Vivá La Visionary™ Podcast

Coach Bob Shenefelt
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Vivá La Visionary™ is about celebrating and elevating the Visionary entrepreneur. This podcast is for and about Visionaries to share experience and wisdom. Being a Visionary can be exhilarating but also challenging. Diving into the pitfalls, as well as the successes, can really help those on the same journey feel seen and understood. Ultimately we create a platform for Visionaries to unleash themselves and others. Hosted by Coach Bob Shenefelt, who has been coaching Visionaries for nearly 30 years. He is the founder of The Visionary Forum™, iMatter™ and Author of Unscatter the Chatter™.

  1. 5d ago

    The Power of Losing Control | Joe Caruso

    Joe Caruso has spent his life studying one question: “Why do we believe what we believe about ourselves, and what does that belief cost us?” At 18 he was diagnosed with cancer doctors said had no cure. But when a nurse heard him talking about his death, she told him he'd already decided it couldn't be him, a comment that changed Joe’s life. That moment became the seed of a career. Joe went on to write The Power of Losing Control, advise CEOs and Admirals, and build Caruso Leadership around one idea… The stories we tell ourselves are the ones that shape us. IN this episode, we covered: → The three questions that tell you if an idea is a business, a lifestyle, or a cause → Why Joe asks every client "how's your mind today" → What allegorical listening means and why it matters more than the words someone says → The liminal state between sleep and waking, and how to stay in it longer → Why home is a mindset, not a location Thank you Joe for your time - appreciate you coming to this podcast episode with me! *Chapters* 00:00 Intro 01:00 How Joe met Bob and Cheryl 26 years ago 02:52 The three questions: business, lifestyle, or cause 07:16 Allegorical listening and the story underneath the story 20:26 Cancer at 18 and the nurse who changed everything 30:16 Narrative wins, myth, and Homer's Odyssey 35:47 The liminal state between sleep and waking 44:16 What home actually means 57:45 The stroke and the phrase "stroke of genius" 1:00:58 Perspicacity, cup of Joe, and what Viva la Visionary means *Connect with Joe Caruso* https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephacaruso/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/carusoleadership/ ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolution https://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to listen?* Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4iCo6LWV5VJO15Tz9PTIVo Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896824840 Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

  2. Aug 7

    Scaling Without Losing Your Soul | Kelly Knight

    Kelly Knight is the President and Integrator of EOS Worldwide, but her path there didn't look like a plan. On a trip to Vancouver she had dislocated her shoulder, but on the flight home (still on narcotics) she took a call from a recruiter about becoming the Integrator of EOS Worldwide. At the time, she barely knew what that meant. Years later, she'd watch the company grow so fast it nearly lost itself, taking on mergers, software, and marketing that pulled it away from the one thing it did best: helping entrepreneurs run amazing businesses. In this episode of Vivá La Visionary, we covered: 🡒 The difference between having vision and being a visionary 🡒 How EOS drifted from its core, and what it took to come back 🡒 Building trust with a business partner during the hardest year of the company's history 🡒 Why Kelly protects several clarity breaks a week Thank you Kelly, for making time for this. Ten years of friendship and you still teach me something new every time we sit down. Glad to feature you! *Chapters* 00:00 – Intro 02:18 – From financial services to EOS: Kelly's origin story 05:12 – What vision means, and why it can be taught 11:35 – EOS's identity crisis: growing away from the core 17:03 – Evolution over revolution: why patience beats speed 19:52 – Asking someone three times 23:11 – Same page meetings and the power of clarity breaks 27:48 – AI as a thinking partner, not a replacement 34:53 – Letting go of the vine: why visionaries need a thinking partner 41:53 – Trusting your instincts, and what Viva La Visionary really means *Connect with Kelly* https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellypknight/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/eos-worldwide-llc/ https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurialoperatingsystem/ https://www.facebook.com/eosworldwide/ ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolution https://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to listen?* Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4iCo6LWV5VJO15Tz9PTIVo Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896824840 Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

  3. Jul 31

    Why Visionaries Don't Trust Other People | Bill Green

    Bill Green built Vibe Optimizer to help leaders close the gap between the business they say they want and the truth they've been avoiding. Bill remembers sitting in a room the night before a meeting with headquarters, rehearsing what he was allowed to say. The irony: though he was smart enough to lead the team, he wasn’t trusted enough to speak openly in front of it. He built his whole practice around that one idea: trust without truth is just compliance. In this episode of Vivá La Visionary we covered: 🡒 Why uncertainty is the price of possibility 🡒 The difference between tension and chaos 🡒 What happened when an employee froze up answering honestly 🡒 Why trust without truth is just compliance 🡒 How to measure trust the same way you'd measure any other number The biggest takeaway: you can build every system in the world and still be running on compliance instead of truth. Grateful to Bill for making time for this episode of our podcast. Thanks man! *Chapters* 00:00 Intro 01:25 From corporate sales leadership to coaching visionaries 03:22 Vibe Optimizer and the gap between reality and the bigger future 04:38 Uncertainty is the price of possibility 07:03 Tension, chaos, and the trust map 16:08 Say the thing that changes everything 18:37 Trust without truth is just compliance 21:35 The employee who was afraid to tell the truth 27:42 Measuring trust as a KPI 40:14 Humans connecting with humans in the age of AI *Connect with Bill* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-green-detroit/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/vibe-optimizer/ ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolution https://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to listen?* Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4iCo6LWV5VJO15Tz9PTIVo Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896824840 Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

  4. Jul 24

    She Built Her Own Company After Being Unseen For 18 Years | Carla Walker-Miller

    Carla Walker-Miller spent eighteen years as a sales engineer, working hard for a company that never once made her feel like the obvious choice for a promotion. She calls it being undervalued and overmanaged. Most people would have stayed. She didn't. She built Walker-Miller Energy Services from nothing into one of the country's leading clean energy companies. Her company runs energy efficiency programs across seven states and is building a virtual power plant in midtown Detroit. She still owns 100% of it. No board to answer to. Just the freedom to give her team a bonus when times are good, and the conviction to keep every single person paid through tough times. In this episode, we covered: 🡒 How Carla built a career on being a "gap finder" who sees what everyone else misses 🡒 Why keeping full ownership of her company changed every decision she makes 🡒 The Covid story that proved her core values were real 🡒 The virtual power plant she's building in Detroit right now The people who build the most extraordinary companies are usually the ones who never stopped being extraordinarily human. Thank you to my friend, Carla! For giving your time to hop to this conversation. So grateful to have you here! *Chapters* 0:00 Intro 1:00 Meeting Carla: from sales engineer to entrepreneur 6:15 Learning to celebrate success 11:08 Why core values run the company 14:33 Keeping every employee paid through Covid 19:46 What Walker-Miller Energy Services actually does 24:08 Building a virtual power plant in Detroit 31:36 Letting go of the spotlight and building other leaders 34:18 Falling in love with Detroit and owning her company outright 40:50 Courage is a renewable resource *Connect with Carla* linkedin.com/in/carla-walker-miller-27537b6 https://www.instagram.com/carlawmes/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/walker-miller-energy-services-llc/ https://www.instagram.com/wmenergyservices/ https://www.facebook.com/WalkerMillerEnergyServices/ ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolution https://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to listen?* Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4iCo6LWV5VJO15Tz9PTIVo Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896824840 Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

  5. Jul 17

    Foster Care, Three Divorces, and a Faith That Never Let Go | Nicole Parker

    Nicole Parker runs Lifeline Global Consulting in Detroit, helping entrepreneurs, especially women and economically disadvantaged founders. She's known online as the Business Doctor. She spent years homeless, went through three divorces, and once had to rebuild a business from nothing during the pandemic. Entrepreneurship found her at 26, and she calls it an invitation into another life. One night, alone on her bathroom floor, she surrendered everything she thought she had to control. That surrender became the foundation for how she coaches, builds teams, and defines success today, not as a destination, but as the process itself. What we covered: → Why she believes poverty is an illness, and healing starts in the mind → The night on her bathroom floor she calls her surrender → Why success is the process, not the outcome → How she builds boundaries using a simple framework → What's actually happening in Detroit's economy right now Real success was never the end result. It was every hard, unglamorous step that got her there, and she'll tell you that without blinking. Thank you Nicole for making the time and for being this honest about a road most people would rather not talk about. Glad to have you in this podcast! *Chapters* 00:00 Intro 01:38 Why Are You on This Planet? Nicole's Origin Story 03:03 Foster Care, Pregnant at 14, and Facing Life Alone 06:36 The Door That Opened at 26: Entering Entrepreneurship 13:27 Surrender: Wrestling With God on the Bathroom Floor 22:09 Thinking With Your Heart, Not Your Brain 26:26 Lifeline Global Consulting: Healing the Mindset of Poverty 39:34 The Spirit of Detroit Right Now 45:38 Success Is the Process: The Frying Chicken Story 1:03:43 Boundaries, GWC, and Letting the Right People Show Up  *Connect with Nicole* https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicolesparker/  https://www.instagram.com/drnicoleparker/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/lifeline-global-consulting/  https://www.instagram.com/lifelineglobalconsulting/ https://www.facebook.com/LifeLineglobalconsulting/  ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolutionhttps://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to listen? *Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4iCo6LWV5VJO15Tz9PTIVo Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896824840 Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

  6. Jul 10

    A $700,000 Deal For a Film Gone Wrong | Brian Katz

    Brian Katz grew up in Detroit, graduated high school with a 1.8 GPA, and told a job interviewer at 23 that he wanted to be a movie producer. He didn't get the job. What followed was two decades of winding roads - AmeriCorps, tech sales, a failed business partnership, a move to LA that didn't work out, and a film deal in New Mexico that nearly came apart at the seams and cost a trusted friend $700,000. Today he's produced and financed up to 20 films, built sales channels for tech companies, and runs Umbrelic - his film development and finance company out of Detroit. We covered: → How films are financed → The difference between selling, networking, and connecting.. and why most people get all three wrong → What a $700,000 film deal gone sideways taught him about fiduciary responsibility → Staying centered under pressure Brian never stopped asking why… Why does this deal work? Why do people buy? Why do some relationships last and others fall apart? Thank you Brian for making the time to sit down with me and share all of this so openly! *Chapters* 0:00 - Introduction 1:00 - Brian's Story: 1.8 GPA to Film Sets 7:00 - AmeriCorps, Asia, and Finding His Way Back 13:00 - How Film Finance Actually Works 18:00 - When a Deal Falls Apart and You Own It 23:00 - The Biggest Lesson: Keep Your Structure 25:00 - How Brian Stays Centered and Present 28:00 - Selling, Networking, and Connecting 33:00 - Uncovering Alignment - The Right Way to Sell 43:00 - Legacy, Fatherhood, and the Best Version of Yourself 53:00 - Final Thoughts: Let Things Flow *Connect with Brian* https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-katz-b5537620/ ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolution https://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to listen?* Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4iCo6LWV5VJO15Tz9PTIVo Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896824840 Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

  7. Jul 3

    She Rolled a Car at 20 and Decided Nobody Was Going to Forget Her Name | Terra Csotty

    Terra Csotty walked into an awards ceremony still in a fog. Minutes earlier, her car had rolled three times on a Chicago expressway. Everyone lived. And standing on that stage, collecting an award she barely registered, she had one thought. I could have died and nobody knows who I am. That moment didn't break her. It aimed her. Terra owns four Real Producers publications across Michigan. She built all of it from scratch, starting from a stay at home mom with a Cutco knives background and a partner who didn't want to be on camera. She's not running a magazine. She's running a community that happens to print one. Things we tackled in this episode: → How Real Producers actually works and why realtors don't pay a dime → The difference between connecting people and selling to them → What it really takes to stay top of mind without overkill → Why she'll turn down a potential partner without burning the bridge → What success looks like when you stop tying it to a number Terra's been doing this for eight years because she loves it. That's the whole story. And she told it straight. Thanks, Terra! The rollover story alone was worth the whole conversation. Appreciate you bringing it. *Chapters* 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Who Is Terra the Connector 3:45 - How Real Producers Works 5:40 - From Stay at Home Mom to Four Publications 6:40 - What Covid Did to the Business 9:00 - Being Referable and Why It Matters 11:20 - You Can't Sell Something You Don't Believe In 15:00 - The Business Model Behind Real Producers 20:00 - The Book, the Speaking, and What's Coming Next 21:40 - Where the Drive Actually Comes From 23:05 - The Rollover and the Moment That Changed Everything 28:40 - Patience, Parenting, and Getting Your Priorities Straight 30:50 - How She Defines Success *Connect with Terra* linkedin.com/in/terra-csotty-60a2661 https://www.instagram.com/terratheconnector/ ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolution https://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to listen?* Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4iCo6LWV5VJO15Tz9PTIVo Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896824840 Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

  8. Jun 26

    She Started a Rare Plant Business During Covid With No Plan | Jocelyn Ho

    Jocelyn Ho didn't plan to start a business. She planned to keep her plants by the window. She was a new immigrant. Covid hit. No jobs, no path forward, and a south-facing window full of rare tropical plants her husband kept complaining about. So she sold them. Made $1,000 in a weekend. Kept going. What we covered: How she went from accidental plant seller to running a full-scale rare plant operation What EO Detroit gave her that no business book could The "arrival fallacy" and why hitting the goal often leaves you emptier than you expected Staying the visionary when the business starts to need process Why she thinks right now is the best time in history to build something This conversation reminded me that the best businesses start as something you'd do anyway. Jocelyn was just honest enough to follow that. Jocelyn, thank you for being so open about the real stuff. The struggle, the doubt, and the joy you've found on the other side of it. That's the episode right there. *Chapters* 00:00 Intro 01:00 Meet Jocelyn Ho and Rare Plant Fairy 02:07 How the company name came together 03:20 Why people buy plants and what they get back 06:03 Defining entrepreneur and visionary 07:36 Staying creative when the business needs process 10:13 What EO Detroit did for her as a founder 13:48 Who buys rare plants and how the business works 14:32 From Hong Kong to Detroit: her immigration story 17:27 The arrival fallacy and redefining success 21:32 Antifragility and what it means to build something real 25:16 Growth mindset, abundance, and optimism 27:26 Why she's on this planet and what legacy means to her *Connect with Jocelyn* https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelyn-ho-rpf https://www.instagram.com/jocelynho313/ https://www.facebook.com/rareplantfairy/ ~~~ *Connect with Coach Bob* https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-shenefelt https://www.instagram.com/imatterrevolution https://www.facebook.com/iMatterRevolution https://x.com/iMatterCoachBob 📌 Subscribe for weekly conversations with visionaries, founders, and thought leaders! *Prefer to watch?* https://youtu.be/En61dyIb7so Want to connect with entrepreneurial Visionaries who share your passion for making a real impact? 🌐 https://www.imatter.com

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About

Vivá La Visionary™ is about celebrating and elevating the Visionary entrepreneur. This podcast is for and about Visionaries to share experience and wisdom. Being a Visionary can be exhilarating but also challenging. Diving into the pitfalls, as well as the successes, can really help those on the same journey feel seen and understood. Ultimately we create a platform for Visionaries to unleash themselves and others. Hosted by Coach Bob Shenefelt, who has been coaching Visionaries for nearly 30 years. He is the founder of The Visionary Forum™, iMatter™ and Author of Unscatter the Chatter™.

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