Julia interviews successful entrepreneurs, authors and leaders who made big mindset shifts to become who they are today.
Find out how they did it — and how you can too.
Available on:
Spotify, Apple, Google, Stitcher
Check out all the episodes below and click on their recs to keep learning!
For Cate Luzio, founder and CEO of Luminary, a collaborative hub and co-working space for professional women centered around learning, gathering and connecting, what keeps her going is the mindset she learned from her father: “just walk it off.” Cate wanted to make a bigger and broader impact, which led her to write the business plan for Luminary and launch this unique space for women. After just one year, Luminary has grown by more than 600 members plus some 30 corporate members and pivoted to digital membership during the quarantine without missing a beat.
Ashley Kalinauskas is founder and CEO of Torigen, a company focused on providing personalized cancer immunotherapies — for pets. She is also on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She turned down a huge job opportunity after grad school in order to pursue building her own company, and she never looked back. Ashley joins Julia Pimsleur to share her story, including what it's been like for Ashley to hold her own when she is often the youngest in the room, and the only woman and the three important words to create a productive mindset that are written on the wall of her office.
Isabel and Caroline Bercaw started Da Bomb Bath Fizzers after experimenting with scents and bath products at their own home in Minnesota. They were 10 and 11 years old. A year later they sold out on their first day at an art fair, and got their first order from a local salon. Not long after, they were approached by Target for a national distribution deal. It takes a strong mindset to make a business succeed and still have to take your finals. For Isabel and Caroline, the mindset was a mixture of curiosity, tenacity, and amazing family support.
Author, entrepreneur, speaker, and "Deadhead" David Meerman Scott, is a leading thinker in online marketing. His eleventh book "Fanocracy" shows how returning to true human connection is the key to growing a business. In "Fanocracy", written with his daughter, he asserts that attracting fans (not followers), is the way brands need to build their businesses for the 21st Century.
“Nothing is a prison sentence.” When something doesn’t work, you can always make a new choice. That was advice McPherson heard from her father, and it has stayed with her. Susan is an angel investor, serial connector, and founder of McPherson Strategies (a corporate social responsibility firm working at the intersection of branding and social good).
It takes real guts to quit what, for many, would be a dream job at just 25 years old, and start your own company. It takes even bigger guts to admit that your business will fail unless you do something drastic, and then find a way to entirely reimagine the business. Rachel Renock did both of those things She is the co-founder of WETHOS, a VC backed company which curates branding and marketing teams for companies all over the country. She has stayed true to one of her mantras: just keep moving.
Raquel Graham makes things happen. She's a problem-solver, an investor, and creative entrepreneur. During a polar vortex in Chicago, she couldn't get her kids to put on their scarves even with the sub-zero weather, inspiring her to invent a new kind of scarf that's grown to a multi million dollar business that's been featured on the Home Shopping Network. She later added a beanie with an LED light for bikers and runners at night, and has more problem-solving products on the way.
How do you achieve a high-level goal that seems to be so clearly out of reach? To help you push past the limiting belief that you might not be "enough", mindset expert and scaling coach Julia Pimsleur teaches one of the most powerful mindset best-practices: BE, DO, HAVE.
Loren Brill knew she had to change the way she ate. She was 22, she had just graduated college, and she was diagnosed with cancer. Eating healthy helped Loren to beat the cancer, but she found that giving up cookies and other baked goods was one of the hardest parts. Loren took matters literally into her own hands, and created her own gluten free cookie dough recipe. Less than eight years later, Sweet Loren’s is in more than 10,000 supermarkets and is the top selling clean cookie dough.
Stephanie Cartin is co-founder of the digital media agency, Socialfly, one of Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies, and one of the only women owned, women-led companies in her space. While growing her company and managing a team of 30, Stephanie was also working to bring her first child into the world. She documented her sometimes tragic (and always incredibly brave) journey through IVF and a highly challenging pregnancy in a very public way on social media.
For Jennifer Brown it has always been about "voice", from using her voice as a non-profit activist to performing onstage as a professional opera singer, to making sure all voices are heard in the workplace. Through her company Jennifer Brown Consulting and her recent book “How to Be an Inclusive Leader” she is educating employers so their teams can bring their full selves to work every day.
Alex Blumberg is one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs in podcasting. His journey to build and fund his own company, Gimlet Media, is carefully and hilariously documented in his ground-breaking podcast Startup. Gimlet now produces dozens of shows, many of them award-winning. And, recently, Spotify acquired Gimlet for $230 million. The super-power Alex has that has made all of this possible? Vulnerability.
At first glance, Jean Thompson didn’t seem to be the likely, or obvious, CEO of a multi-million dollar chocolate company. She spent a big part of her career at Microsoft. And, when she became a mother, stepped out of the workforce for a decade. It took a force of nature -- an earthquake -- that set in motion her next sweet career, as an investor and then CEO of the Seattle Chocolate Company.
It takes a pretty big leap of faith to abandon your cushy six-figure salary when you just bought a house, and you come from a family where success means getting promoted higher and higher. Angie Raja did just that. She quit her job, and she and her husband launched RIMSports -- a colorful workout gear company that, after 10 months, hit a million dollars and kept going!
How did the guests on "Million Dollar Mind" get their powerful mindsets? What tools and techniques allowed them to get a "make it happen" mindset? In this episode, Julia Pimsleur teaches the principle of "limiting beliefs" and why yours are probably keeping you from reaching your goals.
Nihal Mehta is an entrepreneur turned VC, running a $100M fund with offices in NY and San Francisco. He was an investor in companies you know like Uber and Airbnb and and a variety of mobile tech companies that exited to the likes of Google, Spotify and Microsoft. Whether investing in promising entrepreneurs, promoting gender parity, or simply offering a listening-ear and some introductions to pretty much anyone who asks, Nihal believes in doing what he can to add fuel to entrepreneurial fires.
"It's not going to work, you’ll fail, I don't get it." These are words that entrepreneurs seeking investment or strategic partnerships have heard time and again, and the words heard many times by Sarah Kugelman, founder and CEO of Skyn Iceland (a $20M lifestyle brand in skincare capturing the attention of A-list celebrities).
Marianne Schnall is one of the thought leaders leading the charge on economic gender parity, paving the way for women to advance as leaders in business, entrepreneurship and politics. Marianne shares how she went from from interviewing stars on the red carpet to teaming up with stars on stage to advance women’s issues, about her mindset shift that led to her become an activist and why asking for what you need is sometimes the hardest part of making social change.
On MDM we like to hear from top of the mountain entrepreneurs and we also want to learn from leaders who are still making the climb. David Schnurman is one of those leaders, and there’s a lot to learn from him and what he’s accomplished as CEO of Lawline, a multi-million dollar company based in New York City. He's also author of The Fast Forward Mindset: How to Be Fearless & Focused to Accelerate Your Success, and former president of the New York chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).
Just search Jason Flom on the internet. There's a lot to see. He’s a successful entrepreneur, and big-time music industry heavyweight who’s worked with many huge artists like Lorde, Tori Amos, Twisted Sister,Stone Temple Pilots, Matchbox 20, Kid Rock, and one of his biggest success stories, Katy Perry -- hundreds of millions of records. He’s also a philanthropist, children's book author (Lulu Is a Rhinoceros), and even a podcast host. He's also deeply focused on criminal justice reform and social activism.
How did the guests on "Million Dollar Mind" get their powerful mindsets? What kind of tools and techniques allowed them to have a "make it happen" million-dollar mind? Julia Pimsleur teaches you a simple technique called T-BEAR that maps out the steps to take in going from Thoughts to Results, so you can get more of what you want more of the time.
Maria Littlefield didn’t have a business background. In fact she was a psychology major. Now she’s Co-Founder of Owl's Brew, a fast growing company offering tea infused with alcohol — or boozy tea — and her 5 year old company has already raised millions and grabbed several major distribution deals. But that great success hasn’t been without its challenges, both for the business and for herself.
When a painful ski accident turned a former investment banker to acupuncture— she not only found relief, she found a business. Michelle Larivee cofounded wthn. It’s acupuncture and organic herbs turned into more of a spa and less of medical experience. It's ancient healing for modern life, according to wthn.
At 23 years old — working in high stakes real estate and in debt to the tune of $3 Million -- he was finding himself so exhausted he could sometimes work as little as an hour a day. And then, he was informed (via voicemail) that he an autoimmune disease that could mean just two things — surgery or death. Ari accepted neither. In fact, he created a third option - living better.
For Sarah Larson Levey, founder of Y7 Studio - a growing multiple city chain of more than a dozen boutique yoga studios that’s not only received a $5M investment but has been recognized as one of Inc’s 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US— that transition from “doer” to “leader" has been about working with a coach, changing her communication style, and having the humility to learn a new set of skills.
What our podcast guests are reading and listening to…
Difficult Conversations from Harvard Business Review
Recommended by Sarah Larson Levey, Founder of Y7 Studio
Emergency byNeil Strauss
Recommended by Ari Meisel, Founder of Less Doing
The Last Defense
Recommended by Jason Flom, CEO of Lava