Pain will always be a part of life. You will always find countless hurdles and roadblocks in your journey, and sometimes they will pull you down and hurt you. But you have to do everything in your power to not stay on the ground and get back up. Hakeem Croom’s story embodies this mindset, which he explores in this conversation with Gary Schoeniger. Before becoming an educator, life coach, author, and speaker, he was shaped by the harsh realities of his hometown Harlem, surrounded by poverty, addiction, and uncertainty. Hakeem shares how basketball became a lifeline for him, pulled him away from the streets, and brought him to Military School that forever transformed his life. Tune in on this story of grit, growth, and grace.

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Entrepreneurial Mindset Project, where I tease out the hidden logic that enables ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things through finding solutions.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Dr. Meena McCullough, a physical therapist who became an unlikely entrepreneur.

Frustrated by the limitations of the medical system, she found herself constantly complaining. Yet she was motivated to take action after a friend challenged her with these simple words, "Put your money where your mouth is."

This pivotal moment challenged her to shift her mindset towards solution-driven thinking in a way that ultimately led her to start her own business.

She began with a simple solution—creating flashcards to help caregivers who worked with patients who were suffering from dementia. Once she saw that her idea actually worked, she was inspired to address larger challenges for those who suffered from chronic pain.

Today, she has a thriving practice of her own, one that is revolutionizing physical therapy.

Dr. Meena’s story is a master class in entrepreneurship: look for problems to solve, try things on a small scale, and continuously learn and adapt. And, rather than taking big risks, she began by experimenting in the margins, after work and on weekends, building prototypes and refining her ideas through customer feedback.

She also described the difficulty of overcoming self-doubt and dealing with negativity as well as the value of persistence, passion, and embracing uncertainty.

What I love about Dr. Meena’s story is the simplicity of it all. Look for problems in your everyday life. Stop complaining and start solving. The ability to identify and solve problems is something anyone can do.

So, without any further ado, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Meena McCullough.

Welcome to another episode of The Entrepreneurial Mindset Project, where I tease out the hidden logic that enables ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Rick MacLennan, who happens to be the Chancellor of the Ventura County Community College System. Why am I interviewing a community college chancellor you might ask?

As I have often said, an entrepreneurial mindset confers an enormous advantage to those who understand and embrace it, and Rick’s story provides a great example. Watching his parents transform a struggling service station into a thriving business left an indelible impression on Rick, one that would enable him to thrive within the community college system.

In our conversation, we covered a lot of ground, including the importance of focusing on improving the customer (student) experience, the role of a community college in supporting entrepreneurship within a given community, and the challenges of convincing leadership to adopt new approaches. We also discussed how he embraced an entrepreneurial mindset to transform a modest maker space into a thriving hub of entrepreneurial development that spread throughout the community.

So, without any further ado, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Rick MacLennan.