Episode 1071: Impact the World - Interview with Coach and Author of Speak with Confidence Mike Acker – Part 4

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1071 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Mike Acker: I'm Mike Acker. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to respond well to life is key.

[00:00:22] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.

[00:00:30] I would hope that my name would pretty much be forgotten because if my name's still talked up a whole bunch, then I probably didn't live. It's not about you all, but I would hope that the legacy of people that I was able to talk to you somehow magically be able to find out the people that. Touched by people who touched by people at desert people.

[00:00:54] Scott Maderer: Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you [00:01:00] truly desire to become the person who God wants you to. Then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true call in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:20] In today's interview with Mike Aker, I asked Mike to share with you how the changes brought on by the pandemic have affected his life and his business. I also asked Mike to share with you his key principles to making a dent in the universe. And Mike and I also talk about the legacy. Mike wants to leave behind one reason.

[00:01:41] I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're going to hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's [00:02:00] podcast is brought to you by audible.

[00:02:02] Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose

[00:02:13] from.

[00:02:13] Scott Maderer: And instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast.

[00:02:29] Mike Acker is an executive and communication coach, a keynote speaker and the Arthur of four books, including the best-selling speak with no fear, which has appeared on numerous book list, even getting designated as the number one book on overcoming fear of speaking on forums.com. Mike passionately coaches, business professional.

[00:02:52] To lead and speak with confidence in presentations, he entertains and inspires audiences using stories of [00:03:00] growing up as the son to drug smugglers, who later turned missionaries. He retails and relates lessons learned on how to overcome insecurity and exclusion in a cross cultural setting. And he unpacks the path from employee to manager.

[00:03:17] Mike also enjoys rock climbing, wake surfing, skiing church, building Legos with his son and going on dates with his wife. Taylor, Mike believes in the power of prayer, exercise, journaling, and real community to counter the stresses of everyday life. Welcome to the show, Mike.

[00:03:36] Mike Acker: Great to be here, Scott. I'm looking forward to talking with you over the next couple of weeks.

[00:03:40] Scott Maderer: Mike as we come through the last few years, there's been a lot of changes in the world as a public speaker, as a former pastor has all of these things. How have these last few years affected your life and the opportunities that you've [00:04:00] had putting your message out into the world.

[00:04:03] Mike Acker: The last couple of years have been very interesting. Of course, as the time of this recording will be 20, 22. And of course we'll help be somewhere in the pandemic. In the midst of all of that, the pandemic caused all of us to examine what we're doing and how we're doing it before the pandemic, I had left pastoral ministry and I was engaging in corporate sales.

[00:04:26] I was doing quite well. And then all of a sudden we got grounded. It can go anywhere. I was doing coaching on the side as a hobby. I'd written my book and was just managing it as a side hobby that made some money. It was fun to do. But when it happened, I looked at my life and said, what can I do right now instead of waiting?

[00:04:45] And I'm glad I didn't wait, because remember when I was going to be two weeks, I was going to be one month. And then it was

[00:04:51] Scott Maderer: the longest March that we ever lived. All of a sudden

[00:04:53] Mike Acker: I'm so glad I didn't wait because if you wait and you wait until options or. Until [00:05:00] the atmosphere until everything is perfect.

[00:05:02] You're just going to wait all your life. And so for me, I took some extra opportunities. I published two books during the corn team, or sorry, during the initial part of the pandemic wrote one during quarantine. And I said, okay, if this is going to happen, what can I do? That I can turn this into how can I do something good for it?

[00:05:21] So I looked in the midst of this obstacle. I looked for some opportunities. Now. I won't say it was all fun and games. There were some definitely difficult parts of it. And so in some ways I went down and some. Like I actually gained weight for a little while, but also I actually produced more during that time.

[00:05:38] And so that's how it really changed me. I think in the midst of any obstacle, there's an opportunity if you look because every business, every great business is going to meet a need and any opportunities or any obstacles are going to present a need. For example, we'll give beforehand not a lot of people use zoom now.

[00:05:58] Zoom. It [00:06:00] grew a lot, partly because people had a need that zoom met. So look at the obstacles of life and look by the opportunities by finding what needs did the obstacle create.

[00:06:12] Scott Maderer: So if somebody really wants to make a dent in the universe, they want to change or transform the world. What are a few of the top two or three principles or ideas or mindsets that you think people need to learn to be able

[00:06:27] Mike Acker: to do this? I think the first one is going to be awareness. Second one is going to be confidence.

[00:06:32] And the third is going to be something that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, where I talked about. It's not about you service. So the first one is this awareness of yourself. In my book connects through emotional intelligence. I talked about awareness. Awareness is key. Where are you? Good at?

[00:06:50] What are you good at? Where are you able to serve what you have that others don't have, or that not everybody else has? What is it that makes you [00:07:00] special, unique, a little bit different than others. And it doesn't have to be like the most different ever just has to be some difference. So first of all, start with awareness and I would just do a checklist on who you are, what you have.

[00:07:12] What value you bring and how you can serve others and what you have gone through. Even if you look at last week, I talked about different things that makes a public speaker I've walked her through the success and the story and all these different elements. What do you have be aware of it?

[00:07:32] Also be aware of what you are not good at, because if you're not good, I always tell people when I was a pastor, I said, if you're not good working with kids, if you don't have a lot of patients, I don't want you to work with kids. I don't need to do that much. So be aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

[00:07:47] Maybe take a deep dive into who you are, take some strengths, binders, and other things like that. Work with Scott as a coach and find out some of the things that you're good at and not good at, or your businesses. And not good at and focusing on [00:08:00] those areas. So start with awareness for you to make a difference in a university.

[00:08:03] You have to be aware of the difference that you could potentially make. Second one to have confidence at the very beginning of this series of work with Scott, I said, where you are is not where you have to stay. So you have to have confidence that you can actually do something that you don't have to stay where you are.

[00:08:19] You have to have belief that you have value to bring to others. Otherwise you're going to keep doing. When I was a pastor, I would, I oversaw five different churches. At one point in time, we had five locations. And one of the things that we talked about during that time was, look, if you have the ability to do something, you should do something.

[00:08:36] And sometimes people say I don't really have anything to give. They didn't have confidence that we're insecure. And so sometimes we'd work with people to realize that they could do this. Have confidence exist. Look, yeah. You might not be able to do kids, but you know what? You can fix a car and have confidence that you do.

[00:08:52] Can help others. So I have confidence in the skills that you have some of the best things that we have. There's a story that Jesus [00:09:00] teaches. It teaches about talents and literally in that day and age as a form of money, but we can actually say I was also your. W ever you have whatever gifts that you have.

[00:09:11] And one person hides the talents because he's insecure of what's going to happen to them. And as a result of that, no one benefits. One person takes the talents that he has and he goes out and he risks them. He invest them, uses them. He puts his talents to work. And as a result, he ends up getting a lot more back.

[00:09:30] He ends up getting lots of rewards. So have confidence that you have value. You have confidence in what you became aware of and go do something with it. Think about any president we've had, whether you like him or not. They had confidence in themselves right now. We have Joe Biden. We had Trump, we had Obama, we had we had Clinton, we had re other Bush go back.

[00:09:55] They all thought I'm I could do something. Yeah, whether you [00:10:00] agree with them or not, that's a different story, but they thought they could do something to have grounded confidence. Okay. The fact that you can make a difference. And the last one, I said a service. Okay. So you're aware, you're confident. Yeah, let's go do something.

[00:10:15] Remember it's not about you. So go find someone to serve one of my favorite lines and it maybe even influenced the reason why I grabbed this and put it in my book. I just thought about that. Was the book purpose driven life by Rick Warren, that's released an early thoughts. And the first line in the book on the first chapter, it says, it's not about you.

[00:10:37] And I remember it was just pausing there reading, going well, of course it's not, but then looking at my life going, huh? Okay. Maybe I've made it about me a little bit. And so how can you. Use what you're aware that you're good at that you're confident that's going to help others. And how can you then go actually do something with it?

[00:10:58] You used this word universe [00:11:00] there. And really we often think about universal or we think about how can I help everyone? And if you can help someone and that person can help someone and that person can help someone. There's a book that was released in the arts called pay it forward, and the kid gets challenged to do something good for others and then others would pay it forward.

[00:11:19] And it's really interesting how it's a sad story in some ways of that movie, but when you are able to do something. And you don't know that, what, that, something that small something is going to mean for somebody.

[00:11:31] Scott Maderer: So speaking of that, let's say I invented a machine right now, and I was able to pick you up from where you are and bring you into the far future, maybe a hundred, 150 years.

[00:11:42] And you were able to look back on your life. What impact do you hope you've left behind on the world?

[00:11:49] Mike Acker: I would hope that my name would pretty much be forgot because if my name is still talked up a whole bunch, then I probably didn't live. It's not [00:12:00] about you, but I would hope that the legacy of people that I was able to talk to you somehow magically be able to find out the people that were touched by people who touched by people.

[00:12:11] And that's where people that, that. Positive of the churches I've pastored the books I've read. People have influenced that they would have passed it on and pass it on and pass it on and pass it on. So it really be less than about any house that I've built or anything like that, or organization I've created and more about a trail of lives impacted.

[00:12:35] And the other part of that would be, and the people that I've heard, because I've also heard people. They would have forgiven and they would have not let that be as something that marred their lives. So my son and my feature kids, if we have more kids, there'll be a trail of positive anti-Trump forgiveness.

[00:12:53] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next for you. As you continue on this journey writing books, [00:13:00] living after call, impacting the world, what's on the.

[00:13:03] Mike Acker: Yeah, two, two things come out, so influence and then money. So my, my wife and I, and some business partners, we're going to start a new business endeavor. So I have two companies.

[00:13:16] So this'll be our third one. And really the whole hope would that third company is to make a lot of money. And then money elsewhere as well on the different things I do. But the whole point of the money is we've decided that we want to be extremely generous. And this has been something that we've been able to do at different times in more moderation, because we didn't have as pastors, we didn't make a lot of money.

[00:13:39] And then coming out of that, we didn't have a lot of money, but as we moved into the corporate world and found out there's a lot of money to be made out there. And a lot of people just use it for themselves and we want to use some for ourselves, but we also want to make a lot and be able to give a lot away and find different areas that were, we could just change the world.

[00:13:59] If I [00:14:00] look back at some of the proudest moments of my life it's leading people to dig Wells in Africa and build orphanages and other places in schools. And some of the things I've done, the proudest moments are when people said, wow, you're. Proudest moments are really, when I look about, I was able to do something for somebody that's really cool.

[00:14:21] So that's one area of money. And the other one is just through what I'm doing in my coaching and my publishing stuff, and is to continue to put things out there that add value and help people realize their potential. My life mission is to help people realize that. Whether they're reading my book, they go, oh, I know how to write a speech or, oh, I need to make a shift from insecurity to confidence.

[00:14:40] Oh, I need to empathize with people. And that's how, oh, I need social skills and these, how can I do it? And so I'm going to continue to do that. I have my 11th book coming out early 2020. So in a couple of months, And then I am currently as of 2020 working on what I really hope is going [00:15:00] to be a hallmark book outside of the other niche that I'm in and working a lot on that.

[00:15:07] And then I'm also working on a compendium, putting all my speaking stuff together so that it's going to be more. Quite robust book on public speaking for colleges and for people who just want an all-in-one everything. So I want to influence that so that I can help people realize their potential.

[00:15:24] Scott Maderer: You can follow Mike over on Facebook is Mike aker.com. That's all spelled out. M I K E a C K E R D O T C O M. Or find him on LinkedIn is Mike Aker. You can also find out more about him on his website. Mike acker.com. Of course I'll have links to all of this over the show notes as well. Mike, is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

[00:15:50] Mike Acker: We go back to something I said in the very first episode where you are, is not where you have to say it, take a moment and write some things about the status quo about your life. [00:16:00] Then choose one of those health communication, leadership money. Choose one of those and write down where you want to go. And then backwards track how to get there, where you are, is not where you have to stay.

[00:16:17] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:16:45] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed [00:17:00] until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.