Outlier On Air | Founders, Disruptors, & Mavens (Business)

"At the end of the day nobody need just another widget, what they need is something solved, some sort of a solution." Tom Morkes

Tom Morkes - Founder & CEO of Insurgent Publishing

Tom Morkes is a West Point grad, Iraq War veteran, and the founder and CEO of Insurgent Publishing, a creative advisory and consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs grow their businesses through strategic, large-scale book and digital product launches. Tom’s clients and projects have been featured in major mainstream media outlets, leading television networks, and top ranked blogs and podcasts; he has consulted on books that have hit The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon bestseller lists; he led the marketing and promotional effort that generated over $450,000.00, setting a Kickstarter record for most funded Nonfiction Publishing project, and has done multiple 6-figure course and digital product launches.

Connect with Tom:

Website | Podcast | Books


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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:01am MDT

234: Grant Weherley Interview - Monetize Your Expertise

"A typical mistake many entrepreneurs make is to focus on creating something solely because they want to make it." - Grant Weherley

Grant Weherley: Instructor, Podcaster, Author, The Online Course Guy

Grant Weherley is a best-selling Udemy instructor, perpetual traveler, and online course creation and marketing expert. He’s often fondly referred to as “The Online Course Guy”. If you’d like to learn more about building profitable online courses that grow your business go to http://myepodcast.com/ to check out The Monetize Your Expertise Podcast, and download a free report on 24 Expert Tools which details the tech of million-dollar courses.

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Connect With Grant:

Website | Podcast | | Google+ | | Facebook | Twitter



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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:26pm MDT

233: G.K. Bowes Interview - The Voiceover Queen

"Learn the business of your business...you don't have to reinvent the wheel" - G.K. Bowes

G.K. Bowes - Voiceover Actress

G.K. Bowes is multi-talented voiceover actress whose performances can be heard every day on television, radio, film, animation, anime, video games, toys, and even amusement park rides! She has provided the voice of Barbie for Mattel, Mairu Orihara in Durarara and Durararax2, Senna in "Bleach: Memories of Nobody", the voice of Lupit in the highly acclaimed Marvel Comics anime series "Blade", starring Harold Perrineau, in the episode "Island Lights", and the voice of Kiyal in several episodes of "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann".

In addition to her characters in Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain, Resident Evil, Guild Wars 2, Dying Light, and the new Minecraft Story Mode, some of her other notable video game credits include the voice of Felicia in "Marvel VS Capcom 3", the voice of Asuka Kazama in "Street Fighter VS Tekken", and Warachu in "Neptunia".

G.K. can also be heard in several episodes of Disney's "Phineas and Ferb", "Special Agent Oso", "Sofia the First", "Doc McStuffins", and their new series "The Lion Guard".

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Connect With G.K.

Website | @GKBowes | Instagram


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:52pm MDT

232: Geoff Talbot Interview - Seven Sentences

"Know the why behind your business" - Geoff Talbot

Geoff Talbot - Co-Founder of The Seven Sentences Blog

There is no way that you can put Geoff Talbot in a box, you cannot make hi,, fit a particular paradigm because in his heart he is an adventurer, a risk-taker who has avoided the box at all cost.

So instead, he gives us 4 short one-sentence stories that may give you a sense of who he is.

If you are sitting in New Zealand watching television in 2006, you might have seen Geoff working as a Veterinary Surgeon in a documentary called “Animal House,” — that’s right he used to be a Vet until the right side of his brain took full control of hiw body.

If you were at “The Mumford And Sons” Tribute to Steinbeck in Monterey, California in 2012, you may have seen him up onstage with these award winning grammy artists as he performed a scene from The Grapes of Wrath.

If you check out some of the pages on his blog (http://sevensentences.com), you will also see that he is an innovative Digital Strategist who has helped hundreds of businesses, brands, and artists use the digital space in incredibly powerful ways that have been beneficial to their bottom line.

And lastly, if you’ve connected with him on Twitter, you will see that one of his major goals in life is to change the world through friendship.

Connect With Geoff:

Website | Facebook | @GeoffTalbot


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:46pm MDT

231: Mark Hughes & Scott Woodley Interview - Tutora

"Search, Book, Learn, Pay" - Tutora

Mark Hughes and Scott Woodley: Co-Founders of Tutora

Mark Hughes: After graduating from Cambridge University, Mark spent close to a decade as a technology analyst for a large investment firm, before deciding that life on the other side of the fence might offer a completely new challenge. Mark loves climbing and can normally be found hanging off mountains in the Peak District.

Scott Woodley: An idealist to the core, Scott has been involved in Education for close to a decade - first as a teacher, then running his own tutoring company. For him, starting Tutora is about more than just trying to grow a successful business, its about improving the lives of as many children as possible. He is a keen cyclist, runner and, generally, an avid sports enthusiast.

Tutora: Our online platform allows you to connect directly with talented and trusted tutors, removes the hassle of dealing in cash, whilst, we believe, providing outstanding customer service. We constantly strive to ensure that everyone can have access to a first class tutor: any subject, any age, we have the right tutor for you.

 

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Connect With Mark and Scott:

Website | Facebook | @TutoraUK | Google+


 

 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:08pm MDT

230: Jason Zook Interview - Selling His Future

"I make things that help people." - Jason Zook

Jason Zook - Founder of BuyMyFuture.com

Jason Zook is the fearless entrepreneur who made over $1M wearing t-shirts for a living on IWearYourShirt. He sold his last name twice and wrote a not-best-selling book that’s helped thousands of entrepreneurs. Jason helps people take action in their businesses and lives at JasonDoesStuff.com and is currently selling his future at BuyMyFuture.com.

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Connect With Jason:

Website | Facebook | @IWearYourShirt | BuyMyFuture Podcast


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:20pm MDT

229: JV Crum III Interview - The Conscious Millionaire

"Get out of your own way by doing less" - JV Crum III

JV Crum III - Founder and CEO of Conscious Millionaire Institute, LLC

J V Crum III, JD, MBA, became a self-made entrepreneur millionaire in his twenties. He is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, certified business coach, licensed attorney, serial entrepreneur, Huffington Post Columnist on conscious business, and is host of the #1 Ranked “Conscious Millionaire Podcast”, which is broadcast M-F. He is the Founder and CEO of Conscious Millionaire Institute LLC, a global entrepreneur business coaching, training, and wealth-product business.

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Connect With JV Crum III:

Website | @JVCrum | Facebook | Conscious Millionaire Podcast |  Health Reality Show Podcast | Get the Book


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:43pm MDT

228: Jessica Chitkuer Interview - Activist, Millennial, Doer

"I've always been passionate about the women's empowerment movement." - Jessica Chitkuer

Jessica Chitkuer - Founder of Lean In Chicago

About: Jessica Chitkuer is the Founder of Lean In Chicago, a Google Community Leader, and a lover of disruptive technologies. She’s a bright college student who’s always a step ahead of the game. When she was 14, Jessica took her first step in the direction of entrepreneurship by turning day-old donuts into a $7K venture. When she was 15, she secured over $30K in donations for her high school’s foundation board. The following year, she worked with Senator Lou Correa to create a non-profit organization that expanded to serve over 500 under-privileged high school students in undeserved communities.

When she was 18, Jessica was listed to Teavana’s National Top Sellers, becoming the fifth highest-grossing seller in the United States within her first two weeks of employment. Before turning 20, Jessica organized a sold-out TEDx Talk, has won many hackathons and startup weekend competitions, led a successful referenda to kick Starbucks Coffee off her campus, and has been named a California Young Hero. In her free time, Jessica works with United Nations Women to promote gender responsive financing. 

Connect With Jessica:

Website | @JessicaChitkuer | LinkedIn


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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:31am MDT

227: David Anderson Interview - Nitro Sales Team

"Done is better than perfect"- David Anderson

David Anderson - Founder of Nitro Sales Team

About: David is the founder of NitroSalesTeam.com. As a sales consultant and passionate hustler for life, David brings an exciting, driven story to your audience and will get them jumping out of their seats to achieve their wildest revenue dreams. 

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Connect With David:

Website | @DavidAnderson | LinkedIn 


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:17pm MDT

226: Kate Matsudaira Interview - The Creative Influencer

"The best of the best are always organized and always put together." - Kate Matsudaira

Kate Matsudaira - Principal at Urban Influence and Creator of Spark Notebook

Kate Matsudaira has spent her entire career leading brilliant teams, and is currently a Principal at Urban Influence, an award winning branding and interactive agency in Seattle, WA.

Previously, Kate was the founder and CEO of Popforms (acquired by Safari Books Online in 2015). She has also worked as the VP Engineering/CTO at Decide (acquired by Ebay), Moz, and Delve Networks (acquired by Limelight), and as a software engineer, tech lead, and manager at Amazon and Microsoft.

Kate is a keynote speaker at conferences around the world, and teaches a highly sought after workshop for teams on the elements of successful leadership. She also maintains a popular blog on management, productivity, and creating an amazing career at katemats.com. You can also test out her goal setting system by checking out theSparkNotebook.com, a notebook designed to make you more successful.

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Connect With Kate:

Website | Urban Influence | Spark Notebook | Facebook | @KateMats | Google+


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:41pm MDT

225: Ross Barber Interview - Electric Kiwi

"Make sure it's something you're in love doing. If you don't love it you might as well be working for someone else. " - Ross Barber

Ross Barber - Founder and Web Designer of Electric Kiwi  & Co-Host of the Bridge the Atlantic podcast

Electric Kiwi founder Ross Barber has dedicated his life to helping musicians, bands, and other artists pursue dreams of turning their passion for music into a viable career opportunity. His decision to launch Electric Kiwi in 2011 came after Ross earned a 2:1 BA (Hons) degree in Popular Music Performance from the UHI Millennium Institute in Perth, Scotland.

From designing websites to creating artwork for album covers, Ross has worked with independent artists from all over the world and his marketing strategies have been featured on top websites including Cyber PR Music, Hypebot, and Musicians Unleashed.

He also co-hosts his own video podcast, Bridge the Atlantic, with singer/songwriter Marcio Novelli. The podcast, which interviews musicians and creative entrepreneurs, spent several weeks on the “New and Noteworthy” chart after debuting on iTunes.

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Connect With Ross:

Website | Facebook | @ElectricKiwi  | Instagram | LinkedIn | Youtube


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 9:56pm MDT

224: Sherman Lee Interview - Good Audience

"We will NEVER EVER die!" - Sherman Lee

Sherman Lee: Co-founder & CEO at Good Audience

Co-founder, CEO and head of growth. Managed social media accounts for 250+ businesses. Scaled content platform at Yahoo! from 0 to 600M users.

Good Audience: Social Media Marketing Assistants. 
Work with a team of experienced marketers. We spend many hours a week hand curating content, sharing it across all platforms and growing your social communities!

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Connect With Sherman:

Website | Facebook | @Sherm8n | @GoodAudience | Google+ | LinkedIn


 

 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:14am MDT

223: Thais Guimaraes Interview - The Catalyst

"I want you to have the confidence to be the change you wish to see in this world." - Thais Guimaraes

Thais Guimaraes: Women's Leadership Coach

Thais is a women’s leadership coach, yoga/meditation teacher, mentor and leader. She supports healers, teachers, coaches, trainers and heart centered women to optimize their lifestyle, create a spiritually badass business, make a bigger impact, and lead from their authentic feminine power so they can BE the change they wish to see in the world. Her mission is to evoke a change in consciousness in order for every woman to feel empowered to live their purpose, shine their light and be a catalyst for greatness.

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Connect With Thais:

Website | Facebook | @CoachThais | Instagram


 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:17pm MDT

222: Brendan Dalley Interview: Simplifying the Difficult

"Keep life as simple as possible — complexity kills dreams!" - Brendan Dalley

Brendan Dalley: Social Engagement Speaker & Consultant

Brendan Dalley is a self-proclaimed “verbologist” and teacher of “simplixity.” He is a native of Southern Utah and has been involved in a variety of industries including the public and private sectors of education, owning several businesses, a Director of Recruiting, and an adjunct Communication and Business instructor for the local University. He is an entrepreneur, professional speaker, trainer, blogger, and social media engagement consultant. In his spare time you will find him on the golf course with his wife and kids, or coaching and watching his kids in soccer.

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Connect With Brendan:

Website | Facebook | @BrendanDalley | Pinterest | Instagram

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:19am MDT

221: Ryan Michler Interview - Order of Man

"Become the man you were meant to be." Ryan Michler

Ryan Michler: Founder of Order of Man

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Order of Man: A community to help men become the best they were meant to be. Self-Mastery, Relationships/Family, Finances/Career, and Community/Contribution

Order of Man Podcast: The Order of Man Podcast is for motivated and ambitious men who want to become better in every area of their lives from defining their purpose, obtaining self-mastery, building relationships, growing as a leader, and mastering manly skills. Each week I have real, unscripted conversations with the world’s most successful men.

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Connect With Ryan:

Website | Facebook | @OrderofMan | Instagram | Google+ | Youtube

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:04am MDT

220: Joel Boggess Interview - Relaunch

"Podcasting is such a wonderful opportunity to expand your reach and to share your message. However, it doesn't happen magically. You need a lot of work on the front end to make sure you can crush it on your podcast launch." - Joel Boggess

About: Joel Boggess - Host of Relaunch Podcast, Author of #1 Amazon Best Selling book, Finding Your Voice

Joel Boggess’ broadcasting career began in the early 90’s – behind the mic in traditional radio, on camera as a reporter, and in the master control room as an AP.

Today, he is a #1 bestselling author, a front-runner in the world of podcasting and new media, and is one-half of the broadcast team behind the creation, development and explosive growth of ReLaunch.

Within 12 days of the podcast’s initial blast off, it soared up the iTunes charts to nail #1 in business, education, and in health respectively in New and Noteworthy.

His latest book, Finding your Voice, hit the #1 spot on Amazon in three categories - success, self esteem, and happiness; on the same day, in the same hour.

Joel has mastered the art and science of how to develop and execute a podcast launch and growth plan, as well as how to mobilize listeners. His global audience has grown 10-fold in twelve month’s time and he has earned numerous podcast awards including Best Overall and Most Inspirational podcast.

Overview: "Joel is passionate about sharing fresh ideas, success tips and inspirations through real life stories. He is a “natural” with broadcasting, and he enjoys teaching podcast and radio show hosts how to book great guests and have engaging interviews." 

Highlights:

What is Relaunch: Relaunch is Joel's podcast that recently approached it's one-year mark. Joel shares the importance of having a launch team who are defined as the people that know you, like you, and want to see you succeed. He was able to put his own launch team in place to not only help with his podcast, but to help promote his book, Finding Your Voice.

Podcast Training: Joel offers a 15 video training tutorial that takes people through step-by-step on how to create your own podcast.

Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make: Don't go it alone. While a lot can be said to have the courage and belief to go it alone, you need a tribe behind you.

About Podcasting: Podcasting is not a business model. However, it can be used inside your business model to help you promote, or add value to your area of expertise. There is no less expensive, better way to have a killer podcast. It can be a revenue generator, but Joel encourages future podcasters to put the monetization on a shelf briefly, and focus on creating an amazing show that people want to listen to and be apart of.

Industry of Podcasting: The world is going on-demand and at your fingertips. Joel truly believes that podcasting is here to stay because the right people are becoming involved. People who are passionate and really want to help others are doing so through podcasts now.

 

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Connect With Joel:

Website | Facebook | @JoelBoggess | LinkedIn | Google+ | Book

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:24pm MDT

219: Jeff Barnes Interview - The Wisdom of Walt

"If there is no conflict, there is no story." - Jeff Barnes

About: Jeff Barnes - Author, Professional Key Note speaker, Higher Education Administrator, University Professor, and Leadership Success Coach

Jeffrey A. Barnes is an author, professional keynote speaker, higher education administrator, university professor and leadership/success coach. He has taught more than twenty different college courses in both the traditional classroom and online--including The History of Disneyland for California Baptist University.

Jeff lives in Riverside, California with his family. When he is not teaching or writing, he enjoys spending as much time as possible at "The Happiest Place on Earth."

Overview: With a Doctorate in Narrative Criticism, Jeff is completely fascinated with the idea of story. He has spent much of his life studying Walt Disney, and shares more with us about what he learned from Walt's life, and what we can learn from his business ventures.

Highlights:

Background: When Jeff went to Disney World for the first time at the age of 10, it was love at first sight. While he wasn't able to attend Disneyland until he was in college- it was there that he came to see the vision that Walt Disney had for his patrons. His passion for understanding Walt Disney as a business man led him to study, research, and later publish a book called The Wisdom of Walt. Jeff's book dives into the life of Walt Disney and shows us what we can learn from Disney's failures and successes. Through an unexpected path, Jeff has also been able to teach Disney classes at CBU and still does today.

The Life of Walt Disney: Jeff shares with us that Walt was simply complex. He was very much a family man, and it was actually his dedication to his time with his daughters that inspired him to create Disneyland. He was also complex in that he was very particular in what he liked and what he didn't. People knew that Walt was the boss. Walt had a way of pushing people to say yes. And because of that, the team was better, the organization was better, and the dream was better. He was truly a visionary leader; the last thing he was about was maintaining the status quo.

Setbacks For Walt: Surprisingly, Walt had as many if not more failures than the average entrepreneur. For example, he went bankrupt at his first studio in Kansas City. He had a difficult childhood and was haunted by the financial difficulties of his father, and what his family wanted him to do in his career. Nobody believed in his dream of Disneyland, Snow White, Fantasia, or even Pinocchio. Walt Disney also lost his mother after moving her to a home he bought for his parents in North Hollywood. It was something that weighed heavy on his heart and rarely spoke about.

Starting Jeff's Disney Class: Jeff was very hesitant to ask about creating his Disney class, but when he finally did he had nothing but positive feedback. He then spent the next year tackling the curriculum and preparing for his university class. The day after Jeff had his first class, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was told he needed to have surgery right away. However, the operation would put him out for six to eight weeks, and Jeff did not want to put on hold what he had worked so hard for. So, he delayed his operation to fulfill his dream and has been teaching the class ever since.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: If you're sitting around as an entrepreneur waiting for someone to be the hero, you're it. Challenge yourself to look at what's really going on in the stories around you, and amusement parks you attend. Find your spark of motivation. Walt did not start out as someone special, he was exactly where you are at some point. He simply made the choice to become someone special and has left a powerful legacy behind because of it.

Book: The Wisdom of Walt

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:13pm MDT

218: Amit Mehta Interview - The Profit Swami

"You have to know when to be persistent and when you're beating a dead horse." - Amit Mehta

About: Amit Mehta - Inc 5,000 CEO, Consultant, and Author

Amit Mehta is an author, speaker, growth hacker, serial entrepreneur, and former Inc 5000 CEO. Not only has Amit driven over $40 million in business through various different ventures in the last 10 years, he has spoken over a dozen times at industry conferences and seminars, and helped countless individuals achieve success in their own businesses.

Overview: With 10 years of business experience, Amit shares his wisdom and advice on how to grow your company the right way. 

Highlights:

Background: While a physics graduate student, Amit and his wife struggled financially and he began searching for a way to  make money online. He was burned out with the academic world and realized if he went back to his 9-5 job, he'd never fulfill his dreams or have the freedoms he wanted. Through a series of good and bad events, Amit ventured out onto the entrepreneurial path. He worked as an affiliate marketer by promoting downloadable software products and was making $2k a day. This was life-changing for him. He was able to travel and explore the world but knew his 4-hour work week would not be sustainable forever. Eventually, he teamed up with another affiliate marketer, and started their own software company in 2010. However, they didn't understand the challenges that would lie ahead. After being conned from a supposed software developer, they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was this experience that led Amit toward his path of becoming a business growth expert and consultant and is helping many others with their companies today.

Right Now: Amit is currently in the process of starting a consultant business. He enjoys working with younger entrepreneurs, and is involved in some volunteer work to help small companies reach the million dollar mark.

Definition of Success: In his younger years, it was just making money. Now it's how many people you can positively impact.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Before you try to build a billion dollar company, build a company that's going to make $1,ooo a month. Start small, have a proof of concept, and scale it up from there. Become an expert at whatever type of business you're involved in. Know more than your competitors, particularly on the marketing and sales side of it. Learn how to blog and build a presence in social media- buy some good books, and follow some informational blogs. If you're seeking a mentor, find someone who has accomplished what you want to accomplish and offer to be an intern for free.

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Connect With Amit:

Website | Facebook | Youtube | @ProfitSwami | LinkedIn

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Category:Business -- posted at: 9:27pm MDT

217: Liz Lockard Interview - The Google Analytics Chick

"Tune into your ideal client...who are they, what do they want...and where are they online?" - Liz Lockard

About: Liz Lockard - Marketing Consultant, SEO and Google Analytics Expert

Overview: Liz is an SEO/Marketing pro who is here to make your online presence a smoother ride. Throughout this interview, Liz provides us with some insight tips, tricks, and how we can fix mistakes we may be making with our websites.

Highlights:

Background: Liz's business background started as an in-house marketer for a corporate law firm. Once Google analytics stepped into the scene, her marketing department took notice and handed her that responsibility. 

How Liz Can Help: Liz helps those who are ready for help. She tends to work with smaller teams. 

Focus on SEO and Google Analytics: Liz tends to work better with service providers who have already bought into the idea of maintaining a blog, and producing content. She loves working with many different types of niche companies, and has a unique approach to each client need.

What to Expect When Working with Liz: Liz will either work with you on SEO, Analytics, or both- depending on what works best for your website. Liz works with you once a month to develop an ideal client focus strategy which is covered in three different areas: keyword content strategy map, cleaning up text, and finally developing an outreach plan that overlaps with where your clients are hanging out online, and what you're doing with your business with the connections you already have.

What is Google Analytics: The real thing you're trying to determine with google analytics is what marketing channels are working for you and which are not. There are 2 overall metrics that Liz looks at on analytics- visits (the quality of visits) where you can view the bounce rate. Your bounce rate, at its simples definition, is the rate that people are landing on your website and when they're leaving. You always want to see a lower bounce rate rather than higher. There are two things to watch out for: If you have a bounce rate lower than 20% or at 100%, then there tends to be something wrong with your coding. In terms of averages, you can visit Kiss Metrics to help determine what an average rate should be for your company. If you have a blog, 60-80% bounce rate is considered normal.

Goal: Liz really enjoys the coaching aspect and doesn't ever plan on stepping away from that. If anything, she'd like to do some group coaching in the next three years, but right now she is happy with her one-on-one coaching.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Make sure you have analytics on your site. Optimize each page on your website with a different keyword. Pay attention to what your ideal clients are saying/wanting. If you're new to SEO make sure to clean up any tech errors (such as: your accidentally blocking web pages on google, having duplicate content errors, etc).

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Connect With Liz:

Website | Facebook | @LizLockard | Free Google Analytics Course | What is Bounce Rate KISSmetric infographic

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:03pm MDT

216: Lane Kennedy Interview - Finding Your North Star

"My calling is to help people find their north star." - Lane Kennedy

About: Lane Kennedy - Podcaster, Online Business Coach, and Founder of Game Changer Society

Overview: Lane is a serial entrepreneur and is here to help you find your true calling in life.

Highlights:

Game Changer Society: This online community is for people out there who see the world a little bit differently. It's for people who live on the edge and are pushing the envelope. Lane's goal is to really help empower people, find their calling, use their voice, and to get out into the world.

How Lane Can Help: She will help you implement organizational skills to help you find your calling. She wants to help you get to where you need to be in order to be successful. At the end of the day, Lane wants people to be satisfied.

Work-Life Balance: Time is Lane's solution. After having her first child, she was feeling very overwhelmed and when her son was 18 months, she decided to leave her full-time job. She started focusing on a women's community she had started building when her son was born. In this community, she taught moms/women how to run their businesses, how to balance their term sheets, and marketing. She did that for awhile until she came to a point where it wasn't satisfying for her anymore. She realized her calling was helping people find their "north star."

Goal: To have thousands of people coming together and building really great things. Lane says that we have to keep evolving and communicating face-to-face.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: First, find out what your non-negotiable's are. Then making your schedule work around those non-negotiable's. For Lane, it's having dinner with her son four nights a week as well as leaving her phone out of her bedroom each night. She also doesn't look at her email until 9 am.

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Website | Facebook | @LaneKennedy | Pinterest

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:51pm MDT

215: Julie Bishop Interview - The Social Jobseeker

"I love working with young candidates...because they have so many skills. However, they don't realize that they can use these skills in businesses...[I love] showing them how those skills can help in a business environment." - Julie Bishop

About: Julie Bishop - Founder of Jobhop

Julie Bishop is the founder of Jobhop.co.uk, the site where great companies and great candidates meet, the site which makes employment human.

Julie is passionate about showing companies how to attract talent and keep them, as well as showing candidates how to market themselves.

Author of “The Social Jobseeker” she’s also a regular speaker on social media topics, the future workplace and digital natives.

Julie provides training on attraction and sourcing for companies who want to acquire great candidates.

Overview: Julie is a true definition of a disruptor. Through years of experience in the entrepreneurial world, her social recruiting company, Jobhop, will stop at nothing to help talented young candidates find their dream jobs.

Highlights:

Background: Julie started her entrepreneurial journey with a catering business in London. Seven years laters, she sold that company and started a cleaning company that focused on using environmentally safe products. While trying to franchise her cleaning company, Julie got tired of being so dependent on recruiting agencies and had an overall frustrating experience. Julie thought if she could just create a platform that would make this process smoother it would be better for everyone involved. So, in 2011 Julie started playing with the idea of Jobhop, a social recruiting platform, which has since evolved into a successful company.

Jobhop: Jobhop is here to help potential employees find their dream job and educate companies on how to be social and how to attract the younger, talented generation. They are here to help potential employees recognize the jobs out there that need their skills. 

How It Works: Go to their website, jobhop.co.uk, make a profile, reach out to the companies that interest you (follow them), become apart of the community, and link yourself with a hopper to find the job of your dreams.

Challenges: There is a struggle to educate employers and helping them fully understand the benefits of social recruiting.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: For employers- think about the candidate experience. If they have an unhappy experience with the hiring process, they will let the world know. Have your hiring process transparent. Let those who are coming in to interview know the exact process and what to expect. Happy employees equal happy customers. Culture is the most important thing to the company.

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Website | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | @JobHopJulie

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:28pm MDT

214: Andy Weir Interview - The Martian

"It's easy to stay motivated on something you're really enjoying." - Andy Weir

About: Andy Weir - Computer Programmer, Author, and #1 New York Times Best Seller of The Martian

Andy Weir was first hired as a programmer for a national laboratory at age fifteen and has been working as a software engineer ever since. He is also a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects like relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. The Martian is his first novel.

Overview: With 20 years of dedication and experience, Andy has become an overnight success through his book, The Martian. Throughout this interview, he shares with us what that process was like and what some of the perks of being a best-selling author are.

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Highlights:

Background: Growing up, Andy always wanted to be a writer but went into computer programming instead for financial security reasons. For 25 years, he was a programmer but was also writing on the side. While working for AOL in the late 90's, Andy was laid off, given a nice severance package and was then forced to sell his stock options. Little did he know this was a push in the right direction. With the money from his stocks, Andy decided he was going to start writing. He spent three years working on a book but unfortunately did not get any traction. He returned to programming. When the internet came about, Andy starting writing again for an online audience and slowly built his reader base. Eventually, Andy starting writing chapters of The Martian for his fans and it was a hit. From there, Andy pursued turning his online writings into a book.

The Martian: This book is about a 3rd manned mission to mars. In summation, an astronaut becomes stranded on the planet after his team undergoes an emergency evacuation. The book/movie is about how this astronaut strives to survive with equipment that was made for a 31-day mission.

How The Martian Came to Publication: When Andy posted his eBook to Amazon, it was #1 in the Sci-Fi section and in the top 10 Best Sellers on Amazon. An agent from Random House found his book, read it, and contacted Andy to see if he was interested in a literary agent. Andy agreed and things fell into place. From negotiations with the publisher to editing finalizations, it was only an 11 month process until Andy's book was on shelves.

The Martian, the Movie: During the same time the book was being finalized, the movie studio reached out to Andy about buying the rights to make the movie. The contract was not activated for them to produce the movie until the day they started filming it. The movie will be coming to theaters on October 2, 2015.

Next Steps: Andy is currently working on his next book, Sophmore Slums which should be released mid 2016.

*The movie edition cover of the book, The Martian is on sale now!

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Website | Facebook

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:47pm MDT

213: Christine Hauer Interview - Your Networking Sidekick

"Make people love you at an event..." - Christine Hauer

About: Christine Hauer - Founder of Hifive

Overview: Christine is a fun-loving, energetic, entrepreneur who is here to coach you at social events.

Christine Hauer started up Hifive, a social skills and networking consulting company featured in Bloomberg Businessweek and Fast Company. Coaching those looking to gain better event-working and people-meeting skills, she provides individual consulting and workshops to people/companies/universities breaking down how to work a room, make conversation, and feel comfortable doing both while still getting your message across. Christine also works as Culture Champion at digital communications agency, Praytell, and acts, paints, and sings karaoke whenever she can.

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Highlights:

hi5: Is a coaching company that helps people with social skills and networking. Christine started this company 3 years ago because of her love of communicating and social interaction. Right now, Hifive is a side job and she will be teaching at Yale this Fall.

How It Works: Christine can be considered a networking wing man/sidekick. She offers one-on-one pointers prior to an event, or will attend with you to help you know who to talk to, how to do so, and will help with follow-up afterward. Christine will help you get your message across without being pushy and will offer techniques that will produce the best results.

Clientele: Hifive is here to help their clients have a scientific approach to their networking events.

Goal: Christine is currently writing a book in which she will compile her techniques, mental tricks, and everything she teaches her clients. Christine would like to keep Hifive small and niche to maintain the personal aspect of her company. Eventually, she would like to work with schools and companies and hold seminars to educate on networking.

Advice: Christine says it's important to have a bio that links to all of your accounts. She also says it's important to practice your pitch- even if it's just one sentence, know exactly what you want to say about what you do. Make people love you at an event.

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Connect With Christine:

Website | @christinehauer | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube | LinkedIn

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:41pm MDT

212: Nate Holzapfel Interview - The Nate State of Mind

"If you're not telling your story right, no one cares." - Nate Holzapfel

About: Nate Holzapfel - Co-Founder of Mission Belt Company, appeared on Shark Tank

Overview: Though Nate does not have a college degree, he has become a very successful entrepreneur. He was able to secure Daymond John from Shark Tank as an investor in his belt company and is focused on giving back to third world countries as well as sharing what he knows with other business owners.

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Highlights:

Mission Belt Co: Nate realized that belt branding hadn't really been done before. He saw a hole in the market and made the plunge. His passion is creating an awesome product for his customers.

Giving Back: Each time Mission Belt sells a belt, a dollar goes to fight hunger and poverty worldwide through micro-lending. These micro-loans range from $25-$500 dollars per loan.

Staff: 40-50 employees, and are based in Northern Utah.

Challenges: Early on, Mission Belt struggled with getting the word out. Nate realized that he needed to create his brand identity and do everything he could to sell his product. As a leader in his company, he needed to keep the energy flowing to get his passion to the salesman by providing them with the tools they need.

Shark Tank Appearance: When you apply to be on the show, you are up against 40,000-50,000 people who apply each year. Nate submitted his audition via email and was lucky enough to get a call back. Then he did a dry audition in front of hundreds of people and got the attention he was looking for because of his ability to be a master story-teller. Four months later, he eventually made his way in front of the investors and made his pitch. Daymond John ended up investing in Mission Belt and after Nate's airing on that show, sold $1million in sales 3 weeks later. Now, Nate spends a lot of time talking with Daymond and benefiting from his mentorship.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Start your company now. Hire experts to do work for you. You don't need to do everything. You don't need an amazing degree to be successful. You can start with nothing and get to where you want to be. The more successful business people we have in the world, the better off we are.

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Connect With Nate:

Website | @NateHolzapfel | Facebook | Instagram | TheNateStateofMind.com | Youtube

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:38pm MDT

211: Vance Morris Interview - Systematic Magic

"It's far more expensive to attract a new client than to retain one." - Vance Morris

About: Vance Morris - Walt Disney Resort Management Alumni, and CEO at Deliver Service Now

Vance Morris is a Walt Disney World Resort Management Alumni, having spent 10 years as an executive in the Resorts. He runs the only Disney Service & Direct Response Marketing business on the planet. Here he coaches companies to create Disney Style Service Systems and then monetize them through direct response marketing. He is also the GKIC 2015 Marketer of the Year.

Overview: Vance shares his long-time experiences of working with Disney, their failures and successes, and what he's doing now with Direct Response Marketing.

Highlights:

Background: Vance started working at Disney in the 90's as a food and beverage manager and later opened up the yacht and beach club resorts. Then he spent 5 years managing night clubs (another Disney experience). Eventually, Vance left Disney and worked for a number of companies in the restaurant industry. He also worked as a contractor for Tyson, NASA, and Smithsonian Museum systems. However, he didn't follow directions very well and saw that as the beginning of the end. He had a lot of ideas he wanted to run with and finally made the plunge into starting his own franchise business.

Franchise: Eight years ago, Vance started a carpet cleaning business. His goal was to run but the business but not actually work in it. Four years ago, Vance reached his goal and can now focus on his long range goal of having a Disney-style marketing service.

How Vance Can Help: Vance is here to provide companies with a marketing framework. He shares that your marketing should be able to sort out the clients you don't want. You don't have to take on everyone.

Mistakes Companies Are Making: Not saying thank you to customers is a problem. It's important to send a thank you package to customers and follow up. It's also crucial that you teach your employees how to interact with your customers in a positive way that will make them want to come back. It's far more expensive to attract a new client than to retain one.

End Game: Although Vance would like to sell his carpet-cleaning company eventually, right now it's where he tests all of his marketing strategies.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Do your homework- especially if you have not made the jump yet into the entrepreneurial world. Be true to yourself- don't try to be something you're not because sooner or later you're going to get found out. Another important thing to do is to continue to learn. Study things outside of your industry to keep your mind fresh. And finally, get involved in a mastermind where you can be involved with other business owners.

Deliver Service Now Small Business Coaching
Deliver Service Now Small Business Coaching

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Connect With Vance:

Website | @DlvrProfitsNow | Facebook

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:08pm MDT

210: Stephen Scoggins Interview - The Journey Principles

"As iron sharpens iron..." - Stephen Scoggins

About: Stephen Scoggins - Serial Entrepreneur, Author, and Speaker

Overview: Stephen travels throughout the country teaching faith and self-understanding. His goal is to empower others to use the bricks of past failures to build a new foundation for success, reigniting a passion for life and purpose to make large steps toward a bright future.

Highlights:

Stephen's Book - The Journey Principles: The Journey Principle is a self-awareness book that Stephen wrote to help business owners learn from their mistakes, how to achieve work-life balance, and how to overcome stress fear, and anxiety.

Background: In the late '90s, Stephen was sitting on an overpass contemplating ending his life. At that point in time, Stephen felt he had failed at every single thing he had done. However, 4 weeks later, Stephen founded his company Custom Home Exteriors. From that point on, he became successful, and has overcome trials that have led him to where he is today.

Journey Principles Institute: His most recent venture, founded earlier this year, is an institute that Stephen established to help others "develop knowledge and skills that will strengthen their relationships". JPI supports others while they are learning to use the obstacles in their lives as transitions into building blocks for success. Through JPI people learn how to apply God’s Principles to their everyday lives."

Journeyprinciples.com: This is a website that is being set up to help business owners build themselves first. This will include a podcast, speakers, authors, and other information that business owners can have access to. Stephen truly wants to make a difference in people's lives through this company. Ultimately, the goal is to impact someone else to help others and create a chain of inspiring others.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: It's your journey, it's God's principles. Live by them, define yourself by them, and you'll watch some magical things happen.

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Website | @JRNYPriciples | Facebook

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:04pm MDT

209: Taylor Welch Interview - Building Your Marketing Machine

"Do the right thing, even without the right results." - Taylor Welch

About: Taylor Welch - Marketing Funnel Copywriter and Recognized Marketing Automation Expert

Taylor is a marketing funnel copywriter and recognized marketing automation expert. He's the author of "The Profit Extraction Handbook For Infusionsoft" and publisher of the monthly premium print training newsletter for business owners & entrepreneurs, "The Builder Letter."

His clients have included everyone from small startups on shoe-string budgets to prestigious companies earning multiple 8-figures per year.

Overview: Taylor is an entrepreneur with new ideas for online marketing. He shares how he fell into marketing and what the next steps are for his company.

Highlights:

Background: Taylor headed to Tennessee where he began working as a recording engineer at a church in Memphis. Afterward, he got into real estate investment as a manager. When his wife was looking to gain more clients as a hairstylist, Taylor tried his hand at marketing and found his niche. With that start as a marketing expert, he was able to build a side income and soon jumped into the entrepreneurial world of marketing.

What Taylor Does: Businesses are investing in InfusionSoft, but the power of any marketing is what's inside of the campaign. Taylor saw the need for mid-large size companies to establish email automation- essentially their nurture campaign. Here's where Taylor can help: he creates successful nurture automation systems for these companies. Taylor currently works a lot with online education companies and service providers. Companies who need to connect one-on-one with their consumers will benefit the most from automation systems.

Next Steps: Eventually, Taylor will be merging with another company that focuses on traffic to become an agency that can offer more to his clients.

Opposition as a New Comer: Although Taylor just began his business this year, he feels the most important thing you can bring to the table as a new entrepreneur is to give your clients results.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: 2 things have made a difference for Taylor:

1. Have a daily life routine - Taylor wakes up each morning at 5am to go to the gym, and have that time for himself to focus on his day. As he does this, he is able to accomplish much more.

2. Do the right thing, even without the right results - Taylor gives examples of doing small things that may not produce instantaneous results but will eventually get you to where you want to be.

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Website  | @TaylorAWelch | Facebook

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:12pm MDT

208: Adam Dicker Interview - The Domain Expert

"If you have money you can be rich, but you can only be truly wealthy if you have time." - Adam Dicker

About: Adam Dicker - Serial Entrepreneur, Domain Expert, and Former VP of GoDaddy

Adam Dicker is a coach, speaker and domain expert who owns multiple businesses including the most popular domain forum DNForum.com and the award winning internet marketing and web development agency, NicheWebsites.com. He has a domain portfolio of over 38,000 domain names and has sold many for 6, 7, and even 8 figures. In addition to being named one of the 20 most influential people in the domain industry by Logistik Labs, he often presents at leading industry conference traffic and was elected to their Domain Hall of Fame in 2011. Adam is the former VP of GoDaddy’s Domain Aftermarket and is a successful serial entrepreneur. He is a self-made success and loves to teach others to do the same. He offers many services and a free video course on his website www.AdamDicker.com.

Overview: Adam comes to us with years of experience in the domain world, and business in general. He shares the direction of his entrepreneurial journey, and what he's doing now to help others create sustainable businesses.

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Highlights:

Business Journey: Adam's goal is to help people build sustainable businesses with monthly income. When he got into the domain industry, he went to dmforum.com. After reading and studying about the company, he made an offer to buy the forum. Now, it's over 500,000 members strong. Although he is an expert in domain names, he has experience with companies all over the board. Since he dove into the online world, Adam has built a large web design company, branched out to online reputation repair for companies, individuals, businesses, etc, and even runs a cord bank for cord blood stores.

Adamdicker.com: 4 years ago, Adam started another company that helps his clients learn how to buy and sell domain names. At adamdicker.com, you pay a small monthly fee of $29 and Adam will teach you everything you need to know to build a sustainable, successful business.

End Game for Adamdicker.com: Adam truly wants to give back to a service that has given so much to him. His company doesn't have a hidden agenda, it only wants to help. The more people that are successful, the better it is for the industry, and the better it is for everybody.

Success Tips: If you want to be profitable in the domain business, Adam shares it's important to avoid buying domain names without knowing their market value first. He encourages you to do your research, know what you're getting into, manage your time, and set goals every single day. As a business owner, Adam says that it's crucial that you delegate, but know what's going on with your business on a daily basis. Don't keep your hands in every pot, but be informed about each section of your company.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: You can't let people discourage you from going after your goals and reaching your dreams. Yes, you will have mistakes along the way, but that's OK. Only consider buying a domain name if you can figure out how to build a business off that domain name. Don't get into any industry until you've done a lot of research, and you know what you're doing. Don't waste money on something that you don't know much about. Keep your drive, focus, and work ethic alive. Make sure you have balance, or an escape- something to relax your mind. In addition, Adam gives 3 specific points of action:

1. Don't be afraid to take a chance - sometimes it's very hard, and you may try 10 different things, but if one of those ten things works, then you're doing something right.

2. Read, read, read - Find out all the problems in your industry your pursing, so that you know how to handle what will come in the future.

3. Read Body Language by Julius Fast - This book will teach you how to handle people, how to read people, how to make people feel comfortable, and how to take the lead. It will help you close more deals, get more sales, and be more successful.

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Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | @AdamDicker

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:28pm MDT

207: Myke Metzger Interview - Making Your Mark

"You will act the way that you look and feel." - Myke Metzger

About: Myke Metzger - Entrepreneur, Internet and Network Marketer, and Founder of The Social Campus

Michael Metzger is a 26 year old entrepreneur based out of Richmond, Virginia. His journey begins in Long Island, NY where he grew up watching his father, an All American 4x New England Wrestling Champion, work hard to achieve his goals, raise a family, and attend college. Most would think that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, or possibly a lawyer.

Overview: Although Myke is a young in his entrepreneurial field, he is breathing new life into what already exists in the social media world. Learn what Myke does to help other business owners, and how he landed on this path.

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Highlights:

Background: With a dad that was heavily involved as a sports medicine doctor, and parents that divorced, Myke was left without much guidance and direction in his life. In high school, he was involved in computer graphics, and photography. And through these extra curricular classes, he saw the power of making money online. At the young age of 18, Myke started designing and was generating income through PayPal. After 18 months, taxes came around and Myke learned some hard lessons. This experience led him to working for others and was often fired from every job he had. Through a series of event, Myke eventually landed in the social media sphere and saw the need to help educate others about using what's already out there for free.

Social Campus: Is an online course that Myke started to help others learn how to reach online success. He shares that there are so many people out there who want you to buy new software and applicatoins to try and get you to success, but there are so many things in the world that are free. Myke wants to teach you how to use what's already available to you online that won't cost you a thing.

How It Works: When someone signs up for social domination mastery, they will have a series of video modules available to them. In these videos, Myke walks through how to use the different social media outlets. He takes complex things and breaks them down very simple for people to understand. These tutorials can be done at your own pace and there is plenty of content for you to use. If Twitter isn't your thing, than you don't have to do that portion of the modules. The site will help point you in the right direction.

End Result: After going through Social Campus's course, you will be able to build a massive target following.

Periscope: People who follow Myke on this application will be notified when Myke goes live and will have access to tutorials that are new to his audience. (This is a free application that anyone can download and use.) The main objective for Myke is to build a reputation as a blueprint to give someone. Myke will be building these tutorials for the month of August and while it's live it will be free. However, once August is over, Myke will take what's been recorded and monetize from that.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Start now because it's never going to be the perfect moment. Confidence is always a huge factor in your success. You will act the way that you look and feel. Portray the way you want to become. Take your current situation to the next level; it will change everything around you in a positive way.

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Website | Facebook | TheSocialCampus | @mykemetzger

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:53am MDT

206: Marc Mawhinney Interview - The Coach's Coach

"Learn while you're getting started, but make sure you're taking action." Marc Mawhinney

About: Marc Mawhinney - Founder and Host of Natural Born Coaches

Marc Mawhinney is on a mission to help coaches build stronger businesses! A lifelong entrepreneur, he achieves this with his daily podcast, “Natural Born Coaches” and his programs for coaches, including the 6 week intensive “Seize Your Niche” program.

Overview: "After many years as an entrepreneur, Marc jumped into the coaching business (for small business owners)." Marc shares with us more about his podcast, and who and how he helps as a coach coaching coaches.

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Highlights:

Background: Marc started his career in real estate as a 21 year-old and was pretty successful. However, it went downwards and Marc came to a point where he realized how much he would have benefitted from coaching. As he came into the coaching realm, he had been working with clients who were coaches, and those were the calls he really worked forward to each week. At that point, he decided that he was going to specifically work with coaches. Once he made that decision to narrow his focus, things really took off for Marc. He feels that he can impact more people by coaching coaches, because then they can go out and influence thousands of others that Marc could never reach.

What is Natural Born Coaches: Natural Born Coaches is a podcast that offers advice for his coaches. Marc also helps clients with one-on-one coaching, group programs, as well as coaching people to get into podcasting. He has the ability to do all of his coaching virtually, with clients all over the world. It's been a step by step process for Marc as he has been very conscious not to take on too many projects at once.

How Is It Accepted: Although, many people have a hard time grasping the concept or see the value of coaching, as time goes on coaching is becoming more and more accepted.

Who Does Marc Coach: Marc doesn't deal with specific type of coaches. He shares a story with us of coaching a man who went through a rough breakup and became a coach just for men who go through difficult breakups. Marc shows that there are many different purposes and reasons for coaches in the world. From PTSD to teens, coaches can help people in all walks of life.

How Marc Helps You: Not only does Marc help you obtain clients, he can also help you with your marketing funnel, etc, and shares that each client has unique needs.

Challenges: There is a lot of competition and Marc struggled with pricing at first. Another problem for Marc has been productivity. There's so much to do, and not enough time in the day. He's had to find balance by handing things off to others that he's not quite as good at.

Mistakes Coaches Make: It can be easy for coaches to be very general. It's important that as a coach, they find a niche to really help a focused group of people.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Get out there and do it. Don't hold yourself back, or allow yourself to stay in limbo mode. Learn while you're getting started, but make sure you're taking action.

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Website | Facebook | @NBCoaches | @marcmawhinney

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:05pm MDT

205: Laurie Davis Interview - Love @ First Click

"You don't need an MBA or seed money to start a company." - Laurie Davis

About: Laurie Davis - Founder and CEO of eFlirt, and Author of Love @ First Click

Laurie Davis is the CEO & Founder of eFlirtExpert.com, an online dating concierge service. She is also the author of the best-selling book, Love @ First Click: The Ultimate Guide to Online Dating.


Overview: Laurie is a true outlier who shares with us how she started her company, eFlirt, with only $50 and a Twitter account.

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Highlights:

How eFlirt Started: About six years ago, at the depth of the recession, Laurie was working for Fortune 500's as a marketing consultant and lost all her contracts. At that point, she realized everything that she had been doing for companies, was applicable to relationships. This led her to start eFlirt in 2 days with $50 and a Twitter account.

eFlirt: eFlirt is an online dating concierge service. They are here to help people optimize their experience with online dating. Although they are located in New York, their online platform connects clients from all over the country. Their services are all personal and vary depending upon the specific needs of the client. Many of their clients are entrepreneurs who struggle to have enough free time to date.

How eFlirt Can Help: In order to stand out, Laurie says you need to know what you're doing- how to word your profile, etc. When you come to eFlirt, their team will put you on different sites depending on what you're looking for and what your needs are. They also help with coaching as a relationship evolves. eFlirt is here to help clients think with their hearts as well as their heads.

How it Works: eFlirt offers different packages, but their 4 month package is the most popular. More than 50% of their clients are in relationships after working with eFlirt. Their goal is to focus on quality not quantity. eFlirt does not guarantee a specific number of dates, but will do what it takes to help you meet the right person. They are not matchmakers, but will help you look your best self.

Challenges: Clients need to be more open, there's a reason why their typical "type" hasn't worked in the past. Another challenge is clients approach their love life like it's a business deal and need to learn to manage their emotions and expectations.

Business Challenge: Scaling will always be a challenge because it will always take more people to bring on more clients.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Lead with passion. You will spend so many hours with your business that you need to love it. You don't need an MBA or seed money to start a company, you just need passion, drive, and hustle.

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Website | Facebook | @eFlirtExpert | Book

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:22pm MDT

204: Youssef Darwich Interview - Simplifying the Hiring Process

"Get out there and immerse yourself in the startup culture." - Youssef Darwich

About: Youssef Darwich - Co-Founder of JobMine

Overview: Youssef lives in London, and left his career of investment banking to pursue what he was truly passionate about. Now, he works full time on his company, JobMine, and is all about helping companies, and potential employees have a smoother hiring process that brings personality to life.

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Highlights:

Background: Youssef was involved in investment banking, and got to a point where he wasn't passionate about the road he was on. He decided he wanted to do something different, and was introduced to the world of startups. Youssef and his co-founder began discussing ideas and tested the idea they liked most, got some traction and good feedback and then focused on building JobMine.

What is JobMine: JobMine is a platform which enables applicants to portray their personality when they're looking for a job, and enables employers to find that perfect personality when they hire. Individual companies post specific requirements and then potential candidates upload a video cover letter as to why they are suited for the job they are applying for. Instead of a hiring manager having to manually go through each resume, they can simply select the potential employees they'd like to submit a video.

How They Gain Clients: Their mission is two-fold. They sell directly to company's for them to use their application, and then they also team up with networks with users already looking for jobs on their sites. It's a great way to get a large number of users in one shot.

Challenges: It can be hard to explain how the software works initially because it's something completely new to the market. It can also be difficult to help potential clients understand exactly how things flow. And to see why this app is so needed for their business.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Get out there and do it. Build that initial product that helps you see if there is market with your product or not. Pay for a little bit of advertising to see how many people click on your idea. That allows you to take off a lot of assumptions before you fully move forward.

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Website | Facebook | @JobMineUK

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:56pm MDT

203: Micki Krimmel Interview - Superfit Hero

"I am my customer." Micki Krimmel

About: Micki Krimmel - Founder and CEO of Superfit Hero

Overview: Micki Krimmel is an empowering woman with experience in entrepreneurship, branding, marketing, and even roller derby. Her company, Superfit Hero, is all about making women feel confident and supported in their fitness clothing. Read more about how her clothing is unique to other performance clothing on the market.

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Highlights:

Background: Micki comes from an athletic background in roller derby. She has been competing for the past 8 years and her current team is 8th in the nation. Roller derby is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. It's an extremely competitive amateur sport that is also full contact. It's been her experiences with roller derby that have pushed her to create high quality fitness clothing for the average-sized woman.

What is Superfit Hero: It is a high-quality line of performance clothing designed to make women feel confident and supported through their workouts. Through research, Micki found that most major active brands only make women's clothing up to a size 12 even though the average size of a woman is 14. Micki shares that there are a lot of misconceptions about larger women and their interest in athletics and she is here to redefine fitness. She wants women to know it's ok to be muscular, athletic, and bigger than women in pop culture.

Clothing Quality: Micki has gone above and beyond to ensure the quality of her performance clothing line. Their sizes range from XS-3X. Not only does her company use high quality fabric, but their factory in LA is accustomed to working with athletic gear. She has even made sure the manufacturer uses flat lock stitching to prevent chaffing. A unique supportive waistband is used to prevent the dreaded muffin top. Like Micki said earlier, her clothing line is designed to make women feel confident. It's been tested in all types of workouts including running, cross fit, and roller derby. The fabric also holds up very well against velcro on athletic protective gear. Micki has put in a lot of work to create a very technical garment which is something women in larger sizes have not had access to.

Competition: Although Superfit Hero does make bigger sizes than most popular brands, there is still competition. However, there is a trend in fashion where people are looking for smaller boutique brands that they can connect with emotionally. Micki feels that her message is unique, that her market is unique, and that others are not serving it yet. Her goal is never to compete with budget brands like Target. Superfit Hero is for women who want to make a statement with their workout clothing and are passionate about fitness.

Biggest Challenge: Micki has a background in entrepreneurship, branding, and marketing, but fashion is fairly new to her. Because of that, clothing production has been the most challenging. There are a lot of logistics with multiple vendors and it can be difficult to coordinate all the pieces involved.

Future: Although Micki would like to keep the boutique-y feel to her company, she does want to grow. Eventually, she would like to hire assistants to help with design so she can focus on the branding and marketing aspect of the company.

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Website | Facebook | @SuperfitHero | @Mickipedia | KickStarter

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:41pm MDT

202: Gary Griffiths Interview - Marketing on Facebook the Right Way

"If you're happy, enjoying what you're doing, and it's aligned with your purpose, then you are successful." - Gary Griffiths

About: Gary Griffiths- Founder and CEO of ThreeSides

As a husband, and father of four, Gary was desperate to break free from the corporate shackles that whilst being financially rewarding, were soul destroying and kept Gary away from his family too frequently.

Breaking free in January 2015, Gary's mission is to now Amplify, Inspire and Do more good in the world. If you're interested in doing more good in the world, Gary offers some advice for you in his manifesto here - www.threesidesinc.com/manifesto

Overview: Gary is a Facebook marketing expert. During this interview, he shares how to properly market on Facebook, and how his company, ThreeSides, is giving back.

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Highlights:

How ThreeSides Started: After becoming involved in the corporate world, Gary found that the more money he made, the unhappier he became. In 2014, he had a health wake up call that made him realize what he was doing was not what he wanted to pursue. Then, in January of this year, he was laid off and decided he was never going to work for someone else again.

What is ThreeSides: ThreeSides is a Facebook marketing agency that designs, creates, optimizes, and manages people's Facebook marketing funnels to attract more clients. They also create content, manage ad campaigns, and generate leads for clients. The three purposes of this company are to amplify, inspire, and do more good in the world. ThreeSides specifically wants to generate leads for those who are helping the world be a better place. They want to inspire entrepreneurs to care more about just creating money with their business. ThreeSides will soon be launching a podcast that shares their impact report, and stories of those who are giving back.

How to Use Facebook Properly: Gary shares that if you want to sell on Facebook, it's important to run ads to educate your audience, and not to sell them. People are not on Facebook to buy. It's critical that a proper Facebook funnel is used. 

Challenges: Some of the challenges of ThreeSides include: continuing to grow, building out their systems, and bringing the right team onboard to help ThreeSides scale.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

How To Make Your Facebook Marketing More Effective

Warm Audience: People that are already on your email list, have visited your website, or have liked your FB page are considered a warm audience. With that, you can use Facebook advertising to dramatically increase your warm list.

Cold Audience: Take one of those warm audiences, say your email list, and FB will analyze all the different data points on your email list and they will come up with a look-alike audience to help you identify where your target audience might be. You will then be able to run ads towards that audience which will motivate them to take action.

With this information, you can enter in a niche product, or data that will narrow your audience. This in turn will help you reach the right people within your audience.

Podcast: Purpose Before Profit- Launch Date: August 7, 2015

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Website | Facebook | @ThreeSideInc | Google+

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:58pm MDT

201: Renee Warren Interview - Getting Media Attention to Your Company

"If you're an entrepreneur, the reality is that you're constantly marketing your company." - Renee Warren

About: Renee Warren - Co-Founder of Onboardly

Often referred to as a ‘geek in stilettos’, Renée has been in the marketing and entrepreneurship space since she was 17 years old. Having run a successful restaurant at such a young age, she quickly learned the necessary skills and tactics needed to promote her companies.

Overview: With a long-term background in entrepreneurship and marketing, Renee shares tips on how to help your startup succeed and how her team at Onboardly can help.

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Highlights:

Background: When Renee was 17 she started her own restaurant with her sister. It was a seasonal thing that she did during the summer for four years. Her restaurant did very well and provided her with the means to pay for her college education. She went on to attended a well-known business school in Canada and continued her entrepreneurial journey from there.

What is Onboardly: Onboardly works specifically with funded tech startups to help them with customer acquisition. They do this through PR content marketing and social media. Renee and her co-founder Heather, started the company after coming together to collaborate on some projects. Onboardly works with clients for a minimum of 6 months. Their goal is to create relationships on behalf of their clients and not for their company. When these clients leave the company's help, they have established long-term connections. 

Webinars: Service base business can be difficult to scale. You'll always need someone trying to sell their (Onboardly) type of service. The purpose of their free webinars are to educate potential clients and hopefully increase their sales. By doing so, it gives their audience a chance to know them, understand what they do, and how they can help them.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: If you're thinking about PR/marketing for your company, in order to be effective, it's a process. If you are developing anything for your company, you need to start working on your message from day one. It's also important to create relationships with journalists, writers, and podcasters. These types of people will help you extend your brand. Start following certain writers from different publications you'd like to be highlighted on, and see how or where your service can fit in with them. Don't ask favors from people unless you've done something for them first. If you're shy, you're going to have to get over those hesitations, follow other entrepreneurs you look up to, and get yourself out there.

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Website | @Renee_Warren | Ultimate PR Machine

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:50pm MDT

200: Juliana Crispo Interview - THE Sales Maven

"Sales has historically been a numbers game, but now it's becoming more of an efficiency game." - Juliana Crispo

About: Juliana Crispo - Founder of Startup Sales Bootcamp

Juliana Crispo is the Founder of Startup Sales Bootcamp, the first comprehensive online program that teaches founders and executives how to close larger deals faster and build out a repeatable sales process. Juliana has both sold and led sales at a variety of startups including Meltwater Group where she helped take their newest product from $0 to $13+ MM ARR and was consistently in the top 1% of sales people out of 600 others. She's now also the Director of Enterprise Sales at a startup where she's worked with her team to secure enterprise deals with over half of the top 25 internet retailers by revenue in less than year. She teaches her processes and best practices through Startup Sales Bootcamp

Overview: Juliana started the Startup Sales Bootcamp, after developing the sales process for startups from scratch. She has closed millions of dollars in new business with brands like Groupon, JP Morgan Chase and Staples, and also focuses on helping startups and their sales teams. During this interview, she shares with us how her company can help you, and 3 crucial steps to sending cold emails.

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Highlights:

What is Startup Sales Bootcamp: This program was designed by Juliana to help anyone learn the powerful techniques of sales, and how to become a successful sales for your startup, or corporate gig.

Why Startup Sales Bootcamp: One of the biggest reasons startups fail is because they undervalue revenue. They tend to focus so much on perfecting the product, instead of doing pre-sales. If you haven't been in sales, it can be quite scary, and it can be easy to make multiple, simple mistakes. There is actually a science to sales, and if you can break that down and understand it you can become a successful salesperson. Juliana believes that sales people are made and not necessarily born that way. If you can't sell your own baby (company product) then you are not going to be successful. In order to lead your company and sales people, you need to prove to them that you yourself can sell that product. This bootcamp teaches the best practices, what to say and do, who to focus on, and how to cut through the BS and do things faster.

Why Pre-Sales: Juliana is an extremely deadline oriented person, and doing pre-sales for her company was a way to motivate her to get things done, period. Since she has pre-sold products before, she has offered discounts, and always lets her customers know that the product was not live yet. She shares that it is crucial to set expectations for your customers and to be honest with them.

When You Sign Up: You are given access to a series of videos, workshops, articles, a community, and access to help from Juliana herself. Juliana provides you with a step-by-step methodology to follow that teaches you how to use the data you have right now. She also provides you with templates on how to break things down, what to say, and how to handle rejections. Another aspect of her module, educates clients on how to negotiate contracts and help projects move forward. Once you sign up, you have access to this information for life.

Who Will Benefit: Generally, this bootcamp is going to benefit those who have to sell. Juliana even has VPs of Sales in her bootcamp along with people who have never sold. If you are really interested in getting better results and honing in on what's most important in sales, this bootcamp is for you.

Work-Life Balance: In order for Juliana to be successful she has to prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Even though it's difficult, it's very important for her to say no to things that aren't going to benefit her. She has to be productive with the time that she has. Sleep is also valuable to Juliana's ability to balance her life. Because of the nature of her job, she has the ability to take a vacation and work remotely. Juliana feels that she is very aware of setting limits and knowing when she needs to slow down in certain areas of her work life.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: If there's one thing being in sales has taught Juliana, it's to have the audacity to go out and sell. Think about 1-2 people that you can simply cold call or email. Here are some tips on how to send a cold email:

1. Keep it under 3 sentences - you don't need to reintroduce yourself in the email. In the subject and first line of the email, get to the point.

2. Social proof - site a stat, or share a mutual friend. Do something that puts you as an authority.

3. Have a strong call to action - invite them to do something that is very direct, so it's easy for them to say yes or no, or to set something up. Don't make them work for it. It should be very easy for the person you are emailing.

Whatever you do, don't ramble, or do bullet points, or try to sell them. An email is only meant to get people live. Try to meet them in person if you can. Lastly, always follow up.

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Website | Twitter

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:04am MDT

199: Seth Greene Interview - Dominating the Marketing World

"50% of the success or failure of any marketing campaign is determined by the target market." - Seth Greene

About: Seth Greene - Founder and CEO of Market Domination

Overview: Seth Greene is an energetic marketing magician who shares how he started his successful company and what he recommends entrepreneurs do for their marketing needs.

Highlights:

Background: Prior to Market Domination, Seth was a retail financial advisor for a fortune 500 stock-brokerage firm. While there, he had a client who wanted Seth to work for him, so Seth decided to start his own marketing company. Once Seth had his first client, and it worked, he knew he wanted to pursue it. Right now, Market Domination is the fastest growing privately held marketing firm in the country. What started as a one-man band and has evolved to an office full of employees helping clients all over the nation in just 8 years.

What is Market Domination: Market Domination is a marketing company that helps solo entrepreneurs, fortune 500 companies and everything in-between. Seth shares that instead of offering low prices, his company offers educational content. They also do more outside the marketing niche, they work in 50 different industries, both B2B and B2C. In addition to that, Market Domination offers a money-back guarantee, depending on the service their clients hire them for.

Challenges: Seth has learned from past mistakes that he tends to be too trusting. He shared a story where he was counting on a client to move forward with their company, and had pre-hired employees just to work with that client. Turns out, they backed out from the deal and Seth learned that he will never spend money until the check has cleared.

Books: Seth is a 3-time best selling author with 6 books, and a 3-time nominee for marketer of the year.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: It's important that you read lots of books that are relevant to you (Seth is even offering a free one). Start with your target market. In order to determine who your target market is, use different methods of research via social media, surveys, etc. If by financial necessity, you're starting out and have to do it for yourself, learn enough to know what you don't know and make enough money so that you can eventually outsource your marketing. It's always going to be helpful to have someone else with a different skill set to help with your marketing plan.

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Website | Podcast | Free Book

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:33pm MDT

198: Kavit Haria Interview- The Three C's to Success

"As your certainty level rises, the ability for you to succeed becomes non-negotiable." - Kavit Haria

About: Kavit Haria- Founder of Insider Internet Success

Kavit Haria started in 2005 selling marketing education to musicians and built a 100,000 person email list generating $1MM + in annual sales.


He's the founder of Insider Internet Success where he helps clients set up automated marketing and sales funnels so they make six figures in their first year.

Overview: Kavit is a self-taught serial entreprenuer who shares how any entrepreneur can be successful. His company, Insider Internet Success is tailored for entrepreneurs who are willing to do what it takes to take their company to the next level.


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Highlights:

Background: Kavit spent the first 11 years of his life in Nigeria, and later moved to London where he studied Genetics at a University in the UK. However, Kavit ended up getting involved in business. His journey in business started when he tried to get music gigs paying his tabla. He realized the importance of knowing how to market himself and started learning what he needed to do to get his name out there. Eventually, Kavit was able to get the attention he was looking for, and people started asking him how he was able to self-market. At that point, he figured he needed to put together some type of document that he could share with others. Kavit then created Ebooks from 2005-2009 (which was ultimately InsiderMusic) and based his Ebook's off 3 points: 1) how to get more exposure, 2) how to sell your CD's, 3) how to get more gig's and if you do all those things, how to quit your day job to be a musician. In order to be successful, Kavit participated in joint venture partnerships, google advertising, writing articles for magazines, and be interviewed by other music companies

What is Insider Internet Success: Insider Internet Success was founded in 2008 and started out as Kavit selling infoproducts (ebooks, CDs and seminars) to help people start their online business. Now, Kavit is recognized as a leading online business coach and lead generation expert, with more than 10,000 unique clients worldwide. They have a small team that is distributed between 5 countries. Insider Internet Success is a lead generation service and total business building solution that helps clients create a freedom-based business. Their philosophy is very simple: "Have fun, do exceptional, meaningful work, pay attention to the details, treat people right, tell the truth, have a positive impact on the world around us, give back, and keep learning." With the exception of 2 clients, every one of them have been successful. Currently, Kavit takes on 4 new clients a month.

How Kavit is Successful: 98% of Kavit's income comes from his email database. He writes emails every single day with quality content. Those who opt-in to Kavit's emails know that his emails will be a daily occurrence. Kavit shares that business owners or future business owners understand that learning is the key to freedom.

Challenges: It can be difficult to find the right salespeople, operation managers, etc. Kavit tends to put out 5-10 advertisements a week to find the right employee to keep them around for a long time. Kavit's company charges a high fee, but that is because he only brings the best talent to his team.

Tips on How to Sell: Have a niche and play to your strengths. Create material/content that showcases your value. Figure out what your target audience wants to know and create information that caters to them. Then, share that information in as many places as you can online. Eventually, you will need to get out from behind the computer to attend interviews, and events, which will help your company gain awareness.

Why Entrepreneurs Struggle: Fear tends to be the biggest inhibitor to any entrepreneurs success. In order to overcome the fear of moving to the next step, you just have to stop thinking so much about it, and do it. Give yourself permission to move forward and do it. It's not going to be easy; you have to work hard.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: If you're early in business, there are 3 critical C's that you must apply:

1. Clarity - Know what is that you want to do and bring clarity to your idea, which will then lead you to confidence.

2. Confidence - With clarity, confidence will come naturally and that confidence will add to your certainty of your company.

3. Certainty - Slowly builds up as you start to grow your confidence. It's something that happens subconsciously. And as your certainty level rises, the ability for you to succeed becomes non-negotiable. It becomes inevitable that you succeed because you bring to the table all that clarity, confidence, and certainty.

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:07am MDT

197: Sarah Peterson Interview - Finding Your Niche

"Your target audience is not a demographic, it's a mindset and a problem." - Sarah Peterson

About: Sarah Peterson- Founder of Unsettle.org

Overview: Sarah Peterson is an entrepreneur, traveller, and writer from Vancouver, BC Canada. She is the author of Unsettle.org, where she helps people stop settling for work they don't love.

Sarah is focused on what she is passionate about. Through that passion, Sarah has created a successful company where she teaches entrepreneurs how to stop settling in their career. During this interview, she shares some insightful tips on how to find your niche, your target audience, and why you shouldn't use ads to make money from your blog.

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Highlights:

Before Unsettle.org: Prior to Unsettle, Sarah worked in HR, and was a finance blogger by night but it was not something she was completly passionate about. It didn't gain as much traction as she wanted in the 4 1/2 years she worked on it and she felt limited in her ability to travel and work on what she really wanted to do. So, she launched Unsettle.org where she "believes you should never settle for work you don’t love." Now, she only takes work/clients that she is excited about.

What is Unsettle.org: Unsettle is a website resource for entrepreneurs Sarah started in January 2015. It's a place where entrepreneurs are taught how not to settle for work they don't love. Although, Sarah doesn't believe that everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur, she does believe that everyone has an entrepreneurial spirit in them that can be utilized within an organization or on your own personal projects.

Business Model: Unsettle.org is based around helping people for free. Her company makes money through affiliate income. Sarah only refers her audience to things that she actually uses and loves. She also does one-on-one coaching with clients and only takes on about 3 a month.

Training Tips From Sarah

How You Can Find Your Niche: In order to find your niche, there are four questions you should ask yourself:

1. What are your interests? 

2. What is your art? (i.e., builder, writer, homemaker, anything that you are creating is considered art) 

3. What are your unique skills? 

4. How can you help people? 

If you don't know where to start to find what you're good at, go to your best friend, or someone who you're very close to and ask them. Another great way to discover your talents, is to go through past greeting/birthday cards, or performance reviews where someone may have shared something specifically unique about you.

How to Find Your Target Audience: As you get into your business or niche, your target audience will change. You'll see the change as you determine which part of your business you're struggling with, and ask your audience what you can do to be better. By doing so, you'll create content while getting to know your audience on a more personal level. Remember, your target audience is not a demographic, it's a mindset and a problem.

Reasons Why Advertising Is Not Right for Most Bloggers: Click Here 

Free Course: Discover the Perfect Lifestyle Business Idea Click Here

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Website | Facebook | @PetersonSar 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:51pm MDT

196: Anthony Tran Interview - How to Grow Your Audience

"I always lead with value and I just don't ask for anything" - Anthony Tran

About: Anthony Tran - Founder of Marketing Access Pass and Host of Traffic Generation All-Stars

Overview: Anthony Tran is the Founder of Marketing Access Pass, an All-in-One Online Marketing Training and Services website. He specializes in WordPress website development, search engine optimization, and social media marketing strategies to help you take your business to the next level. As an Air Force military veteran and former Operations Manager he knows what is like to not to be able to have complete control of your career. Having an online business offers you the ability to build a freedom lifestyle and his goal is to inspire and help you achieve your dreams.

Traffic Generation All-Stars

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Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | @AnthonyTranMAP

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:55pm MDT

195: Suzanne Paulinski Interview- Starting a Movement

"Don't worry about everybody else. Don't worry about how long it's taking you. Don't worry about if someone is coming up behind you. Stay in your lane." - Suzanne Paulinski

About: Suzanne Paulinski- Founder of The Rockstar Advocate

Overview: Suzanne has a passion for music that started at a young age. After traveling down the entrepreneurial road in the music scene, she saw the need for artists to have a "career coach," or someone who would be their advocate for success. Now, she is attempting to start a movement with her new-found company, The Rockstar Advocate.

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Highlights:

Entrepreneurial Journey: Suzanne always knew she wanted to be in the music industry. She said even though she wasn't an artist herself, she knew that she wanted to work with them. In college, she attempted to create a record label with her roommate, and became a paralegal to learn how to write contracts. After trying to do work long distant with her business partner, they decided it wasn't working quite how they wanted it to and called it quits. A couple years later, she started a consulting firm, but ended up pursuing her passion helping independent music artists further their career.

The Rockstar Advocate: Suzanne started The Rockstar Advocate about a year ago. Because it can be difficult to be heard in a business that is flooded with talent, Suzanne saw the need to aid artists in their career. As an advocate, she is there to teach musicians how to brand themselves, and how to connect with their fan base in a more genuine way. Her goal is to help them find clarity and do what they need to do to stay on track and achieve their goals.

Services Offered: Most of the programs that Suzanne offers are 3 month programs. Within that time frame, Suzanne is able to build strong relationships with her clients and teach them how to improve. Suzanne also helps artists go through contracts and negotiate what they want. However, her main focus is her 3 month program. In order for Suzanne to give her artists the amount of attention that they need, she only takes on about 10-12 people at a time. Because Suzanne's niche is so new, she offers free consultations to explain to her clients what she is really there for. Her purpose is solely to coach and train independent artists to achieve the ultimate potential. 

Challenges: Suzanne has found that it is difficult to get people to understand that she is not the manager and to break the compartmentalize barrier. It's also proven a challenge to get the word out there about what she does and how she can help.

Goal: Overall, Suzanne truly wants to make the music industry more about self-care, rather than a hustle. She'd love to bring more of a compassion to the music industry that she feels is lacking. She does not want to build an empire, but to help artists help themselves. As long as she can pay her bills, and see the results of her work, she is happy to continue working this business on her own. However, Suzanne would love to start a movement, to speak at seminars, podcasts, etc, to increase awareness for the need of her services. Eventually, she'd love to have her own weekly show on YouTube.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: The most important thing she shares is not to worry about what others are doing. Stay focused on what you're doing and pace yourself. Your way is what works for you, and no one else. Take the opportunities that you want to take. Get rid of "should,", and do things the way you want to do them. Trust in the process.

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Website | Facebook @RockStarAdvo | Youtube | Instagram | Pinterest 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:45pm MDT

194: JobPiper Interview - The Science of Hiring

"We help companies build legendary teams, and we help individuals build legendary careers."

About: Derik Krauss, Ryan Harmon, & Adam Wilson - Founders of JobPiper

Overview: JobPiper helps employers find the right employees for their company. During this interview, we learn about the founder's story along with the ups and downs of starting JobPiper.

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Highlights:

What is JobPiper: JobPiper is a young company that helps other companies hire with science (hiring the right person for the right position). Employers sign up with Job Piper (a software platform) and they then "clone" your top employees. They use assessments to determine what the qualities are of your top employee/s to help figure out the type of people that will fit best with your company. If you are a start-up that does not have an employee or employees yet, Job Piper will use information from research to put together a profile of what you should be looking for depending on your company and the position type.

Revenue: There are 2 main streams of revenue. When you sign up as an employer- it's free, and then there are up sales offered- one is called Candidness (a more in depth application a potential employee would fill out).

Challenges: It can be difficult to build something that everyone can use. JobPiper is striving to make this application available to everyone.

Staying Strong: JobPiper actually entered an accelerator program in Provo, and did not receive the funding they were hoping to receive, but were still very determined to make JobPiper happen. They will continue to work towards this company whether investors invest or not. Right now, as bootstrappers, they have a little bit of money to continue progress- but only have a few months left until the bank runs dry. So, they are trying to reduce the sale cycle, and work on website development. They've also become involved in another pitch competition.

End Game: The guys at JobPiper would love to see this company explode and continue to grow 20-30 years down the road.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: (From the JobPiper team) Hire with science- it can save your startup company. Be passionate about what you're doing. Show up and network- go to events, do anything to meet people. And lastly, start doing what you love.

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:42pm MDT

193: Ceci Johnson Interview - Building a Luxury Empire

"Punch fear in the face. Fear is the only thing that keeps people from trying. If you don't try, you'll never know."

"Love doesn't pay the bills."

About: Ceci Johnson- Founder of Ceci New York

Ceci Johnson’s story started with an invitation she created for a coworker’s wedding combined with the realization that a truly customized graphic design experience in wedding invitations was not available at that time. Armed with a clear desire to create the best invitations in the world, she started her business out of a shared office space NYC. Ten years later, her love of paper, design and innovation still drives her to create beautiful and completely original pieces every day.

Ceci was named “Woman to Watch” by Tory Burch, “Invitation Innovator” by WeTV and garnered Modern Bride magazine’s trendsetter award and New York magazine’s prestigious Expert Stationer award. Her designs and expertise have appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, InStyle, W Magazine, Town & Country and on the Today Show, VH1 and Gossip Girl among many others. Notable clients include the President of the United States, International Royalty, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Sarah Jessica Parker, Katherine Heigl, Dylan Lauren, Rosie O’Donnell, the Empire State Building, Cole Haan, Hugo Boss and the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Overview: Ceci is a graphic designer that was born with the entrepreneurial gene. After seeing the need for custom wedding invitations 16 years ago, Ceci paved the way and eventually started Ceci New York- a luxury invitation and corporate design company. During this interview, Ceci shares what it took for her to start her own company, and also offers great advice on how to stand behind your brand with clients.

New York wedding photographer Sofia Negron CeciStyle Ceci New York orchid Invitation L'Olivier Floral Atelier

Click to Tweet: Ep 193:

Highlights:

Background: Ceci obtained a degree in graphic design and got her first job working as a the designer for the bridal registry for large department stores. She then had a co-worker ask her to design a wedding invitation for her, which ignited the spark. From there she moved to New York City and joined the corporate world doing web design, but missed paper design. She went to the CEO of the corporation she was working for and asked if she'd let her design her wedding invitations. It was all downhill from that point on, and before Ceci knew it, she was meeting with referral after referral. Six months into launching her website, Ceci received the trendsetter award from Modern Bride Magazine. Ceci spent a lot of time working long days to get her name out there, she knocked on a lot of doors in her industry to showcase her portfolio, and was constantly revamping her site.

What is Ceci New York: Ceci launched Ceci New York in 2004 without any investors and completely on her own. It's a luxury brand that designs invitations for any event from weddings to non-profit organizations. (From website)- "Our design atelier is driven by a groundbreaking concept that unites the custom and service of couture with the tactile elements of stationery and branding, creating a new niche in the design industry for visual styling. We strive to create a superior experience for each client, offering an incomparable range of couture services and outstanding ready-to-order products that boast flawless craftsmanship and the utmost attention to detail. From one-of-a-kind bespoke designs to original ready-to-order that discreetly bears Ceci’s signature, our creations possess a coveted commissioned quality that lends to the magic we invent. Ceci’s signature is the hallmark of authenticity and never-before-seen originality, ensuring that you receive a true work of art."

About Ceci New York: The company currently has 20 employees that all work at the main showroom in New York City. Ceci says if you want to grow your company, you need employees. And with that, you have to learn how to let go of having control over everything to be successful. However, she is a very hands-on CEO that enjoys being a part of the design process and leading the way with her vision of the company. Their main target audience started out as brides and weddings in general, but now they help anyone who is looking to elevate their events through design.

New York wedding photographer Sofia Negron CeciStyle Ceci New York orchid Invitation L'Olivier Floral Atelier

Goal: Eventually, Ceci would love to be a part of different markets and use her designs for bedding, phone cases, jewelry, etc.

Work-Life Balance: Ceci is the proud mother of a little boy and feels that having him in her life has really helped her prioritize her time at work. She strives to stay focused and be effective while working so that she can spend the time she'd like with her son.

Challenges: Ceci shares that it can be difficult to deal with certain clients and stick up for what you know needs to be done in order to accomplish their project. There have also been times when Ceci has been afraid to tell her clients what the prices were for their order. However, she realized that when she confidently explained to her clients the extent of work that goes into their project, they appreciate her time and effort.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: When reaching out to others, show them how invested you are in their company and how you can solve potential problems. When creating a sales plan, look at how much you want to make on an annual basis and break it down by month, then by project or amount. It's important to educate your audience and pave the way for what you're offering. Lastly, stand behind your work.

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CeciNewYork.com | CeciStyle.com | @CeciNewYork | Instagram | Facebook |Pinterest

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:23pm MDT

192: Sarah Kathleen Peck Interview - Finding Balance

"One minute is enough."

About: Sarah Peck- Director of Communications at One Month, Founder and Writer of It Starts With

Sarah Peck is the Director of Communications at One Month, an essayist, a speaker, and an open-water swimmer. One Month is an online school for accelerated education that teaches people business and coding skills in as little as 30 minutes a day. Based in Brooklyn, Sarah is an intuitive relationship builder, a philosopher, and a deep lover of mind-body integration. She is a 20-time NCAA All-American swimmer who escaped from Alcatraz nine consecutive times, a yoga instructor, and a beginning dancer. She believes that communication is about finding the roots of our power and owning our deeper narratives and stories. With more than a decade of graphic design, marketing, and writing experience, her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Fast Company, 99U, Psychology Today, Life Hacker, Thought Catalog, and she has spoken at Berkeley, Penn, Harvard, the University of Virginia, Alive in Berlin, WDS, and more. When she’s not writing, creating, or teaching, you’ll find Sarah teaching yoga, doing open-water ocean swims, practicing her handstands, or hosting themed dinner parties for quirky, philosophical, compassionate groups of people.

Overview: Sarah is a well-rounded entrepreneur who is not only a certified yoga trainer, but is working on a book, has her own blog- It Starts With- and is also the Director of Communications at One Month. Each of these activities compete for her time, and throughout this interview, Sarah shares her secret to finding the balance.

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Click to Tweet - Ep 192: Sarah Kathleen Peck Interview - Finding Balance

Highlights:

Background: Sarah attended school in Palo Alto, CA where she studied Architecture and Design. It was an opportunity for Sarah to look at how the physical world around us influences our daily decisions. After school, she launched her own publication, started a magazine, and eventually broke away to become a consultant. While being a consultant for a firm, Sarah worked for a lot of amazing companies and with her experience, decided to start her own company online. She was able to build a number of digital products and online classes. Most recently, Sarah started working with One Month- an online education company.

It Starts With: After wanting to join the online blogging scene for some time, Sarah took the plunge and started her own blog- It Starts With. In the beginning, she made it a point to publish something at least once a week and has been able to do that pretty steadily for the last 4 years. Now, her site has over 300 essays, and Sarah enjoys the connections she is making with her readers.

One Month: One Month is an accelerated education site that mainly teaches coding. About six months ago, Sarah was contacted by One Month and was asked to be their Director of Communications. Sarah focuses on all of the ways people find out about One Month. She writes blog posts, coordinates content strategies, works with social media, and has even taught a class. Currently, One Month offers 9 classes. They have already had over 30,000 students from 70 different countries. Some of their students have included individuals from Apple, Google, Harvard, and Duke. These students are hungry for knowledge, and One Month is excited to help educate in a different way.

Cost of Attendance: One Month recently turned to a subscription model. A student can take any single class for $49 for 1 month. If you wanted to take it over a slower period of time, then you can. Everything is taught via video and there are 5 different video speeds students can choose from.

Challenges for One Month: Sarah shared that One Month is trying to figure out the best way to do enterprise sales (B2B), and are in search of good team members, especially for their customer support system.

Work-Life Balance: Sarah understands that it's not humanly possible to do everything at once. Her main focus is One Month right now. She'd rather give her all in one area of her life at a time, and then give small amounts of time to other projects that will slowly build up. She often tells herself that one minute is enough. Instead of feeling discouraged about not doing all of her morning routine, Sarah will do 1 minute of yoga, 1 minute of meditation, 1 minute of journaling, and that's enough to trigger calm and peace for her.

5 Year Goal: Sarah hopes that in five years she will have a toddler, have her first book published, and continue on the path that she's on right now. She loves being around the people in her life and feels lucky to be learning all that she is.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Get out there and be uncomfortable. Even though there may be others out there who look like they know what they're doing, odds are, they don't either. Everyone has insecurities and weaknesses, just do your best with where you are.

One-Month-Brand_Logo-Blue

  

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Website | One Month | @SarahKPeck | @OneMonthEdu | FB SarahKPeck | FB One Month

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:50pm MDT

191: Keith Humphrey- Soaring Above the Competition

"If you come against a brick wall, don't be afraid to take a right turn."

About: Keith Humphrey- President and CEO of Jet AirWerks and Jet AirParts

Keith Humphrey, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Jet AirParts, LLC, is a commercial aviation veteran with over 30 years of worldwide experience, including expertise in CFM56 overhaul; on-wing maintenance; aftermarket sales and component repair; strategic planning; and sales and marketing.

Humphrey, who also serves as the President and CEO of Jet AirWerks, LLC, an FAA Part 145 Repair Station and sister company to Jet AirParts.

Overview: From the military, to jet engine mechanics, to politics, and acting, Keith has been involved in just about everything imaginable. During this interview, we learn about the various jobs Keith has had, how he started his company in 2007, and what advice he has for those stepping onto the entrepreneurial path.

Highlights:

Background: Right out of high school, Keith enrolled in the navy and became a jet engine mechanic. (And although it wasn't planned, Keith has spent the last 40 years working in the jet engine mechanical field.) After the military, Keith took a job in Maryland for a year, and then obtained a 2 year degree so that he could work for GE. Four years into working for GE, Keith felt he had learned what he needed to learn and moved on. Overall, Keith worked at several different companies all over the map- from California, Manilla, to Europe, and Florida.

Jet AirWorks: Prior to starting Jet AirWorks, Keith was working for a French company in Miami that fixed jet engine components. It was while working there that Keith finally decided upon what niche he wanted to focus. Keith then took his family and moved to Kansas to launch his company. He started small, paid himself small, and only focused on things that would help bring in revenue. Because Keith started the company during the economy crash, he had a hard time finding lenders.

Customers: Part distributors (brokers), engine shops, and airlines.

Jet AirParts: In August 2011, Jet AirParts was organized to meet a specific demand of low-cost, high-demand aviation material. It was also a way to make money on the side for Jet AirWorks.

Managing Employees: It's a difficult aspect in any company, but especially when you start your own. Keith has created an employee handbook for his 26 employees and felt that has helped dramatically. They are in a very small town in Kansas (about 15,000 people) and so to prevent high turn over, Keith decided from the beginning to offer 100% healthcare for their employees. And starting this year, he his also implementing 401(k)'s. Keith is grateful that he's had the opportunity to provide people with jobs who haven't had work in over a year, or are even recently released from prison. It makes him happy to know that he can help others get back on their feet and feel good about their life again.

End Game: This year, they will be obtaining Chinese certification, and once they have that, it will allow their customers to sell those parts into China. Within in a few years, Keith hopes this company will expand tremendously and become much larger than where it is today. But for right now, he's just taking it one step at a time.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Go all in. Pay yourself enough just to get by in the beginning- don't go overboard. Learn your business from the ground up, and know every aspect of your company that you can, but know that you'll learn even more as you go. Don't be afraid if you come against a brick wall to take a right turn. Do not let fear run your life, just work past it.

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Website | About.me

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:48pm MDT

189: Luz Rivas - Providing Tech Programs for Young Women

"You're never going to have everything you need in place to get started, but think about what you do have." Luz Rivas

About: Luz Rivas- Founder of DIY Girls, and Co-Founder of KitHub

Overview: Luz Rivas inspires us with her desire to help change the upcoming generation of Latinas in LA. During this interview, Luz shares her road to success in the tech space and how she started her company, DIY Girls, and co-founded KitHub.

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Highlights:

Background: Luz grew up in LA with a single mother and her sisters- they moved quite often because of finances. From the beginning, Luz and her sister felt the need to help financially and learned at a young age how to go out and make a little money. Luz always had a love for school and was in 5th grade when her passion for technology began. There weren't any specific engineering programs for Luz to join, but she did look for opportunities to expand her knowledge and took advantage of them as often as she could. 

In high school, her math teacher told her about MIT and told her there was an admissions officer coming to their school. Luz decided to meet with this recruiter. In her senior year, Luz was looking at hometown schools to apply to but decided to apply to MIT just to see if she could get in. To her surprise, she was accepted. 4 years later, Luz graduated from MIT, moved to Chicago and worked for Motorola for 3 years. From there, Luz attended graduate school at Harvard, moved to New York where she worked for a time, and then decided to come back to LA. Upon her return, Luz worked at CalTech and at other educational jobs then finally started DIY Girls.

About DIY Girls: DIY Girls is a non-profit organization that runs after school programs, summer camps, and workshops for mainly lower-income, Latina girls to learn about technology and engineering. The activities are related more to the maker movement (meaning, they're able to make certain things with tools that they normally wouldn't have access to). This program came about because Luz saw the need for something to help prepare these young girls for the tech world like she wished she'd had as a child. Their focus is on girls because studies have shown that around 4th and 5th grade, more girls tend to lose interest in math and science.

About KitHub: After receiving numerous calls from parents asking Luz and her co-founder Tara where they were purchasing all these unique parts for their DIY projects, Tara and Luz decided to create KitHub. It's a site for parents to purchase everything they need to build a project with their children all in one kit. Right now, consumers pay a monthly subscription and are sent new projects to their home each month. Eventually, KitHub will be moving toward simply providing kits for anyone to choose from- instead of just focusing on a monthly subscription.

Why Start DIY Girls: Luz shares that she's always wanted to make her own choices and do what she loves most. Because LA is her hometown, she always felt that if she was going to start something it had to be there.  She feels jealous of these young girls, and tells her team that if she's not jealous, improvements need to be made.

Attendees: This year, they are expecting to serve about 550 girls. By the end of 5 years, they are hoping to serve over 3,000 girls in Southern California. Although she has received inquiries for starting DIY Girls in other states, they are going to focus on building it in LA first, and then maybe expand down the road.

Cost: The after-school program is $15 per girl per session, which covers all the materials and staff help. DIY Girls receives funding from individual donors as well as organizations. They actually had an indie go-go campaign about a year and half ago and were able to raise $16k.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Get started. Don't be so focused on having a perfect plan or all the funding to start working on your dreams. You're never going to have everything you need in place to get started, but think about what you do have.

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Website | KitHub | @LuzRivas | LinkedIn |

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:52am MDT

188: Fraser Patterson - An Innovative Approach to Remodeling

"If you have a great idea, shout it from the rooftops and convince everyone it does work." - Fraser Patterson

About: Fraser Patterson- Founder and CEO of Bolster

Bio: He’s been a carpenter and award-winning general contractor in the U.K.; a guest lecturer in entrepreneurship and business incubator executive at Centro, an architecture and design university in Mexico; a mentor to various startups for Endeavor, a global non-profit that supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets and the founder and C.E.O. of OnisVida, a company that helps homeowners manage their remodeling projects with finance from Infonavit, Latin America's largest mortgage lender.

Overview: Fraser is an innovative carpenter who is transforming the home remodeling space. With a background in math and physics, Fraser is changing the lives of homeowners and contractors for good.

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Highlights:

Background: Fraser began working as a carpenter in Scotland, while also studying math and physics. During this time in his life, he continually thought there had to be a better way to remodel. Eventually, Fraser became a general contractor, grew very quickly, won Ikea as a strategic partner, won numerous awards, and then the economy crashed in 2008. From there, Fraser moved to Mexico and was offered a position teaching entrepreneurship at the Architecture and Design University in Centro, Mexico. While there, Fraser suggested starting a business venture for these students and met with the head of endeavor at Mexico who then got involved in helping Fraser start this business venture. Then, one day, Fraser got a call from the Mexican government asking if he could help solve the remodeling process. With the help of Infonavit (Latin America´s largest mortgage lender) Fraser was able to implement Mexico’s first home remodeling insurance platform in partnership with Infonavit , HSBC Mexico and Aserta. After proving to be successful, Fraser decided to take this idea to the U.S. and started Bolster with his co-founder Ana.

What is Bolster: Bolster is a start up company in the home remodeling space. They've invented the first affordable performance bond for small construction projects. They provide the consumer with the contractor who has been vetted by them, and backed by an insurance company that literally guarantees they will finish the project according to the terms of the contract. And if, for any reason, that contractor fails the insurance company will find another contractor and make up the financial difference of bringing on another contractor. The process to vet a new contractor only takes about 24 hours. Bolster is completely in charge of handling all the paperwork/contract for the consumer's project.

Challenges: It has been tough for Fraser's company to acquire the market here in the U.S. He's had to heavily educate the market (contractors and homeowners) because Bolster is such a new idea. Consumers tend to think that the idea of their contractor being backed is almost too good to be true.

Acquiring the Market: Initially, what the company did was partner with the American Institute of Architects, but it didn't produce the results that Fraser was looking for. Then, they tried going through real estate agencies, which was mildly successful. Bolster did receive a lot of press but there were complications with the overflow of people reaching out and they struggled with capturing and nurturing their audience. They soon came to realize that by helping the contractor sell the product themselves, it gave Bolster and the contractors a great advantage in competition.

Team Size: There are about 5 people who work closely with the company, but Fraser does not want to grow the company size until he is confident in scaling it successfully. He's been there before: believing in a solution to the problem, but then finding out that the market/sales approach was wrong which caused them to back-pedal. Fraser is more focused on helping the market first and winning contracts before he increases the company size.

End Game: Fraser really sees Bolster as the remodeling solution for the contractor from end-to-end. He wants to help contractors market themselves, give them back-end tools, measure their performance, and essentially turn them into super contractors. He also wants to be able to set up individual sites for contractors with a back office to help manage their customers. Fraser wants to become the brand for the contractor more than a brand for the consumer.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Assume your idea is wrong. Go out, analyze your market, and gather the data for your product. If you can test your assumptions in a light way (more than just surveys, and talking to people) you will have a much better idea of the potential of your company. It's important to go out and help your potential customers, figure out what their pain points are, learn how you can help them, and then help them create a service from it.

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Connect With Fraser:

Website | @GetBolster | @FraserPatterson | LinkedIn | About.me

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:41am MDT

187: Peter Gould- Branding at a Deeper Level

"Spend time with an agency who will help you creatively connect and engage emotionally with your audience." Peter Gould

About: Peter Gould- Founder and CEO of Creative Cubed

BIO: Peter Gould is a designer, creative entrepreneur and digital artist. Over the last ten years he has been involved in the design and launch of many international brands and creative projects through his studio Creative Cubed, based in Sydney, Australia. His team loves to work with startups and entrepreneurs who dream big and are passionate about launching their ideas into the world. He has won several creative awards, launched his own apps & games, teaches branding workshops internationally, and reaches over 150,000 people from his Facebook page.

Overview: Peter Gould is an influential, innovative, and award-winning creative graphic designer who is highly sought after globally. Peter has touched many international audiences and throughout this interview, inspires us to travel the world and incorporate our findings into our work.

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Highlights:

Background: Peter has always been the creative type, and when he got to high school he was very interested in graphic design. He ended up really enjoying it and decided to start his own graphic design company during college which proved to be an intense and challenging time of his life. However, it gave him some hands on experience in learning what works and what doesn't. Peter married at 21, and on his honeymoon, he was able to travel quite extensively through Europe. During that time he felt inspired to travel more and experience the world. He has been able to incorporate graphic designs inspired by his travel.

What is Creative Cubed: Creative Cubed is a branding and design studio located in Sydney, Australia that's been in business close to 10 years. They help people take their ideas/products and turn them into campaigns. They use a strategic design process to help them launch something that is going to be beautiful and achieve the results they are looking for. Their team is only about 5 people, and they prefer to keep it that way to really be hands on and give clients the time that they need.

What Sets Creative Cubed Apart: They've been able to use tools like Strategizer and Business Model Canvas to understand at a fundamental level what their clients want. Creative Cube believes that a company's brand is much deeper than just a logo. A company must think about what emotional response they want from people. It's an experience that is created over years of marketing and solid branding. Although the logo is a factor in getting consumers' attention, clients must focus on establishing some kind of relationship by thinking about the messaging, images, language, and the kind of personality they portray to their audience. All of those elements are delivered through social media, trade shows, emails, etc. Peter shares that this is where the brand process starts.

Process: Peter works with entrepreneurs by opening up Strategizer to discuss with his clients what their unique value proposition is, what their potential consumer's pain points are, how they plan to solve those problems, etc. Creative Cubed really wants to establish a deeper level of branding from the start.

Challenges for Creative Cubed: Peter feels that his challenges as an entrepreneur are like many others out there. He has to balance his work life, manage numerous responsibilities, and have the mental energy to work long days/weeks.

Goals: Creative Cubed has started to launch internal apps, books, and more. Peter would also like to work with people and their brands that are doing positive things like reaching out to other communities or providing service.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: You need to have people around you that support you and keep you inspired. Those kinds of people can direct you to helpful tips, sites, and other educational information. Make the effort to get out and network with other people. Peter also encourages you to pay particular attention to the design process of your brand. It's better to spend time with an agency who will help you creatively connect and engage emotionally with your audience. Read some great branding books or listen to some branding podcasts.

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Connect With Peter:

Website | Facebook | @PeterGouldArt | Instagram | LinkedIn | Google+

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Category:Business -- posted at: 1:29am MDT

186: Eliana Salvi - Creating a Community for Women

"You don't have to wait for the perfect platform, you can start with something simple and then change and improve later." - Eliana Salvi

About: Eliana Salvi- Founder of PinkTrotters

Overview: Eliana is an Italian native with a degree in International Management from Bocconi University. She has an insane love for traveling, getting to know new cultures, and internet products. Throughout this interview we learn what drove Eliana to start her entrepreneurial journey and what her company (PinkTrotters) is all about.

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Highlights:

How PinkTrotters Started: Eliana was a marketing finance manager for a large corporation prior to starting this company and would work abroad (mainly in: Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc) but soon realized that this was not her future. She was not interested in being involved in the corporate world for the rest of her life. Eliana really wanted to start something online, and do something that incapsulated the passions and talents she possesses. After traveling extensively with her previous job position, Eliana felt there was a need for a place specifically for women to meet up and get together no matter where they are. And so, together, with a friend, Eliana decided to start PinkTrotters.

What is PinkTrotters: (Founded at the end of 2013, and currently incubated by H Farm Ventures.) PinkTrotters is a global online and offline community of contemporary women who meet and share exclusive event and trip experiences, powered by brands. PinkTrotters focuses on fashion, food, arts, and wellness. Women who are interested in these fields of work can network with other women, and share their talents to promote their business at these events.

Challenges: Eliana shares that it has been tough to break into the entrepreneurial world and is much harder than she thought it would be. She has to deal with the bureaucratic and technical side of it. And she also has had to learn how to manage her partnership, and her team. She also has to make a great effort at putting herself out there along with her company. Eliana states that until a company becomes very successful, you are constantly focusing on testing your market, solving problems, and readjusting. It has also been difficult for Eliana to balance her private life with her ever-constant work life.

Getting Funds: Finding investors, especially as a woman proved to be a challenge for Eliana. In Europe, the majority of the investors are men and tend to have an old-school way of thinking when it comes to business. It's been easy for Eliana to pitch her business to brands and partners, but much more difficult to sell her company to investors.

Goals for 2015: During the first year of PinkTrotters, Eliana's company made around 60,000 euros, and she hopes to double her amount for 2015- or make close to 150,000 euros. Eliana also hopes to take more of this company online- she is currently building a platform that will include all of the services offered at their events. It will allow brands and travel partners to directly engage with the PinkTrotters community, and be able to receive funds for those services online.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Form a team with people who are 100% committed, whether it's a size of only 2 or 3 people, they need to be wholly committed. If not, it's easy to lose a lot of time, energy, and faith in your company. You don't have to wait for the perfect platform, you can start with something simple and then change and improve later.

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Website | @ElyPinktrotter | Instagram | About.me

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:42pm MDT

185: Steeve Bois - Creative by Nature

"The best way to get a good idea is to not look for it." - Steeve Bois

About: Steeve Bois - Founder and CEO of Social Symphony App

Overview: Steeve has always had a love for being creative and believes that we are all creative by nature. He saw the need to create an application that would help others find happiness through music. The app is called Social Symphony. Thanks to this project and to the talented people Steeve has worked with, he hopes he will be able to make the planet a better place.

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Highlights:

Background: When Steeve was 16, he used to create music on his computer (or with pen and paper) and he would play with his friends at bars in Paris. He's not sure why he has a passion for it, but assumes it is because music has sound and vibration, like emotions have vibrations. Because of this love for music Steeve has had throughout his life, he decided to create an app that would provide others with those same strong emotions he has felt.

What is Social Symphony: The purpose of this app is to help people express their creativity. Steeve believes it's very important to be happy in life and a good way to do that is to express your creativity. Social symphony helps people create amazing music in a few seconds without any knowledge (basically, a music maker app for non musicians).

How it Works: Currently, it is only available in private beta. So, you have to subscribe to download. Once it's downloaded on your iPhone, there is a simple interface that allows you to choose from high quality sounds to mix with, etc. You can select different instruments to mix with and you can also sing along into the app and record everything together to make your own song. Right now, they are working on the legal issues to be able to use what you have created commercially, but it will be possible eventually. The application will be free, but the user will be able to purchase premium music for a small fee if they'd like to expand their options.

How it Started: For Steeve, the best way to get a good idea is to not look for it. He was happy, and living a good life, but he felt like he was missing something. He wanted to find a way to help other people find happiness without doing it for them. He started working on this application the end of August of last year with his mentor. His mentor found a student in India to help them with the development of the app, created some prototypes, and finally in December they had the wow effect to continue actual work on Social Symphony which is still in beta. They have plans to launch the app by August of this year.

Goal for Social Symphony: Once the app launches, Steeve hopes to make money to expand the applicatios. And to make partnerships with musicians around the world to help promote these musicians. He plans to push the application through social media.

Steeve has an hour long commute to work each day, and while traveling on the train he listens to Outlier Podcasts, as well as other informational apps. He also spends that time meditating- it's important for Steeve to have stimulation and silence. He feels that that kind of balance is extremely important for you and for the world.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Follow your intuition- it's more than thoughts, it's an instinct. But you cannot listen to this inner voice, if you are too busy focusing on other things. If you want to make a business, build a website, make a podcast, you need information, but if you're not able to be effective with that information, it means you cannot hear your intuition. Steeve encourages us to take time to be calm, and then act on our intuitions.

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Website | @esthete | Instagram | LinkedIn | Google+

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:02am MDT

184: Amber Reyngoudt- Doing the Unexpected

"People will tell you you can't do it, but if you want it enough and work hard enough, you can be successful and have what you want." - Amber Reyngoudt

About: Amber Reyngoudt- Co-Founder of Skull Ninja, and former iOS Engineer at Milk

Overview: Amber is a Software Engineer with years of experience in the coding field. Over the past four years, she has taken on her own venture of building iPhone apps with her co-founder at Skull Ninja, and shares with us what it's been like traveling the entrepreneurial road.

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Highlights:

Background: Amber attended school at University of Florida, and majored in Computer Science. Although she hadn't planned on becoming a software engineer, Amber's grandmother really encouraged her to go into Computer Science, and as a Junior in college was interning as a coder. When she graduated school, she worked as an application developer for Intel for about four years. She then moved to LA and eventually began working for a consulting firm. Once she left consulting, Amber attempted to start her own company but soon ran out of money and decided to go back to the mainstream work space. In 2005, MySpace was the hot new social media company so Amber decided to apply and started working as a developer there. She ended up becoming a manger and worked there until 2010. At that point, things started dying down with MySpace and Amber was no longer feeling challenged or fulfilled in her position so she slowly left MySpace to develop apps for iPhones on her own. From there, Skull Ninja was born.

Working at Milk: After leaving MySpace, Amber and her co-founder moved to San Francisco and began working on apps. Amber was fortunate to meet Kevin Rose 4 months after moving there and he asked Amber and her co-founder to come work at his new-found company, Milk. For the next year, Amber and her co-founder worked as the iOS Engineers for Milk, which helped build credibility for the two of them. Milk was eventually bought out by Google in 2011, so Amber and her co-founder were back to focusing on their company, Skull Ninja.

Skull Ninja: Amber and her co-founder are doing a mix of consulting and building apps. Recently, they did some webwork for AirB&B, intro for About.me, created another app for North Technologies, they also created an iPhone, and iPad app for a home hair-color company, etc. In 2012, they created their own platform for shopping in a variety of ways, and soft launched an iPhone app called Hit or Miss that focuses on women's fashion, and discovering fashion. Essentially, they publish a daily trend and the consumers select that trend as a hit or miss, and then they tailor what they want to see according to the feedback. So far the app has been well received.

Challenges: For Skull Ninja, bootstrapping was difficult along with balancing their schedules and time. It's been easy to take on too much, and not even work on their own projects to help the company. For the past few years, it's only been Amber and Dave and they were not able to really scale the company until they bring on employees.

Woman in Tech: One thing Amber points out is that she's had to spend some time proving herself, but is becoming less of a problem since she has built credibility. She does feel that because she is a female founder, it can work to her advantage and make her stand out from the crowd. Amber shares that she's happy there are more women in tech, and in different areas, they bring a lot to the tech world. Overall, Amber has had a good experience and feels very fortunate.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: It may seem scary and unattainable, but if you're driven, passionate, and willing to work really hard- almost to the point of crazy- you can be successful and have what you want.

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Website | @AmberRayn | Soundcloud

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Category:Business -- posted at: 1:00am MDT

183: Suzannah Scully - Coaching With a Purpose

"Your purpose is when your natural talents, skills, and interests all align." - Suzannah Scully

About: Suzannah Scully- Executive Coach

Overview: Once a part of the corporate world, Suzannah has taken her experience to start her own practice as an Executive Coach and help large corporations and entrepreneurs. Suzannah provides us with some great insight on how we can improve ourselves and our companies.

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Highlights:

Background: (From her website) "Suzannah Scully is a coach, speaker and blogger with a corporate background working for organizations such as Gap, Inc., Williams-Sonoma, Inc and The Wine Group. Her mission is to give leaders the space and tools to break through barriers and reach their potential. She has given presentations for Stanford University (see presentation here), Haas Business School of Berkeley and Vanderbilt University as well as other local bay area companies on the topics of leadership development, effective communication and personal branding. Suzannah received a B.A. from UCLA in Sociology and has received her C.P.C.C. from The Coaches Training Institute. She is married with two children and a dog and lives in Marin County, CA. When not working or with her family, you can usually find her at yoga, in a library or at the movies."

How it all Started: It was during a business trip to France, that she had her "ah-ha" moment, realizing she wasn't fully happy with her career. At that moment, she decided to leave the traditional work path and began training to become a business coach. Suzannah has now run her own practice for 10 years and will soon be starting her own podcast as well.

Role of an Executive Coach: Suzannah is an executive coach who works with entrepreneurs and corporations by providing them with the tools to access new parts of themselves while taking their career and lives to the next level. Her clients include: high profile individuals, large organizations such as Apple, Sony, Eventbrite, and Slalom Consulting as well as Bay Area startups. She usually works with her clients for 6 months, meeting with them twice monthly. The majority of her clients are in the Bay area, but she is more than willing to work with clients all over the country.

What Sets Suzannah Apart: Suzannah has a strong corporate background- she understands how to navigate a big corporate company. By working with well-known companies, like Apple, her clients can trust that she is experienced at what she does.  Suzannah really focuses on helping clients excel in the background aspect of the company- how to get people on your side, how to network effectively, how to build a team, etc. Suzannah has found that brilliant minds can be impatient, they want everyone to be at the same pace and it can be easy for them to lose the art of listening. Suzannah addresses this issue by teaching the 3 levels of listening, not asking just yes/no questions, and teaching them to really understand the 'why' of what someone may be sharing.

Measuring Success: At the beginning of each meeting with her clients, Suzannah will analyze what success looks like to them. That is what she then works toward with her clients. She ensures they are accomplishing what they have set out to do by creating milestones. Suzannah is there to push her clients to do what they have hired her for while being supportive along the way.

Purpose vs. Passion: Suzannah shares that you can be passionate about something but that t it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be your purpose. Your passions are the things you enjoy doing in your free time. Your purpose is when your natural talents, skills, and interests all align. When you know what your purpose is, you will enjoy what you do, and knowing your purpose will help you determine what you can be successful in. It may not always work out, but it's always worth a shot.

Importance of Personal Branding: Everybody has a personal brand, and it needs to be managed. Suzannah shares 3 steps on how to create an effective brand. 1: Define your aspirations. 2: Determine your unique value proposition. 3: Communicate your brand.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: The best way to reach out to mentors, or venture capitalists, is to make sure you are giving as well as taking. Find ways to help that other person and give back to them. Always look for opportunities to serve, and it will come back to you. What moves you may not move someone else, but that doesn't make it wrong. Trust yourself, listen to yourself, and follow that wisdom.

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Connect With Suzannah:

Website | @SuzannahScully | Facebook | Podcast

Book Recommendations:

1) Give and Take

2) Essentialism

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Direct download: Suzannah.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:44pm MDT

182: Daniel Faggella - Using Email to Grow Your Business

"It's better to have a surplus of ideas and be forced to go with the really great ones...than to have a limited number of them and pick the one you think is best." - Daniel Faggella

About: Daniel Faggella- Entrepreneur, Writer, Speaker, Jiu Jitsu Champion, and Founder of CLV Boost

Overview: During this exciting interview, we learn valuable lessons from Daniel on how to create effective email marketing campaigns. Dan has a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology degree from UPenn, owns 2 companies-TechEmergence LLC, and startup marketing with CLVboost, is the author of “Explorations into the Philosophy of Transhumanism: A Lens to the Future Through the Thinkers of the Past”, is a frequent public speaker, and holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

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Highlights:

Background: Dan has a passion for martial arts and was heavily involved in Jiu Jitsu. When his local martial arts gym closed down, he opened his own martial arts gym, something he had never planned on doing. He always thought he would only compete but not be involved in the entrepreneurial world. With this endeavor, Dan learned a lot about sales and marketing and launched himself into his entrepreneurial journey.  With a small market, Dan needed automated sequences to categorize potential clients and to maximize their sales. From there, he started CLV Boost- working with software and start up companies to implement email marketing strategies and campaigns.

Growing Your Email List: If you want to get more people onto your list, Dan says to start learning more about pay per click. Dan helps clients focus on conversion rates on their page (figuring out the percentage of people that convert to your site and the percentage of people who become leads). The next thing he'll do is build a regimen that's reasonable for your company and work on partnering with people that can help drive business to your site.

Email Campaigns: Dan wants entrepreneurs to know that social media is not nearly as effective as email marketing. If you want to make money for your business, it is crucial that you have an email marketing campaign. Dan's personal list for martial arts is about 27,000 people. With the help of his email campaigns, he made approximately $66k last month.

Continual Education: Dan knows the value of education and even though he has successful businesses, understands the need for continual help and coaching. In the last 30 months, Dan has spent a little over $100,000 on education: coaching, school, books, etc.

Advice for Entrepreneurs:  Make sure you know what you want the individuals on your email list to do with that first step in the buyer's journey (call, get a quote, set up an apt, etc). Once you have an answer to that, you will know what your emails need to do next. Then determine what the major benefit is for your customers. Know how you can solve whatever their problems may be. Frame your subject lines and your content around that benefit. You have to make sure that you are closing your audience within 3-7 days, because after that, you lose half of your market. When you are sending potential customers educational material, make sure there is a link, case study, free e-book, something that will lead them to other options. Let them find a way to pay you if they're hungry.

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Connect With Daniel:

Website | CLVBoost @DanFaggella | LinkedIn

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Direct download: Daniel.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:03am MDT

181: Sinead Mac Manus - Providing an Alternative Education System

"Where you start in life doesn't mean it's where you will end up." Sinead Mac Manus

About: Sinead Mac Manus- Founder and CEO of Fluency

Overview: Sinead is a talented and motivated entrepreneur striving to make a difference in the world through her company, Fluency. She shares the importance of starting a company not just to make money, but to help build brighter future. Throughout this interview, Sinead tells us more about what Fluency does and how it works.

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Highlights:

About Sinead: Sinead is originally from Ireland and has her degree in Geography and History of Arts and a Masters in Town Planning. She worked for 5 years in town planning, but did not enjoy it at all. She left that part of her work life, and decided to start teaching in the creative arts. After attending the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Sinead founded her digital wellbeing company 8fold in 2010 and launched the Digital Academy, training low income women with digital skills, in 2011. This is where Sinead met her co-founder of Fluency, Ian.

What is Fluency: Their vision is to be a global social business that gives access to life-changing work opportunities to people in need. They provide an alternative education system for students focused on vocational skills and just-in-time learning. They believe that people learn best by doing real work and they seek to link learning with real world experiences and opportunities. They especially help young women who do not have work opportunities in the UK and countries all around the world. Anyone who has access to a computer, phone, or internet will be able to have access to Fluency and can be helped to obtain the work they need.

How it Works: Fluency's goal is to provide students with skills to help them standout from the crowd and have something to demonstrate when they apply for other positions. Their courses are only 4 weeks long. Some of the courses offered are in: SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing. Right now, their courses are free, anyone around the world can sign up for free and learn amazing skills that will help them obtain great jobs. Fluency is still unsure if they will ever monetize these courses because they want to provide as much access to knowledge as they can.

Revenue: Fluency generates revenue from the employers that hire their students. 

Biggest Challenges: Supply and demand. 

Success Rate: Fluency has about 20-30 people through a program each month, and have a high success rate in helping these students find actual jobs.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: "It's easy to get caught up in the tech start-up world, but think about how you can use your amazing skills to really make a difference in the world, rather than thinking about how you can just make a quick buck." says Sinead. "If you do that, you will have a greater return in your life. Making a difference and having purpose is the future of the work world."

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Connect With Sinead:

Website |@sineadmacmanus | Google+  | About.me

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:53pm MDT

180: Nadine Bongaerts - Breaking Down Barriers in the Science World

"Innovators see a problem that's directly related to their personal environment, and they want to do something about it. It touches them so deeply, so personally, that their motivation is so big to create something that overcomes that problem, that they'll do anything to make it work." Nadine Bongaerts

About: Nadine Bongaerts- Co-Founder of Biotecture and Global Community Director for Hello Tomorrow

Overview: Nadine is a unique, accomplished young woman with a desire to help change the world. She shares what it's like working in the science and technology field as a woman, and more about the companies she has and is currently involved in.

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Highlights:

Background: Nadine is originally from the Netherlands and received her Degree in Life Science & Technology from TU Delft. She has an entrepreneurial background and has also been the curious type. Because of this personality, she is always on the hunt to learn more, and be involved in new developments, especially in the life science realm.

About Biotecture: Nadine started this company in 2011- it was a spin off from an international science competition she competed in called, iGem. This company represents the shaping of education and communication in life sciences.
Nadine and her partner, work with clients and partners to create awareness of the developments that happen within the life sciences. By developing and applying interactive and effective communication and education tools, they are able to build a bridge between science, politics, art, and society.

Revenue for Biotecture: Biotecture is a for-profit company. They want to be independent of subsidies and have more control.

What is Hello Tomorrow: From their site: "Hello Tomorrow is a non-profit organization founded in 2011 by Xavier Duportet and Arnaud De La Tour. It aims at creating bridges between scientists, investors and entrepreneurs in all major technological fields. In 2014, we organized the first edition of the Hello Tomorrow Challenge, a global competition of tech-startups in Europe and the First Day of Tomorrow Conference, which gathered more than 1,500 participants at “La Cité des Sciences” in Paris on April 2014." Hello Tomorrow is essentially a physical and virtual platform for local and global innovation.

The Hello Tomorrow Challenge: This is a global challenge that Hello Tomorrow hosts for startups from all over the world in six different major fields of technology. If you'd like to learn more about this challenge, visit their page HERE.

Goals to Expand: They'd love to expand their hubs in big cities all over the US. Specifically, to invite people to get on board with Hello Tomorrow to showcase capabilities there. The more people that are apart of Hello Tomorrow, the more diversity they will have within their company.

Female in the Workplace: Nadine feels that being a young beautiful woman in the tech world gives her a fun advantage. Although, she may be wrongly judged at first, she enjoys proving people otherwise with her natural talent and skills.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Follow your passion. Although it may sound cliche, you have to put a lot of effort into what you're doing and keep on believing. Once you persist, you will achieve the results you desire in the end.

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Website | @NadineBongaerts | Google+ | LinkedIn

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:17am MDT

179: Michael O'Neal - THE Solopreneur

"I've got a lot of tools. None of them cut corners." Michael O'Neal

About: Michael O'Neal- Founder of The Solopreneur Hour

Overview: Michael is a self-taught entrepreneur who has a passion for network marketing, branding, life-coaching, and internet marketing. He shares with us tips for how to start a successful company, and what you shouldn't do as well. Learn more about how he started his podcast, The Solopreneur Hour, and how he helps fellow entrepreneurs through his show.

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Highlights:

Background: Michael started out in the field as a web designer after receiving his communications degree from Temple University. He worked in that field for 15 years, even starting a company called Whirled Media. From there, he worked a few odd  jobs but became unemployed in 2005 which was when he started his entrepreneurial journey. In 2007, Michael sadly lost both his parents and in 2009, he traveled to Europe as a way to mourn and heal. Following his return, Michael spent the next four years in network marketing, internet marketing, and life coaching. In 2013, he officially started his own podcast called The Solopreneur Hour – Job Security for the Unemployable.

The Solopreneur Hour Podcast: An audio podcast where Michael co-hosts with solopreneurs from all over the world including people with backgrounds in: network marketing, internet marketing, music, fitness, acting, comedy, and more. Michael's objective with his podcast is to take his audience through the journey of his co-host then give them actionable steps to help them with their ventures and inspire them to act. The Solopreneur Hour also shares practical steps and tools including books, smartphone apps, websites, training courses, strategies and stories that will support entrepreneurs every step of the way.

Revenue: Michael does have people pay to advertise on his show but he also offers a mastermind group- Sololab- that listeners can subscribe to.

What Entrepreneurs Can do to Get Started: Michael refers to this article he recently shared on his podcast: HERE. To summarize the article, Michael shares that you have to have good gear, nail your brand, make real connections with people, be patient, study your craft, push through adversity, go to conferences and know your competition, study others who are successful at what you want to do, promote tirelessly, and finally, be thankful and show your gratitude. Michael also feels that it is crucial to get a coach; someone who can support you and help you as you venture out into the entrepreneurial world.

The Worst Thing an Entrepreneur Can Do: Be too impulsive with their business idea before testing the waters and doing it blindly. That's where having a coach involved can be very helpful.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Let branding be your fallback. People will know more about who you are if you nail the brand. If you are introverted, focus on building a successful, well-known brand, and getting to know people; making those connections will come after.

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Website | Facebook | @SoloHour | SoloLab

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Category:Business -- posted at: 9:38am MDT

178: Andreia Almeida- Loving Your Audience

"Always remember you only get what you give – so give it all." - Andreia Almeida

About: Andreia Almeida- Founder and CEO of We Love Social

Overview: Andreia is a long-time freelancer turned entrepreneur. She shares with details about her social media company, and the challenges that she faces to help companies understand the need to connect and establish trust with their potential clients.

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Highlights:

Background: Andreia received her Bachelor's Degree in Public Relations and later went on to specialize in Customer Relationship Management, and Social Media marketing. She has always been an active person with a strong interest in constantly helping companies, and helping those companies establish deeper relationships with their audience. Andreia is currently living and working in Lisbon after moving there 2 years ago to start her company, We Love Social.

What is We Love Social: We Love Social is an e-PR agency that is all about engagement and providing clients with a fully integrated strategy on PR and Social Media. Their main goal is innovating how brands use social media to connect with their public in the digital world. They provide services such as: consultancy and training-offering specific training plans for companies, according to their needs, and help increase their position against competitors. We Love Social encourages companies to actually talk and get to know their public, but above all to listen to what their potential customers need.

How it All Started: Andreia shares that when she hit her 30's, she realized she wasn't exactly where she wanted to be. So, she started thinking- "what should I do with my life that actually makes me happy?" Andreia knew that she had a passion for social media and by that time was already at TEDxLisbon in charge of Social Media. So she decided to get a talented team together to get started on her own Social Media company. She was able to receive some good advice from two successful entrepreneurs that enlightened her with their insights and expertise.

Setbacks: For Andreia, the entrepreneur life is still fairly new to her, and hasn't experienced a major setback yet, but she does think her main failure in life was not taking the entrepreneurial step earlier. She finds herself more accomplished than ever now – and being on a startup co-working space, she gets the same reaction from other colleagues every day. Andreia states that as an entrepreneur you learn to face failure as a learning experience, and the lessons you take from it make it worth the trial. You may not have the security of a 9-5 job, but you reach the end of the day feeling accomplished.

Biggest Challenge: Something Andreia has learned while freelancing for many years and now as a recent entrepreneur, is that while most people in the world of business have accepted the significance of a digital presence, many still do not understand its terms. In order to survive and succeed online, businesses need to relate to their audiences, and build trust with them.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Andreia shares how important it is for entrepreneurs to connect with their audience, to know their business and customers, and to establish deep connections with them. Always remember you only get what you give – so give it your all.

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Website | Facebook

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:54pm MDT

177: Joe Jacobi - From Olympic Gold Medalist to Entrepreneur

"Change is a matter of practicing small habits everyday." - Joe Jacobi

About: Joe Jacobi: Olympic Gold Medalist (Canoe Slalom), 10x U.S. National Champion, Consultant, and former CEO of USA Canoe/Kayak

Overview: Joe is an Olympic athlete with years of experience in canoeing/kayaking. He shares his experience of getting to the Olympics, and his entrepreneurial journey since. 

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Highlights:

Background: Joe started canoeing as an 8 year old boy in Washington D.C., specifically in the Potomac River. When he was 13, Joe unintentionally became involved with a talented white-water canoeing group where he excelled for the next 10 years. Joe went on to win an Olympic Gold medal in 1992 with many of those teammates from that original group. In 2004 Joe competed again at the Olympics (placing 8th). He discusses how much he changed over the 12 years as an athlete and what it was like competing the second time around being in his 30's, with a wife, and a 3 year-old at home.

Joe's Entrepreneurial Journey: Joe was the CEO of USA Canoe/Kayak from 2009-2014, and although it was a big leap of faith, he decided to step down to pursue other entrepreneurial dreams like writing, speaking, and consulting. Currently, every Sunday, Joe writes a newsletter where he shares his thoughts with others, offers encouraging words, tips on improving performance, and other meaningful topics through many experiences. With this newsletter, Joe shares that he is exploring his vulnerabilities writing each week, and has found that people are drawn to that and his email list continues to grow.

Shifting to the Entrepreneurial World: Joe explains that his wife has always been an entrepreneur and is very successful at it. When he decided to make the shift to focus on his entrepreneurial aspirations, he was worried about what his wife and daughter would think, but shares how they were more than happy to support him with his new endeavors. He feels that with this new journey, he has had more time to focus on being a dad, working smarter each day, and really focus on what he wants to do for the future. His life now has space and room to grow and incubate new ideas.

Consulting: Joe works more with the corporate and executive space in the performance and strategy world. He focuses on starting with his clients' health and giving them the capacity that they need to perform successfully in whatever form of work they do. Joe feels that good health is crucial to cultivating a better environment, which in turn will allow smoother-running systems.  Joe wants his clients to be able to continue on a positive path once he leaves.

Work-Life Balance: Joe starts his day on a positive note- he wakes up early, exercises daily, and practices constant gratitude. 

Take Away: Overall, Joe teaches us that we should always strive to have balance in our life and make our personal health a priority. As we do so, all other aspects of our life will flow smoother. He has also teaches us that gratitude is an important part of life and that we should be grateful more often. 

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Website | Google+ | @JoeJacobi

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:00am MDT

176: David Bradford - How to Network Your Way to the Top

"True networking is where you are more interested in what the other person is getting out of the relationship than what you get." - David Bradford

About: David Bradford - Executive Chairman of HireVue, Author of Up Your Game: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top

Overview: David is an experienced entrepreneur who has mastered networking by simply giving before he recieves. He shares the 6 principles for networking your way to the top, which can be found in his book. He also shares his experience working with Infusion.io, Steve Wozniak, and HireVue.

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David Bradford | Ever Gonzalez

 

Highlights:

What is HireVue: It is the largest digital interviewing platform in the world. In order to find great candidates for the job, HireVue helps large companies simplify the interviewing process- find better talent faster, and save money for the company. HireVue aims to eliminate the bad interviews through online interviews, sort of like a Skype on steroids, that involves an entire rating system, recording system, and other methodologies that employers can create.

Biggest Challenge: Once HireVue had the right people on board, it was important/challenging for them to find the right companies to get onboard. When they were able to obtain large corporations as clients, it helped well-known entities feel confident in using HireVue as well.

End Game for HireVue: HireVue believes that they are the next greatest online HR company. They are trying to gather and bring back greater personality to the entire interview process. Nothing is more important to a company or CEO than finding amazing talent.

Working with Steve Wozniak: David was able to work with Steve when David was chairman of a company called Infusion.io. When asked how he was able to get Steve to work with him, David shares, "True networking is where you are more interested in what the other person is getting out of the relationship than what you get." He states that with that attitude, at some point the law of reciprocity is going to help you out. And with Steve, David simply implemented the idea of true networking. (To learn more about this story, check out David's Book)

Up Your Game: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top: David has been blessed by relationships in his life and has constantly strived to surround himself with inspiring people. He started this book in an effort to help others learn how to network effectively. In May of 2014 he launched the book, and has had great success with it since. However, David is more happy with the personal feedback that he has had with his book and how many people he's been able to help. Some of the principles include: 1- Start your network by giving with no thought of getting, 2- show up, 3- follow up, 4- link up by connecting with people and forming meaningful relationships and organizing those contacts, 5- stand up, by being a person of integrity and character, and 6- scale up, by working hard at forming, building, and nurturing your network.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: You simply have to be interested in other people- ask basic questions and get to know them. As you begin asking others those questions, people will naturally begin to ask questions about you and as the conversation moves forward, people will begin to build trust with you. It's vital for you to build strong relationships with others as you network, and as you do so, you will become successful.

Connect With Ezra:

Website | Facebook | @DavidBradford | Google+

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Direct download: David_Bradford.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:50pm MDT

175: Christopher Prujisen- Education on a Global Scale

"[When starting a company] don't just look at your local state or country...there are bounteous opportunities outside the U.S. and Europe." - Christopher Prujisen

About: Christopher Prujisen Co-Founder of Sterio.me

Overview: Christopher is a driven, entrepreneur who is constantly reaching outside of his comfort zone to help on a global scale. Throughout this interview, he explains more about his company, Sterio.me, a company that he co-founded in 2013 and what he plans to do to help students all over the world.

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Highlights:

Christopher's Background: Up until the age of 17, Christopher lived in the Netherlands where he attended public school, then attended Oxford University for about 2 years where he studied Philosophy and Economics. In his first year of college, Christopher went to China and taught English and was fascinated by the amount of learning and homework the students were given. He later returned to the UK and organized a very big entrepreneurship competition, and went on to become the President of the Oxford Entrepreneurs organization. Eventually, through different experiences, Christopher left Oxford to become an entrepreneur and started Sterio.me.

What is Sterio.me: (From their site) "Sterio.me is a technology that saves teachers time by automating the homework process from preparation, distribution and marking to administration, and improves access to relevant out of classroom learning reinforcement materials for learners. Sterio.me offers full reading, writing, listening and speaking pedagogy and is accessible via basic phone, and no internet is required."

How it Started: In 2013, Christopher and part of his team at the time went on StartupBus in Africa where they traveled for 5 days with other entrepreneurs (half African entrepreneurs, the other half Entrepreneurs all over the world) and through these 5 days they saw the need to develop technology driven solutions that would allow students that don't have access to out-of-school resources to continue to learn and complete homework assignments at home. It's been a long process to create the right model for the company, and by coming to Chile they have been able to find the right help to get them to where they are now.

Biggest Challenge for Sterio.me: Money is always a challenge, but through Christopher's experience he has learned that having a team is the most important factor to buoy each other up. So, finding the right engineers, project managers, local market expertise's, etc, is crucial to the success of their company.

Funding: Sterio.me started out bootstrapping, and then they were able to receive a grant from Chile. With the grant, there are some spending restrictions (you can't just outsource the way you want it to), but in general it's been very helpful for the company and for the local economy in Chile.

Future for Sterio.me: Starting next year, they will finish up the Android app for Sterio.me and really focus on driving it towards private schools in Chile, as well as certain wealthier markets in Africa. And then on the GSM solution side, they'd like to launch it in Madagascar. Overall, they really want to help the homework issue on a global scale, and possibly start some other side companies down the road to help.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Decide what your goals are and what type of business you'd like to start. Determine what you're passionate about. When starting a company, don't limit yourself to your country, look internationally and possibly do a fellowship to see what's out there and what's needed. It's also a great idea to consider small markets, like Christopher has done in Chile.

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Website | @Steriome | Facebook | 

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Direct download: Christopher_P.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:24pm MDT

174: Andrew Mueller - The Art of Being an Entrepreneur

"We really want to focus on artists that are living and working in New York City because we want to help them out...They [the artists] want to focus on their work, they don't want to focus on selling their work." Andrew Mueller

About: Andrew Mueller - Co-Founder of Mueller + Jacobs

Overview: Through their love for creativity and art, Andrew and his business partner started a company as Fine Art Advisors. During this interview, we learn more about Andrew's background and how quickly the company has grown since they started in October 2014. Andrew also shares some unique advice for entrepreneurs around the world.

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Highlights:

What is Mueller + Jacobs: [From their website] "Through our fine art acquisition consultancy, Mueller and Jacobs positions clients as industry leaders, promotes client branding, allows them to make authoritative investments and to become part of a contemporary art dialogue. Their clients range from start-up companies, established corporations, to private collectors."

Background: Mueller + Jacobs launched in October of 2014, even though Andrew did not want to officially launch until March, they immediately began making sales, and Andrew is extremely busy working with clients. Currently, Andrew is working another full time job, while running this company. He received his Bachelors Degree in Art History from Penn State. In 2002 Andrew moved to New York and became an Admissions Director at an MFA program for about 13 years. From there, he worked as a consultant for higher education- and has since left that to pursue advising.

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Challenges: Artists can be very particular about their work, and who their work is featured next to, and that has proven to be a difficult challenge for Andrew as he works with these artists and advising for his clients. Another challenge Andrew wasn't anticipating was the money aspect- branding is expensive and he has found it hard to cut costs to have the funds needed to run the company. Andrew also notes that his social life has become almost non-existent because of the work it takes to make his company run smoothly.

Future: Andrew would like to keep the company size the way it is for at least the next three years. And he plans to jump ship from his 9-5 job in April. He's been saving what funds he can to put towards the branding of his company- which he feels is very important for the success of his company.

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Revenue: Although, they have only been in business for a few months, their revenue is already around $50,000. Andrew believes that once they are working the company full time, the potential is massive. Their goal for the end of this year is be around $300-$400k profit.

Style/Aesthetic: Mueller + Jacobs has a wide array of styles, but they'd really like to focus on finding artists locally in New York City to help boost their businesses.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Don't be afraid to ask for favors. Andrew has found that by asking his friends and family for favors, he's been connected to some great contacts who have helped get him where he is today.

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Website | @MuellerJacobs

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Direct download: Andrew_Mueller.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 9:53am MDT

173: Spencer Handley - Building Crystal Clear Audio Tools

"Don't give up, tenacity is huge, it's the whole thing." - Spencer Handley

About: Spencer Handley- Founder of PodClear

Overview: Spencer is a passionate entrepreneur who is out to help Podcasters achieve the greatest results with each of their interviews. He shares his background and what experiences and desires have led him to where he is today.

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Click to Tweet: Ep 173: Spencer Handley - Building Crystal Clear Audi Tools

Highlights:

Spencer's Background: Spencer is from Colorado originally, lived in LA- went to UCLA where he studied Chinese- actually lived in China for a year and ran a small little language acquisition tool business where he manufactured Chinese tools. He was also a musician (received an Associates in Music Composition) so he worked as a Jazz Musician/DJ in a night club. When he came back from China he went to Draper University, which is a school for entrepreneurs, and at the end of that program he pitched his business plan to venture capitalists and ended up winning the competition. From there, Spencer ran an enterprise software company for manufacturing for a year- had pretty good traction with it, but ended up folding the company because it wasn't what Spencer really wanted to do with his life. After that, he became heavily involved in consulting and is also planning on sticking with PodClear for as long as possible- it's more up his alley of work.

What is PodClear: A software application for desktop (both Mac and PC) that allows podcast interviewers to interview guests with crystal clear audio quality. It records locally on both people's machines, and you are able to have unlimited guests. After the calls are complete, the audio files are synced to PodClear's servers, processed, and as a result you get uncompressed audio for your podcasts.

How it Came About: Spencer is not a podcaster by trade, but is an avid podcast listener. The idea was evolved because Spencer and his team were listening to podcasts and found many of these podcasts were hard to hear. Spencer and his team were determined to create a way where the podcasts were recorded on both ends, and recorded crystal clear. It took about six weeks for Spencer and his team to create the software application.

How it Works: You simply invite someone to be on the show, start a PodClear session, add your interviewee/s into the session, and then it will send them a 4-step process to follow and then are quickly added into the recorded session.

Goals: Right now, Podclear has about 1,100 users. For Spencer, this is more of a passion product and not necessarily motived by money. The intention is to have this business to support them, and to be wherever they want (location independent) and let them interact with people the way they want to. Spencer does not work on PodClear full time, he is also an independent consultant. The more they can work on PodClear, the better the product they'll be able to have. They'd like to start working on it full time in April of this year.

Biggest Challenge: Finding personal balance- working full time as a consultant and working on PodClear on the side has proven to be a hard task. Spencer shares that it can be really easy to get burned out and lose balance with life, but he also realizes that it's all part of starting a company.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Just keep experimenting until you find what works for you. Build a solid skill set that is marketable, something that has a high hour-to-cost ratio to help you bootstrap if necessary. Premeditate about what you want to do, choose what you love, and do what will work best for you.

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Website @PodclearTweets | 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 4:45pm MDT

172: Jared Loftus- Prep for Success

"You can't wait for perfect...you have to put something out there, and then get a response." Jared Loftus

About: Jared Loftus- COO of Mastery Prep and CEO of College District

Overview: Jared started his entrepreneurial journey 10 years ago as a college student selling t-shirts from his backpack at football games. He shares more about where that journey has led him and what he does with Mastery Prep- an ACT prep program for schools all over the nation.

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Highlights:

About Mastery Prep: Mastery Prep is an ACT Mastery program that is a support structure for principals and district administrators that helps them provide best-in-class ACT preparation to the students who need it most. They go in and train teachers and students on the most important information they'll need to know to take the ACT and SAT. Mastery Prep also has an online component with work books that students can use to study at their own pace. Currently, they have about 50-60 tutors with the program, but are continuing to grow rapidly and are preparing to launch in other states.

How it Works: Since they're a new company, their sales team will go out to the schools and pitch what Mastery Prep can do for them. Mastery Prep can create a custom program for each of the schools/districts/states. Right now they are in about 6-8 states. Patrick shares that they are much more confident in the success of their program when they can control what's implemented into each workbook/program. They have seen a huge increase in Juniors' test results and are very happy with the direction of their success.

Jared's Role at Mastery Prep: As the COO there, he handles more of the business aspect of the company. He makes sure that they have the structure, employees, and delivery that they need to make sure the company runs smoothly.

Biggest Challenge: For Mastery Prep, the toughest challenge is managing such massive growth. It's growing so rapidly it can be tough to keep on top of building the team and having the right people on board in the right places. They spend a lot of their time working on this problem. Although sales aren't necessarily easy, it's the easiest aspect of their company right now.

About College District: This company was Jared's first real entrepreneurial experience. In college, he was running for student body office and needed to raise funds. He started selling t-shirts out of his backpack at football games and other college events and next thing he knew, it had turned into a little company. Through demand, Jared eventually opened a retail store next to the college campus where he could sell his t-shirts. About 6 years later, Jared sold the actual store location in 2010 and went fully online. College District also uses a crowdsource to let fans tell the company what kind of t-shirts they want.

Revenue for College District: At their peak, College District generated close to 1M, but it varies now according to the football season and success of their local schools in Louisiana.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: You have to know what your motives are- what you are doing and why you are doing it. You can't wait for perfect, you have to put something out there and then get a response. At some point, you have to make it happen. You have to decide you're going to do it, and then just do it.

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Connect With Jared:

Website | @JaredLoftus | LinkedIn | Instagram | AboutMe

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Direct download: Jared_Loftus.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:28pm MDT

171: Patrick Lor - Empowering Visual Storytellers

"[As an entrepreneur] being humble...allows you to forgive other people's mistakes and admit your own." - Patrick Lor

About: Patrick Lor - Co-founder & CEO of Dissolve

Overview: Patrick is a determined entrepreneur in Canada who shares his experiences of working in the tech. His current company, Dissolve, sells high quality stock video clips, and although he is up against some big competitors he has proven to be successful and works extremely hard towards his goals.

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Highlights:

About Dissolve: Dissolve is a company that sells high quality stock video clips and has been around for about a year and half. They look for people that have a great artistic eye, buy their video clips, and use them for web-based advertising work, corporate training videos, editorial and documentary settings, along with interactive web sites, video games and mobile applications. These clips are typically about 10-30 seconds long. Currently, they have 550,000 clips and are looking to grow that well over a million clips this year.

Getting the Word Out: Dissolve has dedicated a lot of money to marketing. Their core marketing methodology is to use video marketing. They create their own videos with their clips and push them out on YouTube, social media, etc. Those videos are then re-tweeted and written about because they tell compelling stories. All of the videos they create for marketing are done in house. Another thing they have done is put out direct mail to potential customers (a 2 booklet set) that advertises better footage, and better stories.

Employees: Dissolve's goal is to obtain 5-6 more employees this year, some on sight and some to work remotely. They allow flexibility where employee's can work from home and take time off.

Biggest Challenge for Dissolve: Patrick shares that obtaining resources is their biggest challenge. He feels they could use a little more of everything, but to get there they need more resources. Dissolve's goal is to double their product, and quadruple the size of their customer base.

Patrick's Entrepreneurial Background: Patrick started a company, iStock, around 2000 and eventually sold the company to Getty Images. This experience has helped him start and run Dissolve.

Goals: Patrick understands that it takes a village to accomplish what they need to accomplish, so they are going to continue to focus on getting the best creative content, and provide that to the world.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Be lucky. Don't be so obsessed with being perfect, but work really hard and focus on the right things. Work with people that are amazing and trustworthy and won't fold under pressure. The first six months of any company is incredibly tough. Stay humble, it will allow you to forgive others for their mistakes and to forgive yourself.

Connect With Patrick:

Website | Facebook | @PatrickLor | LinkedIn | AboutMe

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Direct download: Patrick_Lor.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:04am MDT

170: Robert Sofia - Strategy, Tactics, and Guidance

"I don't let my business run me, I run my business."

"If you have the determination to start and run your own business, then you can have the determination to run it the way you want to run it."- Robert Sofia

About: Robert Sofia- Co-Founder of Platinum Advisory Strategies

Overview: Robert shares details about his company, Platinum Advisory Strategies- and offers helpful advice for those thinking about breaking into the entrepreneurial world.

Scott Cook Photography

Highlights:

Background: Robert is a long-time public speaker, and hard worker who skipped undergraduate school and worked his way up in the business world where he eventually settled into the marketing/branding scene. In his twenties, he worked for Ford Motor Company where he actually developed a program for them to help build brand loyalty. It was promoted heavily at the Ford dealership where he was working, and then Ford adopted that for their entire company. The experience he gained at Ford leveraged him for more opportunities throughout the years up until he decided to start his own companies.

About Platinum Advisory Strategies: Platinum is a company that helps small businesses market like larger companies. Platinum Advisory Strategies takes all of their efforts and focuses on one niche market, and then they strive to understand the industry, the audience, and the people they're working for to merge that into the right branding message. They offer a unique program where they only work with a select group of advisors that fit their profile and that do not work directly with their competition. These advisors actually pay a monthly fee to Platinum to be their marketing partner. As a client at Platinum Advisory Strategies, you are given a consultant specifically assigned to your account and that consultant becomes your guide, your coach, who builds a personal plan for you. They assess what you're weaknesses and strengths are and build an action plan. Then, they help you along the way and answer any questions you may have. Behind that consultant you have an entire team who works on the back end of things like your website, videos, social media, etc.

Biggest Challenge: Helping potential clients seeing that they need the help and it's worth the price.

Key For Growth and Success: Platinum Advisory Strategies started in 2009. Robert shares that the key that has helped grow was hiring the right team. Robert has many roles he has to juggle and it's very important that he has the perfect team he can trust to help manage things- especially while he is traveling.

Speaking Schedule: Robert could be gone every week if he wanted to, but he chooses only to travel 1-2 times a month. He limits himself to the engagements he wants to do to keep the work-life balance.

Goals: Over the last 3 years, their company has grown over 1,700 percent in revenue. They have continued to cut costs and grow profit successfully. Because the business is growing quickly, they are always looking for more employees. Robert's goal is to make the company better tomorrow than it was today. For the company, he prefers to take his goals daily, weekly, and monthly- in small increments- to make sure that things that need to be done are not overlooked by the long term goals. For Robert, he wants to live the life that he desires- he's not particularly motivated by the desire to have more things or money. He wants to help his company and his employees. Robert's drive is to have balance in life, he's not concerned about what the world sees as wealthy.

Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur: First off, being an entrepreneur requires commitment. You have to understand that it's not going to come easy right away- there is a lot of work involved. If you give up too easily, you will not be successful. Have a modest recognition of your own limitations. If you are going to build anything where you'll have employees, you need have good leadership ability. It's also important that you have good business sense. Family support, or support in general is another great tool that will help you do well in whatever you do.

Take Away: Robert reminds us not to buy into the hype of entrepreneurship. Understand that you might fail, and make sure you're comfortable with that. You won't always succeed. If you can, try to leverage your existing relationships or career into a business opportunity.

Connect With Robert:

Website | @robertsofia | LinkedIn | AboutMe

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Direct download: Robert_Sofia_.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:20am MDT

169: Ben Martinez - Passion Before Product

"Find people who are passionate. Those are the kind of people who are going to help you scale and grow your company." Ben Martinez

About: Ben Martinez- VP of HR at HireVue

Overview: Ben Martinez is an entrepreneur at heart who left the comfort of a big company job to become the VP of HR at a growing company- HireVue. He walks us through what the product is like and how it can change a companies' hiring process. He also gives entrepreneurs great advice on what to look for when hiring to help their company become successful.

logo

Highlights:

HireVue: HireVue is a SaaS software company- primarily in the HR space that has been in business now for 10 years. They offer videos for accelerating a team for large and small companies. They then use those videos for hiring, training, etc.. They also gather and use data from these videos to predict the type of people you are going to hire (sort of like a Pandora for hiring).

HireVue's Product: They primarily focus on larger companies, (Current clients include: Nike, Chipotle, Walmart, Amazon, JP Morgan Chase) although they do help small companies as well. Their video product is specifically designed for training and recruiting. They take the guesswork out of hiring by allowing you to screen potential hires, engage with them via email, social media, etc, connect with them through real time video conferencing, and offer them opportunities to showcase their skills through online work samples. (If you'd like a full detail of what their product does- check out their website at www.hirevue.com)

Selling the Product: Ben shares that it's an easy sale once you get the appointment and can show the demo, getting there is the tough part because people tend to be afraid of the product. They tend to think it's similar to FaceTime, or Skype- but once you can dive into the product and share the pain points with the future client, they are able to see how this product is going to dramatically help their hiring process.

Biggest Challenge: Overcoming the BDC problem (Big Dumb Company as Ben puts it). He explains that there is always the challenge to implement new ways to do things without pushback to continue to improve and grow the company.

Advice for Entrepreneurs in Hiring: Ben would advise anyone who is hiring to first take a step back, find passionate people and get them sold on your product/idea. Those are the kind of people who are going to help you scale and grow your company. Ben always says, "passion before product."Ben also advises if you have an employee who isn't fitting into the role that you need them to, terminate them. Always remember the old saying, "Slow to hire, quick to fire." When firing, seek advice from another leader in the company if you are unsure about what you should do. Especially, if you are an entrepreneur, or a one man band. Make sure to have a witness in any conversation you have with future employment for legal reasons.

Take Away: Have the courage and take the leap into what you're passionate about. Really be in tune with yourself and your desires. You tend to be your own worst enemy, just go and do what you want to. Make sure when you are ready to hire, hire those that are passionate and onboard with your ideas.

Connect With Ben:

Website | @BenMartinezj | Podcast | Blog

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Direct download: Ben_Martinez.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 3:10pm MDT

168: Cibelle Burger- Helping Entrepreneurs Find Their Uniqueness

"[As an entrepreneur] I am flexible with my time because I own my own time." Cibelle Burger

About: Cibelle Burger- Founder of Inchworm Digital

Overview: Cibelle, born in Brazil, came to America in her teens. She originally started a business with her husband in 2010. She became heavily involved on the PR side, which then led her to start her own PR company called Inchworm Digital. Cibelle shares with us what it is about her company that helps her stand out from the rest, and what she advises entrepreneurs to do to be successful.

inchworm

Highlights:

Background: Inchworm is a spin off from a company that Cibelle founded with her husband back in 2010, Septor Media (a film and media production company). With that company, she did a lot of PR and marketing for the company and for bands, people, arts, and culture. In addition to all of that, she founded a blog called- Indie Pop Nation- where she covers Indie pop and technology. All of this opened a path for her in PR- which is why she decided to start Inchworm. It is based in California, but the company is also open to Brazil where Cibelle is originally from.

How Inchworm Works: Cibelle is their as a company to help the unique features of her clients products stand out, and where she can place that particular product to get people to start talking about it and noticing it. She is there to offer her clients with new and unused advice. However, she's not trying to change things dramatically, just making the unique features of their company be presented the way it needs to be. For the most part, her clients are entrepreneurs and understand that's what she's trying to do and don't push back too much with how she works with their company.

How Inchworm is Unique: Cibelle really focuses on helping others create unique stories to share with their audience- and using angles that are not commonly used.

Woman in the Workforce: Although, being a woman in a male-dominated industry can be intimidating, Cibelle feels that she has just as much power and influence as a man in PR. Since she is used to working with the opposite sex, she has learned how to navigate her way through to shine through and be successful.

Struggles in PR Business: Cibelle says she feels like the hardest part about working in PR is cutting through the noise of all the other companies out there. Traditional media as we know it is being transformed- they're all moving to the digital world, and with that comes a great push for generating content. The challenge for PR professionals in general is to generate good stories online.

Balancing Work-Life: As an entrepreneur, especially in PR, it tends to be an around the clock business. But, on the plus side, Cibelle does have the ability to dictate her own time because she owns her own time.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: You should never be discouraged, no matter how many times you fail. If you have a product that you think will change the way we do things, and that you feel fills a very important need- work on perfecting it, defining it, and refining it because eventually you'll get there. Have a plan, and stick to it. It also helps to get your vision on paper- figure out the who, where, how, and how much.

Connect With Cibelle:

Website | @inchwormDigital | Google+ | Instagram

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Direct download: Cibelle_Burger.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:27am MDT

167: Mike Sheffield - Living Life on Purpose

"If you're feeling comfortable, you're not pushing yourself hard enough." Mike Sheffield

About: Mike Sheffield- Founder of Claim Greatness

Overview: Mike Sheffield is a young entrepreneur with a passion for helping others achieve their goals and dreams. He shares his 6 step program he created to help anyone and everyone accomplish their goals.

Resolutions are Temporary

Highlights:

Background: Mike shares what it was like growing up in an entrepreneurial family and what changes he made early in his life to have the confidence to reach out to others, be surrounded by great people, and encourage them to be their best self.

Claim Greatness: Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, and being apart of many startups, Mike has always wanted to have an opportunity to take all of the things he's learned through that entrepreneurial journey and put it into a product to help others succeed and claim greatness. It's an online program (a self-based course with 6 modules) where you'll buy the product and have exclusive access to the members area. Each module is a protected video- a powerpoint presentation and supplementary PDF document that walks you through each of these steps. He breaks his company down into 6 parts, first step is knowing the "why" behind their goals. They also have a private mastermind group on Facebook where you'll get to work with Mike, and others involved in the group to help motivate each other and create a network.

Assessing Clients: Part of Claim Greatness, Mike will assess each client using MindMaps to help each person see what they like about themselves, and what they'd like to change. And also see where they are at in their life to get an understanding of where they want to be.

Communication: Mike reaches out to each client personally, invites them to get involved on the Facebook page, and contacts them frequently to help them achieve their goals.

Resources to Attain Your Goals: Mike shares the tools that he uses to help himself succeed. Currently, Mike uses a newer application called- CoachMe- it's an application where you can set your goals and can share these goals socially so others can help encourage you to make these goals happen. Another resource Mike uses frequently are TedTalks.

Definition for Success: Live life on purpose, with passion, and find fulfillment. Success is a journey, and it's not just a point you arrive at. Success is setting goals, and obtaining them, as well as creating the life you want to have. Mike doesn't want life to kick him around, he wants to dictate the kind of life he wants to have. He shares that you are the master of your domain, and if you want to be someone and something, no one has the right to tell you otherwise. Learn by doing- learn what you need to do to accomplish your dreams.

Take Away: Live life on purpose- do not let others dictate your life. Do not react, but be proactive about attaining your dreams.

Connect With Mike:

Website | @_MikeSheffield | Website/Outlier

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Direct download: Mike_Sheffield.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:24pm MDT

166: Mark Evans - Sharing Your Story

"Be as true to yourself to be as successful as possible." Mark Evans

About: Mark Evans- Founder of ME Consulting

Overview: Mark is a long-time tech journalist who dove into the entrepreneurial world unexpectedly in the early 2000's. He shares how he started his consulting company, and what you can do as a company to set yourself apart and boost your companies' success.

Highlights:

Background: By training, Mark is a technology journalist. He spent 20 years working for some of the biggest journalist companies in Canada. During the dot com boom, he started working for some startup companies, and eventually decided to start his own company. Despite the fact that Mark had a great job, a mortgage, and a daughter, he caught the startup bug and was determined to do his own thing.

What is ME Consulting: Mark helps startups tell better stories. He's a hands-on and engaged collaborator who provides startup entrepreneurs with strategic insight and tactical execution to accelerate their marketing activities. Mark helps those startups with telling the world what they do in a great way, showing the value of their products (what’s in it for me, the customer?), identifying target audiences, and helping each company be clear about how they're unique.

Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs: Mark has found that the most important thing when it comes to marketing is having a great product. A product that actually fits a need.

Storytelling for Startups: (This book will be launching April 2015) This is a guidebook for startups written by Mark Evans. It starts out by explaining the history of storytelling and the value of it. It also takes the reader through the types of stories you need to share with your audience, and then how and where to share that story. This book also provides startups with tools and ideas on how to achieve the best story for their company.

Biggest Challenge as a Consultant: It's hard to get people to understand what you do and the value you provide as a consultant. Making people see that what you do is real so what Mark has done is create documents that explain exactly what he does and how he does it. Mark shares that another tough aspect is that he's on all the time meaning he is constantly trying to be available for his clients and it can be difficult to turn things off.

Time with Clients: On average, Mark works with a company for about 3 months at which point the company who has applied his tools can now manage things on their own. During that 3 months, Mark will work with each company for about 2 full days a week. He also tries to make himself available outside of normal hours to answer any questions or concerns his clients may have. Mark takes about 2-3 clients on at a time, anything more than that is too much simply because each client has a very intense and time-consuming relationship.

Long-Term Goal: Mark is not trying to build an agency. He'd like to stay independent and work with other independents. He would like to use the book as a platform, possibly get into selling e-books. His ultimate goal is to create ways to have recurring revenue.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Being an entrepreneur is a journey, enjoy the ride and be the master of your own destiny. There is risk involved, but there is also lots of opportunity and you never know where that opportunity is going to lead you. For a lot of young entrepreneurs, the reality is you have about 45 years to work- the world is your oyster.

Connect with Mark:

Website | @MarkEvans | Google+ | Facebook

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Sponsors:

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Direct download: Mark_Evans.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:04am MDT

165: Kay Walten- The Adventurous Entrepreneur

"I wanted to encourage people to try something new, step out of the box, get a passport, do something different with their life, and have a unique experience." Kay Walten

About: Kay Walten- Co-Founder of LocoGringo

Overview: Kay is an adventure-driven entrepreneur who started her company unexpectedly after taking up a passion for cave diving in the Riviera Maya with her husband. She shares with us her entrepreneurial experiences in Mexico and her passion for travel and adventure.

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Highlights:

LocoGringo: LocoGringo started in 1996 by Kay and her husband renting villas and accommodations for adventure seeking travelers. Their connections started in the cave diving industry, a passion that inspired their move to the Riviera Maya in the early 90s. LocoGringo creates better vacations in the Riviera MayaCosta Maya, and Yucatan by researching, organizing, and sharing vacation and travel information online in order to give travelers a unique vacation and valuable experiences.

Team: 7 full time employees, with occasional part time employees and freelancers.

Schedule: Contrary to popular belief, Kay doesn't always have her toes in the sand. She is constantly working to help make sure travelers have a great vacation. She works six days a week, and often loses sleep thinking of ways to solve problems they encounter.

Safety: Kay says that if you're coming to enjoy yourself on the beach, and you're not looking for trouble, then you have no need to worry about your safety while staying in Mexico.

Challenges: The biggest challenge Kay and LogoGringo experienced was the economic struggles of 2009.

Marketing: LocoGringo relies on social media and eBooks which helps them generate leads, and also differentiates them from their competitors.

LocoGringo Numbers: They average 2,500-3,000 reservations a year. Because of their newly renovated website, they hope their revenue increases by 35% in 2015.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: One of the lessons Kay has learned is to make sure that you know your limitations. She admits that she is not good with a checkbook- so she doesn't do the accounting. Build a strong team that will complement your skill set.

Connect with Kay:

Website |@LocoGringoCom

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Direct download: Kay_Walton.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:43am MDT

164: Dan Lawrence - Telling Your Brand's Story

"The quicker you fail, the sooner you will reach success." Dan Lawrence

About: Dan Lawrence- Co-Founder and CEO of Hoodoko

Overview: Dan Lawrence is from India and is currently residing in Toronto, Canada and is the co-founder of Hoodoko. Dan shares with us his background, and what it's been like starting this company and where they plan to take it.

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Highlights:

Hoodoko: Is an online application for individuals to build their personal brand, tell their story the right way, and sell themselves according to their availability. Essentially, what Hoodoko provides is extremely simple tools for absolutely anyone who is producing professional services be able to build their brand and connect them with consumers. Hoodoko is open to a wide range of entrepreneurs, and is not limited to any specific genre of work.

Process: It takes about 30-50 seconds to sign up and use Hoodoko. Right now, it is completely free service.

Dan's Background: Dan is originally from India, where he studied business and got into advertising which then got him into graphic design. Dan works on the website design and business, while Hans (his co-founder) works on the development of the site. Both are working on Hoodoko as a side gig, while maintaining other full-time jobs. Dan is now living in Canada and has been residing there for a little over four years.

End Game: They would like to have as many service providers on Hoodoko as possible. There is an extremely large growth of service providers online, and Hoodoko would love to be the go-to site for that.

Biggest Challenge for Hoodoko: Initially, they were unsure of who their target market was, which was an element that held them back.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: The quicker your fail, the sooner you will reach success. Don't be hesitant to build a prototype first to find your market fit; it will be much easier to know which direction you should be heading towards.

Connect with Elisa:

Website |@hoodoko

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Sponsors:

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Direct download: Dan_Lawrence.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:31pm MDT

163: Elisa Miller-Out: Leading Tech for Change

"Look around your community, and rather than going out there and saying, 'who are the people who can do something for me?' Say, 'what can I do for everyone else?' And if you come at it with that attitude, good things will come back to you." - Elisa Miller-Out

About: Elisa Miller-Out- CEO of Singlebrook Technology Inc. and Co-Founder of Ithaca Venture Community

Overview: Elisa Miller-Out is a busy mother, wife, and co-founder of two companies who shares the experiences and challenges of being a female entrepreneur with Ever Gonzalez of Outlier Magazine. Find out what it is about Elisa that makes her stand out from the entrepreneurial crowd.

Singlebrook Technology

Highlights:

Singlebrook Technology: Is a custom web and mobile development company based in Ithaca, NY that specializes in web application development, mobile apps, integration, databases, content management systems and technology strategy consulting. Singlebrook was started ten years ago and some of their clients include: universities, non-profits, and startups. They think of themselves as the care takers of software for their clients.

Challenges for Elisa: Elisa has felt the pressure of being a female entrepreneur in a male dominated industry and strives to set an example and to act as a mentor for young women in the business. Overall, Elisa doesn't feel that she's had huge obstacles to overcome as a female business owner.

Females in the Software World: Elisa has noticed that the number of women applying for tech-like companies compared to men is still quite low. She feels that there is a stigma associated with females in the programming world and feels like that needs to change.

Ithaca Venture Community: The mission of this group is to promote and host different entrepreneurial activities that build bridges, strengthen networks, and support the startup community.

Biggest Challenge as an Entrepreneur: For Elisa, she has a lot going on in her life, and the biggest thing she is constantly working on is how to be efficient and organized.

Working with Her Co-Founder: Elisa co-founded Singlebrook Technology with her husband, and although she would love to talk about the company when they are home, they try not to talk about it too much at home. If it's necessary to talk about the company, they set up an actual time to discuss the issue/s at hand. As co-founders, they make sure they have a very open communication line, and respect one another completely.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Elisa loves the philosophy of "giving first." Get out there and volunteer your time and talents. Also, slow to hire, quick to fire. It's very essential.

Connect with Elisa:

Website @ElisaMillerOut

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Direct download: Elisa_MillerOut.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 8:11am MDT

162: Eder Holguin- Turning Hardship into Success

"Perseverance. Attitude. Knowledge." - Eder Holquin

About: Eder Holguin- Founder of Ideal Media Inc.

Overview: Eder Holguin takes us through what it was like growing up in streets of Columbia and his experience immigrating to America. He also shares with us how he became an entrepreneur at such a young age, and what the steps taken to to build a successful career.

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Highlights:

Background: Eder grew up in a rough neighborhood in Columbia, and actually ran away from home at the age of thirteen. During that time, Columbia was the most dangerous place in the world. Eder ended up living in a small garage where he slept on cardboard boxes and spent all day selling cosmetics door to door which was the start to his entrepreneurial journey. As a young child, he was very shy and had to learn to develop his communication skills since selling was a matter of life or death for him. He knew that if he didn't seem pleasant people would not buy anything from him, so he had to learn how to be motivated, happy, and withstand rejection. On the street, Eder had a lot of offers to join gangs and although it seemed like an attractive way of life, Eder remembered the warning of his grandmother about resisting that type of lifestyle. 

Immigrating to New York: When Eder was 18 he moved to New York by way of Mexico (a 10 day journey). When he came to the states he had a goal to create the same business he did in Columbia, but soon found out that selling door to door in New York wasn't going to work out. As an immigrant, he did a lot of mundane jobs while trying to learn English.

Road to Success: Eder was interviewing for a restaurant job, when he was asked why he didn't do sales which got him thinking. He decided not to take the job he was interviewing for and got involved in sales. He sold computers, retail, print, and eventually made his way into digital media. Soon after he started building his own companies and became very successful because of his personal persistence to excel.

Education: Eder would work all day and attended school at night. He obtained a degree in marketing from a Columbian University prior to coming to America.

Books: Eder has written two books; Street Smarts and Dreaming of Hope Street (one of which is going to be made into a film).

Ideal Media: It started officially in 2013 but Eder was building the platform prior to that. The company provides content syndication opportunities and helps publishers create visibility for many news organizations.

Giving Back: Eder is involved in a couple of organizations that are non-profit. One of which provides scholarships for Columbian students. Another organization which helps homeless families in Columbia to build and own their own homes.  Eder and his wife will also be launching a new place to help homeless children in Columbia.

End Game: Eder has been shifting more towards speaking at different schools and events. He wants to invest in other companies and early stage startups. In the coming years, he wants to investor, advise, and mentor young companies.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Eder using this acronym to help himself, and others: P.A.K.- Perseverance, Attitude, Knowledge. He believes these are the three most important attributes you can have, and with these combined, you can accomplish anything.

Take Away: Eder is a powerful example of overcoming hardships in life. He teaches us that we can do absolutely anything we set our minds to. We are not limited to our circumstances.

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Connect with Eder:

IdealMedia.com | EderHolquin.com | @ederman1 

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Direct download: Eder_H.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 1:07am MDT

161: Cody Campbell - Learn to Dance Like No One's Watching

"Define success in terms of what you want and not what other people want." - Cody Campbell

About: Cody Campbell - Co-Founder of The Dance Dojo

Overview: Cody shares with us his love for dancing and how we can learn to dance in the comfort of our own homes- embarrassment free. 

Highlights:

Background: Cody and his twin brother (who is also a co-founder) started dancing around 6th and 7th grade, but didn't start taking it seriously until the age of fourteen. They did a lot of break dancing, but eventually Cody grew to love hip-hop more, and spent time dancing until the age of twenty five. Cody and his brother were taken out of the dancing scene because of injuries, but still had a love for dancing and decided to start the Dance Dojo.

The Dance Dojo: Is a Salsa school that allows people to learn online. It's taking the traditional dance class online so you can learn from anywhere you want from world class instructors. The company was started back in April of 2014.

How it Works: The Dance Dojo's instructors perform in their own studios, record their dances each week through the Dance Dojo's curriculum, and then the Dance Dojo takes that recorded footage and uploads it online. Right now, it is a subscription service where customers can pay monthly, quarterly, or annually. The Dance Dojo is constantly adding content to their website which increases the value.

Revenue: Year to date, growth has been slow because Cody and his brother have spent a lot of time on the curriculum, and building the company. They are hovering close to $1,000 a month, but are shifting that time from production and creation to the marketing aspect to make it a lifestyle company.

6 Month Goal: The Dance Dojo would like to get up to an additional 200 students enrolled in that timeframe. And the way that will be accomplished is to target salsa events and other sorts of events that are attracting large crowds of people who are doing salsa dancing. They'd really like to give people a taste of what they're doing by offering them a free month of classes, and offer surveys to learn what they like and dislike.

Business Model: For now, they are content with the model that they are offering because it's a reoccurring revenue. However, they are open to possible changes.

Travel: Cody has a passion for travel, and has spent a good amount of his time traveling with friends. He also like to travel alone. Through these experiences, Cody has learned a lot about different cultures and how to interact and understand those belonging to those cultures. Cody is constantly striving to push himself, and shares some of his favorite memories while traveling that have helped him accomplish that.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Define success in terms of what you want and not what other people want. Don't compare yourself to other companies who are further along than you are. Track the little wins, stay data driven, and celebrate those small victories.

Take Away: We learn from Cody that although life has its setbacks, there is always something next in line to propel us forward. Our passions can become our career.

Connect With Cody:

Website | @Cody_Campbell | @TheDanceDojo | Facebook | Google+

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Direct download: Cody_Campbell.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:55pm MDT

160: Tara Tiger Brown - The Social Entrepreneur

"[When you're an entrepreneur] you get to write your own roadmap...at the end of the day, I'm my only boss." - Tara Tiger Brown

About: Tara Tiger Brown- Co-Founder of KitHub with Luz Rivas

Overview: Tara Tiger Brown is a lifetime lover of building- from software, to coding, to creating DIY kits. She is constantly on the go. Through this interview, Tara shares with us how she got started in the software industry, and where her passion for helping others came from.

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Tara Tiger Brown

Highlights:

Background: Tara grew up in a small town outside of Vancouver, Canada and attended school at British Columbia Institute of Technology where she studied business, and information technology. When she finished school, she ended up at a data warehouse consulting company that built gigantic databases for airlines, and tech companies. At that job, she became really interested in website development. From there she went on to work with Microsoft, specifically Hotmail, where she helped with coding on site. At that position, Tara learned a lot about scaling companies. Eventually, Tara realized there was a world outside of Microsoft, and went to work for TopSpin. She then took a year off when she had her child, and during that time started working on a startup. She later took a break from startups, and worked for non-profits. While working for non-profits, that's when Tara really began to feel passionate about doing good and helping others.

What is KitHub: KitHub is a very new company that sells unique sets of kits for young learners. It provides young children with an opportunity to have a hands on experience building something that they may not have the time to do during school. These kits also allow the parents to be more involved in their children's learning. You can subscribe to their website to get a themed kit each month from science, to fashion, to environmental. They also sell these kits to schools and classrooms. These kits are targeted for children ages 6-12.

How it Works: As a parent, simply go to their website, subscribe, and from there you will receive a monthly kit. In between waiting to receive the kit, parents will receive different how-to's of things that they can actually make at home with things they may already have lying around. Also, every Friday KitHub has a live show and tell online that your children can watch.

Goal for KitHub: Tara would love to have thousands of subscribers by the end of 2015, and would also like to have a plan on how they can move into the older age group. She would also like to be more involved in the planning and development of the kits.

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Luz Rivas & Tara Tiger Brown of KitHub

 

Struggle with KitHub: Although Tara's background is in software, she has struggled with how to manage the logistics side of the business. She is working on getting more involved with that part of the company so she can focus more on the kits themselves.

What is LA Makerspace: Started in 2012, Makerspace is a community of people who tinker, DIY, and who want to learn how to do everything from programming to 3D printing. And the people who are part of that community are those who do not have the tools or space to do so. Makerspace is focusing on workshops in LA, and working on getting another space in the surrounding area. Because Makerspace has teamed up with libraries in the area, it is free- all you need is a library card.

Represent LA: When Tara moved from San Francisco down to LA in 2009- she wasn't sure where to find other women that tech scene so she decided to do something about it. Represent LA 

Women in the Tech World: Tara feels very fortunate- she has never felt disrespected or blocked out as a female tech entrepreneur. She certainly has empathy and understands when women report issues that they're dealing regarding this matter and is open to talking to these women and helping them in anyway that she can.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Choose something that you actually like- it's a bonus if it's something you have experience in. Surround yourself with people that you trust, and work with people that you enjoy working with.

Take Away: We learn from Tara that women can be software engineers too. Tara is a great example of constantly pursuing her dreams and always looking for new things she can build or ways she can help others in the tech community.

Connect With Tara:

TaraTigerBrown.com | @Tara | KitHub.cc | @KitHubcc | Facebook 

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Direct download: Tara_Tiger_Brown.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:58am MDT

159: Pete Williams - 7 Levers of Business

"If you want to be an entrepreneur, getting your hands dirty is the way to go."

"The biggest innovations don't often come from within, they come from someone else externally looking in and giving advice and trying to do something different." - Pete Williams

About: Pete Williams- Founder of Preneur Marketing- Entrepreneur, Author, and Marketer.

Overview: Pete Williams, nicknamed the Richard Branson of Australia, takes us through his entrepreneurial journey that started in high school. He also takes us through the 7 Levers of Business, and how we can increase our business through simple steps.

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Pete Willims

 

Highlights:

Background: Pete started his first business in high school, doing web design for local businesses. Then, he went onto school and received a commerce degree. It wasn't quite what he was expecting, but he learned a lot. His parents were actually teachers and not entrepreneurs, but he gained a desire through working with his friends.

Selling MCG Stadium: Ok, so Pete didn't actually sell the stadium, but when it was torn down, and as a 21 year old, he took pieces of the demolished stadium (carpet, timber), created a memorabilia piece, and started selling these pieces to the public. He was able to structure his business model in a way that made the sales fast, efficient, and effective. He was profitable from day one.

Telecommunications: After his success with selling the memorabilia pieces, he started working for a telecommunications company, selling phone systems.

Consulting: Currently, Pete is consulting startup companies on their HR, marketing, and all around communications.

7 Levers of Business: Traffic, Opt-Ins, Conversions, Average Item Price, Transactions Per Client, and Margins. Pete shares that if you spend 2 weeks and just focus on one of these things, you can increase an aspect of your business by 10% in that area. So, if you then spend 14 weeks total, or 2 weeks per area on growing that part of your business by 10%, by the end of the 14 weeks, you will have doubled your business profits.

Helping Entrepreneurs: Pete tells us that when you discover new tools, you need to determine which aspect of your business that tool is going to help grow. If it's not going to help your business grow at the time you need it to, than it's not relevant.

End Game for Pete: He has a couple of ideas and a few other books coming out down the road. But he is just going to continue to focus on growing his businesses, and balancing his work/personal life.

Take Away: Pete teaches us to open our minds, involve mentors and advisors, and make money with existing ideas. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Connect With Pete:

preneurmarketing.competewilliams.com.au | @preneur | Books

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Category:Business -- posted at: 6:12pm MDT

“If left to our own devices, we’ll always be on them.” - David Ryan Polgar

About: David Ryan Polgar- Digital Lifestyle Expert & Tech Ethicist

Overview: David Ryan Polgar shares his tactics on how we can become more balanced in our technology-overwhelmed world.

DavidRyanPolgar
David Ryan Polgar

 

Highlights:

What is a Digital Lifestyle Expert & Tech Ethicist: A tech ethicist looks at tech use from an ethical, legal, sociological, and emotional framework. It came about because a few years ago he kept reading articles about the major impact of social media and how it’s affecting us. David a former college professor, attorney, and now a writer and public speaker decided to use all those skills to help people achieve balance with their technology.

Who Hires David: Corporations and startups hire David to analyze their tech companies from every angle. For example, he is currently helping a startup that focuses on parental controls called CoPilot Family.

Trends in the Tech World for Entrepreneurs: David feels we are becoming a lot more nuanced about how we discuss technology. The startup community is all about efficiency and productivity. Tech balance is all about being creative, and becoming a critical thinker. People care more about your ideas, and not so much how many hours you put in. Sort of like the work smart, not hard mentality.

How to have Tech Balance: You cannot rely solely on willpower to make a change in your life. You need to actually physically say that you’re not going to be available for a couple of hours, or go on a hike without your phone. David suggests replacing your phone alarm for an old school alarm clock.

Side Effects from Our Technology: Some physical problems are eye problems, wrist strains, etc. David shares that our phones are interrupting creativity, critical thinking, and conversation. We need to step back and change our situation. It’s addicting to have a smart phone, and to hear that ding and feel loved. However, technology is neither good or bad, it’s all in how we use it. It has the potential to be very good, but it also has the potential to be very bad if we allow it to be.

What is Mental Obesity: It is the phrase David likes to use when our brains feel full. It’s easy to know when you gain physical weight, but it’s not so easy to know when your brain is “overweight.” We start feeling so overwhelmed because of the constant pressure we feel from our technology. The way David sees things developing over the next 5 years is having some type of mental food plate to help us keep a balance. Our problem isn’t the amount of information that’s out there, it’s actually retaining that information in our minds. Deeper level thinking requires reflection, but how often do we reflect?

Suggestions from David: He shares with us that it’s important to take time each day to be completely unplugged where you can reflect, and give your mind a technology break. You’re never going to be under-tech, so don’t feel like you’re missing out when you take that time each day.

Future for David: It’s going to be 2-part. The first is seeing a massive growth with CoPilot Family. Also, David, is going to be doing a lot more speaking gigs about tech balance, and making that scalable. He’s thinking about doing a speaking series, doing more TV gigs, and possibly doing things overseas. He is also currently developing a book.

Overall Goal of Being a Digital Lifestyle Expert: It’s about raising awareness for the need of having tech balance, and offering solutions to help people with this.

Take Away: You cannot be an Outlier if you’re over plugged. You cannot be an Outlier if you’re constantly multi-tasking. You become an Outlier when you’re a creative thinker- when you’re digesting the material. It’s good to be bored every once and awhile to allow the mental space.

Connect With David:

Personal Website | Company Website |@TechEthicist |@CopilotFamily

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Direct download: David_Ryan_Polgar.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:09am MDT

157: Ezra Winter- Taking Over the World with Social Media

"Treat your content like a comedian and treat your growth strategy like a business person." - Ezra Winter

About: Ezra Winter- Writer and Social Media Professional

Overview: Ezra is a social media and digital marketing professional who writes about his work and interviews interesting people in the field. He consults with companies and helps them boost their social media presence. His work has appeared in Complex Magazine and other popular outlets. Through this interview, Ezra shares with us how he maintains a work-life balance, and what a typical day in his life looks like.

Highlights:

What Ezra Does: Ezra helps companies with the social media strategy. For a few clients he does the actual posting, and also interacts with his client's followers. More frequently, he comes in to help train companies' staff, help set up accounts, and help share with those companies what works.

End Goal: Ezra would like to get his personal brand off the ground and focus on doing more live events. He has a background in performing and working with audiences, and so with that he'd like to be more involved with speaking engagements.

Typical Day: Ezra generally works out of his apartment and has the ability to set his own schedule. He never works 9-5. Typically, he might work really hard in the morning, then take a break during the day to eat, and go to the gym, and then he'll work hard again later in the afternoon. He definitely works more than 40 hours, but its on his own terms and so he really enjoys the flexibility.

Marketing Workshop: If you'd like to sign up for one of Ezra's workshop, he will be focusing on Twitter. It will be teaching you how to get more followers and how to keep them engaged.

Tips for Entrepreneurs using Twitter: For those personal accounts, don't post too often. Post things that are engaging and creative. Don't always be asking for things from your followers. Think of Twitter as a platform and not a broadcast.

Building Your Brand: If you struggle in the witty department but have great content to offer, don't stress! Ezra says you don't absolutely need to be funny. If you are putting information out there that is useful and practical, people will read it and apply it.

Work-Life Balance: Ezra shares that it's necessary to do a high quality of work but you have to know when to turn it off. First off, Ezra had to find the work-work balance and compromise between the writing and marketing aspects of his job. Right now, he is working about 60 hours a week, but takes time each day to create some balance in his personal life.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: For those trying to get their first gig, don't quit your 9-5 just yet. Ezra worked with a marketing company for a few years, while doing some things on his own time on the side until he had established some great clients. He shares that it's important to do this before quitting your 9-5.

Take Away: It's possible to come from a low place to living the lifestyle of your dreams. Although, it takes dedication, hard work, and actively applying your skills- it's worth the wait.

Connect With Ezra:

Website | Blog | @WinterEzra 

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:56am MDT

About: John Jenkins-Sr. IEM & Special Projects Manager for Intel

The following interview was conducted at the StartSLC conference in SLC, Utah January 29 & 30, 2015

Overview: John Jenkins is a tech representative for Intel. He primarily focuses on the startup tech community. He is here to find ways to support the startup community through resources that Intel has to offer. Specifically, in the mobile market and the X86 Architecture program. If a developer needs some hardware to test on, Intel is happy to provide those developers with that and John is there to help. For Utah, the funding and talent is there but has it's struggles.

John shares with us about the gap between brilliant engineers and their struggle to business/market their great ideas. One of the goals for Intel in Utah is to continue the support and building within the tech community of Utah. Eventually, they want to develop a plan that will bridge the gap for engineers and launching their ideas. John advises entrepreneurs to not be afraid to bootstrap as much as you possibly can. Although the entrepreneurial trend is all about gathering funding, don't feel like that's what you have to do.

Direct download: John_Jenkins.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 7:12pm MDT

155: Emma Ponsonby - Building an Empire

“We build businesses, we sell businesses, and we do it in a way that our businesses operate with a very high standard of integrity. Our businesses all focus on making a positive change in someway in the world, and also helping people fulfill their dreams.” - Emma Ponsonby

About: Emma Ponsonby- Founder of Emperia Ventures

Overview: Emma shares with us about her drive for being a part of Emperia Ventures- an ecommerce business currently in Dubai.

EmmaPonsonby_Press01-BW-SM
Emma Ponsonby

 

Highlights:

Dubai Community: When Emma came to Dubai 2 years ago, there was a very small startup community, but Emma feels more support has evolved for startups since being there- from the government, community, and other startups.

About Emperia Ventures: Emma started her first business in school designing logos for small entities all over the world. From that experience she really learned how to fend for herself. From there she went to New Zealand and worked with another design company. Over the last 13 years, she’s been involved in design, marketing, and e-commerce type companies. She got frustrated with the corporate world, and decided to do something on her own.

Emperia Venture's Intention: It is to help people build other startups and get them on their feet. All of these companies have a focus on lifestyle, or e-commerce. The people who come to Emperia Ventures have great ideas, but don’t necessarily have what they need to get started on their own. Emperia Ventures acts a bit like a VC, but not completely. They’re really focusing on bringing together creative industries with technology. Right now they’re building an e-commerce platform to create a unique experience for each and every customer.

Team Background: Emperia Ventures has about 25 people working for them at the moment. They are based in 9 different countries, and 11 different cities. However, soon they are going to have an office based in Dubai.

Business as a Woman in Dubai: Surprisingly, there is a lot of extra support for women in that area who are striving to make it in the business world in Dubai.

Raising Funds: They are operating with investors in the US, the UK, Australia, and the Middle East. It’s quite a tight family with these investors. Emma feels that with finding investors she has to be very clear with what their company is about to attract the right kind of investors.

Acquir.Me is the biggest project they are currently working on right now.

Shop By Mood: A current project they’re working on that focuses on emotions and mood based information. Through various ways, they identify what mood the customer is in, and how a customer makes a decision in an emotional state of mind. With that, they then try to help that customer make a purchase that makes them feel more fulfilled and satisfied with their purchase. They are planning to launch this platform as soon as they can this year.

Advice for Entrepreneurs in E-commerce: Be very clear with what you want to bring into whatever industry that you’re in. Research understanding what your customer needs and wants. You also really need to know who you are as an entrepreneur because when you’re sitting their with an investor, everything you haven’t dealt with is right in front of you at that meeting. Know your numbers, and know your company inside and out with these investors. These investors are investing in your just as much as they are with your business.

End Game for Emperia Ventures: Although it’s quite a long way away, it’s something that Emma will be focusing for a long time. She will continue to help build businesses, sell businesses, and helping people fulfill their dreams.

Take Away: Be confident in what you’re doing. Know yourself and your business well before you take your company to investors.

Connect With Emma:

Website | @EmmaPonsonby | AboutMe

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Direct download: Emma_Ponsonby.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:28pm MDT

154: Bradley Joyce - A True Definition of Entrepreneur

“Even if you’re not trying to be a high-growth company, it’s hard [being an entrepreneur], it’s a roller coaster. You go through crazy highs and crazy lows.” - Bradley Joyce

About: Bradley Joyce- Founder of Velocis SocializerHQ, and Launch DFW

Overview: Bradley Joyce is the true definition of being an Outlier. During this interview, he shares with us all about the different companies he started and what it’s like balancing so many responsibilities in the entrepreneurial world.

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Bradley Joyce

Highlights:

Velocis: It is a company Bradley started in 2008 as a way to get into the web development world. It was the entity under which he did all of his work. He spent a lot of time helping small companies build their businesses, and eventually got into bigger build-up applications. It’s a team of 13 people- designers, developers, marketers, and sales people. They act as an incubator for a lot of the smaller companies. Up to this point, they have about 5 companies and have equity stake in most of them while helping them build their sites, and platforms.

Application Process: If you’d like to become a partner, get on AngelList and set up your profile. For the equity base deals, they are looking for a few companies to work with later in the Spring. Feel free to reach out directly to Bradley as well.

About Socializer: Is a spin out from Velocis. At the time, Bradley and his co-founder worked full-time on this company for about a year and a half. They raised some money, and really pounded the pavement building product. It’s been on the shelf for the past 12 months. It’s been through just about everything a startup can go through.

What is Socializer: A predictive analytics for social media. They would use specific algorithms to help increase clicks and re-tweets.

Why the Hold on Socializer: Money was the biggest reason. They needed a lot more investment for infrastructure. They had a hard time sustaining the monthly fees, and their customers at the time were not ready for the cost required to help pay for the business itself.

Plans to Revive Socializer: Bradley and his team have been thinking about moving forward with Socializer- but are waiting on funds to come through. It’s not necessarily off the table, they may sell it, but they’re not quite sure yet.

Apps Created: Previously, Bradley worked for a company, and during that time, the company built a product called Tweet Saver. It was back during the time when Twitter was open to companies building upon it. It essentially archived all of your tweets. Another app they created was called Quitter- and it tracked all of those who unfollowed you on Twitter. Bradley didn’t originate Quitter, but it was given to him by a client. He grew it from 50,000 users to 200,000 users. Quitter was somewhat profitable, but not something that made large amounts of money. Eventually, Bradley didn’t have the time to run all these apps, and so he listed the apps on a site and sold them to another Twitter app-like company.

Learning Mistakes: Bradley admits that selling these apps were some of the biggest mistakes in his entrepreneurial career. Bradley feels that if he had the patience, he would have worked more on these apps, and grown them in different ways to get them into a niche area.

What is Launch DFW: Bradley started the company in 2010. It’s an online community that started off as a very simple blog. From there it grew into hosting network events, happy hours, meetings, etc. The best way to think about what Launch DFW is a TechCrunch for the Dallas area. They try to aggregate as much information as possible for the Launch DFW community. Right now, they have about 20,000 visits a month. They have around 200 people at their events, and about a 100 people to their happy hour. It started out as a passion project, but within the last 6 months, they’ve really focused on making it a successful business because of its role of importance in helping the community. They have a lot of goals around making sure it’s a sustainable business for 2015.

Unique about Bradley: He is really into sports, and played water polo from 3rd grade through college. And he shares that sports prepare you for business in so many ways: dedication, hard work, teamwork, etc.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: From Bradley’s experience, the more you share your ideas, and the more you talk to other people to get feedback, the more you grow and become better. It’s so important to be open and honest with everyone around you. Being an entrepreneur is hard work, and you need that support. For those who are dipping their toes into the entrepreneurial world, talk to a lot of people about what you want to do. Try and get as much validation with potential customers that you can do up front to get a feel for what’s out there. Once you do it, be 100% committed. . Don’t straddle the line too long.

Take Away: Bradley teaches us that the sky is the limit when it comes to starting a business. Although, there are many highs and lows to being involved with so many different companies, the rewards are worth the risk.

Connect With Bradley:

Website | @BradleyJoyce | @Velocis | @SocialyzerHQ | @LAUNCHDFW | AboutMe

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Direct download: Bradley_Joyce.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:50pm MDT

153: Andrew Dumont- Entrepreneur At Work

"Once you get into early stage companies, it’s hard to imagine doing anything else.”

“It’s a hard road, there’s a lot of days when I wake up and think, "Man I wish I could just go work for a big company and cash a check and I’d be fine," but it’s just not the way I’m wired.” - Andrew Dumont

About: Andrew Dumont- Entrepreneur in Residence at Betaworks

Overview: Andrew is a determined and intelligent young man who has a passion for building businesses. He shares his experiences with starting the company Stride, and what he is doing now at Betaworks to prepare for future entrepreneurial work.

andrewb-w_3
Andrew Dumont

 

Highlights:

Background: Andrew is originally from Seattle, but now living in New York working at Betaworks. He came to NY to elevate his entrepreneurial game and be surrounded by people who are always on the go.

Betaworks: It's essentially like a startup studio and is structured by 2 sides. The first side is an investment side. They are currently involved in about 15-20 seed investments with about $100-$250k  per investment. Some of the companies Betaworks has invested in are: KickstarterTumblr, and many others. Right now, they are investing in ProductTime. The other side of the company is the studio portion. Betaworks hires entrepreneurs to help with the media business and with what new media will look like. They build new products that will be compelling in that space. Some of those products include: Chart B, Dots (iPhone game), and Dig. It’s not a traditional type of company- they like to start their employees from scratch. They go out and find talent within the community they’ve built. They’re going to start a new program called “Hacker” where they work with a creator that builds a new thing within 3 months. This new program is very much like the film studios in Hollywood.

Daily Workload: Andrew went out to New York because a good friend was an investor with Betaworks. Andrew was very interested in the business model. He was ready to do his own thing, and by coming to Betaworks, was given a good opportunity to do his own thing at a great company. When he started there, Andrew spent a lot of time on helping platforms like Insta Paper, Dig, and Pancho. His role was to solve some of the problems that those applications were experiencing.

Andrew’s Goal: His next step is to determine if Betaworks will be the right fit for helping him start his own company.

Previous Startup (Stride): Stride was a company/app that Andrew co-founded. It was built it in about 3 weeks. Andrew and his team built Stride as a light weight CRM application. The idea behind Stride is that salesforce was a really complicated tool,  so they wanted an app that focused more on the simple- more about the stages of where the sales were at. Stride was a completely bootstrapped company. It made about $20k in revenue in about year and a half (side project). Once it started getting bigger, they were trying to determine if it was something they wanted to pursue, but Andrew felt like the market was completely capped, so they decided to sell the growing company to Neil Patel and Heaton Shaw. Andrew is good friends with Neil Patel, and he really trusted in their ability to scale and build products. It was a very smooth process selling it to them, which Andrew was grateful for,  because they already had customers using their application. He wanted to make sure that those customers were taken care of and knew that Neil and Heaton would be the right fit.

Andrew’s Passion: Out of all the things there is to do in the entrepreneurial world, Andrew really enjoys businesses over consumer products. He states, "They aren’t as sexy but they capture my interest." In the future he'd like to do something similar to Stride but a little more aggressive.

Work-Life Balance: Andrew says that you have to understand that you’re sacrificing a lot of the work-life balance in the early stages. It takes more than 40 hours a week. You have to do certain things each week that make it so you don’t burn out. To keep a balance, Andrew tried to shut off and be unplugged on the weekends. Every year, he makes sure to do at least a week or two of being completely unplugged from the world. He says, "There’s no doubting the fact that it’s [being an entrepreneur] hard work, but it’s just part of the deal."

Common Mistakes: Andrew has made plenty of mistakes through his own journey, but says that’s how you learn. "You need to fail to really understand things." Every single company he’s been apart of started small. Many of them failed, but some of them did grow into large, successful companies. Seismic was a great example of company that had too much cash, and pivoted too often. There’s a right time to pivot and a wrong time to pivot. When things aren’t working, a companies' natural inclination is to pivot, which can ultimately destroy what is trying to be built. Andrew shares that it's important to have a hunch as an entrepreneur. You have to believe in something that others may not. There’s a lot of reasons why a company can fail, and it’s usually more than just one element that causes the fall.

Advice for Entrepreneurs After They Fail: It’s hard not to get down on yourself when things don’t work, but you have to understand that it’s part of the anomaly. You have to reclassify your definition of success. It’s a constant battle to readjust. Depression in startups is a real thing. So, a lot of it is making your mind stronger. For Andrew, preparing his mind means putting things in perspective and setting very clear goals. Don’t get distracted by what’s going on in other companies around you.

Take Away: In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be willing to put in overtime. 40 hours a week isn't going to cut it. Like Andrew, you may even have to start something on the side while working a mainstream job until you can launch. Even though it's not going to be easy, it's worth it.

Connect With Andrew:

Website | @AndrewDumont | AboutMe | Blog

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:39pm MDT

152: Chris Brogan- Owning Your Game

“If you don’t believe in all your heart and soul, that the thing you are offering, is the right thing, then it’s going to be hard for you to ever ask for the sale.”

“Don’t fake it ‘til you make it, believe until the world catches up to where you are.” - Chris Brogan

About: Chris Brogan- CEO of Owner Media Group

Overview: Chris Brogan is a successful and approachable entrepreneur. He has consulted for large firms all over the world, including Disney, Google, Microsoft, etc. Chris provides education and tools to help you make your life and your business thrive, by teaching you how to own the game you most want to win. Throughout this interview, we learn some great tips on how to be a powerful salesman, and how Chris has become successful.

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Chris Brogan

 

Highlights:

Why Meet with Outliers: We asked Chris why he was so willing to meet with us, and he responds by saying that he is always willing to help others, no matter what stage of work they are in and was excited to help you, Outliers. He states that everyone has started at some point and he was at the starting point at a stage in his life too. Chris wants to connect with others and see how he can help them.

Newsletter Strategy: The easiest way that Chris explains it, is he’s always made it a point to talk to people the way he’d want someone to talk to him, and/or even to his mother. Chris is always trying to sell something- it’s business. But what he considers a sale is a transaction of value. 90% of the stuff he does is free, and the other 10% is where he creates his revenue.

Sales: “If you don’t believe in all your heart and soul, that the thing you are offering, is the right thing, then it’s going to be hard for you to ever ask for the sale.” If you’re selling something that doesn’t work, then you’re not going to do so well. You have to believe that what you’re selling is truly going to help that person. When you are worried about making rent, or paying the bills, then you are selling with the wrong perspective and those that you are selling to will feel it as well.. Sell from love. It’s easier to sell value than anything else.

Mistakes Outliers May Be Making: You cannot share, or sell something that you have not experienced. The secret sauce is that people want to know that you’re just like them. Chris hates the phrase “fake it ‘til you make it.” He says, “Don’t fake it ‘til you make it, believe until the world catches up to where you are.” Sometimes people don’t see it the way you do because they can’t see the vision that you do. Entrepreneurship and a lot of our journey can be tough, sometimes you have money and sometimes you have no money. The trick is to just be really good about where you are.

What is Success: Chris believes that success is being able to say no to the things that he wants to say no to. He feels that he’s “made it,” according to the world, but he still has new goals and new heights he wants to reach. The people who fail the most in life are the people who let up on the gas petal once they reach a certain goal. Chris really admires people like Warren Buffet who work until the very end. Richard Branson is also a great example of continuing success. Richard has over 400 companies and still runs at full speed. He works hard and he plays hard.

Biggest Challenge: Getting people to understand the story that he’s trying to tell. With all sales and marketing, Chris believes that he has something to offer to those around him and he truly wants to help them.

Revenue: Since 2008, his company revenue has always fluctuated. In 2010, he lost $400,000 in investments. His goal for revenue this year is to beat the $1Million mark. Chris shares that when someone is thinking about their revenue goal, they need to think about what it’s going to take to achieve that and if it’s really worth it. Each goal depends on who you are and what works for you.

End Game for Chris Brogan: He's not sure what it is, but he hopes that he’ll get that one idea that will allow him to create a company that will live on past him. He eventually wants to build a product he can sell that he won’t be the face of.

About Chris’s latest book - The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth: Chris considers himself a “freak.” He defines freak as someone who has almost a tattoo like obsession of doing the kind of business they want to do with the people they want to do it with, and doing it the way they most want to do it. Tony Hawk, Mark Echo, and Kate White are great examples of being “freaks” of their business. A freak is the people who are tired of trying to fit in, and are just trying to find out where they belong. You can definitely have a day job and be a freak. The whole concept doesn’t require that you set off on your own and do your own thing; it’s simply owning what you do.

Take Away: Chris has an authentic approach to sales that teaches any of us entrepreneurs to be true believers in what we’re selling. Like his most recent book, Chris shares that we need to become “freaks” in whatever business we are doing and we will be successful.

Connect With Hasan:

OwnerMag.com | ChrisBrogan.com | @ChrisBrogan | Facebook

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Category:Business -- posted at: 1:01pm MDT

151: Hasan Mirjan - Connecting Startup Communities

“A failure is a failure when you fail and you don’t get up again.” - Hasan Mirjan

About: Hasan Mirjan- Founder of SpherePad, &  SphereMail

Overview: Hasan shares with us the struggles of immigrating from Iraq to America and the ups and downs of doing what you love. He had to be very patient along the way until he could create the company he was so passionate about. We learn all about SphereSpace and their sister companies, and how a co-working space can help any entrepreneur.

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Hasan Mirjan | Melinda Yeaman

 

Highlights:

Background: Hasan’s story goes back 25 years or so. He comes from a family of entrepreneurs. The first business that he started was a chicken farm located in Iraq. The chicken business didn’t do so well, so he opened up a stationary store, but due to circumstances in the country, it ended. When he came to America, he worked for a company in the tech industry, but wanted to start something of his own. Once he got residency in the country- he quit his day-to-day job to finally start his own company. The company was called capture.com that was related to artists and photographers. However the company soon failed. So, in 2010 Hasan launched SpherePad despite negative criticisms about the company being successful.

Struggles: Throughout the 9 years of working at his tech job in the US, he wanted to leave and start his own company but he couldn’t quit do so because he didn’t have residency. Hasan shares how he had to be completely patient until he could start the company of his dreams. Despite his anxiousness, Hasan shares that his experience at his 9-5 job taught him about corporations, human management, and finances.

What is SpherePad: A co-working space that provides startups with the type of connections and community that a new company needs. Hasan has met many different types of people through SpherePad that has provided him and others with assets at their disposal. It’s not about high revenue for SpherePad, it’s meant to be more like a compliment to a secondary company. Currently there are co-working spaces in the US, the UK, France, and Australia.

Importance of Being Involved in a Co-working Space: You know a lot about the people around you and your community. When you see a company come to your space and become very successful, it’s good to know that they started in your co-working space. You maintain strong connections with many people all across the board.

What is SphereMail: The space at SpherePad was being used, and people using the space wanted an email that they could use while there. It’s a white label application, that SpherePad gives a link to those using the co-space. SphereMail is not a flat monthly fee, it’s all free. They only take 10% of whatever the revenue is for that user in the co-working space. It has been up and running for 2 1/2 years now. It was completely bootstrapped by Hasan himself.

Why is it All Worth It: Hassan shares that he loves building things and being responsible for something great. His passions have allowed him to push through the struggles.

What’s Next: SphereTrack is a mail tracking application and expense reporting for companies.

The Advantage of Being in San Francisco: It's all about having access to startups and funding. If you want to go fast, and be around the right kind of people, this is the place to be. There’s always room for more startups here. Based on his experience of opening their co-working space, they filled up fast.

Advice for Entrepreneurs Immigrating to the US: Stick with it. Even though it is gut wrenching and can throw you for a loop, just stick with it. Don’t take negotiations personally. It’s important for you to understand the US system and how it works. Strive to learn the language, especially if you want to start a large-scale business.

Take Away: Although being an entrepreneur can be a long road, it's worth the wait. Even if you have companies that fail, you are never a failure by continuing to pursue your dream.

Connect With Hasan:

Website SphereMail | Website SpherePad | @HMirjan

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Category:Business -- posted at: 9:48pm MDT

150: Melody McCloskey - The Beauty in Technology

 

“Technology is the most extensible and scalable thing that you can leverage to build almost any type of idea.”

“We were the black sheep of startups… in an industry that a lot of guys in tech just didn’t get.” - Melody McCloskey

About: Melody McCloskey - Founder of StyleSeat

Overview: Melody is a young, technology driven entrepreneur. She started StyleSeat to help provide hairstylists and salons a successful platform that will increase their business by 70%.

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Melody McCloskey

Highlights:

Background: Starting in her early 20's, Melody has been involved in the tech for the past 10 years- which began on the product side. After working for a TV network started by Al Gore where she was brought on to focus on helping monetize the network online, she decided to start her own company. Melody felt that after being in the entrepreneurial world for so long, it was time for her to venture off and do something that she was extremely passionate about.

Starting StyleSeat: Melody sat on the idea for a couple of years before launching because she felt that the platform she wanted to develop was almost too obvious of a need that there was sure to be some competition. Eventually, it got to the point that Melody was so obsessed with her idea, that her fears faded away. Finally, she didn't care if the idea didn't succeed, She just had to do it. Despite the hard times, she shares how rewarding it’s been for her to start this company.

What is StyleSeat: The beauty industry is one of the fastest growing industries out there. StyleSeat is a business platform and tool for hairstylists and salons. StyleSeat grows their clients' revenue by about 70% in the first month just by helping things run smoother. It's a great resource to help discover, book, and pay for online beauty appointments.

How is StyleSeat monetized: There is a premium package that StyleSeat offers that does more than just help with small tasks. Currently, StyleSeat has 3 Millions users. Loreal is now using StyleSeat as their preferred partner and is really excited about the free services they offer and the easiness of the platform.

How it all got Started: The first thing Melody did was build a working prototype with an engineer she found on craigslist, based on designs that a good friend of her’s created for equity in the company. Melody then bootstrapped the company for the first year and a half. After that point, their numbers started to show that the business was becoming successful. Since then StyleSeat has received funding and has raised a total of $14 million. StyleSeat has now been in business for 3 ½ years.

How StyleSeat Secures Users: Word of mouth is by far their most successful way of adding users to their platform. They made sure that the experience for each new user was one that they wouldn’t forget. They continually focus on better supporting their users, and expanding their platform.

Future for StyleSeat: For the first couple years, StyleSeat spent their focus on being a valuable business tool for stylists and salons. Now, that they have created just that, they've launched their first consumer app that consumers will be able to use for booking their appointments, etc. In the coming months they are focusing on becoming a true marketplace for their clients and consumers.

Success on the First Try: Melody states that even though this is her first startup, she had some great mentors that taught her life lessons that have shaped the way she’s created this company. She felt that by having such influential mentors, she had a leg up on what to do to create success. Each piece of advice she was given motivated her to keep going and take risks. She was taught to have the right kind of attitude and be positive.

Advice for Startups: Don’t let what’s out there, or the rules; stop you from doing what you’re passionate about. Don’t be afraid to ask people for help, and seek out those who have the knowledge that will help you go further. Figure out your distribution as fast as you possibly can. When you can figure out how to speed up that wheel as it turns, you’ll be more successful. Having a co-founder that you have a great relationship with is also one of the most important things you can have when you’re starting a company. Melody and her partner have set long term and short term goals that have helped them come to where they are now. Melody also states that having good friends that you really trust and will support you no matter how many bad days you have has been helpful. She says it’s important to have an outlet outside of the company.

Take Away: Melody teaches us to take action on our good ideas, even if we're afraid of the competition or what might already be out there. During the interview she said she knew that if she didn't start this company, and someone came out with her idea months later, she would have hated herself for it. Don't wait around- just start it now!

 

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Connect With Melody:

Website | @MelodyMcC

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Category:Business -- posted at: 11:55pm MDT

“Technology doesn’t create new behaviors, what it does is it facilitates and accelerates behaviors people already have.”

“Technology changes fast, and people change slowly.”

“The only reason we succeeded, is because no one took us seriously.” - Peter Horan

About: Peter Horan – Founder of Horan MediaTech Advisors

Peter C. Horan is an entrepreneur with a history of building successful media and internet businesses. He has played a role in five major revolutions in media and technology including: home video games; personal computers; cell phones; Windows computing; and the internet.

Overview: Throughout this interview, Peter walks us through his entrepreneurial journey and how he became involved in the tech world. He discusses the ups and downs of technology, what is valued today, and how he learned to spot potential even when it seemed dim.

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Peter Horan

 

Highlights:

History: Back when Peter got involved in technology, it was very risky to do so because of the unknown. In the early days, Peter was selling kit computers and at the time the general population was uninterested in personal computers, but he was determined to see all of these technological innovations through. Peter was never afraid to ask questions. Throughout the interview, Peter walks us through all the changes that he was apart of over the years. He explains how he was able to grow and how the knowledge of technology has become widespread.

Definition of Disruptive Technology

Changing Environments: Since technology is rapidly evolving, we must learn to adapt and change with it. Peter says that people have a hard time envisioning what a new type of technology is going to do for them. He explains that when something new is coming to the market, that it must be presented in a way that people can relate to. They must show how technology is going to help them accomplish that thing in a much simpler way.

What Peter Looks For in Technology: How something is accomplished, from daily tasks, to others finding information with that technology. Peter states that in the last 10 years a lot of value in technology has been created from what used to be the fact section in the newspapers. For example, finding out what’s playing at the movie theaters, looking for a house, buying/selling a car- all of which made a lot of money in the newspapers. There must be value in what each new piece of technology offers.

How to Work a Niche Business: Starting a niche business can be tough, there are a lot of ups and downs involved with doing so. Peter uses Starbucks as a good example of starting something niche. Starbucks did more then just sell coffee, they sold an environment where people could sit down, talk, listen to music, and eventually added food to their menus. Every couple of years, they come up with something else to add to their business for their consumers. Peter explains that whenever you’re starting something new, especially niche, you need to know your consumers. You need to know what you can do to add to your business every couple of years to engage those loyal customers.

What Peter Does Now: Peter sits on the board of directors of several companies, and also advises tech companies on how to excel. He is also an avid blogger where he shares thoughts and insights, and educational information for his followers.

Advice for Tech Entrepreneurs: Let’s not learn all the wrong lessons from the history of Silicon Valley. For Peter, he started in the tech industry because it was fun and interesting, and so he could change the world even though it seemed like a dodgy career at the time. He says often times for tech entrepreneurs, the future is always number 8 on the list of top priorities- be willing to be part of that future even when it’s not obvious. The why, the how, and the what next is what’s valuable to people.

Take Away: Peter is an excellent example of believing in something small. He has been apart of the tech world since the 1970’s and has grown immensely with it. He teaches us that as entrepreneurs, the future needs to be top on our priority list.

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Connect With Peter:

Website | @PeterCHoran

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:41pm MDT

"The most rewarding experience that I've had is the chance to know some of the young people when they started in their first year working for us [DDD], and to see them through the 4 years of work, and to have them go on to better things." - Michael Chertok

About: Michael Chertok- Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer of Digital Divide Data

Overview: Michael shares his experiences with DDD, which is a technology company that focuses on providing high quality services to companies large and small. He discusses with us the benefits of having employees in developing countries and how DDD is helping these young people become better educated and self reliant.

Highlights:

Background: Michael's drive started when he was in college. He was struggling to figure out how to pay for college, and over the summer, he got a job doing back office work for a medical supply company. It was tedious work, but it was his first job in an office that taught him great communication skills with his co-workers, and managers. When the opportunity came to do work in Cambodia, he saw the need to help and eventually DDD evolved.

What is DDD: Digital Divide Data provides a set of outsource business services to all sorts of businesses from small startups to Fortune 500 companies. They mainly focus on content conversion, digitization, and research services. For example, if your company has a data base of client prospects with multiple errors, DDD can go in and clean things up. DDD strives to provide a very high quality service to their customers. In 2001, DDD started with 40 young employees in Cambodia, and now has 1,200 people working for them around the world. DDD's current earned revenue is $5.5 Million.

Labor Force: Currently, DDD has a workforce in Kenya that will provide services all over the world. They are able to help these young people attend college, and typically these employees can work for DDD for about 4 years. They require their employees to be high school graduates. DDD's goal is to provide a stepping stone for these young employees to attain a higher level income and eventually be able to support a family. Many times, these employees go on to be involved in other tech companies, in non-profits, become teachers, and even work in government.

DDD's Mission Statement: Provide an opportunity for young people, particularly from very low-income families in developing countries.

Type of Business: Hybrid organization- U.S. Non-profit that owns a set of for-profit organizations.

Michael's Role: He is there to support DDD with marketing and financing. Most of the partners are based in San Francisco, which is why Michael is there, but the majority of the work for DDD happens overseas.

Technology Providers: DDD has partnered with Cisco systems and Microsoft to provide reliable technology for their employees overseas.

Most Rewarding Experience Working at DDD: Seeing these young, employees growing exponentially from start to finish. And to see these people become leaders in their own countries.

Challenges: Michael states that one of their greatest struggles at DDD is the need to balance their goal of serving their clients and providing opportunities for their young employees. DDD focuses a lot on providing a high quality product and educating those that work for them.

Advice for a Company Wanting to Give Back: One of the things DDD offers is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to be able to leverage their resources to help them grow their businesses. Right now, they offer a back office to help these entrepreneurs have quality infrastructure. Michael suggests that by giving a part of your resources to help others is a great way to give back.

Take Away: Although there is a lot of back and forth about work done overseas, we learn that when it is done right, it can be a great opportunity for families in developing countries, and a helpful resource for clients here in America.

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Connect With Michael:

Website | Facebook | Google+ | Youtube | @DigDivData

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Category:Business -- posted at: 10:59pm MDT

 “There are no losers in innovation.” -Kym McNicholas

About: Kym McNicholas - Emmy Award Winning Journalist

Overview: Kym is a feisty go-getter and long-time broadcaster. She has worked as a journalist for Forbes and PandoDaily. Currently, Kym is involved as the Executive Director for the Extreme Tech Challenge.

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Kym McNicholas | Melinda Yeaman

 

Highlights:

Kym’s Background: Kym has quite the resume, from professional water skier, to executive director of the Extreme Tech Challenge, Kym takes the cake on diversity. She graduated with a Communication Studies degree from Sacramento State University. Kym grew with a love of sports, and originally went to school for sports, but got a taste of broadcasting and ended up heading towards that direction. Throughout her life, she has been involved in many different types of broadcasting positions.

What is the Extreme Tech Challenge: Kym has been involved with many entrepreneurs and has worked with Richard Branson on the Extreme Tech Challenge. To learn more about what the Tech Challenge is and all those who have contributed, you can find it HERE.

Bucket list: Watch to find out what's on Kym’s bucket list. Hint: It includes Richard Branson

Struggles: Kym shares an experience where she drove out of her way to a TV station that asked her to come out, and upon arrival was denied in a big way. She’s also had other experiences that have attacked her personally. Kym has learned to have thick skin and to not let what people say get inside of her head. Through her trials, Kym has learned that everything always works out the way it is supposed to.

Advice for Entrepreneurs: Just do. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Don’t go to media too soon, because they often times rip apart your ideas. Don’t rely upon the media to promote your business. If your business can’t stand on its own, then it’s not a good business. Create a community, get on TV, and pay for advertising. Look for people who are going to offer positive criticism. You don’t have to get investment, you can bootstrap! You don’t always have to go the conventional route to be successful.

Take Away: Kym is an inspiring individual who hasn't let negativity drag her down. She teaches us that with will power, and a strong determination you can do and become whatever you want.

Connect With Kym:

Website | @kymbee

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Category:Business -- posted at: 12:08am MDT

“For me, the health benefits of doing training, vs not doing training have been tremendous, both in terms of confidence and how I carry myself. If I could get half of that to people who train with us, I think it’s a successful business.” – AJ Shewki

“Working for someone is nice, but creating something from scratch can be a roller coaster, but at the same time it is very exciting.” - Yorgos Stavropoulos

About: AJ Shewki, Yorgos Stavropoulos, and Bjorn Wanbo - Co-Founders of FYTNS.

Overview: FYTNS is currently a locally based company in San Francisco. The goal at FYTNS is to connect people to great personal training. It’s also a platform for personal trainers to find a pool of clients who are looking for trainers. FYTNS allows trainers to become their own entrepreneurs where they don’t work for "the man" at the gym who takes a large percentage of their revenue. With FYTNS, these trainers get to structure their own workouts, and create their own schedules.

FytnsApp Entrepreneur Interview
FYTNS

 

Highlights:

What is FYTNS: A platform for personal trainers. Specifically, AJ & Yorgos are testing their platform in San Francisco because they feel that if they can get a startup off the ground in the bay area, then they will be able to take it anywhere.

Monetization: Currently: FYTNS simply takes a percentage of what clients pay to their personal trainers through the platform. Eventually, they’d like to have a monthly subscription fee that clients can pay to be involved in a variety of sports as well.

Funding: Private funding has been provided to FYTNS through close friends and family.

Background: Yorgos is originally from Greece and came straight to San Francisco where he met AJ. He enjoys the open community in America. AJ was born in a refugee camp in Sweden and later moved to the UK to work on his Bachelors degree. He then came to San Francisco to work on his Masters degree. For AJ & Yorgos, immigration has proved to be a major challenge in their quest to become entrepreneurs in America, but they're not giving up.

Advice for International Entrepreneurs in the US: If you’re not pushing the business forward, no one else will. As an entrepreneur, you are the only one accountable. So, make sure that you are constantly pushing your company forward.

Take Away: Although there have been challenges for AJ & Yorgos along the way, they are very passionate about fitness as a lifestyle. Their platform, Fytns, is here to help personal trainers become better entrepreneurs, and for those seeking a great personal trainer, to find the right match.

Connect With FYTNS:

Website | @FYTNS | Facebook

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Category:Business -- posted at: 9:25pm MDT

“The best part about my job is bringing ideas to reality, and being able to see that manifestation.” - Kalin Kelly

About: Kalin Kelly- “Founders Broker”- Founder of The Connector Habit

Overview: Kalin Kelly is a talented young woman with a strong background in sales, communication, startups, and real estate. She shares the relationship between landlord brokers and what the commercial real estate is willing to give them. Kalin explains the troubles behind real estate in San Francisco and how having a “founders broker” can help so many young companies. Ergo- The Connector Habit.

Highlights:

Kalin’s Experience: She graduated from Berkley College and became a part of two startup companies that have given her the knowledge to know what founders actually need to begin. In her second startup, she became a marketing director, but later became interested in really changing the commercial real estate world. She realized there really is a disconnect and wanted to help solve the problem.

How It Works: Kalin’s job is to help tenants find the right space, negotiate a flexible lease, and make sure her clients are not going to be taken advantage of by the landlord.

Why You Need Kalin’s Help: Not only to not be taken advantage of, but to be educated on the market and to manage your expectations. She works with founders, non-profits, and more. She is determined to help her tenants find what fits their specific needs.

Cost: There is no cost to her clients. Her fee is actually paid for by the landlord.

Future Goal: Kalin has a passion for connecting, and is currently working on connecting people very humanly, in a disconnected social world. She is still working on the platform, so stay tuned for more information on that.

Guidelines for Entrepreneurs Choosing a Space: Start early! Focus on your team, don’t focus on your space- grow your idea. Be aware of the environment you’re looking to be a part of. Call a tenant rep.

Take Away: Choose to have a tenant rep, or a "founders broker" like Kalin, when searching for the perfect space for yourself, or company. There is more out there than what a landlord broker might be advertising. Kalin can help you find what best fits your needs, especially in a hard area like San Francisco.

Direct download: Kalin_Kelly.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:27pm MDT

"I've essentially bootstrapped my entire racing career to date...It was the most 101 in Business I've ever had...The whole struggle financially, and having to put my business hat on at a young age is what has made me so passionate about entrepreneurship." Collete Davis

About:  Collete Davis - Racecar Driver, Co-Founder of TechDrive, & CEO of Collete Davis Racing

Overview: Young female Indy race car driver, Collete Davis, wows us with her amazing accomplishments, entrepreneurial skills, and involvement with co-founding TechDrive. She shares the ups and downs of competing in a highly dominated male sport and how TechDrive came about.

Highlights:

Getting Started: By the age of 12 years old, Collete Davis was professionaly go-cart racing. By the age of 16, she started college to become a mechanical engineer. Although she was outnumbered in her classes and career, she didn’t let being the only girl make her nervous or shy away from her dreams. She is currently pursuing Indy racing and aspires to win the Indy 500.

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Collete Davis | Melinda Yeaman

 

Struggles: For Collete, racing has been an uphill battle. It was hard to find sponsors or financial backers to get behind a female racer. Collete bootstrapped her entire career from the age of 15 to raise the funds needed to race. At a young age, she had sell her potential to investors which has taught, motivated, and driven her to form a company around her racing experience.

Collete Davis | picture via colletedavis.com
Collete Davis | picture via colletedavis.com

What is TechDrive: The brand around TechDrive is starting as a new source to focus on everything from green to mobile startups, companies like Tesla, and focusing on the innovation in racing. The short pitch for TechDrive is: More techy, talkier, 2.0. Collete is currently working on a new initiative with Richard Branson- be sure to stay tuned.

Collete's Goals: In racing: winning the Indy 500. In business: providing easy access for startups to go mainstream.

 

For her consumers: Collete wants her consumers to know that TechDrive is a place where you can find niche content on all things travel. She also feels the importance to provide more and more content for consumers to be educated about going green.

Take Away: Collete teaches us that regardless of your age or gender, it's possible to pursue your dreams in entrepreneurship and create something more through your struggles. She is a great example of persevering to accomplish your goals.

Connect With Collete Davis: 

Website | Facebook | @ColleteDavis | @TechDriveCo 

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Direct download: Collette_Davis.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 10:40pm MDT

“We are disrupting the negative behaviors and dynamics that aren’t conducive to a healthy relationship. – Matthew Arrington

About Forte Strong:  Co-Founders: Matthew Arrington, and Brook Price. St. George, Utah.

Overview: Forte Strong is a powerful startup company helping young male adults ages 18-26 overcome their failure to launch. They work with an average of 8-15 students on a 6 month basis to help break bad habits, teach them social and practical skills, boost confidence, and lead them to the path that will bring them success in the real world. They are driven by their pure desire to help build the next generation of strong men.

Highlights:

Why the need for Forte Strong: Failure to launch is a growing problem that consequently is affecting men more than women. Matt and Brook are determined to help build this next generation of strong men.

Reasons for Failure to Launch: Social anxieties, technology, parenting styles

Details of Forte Strong: It is a 6 month program for male students ages 18-26. They provide guidance and structure while teaching their students social and practical life skills. A typical day at Forte Strong includes: a series of assessments, learning more about their student one-on-one. Forte Strong provides their students with therapists, coaches, and mentors for all aspects of their life. Students come from all over the world to create better lives for themselves.

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Ever Gonzalez | Brook Price | Matthew Arrington

Hiring process at Forte Strong: Hiring the right coaches is key at Forte Strong. They need people who are driven, empathetic, who can see the type of help that somebody needs; not what the world wants, or the expectation, but what somebody really needs. They need employees who are team players and are invested in their students.

Why Brook and Matt chose to work together: Brook has a resume of experience working with young adults, and Matt has great business experience that give them a good balance in creating a successful company. With their forces combined, they felt very strongly that they could do some good in the world with Forte Strong.

How they overcome disagreements: Transparency. Despite their differences, they focus on honesty and accept that they will make mistakes along the way and use it as a teaching moment for both the students and parents. They trust one another. “We’re trying to emulate what it means to be a real person. For us not to make mistakes is not realistic. But what we can do is use it (our mistakes) as a teaching moment.” They don’t allow their disagreements to get in the way of their real goals.

Profit: Matt and Brooke discuss the ups and downs of striving to become a profitable company. For 2015, they are possibly considering the non-profit route to help as many families as they possibly can. They are also working towards getting insurance companies to help pay for students’ tuition. By the end of 2015, if they do become a non-profit, and are accepting insurance, it should increase their revenue by about 450%.

Goal for Growth: Forte Strong would like to get to the point where they have a large number in St. George, but not too large that they lose the quality of their service. Once they can maintain the right level of students here, they want to open other programs around the country.

Advice for those thinking about a startup: Have a savings. It’s going to be a risk. Don’t do it alone. Understand where your weaknesses are and find someone who will help you fill in the gaps. Educate yourself as much as possible, read as many books as you can, and talk to as many experts as you can to have a base level of knowledge that will give you the platform to move forward. And don’t be afraid.

Take Away: Forte Strong is a much needed company determined to help change the future generation of men by giving them the tools to overcome their failure to launch.

“What’s the path you want to take? Let’s help you get there.” – Brook Price

Connect With Forte Strong:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Youtube

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Direct download: Forte_Strong.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:07pm MDT

Blankspaces is a brand of coworking offices in Los Angeles. Since 2008, they have cultivated a community of entrepreneurs and freelancers who share office space to collaborate. From private offices to a communal WorkBar, they have flexible plans for a variety of sizes for any workstyles. Blankspaces also has a variety of meeting room spaces that can be arranged to fit different events needs. 

Direct download: Jerome_07-11-2014.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 2:18pm MDT

Don't be afraid, you will fail and it's okay, keep plugging away." - David Kressel

David Kressel - Founder/VP at NotaryCam

NotaryCam has completely redefined the notarization process, providing the highest level of security possible, including positive verification as to the originality and integrity of the document to be notarized and absolute assurance the signer and notary are who they say they are. To prevent fraud before it occurs, we visually record the signing session and a personal information questionnaire must be completed by the signer.

Connect With Professor David:

Website | Facebook | @Kressel | @NotaryCam

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If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher

Direct download: David_kressel.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 9:39am MDT

"Hire slow but fire fast." - Jeremy Dann

Jeremy Dann, Professor of Entrepreneurship at USC Marshall, Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

Professor Jeremy Dann discusses the top three issues entrepreneurs struggle with. Find out what they are. Professor Dann's work has focused primarily on new product development, creative marketing strategies and effective organizational practices for encouraging innovation.

Highlights:

  • Company Entrepreneurship
  • Business Plans
  • Team Selection
  • Virtual Teams
  • Ivory Tower

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Ever Gonzalez | Melinda Yeaman | Professor Jeremy Dann

Connect With Professor Dann:

Website

If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher

Direct download: Jeremy_Dann.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 3:48pm MDT

"I see myself as helping my clients leverage the internet  and online media" - Dan Lundmark

Dan Lundmark - Principal at Lundmark Newmedia & Co-Founder of Appr.TV

LUNDMARK newmedia integrates solutions for online, print, interactive, and video production. Dan has worked on projects over the years that have included web development, interactive CDs for Sony and Warner Bros. LUNDMARK newmedia has also produced promotional videos, animation workshops at the American Film Institute, and brand ID, print collateral, and online content management systems for Long Beach public schools.

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Melinda Yeaman | Dan Lundmark | Ever Gonzalez | Andrew Grossman

Takeaway:

  • Long Beach, CA
  • Internet Boom
  • 3D Printing
  • New Media
  • Co-working Space
  • Air Swimmers
  • Collaboration & Relationships

Takeaway: 

"Time can be another form of poverty." - Dan Lundmark

Connect With Dan:

WebsiteLinkedIn | @danboarder

If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher

Direct download: Lundmark_New_Media.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:32pm MDT

Award-winning brand consultant developing strategy, identity and digital media solutions for varied clientele. Industries/markets include hi-tech, luxury real estate, resort, online retail and community destinations, content publishing and the arts. Platforms include, digital media, website and mobile applications.

Direct download: Karen_Bombgartner.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:02am MDT

"Members are what really make a co-working space work" - Ted Sieving

Robbie Brown - CEO 

Ted Sieving - COO

Work Evolution Laboratories (WE Labs) is Downtown Long Beach's first coworking community: an inspiring environment designed for innovators and influencers. We are homebase for a variety of start-ups, freelancers and entrepreneurs. They enjoy scalable work spaces, and amenities such as high speed internet, coffee, and a live social network of dynamic professionals. Members can bounce ideas off of each other, share resources, gain feedback, and learn from the experience of others.

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Melinda Yeaman | Ted Sieving | Robbie Brown | Heidi Fitzgarrald Howard | Ever Gonzalez

 

 

Takeaway:

"Having a true creative center, somewhere that people can bounce ideas off each other and network is key to survival." - Robbie Brown

Contact with WE Labs:

WebsiteFacebook | @WELabs | @BassinatorBrown | @TedSieving

"If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher

Direct download: We_labs_CEO.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 11:13pm MDT

Crystal Rose - Co-Founder of Sensay & Founder/Producer of LA Startup Week

Outlier On Air interviews Crystal Rose, Co-Founder of Sensay at the Cross Campus co-working space in Santa Monica, CA.  Crystal is actively engaged in thriving technology communities and has more than a decade of experience building, launching and scaling digital products. 

Highlights:

  • Coding as a Teenager
  • Self Taught HTML
  • Selling Websites on ebay at 16
  • Hackathons
  • Startup Community
  • Women in Tech

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Connect With Crystal: 

Sensay.It | LAStartupWeek | @CrystalRose | @Sensay | @LAStartupWeek

If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher

Direct download: Crystal_Rose.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:07am MDT

"If you have a failure or a setback your character is defined by how you react to it." - Matthew Benay

Outlier On Air interviews Aaron and Matthew Benay, the screenwriting duo out of Los Angeles, California. Listen as they explain how they got started and what advise they give to other writers and entrepreneurs. You won't want to miss their story about Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. 

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Highlights:

  • Screenwriters
  • New York
  • Japanese Mafia 
  • Yakuza
  • If you want to be a writer, sit down and write
  • Grit
  • Failure
  • National Treasure 3

Takeaway: 

"The only thing we can control is what WE do" Aaron Benay

If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher

Direct download: Benay_brothers.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 12:56am MDT