or purpose. Dalin shares that the first thing you need when trying to create video content is a plan. Without a plan, you're setting yourself up to fail when it comes to getting eyes on your content. Dallin also explains that there needs to be true intention and purpose behind your video content, especially if you want any of it to go viral. You need to be able to use video to tell your audience your message, no matter where they are in the customer journey. Video Supply plans, produces and promotes video content for their clients. Video Supply offers a paid video strategy consultation where they meet with their clients and their teams to guide them on how to get the biggest ROI for their video content creation. Video Supply can also write video scripts, and produce videos using their trained professional videographers. Dallin shares that your content should reflect what your brand is trying to do, whether that's creating a video marketing campaign or training videos for your team. No matter what type of video you need to generate for your business, Video Supply offers hands-on, high-level services that can meet those needs. It’s all about meeting people where they are, Dallin explains. Pricing is very transparent on their website so you’re never wondering how much you’ll need to spend on video work. Their marketplace offers a unique customer experience that makes shopping for video content services easier and more seamless than ever. Systematizing your video content is extremely important. You need to use the power of SEO and consistency in order to maximize the ROI of your videos. Driving traffic especially from YouTube to your website is vital if you want the most bang for your buck. You also need to leverage your content by getting it in front of the right people. Josh and Dallin agree that you have to consider what matters more to you – views aren’t worth much if they don’t include your target audience. Remember, views are ultimately a vanity metric, and who is seeing your video matters more than how many people saw it. Want to learn more? Check out Video Supply’s website at https://www.videosupply.com/. Check out Video Supply on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/videosupplyhq/. Check out Dallin Nead on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dallinnead/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.