Successful Dropouts Kylon and Te talk about their end of year habits and share ideas for dominating 2019.
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Is it better to specialize in one thing, or to be pretty good at a lot of things? What are the pros and cons?
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This week Kylon and Te jump on the mic to share what's been happening in their life, and also share a big announcement about the future of SD!
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This week Kylon jumps on the mic to share what's been happening in his life and businesses recently and where things are going in the future.
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I figured I owed the Successful Dropout community an explanation on we haven't published a new episode in weeks. :)
-Kylon
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Pleased to share yet another Gienger Family Roundtable Discussion. This time on the topic of accountability.
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Damien Foord is on Successful Dropout for the 3rd time to demystify the process of building a great brand.
A brand is more than just your logo and your business card. It’s much more than your reputation or what people think about you or how you make them feel. A brand is how you make an effort beyond yourself—a company or project or just a professional persona—relatable on a human level.
For people that went to university, they largely live off of their uni’s brand until they have enough experience and expertise of their own. For dropouts, we don’t have that luxury. That’s why creating a deeply resonating and emotionally connected brand is one of the most important things a dropout can do.
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Jeff leads Your Project X, a social venture dedicated to helping people (re)discover their purpose to build careers they’ll love. He has more than 19 years experience as an entrepreneur, consultant, professor and change-maker. He is the founder of five social ventures, including IBM’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consulting practice. In 2011, he developed the curriculum for the first MBA in Sustainability on the East Coast, at Bard College, where he was the Leadership professor. He was also two-time Chairman of the Carnegie New Leaders at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
This week Jeff and I discuss actionable strategies for shifting your perspective and thinking in order to realize opportunities that may be right in front of us. As much as we’d like to think we are open minded to new opportunities and changing the trajectory of our careers, we are almost always searching for new solutions from the same mindset that gets us stuck in the first place. How do you change this? Jeff and I outline and discuss six new methods that you can put into practice today:
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Cheyenne is a writer and futurist with a fierce love for leveraging digital communication. She’s mostly ghostwriting, copywriting, and content writing about life, innovation, technology, and human-centered design. When she’s not writing or learning something new, Cheyenne travels and spends time with her little boy. She currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina.
This isn't Cheyenne's first time on Successful Dropout and her episodes just keep getting better! This week we talk about how to succeed and live your best life in the face of suffering, especially past trauma in your life. No one is immune from suffering, but you can't play the victim. Suffering if one of life's greatest teachers, and it's your responsibility to learn and grow from those negative experiences. Let them temper you. The simple truth is that character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
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This week I'm incredibly excited to bring you an episode from Systems for Success. SFS is a podcast led by my dad, Lonnie Gienger, and once a month our entire family gets together for a "family roundtable discussion" episode and we teach on specific topics as a group. This week we discuss financial management and how to control money so it doesn't control you.
It's also exciting for me to have the SD community meet my entire family all in this one episode. They are all entrepreneurs, podcasters, teachers, influencers etc...just generally high achievers. We like so say "you may be born into the Gienger family, but you still have to become one". :)
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This week we were able to get Stephen Warley from Life Skills That Matter back on the show! Stephen has dedicated his time and energy to training people how to approach and navigate the future of work and new realities when building their careers.
In this episode we discuss one of the most important skills which could be considered the basis of all self development, is self awareness.
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To kick of this new season of Successful Dropout I was able to get our longtime business partners and best friends on the show (missing my sister Chelann though!) to talk about the pros and cons of partnership. We've been partners with Landon and Kennedy Wilkinson for over five years now, and friends for even longer. Together we have grown multiple six figure businesses and we don't plan on stopping anytime soon.
Throughout our partnership and friendship we've have many ups and downs and we've learned a lot. In this episode we break down the last five years of business partnership experience into some key actionable steps that you can take to decide if getting a business partner is right for you, and if so, how to do it in the best way possible!
Here are some of the things we talk about:
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Episode 100 marks the end of a season, and the beginning of a new one. Kylon talks about the history of Successful Dropout, and his vision for the future of this community.
He also shares about his experience with Ayahuasca in the mountains of Costa Rica.
This episode is about change, and new beginnings.
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It was a pleasure to sit down with Zachary Babcock on his new show, Underdog Empowerment and talk about my entrepreneurial journey, the school system, and the Successful Dropout community.
If you are having second thoughts about school, this is for you!
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Rob had everything lined to succeed in college...a healthy scholarship, a spot on the baseball team and more. But he decided to opt-out on the last possible day and take life into his own hands. At the time all he had going for him was 5k in inventory which quickly turned into 250k sales in 13 months through selling on Amazon.
This episode is special because Rob used to be a listener of Successful Dropout, and he's now worked his way up to becoming a guest! It's so amazing to be apart of a community and movement that is inspiring people to step off the conveyor belt and build the best version of their lives. Rob and I talk about his journey, and then go deep into the process of Amazon FBA. If you want a great platform to start building your first business on, Amazon FBA might be for you!
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Sivana is an ambitious and outspoken 20-year-old who believes the reason most young people aren’t achieving what they want is that they are unclear on who they want to become, undisciplined, and have a lack of support in education outside of the current system. From an early age, she has had her hand in different endeavors, including a successful fashion resale business, to a failed PR business. As a college dropout, Sivana has traveled from a suitcase for 14 months forging relationships and working with Forbes CEO’s, NYT bestselling authors, and online influencers. She is now on a mission to leave an impact through new forms of education, digital marketing, and influence. Sivana is passionate about speaking to high school students, reading way too many books (if that’s even a thing), and watching reruns of Survivor.
Sivana is very much a kindred spirit and the epitome of a Successful Dropout with her approach to life and work. From her struggle to know herself, to her commitment to get 1% better everyday and her "RAD" system of reflect, align, do...Sivana has thrown herself into the self-directed life. We haven't heard the last of her!
Some of the things we talk about
Reflect - Take the time to get to know yourself, what you want to do, be and have.
Align - Place yourself in the right situations with the right people that are headed where you want to go.
Do - Take massive action! Take the first step!
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Jeremiah is the Cofounder and CEO of SimpleTiger, a boutique digital marketing agency specializing in SEO for entrepreneurs. The SEO industry is plagued by smoke and mirrors, blackhat techniques, and a lack of transparency, and Jeremiah wants to change that for good. For 11 years, Jeremiah has helped companies like Segment.com, Shopify, NBC, MTV, E*Trade, LG, and Sports Illustrated see significant gains in their search results, organic traffic, and revenue.
Jeremiah's story is a fascinating journey that illustrates the importance of introspection and understanding yourself to the fullest. If you have self-knowledge, a world of opportunity opens up for you that would not be available without it. Truly, it's hard to overstate the importance of this.
Some of the things we talk about
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
This week I decided to sit down with my wife and sister and answer some questions from the SD community.
Between the three of us we all run six figure businesses, manage employees and staff, run podcasts and communities, two of us dropped out of school, we've been broke, had business partners, worked with spouses, siblings and friends building businesses, we've failed, we've succeeded, we've switched, pivoted, or quit things...you name it.
We got a great response and you guys asked some fantastic questions that we do our best to answer here.
We don't have it all figured out, but we can speak from a lot of experience and the fact that we are STILL in the process of figuring it out.
Here are some of the things we talk about:
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Brodie is a public speaker and serial entrepreneur. Brodie currently owns and operates a number of businesses including a commercial real estate brokerage, a telecom marketing agency, and a high-risk payment processing company.
Brodie currently travels the country with his wife hannah speaking and attending a number of events on the topics of addiction, personal development, fear, motivation, and entrepreneurship. Brodie uses his past experiences with his battle against drugs and alcohol to inspire and empower others to overcome their afflictions.
Some of the things we talked about:
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Caspar believes in challenging conventional thinking on how leaders and teams become truly effective and create extraordinary results. Caspar has 30 years’ experience in building teams to make things happen. Starting as an entrepreneur at the age of 14, he has built and led teams in global corporations, start-up businesses, struggling businesses and high growth businesses. He built a team on a trophy-winning world racing yacht. But his toughest challenge by far was building his family team to sail around the world: with his wife and three children aged 9, 7 and 2. Along the way he has built multiple successful ventures from scratch and sold one for a 7 figure sum whilst sailing the Pacific Ocean.
This was one of the most fascinating interviews I think I've ever done. Caspar literally blew my mind and compelled me to set new standards for myself, my family, and my businesses. This guy took his family on a two year long sailing trip and at the same time built three successful 7 figure businesses and sold one of them. I don't care who you are or where you are in life right now, this episode will have something for you...not to mention it will be very entertaining.
Some of the things we talked about:
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremelyhelpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Greg and Jeff are doing some amazing things to create social change in developing countries through the power of entrepreneurship. It was amazing to have them on the show and hear about their upcoming program, Career X and how YOU as a member of Successful Dropout can get involved.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, looking for an adventure, and want to challenge yourself...how better to do it than going to Guatemala to build a business??
The adventure is 2.5 weeks long and you'll experience all the steps of launching a business: design thinking and prototyping, marketing, content creation, supply chain strategy, customer experience and more. You'll also be working with Jeff and Greg who have been building impactful businesses for over 15 years!
The first Guatemala program runs May 24 - June 10 so hurry and check it out here! This is your chance to gain unforgettable and invaluable entrepreneurial experience + have a crazy adventure you'll always remember.
Greg Van Kirk is an Ashoka Lemelson Fellow, Ashoka Globalizer and was recently recognized as Schwab Foundation "Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012 (Latin America)" at the World Economic Forum. He is the co-founder of Career X and The New Development Solutions Group. This includes Community Empowerment Solutions, Social Entrepreneur Corps and Ultimiya Social Innovation Consulting. Greg's signature social innovation was the creation of the award winning MicroConsignment Model. He has served as a consultant for organizations such as Levi Strauss Foundation, USAID, Chemonics, VisionSpring, Soros Foundation, Church World Service, Inter American Development Bank, Water For People, Solutions Journalism Network and Fundacion Paraguaya in the US, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa. Greg began working in rural small business development as a Guatemala Peace Corps volunteer in 2001. Prior to the Peace Corps, Greg worked in investment banking in San Francisco and New York for five years. Two deals he led at UBS during this time won "Deal of the Year" honors from Structured Finance International magazine. Greg is a graduate of Miami University where he recently received the"Bishop Medal" . Greg lives with his family in New York City.
Jeff leads Your Project X, a social venture dedicated to helping people (re)discover their purpose to build careers they’ll love. He has more than 18 years experience as an entrepreneur, consultant, professor and changemaker. He is the founder of five social ventures, including IBM’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consulting practice. In 2011, he developed the curriculum for the first MBA in Sustainability on the East Coast, at Bard College, where he was the Leadership professor. He was also two-time Chairman of the Carnegie New Leaders at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.
Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremelyhelpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Andrew Schneck is a 26-year old college opt-out and obtained a college degree with the least possible amount of personal time spent in the classroom. He is an entrepreneur in the healthcare industry , building clinics that target addiction and mental health disorders. Prior to entrepreneurship he taught himself long-term investing in the stock market and has enjoyed national investing competitions, shareholder meetings, and selling research to investment firms. He mentors entrepreneurs and finance professionals as they seek out nontraditional careers. His goal is to fix healthcare and elevate those around him.
Andrew has played a very integral role in the Successful Dropout community since the early days. He's the epitome of a Successful Dropout and someone who has overcome some massive obstacles in his journey to build the best version of his life. I loved having him on the show again and I would highly suggest you reach out and get to know the guy!
Here are some of the things we talk about:
91: Working with business partners, the importance of failure and knowing yourself with Andrew Schneck
Working with business partners and how you can get to know yourself through failure
Business partners, failure & knowing yourself with Andrew S
How to work with business partners and get to know yourself through failure with Andrew Scheck
Working with business partners & the role failure plays in understanding who you are with Andrew Schneck
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
For this week's episode I wanted to share an interviewed I did on Stephen Warley's Life Skills That Matter podcast.
This was part of an "interview swap" that Stephen and I did, and you can find his interview on Successful Dropout here.
Stephen is an absolute boss and is doing some incredible things to push this new paradigm of work we are entering into as a society. I had a blast on his show and we discussed a lot of things including:
Some inspirational quotes to remember:
“My goals are all, they’re all set with the primary focus being, like, how do I want to spend my time and who do I want to spend my time with and the money, I believe, sort of comes as a result of that.”
“You stick to doing what you love and building what you love, as long as it’s working, you know, I think it’ll pay off.”
“I’ve never wanted to do something just because I’m supposed to do it.”
Some coaching advice:
I recommended these actions to start breaking out of your comfort zone to try new and different things:
1) Don’t get hung up on finding the one right thing, pick one and just get started.
2) Switch, pivot, or quit if the first thing you do doesn’t work or you need to do other things as well.
3) Action begets more action, so don’t wait for the inspiration to strike to get started.
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to a church door in Wittenberg to protest the sale of indulgences. These were pieces of paper the establishment church sold at great cost, telling people it would save their souls. The church made a fortune doing it. Likewise, universities today are selling a piece of paper at great cost and telling people that buying it is the only way they can save their souls. Universities call it a diploma, and they’re making a fortune doing it. Call them heretical if you like, but the 1517 Fund is dedicated to dispelling that paper illusion. Extraordinary careers are possible outside tracked institutions!
Danielle Strachman (General Partner, 1517 Fund) - In 2010, during the founding of the Thiel Fellowship, Danielle joined to lead the design and operations. She is the visionary behind the Thiel Summit series that has been attended by some 2000 young entrepreneurs. Previous to her work with Peter Thiel, Danielle founded and directed Innovations Academy in San Diego, a K-8 charter school serving 350 students, with a focus on student- led project based learning and other alternative programs.
Michael Gibson (General Partner, 1517 Fund) - Michael was vice president for grants at the Thiel Foundation and a principal at Thiel Capital. For nearly five years working for Peter Thiel, he has contributed research to Peter’s global macro hedge fund, assisted in teaching a course at Stanford Law School on sovereignty and technological change, and helped run the Thiel Fellowship. He serves on the board of the Seasteading Institute. Before his academic apostasy, he was working towards a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Oxford. He has written on innovation and technology for MIT’s Technology Review, the Atlantic, and Forbes.
I had an absolute blast chatting with Danielle and Michael. These two are doing some amazing things for the future of education and work. They've made 45 investments into companies started by young founders and already those companies are seeing some amazing results. This is definitely worth a listen!
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
In this episode, Kylon and Teliah talk about their seven years of marriage and what it's been like building businesses and working together as husband and wife.
Some of the things they talk about:
Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.
Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.