If I Was Starting Today

This week, Jim talks to Lloyed Lobo, Co-Founder of Boast, about his amazing Journey through Entrepreneurship, and how he was able to harness community led marketing to bootstrap a business to over 10M.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Being a swiss army knife
Don’t let rejection rule you, let it fuel you
Growing up on the streets of Mumbai: value of community
The three key skills for entrepreneurship
The key to consistency
3 Different types of community
How to figure out who to target for your community
The importance of understanding the customer
Just ask
Inflection points of a bootstrap company
Audience vs Community

Resources:

From Grassroots to Greatness: 13 Rules to Build Iconic Brands with Community Led Growth
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim gives an update on the 3M Dollar challenge before doing a deep dive on a recent book and podcast that has shifted the way he thinks about starting a business.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Update on the 3M challenge
An inspiration to think differently
Buying vs Building pros and cons
Q4 growth hacks/framework
Growth Calendar
Always on tactics
Marketing moments

Resources:

My First Million
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim chats with Nick Harris, founder of multiple startups and someone who has come into a company and helped them sell at huge valuations not once, but twice. Nick shares tips on how he managed to be so impactful, his approach when he comes into a new organization, and how to find a good fit in the first place.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Starting early in tech
Keys to making an impact in a new company
What do you say no to
Growth strategy
Setting Price
Finding a strategic partner
Trying to foster inspiration

Resources:

Nick Harris Twitter
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim talks with Tejas Manohar, about he and his co-founders grew his data startup High Touch through leveraging communities and marketing smart cuts, and how data activation can become a super power for businesses.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Selecting the right idea
Selecting the right Co-founders
How to be scrappy
Smart cutting
Leveraging communities
What is data activation

Resources

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim and Yonathan continue their conversation from last week and dive into the startups that have caught their attention. Then they give an update on the state of the $3M challenge and brainstorm the next business they would like to acquire.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

New additions to forbes wealth list
Boomers needing to sell their businesses
Fudge from Uranus
The rarity of killer offline marketing
Luxury brand playbook
Similarities between luxury and novelty
Frameworks
Updates on businesses

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim and Yonathan break down the recent blog post by Paul Graham titled How to do Great Work. They break down overall themes and discuss nitty gritty tactics, as well as sharing what resonates the most and what they weren't aligned with before coming up with some practical ways to incorporate the learnings into your business.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Paul Graham the Warren Buffett of early stage investing
Focusing on what to work on
Exponential work
Having great questions
Being honest with yourself
Tactical insights
Favorite Quotes
Contrast to Cal Newport
Seeking out great colleagues

Resources:

Blog
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim is joined by Damon Burton who shares his incredible journey starting as a freelancer to becoming the king of SEO. Damon shares how he started as an undervalued employee working for a boss who would get sent to jail leaving him without a job and how he used that low-point in his career as motivation to start his own business and begin his entrepreneurial journey. This culminated in his status as the go to person for SEO optimization and working with some of the biggest brands in the world.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The freedom to not know the answer
Betting on yourself
De-Risking and opening doors
Phases of Growth
Growth tactics for every phase
Referrals and consistency
Firing yourself from roles through documentation
Why do SEO now vs paid ads
SEO business alignment
Pricing Strategy

Resources:

https://www.damonburton.com/damon-burton/
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Can you be a leader and be lazy with your time and personal contribution to the workplace? Today’s episode is about an iconic read, in this case, a blog post by Andrew Wilkinson. In the post Lazy Leadership, he discusses delegation, building a machine, and working smarter instead of harder. Listen to the episode for a discussion about the blog post including the overall messages of the post, the best quotes from the post, and who needs to read this post the most.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

What “Iconic Reads” is all about
Who is Andrew Wilkinson?
What does “Lazy Leadership” mean and the main takeaways
Best quotes from the blog post
What we agree and disagree with about this blog post
Why this is an iconic read
Who should read this blog post?

Resources:

Lazy Leadership by Andrew Wilkinson
Andrew Wilkinson
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

This week, Jim is joined by Bryan Clayton, who started a business in high-school and parlayed that into a 150 person company that sold for millions, all before teaching himself to code and starting the largest landscaping network in the nation. Bryan shares his frameworks and mistakes he's made at every step of his amazing entrepreneurial journey.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

How to move from side hustle to business
The messy middle in real life
Do you have the appetite
The psychology of selling your business
Keeping a million dollars
Delegating from stewardship
Picking the right cofounders

Resources:

https://www.yourgreenpal.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bryanmclayton/?hl=en
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Nathan Yeung to discuss all things growth and marketing. They cover high level strategies for marketing teams before getting into the nitty-gritty of growth hacks that anyone starting an agency today can use for success.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Building a marketing team from scratch: who’s on it?
Hiring hacks
Full accountability
Technical marketers
Spotlight Syndrome
Avoiding design by committee
Serial position effect/Peak end rule
Research based marketing
Media arbitrage
Understanding pain points
Focus amplifying

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim gives an update on the 3M dollar challenge before doing a deep dive on the state-of-play in growth. Jim shares 7 brand new frameworks he's discovered over the past year during a turbulent time for growth agencies.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The state of GrowthHit
The state of the $3M dollar challenge
The problems and successes of One Day Design
Deep dive in GrowthHit
How to hire an executive team
The pivot towards marketing
New frameworks: delegate, coaching, AI, leverage, scale, pick up the pace, go bigger
Marketing moments

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, John Doherty returns to compare notes with Jim on a very important but often misunderstood part of business: Product Market Fit.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The messy middle
Defining product market fit
Determining PMF
False metrics for PMF
Understanding churn
Modifying pricing and packages
What does PMF look like

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim is joined by software engineer and technical guru Timor Tsentsiper to look at the benefits of developing a technical skillset and bringing an engineering approach to a startup.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Tips on how to start a technical career
Interviewing tips
Being a founder vs getting into a company early
Prioritizing learning and skillsets
The advantage of technical skills for marketers
Automation advantages
Geek Squad for Marketers
Half Baked Ideas

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim is joined by the community guru and CEO of Wondry April MacLean to have an amazing conversation about the value and tactics involved in building communities for businesses and brands.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

When and why to build community
Where and how to start building (tips and tricks)
Components of community
Programming and ritual
Good vs Great Communities
Community Managers
The importance of community goal
Agency Life

Resources:

Wondry
How to Launch a community in 60 Days
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim is featured on the Rising Tide podcast hosted by Kevin Prewett. They chat about starting and developing Growth Hit as well as the various projects from the startup studio.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Starting a growth agency
Attracting talent
Idea creation
Time Management
Identifying macro trends
AI endgame
Half-baked ideas

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Yonathan for the monthly update on the $3M Challenge, insight on getting 1M TikTok Views, and an overview of some of the best Marketing Stunts in recent history.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

One day design hitting 100k
The three customer personas: David Halpern
Informed customer
Afflicted
Oblivious customer
Getting a million views on Tik Tok
Brands that are killing it
Marketing Stunts
Is Jim too nice?

Resources:

Derek Halpern Video
Our TikTok Video with 1M Views
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim has an amazing conversation with Micah Truman, CEO of Return Home, a company that is revolutionizing the funeral home industry with the creation of a new category of service called "terramation." Micah shares his amazing journey and what he's learned from entering the business as an outsider and finding value in the human interactions he has with his new clients. Micah has achieved great business success as he continues to ensure meaningful impact Return Home has on the planet and the people who live on it.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The background of an innovator
Business as a method of improving the world
The value of being an outsider
The scary process of brining transparency
Creating a new category
The business advantage of intense ethics
The value of human moments
Being honest with your kids about financial literacy

Resources:

Return Home
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, we celebrate our 100th episode by sharing 12 of our favorite moments from the show over the past two years!

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

How ConvertKit Got to $30M ARR with No Funding #41
How Kreyol Essence Got on Shark Tank #24
Craig Swanson: How this CEO Funded His Bets in Startups #61
Ben Wilson on How to Take over the World - #43
How Patrick Dossett Became a Navy Seal & Founder through Pure Grit #49
How this Celebrity Chef Got his Big Break #64
The Power of Being Niche from a SaaS Owner #88
How a DTC brand did 7 figures in 12 Days #64
How Eric Jorgenson Got to Write a Book with Naval #36
How a Comedian Writes a Joke #10
How Being a Parent Gives a Founder Super Powers #95
The Nicest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For you #2

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Imagine wanting to solve a problem that you are having, then having your efforts turn into a brand that's featured on Shark Tank. That’s what happened to today’s guest, Yve-Car Momperousse. Listen to today’s interview to hear what Yve-Car has to say about how Kreyol Essence was born and started gaining traction, how to build communities and market within them, and deciding where your brand goes next.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

What gave Yve-Car the idea for Kreyol Essence
How Kreyol Essence started getting traction
Finding an audience
What getting traction does for your mindset
Advice for people who want to build a community and market that way
How the brand got onto Shark Tank
What Shark Tank did for the brand
Navigating where to take your brand next
How it’s been to run a business with a significant other
Expanding and introducing new products in a brand that was launched on a flagship product
The nicest thing that someone’s done for Yve-Car in her professional career

Resources:

Yve-Car Momperousse
Yve-Car on Instagram
Kreyol Essence
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Yonathan returns for the monthly update on the $3M Challenge and also shares his secret to making the perfect activation offer.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Handsome Chaos struggles
One Day Design successes
The Perfect Activation Offer
Fast > Cheap
Optimized retention strategy for product business
The JSX model

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week Jim is joined by the Jenny Fielding, a general partner at The Fund with an incredible amount of experience in startup acceleration and venture capital. Jenny shares her amazing journey and gets into the nitty gritty of being a successful VC and how to attract funding as a startup.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The journey to VC

The advantage law school gives in business

Starting a corporate accelerator in Europe

Pros and cons to startup studios

How do you define grit

Genesis of The Fund

Tips to getting VC attention

Fundraising in a cold market

The upside of a market reset

Tips for teaching

Resources:

Jim Huffman website

Jim's Twitter

GrowthHit

The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim chats with Nick Lange, CEO of Everpost. Nick shares his journey from making wedding videos to pay his way through college to eventually working with the largest brands in the world.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Starting a media career
Finding your own path in business
Working for free to establish a portfolio
Rolling thunder approach
Tips for cold emails
How to attract agencies for a production company
Pivoting from custom projects to productized service
Deep dive into a video production service
Tips for good video content

Resources:

Everpost
Eggs Tyrone
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by his good friend and EO forum mate, Adam Weiler. Adam shares some amazing insights from successes and mistakes he's made during his time as an agency and SaaS owner.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Micro Conf takeaways
Shooting your shot
Starting an agency from scratch
The power of making mistakes
Finding and convincing the key person
Merging experience with existing culture
Agency >> SAAS
Productivity hack (kids)

Resources:

Adam Weiler on Twitter
Sunken Stone
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by 4 impressive thought leaders in the productized services space to really break down and demystify this lucrative business sector. Members of the roundtable include John Doherty, CEO of Editor Ninja: Sam Shepler, CEO of Testimonial Hero: Karl L Hughes, CEO of Draft Dev: and Joel Klettke, CEO of CaseStudyBuddy.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

What is a productized service
How far should you niche down
- Wait, how do you pronounce niche?
How do determine when to expand the niche
How to price services out
Should you be flexible with your service?
Training sales teams
How to get business / lead generation

Resources:

John Doherty, CEO of Editor Ninja
Sam Shepler, CEO of Testimonial Hero
Karl L Hughes, CEO of Draft Dev
Joel Klettke, CEO of Case Study Buddy
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Yonathan joins Jim to talk about startup growing pains, Jim shares and amazing encounter with a grungy but expert salesman, and they endeavor to find the perfect ad.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Growing pains
Visualizing the finish line
Maker’s schedule vs manager schedule
Leaning on frameworks
Getting honest feedback
Damn Good Marketing
Niche Freelancing
Trend of small business acquisition
The perfect sales pitch
The perfect Ad

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook
One Day Design

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim is featured on the Do You Even Hustle? podcast. Jim shares how he launched 3 companies with the goal of getting them to $1 million each, and the lessons he has learnt along the way!

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Strengths
Weaknesses
Importance of product in todays market
Bootstrapping tactics
The importance of a good hire
Firing yourself
Nitty gritty social growth tactics (facebook ads)

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

What is Mestiza
Getting through the trough of sorrow
Pushing through failures
Going from wholesale to D2C
Leveraging data to make informed decisions
Iterating flagship product
Tactics for growth in fashion
The value of direct customer feedback
How to sustain a business partnership
Being a business owner with kids

Resources:

Mestiza
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim and Yonathan give an update on the $3M challenge and discuss what to do with blunt feedback before getting into some Half Baked startup ideas.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Update on One Day Design
Dealing with harsh feedback
Finding ideal customers
10+ Half Backed startup ideas
Yeti's magic moment
Slack & Stripe App Ideas
Billionaire Creators

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
One Day Design
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by the incredible Tim Stoddart, agency owner and SEO master, who turned a practice of writing to maintain his sobriety into a multi-million dollar empire. Tim shares strategic and inspirational insights he's acquired on his unique journey through entrepreneurship.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The power of writing
Habits that add up
The secret of discipline
The key to viral writing
Agency life hacks
Understanding partner’s super powers
Diversifying revenue streams

Resources:

Tim Stoddart
Tim's Twitter
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Ben Jabbawy, Founder and CEO of Privvy. They deep dive into the nuts and bolts of how to start and run a Saas company and how you can use things like a lack of funding to your advantage with the correct mindset.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Early days of a startup
Impressions after selling your company
The founder cheat code
Raising a million dollars
Pivot mind set
Using a lack of funds strategically (annual subscriptions)
The advantage of small teams
Pricing strategy
Impact of a CEO coach
The keys to great saas
Exciting trends

Resources:

Privy
Ecommerce Marketing School
Ben's Twitter Account
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Ross Hudgens, founder of Siege Media. Ross shares the nitty gritty details about starting and growing an agency from a one man operation to a business with over 100 employees.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Building an agency from nothing
Spending big on a website
Firing yourself
Going from 10 people to 100
How to stay focused on the long game
Lifestyle Design
Hiring Up-and-comers vs the been-there-done-that
Pricing specifics

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook
https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/books/
https://www.siegemedia.com/
https://twitter.com/RossHudgens

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by John Doherty, an Entrepreneur who runs two successful businesses while only working 4 days a week. They chat about building a two sided business and how to stay happy while running multiple businesses.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Turning your side hustle into a business
Going from $80 to $5000 in three months
Revenue model for lead agency (sales pipeline as a service)
Subscription vs pay per lead
Building a two sided business
Cheat Codes
Acting on the ideas that get stuck
How to set pricing
The benefit of niching down
Running two companies working 4 days
Executive coaches and executive assistants

Resources:

Editor Ninja
Credo
John Doherty Twitter
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Canna Provisions Co-founder Meg Sanders and they chat about how she has been able to create $40M business without traditional marketing channels and operating with a highly regulated product.

OPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Process of starting a business in a pandemic
Switching tracks from consulting to operations
Cannabis as a retail business – Location is huge
Creating a different way to transact
How to market in regulated markets: Earned media and SEO
The challenges of cannabis

Resources:

Canna Provisions
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim and Yonathan explore another Iconic Read (or in this case watch) as they break down Bill Gurley's filmed speech titled Running Down a Dream.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Who is Bill Gurley
Being the most knowledgeable vs being the smartest
Finding your passion and honing your craft
Bobby Knight – Finding Mentors
Bob Dylan – Being in the epicenter
Danny Meyer – Taking Notes
Sam Hinkie – Focus and Conviction
Katrina Lake – Being a talent magnet
Creating 10x peer groups

Resources:

Running Down a Dream
Above the Crowd
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, things shake up a bit as Jim is interviewed by Danny Greene of the Top Brand Builders podcast. Jim shares his journey as a founder before getting into the specifics of how to start a business.

Resources:

The Top Brand Builders
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Beardbrand founder Eric Bandholz. Eric shares how he started a successful brand featured on Shark Tank with zero funding on core values such as freedom and hunger.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The seeds of a founder
Why school can hold you back
Community led growth
Getting from Zero to One
Using Reddit
Getting on Shark Tank
The gift of bootstrapping
Diversifying products
Building a network

Resources:

Ecommerce Conversations
BeardBrand
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)

Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)

How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)

Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)

How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Shrikesh Majithia, the CEO of Dr. Snip, one of the largest providers of vasectomies in the United States. Shrikesh shares how he successfully transitioned from accounting to entrepreneurship and started his own investment fund.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

What is Dr. Snip?
Looking at short term vs long term motivation
Buy-side private equity
Starting your own fund
Translating your existing skills to entrepreneurship
The link between entrepreneurship and spirituality
How to win an endurance race in business

Resources:

Dr Snip
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Chris Yeh and they dive deep on how and when to implement blitz scaling to your business. They deep dive on specifics as well as exploring work design to help retain talent.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Tips for public speaking
Observations of the writing process
How to think big without too much risk
What is blitzscaling
How to incorporate blitzscaling into your company
Examples of blitzscaling
Merits of leveraging product to scale business
Work design – Employee retention

Resources:

Chris Yeh
Blitzscaling
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined again by Yonathan to discuss some highs and lows as the team continues to pursue the $3M dollar challenge. Jim also reveals how he might accidentally become Tik-Tok famous on a California beach for all the wrong reasons!

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Update on $3m challenge
Hitting 5 figures with One Day Design
Customizing pricing and packaging
How to put the foot on the gas
Identifying bottom-up communities
Supply troubles for Handsome Chaos
Turning obstacle into opportunity
Wim Hof thoughts

Resources:

One Day Design
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Sam Shepler the CEO of TestimonialHero. Sam and Jim chat about Launchpad businesses and discuss how and why entrepreneurs should seriously consider creating one instead of shooting for the moon right away.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The benefits of an agency for quick money
Strategically targeting larger partners for a growing business
Specifics on how to sell your business
How to scale a productized service
Niching your strengths
Best Practices for cold outreach
Launchpad business vs Lifestyle business

Resources:

Sam Shepler
Testimonial Hero
Productize and Scale
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim and Yonathan discuss some of the crazy things they've seen in the market recently and discuss strategies for entrepreneurs to not only survive turbulent times, but thrive.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Friday the 13th doom and gloom
Bear Market, Inflation, Unpredictability
Key Hires
What to do with your cash
Should you get a line of credit now

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Draft.dev Founder/CEO Karl Hughes and they dive deep into the nitty gritty of how to bootstrap a business in a niche market.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The benefit of niche markets when you’re bootstrapping
Deciding to go all in on the niche
Finding your product market fit
How do you use your money to grow
Accounting Hacks
The importance of referrals in niche market growth
Starting a launchpad business
Niche Business ideas
The mental challenge of writing your own playbook

Resources:

draft.dev
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Brian Sloan who has overseen meteoric success of an 8 figure company through developing a unique sex-toy. Brian shares tips and advice about how to grow and develop products in non-traditional markets.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Getting into a unique product category
How to develop manufacturing for unique products
Scaling once product is developed: Non-traditional growth
How to harness power of the press
Becoming a part of the conversation
How to choose staff for unique industries

Resources:

Autoblow
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim and Yonathan break down another Iconic piece of writing as they talk about David Sacks Substack article titled Your Startup is a Movement. They go over the main points and discuss what they agree and disagree with as well as contextualizing some of the ideas for new startup founders.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Marketing a Movement
13 Steps defined
Favorite Quotes
Attacking the status quo
Punching Up not Down
What makes this iconic
Who should read this

Resources:

Your Startup is a Movement
David Sacks
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is again joined by Yonathan as they continue their experiment of building in public. They update everyone on the progress of the agency, the productized service, and the D2C product as they move towards the insane goal of getting each business to 6 figures.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

The importance of setting goals/benchmark
Updates on Agency
Updates on EOS
Business Model for Productized Service
Pricing models for tiers
Validating strategies
Throwing out the book in the first stage of development
Goals for the $3M Challenge

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by business coach Corey Wright. Jim and Corey dive deep into the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and get specific about how to implement this system in your business and what impacts can result from properly implementing EOS.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

What is a business coach
What is EOS
Where and when is EOS right for implementation
How does it impact a business
How do values factor into EOS
What are the risks

Resources:

Corey Wright
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week, Jim is joined by Jordan Summers, the director of Growth at Growthhit. Jordan gets into the nitty gritty details of growth marketing strategies for D2C and other businesses.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

How to attract employees with a lot of options
Finding the “sweet spot” of experience and growth
The importance of visual assets in D2C businesses
Hacks for getting visual assets without breaking the bank
How to position Hero products
How to test marketing approaches strategically
The importance of focusing on channels that work

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Bash Jones, Co-founder of Homeplan to discuss how you can translate acquired life-skills into a successful scalable tech company. Bash shares his amazing story of enduring homelessness while hustling his way to success in both the Music and Tech industries.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Pivoting from a simple idea to full blown startup
Translating life skills into a tech business
The power of being prepared for a meeting
How to take off the blinders to find the big scalable ideas
Using free tools to bring in new customers
The power of story in copy

Resources:

Homeplan
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Jordan Allen & Nick McLain of Doorsey, an app that is re-imagining the home buying process. Nick and Jordan share tips on how to enter an established space with a brand new idea and talk about what it takes to succeed.
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· Pain points for first time home buyers

· How to launch a new approach in an established industry

· Idea validation tips

· How to create a V1

· When to fundraise

· Get investors to follow your journey

· Components of a good partnership

· Upcoming trends

Resources:

· Doorsey

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

This week Jim goes on the Tropical MBA podcast to chat with host Dan Andrews about the pros and cons of running a successful agency, and how Jim has recently been encouraging and enabling his team to create new products via the internal ‘startup studio incubator’.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Trials and tribulations of agency life
Tips for startup incubators

Resources:

Tropical MBA
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· Updated on the $3m challenge

· Naming Conventions

· Frameworks for VC opportunities

· Tips for entering the VC space

Resources:

MetaProp VC
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

JIm is joined once again by Brian Lockard the Co-founder of Bala shoes. Brian and Jim talk about fundraising strategies, how to research a products for a successful launch, and check in on Bala which had 7 figures in sales in its first 12 days.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· Launching with $1m sales without any ad spend

· The value of product insight and understanding your customers

· The challenge with Kickstarter campaigns

· How to manage growth so it doesn’t become a liability

· The problem with the “technology” approach in consumer goods

· Pitch Tips

· Fundraising Approaches

Resources:

Bala Shoes
Brian Lockard: Making $1.5M in 7 Days Launching His Shoe Brand (#26)
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

On this episode, Jim is joined by Blake Emal. Blake tells us how he was able to go from dropping out of college to becoming a CMO in the matter of a few years. He deep dives deep on skillsets and strategies you need to grow an audience and how to leverage that to succeed in growth marketing.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· The value of working for an agency

· Trying to prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet

· “T” shaped skillsets

· The importance of changing your title often

· Formatting copy for the internet

· Strategy for content creation: Tips and Tricks and core principals

· The value of transparency and open source

Resources:

Blake Emal Twitter
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by founder and incredibly skilled chef Joel Gamoran. Jim and Joel talk about finding a new path and making your own opportunities in business and tips and tricks for developing an on-screen presence.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· Food as a way-of-life

· Creating your own opportunities

· The importance of getting reps

· Tips to make the most of your 15 minutes of fame

· How chance encounters can be life-changing

· What do good support systems look like

· Cooking secrets

Resources:

· Homemade

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· $3M Challenge Update

· Product development surprises

· How to grow without resources

· New AI ideas in the design space

· Consulting and agency tips

· What content should you focus on

· How do you approach different types of clients

· Value vs. Volume

· How to price services

Resources:

· Consulting Success

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim and Yonathan debut a new segment where they break down iconic think-pieces written over the years. On this first edition they give their thoughts and takeaways from Sam Altman's iconic 2019 blog post "How to be Successful."

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· Compounding yourself

· The importance of original thinking

· Don’t be afraid to fail: You only need to score once to win

· Getting rich by owning things

· Why you might not always need to be a “force of nature”

Resources:

· Sam Altman Blog Post

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by Craig Swanson, who has started more than 10 companies that continue to operate to this day. From co-founding CreativeLive to selling an e-product business for 8 figures, Craig has been incredibly successful in the e-product space and gives tips on how to increase growth in the digital marketplace and shares success (and failure) stories from his own life.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Criteria for building an e-product business
How to make failure a business strategy
Separating family finances to afford business risk
What to do when business strategy doesn’t align with personal work
Learning from the customers and user generated content
When can you raise prices and still entice new customers
Half-baked ideas for a growth agency

Resources:

Craig Swanson Website
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

View Details

Jim is joined by ClickMinded co-founder Tommy Griffith and they dive into a subject that is often overlooked: personal finance strategies for founders. Both Jim and Tommy have lived and learned how difficult it can be to balance the different financial approaches you apply to business finances and personal finances and they share mistakes they've made and tips and tricks they've learned along the way.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· How to approach personal finance as a business owner

· Betting on yourself vs. Betting on a stable market

· The benefits and downsides to a high-risk tolerance

· Is it better to own your own business or work around and get stock options

· Angel investing: funds or single businesses?

Additional episodes you might enjoy:

Startup Ideas by Paul Graham (#45)
Nathan Barry: How to Bootstrap a Company to $30M in a Crowded Market (#41)
How I Met My Biz Partner and Less Learned Hitting $2M ARR (#44)
Ryan Hamilton on his Netflix special, touring with Jerry Seinfeld, & how to write a joke (#10)
How We're Validating Startup Ideas (#51)

Resources:

· Clickminded
· The Psychology of Money
· I Will Teach You to Be Rich
· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

View Details

Rob Sobers joins Jim again to look ahead at 2022 with tips on what to watch and trends to keep an eye on before They share several half-baked startup ideas for the new year.
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Marketing trends to watch in 2022
Industries to watch in 2022
Company / startup to watch in 2022
Person to watch in 2022
What will flop in 2022?
Half-baked startups for 2022

Resources:

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Jim is joined by Angela Brugioni, the creative director for GrowthHit. Angela shares her experience and knowledge and walks through some of the strategies for brand creation and standing up creative materials on a tight deadline.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· What are the bare-bones brand elements necessary to launch a product or service

· The differences between B2B and B2C marketing strategy

· What questions do you ask to drive your brand strategy

· Establishing a visual language for Brand

· How to present options and mock-ups

· How much do names matter, and what does that process look like

· How much time do you spend on a logo

· Takeaways from Handsome Chaos process

Resources:

· Handsome Chaos

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Jim and Yonathan reflect on the wins and misses from 2021 and look forward to a new year with some of their favorite frameworks to set and achieve goals.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· Wins and Misses from 2021

· Understanding why you don’t hit some goals

· Jim and Yonathan personal and professional goals for 2022

· Frameworks for setting goals and allocating energy

RESOURCES:

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Jim is joined by New York Times best-selling author Mike Michalowicz, who's most recent book 'Get Different' is out right now and tearing up the charts. They talk about Mike's experience owning equity in multiple multi-million dollar companies, marketing tips, and keys to becoming a successful author.
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· How to own equity in multiple businesses and be a full-time author

· How to keep your employees satisfied in their roles

· How to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there

· Why is marketing an ultimate act of kindness

· The importance of marketing relentlessly, especially in publishing

Resources:

· Mike’s Website

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

For the last episode of 2021, Jim gives an update on an important milestone for the $3M Challenge, and unveils their new D2C brand and talks about the process of validating the business as well as the business itself.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· What are the steps to validating a D2C business

· Finding a manufacturer

· What problem does the product solve

· What type of market research we’ve utilized

· What are the key metrics for success

· Pros and Cons

· Steps moving forward

Resources:

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Jim and Yonathan discuss an incredibly eventful and overall very productive year. They discuss wins and losses, major projects, and what will be helpful moving into a new year.
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· Look back at 2021

· Quantitative and qualitative reflection

· Podcast, startup studio, and team changes

· What got us here won’t get us there

· Making the business units self-sustaining

· Personal lifestyle design

Resources:

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Bear Handlon joins to talk about his bootstrapped niche-apparel company Born Primitive. Bear talks about his experience starting his brand from a single product and building it up without any investment at all.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· How to turn a product into a company

· How to build a supply chain

· When do you make a side hustle your main focus

· How to own the niche

· How to choose between bootstrapping and funding

· Lessons in brand building

· How to turn rejection into motivation

· The power of Branding

· How do athletic disciplines translate to business

· The importance of authenticity

Resources:

· bornprimitive.com

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Jim is joined by Richard White, Founder and CEO of businesses like UserVoice and Fathom. He takes us through his journey from being a part of the first YCombinator batch in Cambridge in 2005 with the founders from Reddit, Dropbox and Twitch to his latest YC backed startup, Fathom.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· The power of a cold email

· How to get noticed by accelerators like Ycombinator

· What advantages does Fathom bring to Zoom meetings

· Fundraising strategies

· Generating revenue when starting with a free service

· Should you prioritize Monetizations or Growth

· Stories from a startup

· Half-baked idea to disrupt CEO headhunting

Resources:

· Fathom.video/pod

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Yonathan and Jim get into the nitty-gritty of a hugely important step on their $3M Challenge journey: validating startup ideas. They discuss how to identify, quantify, and increase product market fit and other helpful tips for deciding what startups present good investment opportunities.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· What is product market fit

· How to measure market fit

· What can you do to increase market fit

· What are definitive examples

· Best sample sizes

· Pitfalls and variables

Resources:

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

The first check in since GrowthHit started its $3M challenge. A $300k deal fails, but Yonathan Ayenew joins to discuss key takeaways and important lessons we learned from the first step on this journey.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· What are the Criteria for good investments

· Where and how do you find opportunities

· What is due diligence and how do you enact that

· What were the red flags

· De-risking strategies

· The Walk-Away Takeaways

Resources:

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Patrick Dossett, co-founder of the personal development toolkit Madefor joins to chat about how his time in the Navy SEALS prepared him for the unique challenges of founding his own startup, and he shares his tips for success and how to manage your team well even in a crisis.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

· How important is Grit and the ability to endure for founders

· Can stress be useful

· How a good team can make the difference

· The benefits of being mission driven

· Tips and tricks for leading through a crisis

RESOURCES

· Madefor

· Jim Huffman website

· Jim's Twitter

· GrowthHit

· The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Growth Hit begins an exciting (and possibly crazy) journey as Yonathan and Jim announce the beginning of the $3M challenge and a transition to working in public. We put a cherry on top of this exciting chat with a visit from Mike Sroka, who is tearing things up in the Real-Estate software space.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

The $3M Challenge
· What are the benefits of working in public
· Announce The $3M Challenge by GrowthHit
· Which businesses have done the best in this space
· What are the mechanics of this model
· Acquiring vs building
· Raising money or re-investing
· What information gets put out there

Mike Sroka of Dealpath
· Where does inspiration for ideas come from
· How do you launch in an industry that doesn’t support beta testing
· Half-baked idea for the future

Resources:

The $3M Challenge by GrowthHit
Learn more about Dealpath
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Chris Lu joins me to chat about the wildly successful Copy.ai service and how he grew it from a startup to a 200k revenue a month with the right approach, a little luck, and an extremely effective tweet.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Why should we care about AI
Best use-cases for AI in business
Can AI create original content?
What a well-placed tweet can accomplish
How to get to the magic SaaS moment quickly
The value of an annual plan for bootstrappers
Pros and Cons of operating in public
The choice to seek out VC and where to allocate investment
The necessity to think big
New ideas and opportunities in the AI and new-tech space

Resources:

Try copy.ai for free
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Today, we focus on the why as much as we do the how when it comes to starting businesses and being successful in the launchpad space. Mark Sandeno brings his insight from starting several successful businesses and shares strategies on how to take your successes and re-invest them wisely.

Key Ideas from this episode:

Where should you focus your time
Structuring teams for success
How does Airbnb sell experiences
The benefits of diving in too fast and too early
Best practices for launchpad agencies
When is a successful business not worth pursuing
What makes the experience app special
Why is it important for founders to build relationships with other founders

Resources:

Experiences App
Helpful Human
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Listen to today’s episode about how Paul Graham, Y-combinator Founder, gives advice on how to come up with startup ideas.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

The blog post How to Get Startup Ideas by Paul Graham
What makes Paul Graham impressive
Main takeaways from the blog post
Organic vs recipe startup generation
Best quotes from the blog post
Some of the best points from the post
Disagreements with the blog post
Why this read is iconic
Who should read this blog post and why

Resources:

How to Get Startup Ideas
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Today, we're sharing financials. From losing $400k in 48 hours to hitting $2M in sales, I bring my business partner on to talk about the lessons learned growing our agency. Plus, hear how we met and become partners - it's not the traditional story.

Here are some of the lessons learned running the agency:

Niche Down in Your Focus
Focus on Systems and Onboarding
Value Based Pricing
Invest in a premium website if you charge premium prices
Culture is Everything

Resources:

Losing $400k in 48 hours
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

In today’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Ben Wilson, who has his own podcast: How to Take Over the World. Listen in to hear about the energy, charisma, and common traits of people like Jobs, Edison, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Ben came up with the name and concept of his podcast
Traits you need to have to take over the world
The energy of the people who are the best in their fields
How to maximize where energy goes
The function of charisma
What it means to be half-insider half-outsider
An unexpected common trait among leaders
Half-baked startup ideas that Ben has
The nicest thing someone has done for Ben in his professional career

Resources:

How to Take Over the World
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

In today’s episode, we discuss an iconic blog post from Nathan Barry - The Ladders of Wealth Creation: a Step-by-Step Roadmap to Building Wealth.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Who Nathan Barry and his path to creating ConvertKit
The main takeaways from the blog post
What is the Ladder of Wealth Creation
How building wealth as a skill
Investing your time in wealth creation or wealth creation skills
Why SAAS companies should have their own ladder
Disagreements with the author’s work
Why this is an iconic read
Who should read this blog post and when

Resources:

The Ladders of Wealth Creation: a Step-by-Step Roadmap to Building Wealth
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Nathan Barry is the CEO of ConvertKit, an email service provider that's gone from idea to $30M in ARR with zero funding.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Nathan’s explains his framework: Ladders of Wealth Creation
Should you start something yourself or acquire a business
Why you should focus on a small niche when competing against a powerful incumbent
How he has grown ConvertKit from idea to $30M ARR
How he approaches capital allocation and leverage as a bootstrapped owner
How to attract talented people when you have less money to offer
What aged well and what didn't with Nathan's book Authority

Resources:

Nathan Barry
ConvertKit
Authority
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

In today’s episode, Miguel Fernandez talks about Capchase and how he was able to raise over $280M.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

What problem Miguel wanted to solve with Capchase and why
What the people who borrow from Capchase use the money for
Advice for bootstrap founders that are worried about raising money
How Miguel approached growing at such a large scale so quickly
What makes Miguel good at sales
Miguel’s half-baked startup ideas
The nicest thing anyone has done for Miguel in his professional career

Resources:

Miguel Fernandez
Capchase
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

In today’s conversation, we talk about with Charles Myslinsky about how to choose the right path to go down, whether the windfall from Wal-Mart changed his life, and what changes so that the timing of a project goes from wrong to right.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

The right path to go down when it comes to ventures that could be rocket ships
Whether the windfall from the Wal-Mart sale was life-changing
Lessons learned from working with Marc Lore
His half-baked startup ideas
How to define product and what Charles’s job title means
How the CEO of Ojo decided he wanted the company to be product-led
Where Ojo is going
The nicest thing anyone has done for Charles in his professional career

Resources:

Charles Myslinsky
Ojo
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

In today’s episode, you’ll hear from David C. Baker, author of The Business of Expertise. Listen to learn about the tactics that can help you stay in the category of a thought leader or a decision-maker, the mistakes people make when positioning an agency, and how you should be thinking about pricing for your agency.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

The difference between being a decision-maker and an order-taker
Tactics to stay in the category of a thought leader or decision-maker
Mistakes in positioning an agency
Examples of how people starting today should focus their positioning
Why you should start with strategy and not execution
How you should price your services as an agency
A good margin for an agency
The right size for an agency and the return for selling an agency
How someone who wants to be a thought leader should think about content
David's half-baked startup ideas

Resources:

David C. Baker
The Business of Expertise
2Bobs
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Can you be a leader and be lazy with your time and personal contribution to the workplace? Today’s episode is about an iconic read, in this case, a blog post by Andrew Wilkinson. In the post Lazy Leadership, he discusses delegation, building a machine, and working smarter instead of harder. Listen to the episode for a discussion about the blog post including the overall messages of the post, the best quotes from the post, and who needs to read this post the most.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

What “Iconic Reads” is all about
Who is Andrew Wilkinson?
What does “Lazy Leadership” mean and the main takeaways
Best quotes from the blog post
What we agree and disagree with about this blog post
Why this is an iconic read
Who should read this blog post?

Resources:

Lazy Leadership by Andrew Wilkinson
Andrew Wilkinson
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

What are the four types of leverage? How can you use them to grow a business or grow your career? Today’s guest is Eric Jorgenson,author of the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness. Listen to the episode to hear what Eric has to say about working with Naval, understanding and using the different types of leverage, and where to get started with a new idea.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Eric’s book with Naval came to be
The 4 different types of leverage
Where to get started with leverage as a business owner
Eric’s half-baked ideas
The nicest thing anyone has done for Eric in his career
Where to find Eric

Resources:

Eric Jorgenson
The Almanack of Naval
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

My week doesn't start on Monday. It starts Sunday night when I do my weekly planning. I outline what I need to accomplish for this week to be successful and what I should not do. Here is how I attempt to avoid the fire drills that kill a calendar so I can focus on the high impact items.

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Business suits are a necessity for some, but they aren’t necessarily a comfortable or high-performance choice, and many men don’t like them. Today’s guest surprised himself and his family by going into men’s fashion to design comfortable, science-backed clothing for these kinds of situations. Aman Advani is the CEO of Ministry of Supply, a Boston-based clothing company specializing in comfortable clothes. Listen in to hear what Aman has to say about identifying pain points, what it means to tweak a product, and how to make a splash with a launch.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Aman got into the men’s fashion space
How Aman identified a pain point and decided to flesh out the idea
Advice for looking for a partner
How Aman started on proving traction
Advice for making a splash with a launch
Tactics or hacks that worked from a growth standard
What Aman sees in the future of fashion
Advice for entrepreneurs starting today
Skills Aman has had to acquire or let go of as a CEO
Aman’s half-baked startup ideas

Resources:

Aman Advani
Ministry of Supply
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

How do you grow a D2C brand from idea to 8 figures?

After working with 100+ brands at my growth agency, I have seen some raise $80M and others go on Shark Tank.

Here are the 22 things to do if you want to guarantee success.

Get the Product Right. If Not, Nothing Matters.
Launch on the Back of Your Flagship Product
Solve a Real Problem
Focus on a Specific Persona
Get the Business Model Right
Create a Movement
Create (and Own) Your Category
Pick a Fight with the Status Quo
Build a Community Early
A Cool Product Isn't Enough. Test Activation Tactics.
Turn Your Customers into Marketers
Invest Early in Organic Traffic
Retention is the New CAC
Customer Service as Marketing
Build Your Growth Strategy Around Seasonal Dips & Spikes
Facebook / Instagram Ad Tips
Google Ad Tips
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel with Your Tech Stack
Know Your Unit Economics, Then Scale
Invest in CRO to Unlock Growth
Your Pre-Launch Strategy Gives You an Unfair Advantage
Continue to Learn from the Best

Resources:

How to Grow a D2C Startup (Tweet Storm)
How to Grow a D2C Brand (A 22 Step Process)
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

One of the types of businesses that saw the most disruption during the pandemic was gyms. So as people start resuming their normal activities to the extent that seems worthwhile to them, how can you create a workout experience that they’ll gravitate toward? Charlie Givens, the founder of PowderHeart, has ideas about the importance of culture and a unique experience in fitness. Listen in to hear what Charlie has to say about how he got people in the door, what made him want to create a fitness experience, and what Charlie has learned from his own father over the years.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

What PowderHeart is and how Charlie thought of it
How Charlie got the first people in the door
What the pandemic experience was like for Charlie
Advice or observations that Charlie has taken from his own father
What working with Bumble was like
Starting an agency for fringe sports
How to monetize pickleball
When Charlie decided that he peaked in high school
The nicest thing someone has done for Charlie during his career

Resources:

Charlie Givens
PowderHeart
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Want to build a growth strategy but don't know where to start? Before you do anything you need to understand the competitive landscape to see what your competitors are doing and what they're not doing.

In this episode, I talk about the four free tools you can use to understand where your competitors get traffic, what their ads and emails look like, and how they turn visitors into customers on their website.

Resources:

How to Spy on Tour Competitors
MailCharts
SimilarWeb
SEMRush
Facebook Ad Library
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

If you want to be a successful founder, you will need to be productive. So what can you do to make yourself more productive? In today’s episode, you’re going to hear a conversation about productivity, habits, and goals that can help you discover what it is you need to do to be a more productive person and a founder.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Defining productivity
How to be more productive
What it means to choose a system
How to figure out what to focus on
What time-blocking is all about
What to do when time-blocking
The morning routine
Tying a good habit with something else
Approaching the process of laying out goals

Resources:

Effective Executive
Getting Things Done
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Bullet Journal
Deep Work
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

View Details

Are you listening to lots of podcasts but not really retaining any information? If so, here are some ways I am looking to learn by putting knowledge into action. It's costing me $80k but I hope to make an ROI on it. The list includes angel investing, joining a board as a director, joining a paid mastermind or founder organization, and hiring a business consultant. Learn what I am trying to get out of it and why I am happy to pay for it.

Resources:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

What stands at the intersection of Slack and Zoom? The answer is Volley: a messaging app that gives users all of the richness of video with the asynchronous flexibility of text. Listen in to today’s interview with Josh Little, founder and CEO of Volley. You’ll learn about proving traction, building the product that you’re going to market, and getting the company to the next level, plus some new startup ideas.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Josh got onto an entrepreneurial path
The process of looking through ideas and choosing one
How he launched Volley
How Josh knew he had traction
Where Volley is right now in terms of the future and growth
Channels or tactics to get a company to the next level
Josh offers 5+ Startup ideas
What Josh would do if he was starting today

Resources:

Josh Little
Volley
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

It's July 2021 as I record this so here is a mid-year update on my company GrowthHit. Today I discuss the following:

A financial update on GrowthHit
The good things happening at my company
The tough things that come with growing pains
The questions I have as a bootstrapped CEO
What's ahead for the rest of the year

Resources:

The Hardest Day of My Career
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Imagine launching a brand and making a million in sales in just a week. In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Brian Lockard, who launched a brand that aims to bring nurses shoes that make them feel like the respected professionals they are. Listen to the episode to hear what Brian has to say about founding BALA shoes: why he decided to market to nurses specifically, what it was like to go in on the brand 100%, and what Brian is doing to reach the next level of growth.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Brian came up with the idea for BALA nursing shoes
Why Brian selected nurses as a market instead of going more broadly
How Brian approached his finances when he was starting up
The influence that working at Nike had on the BALA
When Brian started to see that they had a product that people wanted
How BALA’s launch aligns with the narrative about fundraising
How Brian came up with the name BALA
The most unexpected challenge Brian has had
Brian’s favorite tools
Advice Brian would give to a D2C founder starting today
The nicest thing anyone has done for Brian in his career

Resources:

Brian Lockard
BALA
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Referral programs sound good, but how do you make them work? That’s something that today’s guest can talk about with authority. Louis Nicholls is the CEO and co-founder of SparkLoops, a referral tool for newsletter growth. Listen to today’s interview as Louis discusses some advice for launching a referral program, creative things to try with a referral program, and what prompted the idea for SparkLoop in the first place.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

What SparkLoop does
Advice for launching a referral program
Creative things to try with a referral program
James Clear’s referral program
Where the idea for SparkLoop from
The baby steps to get traction
When to go all in
The key drivers of growth for SparkLoop
Half-baked ideas that Louis likes
Advice Louis would give on starting a course
What helped SparkLoop get to its level of scale
The nicest thing someone has done for Louis

Resources:

Louis Nicholls
SparkLoop
Louis on Twitter
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Imagine wanting to solve a problem that you are having, then having your efforts turn into a brand that's featured on Shark Tank. That’s what happened to today’s guest, Yve-Car Momperousse. Listen to today’s interview to hear what Yve-Car has to say about how Kreyol Essence was born and started gaining traction, how to build communities and market within them, and deciding where your brand goes next.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

What gave Yve-Car the idea for Kreyol Essence
How Kreyol Essence started getting traction
Finding an audience
What getting traction does for your mindset
Advice for people who want to build a community and market that way
How the brand got onto Shark Tank
What Shark Tank did for the brand
Navigating where to take your brand next
How it’s been to run a business with a significant other
Expanding and introducing new products in a brand that was launched on a flagship product
The nicest thing that someone’s done for Yve-Car in her professional career

Resources:

Yve-Car Momperousse
Yve-Car on Instagram
Kreyol Essence
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

In this episode, I talk about how you can build a culture you're proud of with small tweaks to how you communicate to your team and how you run your meetings. Hope you enjoy today's episode.

RESOURCES:

What You Do is Who You Are
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture

View Details

There are so many startups out there. How can you know which ones you should keep an eye on? In today’s episode, we’ll talk about some of the ones that are high up on our radar. Listen in to hear about some of the top startups that have caught our attention and why we’re keeping an eye on them.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Psychiatric help and prescriptions online
What kind of pain point is solved by online D2C psychiatric help
Personalized allergy relief startup by Picnic
Getting money for your startup with MainStreet
Billo helps e-commerce companies make ad videos
Ready-made StoryBrand websites at One Week Website
Brex started as a startup targeting startups
BitClout is a cryptocurrency created for the general public
Privacy allows for the creation of single-use cards
The use cases for Privacy
Telegram is used for messaging, document and image sharing, and more
The way people order cars these days

Resources:

Lina
Picnic
MainStreet
Billo
One Week Website
Brex
BitClout
Privacy
Telegram
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

A by-product is a secondary product made in the manufacture of something else. The lumber yard has sawdust as their by-product. It’s obvious because it literally piles up. A by-product is much harder to spot when you work in the digital space.

In this episode, I talk about how to find your by-product and give examples of by-products for other companies.

RESOURCES:

What's Your By-Product
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

What does a startup accelerator do and why does a founder or founding team need one? Today, you’ll find out as you listen to an interview with Isaac Kato, managing director at Techstars Seattle. Listen in to learn what a startup accelerator actually does, why founders want it, and what founders can do to pique the interest of a startup accelerator like Techstars.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Isaac’s role and background
What a startup accelerator is
The main selling point of a startup accelerator for founders
What someone can do to stand out with their idea
The questions answered by traction and what kind of traction Techstars is looking for
Founder/market fit
Industries that Isaac is interested in
Applications of virtual worlds
Isaac’s experience with Stanford and Harvard
What Isaac is thinking about as he takes on new things
Isaac’s work in Iceland
Helping founders with critical thinking

Resources:

Isaac Kato
Isaac on Twitter
Techstars Seattle Accelerator
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

How do you find the right employee or co-founder that could take your business to the next level? By working in public and showing my work, I have been able to use to find my top hires. Here are some tips on how I show our culture to get the right people to come to us. Hopefully, it can help you.

Resources:

Show Your Work
What You Do Is Who You Are
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (Austin Kleon)

View Details

Listen in to hear what Billy has to say about getting started on his path, the mindset of a startup, and his company’s current size and growth.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Billy started his company and got on the path he’s on now
The rise and fall of Billy's side project that got killed by the government
What success does for your mindset
The use case for a chatbot
How the company’s customer intelligence inform building new products
When it made sense to go all in and invest
Advice for B2B SAAS companies for virtual events and setting big goals
How to leverage your network
Evolving from demos to free trials
Billy’s half-baked startup ideas
The nicest thing anyone has done for Billy in his professional career

Resources:

Billy Bateman
ChatFunnels
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

What's your number? Do you know what you're working towards and how much money you want in the bank? Here is the framework I use to answer that question:

First, here are three simple options for how to think about income:

Option 1: Break-Even
Option 2: I’m Feeling Comfortable
Option 3: F-You Money

Second, What are your options for hitting your number? Obviously, there are lots more than the three but I am laying out three scenarios for income.

Scenario 1: The Employee with Golden Options
Scenario 2: The VC-Backed Founder with an Exit Plan
Scenario 3: The Bootstrapped Founders with Cash Flow Dreams

Finally, how do you decide? The truth is that it's not about money but the life you want.

RESOURCES:

What's Your Number
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Rob Sobers is a developer turned growth marketer. Today, he gives advice to first-time founders about the idea playing on easy mode. He breaks it down into the following 5 categories:

B2B not B2C
Recurring revenue
SaaS not self-hosted
Established tech stack
Make your version of an existing product

At the end, he also talks about ideas he has if he was starting today.

Playing on Easy Mode
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Are you starting an agency? Don't miss these tips from an agency owner that's built a 7 figure business. Jim talks about the following:

What your agency should focus on
Why you should niche down right away
How to price your services
How to manage your client communication
Why you should focus on recurring work vs. project based work
The key to great work is in the onboarding

RESOURCES:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Do you have a company that runs itself? Learn how Chris was able to bootstrap his business to 8 figures. Then hear the steps he took to build a board of directors and to hire a professional CEO. Finally, Chris provides insights on how he invests his time and money in e-commerce and real estate.

RESOURCES:

Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Jim breaks down how he had zero innovative ideas while building a 7 figure business. He talks about how he stole every single idea along the way and he gives credit to where those ideas came from.

From jumping on the trend of "Growth Hacking" that was invented by Sean Ellis to stealing his long term vision of micro acquisition from Andrew Wilkerson at Meta Labs, Jim gives credit to all the companies and founders that innovated before him.

Finally, hear about the 1 thing that actually matters to make all of this happen.

RESOURCES:

The Non-Visionary CEO on How to Steal Ideas (Blog post)
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Listen in to today’s episode to hear Andrew Gazdeki discuss the startup opportunities that get the most demand, how he has grown MicroAcquire, and the impact journaling has had on his career.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Andrew’s background
A summary of what MicroAcquire is
What Andrew is seeing as far as the type of opportunities that get the most demand
How to think about founder/company fit
How to measure traction in a product market
MicroAcquire’s buyer pool
The growth of MicroAcquire
Annual subscriptions
Community as a channel
MicroAcquire’s community group on Facebook
How Andrew grew a company and sold it
Why Andrew was interested in micro acquisitions
What Andrew is excited about right now
The impact journaling has had on Andrew
The nicest thing anyone has done for Andrew professionally

Resources:

Andrew Gazdecki
Andrew on Twitter
MicroAcquire
TED Talk
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

As a founder, what do you do on the days when the sky is falling?

When times get tough I change my mindset to be proactive rather than reactive. While bad things happen to you, you still control your actions and your perspective. I start playing offense.

I list out all the momentum we have at the company. Then I identify the positive things I can control. Hear about the framework I use to get my mind on the right track.

RESOURCES:

Playing Offense: A Mental Model for Founders
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

This episode features Ryan Hamilton, a standup comedian that's toured with Jerry Seinfeld, starred in his own Netflix's special and been on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallow and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Learn about his writing process and how we went from PR to comedian. Here are some highlights:

What he learned touring with Jerry Seinfeld
How he went from PR to being a full time standup comedian in NYC
Ryan's process for writing a joke
Advice he would give to any young comedian starting out
Ryan's half-baked startup ideas he would start today

RESOURCES:

Ryan Hamilton Website
Ryan Hamilton Instagram
Happy Face on Netflix
Comedy Cellar
Jim Huffman website
Jim's Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Here are the 20 tools I use to run my seven figure business. You can have the same tech stack for under $500.

ONE MAN SALES MACHINE

Typeform - Free / $20
Calendly - Free / $20
Pipedrive - $19
Zapier - Free
SuperHuman - $30
Bonsai - $19
QuickBooks / PayPal

MARKETING

MailShake -$59 / month
Campaign Monitor - $80 month
JustUno
UpWork - design for content upgrades, building outreach database for partnership or potential leads

PROJECT MGMT TECH STACK

Slack [Free]
Zoom [Free] - $19
Asana [Paid] - $11 per user
G Suite [Paid]
Report Garden / Google Data Studio - $89

CLIENT TOOLS

Google Optimize
Ads Manager
Research Tools (SEMRush, SimilarWeb, SpyFu)
MailCharts

Resources:

Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

What does an executive coach do for their clients? You’ll learn more about that from today’s interview with Rick Maguire. Rick has a fascinating backstory, as he was a former Naval Officer who then became a Microsoft executive before becoming an executive coach. Listen in to learn how his Navy background translated in the rest of his career, what benefits his clients receive from coaching, and what kind of mistakes Rick sees in the course of his work.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

Rick’s ideal client
The main benefits that Rick’s clients walk away with
What Rick’s Navy experience was like and how it translated to the rest of his career
The time period when Rick was at Microsoft and what the transition was like
What people get excited about when scaling up
How to figure out where to start
Common mistakes Rick sees
Where the leader’s time should be spent
Half-baked ideas
How to get in touch with Rick

Resources:

Rick Maguire
Futurity Resources
Futurity on Twitter
Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit

View Details

After working with startups for 10 years, I’m getting into the check writing game. Here is why I'm doing angel investing:

What is Angel investing?
My investment advantage: Not the market, not real estate, startups?
Why I like Bala Nursing Shoes:
- Riches in Niches
- Product is a Painkiller (and not a vitamin)
- Not marketing to everyone (Know their persona)
- Proactive buyer (not passive)
- Community with high referral potential
- High AOV
- High Repeat purchase (surprisingly, this one is better than I thought)
- Validated a Product
- Growth w/ no Ads
- A+ team
My Concerns:
- Product Quality: The first 10,000 pairs of shoes arrive from China during a pandemic. They have been unable to have their own people on the ground to inspect the shoes.
- New Brand: Bala is doing everything for the first time and they have no trust from customers. Plus, they’re going head to head against big brands with big budgets.
- P&L Concerns: On average, the shoe industry has a high return rate of 20%. How will these guys fair? This business is very heavy on working capital and mismanagement of cash flows can kill growth and a business.
- Consumer Growth: Can they diversify their audience from the NurseLifeRN partnership and find scalable channels that are ROI positive? Repeatable and scalable growth only gets more and more expensive as companies get bigger.
- Team: This team has no startup experience. Can they handle “the unknown unknowns” while working in a remote world? We shall see.

Resources:

Why I'm Investing $25k in this Startup
Bala Shoes
Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit

View Details

What startup would you start today? Yonathan Ayenew, COO of GrowthHit, brainstorms some half-baked startup ideas he would launch if he was starting today. In this episode we cover the following startup ideas:

Our framework for vetting starting ideas
The "Roll Up" Business Model
When to buy vs. when to build a startup
Startup ideas around exclusive inventory
Humans replaced by AI
Why were hesitant on Ecommerce
Productized services and more

RESOURCES:

Peleton
Copy.ai
99Designs
Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Learn about 6 hacks for engineering a mentorship experience without needing an actual mentor. Welcome to mentor hacking. Here is what we'll cover in the episode.

(1) Content Stalking a Person You Admire

Subscribe to their blog newsletter
Buy their book on Audible and Blinkist (if they have one)
Search for any recent podcast interviews they did
Follow them on Twitter to get a feel for where their head is at

(2) Three Levels of Reading

Blinkist skim: I get the book summary (via Blinkist) in 15 minutes to learn the core principles and decide if I want to read the entire book.
AudioBook: This is great for getting the details of the book when I don’t have the time to actually sit down and read. (This Dad / Founder thing can zap your schedule.)
Paperback: If I really like a book then I get the paperback version to toss on my shelf. It’s nice to thumb through it and to have as a reminder to read it again.

(3) Mentor Call Girls: Hey can I pay you $150 for 45 minutes of your time

(4) A Phantom Board

Executive Coach
CMO of a publicly traded company
Another Founder that's being doing it 4 years longer than me

(5) Cold Outreach

(6) Professional Communities

Resources:

Mentor Hacking
Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook
Blinkist
Audible

View Details

In this episode with Ben Yoskovitz, Founding Partner at Highline BETA, we talk about the following:

His best selling book Lean Analytics and the opportunities that come with being an author
His startup accelerator that lead to an acquisition with Airbnb
How startups and big companies can work together
What traits he looks for in startup founders
And, most importantly, his advice for anyone that wants to do angel investing

RESOURCES:

Lean Analytics
Highline BETA

ABOUT THE PODCAST

Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit
The Growth Marketer's Playbook

View Details

Do you want to launch a startup? Here are my thoughts on why you should not start a tech startup and why you should start an agency first.

What are your options?

Consulting Service
Productize Service
Sell Physical Product
SaaS (Software as a Service)

Why an agency is a bad idea? Not Scalable, People Heavy, & Low Exit Multiples

Why it's a good idea?

SPEED: You can start one today
INVESTMENT: Requires no investment
CASH FLOW MACHINE: If you run lean you can have great margins
YOUR LAUNCH PAD: Sets you up for future business acquisition or launches.
INVESTMENT FUNDS: Build up Cash to invest in other people
LEARNING: Exposure to multiple industries
NETWORKING: Clients, Partnerships, Hiring

About the Podcast:

Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit

View Details

How do you go from a side-hustle to running a company full time, with only one day of work a week? Today’s guest is Tommy Griffith, the co-founder of ClickMinded. Listen to his story about how he went from being an Airbnb employee to making a 6-figure salary working only one day a week – mostly from places like Thailand and Hawaii. During the episode, Tommy talks about how he went all-in on ClickMinded, how the interpretation of risk matters to entrepreneurs and founders, and what Tommy would want to know and do if he had to start over today.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

How Tommy runs a 6 figure business working 1 day per week
The difficulty of finding help for your company’s problems
How Tommy went all-in on ClickMinded
His Interpretation of risk
The power of saying NO
How to decide if you should work for a VC-backed startup or start your own business
What Tommy would want to know if he were starting today
Tommy's half-baked startup ideas
The best advice Tommy ever got

Resources:

Tommy Griffith
ClickMinded
Burning the boats
Tropical MBA
Derek Sivers

About the Podcast:

Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit

View Details

This podcast is centered around one question: What would you do if you were starting today? Here are some episodes that I'll be launching in the weeks to come.

Learn How one EX-Airbnb employee Makes $1M working 1 Day Per Week
How comedian Ryan Hamilton went from a PR firm to landing a Netflix Special and Touring with Jerry Seinfeld
I get advice from a VC on how to get started in angel investing
I do a live recoding of a “Startup Idea” Brainstorm with the Partner of a Growth Agency
I chat with one CMO about growing a company to $8B Company
I talk about What I Would do if I Was Starting Today
Last, learn how the Founder of a $10M Company Fired Himself as CEO

And much more.

I hope you enjoy the podcast! For feedback, I'm on twitter at @jimwhuffman so hit me up.

Resources:

Jim Huffman blog
Twitter
GrowthHit

If I Was Starting Today: Recent Episodes

Jim Huffman