Unconventional Life – Podcast, Blog, Live Events

Author: Jules Schroeder

  • How This Millennial Turned His Biggest Fear Into A Business

    How This Millennial Turned His Biggest Fear Into A Business

    Fear… It can be paralyzing. It may be what is keeping you stuck in that job or relationship that you hate.

    Neuroscience tells us that when the fear system of the brain is active, we are less likely to take risks, and more likely to cling onto what we already have. Moreover, fear requires massive energy—so much, in fact, that it impairs your ability to focus on other tasks at hand.

    With the ever-present threat of not having a job, suffering a hit in business, or the uncertainty of finding success on your own, the reality is that fear has got most of us locked in its grips.

    Can you imagine what might open up for you if, instead of spending all that time worrying, you decided to confront your fears head-on?

    One man did exactly that, and the result was astounding.

    Meet Brian D. Evans, the founder of Influencive, a content platform with over 1 million readers a month, though it was only created 8 months ago. Evans is also responsible for the 25th fastest-growing advertising and marketing agency in the U.S., BDE Ventures. He launched Influencive as a way to tackle his lifelong fear of sharing his voice as a writer, and now, he’s helping transform the day-to-day lives of millions of aspiring entrepreneurs.

    I caught up with Evans about confronting fear head-on in the latest episode of the Unconventional Life podcast, “How To Use Fear To Fuel Your Greatness.”

    Evans says the catalyst to dive into his fear was a near-death experience he had as a child. At the age of eight, he suffered a near-fatal bike accident that would forever change his perspective after he went head first over handlebars into the corner of a brick wall. It awakened him to the fleeting nature of life and the urgency to rise up and create something meaningful.

    Through that experience, Evans recognized the importance of overcoming what is standing in your way to serve a greater purpose. For Evans, this was the fear of being heard. “I was scared to death of writing,” he says. “If you had asked me three years ago if I would be writing on big sites one day, including my own, I would say absolutely not.”

    Though writing wasn’t his strong suit, Evans saw a need in the world for inspiring content that would motivate young entrepreneurs to achieve their goals. They were hungry for daily inspiration backed by concrete and applicable direction, and no platform on the market was offering this. Thus, Influencive was born.

    Day by day, Evans began testing his ideas by simply throwing new content out there. He started improving his grammar and technical writing and before he knew it he had a network of people—first 5, 10, 50, now 105—that wanted to write for the site. Soon after he started getting invited to write for Inc. magazine, Entrepreneur and many other leading media outlets.

    Today, Influencive has over one million readers per month, a hundred thousand plus Facebook followers and is quickly becoming the go-to platform for inspirational content for young and aspiring entrepreneurs. Evans currently serves as editor-in-chief and CEO alongside his partner and COO Clinton Senkow.

    Below, Evans shares how you can use your fear as fuel for success.

    Eliminate conditional statements from your vocabulary. The words you speak reflect your mindset and determine the outcome of your success. To be successful, you must align your beliefs, words, and actions with certainty. Evans says he views success as inevitable, and has removed phrases like “try,” “if it happens,” and “maybe” from his everyday vocabulary.

    Focus on one task at a time. “Ambitious entrepreneurs are like, ‘I want to do all these things, I want to conquer the world’… but you have to start somewhere,” Evans advises. “People have this idea of wanting to do all these things at once, but it’s too much. You really just need to have incredible laser focus on 1 or 2 things.” He recommends writing a list of 25 things you want to accomplish in your life, and narrowing down just five that you want to accomplish in the next two years. Commit to finishing these first five things before you move on to the rest of the list to ensure that you’re actually accomplishing what you intend to.

    Mobilize others to support your mission. Whatever it is you are creating, it’s much easier to achieve with the help of others. Enroll others in a collective vision that isn’t centered around a single person, but rather is dedicated to the whole. “You have to have a collective vision. It’s not about one person, it’s not about me, it’s the collective vision of the whole thing. If you can find people and bring them together into a bigger vision, I think that bigger collective is a stronger base to make things successful quickly,” says Evans.

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  • Why This Founder Is Starting A Movement To Empower Young Entrepreneurs

    Why This Founder Is Starting A Movement To Empower Young Entrepreneurs

    The era of the big brand is on the decline with big names like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Macy’s, and The Gap consistently losing revenue in recent years.

    That’s because a new wave of conscious consumers has been born, and they’re voting with their dollars in favor of products that contribute to a greater good.

    If you want to stay relevant in this day and age, you’ll need to adapt to consumers’ new preferences. Simply selling a product is no longer an option; instead, you’ll need to give people something to stand behind.

    “Rallying people around a cause they care about allows them to create personal meaning and connection to your brand, becoming loyal followers who are compelled to share your mission with others,” says Elizabeth Kanna, a brand impact strategist.

    One cofounder is doing just that with his brand movement Youngry, an online media and education platform that aims to empower young entrepreneurs to become successful in the 21st century.

    Meet Ash Kumra, a two-time White House award winner, speaker, author, and former talk show host. After launching a handful of businesses that lacked real substance and purpose, Kumra has reversed his approach to entrepreneurship to lead with the consumer first–and it’s rewarding him more than ever.

    I caught up with Kumra about his new approach to business on the latest episode of Unconventional Life, “Set Your Brand on Fire: How to Start a Powerful & Profitable Movement.”

    Kumra’s journey to entrepreneurship began when he spontaneously gave a speech to his entire college fraternity for the chance to speak at a nation-wide Greek conference–and won. While the other contenders spoke for minutes on end, Kumra kept it short and sweet, with the unforgettable words, “I eat, drink, and sleep greek life,” before dropping the mic and exiting stage.

    As the audience roared, Kumra realized he had a knack for communication and could effortlessly enroll others in his mission. “In that moment I realized gosh, I can communicate,” he says.

    Now, Kumra is using his gift of communication to enlist others in a force for public good, with his latest venture Youngry.

    What makes Youngry unique is its community-funded operations model. To date, Youngry has sourced tens of thousands of dollars from nearly one hundred investors–everyday, nonaccredited contributors like you and me.

    Kumra chose to fund Youngry this way to create a strong bond between brand and community. “It’s the best way to get connected to your core audience,” he explains. “We said let’s ask our community–the people who are gonna get help from Youngry, the early-stage entrepreneurs, those who want to contribute, the mentors, the partners, let’s ask them all to back us from day one. Let’s let them be a part of our journey so that as we rise they rise.”

    To Kumra, Youngry is less a company for individual profit than it is a movement that benefits thousands. It is a place for young entrepreneurs to come together and learn how to build businesses that serve the planet.

    “When you unite people on common ground with a shared objective, people will mobilize together and make the brand a success,” says Kumra. Below, Kumra shares how you can position your own brand as a movement.

    1. Consider using equity crowdfunding. This is effective for two reasons: you can attain funding without having to worry about finding an Angel investor, and you create a bridge between your brand and your target audience. Nothing says movement like a bootstrappy “by the people, for the people.” If you go with equity crowdfunding, you’ll need to file legal documentation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to document each of your investors. Kumra recommends hiring an advisor to ensure a smooth and simple process.

    2. Start your business for purpose, not trend. When you’re in an industry for the trend, it’s because you’ve noticed there is profit to be made and you’re looking to make a quick buck. When money isn’t flowing, you’re likely to leave. If this describes you, you’ll want to reconsider a different industry that you’re truly passionate about–in other words, the motivation for your work must be purpose. Any movement that is to stand the test of time cannot waver when profits suffer; it must be rooted in the mission it seeks to accomplish. “When you’re doing something you’re so passionate about and you feel others have that same passion or commonality, that’s your genesis for a movement,” Kumra says.

    3. Tell a story. It’s not enough to simply sell a product or service anymore–you’ll find yourself drowning in a sea of competition. Instead, elevate yourself from the rest by aligning with a story that connects to consumers’ pain and provides a solution. A movement brand that has done this exceptionally well is Flint and Tinder, who famously won $1M in a kickstarter campaign that offered sweatshirts with a lifetime warranty as a way to take a stand against mainstream clothing that falls apart in months. Whatever your brand offering may be, position it as the unique solution to end a struggle that has had your audience feeling fed up for too long. Do this effectively, and your movement is bound to catch fire with a momentum of its own.

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  • How To Bring A Traveler’s Mindset To Everything You Do

    How To Bring A Traveler’s Mindset To Everything You Do

    Millennials in the work force are traveling more than any generation before. Each year, they average five business trips, compared to just two for those aged 35 and up.

    By 2020, millennials are projected to account for 50% of all business travel and 20% of all leisure travel.

    Besides just being fun, the travel trend sweeping Gen Y may actually be making them more productive. Neuroscientists claim that traveling increases the neuroplasticity of the brain, supporting creativity and innovation.

    “Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms,” says Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia University.

    That’s why one young person is capitalizing on the benefits of travel to enhance the quality of her life and business year-round, and empowering others to do the same.

    Meet Ginger Kern, founder of The Traveler’s Mindset, a community hub helping thousands of travelers have transformational experiences abroad. She’s also a TEDx speaker, a leadership coach, and an avid traveler who tallied an impressive 25 countries by age 25.

    This week on the Unconventional Life podcast, Ginger shares how you can integrate the supercharged mindset of a traveler into your everyday life.

    Kern’s passion for travel stems from her love of adventure books as child. Growing up in quiet Milwaukee, WI, she recalls noticing a stark contrast between her life and the life of the stories’ characters. “I noticed all these characters would have these amazing adventures but I was just sitting there,” Kern jokes.

    The books invited Kern to a reality of adventure and possibility. In college, she chose to study French, German, and Italian to equip her for the ultimate adventures abroad.

    The cornerstone of Kern’s philosophy is that travel vacation and daily life don’t have to be separate realities. “We go on vacation and escape,” she says. “Mentally we put up this barrier–like we can be a certain way when we’re out there exploring and having adventures, doing new things, being curious. But when we come back home, we get stagnant, go into our routines, and totally get stuck.”

    The disconnect Kern observed between travel and everyday mindset sparked her inspiration for The Traveler’s Mindset, which serves as a bridge between the two. “The concept is openness, curiosity, and a sense of adventure no matter where you are in the world, even when you’re at home,” says Kern.

    When you practice the Traveler’s Mindset, you allow the benefits of travel to assimilate into your day-to-day life. Cognitive enhancements like higher creativity, better problem-solving, and increased depth of thought, become integrated seamlessly.

    If you’re having difficulty with finding the resources to travel, including time or financing, Kern’s site offers free advice to help make travel a reality for you, no matter what your situation. For example, if you’re locked into a location-dependent job, you might not have considered the possibility that you can actually ask your boss for an opportunity to travel or receive a raise. Focus on the value-add in creating a solution that would benefit you both–flexibility may be more available to you than you think.

    Below, Kern shares how you can capture the Traveler’s Mindset to approach your entire life with a greater sense of curiosity and zeal.

    1. Identify what inhibits you from feeling excitement and adventure. Notice what exactly in your life switches the off button of your excitement. “Maybe it’s how your boss treats you, or how you interact with your spouse or partner,” Kern says. “Do they always bring up that one thing that stops you from feeling alive?”

    2. Become 100% responsible for your response to it. Don’t blame the thing that you believe is taking away your excitement, because that will only leave your powerless. Instead, take accountability for your response to it. If you notice yourself feeling upset by the same thing across multiple situations, it is because the common denominator is you.

    3. Repair your relationship to it and allow your excitement to flow. The thing that is robbing you of your excitement can only continue to do so as long as you let it. Rather than try to change it, change yourself. How can you respond more openly to it, instead of closing to it? How can you find a way for your excitement to flow even when it is present? When you heal your relationship to what is bothering you in your life, you make it so nothing has the power to take away your joy.

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  • How This Millennial Thought Leader Is Using Facebook Live To Build Her Business

    How This Millennial Thought Leader Is Using Facebook Live To Build Her Business

    Over 22% of marketing emails never reach their subscribers’ inboxes. For marketers, these missing messages translate to devastating losses in potential revenue–totaling in the tens of millions annually.

    If you’ve ever crafted an email for a list of subscribers before, you know the amount of care that goes into writing each and every word. The fact that roughly a quarter of your messages are destined to be lost, denied, or in the spam folder is nothing short of an outrage.

    The good news is, it’s 2016, and you don’t have to continue using a marketing platform that’s leaking dollars out of your wallet. You can now use Facebook Live, the live-stream video tool that doubles as a sneaky marketing agent–generating 1200% more shares than images and text combined–and is rapidly replacing the prehistoric email opt-in.

    One millennial has developed an ingenious marketing strategy with Facebook Live that’s driving traffic and sales for her business. Meet Amanda Rivera, an influence and PR strategist for millennial entrepreneurs who is known for creating major press opportunities in under 5 minutes. Her Facebook group, Millennial Thought Leaders Mastermind, is a hub for exclusive, members-only content that has outsiders begging to be let in–and ultimately becoming buyers.

    Rivera reveals the details of her Facebook marketing machine on the latest episode of the Unconventional Life podcast.

    Rivera’s mission entails “bringing healing where there is suffering, hope where there is doubt, and courage where there is fear in the world.”

    The bulk of Rivera’s work occurs on Facebook, within her Millennial Mastermind group. She is constantly responding to comments, reviewing applications for new membership, and updating the page with enriching content–particularly via Facebook Live.

    “It’s like having a party at your house,” Rivera says. “You can’t just say here are the hors d’oeuvres, now fend for yourself. You have to be checking up on people making sure everyone’s ok. You really are the host of your Facebook group if you want to do it right.”

    When Rivera runs advertisements for her group, free live-streamed content is the focal point. Group members get access to frequent goodies like 1-hour talks led by prominent industry figures and thought leaders.

    Joining the group is like opting-in to free content, which tends to convert group members to paying customers at some point down the road.

    Part of what makes Facebook Live so effective is its format of active video engagement. Studies show video promotion is 600% more effective than print and direct mail combined, and that two out of every three people are more likely to watch a video than read text.

    Since launching her Facebook group, Rivera has attracted dozens of new and recurring clients for her business, as well as pioneered a successful marketing model for others to follow.

    Below, Rivera shares the key strategies behind using Facebook Live for business marketing.

    1. Let members know in advance when you’re going live. Rivera posts a weekly schedule of live speakers on the cover banner of her group. Doing this generates excitement and anticipation, as well as guarantees far more viewers per video. Design your schedule as a graphic with plenty of pictures, eye-popping text, and attractive headlines. Finally, consider offering free email notifications to let members know days, hours, and minutes before their favorite talks are going live.

    2. Curate your group to represent your target customer. Be selective and intentional about who joins your group. Consider requiring new members to apply for their spot; Rivera says she only accepts 1 of every 5 new members who apply. You’ll want the bulk of your members to represent your target market, so that they’re likely to be interested in what you post and will invest in paid content.

    3. Feature guest speakers who enhance the value of your group. Populating your group with enough quality content can be overwhelming if you’re trying to do it all on your own. Instead, reach out to figureheads and influencers in your industry to feature their content on your page and appear on Facebook Live. It’s a win-win for you both: they get free promotion, and your group becomes more valuable, increasing the appeal for new members to join and motivating existing members to stay active.

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  • 7 Steps Peak Performers Can Take To Achieve ‘Flow State’

    7 Steps Peak Performers Can Take To Achieve ‘Flow State’

    As millennials, we face a tremendous amount of pressure to perform daily.

    Just scroll through your social media feed and you will see article after article being shared of a millennial solving a world problem, accelerating his or her career, or launching a successful company.

    We live in an era where if you are not a successful artist, entrepreneur, or startup CEO by the time you’re 30 then it can feel like you are falling behind. According to one study, “67% of millennials said they felt “extreme” pressure to succeed, compared to 40% of Gen Xers and 23% of Boomers.”

    If you feel like time is running out and you still haven’t done enough yet, take a deep breath. Despite what you may have heard, success doesn’t actually have to be hard.

    Meet Justin Faerman and Jackie Knechtel, two millennials hacking the algorithm for peak performance through their program Flow Mastery, which guides you to shed limiting beliefs and approach life from a lens of infinite possibility. The secret ingredient they claim is called flow state, in which you experience “exponential growth and success effortlessly.”

    Faerman and Knechtel have been invited to speak about flow state internationally including many notable venues like the United Nations and the Women’s Economic Forum. This week on Unconventional Life, Faerman and Knechtel reveal how you can use flow to skyrocket your performance with only a fraction of the effort.

    According to Faerman and Knechtel, flow is achieved through an intensive process of clearing out limiting beliefs, fears, doubts, emotional wounds, and self-sabotaging patterns. It requires a willingness to let go of seeing life the way you have been taught, and to embrace the possibility that the restrictions you are living by do not actually exist but rather are a construct of the mind.

    “It’s these big massive mindset shifts–taking people out of fear-based thinking and out of these ideas that have been ingrained into us and learning to think through a different lens,” says Knechtel.

    Through their research of flow states, the two have developed a groundbreaking methodology to achieve sustained states of peak performance, without the hustle and grind commonly believed to be a requisite. “We’ve taken everything we know and created a system out of it. We’ve done a ton of research and mapped out what it means to live in flow–the different shifts you have to make, beliefs you have to have, ways you have to see the world. Once you do it, things start happening effortlessly,” Faerman says.

    Prior to working in flow, Knechtel ran a high-profile autism treatment practice where she was contracted to work all over the world, and even offered $10 million to open her own clinic. Faerman managed a multi-million dollar green tech division, and launched one of the world’s top conscious media platforms.

     Though they were already playing at a high level, they knew that more was possible, and were determined to uncover their full potential.

    Faerman and Knechtel’s hundreds of clients who have successfully made flow a part of their lives report powerful breakthroughs, including earning higher revenues, working less hours, and feeling aligned with their life purpose, all of which occur with minimal effort. Below, Knechtel and Faerman share seven steps you can take to master the flow state and experience peak performance in your own life.

    1. Shift your focus from mind to intuition. While your mind might doubt that something in your life is possible, your intuition isn’t limited by reason and can see past your immediate radar of possibilities. Cease identifying with your mind’s limited perspective and embrace the fact that possibilities exist that you can’t see.

    2. Prioritize your life based on what brings you joy. Spend most of your time doing what you love most. You may need to let go of the belief that if you do this, you will sacrifice your security. You can actually have both, if you choose to believe that joy and abundance go hand in hand.

    3. Be intentional with your language. “Language is generative and powerful. You speak things into existence that end up happening,” Knechtel says. Eliminate words like “I want” and “I hope” from your vocabulary, and be confident about your ability to produce the outcomes you want.

    4. Be able to recognize your Yes and your No. Be willing to walk away from things that aren’t fully aligned for you. If it’s not a resounding yes, don’t agree to it–this is an indicator that there is actually a better fit out there for you. Let go of the scarcity-mindset that an opportunity that isn’t fully aligned is the best you will get and you will create space for even better opportunities.

    5. Become aware of your limiting beliefs. Become aware of the dialogue going on in your head and challenge your thoughts. When you’re thinking something negative, ask yourself, “Why am I having this thought?” When you ask that question, you discover the limiting belief that sponsored that thought and are equipped with the awareness to begin to eradicate it.

    6. Take responsibility for everything in your life. Instead of attributing what is happening in your life to circumstances out of your control, take responsibility for it all. Be objective and accept where you are. When you take responsibility for everything, both good and bad, you restore power to yourself to create a different scenario that reflects what you truly want.

    7. Practice makes perfect. Clearing out your limiting beliefs takes time and persistence. “It might feel challenging because you’re shifting the way you see the world and working away beliefs you’ve held onto for so long,” Knechtel says. “Every time you see it working you learn to let go a little more.”

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