Deconstructing Success with Chris Winfield

“I hereby solemnly declare never to freeze in fear, sit in utter despair, or move from foot to foot like a 3 year old on the verge of an “accident” when faced with an email, sales page or Facebook post.

I refuse to smile needlessly, play nice hopelessly, give in uselessly...in the hopes that if they like me enough, they might open their wallets for me.

I am a persuasion revolutionary and I use psychology of persuasion to win hearts, minds and wallets of my audience.” Thousands and thousands of people have taken this oath and are loyal "soldiers" in the Persuasion Revolution.

Ready to meet the person who has somehow made the science and psychology "sexy, classy and fun"?

Bushra Azhar is one of the world’s leading authorities in the science of persuasion or as she puts it:

“...helping the frustrated, the lost and the uber confused; bulldoze their way through counter-arguments and objections effortlessly and gracefully (like a ballerina on roller-skates).”

Bushra is outspoken, bold, funny, direct and super passionate.

Now here’s the interesting part...

...she grew up as army brat in a culture that favored “pretty little boys” and definitely not bold, outspoken women.

And since she certainly wasn't a "pretty little boy" she made a decision early on to overcome these shackles and in turn used this as motivation to carve her own path and discarding the labels and limitation that others put on her.

Was it easy? Nope.

Did she fail? Yep.

Did that stop here? Nope!

In fact, at one during our interview Bushra said something that led me to rethink what failure (or success) really mean:

"I failed a lot. I just don't label it as a failure. For me it all boils down to the self-imposed labels that people tell themselves."

Find out what she means and get the full story (and so much more) right here in my interview with Bushra in Episode #8 of Deconstructing Success.

Some of the big things you’ll learn from Bushra in this "hilariously informative" interview are:

• Why she was living a “double-life” and how her husband reacted when he found out.
• How Bushra "themes her days" for maximum efficiency and uses personal “intention” challenges to reach her goals.
• The simple “BS detection system” Bushra deploys to suss out fakes online and in real life.
• How to convince your boss to give you a raise, get a customer to buy or get your kid to clean their room by leveraging persuasion principles.
• What the “8 Most Powerful Persuasion Switches" are and learn Bushra's step-by-step framework to use them in your business and personal life right away!

We'll cover all of that (and so much more) in this exclusive interview with Bushra Azhar in Episode #8! Thank you SO much for checking out the Deconstructing Success show. Two quick things before you go.. Thing #1) Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, just type in “deconstructing success” in the search bar...and click the subscribe button. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please take a few moments to leave a review...your support means the world to us! Thing #2) You can get all of the shownotes, transcripts, breakdowns and special bonuses for this and every other episode at http://chriswinfield.com/podcast That’s it! Now go out and have the best day ever and we’ll see you next week right here on the Deconstructing Success show!

He dropped out of law school in 2012 to start his first business. He was scared. He had doubts...lots of them.

But he kept taking action (most of the time, before he was ready). Things slowly moved along...

Then, in early 2013, he got a call that no one ever wants to receive. His younger brother had passed away suddenly.

He was crushed. And even though he didn’t know it at the time, that was the turning point in this young man’s life...

On that day back in 2013, Navid Moazzez made a pledge to himself, his brother and his whole family that he was going to make his business work...no matter what it took.

Fast forward to today, Navid is the leading authority on helping businesses create, promote & profit from virtual summits to skyrocket their business and brand online.

So...how did a young man from Sweden with no experience, no connections and lots of fear & doubt become “the guy” for one of the hottest and most effective forms of online marketing in the world today?

You'll get the full story (and so much more) right here in my interview with Navid in Episode #7 of Deconstructing Success.

Some of the big things you’ll learn in this "non-stop learning session" interview are:

• How Navid “fails forward fast”; the reason he loves being told NO; and why you should thank your critics.
• Learn exactly what a virtual summit is; how anyone (in any business or niche) can leverage this powerful tactic; and get the step-by-step process Navid follows for his own events and with his clients.
• The exact ways he connected with them and built relationships with people like best-selling authors Robert Greene, Cal Newport & David Meerman Scott.
• What “hustle” really means (hint: it's not just about "business").
• Discover how Navid sets goals, decides what to work on each day and keeps his mind clear so he can get more accomplished.

We'll cover all of that (and so much more) in this exclusive interview with Navid Moazzez in Episode #7!

Thank you SO much for checking out the Deconstructing Success show. Two quick things before you go.. Thing #1) Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, just type in “deconstructing success” in the search bar...and click the subscribe button. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please take a few moments to leave a review...your support means the world to us! Thing #2) You can get all of the shownotes, transcripts, breakdowns and special bonuses for this and every other episode at http://chriswinfield.com/podcast That’s it! Now go out and have the best day ever and we’ll see you next week right here on the Deconstructing Success show!

How does a self-described “introvert” transition from someone completely behind the scenes into a “super connector” running a seven-figure business?

In this episode of Deconstructing Success you’re going to get the full story and so much more...

Some of the things you’ll learn in this “jam-packed with awesomeness” interview with Selena Soo are:

• How (and why) Selena plans out her days two months in advance...
• How ANYONE can connect with influencers in their industry (even if you’re shy, just starting out, have no connections, no “name” or time).
• Exactly how Selena did this to create her own relationships with influencers and what this has meant for her own business.
• The importance of not trying to hit multiple goals all at once and how to know when to “cut” sources of revenue in order to actually grow.
• The biggest takeaways that she has learned from Marie Forleo, Adam Grant, Ramit Sethi, Derek Halpern, Danielle LaPorte and other influencers.
• How she overcomes perfectionism and uses it to her advantage.
• Discover the books, tools, experiences and people that have had the greatest impact on her business and life.

1. What were the biggest factors in going from basically NOTHING to a seven-figure business?
2. How do you decide what you are going to work on each day?
3. How and why did you start connecting with influential people?
4. What’s one thing (that you have observed) that prevents people from becoming successful and living up to their potential?
5. What’s your process for setting and achieving your goals?

1. Why Selena plans out her days two months in advance...and how this helps keeps her focused.
2. Selena’s step-by-step process that will help ANYONE connect with influencers in their industry (even if you’re shy, just starting out, have no connections, no “name” or time).
3. Exactly how Selena did this (in her own life) to create her own relationships with influencers and what this has meant for her own business.
4. The two books that have had the greatest impact on her career...and theone productivity tool she couldn’t live without.
5. The most valuable lessons Selena learned from each of these influencers(and how she connected and grew the relationship):
   • Adam Grant (Wharton Professor and NY Times best-selling author)
   • Ramit Sethi (Bestselling author, featured in ABC News, CNN, and the WSJ, has taught thousands to manage their personal finances)
   • Derek Halpern (investor & founder of Social Triggers & Zippy Courses)
   • Danielle LaPorte (inspirational speaker, author and entrepreneur)
   • Marie Forleo (founder of MarieTV & b-school)
   • Lewis Howes (former pro-athlete turned life-style entrepreneur and host of one of my favorite podcasts, The School of Greatness)
   • Rachel Hofstetter (former editor of O, Oprah’s magazine)
   • Ryan Levesque (#1 Best-Selling author of the book “Ask”)

1. Selena Soo is the founder of the S2 Groupe, a business strategy + publicity company for visionary entrepreneurs, experts, and authors.
2. Before Selena started her (now seven-figure) business in the summer of 2012, she was earning $42,000 a year living in New York City and working for a nonprofit.
3. She believes that in order to be more successful, you don’t necessarily need more experience but rather, more courage.
4. Selena has relationships and friendships with editors at Fortune, Forbes, Entrepreneur, O – The Oprah Magazine, Glamour, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, Whole Living, Fitness, Shape, More, Seventeen, People, NBCU, and ABC News along with numerous influential bloggers in the personal and professional development space.
5. Selena is truly international! She was born in New Zealand, grew up in Hong Kong, moved to Tacoma (Washington) to attend an all-girls boarding school in high school and then moved to New York City to attend Columbia University for undergrad (and then NYU for grad school later on).

• What Selena tells people when they ask her what she does...and what it actually means :) [4:50]
• Learn why Selena always thought of entrepreneurs as people with a completely different personality than hers. And discover who [and what] helped her change this perception. [6:22]
• Selena went out from business school to work with top influencers and develop a successful seven-figure business. Get a great step-by-step guide from Selena, based on her extensive experience! And...

What do the most successful people all have in common? Are they smarter than everyone else? Do they work harder? Are they just luckier? In this episode of Deconstructing Success, we'll talk to someone who has an answer to this question...and I'd bet a lot of money that it's not what you think it is : ) As the founder and host of the massively popular Mixergy courses, masterclasses and podcast series, Andrew Warner has interviewed over 1,000 entrepreneurs... ...including the founders of companies like AirBNB, Wikipedia, Reddit, Dropbox, yCombinator and Zappos, to name a few)... ...asking them uncomfortable questions to dig deep into their success and failures. I asked Andrew to come o so we could learn more about his story, experiences, habits and influences. And I also wanted to discover what some of the biggest lessons he’s learned from doing those 1,000+ interviews. Were there any patterns? Any “major keys? Any shortcuts? And he gave me even more than I was hoping for! Some of the things you’ll learn in this wide-ranging interview are: * how to overcome information overload * the best way to tell someone they're wrong * why believing in yourself can be a "million dollar difference" * lessons from Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuck, Jason Fried, Barbara Corcoran and other inspiring guests. * what to do when you burn out and stop being creative We’ll cover all of that (and so much more) in this exclusive interview with Mixergy's own Andrew Warner in Episode #5!

What happened when someone offered him $1 million for something and he asked for $2 million because he believed he was entitled to it. * Why he believes that everyone should care about their legacy and what you can do about yours. * The biggest takeaways and greatest lessons he learned from: - Seth Godin, Author - Mike McDermott, FreshBooks - Barbara Corcoran, SharkTank - Catherine Minshew, The Muse - Brian Chesky, AirBNB - Jason Fried, Basecamp - Salman Khan, Khan Academy - Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia - Ryan Hoover, ProductHunt - Laura Roedher, Edgar - Gary Vaynerchuk, Vayner Media * The one (surprising!) trait that every single one of the most successful people in the world have in common. Andrew gives examples of this trait in action for people Gary V, Brian Chesky and others. * The simple ways that Andrew overcomes information overload by focusing on stories and not just facts and lessons.

Did she give you two-million dollars? * How do you overcome limiting beliefs in your life? * What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? * With your first company, how did you go from success to selling to burning out? * Should we share our failures and vulnerabilities with other people?

Andrew is the founder of Mixergy, a site where founders help each other by telling their stories and teaching what they do best. * He once said that he created Mixergy in part because, "...in my 20s, with no outside funding, I co-founded a business that reached $30+ million in annual sales. Mixergy is the source I wish I had." * Before starting Mixergy, he was a 21 year-old who created a $38.5 million dollar business by returning his J.Crew clothes * (the QuickSprout story mentioned in the interview). * That company was also known for launching Grab.com, an online game site that offered the chance at the world's first billion dollar jackpot. * FUN FACT: Andrew was the person that urged me to start the Deconstructing Success podcast, gave me advice and what I have learned from Andrew and his IYH team has been instrumental in getting this project off the ground and our initial traction and success!

Why Andrew makes up something “really boring” when someone asks them what he does...and why he tells doctors that he’s a reporter. [4:35] What happened when he discovered the word “entrepreneur” as a child and how it changed his life forever. [6:00] * Andrew talks about the ineffective marketing “strategy” he used with his first business (that was based out of fear) and why it led him to vow to “never punk out on selling” again in his life. [6:42] * Why he and his brother kept trying different businesses and ideas. And how growing his mailing list led to his first major business success with online greeting cards. [7:33] * Why he believes that he’s “nothing” unless he’s something great and wants to measure up to people like Andrew Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. [8:58] * How terrible insomnia as a kid led him to reading al...

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’ve been working on a problem for a while (or trying to figure something out) and then (almost out of nowhere) everything ‘clicks’...and it suddenly makes sense?

What if this 'click' was so dramatic that it helped you get more accomplished than you ever thought possible? And all of sudden, you no longer had to wonder why you weren't achieving your goals and instead knew exactly what you needed to do to keep hitting them? And what if it was all based around a super simple productivity technique that ANYONE can use? In this episode of Deconstructing Success, you’ll hear from someone who experienced this click last year, what the simple productivity technique was and exactly how you can use it to achieve your own goals each day.

Glen Allsopp, quit college at 18 and moved to South Africa to become the social media manager for massive brands like Land Rover, Nissan and Hewlett Packard. At the age of 19, this self-described “introvert” went to work for himself and now runs his own 6-figure a month marketing company from all over the world having lived in the Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore...among many other places. I’ve known Glen for many years and wanted to interview him for the show but I didn’t want to talk to him about travel or marketing or any of the things that he’s typically interviewed about. I wanted to know how he got to where he is today and how gets SO much done. And this idea was sparked by a blog post he wrote a few months ago titled, How a Simple Productivity Tool Helped Create the World’s Best Marketing Blog. The simple productivity tool he was talking about was the Pomodoro Technique and his insights into this amazingly effective productivity method blew me away. We'll cover all of that (and so much more) in this exclusive interview with Glen Allsopp in Episode #4 of Deconstructing Success!

• Why Glen says “no to everything,” and how he cultivates “a singular path” of his career.
• The reason he quit a “dream job” where he was given 3 million dollars to spend on buying websites and was making more money than he ever had in his life.
• How Glen avoids dropping new habits after the initial excitement wears off.
• Why working for 4 hours (or 10 Pomodoros) per day is enough for him to accomplish everything he needs to get done.
• The lightbulb moment that allowed him to stop wondering why he wasn't achieving the “stretch-goals” he set for himself and how he actually start acheiving them. And how this helped crystallize something big for me as well.
• Why it’s so important to remember that the little things stack together over time to create much bigger wins. And you just have to make sure to keep hacking away at the little challenges each day.

• How do you define success?
• What do you for the first 60 minutes of each day?
• Have you found a correlation between accomplishment and overall happiness?
• Why do you choose to focus on small, incremental steps rather than big, massive action?
• You've said, “I don’t think I would be where I am today without the Pomodoro method.” What is it and why is it so important?
• What’s one thing that keeps people from being successful?

• At 16 Glen's first website was featured in the book DJ'ing for Dummies. 7 years later Wiley asked him to write his own for Dummies book.
• Glen quit college at 18 and moved to South Africa to become the social media manager for massive brands like Land Rover, Nissan and Hewlett Packard.
• He was profiled by the Guardian as part of their feature on "digital nomads" traveling the world while working online.
• Glen runs his own 6-figure a month marketing company from all over the world having lived in the Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore...among many other places.
• He's a self-described introvert.

Thank you SO much for listening to the Deconstructing Success show. Two quick things before you go.. Thing #1) Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, just type in “deconstructing success” in the search bar...and click the subscribe button. And if you enjoyed today’s show, please take a few moments to leave a review...your support means the world to us! Thing #2) You can get all of the shownotes, transcripts, breakdowns and special bonuses for this and every other episode at http://chriswinfield.com/podcast That’s it! Now go out and have the best day ever and we’ll see you next week right here on the Deconstructing Success show!