Build Your Utopia

We have a great show for you today about riding the Gravy Train to Utopia Town! You will understand what we are getting at by the end of these show notes. To start off the show, Ben and Josh discuss their current Utopias. Ben just got a promotion to a senior level at his company! Yay Ben! He anticipates his coworkers won't be too thrilled since some have been there much longer than him but that just shows that hard work and exceeding expectations pays off. His promotion will be officially announced next week at his company's "Town Hall" meeting. With this, he received a pay grade that gets him one step closer to his overall Utopia. Ben's wife went back to school so that means that Ben now has more freedom! Just kidding.. Ben loves his wife very much. Josh has had a very busy life lately. Between providing impactful service to companies and becoming a charter member of the Digital Marketer Certified Partner program, Josh feels very fortunate he is being bombarded with a wealth of opportunities. His Utopia curr

Today on Build Your Utopia, we have another high-achieving guest, Joe Fairless. Joe, is fearless just as much as he is Fairless, is a graduate of Texas Tech and is actually from Texas as well. However, he lives in NYC, where he moved so he can be around the best in his craft and develop himself to be the best he can be. Joe focuses on personal growth and contribution to the world as his purpose. Currently he is able to pour his heart and efforts into helping kids with entrepreneurship and personal development. In addition, he also donates a large chunk of what he makes to philanthropic causes! He is able to do this because his Real Estate company has given him enough freedom in his life to be able to have time to make his mark on the world. Utopian Quotes of the Show “The secret to living is giving” –Joe Fairless on Build Your Utopia  "The scariest place to be in life is complacent" –Joe Fairless on Build Your Utopia  "You’ll be as happy as you decide to be" -Abe Lincoln Tony Robbins’ book Awakening the Giant

In today's show of Build Your Utopia, we do as we usually do every Friday and review this past week's excellent content from our honored guests. This past week, we had Graham English. Graham was dropping Value Bombs left and right throughout the episode. If you haven't listened to it, you need to by going here. To start the episode we dove into the last 3 reviews that we've received for Build Your Utopia on iTunes. (If you haven't left us a review, please go here to do so) Special thanks to RiaWindcaller, The Entrepreneurs Library, and Mother Jen on iTunes for the fantastic 5-star reviews! Thank you! We then transitioned to speak about how Josh closed out 2014 with his business ICE Accelerate Marketing Automation Services. Josh had the best month of business ever in December 2014 and was able to bring in 12 brand new clients within the last few days of the year. Josh also shared on Build Your Utopia how he went on two back-to-back trips. The first trip was mostly a vacation where Josh was fulfilling his work-

Today we were fortunate enough to have Graham English. Graham has been a musician since the age of 14 and has performed with Fear The Monk, Field Trip and many others. He is also the author the Logic Pro X For Dummies, business and marketing consultant, and entrepreneur. He helps music producers and songwriters become more creative and productive at what they do so they can produce higher quality content FASTER. Tip from Graham: If you have an interest in writing a book, put accountability measures in place using a simple spreadsheet and reward yourself for little wins along the way. When we asked Graham about his Utopia, he gave us a very deep response that included statements like... Don’t ignore your dreams Don’t work too much Speak your truth Don’t think that working hard is a badge of honor Friendships Be happy Graham's Utopia is simple but also always evolving. He is also working towards a Utopia of working less, building a team, the latter being his next big step. Just like most entrepreneurs, Graham

In today's episode about Sales Lessons... kidding... Actually, we have a great episode for you today. Just like what we do every Friday, today we talked about this past week's impactful episode with Jamaica Winship. (If you haven't listened to it, go do it now) Jamaica was kind enough to record a 2nd time with us after the first time had too many errors in the recording, potentially due to Skype. Jamaica dropped a wealth of value bombs in Tuesday's show. Speaking of value bombs, Ben loves the term, along with avatar and ABCs - Always Be Conquering. Actually, that's a lie.. he cringes every single time those terms are used. Going back to Jamaica, to us, what made her such a remarkable guest was the fact that she truly embodied her business's purpose. Plus, she does research, tests, and more to make sure that the products that she sells are products that are aligned with her companies purpose. In fact, she shared with us that she recently found out something about one of her products that led her to feel that i

Today's exciting guest on Build Your Utopia is none other than Jamaica Winship of The Healthy Corner Store. Jamaica is an MBA graduate from USC, lives in San Diego, and found out as a young girl that she was an entrepreneur. She dove into entrepreneurship as a kid selling custom printed cards. Like many of you, she went to college right after high school and then immediately worked in a corporate position. During this time, she realized that all she was doing was making her bosses rich by working for someone else so she quit. Before starting her successful online store, she went into real estate, then into several random online businesses, then she finally arrived at her current Utopia, starting up The Healthy Corner Store while also pursuing her MBA. Jamaica's passion for providing a purpose-driven store, has led her to curating the best of the best products on her store. She ONLY stocks products that she truly believes in, has researched, potentially tried, and will even cut products if she finds that they

This is our first official show of 2015! We did have a bonus show yesterday... Check it out here if you haven't. This week we published a great episode with Jason Surfrapp, an entrepreneur, speaker, a just all-around awesome dude. What's great about him is how zany his ideas seem but really they are innovative and "out of the box", all credit to Jason and his uncanny ability to identify unique ideas. Creating unique ideas is just one thing. We can all do that. What makes him such an awesome guy is how he is able to come up with such unique ideas and take them into action. I Wear Your Shirt was a success only because of Jason, not just because of the idea behind it. His hard work, determination, and effort drove the business to a wild success. If you haven't heard this past Tuesday's show, you must! Learn more about his business selling “talking, walking billboards”. Here were some of the topics that we discussed in today's episode inspired by this week's guest: 1. No one retires from a job that they love Ther

During today's BONUS episode, we discussed how to go into 2015 with strong goals and our recommendations for revisiting your goals throughout 2015 so you conquer your resolutions and achieve more goals in a year then you have ever had! ABC "Always be conquering!" Utopians, Ben committed to something very important in 2015. Ben committing to quitting smoking. This is going to be challenging for Ben since he's been smoking since 16. Let's all hold him accountable and keep sending positive reinforcement his way, sound good? Josh had some tips in this episode for Ben to help him conquer his goal of quitting smoking, mostly revolving around fitness. These are some great tips from Josh that you may find valuable as well. Happy 2015 Utopians! Go out there and have an ABC mentality of "Always be Conquering!" Happy New Years! As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

Jason Surfrapp is an incredible guest that we were very fortunate to have on Build Your Utopia. He was able to build a name for himself as an entrepreneur by being sponsored to wearing branded t-shirts. His motivation for being a successful entrepreneur is to have control and freedom. Who wouldn’t want that for his or her life? Eh? Like many of you reading this, Jason didn’t start with entrepreneur dreams and didn’t even consider being an entrepreneur feasible for a very long time. He followed the common path of going to college, finishing his degree, and getting a corporate job. After joining “corporate America”, he learned fairly quickly that grinding out every day was not for him. He collaborated with a colleague and started up a design company, which allowed him to leave “corporate America”. This business also quickly grossed up to $250K in revenue. Shortly after attaining immediate entrepreneurial success, Jason had a thought. With the popularity of social media, he saw an opportunity to create a new typ

Today is boxing day! That means go out and find someone to box with some padded gloves on, seriously. Ok, not seriously. Boxing day is actually when servants and tradespeople would receive gifts. On today's episode we reflect on this past week. We were honored to have Honoree Corder on the show.  You can listen to her episode here. This week, Josh was also a featured guest on the podcast StartupDadHQ, which you can check out here. In this episode, he tells the complete story for the 1st time ever of how he started up his business in early 2013. Josh then grills Ben about if any of his childhood experiences led to him starting up Build Your Utopia. Honoree Corder had a lot of influences growing up that led her into entrepreneurship. This isn't always the case. Upon review, there really isn't a common "type of person" that goes into entrepreneurship. It doesn't take parents that were entrepreneurs, money, or some of the common beliefs out there in society. In fact, these are all misconceptions. In today's show,

We have a special, BONUS episode for you today on Build Your Utopia. Today, Josh and Ben share with you what they are thankful for in celebration of Christmas. To Josh and Ben, Christmas is the time to show gratitude. This has also been a common theme on the show amongst all our guest up to this point. We also want to give thanks to all of our guests that we have been honored enough to have on the show: John Allen Mollenhauer Matt Maszczak Brandon Epstein Darieth Chisolm Michelle Corr Dominick Sirianni Jenny Olding Honoree Corder In pursuing your Utopia, it's very important to have the work-life balance necessary to give your pursuits your best. With that said, enjoy your Christmas and we wish you a Merry Christmas from us to you. As always, a special thank you to The Strand for our intro and outro music!

  Today's show was awesome with Honoree Corder who has a long list of accomplishments. She grew up with high-achieving parents whom both had advanced degrees and also had entrepreneurial activities that they participated in. Seeing this growing up, she immediately knew that that was what she was intended to do for her life's purpose. However, she didn't start this way. She started like many of you working for "the man". After several years of grinding away and seeing how others profited from her efforts, she decided to finally embrace her inner purpose. Years later, she now has several books published, a thriving business, and the balanced life that she has worked hard to achieve. When she isn't working, she is spending time with her family, reading books, and learning foreign languages. Building her business and engaging in all the of activities that she loves encompasses her current Utopia. Here are some books that she highly recommends: Tony Robbins' Money Master the Gate: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Free

Hello Utopians! We have a great show for you today! This past week we spoke with Jenny Olding of Rock Your Lifestyle. She has absolutely accomplished her current Utopia in 2014 with publishing a book, launching her business, and making an impact on the world. In today's episode we discuss all the value bombs that Jenny dropped on Tuesday. Early in the show Josh talks about the value of direct response marketing tactics in the online marketing space and the benefits of injecting your own personality into your businesses branding, if you are a business owner. Ben and Josh also dive into the fears of the risks that pursuing goals feel like, comparing pursuing corporate goals vs. entrepreneurship. No matter what direction you are going in trying to accomplish your professional Utopia, milestones and goals are necessary. Your plan doesn't have to be perfect, just functional. If anything, you should learn from our mistakes of over planning. (which you can hear more about in this episode). During this episode, Josh

Jenny Olding is our guest in this episode of Build Your Utopia. She's truly an inspiration! Jenny is an author, entrepreneur, coach, speaker, and runs Lifestyle Change International. In 2014, she left her full-time secure sales position where she was making more than 6 figures, became a published author, produced several products, has been a speaker at many events, and is soon to be a reality TV star. Make sure you listen to this entire episode, it's awesome. Jenny's Utopia is about living her life to the fullest, which matches one of her brands, Rock Your Lifestyle. She loves to spend time with her family, travel the world, and empower people to get to the next level. She also believes that a Utopia is up for individual interpretation. In this episode she contrasts her Utopia to her parent's Utopia. In this episode, we discuss the power of focusing on your Circle of Influence. (You'll have to listen to the episode to find out more about it) Jenny, Ben, and Josh all share their take on focusing on this life s

In today's episode, we discuss whether there is more caffeine in tea vs coffee. Just kidding, that is discussed during the tail end. Actually, we really deep dive into this past week's episode with the awesome guest that we had this week, Dominick Sirianni, VP of Primavera Online High School and the Internet Marketing Association. He represents what Build Your Utopia is all about! Focusing on your passion and working towards achieving your Utopia aka your professional goals. However, when it comes to work-life balance, to Dominick, work is fun. If you hear some of our other successful guest throughout our show, they all share this trait. They all find passion in their work so it is fun, not a chore. If you are floundering in a career that you are not truly happy in, do something about it. Life is too short not to. Work should not be a chore. Being an entrepreneur is tough but if you can seize it, commit to it, work hard at it, and enjoy the journey, it can be very rewarding. In the show, we also discuss how t

  Dominick is the great example of an individual who is high-achieving and working towards building a Utopia by working in both a corporate environment and by working at a startup, Internet Marketing Association. He is also a proud husband, father, and a MBA graduate from the University of Phoenix. Formerly he had worked for Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins. For the Internet Marketing Association, he also leads a podcast that you will want to check out if you want to learn more about internet marketing. You can click here to go and check it out. Altogether, he has an incredible resume and background. As a Utopian, the guy is busy! This is why… “If the stool ever gets completely stable, you go insane” is a phrase that Dominick lives by. By having many professional outlets working out, he is living by this phrase. In this show, you will learn from Dominick about how to treat a business partnership, from his past experience that didn’t work out. If you are in entrepreneurship or interested in it, there are some grea

In today's episode of Build Your Utopia, Josh sings throughout the entire episode! ... Kidding, we wouldn't put you through that pain. Actually, it's a great episode. This week we hosted Michelle Corr, branding expert, entrepreneur, TV/radio show host, and just all-around awesome person. During today's episode, we discuss our thoughts on her Utopia, being able to be location independent and live between three exceptional places Hawaii, Alaska, and Arizona. Also, we talk about the value of having someone in your circle that is a "connector" like Michelle. Whether you are in corporate or on an entrepreneur path, you want to align yourself with successful people. Take Joe Montana.. without Jerry Rice, he wouldn't have been one of the greatest Quarterback in NFL history. Ben, by the way, didn't know who Jerry Rice is! Josh takes some time during this episode to educate him to raise his sports knowledge profile. From there, Josh and Ben discuss Josh's company ICE Accelerate Marketing Automation Services branding r

  Today's episode is an exciting discussion with Michelle Corr of Michelle Corr Media. Michelle has a very intriguing background. She is formerly a TV and Radio show personality and spent time with such stars as Jerry Rice. In fact, she didn't even know who Jerry Rice was until she met him! Crazy! (Ben doesn't know who Jerry Rice is so our radio show partnership has ended as of this writing.... kidding) She now runs a successful branding company through Michelle Corr Media. Her current Utopia consists of traveling between Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii, rough life. Michelle has a rich presence about her that you can feel through her interview. She presents a wealth of knowledge and a overflow of genuine kindness. When it comes to branding, this episode drops a ton of value on how to brand to differentiate you from other businesses. She believes that a businesses' staff's character should be used in a company's branding since customers buy from people, not businesses. She was also candid enough to share with us h

  This week on Build Your Utopia, we had an incredible guest in Darieth Chisolm. Her story is truly inspirational. Ben and Josh were both incredibly impacted by her story. More people should take chances like Darieth in improving their lives and creating more time with their loved ones. Love is what makes the world worth living. At the end of the day, the people that you love are the most important attributes of every man and woman's life. Both Ben and Josh share stories were they called their own shots. Ben, for example when he was younger, was thinking about joining the military while he was in high school. The recruiter kept stressing with him that you need to study and go to these pre-ASVAB classes. Ben refused. Ben also stated that he was going to score very well. He called his shot. When he took the ASVAB, he scored amongst the top of testers. The recruiter had nothing more to say. Josh called his shot when he decided in January of 2013 to start his own company. He didn't know what he was in for at the

Today's episode is on of tremendous heart, commitment, and drive from Darieth Chisolm. Darieth is a truly inspirational guests. She had a successful job working in broadcasting but decided that she had sacrificed far too much time to her career, missing out on her only son's activities, and quit. She was able to match her income with hard work produced success in Wrap It, a network marketing company. After that accomplishment, she decided to start up her own company, write a book, and start up a podcast called Hustle and Heart TV. It was through the love for her son and her purpose that has propelled her from success to success. Josh, as an entrepreneur, can relate to Darieth as a father to his 5 year old son who serves as his #1 motivator to stay the course and overcome the many challenges of entrepreneurship. Josh and Darieth are both great examples of what's possible right now in entrepreneurship. Twenty years ago, it wasn't possible to start up a business with minimal (if any) overhead or to run a company