Outlier On Air | Founders, Disruptors, & Mavens (business)
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.

Mr. Brainwash

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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Connect With Andrew:

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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Connect With Spencer:

Website @PodclearTweets | 

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Direct download: Spencer.mp3
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.

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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.

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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

If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher

 

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.

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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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Sponsors:

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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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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