The Jeff Bullas Show: Recent Episodes

Jeff Bullas

The Jeff Bullas Show is a podcast dedicated to helping entrepreneurs win at business and life. To discover their secret sauce.

If you’re looking to overcome the challenges such as starting a business, generating leads and growing your revenue, or learn best practices from the experts, this show is for you. Each episode features an interview with successful CEO's and founders of startups, discussing topics like:

How to grow your business
How to get more traffic to your website
The tools, resources and technology that they use to grow and manage the business.
How to scale
How to become a global thought leader
The soft skills needed for inspiring teams
The personal skills to sustain you on the journey such as persistence resilience
The morning routines and rituals that sustain them
Marketing hacks including social media, search engines, growing website traffic building an email list,
Growing business leads,
Converting leads into sales
Books they have read that inspired them
The opportunities they see in the next decade
The threats and challenges for the next 10 years

Liz Steblay is sometimes called “the Yoda of solopreneur success.”

Liz isn’t small, green, or hundreds of years old - but she has been a wise mentor to thousands of self-employed professionals, helping them realize their dreams of becoming solo entrepreneurs.

With decades of experience building her own solopreneur career, including founding a national talent agency that made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. twice, Liz has distilled the formula for solopreneur success down to six essential keys.

As the bestselling author of Succeeding as a Solopreneur, published in partnership with Inc. Magazine in March, Liz explains how these keys are crucial for overcoming FUD—fear, uncertainty, and doubt—and paving the way for long-term success.

What you will learn * Thinking about going solo? Find out if it’s the right path for you and discover the steps to get started on your own terms. * In a competitive market, standing out is everything. Master the art of branding, marketing, and business development so you can build the solo career you’ve always dreamed of. * Want to keep more of what you earn? Learn strategies to reduce taxes and maximize your income while growing your solo business. * Supercharge your workflow with AI. Discover how to use AI tools to save hours on tasks like content creation, editing, and title generation, freeing you up to focus on what truly matters. * Keep your pipeline flowing. Build a reliable network virtually and learn smart strategies for turning digital connections into lasting relationships that support your solo journey.

Monika Rogers is the VP of growth strategy at CMB which is a top U.S. insights and analytics firm that provides world-class market research across Media/Entertainment/Culture, Technology, and Financial Services.

Prior to joining CMB she had a role at Illuminas as head of client services and operations from 2022 to 2024.

From 2014 to 2022 she was an entrepreneur who raised over $2M in funding to build an innovative SaaS platform Digisite with both a consumer-facing insights community and B2B testing/analytics platform.

The Digsite platform was sold to QuestionPro in August of 2022 and integrated into their Customer Experience research portfolio.

Leading up to that she built the Fountainhead Brand consulting business from 2007 to 2014 which was a boutique innovation and brand consulting firm. Clients included Organic Valley, U.S. Bank, and Kohler.

Core services included strategic insights, uncovering new market opportunities, brand positioning, new product strategy, and shopper insights. Research methods included segmentation, conjoint, ethnography, online communities, and brand tracking. Fountainhead was sold to a regional ad agency in 2015.

What you will learn * Unconventional methods for finding untapped markets and validating business ideas quickly. * Advanced techniques for using AI in lead generation, content creation, and customer engagement to save time and maximize impact. * A roadmap for transitioning from a side hustle to a full-time venture, including financial milestones and scaling strategies. * Tactics for creating unique, value-driven offers that differentiate your brand in competitive spaces. * Insights into using data analytics to refine and optimize your business decisions as you grow.

Hikari Senju is a computer science graduate from Harvard University with a passion for technology and design.

He founded his first startup, QuickHelp, an on-demand tutoring app, which he later sold to Yup.com and became their Head of Growth.

During his time at Yup.com, Senju observed inefficiencies in content spending and the potential of AI in advertising, which inspired him to establish Omneky in 2018.

Senju’s background in computer science, entrepreneurship, and his experience with AI technologies led him to create Omneky, an AI platform that generates, analyzes, and optimizes personalized ad creatives at scale.

What you will learn * Discover how to leverage AI for generating and optimizing personalized ad creatives efficiently at scale. * Learn to identify inefficiencies in advertising spending and utilize AI to address these challenges effectively. * Understand the influence of Hikari's background in technology and art on his entrepreneurial journey and innovative solutions. * Explore the strategies for building and leading a high-performance team with a focus on accountability and effective management. * Gain insight into how AI can enhance human creativity, fostering a symbiotic relationship between technology and artistic expression.

Jonathan Gillham is the Founder/CEO of Originality.ai – they provide a complete toolset that helps Website Owners, Content Marketers, Writers and Publishers hit Publish with Integrity in the world of Generative AI. They also specialize in AI detection technology. He is also the co-founder of Motion Invest where they help you buy and sell content sites quickly.

Jon has been involved in the SEO and Content Marketing world for over a decade. His career started with a portfolio of content sites and he recently sold 2 content marketing agencies. Through these experiences, he understands what web publishers need when it comes to verifying content.

Having been one of the earliest adopters of generative AI through his agency, Jon understood the wave of plagiarism problems that was coming, even before Chat GPT and GPT-4 were released.

What you will learn * How AI detection tools can identify AI-generated content in search results, with current estimates showing about 14% of Google search results are AI-generated. * Why the rise of AI content creation is changing plagiarism detection and management, as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent than direct copying. * In what ways AI tools like ChatGPT are increasingly being used for research and information gathering, potentially challenging traditional search engines like Google. * What the ongoing debates are about the ethical use of AI-generated content, especially for sensitive topics like product reviews that could impact health and safety. * How AI content creation tools are forcing companies to develop new strategies for content optimization, fact-checking, and maintaining editorial standards in an AI-dominated landscape.

With over 10 years of experience in B2B sales for innovative IT solutions, John Son is Global Marketing Manager at DeepBrain AI, an AI startup with top-notch video synthesis technology.

He has a bachelor's degree in mass communication/media studies and fluent in Korean and English.

His core competencies include new business development, sales & marketing, project management, and generative AI, which is the field of expertise of DeepBrain AI.

The integration of AI avatars into corporate branding and communication strategies marks a significant shift in how businesses engage with their audiences. These digital personas, capable of delivering personalized and consistent interactions, are not just futuristic concepts but are becoming essential tools for modern enterprises.

John is at the forefront of developing these innovative AI Human solutions.

What you will learn * How AI avatars are redefining customer engagement and the potential they hold for enhancing corporate branding. * The role of AI technology in creating dynamic and interactive digital personas that can embody a brand’s identity. * The future of corporate communication and the impact of AI avatars on the way companies connect with their audiences globally. * The ethical implications of AI use, including the need for responsible content creation and the company's commitment to building tools that detect deep fakes. * the importance of combining AI with human expertise, emphasizing that AI should serve as an enhancement rather than a replacement.

Max is a serial entrepreneur who built & sold an award-winning 7 figure ad agency. Since then, he’s earned more than 200,000+ followers with his growth marketing content. Through Max’s agency, 1-on-1 consulting, & portfolio of businesses, his work has driven $100m+ in attributable revenue for brands of all shapes & sizes.

Featured in Forbes, Business Insider, USA Today, & Market Watch, Max has consulted for over 250 fast-growing brands’ on everything growth & marketing including Juicepress, Hubspot, Notion, Techday, Statefarm, and countless more.

Max hosts The @‌MarketingMax Show, and is also becoming a regular on conference stages for his easy-to-implement marketing strategies and great marketing battle-stories.

What you will learn * How A/B testing your ads and landing pages can drastically improve your marketing results, especially with rising ad costs. * Why newsletters are essential for building deeper connections with your audience, offering much higher engagement than social media. * The secret to creating content that grabs attention by delivering a key payoff or insight at the end, boosting your visibility. * How AI tools like ChatGPT can act as your daily assistant for brainstorming, content creation, and research, making you more productive. * Why emotionally-driven content, whether it's how-to guides or inspirational stories, is key to cutting through the noise and engaging your audience.

Projjal Ghatak is the visionary founder and CEO of OnLoop, is at the forefront of revolutionizing team assessment and development. With an impressive background that includes leadership roles at Uber and Accenture, Projjal has established himself as a seasoned executive in strategy and operations. Armed with an MBA from Stanford, he has chosen Singapore as the base for his entrepreneurial endeavors.

As the CEO of OnLoop, Projjal leads a diverse and global team, spearheading the transformation of the future of work through the company's innovative approach. With his extensive experience and strategic vision, Projjal is reshaping the industry by leveraging cutting-edge technologies and empowering teams to reach their fullest potential. Under his guidance, OnLoop continues to disrupt traditional paradigms and deliver game-changing solutions in team assessment and development.

What you will learn * How OnLoop is transforming team assessment and development with AI. * The role GPT-3 played in shaping OnLoop’s approach to performance reviews. * Why clear goal-setting is crucial for driving productivity in organizations. * The importance of managing energy and motivation in the workplace. * How modern managers can balance human empathy with technology to lead effectively.

Jeremy Hurewitz is an espionage expert and corporate intelligence agent who believes that real-life spies make the best business leaders and salespeople and business leaders, and he's exploring why that's true in a new book "Sell Like a Spy".

‌Jeremy spent the first decade of his career overseas building the media association Project Syndicate while based out of Prague and Shanghai. He spearheaded a business development strategy that saw the association grow from a few dozen member newspapers in mostly Eastern Europe, to a truly global association of over 300 newspapers in over 100 countries.

‌During Jeremy's time abroad he also worked as a freelance journalist writing on a variety of topics for dozens of publications around the world. Jeremy continues to write regularly with recent articles appearing in Bloomberg, USA Today, and The Hill.

‌Upon returning to the U.S. after his time overseas, Jeremy settled in New York City and worked for several well-known global consulting firms in the world of corporate security. These companies are staffed by former intelligence officers and Jeremy worked closely with these former spies. He came to notice how good these individuals were at connecting with clients, how quickly they were able to establish rapport and put people at ease and get them to open up.

In addition to former spies, his colleagues included former members of the FBI and the law enforcement community, the Secret Service, the military, the State Department, and other government agencies. Jeremy learned unique and impactful skills from all these former government employees, and he began utilizing the methods he picked up.

He quickly noticed the tangible difference it made in his salesmanship and his ability to connect with clients. By practicing the same methods that government officials use to develop relationships and overcome a range of challenges, Jeremy was able to achieve some of the biggest and most meaningful sales of his career.

‌Jeremy has synthesized these lessons from government service into the Sell Like a Spy program and works with clients to share these strategies to help them improve their ability to connect with targets, develop creative approaches to close deals, and overcome challenges.

What you will learn * Learn how real-life espionage skills can improve your sales and leadership techniques. * Discover why spies are considered the world’s best salespeople. * Hear Jeremy’s unique experiences working with spies and corporate security experts. * Understand the importance of active listening and how it can enhance both sales and relationships. * Learn the art of vulnerability and how it helps build stronger connections. * Explore how intelligence agencies recruit curious and adaptable people—skills that are valuable in any profession, especially sales.

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Aytekin Tank is the founder of Jotform. His journey from starting Jotform in 2006 to leading a platform with 25 million users is a compelling example of innovation and perseverance. Aytekin's experience in the tech industry offers a unique perspective on integrating AI into business processes and enhancing productivity.

‌Aytekin is also a frequent contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company, sharing his insights on entrepreneurship and technology. His journey offers practical insights into scaling a tech company and leveraging AI effectively.

What you will learn * How Aytekin Tank founded Jotform and grew it to 25 million users by solving a common problem. * The power of bootstrapping a business and scaling it slowly for sustainable growth. * The role of AI in automating mundane tasks, such as form creation, to enhance productivity. * How AI agents can replace forms, improving customer interactions and efficiency. * The importance of aligning technology with real-world customer needs to drive innovation. * Strategies for managing a successful company with minimal external funding while staying focused on long-term goals.

Donna Griffit is a Corporate Storyteller who has worked globally for over 18 years with Fortune 500 companies and startups. She has consulted and trained clients in over 30 countries. Through her guidance, clients have raised over a billion dollars. In addition, Donna can magically spin raw data into compelling stories that captivate audiences and drive results.

Donna has recently released her much-anticipated book, Sticking To My Story - The Alchemy Of Storytelling For Startups. Launched in January 2023, this book has quickly become a must-read for startup founders, and here is a quote from Tim Draper about her book in his introduction to it: “Well finally, there are no more excuses. Sticking to My Story is the new bible for startup founders. It’s the A-Z recipe for how to create a powerful pitch deck, with all the right ingredients. It’s filled with helpful tips, fascinating stories of what worked and what failed abysmally, peppered with insightful quotes from my colleagues in Silicon Valley.”

Donna was featured on Forbes where she explained how she has helped female founders raise millions from investors. Most recent articles were published on Entrepreneur.

What you will learn * How storytelling can transform raw data into compelling narratives that captivate audiences. * The importance of structuring pitch decks effectively and how to polish them for maximum impact. * How AI tools like ChatGPT can assist with research and streamline the storytelling process. * The critical role of visuals in presentations, ensuring they enhance rather than distract from the message. * Insights into scaling personal expertise through books, courses, and new opportunities like academia.

Joseph Noor is the CTO of Ownwell, a company that uses technology to revolutionize property tax appeals. Inspired by his father's entrepreneurial spirit, who fled the Lebanese Civil War and built multiple businesses in the U.S., Joseph embodies the essence of entrepreneurial innovation and resilience.

He is passionate about disrupting traditional industries with technology and creating equitable systems. Joseph and his team have raised $25 million from investors like First Round Capital, Long Journey Ventures, and Founder Collective. They currently have over 150,000 customers and are projecting $50 million in revenue this year.

Joseph always approached life as an entrepreneur: flipping golf balls, building sneaker bots, creating private MMORPGs, saving money on property taxes.

He was raised with the mentality of relentlessly chasing the hardest problems, pushing past what was initially thought possible, and leveling up in the process. In the unrelenting demand for academic excellence, he was enrolled in elementary two years early and was still pushed to skip grades.

Enamored with the iPhone, he chose to study Computer Science to build software that can scale to the whole world. It wasn’t until the PhD where he met his first real academic challenge – developing AI to self-optimize computer systems.

What you will learn * The role of AI in optimizing distributed systems and how it was applied in Joseph Noor's research. * How technology, including AI, is revolutionizing property tax appeals through Joseph's company, Ownwell. * The challenges of scaling a tech-driven business and how to overcome them. * The importance of explainable AI models in industries like real estate, where transparency is crucial. * Insights into the entrepreneurial mindset, including the value of persistence, adapting to challenges, and leveraging technology to solve traditional problems.

Bob Bowdon is the founder and CEO of VidaFair, a pay-per-stream video platform re-shaping the landscape of content monetization. He is also the founder and former Executive Director of Choice Media - the leading School Choice media group. He has been a television producer, reporter and commentator for PBS, Bloomberg Television.

He also appeared as a recurring character in satirical news sketches for the Onion News Network. The Cartel, Bowdon’s documentary, reveals the nature and extent of corruption in public education. The film won a dozen film festival awards.

With VidaFair, Bob and his team are opening door for creators to reclaim their worth by setting their own fees for fair monetization.

What you will learn * How to amplify your business income and market reach through effective video monetization strategies. * How to identify and overcome the drawbacks of traditional business subscription models. * The new era of entrepreneurial content consumption and how to break free from subscription fatigue. * Innovative approaches to content monetization that empower creators to set their own fees. * The future of content creation and consumption in a world moving away from traditional subscription-based models.

Neil Emeigh is the CEO and Founder of Rayobyte, a ~45 person proxy and data collection company with over 4000 customers and 50 employees. In a nutshell, he helps companies gather data online at scale.

‌Rayobyte is an award-winning proxy provider committed to reliability and ethics. They are the largest US-based proxy provider and offer a wide range of services from data center proxies to boutique data scraping.

‌The first 3 months of business during his college life the company made:

$100k in revenue in year 1

$1.1m in Year 2

$2.9m in year 3

‌Fast forward to today, the revenue is growing rapidly on one of their most important product lines. Neil has grown his company by himself, entirely bootstrapped, and recently turned down an offer to sell it for $25m.

What you will learn

Learn how proxies enable companies to gather large amounts of online data through web scraping while maintaining privacy and avoiding detection.

Understand how using proxies and VPNs can help protect your online privacy by preventing tracking and manipulation of search results, such as flight prices.

Discover the role of web scraping in helping businesses collect valuable data like competitor pricing, product availability, and customer reviews for better decision-making.

Understand the potential of AI in enhancing data scraping by making it easier to analyze and interpret large datasets, although the technology is still evolving.

Learn the importance of staying authentic, focused, and aligned with your passion when building an online business, as illustrated by Neil’s entrepreneurial journey.

Luis Garcia is a seasoned international executive with over 25 years of experience in technology, digital media, and education. He specializes in driving new ventures and products to rapid growth by building effective teams that harness innovation, technology, and creativity to solve complex problems.

He is the president of PETE, an Orlando-based tech startup that offers a suite of cost-effective and customizable solutions that enable organizations to deliver personalized workforce learning at scale.

The PETE team is dedicated to harnessing the power of AI to help organizations of all sizes optimize their training initiatives, spanning from onboarding to regulatory compliance, product knowledge, technical skills, and more, without hiring additional training resources.

Before joining PETE, Luis made substantial contributions to Full Sail University over nearly twenty years. His tenure as VP of Full Sail Online marked a transformative era for the institution, where he helped establish it as a pioneer in online education and significantly expanded the reach of its programs.

Later, as VP of Emerging Technologies, Luis facilitated a strategic shift from students using technology as a creative tool to becoming architects and originators of new technology, ensuring the university stayed ahead of rapidly evolving industry trends.

What you will learn * Learn how generative AI can revolutionize workforce learning by automating course creation and tailoring training materials to individual needs. * Understand the potential of generative AI in enhancing productivity, allowing businesses to scale their training efforts without expanding their resources. * Discover the future of generative AI, focusing on narrow use cases that address specific business problems, leading to more effective implementations. * Explore how to integrate generative AI into your business to optimize training initiatives, from onboarding to skill development, ensuring employees receive personalized and engaging learning experiences. * Gain insights into the benefits of combining human expertise with generative AI to create high-quality, relevant training content that maintains the unique perspective of industry experts.

David Pollet is the CEO of Incremental and a repeat entrepreneur with over 20 years of startup experience.

He has extensive history across startup environments and the lessons he has learned come from what he calls "a mix of big wins and big fails."

David is a “Go to Market Growth Leader” with experience scaling Saas startups and public company divisions ranging from $5M-$100M+ in ARR. 25-years of experience in Sales, Marketing and Strategy leadership roles.

He is a team-builder with experience translating long-term strategic growth initiatives into operating plans that can be executed, measured, and improved continuously.

He has a proven track record of accelerating growth during times of transition. Deep knowledge and experience transitioning transactional businesses such as media arbitrage and data sales into Saas businesses with complex, multi-year committed engagements.

He is well-versed in Identity Management, Measurement & Attribution, Machine Learning, Data Sales, and all Media types (incl. Linear TV, CTV, Digital and Social Video).

Known for partnering closely with product, engineering and finance, he easily identifies opportunities for innovation and profitable growth.

What you will learn * Learn how to leverage data for maximizing e-commerce revenue. * Understand the role of AI in automating the collection and interpretation of e-commerce sales data. * Discover the process of using machine learning to predict daily sales and align disparate data sources. * Understand the impact of retail media networks on advertising performance. * Discover the journey from traditional online advertising to advanced machine learning techniques.

With over 20 years of experience as a serial marketing measurementtechnology entrepreneur, Kristin Luck's management consulting firm, ScaleHouse, focuses on nontraditional growth strategies for data driven marketing technology firms and market research companies.

She understands first-hand the demands and distractions faced by business owners and led and consulted for many high growth businesses in the US., Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific in almost every capacity.

She brings a perspective to growth that transcends sales and marketing and skilled at optimizing efforts and calibrating teams for growth that’s both immediate and sustainable while ensuring your company’s valuation is maximized.

Kristin is a founder focused on helping fellow founders and executive teams scale and monetize their businesses.

She is also a licensed investment banker and knows what deals look like from both sides of the table after participating in both acquisitions and exits from $30M to $250M with over 20 years of experience scaling companies quickly while driving high valuations.

In 2000, she co-founded OTX, an online research business that was named the fastest growing research firm in the world in 2002 and 2003 and was subsequently acquired by Zelnick Media & Pilot Group and again by Ipsos in 2007.

Kristin then founded Forefront Consulting Group, a research technology firm that was acquired by Decipher. Decipher was acquired by FocusVision in 2014 after seven consecutive years of triple percentage growth.

She has advised and consulted for high growth brands, including Voxpopme, Annik (acquired by Capgemini), Dstillery, Kelton (acquired by Material), SameSurf, Remesh and Forsta (acquired by Press Ganey).

What you will learn * Learn how AI can aid in business growth by leveraging synthetic data for better accuracy and reliability in market research. * Understand the importance of tracking data to improve business performance and optimize for sale. * Learn how to distill important data points to make informed business decisions. * Understand the value of recurring revenue models. * Discover the importance of planning for a business sale.

Kordel K France is the founder and lead engineer of pioneering machine sensing startup Theta Diagnostics.

For the better part of the last decade, he has been working with his incredible team to build a new type of nanotechnology sensor and multi-modal AI platform that enables machines’ sense of smell.

His driving mission is to give machines the sense of hyper-sensitive smell through machine olfaction and accelerate a new paradigm in robotics and AI.

Kordel is a technologist, inventor, and multi-disciplined engineer whose reward function is maximized by teaching machines to solve complex problems through AI.

While most of his recent work is contained in the bootstrapping of Theta and its acquirers, he has also had the privilege of working with and learning from incredible engineers at some of the world’s best companies in solving challenging technology problems.

Although his focus has been on the engineering of sensor systems and multi-modal AI, he has deep manufacturing and hardware development experience that enables him as a comprehensive product developer and technical leader.

His experience spans computer vision, autopilot development, aircraft design & simulation, natural language processing, swarm intelligence, and optics.

What you will learn * How AI can give machines a sense of smell. * The importance of integrating all five human senses into AI for achieving human-level intelligence. * The role of machine olfaction in detecting medical conditions through breath analysis. * The potential of AI in agriculture, starting with self-driving tractors. * Kordel's journey into AI, inspired by his childhood experiences on a farm. * The evolution and current state of AI education, and the importance of math and statistics in AI development. * How AI models need to be explainable, especially in critical fields like healthcare.

Brian Beckcom is a Computer Scientist, Philosopher, & Trial Lawyer based in Houston, Texas.

He has been voted a Texas Super Lawyer 14 consecutive times—every single year he has been eligible. Brian’s law firm, VB Attorneys, is one of the best law firms in the United States, and has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars for the firm’s clients, including many record-breaking results.

‌Brian also hosts Lessons from Leaders with Brian Beckcom, a popular podcast featuring military leaders, sports stars, New York Times best selling authors, scientists, and more.

‌Brian is a former Division I athlete at Texas A&M (basketball). He is currently a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a single-digit golfer, and an accomplished fly fisherman.

‌Brian graduated from Texas A&M University with degrees in Computer Science & Philosophy. He was a member of the Texas A&M basketball team and one of the leaders of the Corps of Cadets, the oldest military organization in the State of Texas.

‌Brian then attended the University of Texas School of Law, where he was one of the top students. He graduated with honors, served as an Officer on the Texas Law Review, & was the starting free safety for the Legal Eagles.

‌Brian is consistently viewed by his peers as one of the best lawyers of his generation. Brian has also published hundreds of articles and 6 books about success, happiness, leadership, and other important topics.

What you will learn * Learn about the intersection of computer science, philosophy, and law. * Discover why purpose and meaning are more important than pursuing happiness directly. * Understand the limitations of artificial intelligence compared to human intelligence. * Discover the potential impact of large language models on industries like law. * Understand the potential dangers of leaving AI development solely to tech companies. * Explore the importance of having leaders who are well-versed in ethics, especially when it comes to the development and regulation of artificial intelligence.

Ken Schmidt is one of the most sought-after executive advisors and speakers. He earned his acclaim by leading Harley-Davidson's remarkable turnaround from financial ruin to global dominance in the 1990s.

That transformation was based on his highly unconventional re-positioning of the motorcycle icon’s marketplace presence. Ken shifted the company’s culture from a “product-first” mindset to one that prioritized being memorable for how they connect with people.

The company swiftly grew to become the most successful player in the fiercely-competitive worldwide motorcycle industry with the highest levels of customer loyalty of any consumer hardware brand in existence.

‌Ken’s success, unconventional business approach and playful outspokenness ultimately led him to consulting assignments with household-name brands and made him a highly requested speaker, with more than 1,200 keynotes presented globally to date.

‌He is also the author of Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance, ghost-author of “100 Years of Harley-Davidson” (the best-selling motorsports book of all time), host of the Tailgating with Geniuses podcast and co-founder of Torque Sessions Leadership Training.

What you will learn * Discover Ken Schmidt’s lifelong passion for motorcycles, inspired by icons like Evel Knievel, which led him to his pivotal role at Harley-Davidson. * Learn how Harley-Davidson's turnaround involved shifting from a product-focused to a people-first approach. * Understand how the establishment of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) turned dealerships into social hubs, which fostered a sense of belonging and camaraderie among riders. * See how Harley-Davidson's success was built on distinctive branding pillars like lifestyle, freedom, camaraderie, individuality, and rebellion, making the brand stand out in a commoditized market. * Recognize the importance of emphasizing human connection, as Harley-Davidson focused on making customers feel special and validated, leading to repeated business and deep brand loyalty. * Reflect on how AI and technology can be used to enhance human connection rather than replace it, making businesses more human by allowing them to focus on customer interactions and validation.

Keith Goode has been the Vice President of Client Services at ZeroedIn for more than 10 years, where he leads the implementation and support efforts of the ZeroedIn platform used to transform HR, talent and business data into actionable intelligence. ‌ Previously, Keith held various management consulting and corporate roles at General Dynamics, AON Hewitt and Saba. With over 20 years delivering human capital management and business intelligence solutions, Keith finds it exciting to deploy tools and techniques such as Data Mining, Collective Listening, Machine Learning and Predictive Modeling in a platform that solves real world HR and business issues.

What you will learn 1. Discover how AI is revolutionizing HR by turning data into actionable insights for better decision-making. 2. See how workforce analytics can help organizations uncover valuable insights from historical data to improve their human capital strategies. 3. Learn how analytics can supercharge learning management systems, helping employees get the right training to meet company goals. 4. Find out how AI models can identify organizational trends and predict future changes to stay ahead of the curve. 5. Explore how data-driven insights can help find the perfect balance between remote and in-office work in the post-pandemic world.'

Brad is the Founder & CEO of Jozu and a project lead for the open source http://Kitops.ml project, a toolset designed to increase the speed and safety of building, testing, and managing AI/ML models in production.

‌This is Brad’s second startup, his first (Codenvy, the market’s first container-based developer environment) was sold to Red Hat in 2017.

‌In his 25-year career in the developer tools and DevOps software market, he’s been the GM for Amazon’s API Gateway, and built open- and closed-source products that have been leaders in Gartner Magic Quadrants.

‌In his free time he enjoys cycling, reading, and vintage cars.

‌What you will learn * Learn the importance of protecting intellectual property and sensitive data in AI. * Comprehend how AI is less deterministic and more human-like than traditional software. * Recognize the challenges companies face in integrating AI while keeping their data secure. * Explore the process and collaboration needed between data scientists and software engineers. * Examine a real-world example of using AI for inventory management in a global retailer. * Identify the problem of model drift and how to address it. * Distinguish between consumer AI applications and enterprise AI needs. * Appreciate the rapid pace of AI development and its unprecedented nature.

Matt Clark is the founder of The Virtual Edge through which he has helped 1700+ entrepreneurs from 26+ countries create systems to grow exponentially. He is a seasoned expert in the field of sales, marketing and business development, with more than a decade of experience in various industries from energy to telecoms and more.

He is also a TV show host of “The Rainmaker Show”, which is launching soon and is aired on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, Samsung & LG TV.

Currently, Matt is on a mission to help service based entrepreneurs create freedom through systems. He has spoken on stages around the world with the likes of John Demartini, Kane Minkus, Les Brown, Paul O'Mahony and many more.

What you will learn * Hear about Matt's transformative journey from working as a waiter to becoming a successful business owner and mentor. * Understand how Virtual Edge helps entrepreneurs generate leads and grow their businesses in a competitive digital landscape. * Find out Matt's secret techniques for turning cold outreach messages into valuable leads on LinkedIn. * Uncover strategies to navigate and conquer platform algorithms while maintaining high engagement levels. * Learn the essential steps to creating a LinkedIn profile that attracts and converts leads. * Get insights into how Matt leverages AI tools to dramatically boost his productivity and sales outcomes.

Richard White is founder and CEO of Fathom.video, a free app that records, transcribes and highlights your calls so you can focus on the conversation instead of taking notes.

‌Fathom was a part of the Y-Combinator W21 batch, is one of only 50 Zoom App Launch Partners, and is one of a small handful of companies Zoom has invested in directly via their Zoom Apps Fund.

‌Prior to Fathom, Richard founded UserVoice, one of the leading platforms that technology companies, from startups to the Fortune 500, use for managing customer feedback and making strategic product decisions.

‌Richard previously worked on Kiko, a company in the first batch of Y-Combinator, with Justin Kan and Emmett Shear who subsequently went on to found Twitch.

Richard is passionate about designing intuitive productivity tools with delightful user experiences.

What you will learn * Discover how Fathom.video, a free app that records, transcribes, and highlights your calls, can revolutionize your productivity by allowing you to focus on conversations instead of taking notes. * Understand how Richard's frustration with taking notes during user research calls inspired the creation of Fathom, an AI-powered tool that summarizes meetings. * Learn how Richard's early exposure to computers and programming at a young age fueled his passion for technology and led to a successful career in the tech industry. * Gain insights into the era of building custom computers and how it compares to today's plug-and-play devices like MacBooks.

Rajeev Kapur is a seasoned high tech executive with broad global experience. He’s worked in over 20 countries across the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

He is passionate about repairing broken market strategies, company cultures, and leadership stagnation to identify and capture new business opportunities.

Rajeev was recognized as a CEO of the year finalist for 2011-2012 from Tech America and was a finalist for Entrepreneur of The Year from the Orange County Business Journal.

In 2023, he wrote AI Made Simple: A Beginner’s Guide to Generative Intelligence.

What you will learn * Discover Rajeev Kapur’s rich history as a high-tech executive and his groundbreaking work with AI in audio technology * Understand the origins of his fascination with AI, starting with innovations that predate modern technologies like Apple’s Spatial Audio * Explore the unexpected advancements in generative AI and their transformative potential across industries * Find out why Rajeev was compelled to write “AI Made Simple” in response to the rapid evolution of generative AI * Delve into how AI is reshaping various sectors including healthcare and business, and its broader societal implications * Gain insights into the future of urban planning with AI. Imagine cities with smarter transportation systems and fewer accidents * Reflect on the philosophical questions raised by AI, particularly its effects on creativity and the search for human purpose in an automated world

Nick Bostrom is a Professor at Oxford University and the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute.

Nick is also the world’s most cited philosopher aged 50 or under. He is the author of more than 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias (2002), Global Catastrophic Risks (2008), Human Enhancement(2009), and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014), a wrote a New York Times bestseller which sparked a global conversation about the future of AI.

‌His work has pioneered many of the ideas that frame current thinking about humanity’s future (such as the concept of an existential risk, the simulation argument, the vulnerable world hypothesis, the unilateralist’s curse, etc.), while some of his recent work concerns the moral status of digital minds.

‌He has been on Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list twice and was included in Prospect’s World Thinkers list.

‌He has just published a new book called “Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World.”

What you will learn * Find out why Nick is spending time in seclusion in Portugal * Nick shares the big ideas from his new book “Deep Utopia”, which dreams up a world perfectly fixed by AI * Discover why Nick got hooked on AI way before the internet was a big deal and how those big future questions sparked his path * What would happen to our jobs and hobbies if AI races ahead in the creative industries? Nick shares his thoughts * Gain insights into whether AI is going to make our conversations better or just make it easier for people to push ads and political agendas * Plus loads more!

Ari Tulla is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of the smart nutrition service Elo. Elo uses an AI personalization engine to turn food from the cause of disease into your best medicine.

Ari is also an active angel investor and advisor with a portfolio of 50 startups, including Virta Health, Verge Motorcycles, Levels, and Ōura.

Previously, Ari was the CEO of Quest Analytics, the market leader in doctor data and network management. Ari led the company through a pivotal growth stage from $15M to $40M in revenue. Before joining Quest Analytics, Ari was co-founder and CEO of BetterDoctor, a doctor search engine.

BetterDoctor raised $30M from first-tier investors, including NEA and Uncork Capital. In June 2018, BetterDoctor was acquired by private equity firm Vestar Capital. Before BetterDoctor, Ari led Nokia’s game and application studios.

After years of family health struggles, Ari has dedicated his life to building companies that help people live better. His companies, BetterDoctor, Quest Analytics, and Elo, have helped over a hundred million people gain better access to healthcare.

When not working or parenting his two young children with his wife, Ari spends his time on the steep cliffs, powdery slopes, and big cold waves that only Northern California can offer.

What you will learn * Explore the origins of mobile gaming with a Nokia innovator who helped launch the first popular mobile game * Trace the meteoric rise of mobile gaming from a small niche to surpassing the music, movie, and book industries * Ari shares his firsthand experiences as an entrepreneur instrumental in shaping the early mobile and smartphone markets * Discover how personal health challenges propelled Ari into creating health-focused startups * Understand the transformative impact of integrating AI and nutrition to revolutionize personal health solutions * Gain insights into the evolution of health tech, and the future role of AI and wearable devices in enhancing wellness

Jeff Amerine is nationally recognized for the creation of lasting venture ecosystems and co-authored the bestselling book, ‘Creating Startup Junkies – Building Sustainable Venture Ecosystems in Unexpected Places’.

Jeff has held senior leadership positions in nine startups and multiple Fortune 500 companies, including American Freightways and FedEx Freight. He has made more than 90+ venture investments.

Jeff now leads several organizations and companies, including Startup Junkie Consulting, Innovation Junkie, and Cadron Capital Partners.

Jeff served as Associate Vice Provost, Research and Economic Development, and Director of Technology Ventures at the University of Arkansas until leaving to pursue Startup Junkie Consulting full-time in 2015.

Jeff still serves as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

What you will learn * Uncover the secrets behind Jeff’s success, from his military upbringing to his pivotal roles in both startups and Fortune 500 companies * Dive into Jeff’s insights on venture investments and learn where he sees the best opportunities for growth * Explore the intersection of military discipline and entrepreneurial spirit * Gain valuable lessons in leadership and team cohesion * Learn about Jeff’s unique consulting model with Startup Junkie * Jeff shares insights from his experiences in building, scaling, and exiting multiple businesses * Gain practical advice and actionable strategies for navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship * Plus loads more!

Jeremy Parker graduated from Boston University in 2007, majoring in film production. His first feature-length documentary secured the Audience Award at the 2006 Vail Film Festival.

Following his academic achievements, Jeremy embarked on a diverse career path.

While working for MV Sport, he established a Creative Promotional Product Division. Then, in collaboration with his brother David and Jesse Itzler, Jeremy co-founded an eCommerce platform designed to distribute unique promotion codes through social media influencers’ Facebook and Twitter posts.

Currently serving as the Co-Founder and CEO of Swag (acquired by Custom Ink in Nov. 2021), Jeremy has positioned the company as the premier destination for businesses looking to purchase and distribute quality promotional products.

What you will learn * Discover Jeremy’s journey from an award-winning filmmaker to the entrepreneurial force behind Swag.com - Promotional Products & Branded Merchandise * Uncover the innovative beginnings that positioned Swag as a preferred partner for giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon * Explore Parker’s creative upbringing and how a significant moment at the Vail Film Festival redirected his career path * Learn from Parker’s initial ventures into business, starting with a t-shirt company, and the lessons learned from facing failures * Gain insights into embracing creativity, navigating startup challenges, and the relentless pursuit of innovation * Discover the power of diversification and turning ideas into reality * Plus loads more!

Oshri Cohen is an expert technologist with over 20 years of experience in growing and founding startups, and challenging the conventional wisdom of early CTO hires.

Many founders are advised to invest heavily in a CTO from the outset, often before securing their first paying customer. Oshri offers a fresh perspective on this approach, emphasizing the risks associated with premature hires.

Oshri is a CTO who knows more software and coding languages, frameworks, architectures and technologies than he cares to count. He is an ex-executive at multiple startups and ex-founder of his own custom development shop.

He is disrupting the popular thought that startups need a full-time CTO and could save on average $400K per year in direct technical leadership costs through the use of a Fractional-CTO, which is his primary business.

Oshri is also disrupting the technical recruiting business through the use of recruiters that are also engineers and can evaluate candidates on a deep technical level before recommending candidates to clients and only deal with fixed-cost mandates.

Apart from that, Oshri is also involved in what he calls a “Dev agency representation service” where he acts as a “lawyer” of sorts for companies who need to hire outsourced development agencies.

After 23 years in technology, Oshri has developed the ability to spot industry-spanning business problems a mile away.

Oshri has developed a reputation as a problem solver, leading many startups and Fortune 100 founders and CEOs to keep him around as their technical right-hand.

Oshri takes pride in providing impartial and unbiased advice and guidance, more than just your traditional consultant.

What you will learn * How a $100,000 investment in a startup led to a tough lesson in business * The challenges of transitioning from a successful consulting business to navigating the startup world * How the 2008 financial crisis forced a return to employment * Understand the concept of a “fractional CTO” and how it can transform businesses * Discover the evolving role of a CTO across different stages of a business * Gain insights into the minimalist approach to tools and systems * Learn why AI is seen as a force multiplier in tech, not a replacement for human intelligence and creativity * Plus loads more!

Joan Kanner and Michelle Bond are are the Co-Founders of Bottoms Up Bagels.

‌Bottoms Up Bagels® is a small batch bagel shop, preparing handmade, authentic NJ style bagels, house cured lox and specialty cream cheeses. Inspired by the traditions of bagel-making dating back to the 1940s, these Jersey girls founded BUB in 2015. Bottoms Up Bagels brings classic flavors to long-time residents and transplants alike.

BUB began as a pop-up based business in Baltimore City and grew from there thanks to their team members and devoted customers, collaborators and champions (aka “BUBalas”).

In 2019 they launched the BUB Roadshow, testing their concept in areas off-the-beaten-path. In 2023 they were named Grand Prize Winner in the Lenovo Evolve Small Mentorship Contest, receiving mentorship from Queen Latifah.

‌Joan and Michelle believe in community and that the exchange of a lovingly prepared meal and passionate service are the most valuable of gifts. They serve food the way they like to eat it and the way they would prepare it for you in our home.

‌Hear more about Michelle and Joan, and the business of BUB on their podcast: Proofing Stage.

What you will learn * Discover how a terrible corporate breakfast sparked the birth of a bagel business * Hear about the BUB Roadshow: A daring venture taking bagels across the US * Discover the behind-the-scenes efforts in sourcing ingredients and adapting recipes to local tastes * Gain insights into the critical role of community and peer support in navigating the complexities of the food industry * Explore the strategy for scaling a bagel business amidst the challenges of labor costs * Find out how BUB maintained their brand identity and quality through partnerships

Roberta Fernandez is a personal and professional development consultant. She offers programs for individuals and organizations that develop emotional intelligence and guides them through a change process to awaken their full potential and realize their highest abilities.

She has perfected individual personal development and wellness programs, as well as executive, managerial, and team corporate training programs in the areas of sustainability, cultural change, and emotional intelligence.

Roberta is an experienced corporate trainer, an engaging public speaker, an Integrative Emotional Intelligence Specialist, holds a Master Practitioner certification in NLP (Neurolinguistics Programming), and is a Board-Certified Hypnotist.

Roberta has conducted thousands of individual client sessions and more than 85 noteworthy presentations and training sessions over the past fifteen years.

Notable amongst her past clients are Kemps, Sam’s Club, JP Morgan Chase, Target, Optum, Pentair, and numerous governments, academic and private organizations.

What you will learn * How to find real happiness and become your best self * Roberta shares her journey from working with Al Gore on climate change to becoming a hypnotist * Discover “AHA,” a program that helps you realize your abilities and get rid of limiting beliefs * Why change is hard and awareness is key * Dive into why we resist changing our minds * Discover how early childhood and subconscious beliefs shape us * The importance of seeing things from different perspectives * Plus loads more!

Dan Brownsher is the President, CEO and Co-Founder at Channel Key; a full service amazon account management and advertising agency.

‌He is a national thought leader in Amazon retail strategy and emerging e-commerce trends. He is a commentator on Amazon practices, policies, and technologies as well as a sought-after opinion source for media outlets across the country.

‌Dan has spoken on panels, at tradeshows, conferences and industry think tanks, advising everyone from multi-million-dollar corporations to fast-paced entrepreneurial start-ups on how to navigate the complex landscape of Amazon retail, and the broader world of e-commerce in general.

‌Dan, along with his two partners, is also co-founder of Trend Nation, a top 200 Global Amazon Seller, selling $1 Billion in revenue. He is a member of TAAN – the worldwide alliance of, and incubator for, independently owned marketing agencies as well as a member of Vistage, the global organization for entrepreneurship and executive coaching and YPO.

Dan tells clients the secret to helping everyone succeed with Amazon is real-world experience, learned and perfected the hard way. As he says: “I made the mistakes with Amazon, so you don’t have to.”

What you will learn * How a bachelor party led to the inception of a multi-million dollar e-commerce empire * The secrets behind Dan’s leap from selling spine implants to dominating the Amazon marketplace * The wild west days of Amazon selling, where lack of advertising and FBAs created untapped opportunities for early entrants * Hear about the strategic pivot from trading commodities on Amazon to establishing an exclusive distribution model with major brands * The challenges and breakthroughs of building a business on the constantly shifting sands of online retail * The moment Dan’s leadership team “fired” him, a pivotal turning point that underscores the value of delegation and building a strong team dynamic * Gain insights into navigating the complexities of Amazon’s ecosystem * Plus loads more!

Nick Fogle went from being an attorney drowning in student loan debt to teaching himself to code, building a successful SaaS business, and ultimately getting acquired for a mid-7 figure sum in 2021.

‌After graduating with a job and a deep recession in 2008, He made a bad situation worse by taking out student loans and going to law school.

‌He graduated and became an attorney, but he realized he couldn’t pay the debt on an attorney’s salary.

‌Desperate to get out from under the mountain of debt, he decided the best way to pay it off was to start his own company.

‌Nick couldn’t find a technical co-founder to help with the startup idea, so he drove a shuttle bus for minimum wage while teaching himself to code. Then, Nick worked my way up the ranks from lowly intern to lead engineer at a publicly traded software company.

‌For five years, he spent every night and weekend and even used his PTO to work on his startup, Wavve. In 2020, he could finally pay off his student loan debt and leave his day job.

‌After selling Wavve for a mid-7-figure sum in 2021, he took everything he’d learned about retention and turned it into a new business, Churnkey.

What you will learn * Discover how Nick Fogle transformed from a debt-ridden attorney to a successful SaaS entrepreneur, creating a multi-million dollar business from scratch. * Uncover the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship, from the initial failures to the breakthrough success of Nick’s first venture, Wavve, and his subsequent business, Churnkey * Find out how Nick leveraged a unique opportunity in the burgeoning podcast market, turning a seemingly niche product into a subscription model success story * Get an insider’s perspective on the importance of perseverance, product-market fit, and the willingness to pivot when initial business models don’t pan out * Plus loads more!

Adam Danyleyko is a dedicated advocate for the startup community, with a background steeped in fostering growth and innovation.

As the Product Owner for Startups at Amii (the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute), he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. With over four years of diverse experience in roles ranging from HR Business Partner in Alberta Energy to Policy Analyst in Economic Development & Trade, Adam has honed his skills in community building and policy development.

‌His passion for nurturing startups was ignited during his tenure at Startup Edmonton, where he played a pivotal role in expanding post-secondary programming and leading the Community Team.

What you will learn * Why AI is important for startups and how it can change the game in terms of innovation * How Adam eventually discovered his real passion in helping startup founders succeed * A peek into Canada’s startup world, including what kind of industries are hot right now * The scoop on AI in the startup universe and the challenges of getting the tech support needed * Why figuring out what you want to do with your life is tough, and how curiosity can help * A look at how careers are changing, and why data as the new oil that powers innovation and decisions * Plus loads more!

Bryan Farris is an accomplished entrepreneur, full-stack developer, and expert strategist. With a decade of prowess in shaping groundbreaking web and mobile applications, as the President and CEO of Goldfish he oversees a skilled team that offers a comprehensive array of end-to-end solutions.

‌With a (trademarked) Motivation-Driven Design Process, they are able to offer business strategy consulting, mobile and web development, project management, media and graphics, and investor pitch preparation. They are the go-to partner for clients seeking 360 Degree Consulting to successfully launch products.

‌Bryan’s proficiency encompasses software programming, coupled with a talent for crafting robust database structures and developing backend servers and REST APIs. Writing code that matters with an emphasis on the business model part of it makes his project management mastery effortless, from initial planning to seamless distribution.

‌Bryan is passionate about driving social and environmental impact through his work, having previously worked in affordable housing in Pakistan as a 2010 Acumen Fund Global Fellow. Away from the digital realm, Bryan is a passionate world traveler, having explored 134 countries and territories.

‌When he’s not building products, you’ll find him playing ice hockey, watching the San Jose Sharks or American Football (shoutout to the San Francisco 49ers!), reading, or watching the news.

What you will learn * Unpack the importance of software in today’s world, with insights into how it’s transforming industries * Get a deeper understanding of AI’s role in the software industry * Explore the concept of user motivation in product design and development * Uncover the secret behind ChatGPT’s prompt engineering * Learn more about the evolution of app development * Explore the concept of using ChatGPT and AI to create “bait” applications * Understand the challenges involved in navigating the fast-paced software industry * Plus loads more!

Josef Schinwald is the CEO of Guest Experts On Air.

‌He has diverse experiences in the media landscape; ranging from Associate Publisher to Vice-president of a multinational newspaper throughout Latin America, to a professor in paradigmatic business designs at three universities.

‌This journey, coupled with over 50 TV show appearances, has given Josef a rich understanding of the ever-evolving media dynamics.

What you will learn * The role of AI in enhancing research, marketing strategies, and business operations * Strategies for utilizing AI in content creation and research to become a thought leader * Why you need a unique value proposition when pitching to podcast hosts * Key tips for podcasters on attracting high-quality guests * How to amplify your presence through podcasting and social media * Future predictions for the podcasting industry * Plus loads more!

John Rarrick is Head of Marketing at Movius. Movius specialize in digital marketing, mobile communications compliance, and telecommunication. John is responsible for all brand, customer acquisition, and partner marketing strategy.

John has held senior marketing leadership roles at T-Mobile, Sprint, and Comcast, and is the former CEO and co-founder at BullsEye Public Relations.

John’s area of expertise in the B2B technology space includes brand development, communications and crisis management, digital marketing and social media, and digital sustainability programs.

He is passionate about leadership development and building highly efficient and versatile teams.

What you will learn * Discover what multi-line technology is, and why its an innovative digital solution * How John uses LinkedIn for diverse B2B sectors * Why building relationships through multi-touch email marketing is a great strategy * AI Integration with Multi-Line: How Movius has integrated AI solutions into its multi-line product * Unpacking the positive impact of multi-line technology on pharma clinical trials * The transformative possibilities of AI in medicine, especially in the pharmaceutical sector * AI and agriculture: The potential impact on small and medium-sized farms * How making a positive impact on the world can bring you a sense of fulfilment * Plus loads more!

Mike Maynard is the CEO of Napier, a $7M PR and marketing agency for B2B technology companies.

A self-confessed geek who loves talking about technology, Mike offers a unique blend of technical and marketing expertise. Mike began his career as an electronics design engineer, developing products from complex radar systems to recording studio mixing desks.

Mike and his team at Napier specialize in increasing the speed prospects travel through clients’ sales and marketing funnels, generating opportunities more quickly.

Their unique approach to campaign strategy designs-in speed to campaigns from the outset, building integrated campaigns that focus on the important tactics, whether clients need to increase awareness, generate leads or engage contacts to create opportunities.

The Leader of B2B Group in the Forbes Agency Council, Mike has directed major PR and marketing programs for a wide range of global technology clients, reaching over 30 European countries, North America and beyond.

What you will learn * How marketing has evolved over the past two decades, from the dot-com crash to the present * Top tips on surviving and thriving in the dynamic world of marketing * Why intention is a crucial factor in career and business planning * Are you obsessed with results? Why it’s better to focus on the process * The huge impact of marketing automation and email marketing in the B2B landscape * Unpacking the challenges and opportunities in human-AI interaction * Plus loads more!

John and Mark X. Cronin are the father-son team that created John’s Crazy Socks, a social enterprise with a mission to spread happiness. They bootstrapped their business into the world’s largest sock store with multi-million dollar revenue and have been named EY’s Entrepreneurs of the Year.

John is not only a business owner, but he has Down syndrome. John and Mark show what people with differing abilities can do – more than half of their colleagues have differing abilities.

They are fierce advocates for inclusion, having testified twice before the U.S. Congress and spoken at the United Nations. They are sought after keynote speakers, have recorded two TEDx Talks and are frequent guests on network television.

Their Giving Back program has raised over $650,000 for their charity partners.

What you will learn * Why inclusion and community are so important in business * Unpacking the challenges faced during rapid business growth * Discover why adaptability and resilience are critical during tough times * The value of quick action and continuous learning in entrepreneurial endeavors * covering the five pillars of John’s Crazy Socks * The impact John’s Crazy Socks has had on their charity partnerships * Rediscovering the joy of connecting with others and the gratification of making a difference * Plus loads more!

Ange de Lumiere spent 15 years working as a lawyer before starting her side hustle as a spiritual business mentor, building her business by working only one day a week for years.

She shows her clients how to tap into their intuition to build a business they love, without having to sacrifice their health, relationships, kids or sanity.

She combines fifteen years of experience as a global mergers and acquisitions lawyer with fifteen years of experience in the psychic arts (what she calls her PhD in intuition from the university of life) and she is passionate about empowering brilliant entrepreneurs to use their intuition to create success.

What you will learn * How AI is integrating into human life * How unexpected experiences and learning paths contribute to personal growth * The critical importance of human energy in channeling creativity * Ange’s journey from a corporate lawyer to a spiritual mentor * Learn about the role of spiritual mentorship in business * Discover the significance of seeking guidance during transitions * The EPIC Framework for Success: Energy, Prosperity, Intuition, and Clarity * Why it’s necessary to fail on your entrepreneurial journey * Plus loads more!

Jacob Longoria is an expert in digital marketing. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Jacob has honed his expertise in marketing, leadership, and strategic planning, making him a visionary and creative storyteller in his field.

His track record includes spearheading marketing initiatives that have generated over $20 million in trackable revenue and overseeing a digital marketing team that achieved seven-figure revenue milestones in less than 16 months.

Jacob’s accomplishments have earned him accolades like the Clickfunnels 2 Comma Club Award for generating over $4 million through a single funnel and recognition on industry-leading platforms.

With a reputation for delivering results that align with growth and revenue goals, Jacob is a sought-after expert in copywriting, digital marketing frameworks, advertising, and attracting the perfect client.

What you will learn * Jacob unpacks his transition from music to digital marketing * Why you can’t afford to ignore digital marketing * Discover the hook, story, close framework * Learn why personal branding is essential in today’s marketplace * Building Intentional Brands: Discover why intentionality attracts the right audience * The little known secrets of personal storytelling * The use of AI in marketing, and key tools and resources you need to check out * Why human-centric marketing is so important * Plus loads more!

Gareth Evans is committed to a mission of empowering businesses and communities to make the global transition towards a more affordable, secure, and renewable energy future.

Gareth has been a leader his entire life. From working in charity and community organizations, and leading sports teams to military operations, Gareth has parlayed these experiences into building teams and businesses that challenge the planet’s greatest challenges and opportunities – he is now focusing on enabling companies to successfully navigate the energy transition.

His time in Iraq following the Gulf War set his mission in motion; it opened his eyes to a world without access to reliable energy and other essentials needed to survive. He saw the impact that can have on the stability of a region and the health and success of businesses and communities. Driven by this experience, he committed himself to finding solutions that create profitable and sustainable energy outcomes such that we can all thrive.

‌Last year, businesses lost $150B due to grid outages. How are they expected to make the transition to sustainable energy without sacrificing their bottom line? Gareth Evans, CEO & Founder of VECKTA, has the solution.

‌He and his team utilize their platform to track performance, emission reductions, and savings to hold suppliers accountable and be ready to act on new opportunities quickly.

‌Gareth’s background working on some of the biggest energy reserves in the world and his commitment to sustainability drive his team’s mission of enabling businesses and communities towards a renewable future.

What you will learn * Gareth shares his experience in Iraq and the crucial importance of reliable, accessible energy for all communities * Why it’s important to seize opportunities and embrace unexpected career paths * The challenges faced by Gareth in establishing VECKTA and the learning curve associated with pitching to investors in the clean tech space * The evolution of VECKTA’s business model, focusing on subscription-based SaaS and a marketplace facilitating energy projects for customers and suppliers * Unpacking the aging infrastructure in both Australia and the USA * The complexities of transitioning to sustainable energy sources while maintaining reliability * Energy infrastructure as a sovereign issue * Discover the challenges and opportunities present in the evolving energy market * Plus loads more!

Philip Wride is a consulting and marketing agency owner as well as a coach, course creator and author.

His new book is called “Finally Find Freedom: How to break the 12 chains holding you back and find more freedom in life and business.” It focuses on breaking free of the 9-5 and different types of businesses to support that.

What you will learn * How to uncover your passionate purpose and sustain motivation as an entrepreneur * The critical importance of adding value to others while pursuing your personal freedom * Philip unpacks the chains that hold you back from pursuing a side hustle (and how to break free from them) * Discover engagement and analytics strategies for content creation * Top tips for aspiring side hustlers * Plus loads more!

Addison Wiggin is a best-selling writer, publisher, and filmmaker, with nearly three decades of experience in financial publishing; covering the financial markets, the economy, and politics.

An acclaimed New York Times best-selling author, his books include The Demise of the Dollar, covering the dollar from the “bailouts” to the pandemic and beyond.

Addison is also the co-author of the best-sellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. Addison is the writer and executive producer of the documentary I.O.U.S.A., an exposé on national debt, shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2008. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his family.

Addison started his latest project, The Wiggin Sessions, powered by The Essential Investor, in March 2020. He films from a homegrown studio in his basement.

What you will learn * Addison shares his early influences and passion for writing * Discover the importance of mastering different writing styles * How to structure the chaos of ideas into coherent pieces for readers * Find out why concise writing and effective sentences are critical * Why you should follow your bliss when it comes to writing * Unpacking the impact of AI on creativity and writing * Plus loads more!

Hussein Hallak is a seasoned entrepreneur, prolific advisor, and thought leader in the tech space with a career spanning over 25 years. He’s the founder and CEO of Next Decentrum, a leading provider of business education in emerging technology, and the company behind Momentable, a discovery platform for art and culture. Hussein has developed over 20 startups, honing an extensive range of expertise and experience.

In his previous role as Evangelist and General Manager at Launch Academy, he mentored and trained hundreds of entrepreneurs, helping it become one of North America’s premier tech incubators with over 6,500 founders and 500 startups raising more than $1 billion. As an accomplished professional, Hussein has launched successful ventures like CreativeArab, the world’s first and largest marketplace for Middle Eastern art, and The Content People, an award-winning content marketing agency with prominent clients such as Virgin Mobile, Pfizer, and Starbucks.

Hussein’s insights have been featured in publications like Business Insider, Forbes, BBC, BetaKit, Entrepreneur, DailyHive, Notable, CBC, CoinTelegraph, and South China Morning Post. He is an Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme graduate and holds a BSc in Electronics Engineering. He is also a writer and speaker on startups, blockchain, leadership, and personal branding, recognized as one of Vancouver’s top 30 tech influencers to follow in 2019.

Beyond his professional commitments, Hallak is an advocate for art and culture, launching Momentable to help emerging artists reach a new generation of collectors. His passion led him to create Crypto Pharaohs, the first story-based pop culture digital collection inspired by ancient Egypt. A passionate advocate for tech, lean startups, design thinking, and decentralized innovation, Hallak tirelessly works to inspire entrepreneurship and foster innovation through connection, collaboration, and community.

What you will learn * Discover why it’s so critical to adopt a growth mindset as an entrepreneur * Learn why quality relationships trump quantity of relationships in the business world * Find out why genuine networking is so powerful * Hussein shares his thoughts on the role of AI in the creative world * The challenges & opportunities faced by creators in the digital age * Why consistent practice is crucial in the creative process * Discover why adapting to the changing digital landscape is essential * Plus loads more!

Jhana Li of Spyglass Ops is an Operations coach and consultant for online startups.

She specializes in helping founders scale their businesses while scaling themselves out of the day-to-day weeds.

The key is recognizing that they are NOT the best person to fix their own Ops bottlenecks, and can instead leverage an Operator to scale their systems and team.

Though Operations is totally the black sheep of the business family, Jhana is a die-hard nerd for it, and loves making it fun and engaging so entrepreneurs can benefit from the true value of Ops.

What you will learn * How to reframe business growth to align with personal freedom and flexibility * The critical role of operations in enhancing the business journey and minimizing chaos * Jhana shares her insights into optimizing business operations for growth, balance, and personal fulfillment * Identifying and empowering operational talent within your existing team * Introducing work-life harmony: Enabling flexibility and life-enriching experiences * How to uncover operational challenges and elevate your business’s growth potential * The importance of encouraging a culture of learning from failure * Plus loads more!

Julie and Jean-Benoit are not just seasoned authors but also accomplished entrepreneurs.

For over three decades, they’ve run a thriving freelance writing business, gaining invaluable knowledge on how to navigate the world of sales and entrepreneurship.

Their latest book is “Going Solo: Everything You Need to Start Your Own Business and Succeed as Your Own Boss”

What you will learn * Are you an aspiring professional writer? Julie and Jean share their best advice * Discover different writing routines to kickstart your creativity * The significance of reading in shaping your writing style and gathering ideas * Secrets to distilling complexity into structured content * How to effectively organize messy content in writing * The benefits of allowing writing to breathe between drafts * Learn about the critical importance of a compelling first sentence * Unpacking the ongoing debate regarding the role of AI in writing and its potential impact * The joys and struggles of having a writing career * Plus loads more!

Matheus Riolfi is the Co-founder and CEO of Tint. Before this, he was the Director of International Expansion at Turo and launched the company in Canada, the UK, and Germany.

He pioneered the operations; including designing risk management in different stages of the company and sourcing insurance in various countries.

He is a licensed insurance broker in all 50 US states, holds an MBA from Harvard Business school and a dual degree in business from the University of São Paulo and Kedge Business School.

He leads a team of passionate and talented professionals who are on a mission to empower any company to embed insurance into its product.

Tint is a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides a no-code platform, compliance services, and capital/capacity for innovative insurance solutions.

What you will learn * Matheus shares his entrepreneurial journey and the significance of aligning passion, expertise, and market need in entrepreneurship * How to approach building partnerships and tailoring insurance solutions for various business needs * The challenges and growth strategies when launching a new startup * Why responsible financial management is critical within startups * Learn about the challenges of accessing capital in the current market * Discover the value of personal relationships and fulfillment outside of work * Find out why persistence and playing the long game is so important in the entrepreneurial journey * Plus loads more!

Paul Rafelson was the most-cited resource in the Congressional Antitrust Investigation into Amazon’s mistreatment of sellers on the platform.

He is the Founding Lawyer at Rafelson Law, the #1 go-to law firm for online businesses facing legal challenges and digital sellers looking for the best deal when exiting their businesses. In 2021, they facilitated 60+ online business exits realizing over $238M for their clients.

Paul is also the Founder of SellerBasics.com, the first legal plan designed specifically for eCommerce sellers. With SellerBasics, eCommerce sellers can get access to unlimited consultations with qualified attorneys and free assistance with suspended eCommerce/Amazon accounts—all for only $99/month.

Paul is also the Founder of Online Merchants Guild (OMG), a non-profit trade association that enables thousands of online sellers to voice their concerns on various legal issues affecting them, where he volunteers as an Executive Director. OMG has played a major role in offsetting Amazon’s growing political influence.

Paul has 15+ years of experience as an attorney, and he paid for his law degree at Villanova Law School by selling video games on Amazon.

Before starting his private practice, Paul worked as in-house counsel at Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and General Electric, and has been featured by major media outlets, including Bloomberg, The New York Times, the WSJ, and CNN, because of his reputation as an advocate for the eCommerce community.

What you will learn * How Paul began his journey into e-commerce * The rise and impact of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) * The controversies and legal challenges associated with the FBA network * Uncover the legal challenges related to Amazon and the manipulation of virtual shelf space * Discover the challenges associated with buying and selling FBA businesses * Paul shares his perspective on joy, adversity, and his career journey * The importance of personal fulfillment, learning from life’s challenges, and making choices that align with your values and goals * Plus loads more!

Glenn Gow is not just a CEO Coach; he’s a Harvard MBA, a successful CEO for 25 years, and an executive who has left his mark on the tech industry.

His journey from being a software developer to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley giants gives him an unparalleled perspective on leadership, business growth, and personal development.

‌He has advised numerous leading tech companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and many more, on strategy.

‌He recently served as a Marketing Partner at Clear Ventures – a VC firm whose partners have produced 34 exits yielding $52 billion from 8 IPOs and 24 acquisitions. In this role, he worked on strategic issues for Clear’s portfolio companies and was responsible for helping CEOs accelerate growth.

‌Glenn is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Soteria Intelligence.

What you will learn * Discover the transformative impact of long-term coaching on leadership * Glenn shares his unique approach to coaching CEOs * The pivotal role of external talent and coaching in helping CEOs scale and adapt to their companies’ growth * Why adapting to AI-driven changes is crucial for businesses * Learn about the benefits and applications of AI-powered niche solutions * The role of CEOs in mandating employees to work with AI tools * How AI can streamline the evaluation of contracts, proposals, and documents * The rapidly evolving nature of AI and the need to embrace it and experiment * How AI enables productivity and allows people to focus on the fun and strategic aspects of work * Plus loads more!

BizVA President and Chief Operating Officer Chris McShanag is a transformational leader who brings extensive experience in delivering successful business solutions through innovative and scalable solutions.

An entrepreneur at heart, Chris has successfully led many organizations from start-ups to success in various industries, including; healthcare, mining, utilities, and consulting.

‌At BizVA, he oversees the company’s strategic direction and day-to-day operations.

What you will learn * Chris shares the inspiration behind starting BizVA, his virtual assistant businesses * The essential steps for hiring the right virtual assistant for your business * How to nurture your team and build a positive culture in a remote work environment * The rapid growth and demand for virtual assistants * Chris shares what brings him joy and happiness in both his personal and professional life * Plus loads more!

Vikram Chalana is a visionary entrepreneur and trailblazer in the world of AI-driven content creation. As the CEO of Pictory, Vikram leads a team dedicated to revolutionizing the way we generate video and social content.

With Pictory’s groundbreaking AI technology, long-form content, such as blogs and webinars, undergoes a miraculous transformation into a month’s worth of engaging visual and social media content – all accomplished in a matter of minutes.

Vikram’s journey is marked by an unwavering passion for creating transformative technologies. His foray into the tech landscape began as a Research Scientist at Insightful Corporation, where he honed his skills and developed a deep understanding of the industry’s intricacies.

However, it was in 2003 that Vikram embarked on his entrepreneurial odyssey, co-founding Winshuttle. This enterprise software company quickly gained prominence for its innovative application data management solutions, specifically designed to revolutionize SAP-based businesses.

What you will learn * Vikram shares his experiences growing up in India and how it contributed to his passion for education * Vikram’s shares his journey into entrepreneurship * How Pictory has evolved and adapted since the rise of AI technology, particularly ChatGPT * The role of AI in content creation and how it affects human creativity * Discover key strategies and challenges involved in building a successful startup in a competitive market * Why it’s critical to build a great team and a positive company culture * Why an element of luck in needed for business success * Happiness, personal fulfillment, and the paradox of busyness in today’s world * Plus loads more!

Lamees Butt is the SVP of Global Alliances and Channels at Zoovu, an AI Content Discovery platform for enterprise businesses.

With over a decade of expertise in managing global partnerships and driving business transformation, Lamees is deeply dedicated to revolutionizing the way customers interact with brands and services.

Her passion lies in not only streamlining employee workloads but also in crafting memorable and valuable experiences for buyers.

What you will learn * The importance of digitizing the sales process and replicating the expertise of in-store salespeople * How AI can personalize the customer journey and improve product recommendations * Discover why it’s critical to adapt to changing market dynamics * How Zoovu helps businesses solve the problem of choice paralysis in online shopping * The potential of digital transformation and the evolution of commerce discovery experiences * Learn about three types of Discovery Experiences: guided selling conversational assistant, visual configurator, and intelligent search * What brings Lamees’ personal joy and what brings her professional joy * Plus loads more!

Daniel Daoura is the founder and chief technology officer of Pebblebee. A serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience, Daniel has emerged as a visionary leader in the trackables industry.

‌His trackable device was created before the invention of Apple’s Airtag!

‌Daniel’s journey to Pebblebee began at the University of Washington, with his thesis focused on predicting satellite communication traffic for military asset tracking systems. This would lead him to Boeing, where he spent over 10 years in lead engineering roles developing global software and hardware systems for military asset tracking communication systems.

Leveraging this experience, Daniel ventured into the finder space, creating Pebblebee to help people track what matters most to them.

Daniel has more than 30 patents in the trackable and finder market. Daniel holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, as well as an MBA in Finance from Seattle University.

What you will learn * Daniel shares his journey from engineering into entrepreneurship * Insights into the world of tracking technology * How technology has evolved over generations * Discover the major differences between Pebblebee’s trackable device and Apple’s AirTag * Learn about Pebblebee’s expansion into the enterprise space * How to overcome the challenge of charging embedded devices * Daniel shares his personal philosophy and what brings him joy in business and life * Plus loads more!

Two-time venture-backed entrepreneur, AI enthusiast, and accessibility champion awarded Forbes 40 Under 40 and Smithsonian’s Top Innovator to Watch awards, Suman Kanuganti is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Personal.ai

A creative entrepreneur who loves robots, technology, and humans, Suman is most known for founding Aira, where he scaled AI and AR technology to assist the blind and low-vision community.

Today, as the CEO of Personal AI, Suman is focused on empowering every individual to own their intelligence and be their own thought leader with an AI extension of their memory.

‌Suman is passionate about building ethical, equitable and unbiased AI that helps people collaborate, exchange ideas and deepen their relationships with others while prioritizing trust, transparency, and individual ownership.

What you will learn * Suman shares his passion for AI and why he believes it enhances humanity rather than diminishing it * The challenges of managing multiple platforms and the role of Suman’s platform Personal AI in simplifying and aggregating data * Find out how to integrate Personal AI into your daily routine and make it a seamless part of your communication habits * How to get started with Personal AI * How AI can be used to enhance communication, memory, and productivity * What brings Suman joy * Plus loads more!

David CM Carter is the “CEO Mentor” and founder of Entelechy Academy. He has crafted a unique character development strategy that supports millions of people in becoming the best version of their professional selves.

With over 40 years of experience as a successful serial entrepreneur and the global success of his self-help book “Breakthrough” selling over 100,000 copies, David is well-equipped to provide future generations with the knowledge and skills to thrive in the business world.

What you will learn * David shares his journey as an entrepreneur and why he skipped higher education * The 5-year process David undertook to develop his business model and strategy * How Entelechy uses technology in character development * Discover the power of continuous improvement * Learn more about the significance of character development in raising human consciousness * Plus loads more!

Kelsey March is High Performance Coach that helps 6+ figure agency owners optimize their performance and streamline their business operations, so they can reduce stress, increase time freedom, and grow sustainably.

‌Kelsey initially stepped into entrepreneurship to build a life of true financial and time freedom for herself. She found that many other successful entrepreneurs intend to do the same, only to really step into another path of burnout and stress.

‌Kelsey is also a blogger, a Behavioral Specialist that coaches practical positive psychology, a vagabond traveler, a foodie, an animal lover and a nature enthusiast.

She has been on the road – doing long term slow travel – for three years now.

What you will learn * Kelsey tells us about her digital nomad lifestyle * Discover interesting insights into the elements crucial for well-being * The Square Breathing Technique: What is it and when should you use it? * Learn tips and tricks for energy, mindset and emotional management * Coaching Success: How to achieve results in your business and personal life * Strategies for generating leads as a Coach * Discover the untapped power of genuine connections * Plus loads more!

Mark Stouse is the CEO of Proof Analytics, a sales and marketing analytics platform that helps CMOs and CFOs bridge the ROI gap by providing cause-and-effect analytics that shows true business impact and financial worth.

The company’s ‘Proof Business GPS’ guides businesses through the whole marketing lifecycle, and provides a complete picture of a company’s marketing efforts. Their solution enables planning, budgeting, and optimization of marketing in all channels.

An award-winning B2B CMO and CCO, Mark is one of the first leaders to connect all types of marketing investment to revenue, margin, and cash flow impact in complex, long-cycle companies.

In 2014, he was named Innovator of the Year for his pioneering work by U.S. marketing leaders.

What you will learn * Mark’s journey in building his software platform Proof Analytics * How to develop a good reputation in B2B marketing * How Proof Analytics is implementing AI into their systems * Mark shares the onboarding process for businesses interested in Proof Analytics * How to decide whether your company should outsource analytics or manage it in-house * Why it’s critical to understand your own limitations and be open to learning throughout the entrepreneurial journey * How detailed analytics can help you make confident business decisions * Mark shares his key learnings as an entrepreneur * Plus loads more!

Tony Greenberg is the founder & CEO of RampRate. He helps Fortune 500 startups looking to make a purpose-driven impact in the world while simultaneously addressing how to integrate AI, Metaverse, Blockchain, Edge Computing and other emerging innovation into their business.

Since 2000, RampRate has worked with hundreds of world-renowned organizations (Microsoft, Sony, eBay, Merrill Lynch, and more) and new companies in emerging markets alike to achieve and succeed their business goals.

RampRate’s vision is to build an ecosystem of “impact-preneurs” and trailblazers powered by opportunities, resources, innovation and human spirit.

What you will learn * Tony shares his journey to becoming an entrepreneur * What does a purpose-driven company look like? Tony share his insights * Tony talks about the values of his company RampRate * Discover why it's important to take a strategic approach in business consulting * Exploring the intersection between AI and humanity

Charles Carillo is the founder and managing partner of Harborside Partners. He has been actively involved in over $200 million worth of real estate transactions since 2006 and carries extensive knowledge in renovating and repositioning multifamily and commercial real estate.

In addition to being an active investor; Charles passively invests in many different asset classes including; commercial real estate, ATMs, and early-stage technology and agriculture (AgTech) startups.

Charles oversees all acquisitions, investor relations, and strategic partnerships at Harborside Partners. He is also the host of the popular podcast, “Global Investors,” where Charles interviews successful real estate investors in addition to his weekly strategy episodes.

Prior to launching Harborside Partners, Charles co-founded an online payment processing company that has since processed over $1 Billion in payments for clients in 5 continents across the globe.

Charles is an Eagle Scout and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Central Connecticut State University.

What you will learn * Charles tells us about what brings him joy * Discover what inspired Charles to invest in real estate early * Strategies for Foreign Investors: Investing in real estate in the USA * Current opportunities and trends in real estate in the USA * Why its important to have a goal beyond financial returns as an investor * Biggest mistakes investors make in real estate * How to invest in the right geographical location * What rent return investors should be looking for * How to mitigate risks when investing in real estate * Charles shares his best tips for people wanting to be an entrepreneur

Yiannis Gavrielides co-founded Covve with a vision to help people connect, build trust and create opportunities to improve their life and career.

Covve could be described as a Personal CRM that is a business networking and relationship co-pilot. It also is a digital business card and card scanner.

Covve is a team with deep domain expertise in contact and relationship management, leveraging technology to provide world-class products to all professionals, from solopreneurs to multinationals.

What you will learn * What brings you joy? Yiannis shares what lights him up * Learn about life as a mechanical engineering student in London * Yiannis shares his journey in building a technical platform * The advantages of incorporating AI into your business model * How AI helps to build meaningful relationships * Find out who the ideal customer is for Covve * Discover a simple system to scale your customer acquisition * Yiannis shares the learnings and challenges he’s faced along the way * Plus loads more!

Christoph Trappe has run integrated campaigns across many industries, including healthcare, SaaS, information technology, nonprofits, and publishing. He has led teams of journalists, content creators, strategists, and designers to drive results successfully.

Christoph has worked in various verticals and with a mix of businesses – including startups and established companies. His experience spans the full spectrum of digital strategy and implementation – including social media, SEO, UX collaborations, content strategies, and production.

Today, he’s a global top 14 content marketer, top 40 B2B marketer, top 100 CX thought leader and top 24 digital marketer. His blog has been listed as a valuable resource in the marketing industry. He’s a top 2.5 percent global podcaster.

He is the author of a three-book marketing strategies series, which includes; “Content Performance Culture” “Is Marketing a Good Career?” and “Going Live.”

What you will learn * How Christoph made his career transition from journalism to content marketing * Christoph shares more about his content marketing journey and how it unfolded * Discover the challenges of using AI content writing tools * Learn more about the role of short-form videos in content marketing today * Plus loads more!

Jake Hurwitz started his first company when he was eight — repairing skateboards around his suburban New York neighborhood.

These days Jake is the Founder of Thursday Labs, a studio that specializes in various aspects of digital content creation and marketing. They excel in creating impactful websites and lead pages, generating high-quality video and podcast content, managing blogs and newsletters, and consistently delivering large volumes of content.

This enables Thursday Labs to obtain valuable insights into which styles, channels, and hooks are effectively driving conversions.

Prior to Thursday Labs, Jake served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Day One, a community and school for emerging entrepreneurs supported by investors like Gary Vaynerchuk and Antler. Throughout his career, Jake has helped multiple startups grow substantially within six months and started six more companies.

What you will learn * Jake gives us an overview of his interesting entrepreneurial journey * Discover the inspiration behind Thursday Labs * Learn simple tips and tricks for creating short-form videos * Find out insider strategies for driving traffic and attention to your content * Discover how to produce high-quality content * Learn about the AI content creation tools everybody’s talking about * Discover how AI can help enhance your creativity * What is growth hacking? How do you do it? * Storytelling: How to touch the hearts and minds of your audience * Plus loads more!

Link Brown has spent the last 24 years helping multiple companies scale their revenue 2x to 5x in the American market. These companies are in very diverse industries including; industrial, biotech, services, SaaS, and internet marketing.

Link grew up in very humble beginnings in America. Through his journey, he realized that success came when he “leaned in” to his uniqueness, used all his successes and failures as fuel, and stayed true to grounded principles for success.

His work has led to delivering products and services to 80+ countries. He has led global commercial teams of 60+ people, and traveled to 43 countries.

His unique framework for business growth success is the G.E.T. framework. It Is an acronym that stands for Grounded, Efficient and Targeted.

What you will learn * How Link developed his signature G.E.T. framework * Taking the leap: How Link left his day job to start his own business * Discover key strategies to generate leads and foster business growth * Links shares hard-won success stories from his hustling days * Learn tips and tricks for scaling a coaching or consulting business * Understanding the art of European business culture * Link share some of his best lessons about life and business

Frederick Cary is a powerhouse entrepreneur and the CEO of IdeaPros, a company that guides qualified entrepreneurs through the complexities and pitfalls of the startup world.

As an operational executive (CEO/Chairman) he has built high-growth businesses in finance, enterprise software, mobile technologies, web services, digital video, and personalized television, as well as consumer related product companies.

His goal is to help build successful businesses that can make a positive difference in their sector.

He also produces a weekly show for entrepreneurs that has been viewed by over 4 million people.

What you will learn * The surprising reason Fred decided to become an entrepreneur * Fred shares the most significant moments he’s had along his entrepreneurial journey * Discover why timing is one of the most crucial factors for success * Learn what drives Fred to make a difference in his community * Fred shares his latest insights on the world of AI * Discover practical tips and strategies from a seasoned entrepreneur * Plus loads more!

Dan Levin is the President, COO, and Co-Founder of ViralGains. He was inspired to start ViralGains after recognizing the storytelling power of video as a medium in building authentic, meaningful connections between brands and the people they seek to serve.

ViralGains’ mission is to empower the voice of brands and people, creating authentic and lasting connections.

Prior to ViralGains, Dan was VP of Operations & Strategy at Viral Media Solutions, a full-service marketing agency whose primary focus was servicing & consulting SMB’s and Fortune 500 brands on social media & digital strategy.

Dan graduated from the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts in Boston with concentrations in Marketing, Economics, and Philosophy.

What you will learn * Dan shares what prompted him to leap into the entrepreneurial world * The rise and fall of viral content; learn how perspectives and expectations shift * Discover how to build brand awareness in today’s digital landscape * Find out how Dan is helping businesses convert attention into sales * Dan shares his thoughts on AI, ChatGPT, and the future of marketing * Dan shares the hard lessons he’s learnt about marketing his own business * Plus much more!

Tom Frazier is the Co-Founder and CEO of Redivider. He boasts an impressive 25-year career, driving transformational and disruptive architectural initiatives in future tech, B2B, and public sectors.

As a serial entrepreneur, Tom founded Redivider based on his extensive knowledge of data centers and a passion for revolutionizing the industry. Committed to prioritizing people, the planet, and profits, Tom is devoted to spearheading innovation in the digital economy.

It’s estimated that globally, data centers use two percent of the world’s electricity. The US averages 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year according to Energy Central.

In fact, they can generate the same amount of carbon emissions as the airline industry. Specialized computing demand is also growing significantly faster than energy capacity. Meanwhile, the data centers themselves have become huge facilities that do little or nothing for the local communities in which they reside.

Redivider aims to empower communities by bringing energy and investment that deliver prosperity (health, wealth, and education) to areas designated for economic development. This includes hiring and training new talent as well as offering them stakeholder opportunities in the company too.

Having served as a cloud and security strategic director for a Fortune 10 company, Tom has been instrumental in securing some of the world’s largest digital footprints.

He started his remarkable journey as the youngest faculty/staff hire at his university.

‌Tom holds a patent for a “System for Processing Customer Records” and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

‌Outside of his professional life, Tom enjoys spending time at his hobby farm, traveling the world to teach dance, and cherishing his roles as a leader, teacher, husband, and father to his two young children.

What you will learn * How Tom’s passion for technology began * The inspiration behind Tom’s business, Redivider * What is edge computing? Tom unpacks it for us * Tom shares how he got his very first customer * Discover the marketing sales process behind Redivider’s success * Learn how Tom makes data centers sustainable * Tom shares the impact AI has had on his business * Discover how AI helps develop human creativity * Find out more about Redivider’s unique selling proposition * Learn why sustainability and social impact are incredibly important in business * Plus loads more!

Elliot and Dominic Chapman are two entrepreneurial brothers who have taken the business world by storm over the last few years.

Together they have built a group of successful agencies across the UK and the US through a combination of growth and strategic acquisitions.

Elliot has been running businesses since the age of 20.

He helped set up a local soccer school in Bournemouth and managed to grow it into the number one regional coaching program.

He was later headhunted by the biggest amateur soccer club in the US and appointed Director of Coaching in Boston. Elliot also ran the family business, an IT management consultancy, and helped take it from a £2.5m to a £5m+ business. Since 2019, Elliot has been involved in Chapman Capital and various other ventures.

Dominic’s entrepreneurial journey began when he became head of innovation at Specsavers at the age of 19.

He built one of the healthcare apps still used in stores today before starting his first two businesses, a design agency, and a clothing brand.

Dominic launched Stemx, a tech platform in the recruitment space, and raised £400k from angel investors. The platform ran over 10,000 video interviews in 10 countries. Since 2019, Dominic has been involved in Chapman Capital, Social Chaps, Speak on Podcasts, FKC London, Low & Behold, and Agency Finance .

Elliot and Dominic have combined their expertise and experiences to build a thriving business empire. They continue acquiring more agencies that service clients globally.

In their spare time, Dom and Ell enjoy football, golf, running, traveling, and spending time with their families.

What you will learn * How Dominic and Elliot’s company came to be * What it’s like being in business with a family member * Discover fresh lead-generation strategies in the digital world * Learn how to cultivate fruitful business relationships virtually * The brothers unpack the future of Chapman Capital * Discover the key processes and systems the boys used to scale their businesses * How to land and retain customers in the current market * Dominic and Elliot share their best tips for being an entrepreneur in the digital world * Plus loads more!

Shane Foss is the Founder and CEO of Hooray Health. His work has gained him recognition for his leadership with a nomination for “CEO of the Year” by D Magazine.

As a self-built business leader and innovator, Shane has created, negotiated, and optimized countless business strategies and surmounted numerous challenges over decades.

After over 20 years as an executive in the medical industry, Shane launched Hooray Health, an unconventional health insurance company that works hard to provide affordable healthcare benefits for employers and employees.

At Hooray, Foss and his team focus on offering peace of mind to lower-income individuals and families who face medical challenges, while also providing business owners with an affordable way to reward and retain employees.

What you will learn * Shane shares the inspiration behind starting his business Hooray Health * Find out what prompted Shane to step out of the corporate world * Shane gives us a frank overview of the healthcare situation in the United States * Shane shares what it was like in his early days as an entrepreneur * Discover actionable strategies to raise money for a startup * Learn why it’s so important to get the right investors on board * Tech-driven healthcare: Learn about the impact of digital solutions in medicine * Discover how AI can transform the customer service experience * Shane shares his best tips for budding entrepreneurs

Paula Day is a highly-skilled business expert and trusted advisor with a wealth of experience.

With 20 years in the field, she has a wealth of knowledge to draw from. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Business Accounting and a CPA certification, Paula quickly rose to the top of the corporate ladder and mastered the skills needed for successful large scale operations.

‌Additionally, she is a Master NLP Practitioner, Hypnotherapist, Social Media Expert, and Personal Stylist, bringing a unique and holistic approach to her coaching and consulting business.

‌Paula’s passion lies in supporting driven business owners to master their businesses and grow in a way that aligns with their values. With her experience and expertise, she offers the kind of advice and support usually only available to larger organizations.

What you will learn * What led Paula into business coaching * Paula tells us about her Amazon side hustle journey * Discover how to make money while you sleep * Find out why Paula chose the beauty industry as another one of her niches * Paula shares her best tips for getting leads and sales * Learn how the rise of Zoom impacted Paula’s coaching business * Paula unpacks the challenges she’s faced as a working mom * Discover simple tips to manage chaos and look after yourself * Paula shares her wisdom from starting and managing her coaching business

Laura Bell Main specializes in securing some of Australia and New Zealand’s fastest-growing organizations. She has over twenty years of experience in software development and information security.

It’s her mission to bring security into organizations of every shape and size.

Laura is the founder and CEO of SafeStack Academy, an online education platform offering flexible, high-quality, and people-focused, secure development training for fast-moving companies.

SafeStack is a values-driven company on a mission to make cybersecurity accessible for everyone and any organization. “To protect each one of us, we must protect all of us,” this is the underpinning belief that drives Laura.

Her company is pushing hard into this issue by attempting to train all of our organizations, big and small. Through free plans, student sponsorships, and sponsored communities, she is working towards a future where we no longer spend 99% of our security resources on 1% of our organizations.

She is an experienced conference speaker, trainer, and regular panel member, and has spoken at a range of events
such as BlackHat USA, Velocity, and OSCON on the subjects of privacy, covert communications, agile security, and security mindset.

She is also the co-author of Agile Application Security and Security for Everyone.

What you will learn * What sparked Laura’s passion for software engineering and computer security * What inspired Laura to launch her own company in this industry * The top 3 things a growing company can do to get started with security * Discover the critical importance of software updates in protecting your systems * Laura shares her best tips for enhancing the security of your WordPress site * Learn how to reduce and prevent unwanted emails * Uncover how to secure and grow your company * Discover the opportunities and challenges for business security in the age of AI

Brandon Leibowitz runs and operates SEO Optimizers; a digital marketing company that focuses on helping small and medium-sized businesses get more online traffic, which in turn converts into clients, sales, and leads.

He got his start in digital marketing in 2007 after graduating from college with a degree in Business Marketing. In his first job, he handled the marketing aspects of an e-commerce website.

The company Brandon worked for was a national e-commerce brand that had recently built its website and was looking to bring more traffic to it. Brandon had no idea what he was doing and neither did they. He spent a lot of his time reading books and joining digital marketing forums to learn as much as possible about this new type of marketing.

Brandon helped the company with the following tasks: search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns, creating an affiliate program, optimizing paid ads on Google AdWords, setting up social media profiles, and a bit of web design. You could say that he wore a lot of hats working for this company.

In 2008, Brandon realized that most businesses would need a website to stay competitive in the future. But having a website was only one piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, they needed someone to help market their website to bring in traffic that would, in turn, convert to clients.

Brandon has always worked full-time at ad agencies helping their clients with search engine optimization. At night after work, he would work on his freelance clients from SEO Optimizers. He was recently able to quit his daytime job to pursue SEO Optimizers full-time.

What you will learn * Discover effective link-building strategies for digital success * How to manage an SEO client’s expectations (you’re not going to rank overnight!) * How search intent can drive leads and sales conversions * Discover tried and true strategies for effective CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) * Learn about the emerging role of AI in search * Discover the best AI tools for search * How is AI and search going to work together in the future? Brandon shares his insights * Simple tricks to improve your local ranking on Google * Brandon shares his best tips for generating leads and sales through search * Plus loads more!

Charles D. McCarrick is an entrepreneur, inventor, and lead visionary of Micro-Ant. In 2022, Micro-Ant won the SatCom Innovation Group Award for Most Innovative Product of the Year for the successful development of its Ultra-Wide Band (3.5 GHz) Ka Antenna System. The system enables connectivity over extended frequency bands in Ka for roaming across multiple satellite operators in all orbits.

Charles has a PhD in Advanced Electromagnetics from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He is also the author of the book “Lessons My Brothers Taught Me,” about how budding entrepreneurs can harness life lessons and their personal qualities to yield success.

Charles grew up with five siblings, all of whom taught him important life lessons that he later applied to his career. His evolution from quitting his day job to founding and succeeding at building an extremely valuable high-tech business has been quite a journey.

With more than 10 patents to his name, he pioneers and supplies unique equipment to the communications industry.

What you will learn * From brotherly wisdom to booming business: Turning life lessons into a published book * Charles shares what inspired him to pursue a PhD in Advanced Electromagnetics * Introducing Micro-Ant: A company transforming technology and connectivity * Discover some surprising ways antennas are used * Learn about the 4S Framework: Salability, Sensibility, Sustainability, and Scalability * Charles shares what his next passion project is all about * Plus loads more!

Vlad A. Ionescu is the Founder & CEO of Earthly; which was founded in 2020.

He is a repeat entrepreneur with an extensive background in cloud computing. Vlad co-founded ShiftLeft, the application security platform; created Lever OS, the first open-source serverless/lambda implementation; and co-authored the RabbitMQ Erlang client.

Vlad was previously a software engineer at Google (2x) and VMWare.

What you will learn * Discover what inspired Vlad to become a software engineer * Find out what cloud computing is and why it matters for businesses * Vlad unpacks the implications of AI for entrepreneurs * Learn more about Earthly and why Vlad created the business * Vlad discusses new and exciting AI business models * Vlad shares hard-won lessons he’s learned as a business owner in tech * Plus loads more!

Artem Koren is the Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Sembly AI, a SaaS platform that uses proprietary AI algorithms to transcribe and analyze meetings.

Artem has 16+ years of product management experience and has applied AI learning to his work since 2009.

He is passionate about using AI to enrich humanity and create positive change. He combines his experience as a systems engineer, product manager, IT executive, management consultant, and entrepreneur to create innovative products, bringing to life new ways that technology can help us reach our goals.

Sembly AI is at the forefront of advancing natural language understanding, paving the way for a symbiotic partnership between humans and technology.

What you will learn * How Artem’s fascination with technology and programming began * Artem shares his thoughts on ChatGPT and discusses its impact on AI * Artem unpacks the inspiration behind his business Sembly AI * Introducing Sembly AI: An overview of the function and features of Sembly technology in meetings * Learn how Sembly accurately evaluates communication styles during meetings * Artem shares his insights on the future of work with technologies such as ChatGPT * Discover how the presence of AI can transform businesses and professions * Plus loads more!

Dr. Jonathan Baktari is the Founder and CEO of e7 Health, a company that leverages technology to offer innovative medical care while providing cost savings for their patients and clients. Dr. Jonathan is also the Founder and CEO of US Drug Test Centers (USDTC), the nation’s leading drug and alcohol testing service provider.

Both of these groundbreaking technology companies were born out of a combination of Dr. Baktari’s expertise as a doctor, medical director, and educator. He has over 20 years of clinical, administrative, and entrepreneurial experience.

Dr. Baktari is a former triple board-certified physician with specialties in internal medicine, e7 Health pulmonary, and critical care medicine. Being a healthcare CEO is only the latest chapter in Dr. Baktari’s life mission to help others by making integrative preventative medicine available to everyone.

Dr. Jonathan has always believed that helping others was the ultimate achievement in life. Now, as a business leader, sought-after speaker, and podcast host, he’s excited to share his expertise in preventative health, tech entrepreneurship and other topics that can’t be found anywhere else.

He is regularly interviewed by news outlets to share his expert opinion on various public health-related topics.

What you will learn * Why mastering effective communication skills is essential for doctors * Dr. Baktari unpacks his journey from physician to health entrepreneur * Discover how Jonathan leveraged his experience in healthcare to build a revolutionary company * Explore how technology enabled Jonathan to scale his business and achieve new heights of success * Learn about the game-changing opportunity that Dr. Baktari uncovered on his entrepreneurial journey * Explore the transformative impact of AI on the medical profession * Gain insights into Dr. Baktari’s visionary approach and his plans for transforming the healthcare industry * Plus loads more!

Kirsty Dawe is the CEO of Webeo, a B2B website personalization software that delivers a proven solution to the website conversion problem in B2B.

Webeo’s software helps B2B organisations increase website leads by delivering a highly relevant, personalized experience to the B2B buyer as soon as they hit the website and tailoring that journey as they move through the funnel. They have dedicated the last ten years to making sure their product maximises conversion around the complex B2B buyer journey.

Dawe has academic and practical experience in B2B marketing and lead generation, automation, data analysis, business growth, technology innovation, and full marketing mix in various sectors. Before Webeo, she held the role of Managing Director of award winning agency Really B2B for 15 years.

Dawe is a DMA B2B Council member, regular Superbrands judge, and proud advocate for B2B marketing worldwide. She is also a mother of 3, mentor and coach.

What you will learn * How Kirsty stepped out of corporate world and into the entrepreneurial world * The little-known challenges of paid advertising * How website personalization can have a huge impact in B2B marketing * Kirsty shares her thoughts on how AI is challenging marketers today * Discover how ChatGPT has the potential to optimise B2B marketing * Learn how Kirsty utilises a data dashboard at Webeo * Discover why looking after your people is vital in business * Kirsty shares her top tips for those wanting to become entrepreneurs * Plus loads more!

Ben Johnson is the CEO & Founder of Particle41, a development firm that provides businesses with support on application development, data science, and DevOps projects.

Ben is an experienced serial entrepreneur with $30 million raised across his 5 startups and has 20+ years of software development experience.

He is passionate about application modernization and coaching both of his two son’s soccer teams.

What you will learn * How Particle41 and Ben’s entrepreneurial journey began * Why making a website that looks simple requires a lot of complexity * How Artificial Intelligence will impact software development * Ben’s personal experience with AI and how he uses it * Ben shares his software development process * The secrets to avoiding budget blowouts when developing software * Tool recommendations to help your remote company stay productive * Why systems and processes are so important for maintaining control * Inspiring tips for entrepreneurs that are struggling * Plus loads more!

JJ Reynolds started his journey into digital marketing by running ads for content that he created at a small agency. However, he quickly learned that most organizations didn’t use numbers to guide business decisions.

Now he focuses on assisting businesses in measuring and acting on their marketing data by running Mediauthentic and teaching on Better Than Data.

Understanding that online marketing can make huge improvements with small changes, he helps eliminate the “guesswork” by strategizing with companies using tools like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

Reynolds helps clients using Google Marketing Cloud, where he’s able to predictably increase MRR (monthly recurring revenue) while measuring each channel’s step in the marketing journey. With his team, they take all of their clients’ data from their CRM, Google Analytics, and cart platform, then turn it into a real-time data dashboard for you to take action.

JJ believes that what most digital businesses need is someone to provide reliable, consistent data to help them take action.

What you will learn * The compelling reasons why all businesses should be using dashboards and data * Using data to make good investment decisions when it comes to advertising * How to use paid media effectively to acquire new leads * How Apple’s data privacy policies are affecting your ads * The steps JJ takes to build a data dashboard * The powerful role AI plays in business data today * JJ shares his struggles and the challenges he’s faced on his own entrepreneurial journey * The critical importance of systems and processes * The tools JJ uses when collaborating with his remote team * Plus loads more!

Matt Swalley is Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of Omneky, an AI marketing platform that generates and optimizes personalized ad creatives to increase sales across all digital touchpoints.

Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3, DALLE-2, and their own proprietary algorithms, Omneky’s platform empowers customers to analyze the design preferences of all the customer’s target audiences and manage thousands of AI-generated ads designed to drive conversions for each customer profile.

Matt brings 13 years of strategic leadership experience from AT&T, where he specialized in corporate strategy, business development, and sales team growth. As a member of the Corporate Strategy Team for AT&T, Matt led various strategic initiatives, financial planning, go-to-market strategy, and analysis.

Matt also held leadership positions as Chief of Staff for AT&T’s Global Business segment and directed sales teams in small business and mid-market enterprise accounts. Matt has an undergraduate degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and an MBA from Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida.

What you will learn * Matt shares his career journey with AT&T * The definition of generative AI and how it helps in business decision making * Discover everything you need to know about ChatGPT * Matt unpacks how AI automation replaced traditional sales & marketing funnels * The role of AI in modern advertising * Find out what kind of client Omneky serves best * Discover how Matt is trying to win the tech race * Matt shares his best tips and lessons learned along his entrepreneurial journey * Plus loads more!

Hector Pantazopolous has over 10 years of experience in the online advertising and marketing industries. Hector co-founded SourceKnowledge to help e-commerce and retail brands to gain incremental lifts in sales by turning store catalogs into a shopping feed.

Stores successfully use the SourceKnowlege platform to access in-market shoppers on comparison shopping engines, channel-driven content sites, in-text ads, native placements, influencers and deal sites.

Founded in 2009, SourceKnowledge is headquartered in Montreal with offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles.

Hector has seen the fluctuations evident in today’s e-commerce marketplace, particularly the impact of micro and nano influencers as a way for more businesses to drive sales.

What you will learn * What led Hector into the digital platform space * An overview of how Hector’s company SourceKnowledge works * How to identify and manage influencers with the ability to offer effective advertising * How SourceKnowledge diversifies risk across e-commerce platforms * Hector shares his biggest learnings as an entrepreneur in the digital space * Plus loads more!

Luc Lising is a 22-year-old realtor that reached the top 1% bracket of all realtors in Canada within 2 years. Luc and his team have done over $180m in real estate sales, closing over 300+ deals over the last 2 years.

Luc started a side business in the automotive industry in 2022 and scaled it to 6-figures within 4 months.

What you will learn * How and why Luc started his side business (even though he was already super successful) * Luc shares how he achieved massive success in the real estate world * Discover the biggest challenges Luc faced as a realtor during the pandemic * Why timing hasn’t been in Luc’s favor when it comes to his business (and how he got around the issue) * How Luc built relationships and used networking to scale his side hustle * Learn more about the true power of networking * Luc shares his 10-year vision for the future * Find out the major lessons Luc has learnt as an entrepreneur in the early stages of business * Plus loads more!

Mary Ann Pruitt is the CEO and President at Mosaic Media, a collection of media buying experts and creative strategists who negotiate, purchase, and monitor advertising space and airtime.

Mary Ann started her career in media by working as a senior sales executive for some of the nation’s largest media outlets. After discovering her talent and love for all things media strategy, she founded Mosaic as a way to provide niche expert experience to agencies and marketing departments across the country.

Her hard work and savvy strategy skills have led Mosaic to year-over year growth, and has expanded her impact as an industry leader in all things traditional, digital, and everything in between. Reflecting this is a 2020 award from Cynopsis Media naming her as a Top Woman in Media.

Mary Ann has helped develop effective marketing strategies for agencies of all sizes, small businesses, service businesses, private educational institutions and legal and professional services businesses along with many others.

She is passionate about passing on the experience that she has gained onto eager professionals looking for actionable marketing tips.

What you will learn * What inspired Mary to start working in media and advertising * The surprising way data can tell a story * Why being an entrepreneur is like being an artist * Discover the power of collaboration and partnership in entrepreneurship * Consumption of media: How its changed and evolved over time * A discussion around the huge evolution of social and online platforms * How the pandemic changed the marketing and advertising media industry * Programmatic advertising 101: What is a DSP? * Programmatic advertising versus Facebook advertising – which is better? * How Mary’s agency helps businesses * Mary shares her best tips for acquiring new customers * Plus loads more!

Business storytelling is growing in popularity because leaders know it works.

But it’s not working for everyone because most people don’t know the correct narrative frameworks to follow. They try the multi-step process of The Hero’s Journey or the Pixar Way, but that’s where they get lost.

That’s why Park Howell starts all of his executive mentees off with the ABT (And, But, Therefore) agile narrative framework where all influential and persuasive storytelling starts.

Then, he graduates his clients up to the Five Primal Elements of a Short Story for Big Impact followed by his 10-step Story Cycle System™. One client deemed Park “The World’s Most Industrious Storyteller” because of his proven system that has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.

Park is a 35+ year veteran of the brand marketing game, ran his own agency Park&Co, for 20 years, and began teaching leadership storytelling 15 years ago.

He hosts the popular Business of Story podcast, which Feedspot named the #1 business storytelling podcast for 2022. The seven-year-old show is ranked among the top 10% of downloaded podcasts in the world.

A story is only as good as the villain is evil. That’s why Park helps his clients overcome boring messages by entertaining-to-educate, and that’s how he helps leaders excel through the stories they tell.

What you will learn * Why following your true calling in life matters * Park shares why he pivoted from running a marketing agency to becoming a leader in storytelling * Discover the true power of storytelling * How Park’s ‘ABT Framework’ works and how to use it in business communication * Why it’s critical to make complex messages simple for your audiences * Take a deeper dive into what ABT is and it’s three forces * Uncover the five primal elements of a short story and learn from examples * Live coaching using the ABT Framework with me, Jeff Bullas * Plus loads more!

Orrin Klopper is the CEO of Netsurit, which he co-founded 24 years ago during the lead-up to Y2K. At the time, organizations were being ripped off by IT companies and paying a fortune for technology they did not need.

Orrin and his partners saw an opportunity to provide managed services for companies and differentiate themselves by being honest, ethical and fair.

Orrin is always innovating new ways of work. His people-focused leadership leads his team’s incredible, aspirational culture and their dream program. He is a passionate Microsoft Partner and committed to serving both employees and clients by nurturing and helping them realize their dreams.

In addition to his role leading Netsurit, he is active in the Young Presidents’ Association (YPO) and the Entrepreneurs Organization and earned a master’s diploma in Entrepreneurship from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management.

Once Orrin had dinner with Billie Jean King. Already in her 70s and she had the most amazing positive energy.

Orrin attended 9 schools as a kid. Only got expelled from 3. So 6 out of 9 is not a bad result.

Outside of work, he enjoys swimming, traveling, drinking wine and hanging out with his little Lulu.

What you will learn * How Orrin’s journey in IT began * How to use systems and processes to manage growth * Find out how Orrin landed his very first customer * Discover the secrets to managing your business through crisis and change * Learn why your company needs a dream manager * Orrin shares his bold growth plans for his company * Discover the very best entrepreneur books to read * Learn why hiring the right people is essential * Plus loads more!

Sam Jacobs is the Founder & CEO of Pavilion, a community-powered learning platform for go-to-market leaders and teams.

Sam launched Pavilion as Revenue Collective in 2016 and bootstrapped the company to $10M in ARR before taking on a $25M growth financing round in early 2021, led by Elephant Ventures and GTM Fund.

Pavilion is powered by an international community of more than 10,000 sales, marketing, RevOps, and success leaders from the world’s fastest growing companies.

Pavillion teaches new skills, forges meaningful connections, and helps companies grow. Pavilion University leverages a proprietary Immersive Learning Framework™ to fuse structured training with ongoing social learning and just-in-time resources that drive results.

Prior to Pavilion, Sam spent 15 years as a senior revenue leader at VC-backed companies in the New York area including Gerson Lehrman Group, Axial, Livestream/Vimeo, The Muse, and Behavox.

What you will learn * The big lessons Sam has learnt from his past failures * How Sam's business coach helped him create value beyond money * Discover why it's so important to do what you love for a living * The unexpected joy of creating * How to monetize the ideas that bring you the most energy and joy * How Sam's business helps it's members unlock and achieve their professional potential * Find out how Sam created a business model to scale his business * Uncover why documenting what's in your head can help you clarify your thoughts * Learn the challenges of using third party platforms for building a community * Sam shares his top insights from his entrepreneurial journey

Robin Singhvi is the Founder of SmartCue, a smart sales effectiveness platform that helps sales teams deliver personalized product demos and close deals faster.

Robin spent over a decade in the US B2B SaaS space as a sales and solutions leader, playing the quarterback between sales and product teams to develop and execute the best solutions for customers and key stakeholders.

He built up the muscle memory to identify prospect needs and accelerate deal cycles. Robin has demonstrated success at driving high-value, complex, strategic partnerships with multiple stakeholders and teams in a highly matrixed environment.

Robin has a computer science degree from India (2003) and an MBA from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon (2010). Post his MBA, he spent 10+ years with startups of various sizes, all in the B2B SaaS space selling to Enterprise clients, mostly in the US. His roles at these companies were primarily at the intersection of sales & product.

What you will learn * What inspired Robin to start his business SmartCue * The marketing strategies SmartCue relies on for growth * Discover why Robin does not use any paid advertising * Learn why customer retention is key to your business * Find out who the perfect customer is for SmartCue * Robin shares his best tips for people thinking about starting a business * Discover why finding a co-founder could be critical for your startup

Teri Yu founded Vibely, where communities accomplish their dreams together. Vibely was featured on Forbes, Apple, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and Credit Suisse Internet Report, before being acquired by Kajabi.

She is now the Director of Product at Kajabi to ensure creators can engage with their community and get paid.

What you will learn * Discover the untapped power of community and learn why it is life-changing * Why Teri is so passionate about enabling communities of creators * Find out how Vibley creates connections between people * Teri shares her best tips and tactics to get people engaged and participating in an online community * Discover how to create an effective landing page * Learn about the surprising challenges of raising capital * Teri shares how she gained venture capital funding of $2.5 million * Discover the best practices for community creators in driving engagement * Learn how to build a self-sustaining community

Nick Poninski is an author and expert copywriter for course creators. After university, Nick travelled Asia and lived for two years as an expat teacher in South Korea teaching communication.

It was an eye-opening experience that sparked his curiosity in human psychology; what makes people tick and “why” they do what they do. This was a perfect match with his love for 20,000 word dissertations and Nick was guided to his calling in life.

Today he is living his passion as a copywriter, writing the words that tell, sell and compel to get you more: leads, customers, sales and profits.

He has created the “The 5 Minute Client Grabber” course, and written a top rated book: Stop Struggling: Sell Your Course This Week – helping you master words that sell!

What you will learn * The unlikely way Nick discovered his love for copywriting * How to find and land clients that will pay you what you’re worth * Discover how to shift from “writing” copy for an online course to “selling” it * Nick shares his best secrets to writing sales pages for online courses * Discover the sales pages that convert best in 2022 (and why!) * Learn more about the power of words when communicating with your audience * Find out the easiest way to drive traffic to your sales pitch * Nick shares his best tips for selling online courses * Plus loads more!

Drew Sechrist is a serial entrepreneur, veteran sales leader, and the CEO & Co-Founder of Connect The Dots.

A cold email to Marc Benioff in 1999 landed Drew an account executive job at Salesforce, where he was employee number 36. Drew became the company’s highest-producing seller, then the highest-producing sales manager as Salesforce scaled from zero to more than a billion dollars in revenue.

When Drew moved on in 2010, he was the VP of Salesforce’s High Tech vertical, calling on customers such as Apple and EMC. Drew launched his first tech company, Koozoo, in 2010. He went on to serve as an investor, advisor, and Chief Revenue Officer for various startups before founding Connect The Dots in 2019.

As a young seller, leaders like Marc Benioff, Jim Steele, Carl Schachter, and Susan St. Ledger transformed Drew’s career by opening their networks and making warm introductions on Drew’s behalf. With Connect The Dots, Drew is making that experience possible for anyone.

What you will learn * Discover the power of networking to dramatically grow your business * Drew unpacks the lessons he learned from his first tech company, Koozoo * Drew shares the idea behind Connect The Dots * Find out how Drew raises and funded the growth and development of his company * Learn about the troubles most entrepreneurs face when growing a company * Plus loads more!

Miriam Meima has been a coach and facilitator for over twenty years, dedicating her life to studying the overlap between business and psychology.

Miriam has coached founders and executives at hundreds of companies, including a dozen worth over $1Billion+.

She works one on one with senior leaders, facilitates teams off site and develops customized leadership development journeys for leaders at all levels.

Her specialty is in helping people unlock the next level of performance while maximizing authenticity.

What you will learn * How to motivate your executive leaders * Developing your clear North Star: What is it and why does it matter? * How to develop the right mindset to become a great leader * Discover why the difference between success and failure is timing * Learn about the importance of staying curious * Discover the communication skills you need for effective leadership * Learn the importance of letting go of ‘being right’ * Find out more about the books and mentors that have inspired Miriam * Why check-ins should be an essential part of every team meeting * Discover the metrics that high level CEOs need to see in their dashboards * Learn a powerful daily practice that will help you become your best self * Plus loads more!

Ann Sieg is a mompreneur, online serial entrepreneur & Amazon power seller.

Ann didn’t want to become the busy mom that her kids never got time with so she started an online business from home.

In less than 4 months of setting up her online business, she went from $2,000 to $90,000 a month in sales. She then sold 4.2 million dollars with her first-ever ebook and built a subscriber list of over 400,000 people worldwide.

Ann has since helped tens of thousands of students achieve financial freedom so they can spend time doing what they love most.

Her team delivers up to 18 live events a year and has been the featured training company of the largest consumer goods trade show in the U.S.

Her mission is to help strengthen the family economy so that more people can quit their jobs, pay off debt, assist family members and achieve a mobile lifestyle of travel and adventure.

What you will learn * How one stroke of a pen dramatically affected Ann’s first business * How Ann and her son ended up becoming business partners * Ann shares why she pivoted into e-commerce * Amazon 101: Ann walked us through how to start an Amazon store * Discover the “Amazon Arbitrage Method” * Learn how to find the perfect product to sell on Amazon * Ann takes us behind the curtains and reveals how she helps people scale their business * Learn a simple strategy to become mentally disciplined as an entrepreneur * Why consistency is everything if you want to grow your business * Discover simple techniques to get your products noticed * Plus loads more!

Zack and Nicolle Long are the founders of Focus Funnels, the go-to growth firm for female founders.

Zack and Nicolle started an eCommerce business in 2013 and once they figured out online ads, the business boomed and they scaled to 7 figures in a year!

Another business owner noticed their sudden success and asked for growth help, which Zack and Nicolle provided, leading to this business’ even bigger success. That was their first client and the birth of Focus Funnels.

They built this growth firm from their home with an all-remote team, all while raising two young children and keeping their marriage alive and well.

Focus Funnels is not your standard marketing business, but a growth firm dedicated to helping businesses thrive and succeed.

Focus funnels have a specific goal of uplifting and bringing to the spotlight female-owned and founded businesses, with 95% of their clients being female founders.

With clients that are changing the world and a team of the best employees, Zack and Nicolle are shaking up the industry and making a difference in the world of female entrepreneurs.

Zack and Nicolle have insights to share for any entrepreneurs and business owners, female founders, marketing and growth firms, and anyone who is balancing their family life and business life.

What you will learn * The hard lessons Zack and Nicolle learned from their first business * Understanding the sales principles in e-commerce * Common traps early-stage business owners fall into * Discover why investing in inventory is important for growth * Find out why focusing on your hero product is the fastest way to scale * Why it’s so important to reinvest in your brand until you have enough equity to pay yourself * How the Longs transitioned from a product business to a service-based business * Learn how Zack and Nicolle help e-commerce companies go from zero to hero * Discover the best practices for content marketing * Uncover the unique challenges of scaling a service-based company * Learn why investing in your team is incredibly important * Discover what a typical day looks like for Nicolle and Zack * Zack and Nicolle share their best tips for entrepreneurs in the early stages of their journey

Ryan Fenn has a passion for automation and entrepreneurship.

This drive led him to create CHIIRP: an automated text messaging platform that helps businesses communicate instantly with customers.

With CHIIRP you can send a text message broadcast to your list and enjoy a 98% open rate!

This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to generate sales for your business.

As CEO and Founder, Ryan knows all about the necessity of immediate contact with customers in a world where people’s attention spans are shorter than a TikTok video, but Ryan is not your typical Silicon Valley techie.

He is an autodidact with a vision.

What you will learn * The surprising way Ryan began his entrepreneurial journey * How Ryan discovered the power of text messages while building his first business * Learn how adding text message automation can dramatically improve conversion rates * Discover the best practices for text message automation flow * Ryan shares little-known ways to convert leads into customers * Learn a highly effective sales follow-up process for people who drop out of your funnel * Discover why post-sales communication is so important * The ‘Who Not How’ Mentality: Ryan shares his philosophy on mindset * Ryan shares his best tips for rising entrepreneurs * Plus loads more!

Stefan Debois is the Founder and CEO of Pointerpro, an assessment software platform that helps professional services companies to automate their advisory processes. Stefan is passionate about the use of technology to build professional relationships with people, at scale.

Before founding Pointerpro, Stefan worked for 15 years in several consulting companies as a consultant, project manager, and account manager.

Stefan has contributed to Entrepreneur, Capterra, CrazyEgg…mainly in the areas of entrepreneurship and digital marketing. In addition, he founded the Facebook group “B2B Bloggers Boost Group”, where top-tier B2B bloggers help each other to create content and get mentioned.

What you will learn * The journey that led Stefan to consulting * The type of consulting Pointerpro offers as their main service * How Stefan went from working in a big company to starting a software side hustle * How Stefan’s curiosity about playing with technology inspired him to create more software * Stefan unpacks the marketing strategies for Pointerpro (some great tips here!) * Discover effective strategies to reduce churn rate * Learn the data collection challenges SaaS companies face * Discover the universal business challenges all entrepreneurs face * Find out exactly how many years it takes to become an overnight success * Plus loads more!

Joe Keeley is the CEO & Co-Founder of Justifi, a venture-backed business providing payments and fintech infrastructure for SaaS platforms.

Previously, Joe founded College Nannies + Sitters, the nation’s largest resource for customized nanny, sitter, and tutoring services.

A sampling of Keeley’s awards and accomplishments include being named the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of The Year”, the “Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year”, “Top 25 under 25 to Watch” by Business Week Magazine, “20 under 30 Who Will Change the World” by Citizen Culture magazine, one of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s “Young Entrepreneurs” and “40 under 40”, Glass Door’s Top 100 Companies to Work For, Minnesota Business 100 Best Companies to Work For, and Entrepreneur Magazine’s top 100 Franchise concepts many years running.

Joe is passionate about building revolutionary companies and encouraging the growth of education, arts, and entrepreneurship.

What you will learn * How Joe turned his college side hustle into the nation’s largest resource for nanny services * Discover why Joe implemented an app for College Nannies + Sitters * Find out why Joe decided to exit his first business * Learn what inspired Joe to start a fintech company * Discover how Justifi provides fintech solutions to vertical SaaS platforms * Learn more about the emerging global players in fintech * Joe generously shares the biggest challenges he’s faced on his entrepreneurial journey * Joe unpacks his top tips for entrepreneurs in the middle of their battle * Plus loads more!

Alex Svinov is the CEO and Co-founder of Insquad, the platform to build remote development teams. He believes that the future of work is in remote teams – and this notion will radically change the world as it will bring opportunity and talent closer to each other.

Alex launched Insquad after facing challenges in hiring senior tech talent for his previous startup. He tried staffing services, but they were expensive and did not give a lot of value to him as a startup. So he decided to solve this problem and help the startup community as well as offer great opportunities to the talent in underprivileged countries.

Now, Insquad holds an 80%+ interview-to-hire rate and has worked with over 300 tech startups

Alex is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor — 10+ investments in IT companies all over the world — Forbes council member and Alchemist mentor.

In the past 10 years, he has created several successful startups in industry areas that he had no experience in before — FinTech, outsourcing, HRTech, and food service. He is passionate about making new tech products and services and helping distributed teams achieve their goals.

Alex met with Bill Clinton and Queen Elizabeth in Moscow’s high school. Outside of work, he’s a father of 3, plays tennis and regularly participates in amateur tournaments.

What you will learn * How the pandemic dramatically accelerated remote work * The techniques Alex uses to keep his remote team feeling connected * Behind the curtains: Discover what Alex’s business plan looks like * The hardest challenge Alex’s company faced this year (and what he’s doing about it) * Learn more about Insquad’s hiring process * Find out why content marketing is a long game * Learn why client testimonials provide rocket fuel for your business * Discover the future of software development: AI and the Metaverse * Alex shares his thoughts on Apple’s privacy policy and ongoing algorithm challenges * Plus loads more!

John F Bremer Jr is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief of Business Development at LiftedViz.

He began his high-tech career working for 10 years as a linguist in the US Air Force and reserve.

After earning a BA in Applied Linguistics, John joined Boeing Computer Services Artificial Intelligence Center working as a computational linguist helping to develop a computer program that could read and understand tens of thousands of pages of Boeing aircraft maintenance manuals.

John enjoyed a 32-year career at Boeing working as a computer researcher, software architect and developer, and product manager.

He shares many inventions and 5 patent applications for his work on production applications including:

The Boeing Simplified English Checker
The Boeing Collaborative Document Reviewer
The Boeing ATOM Augmented Reality application for MS HoloLens

John has a Master’s degree in Information Technology with a focus on cloud computing.

What you will learn * What inspired John to launch a data visualization company * Discover why data visualization is essential in your business reporting * Find out how AI is used in data visualization * Learn the clever approach LiftedViz uses when they pitch their services * Visualization as humans: why is it important? * John shares his thoughts about the Metaverse, and technology that will change the world * Discover who LiftedViz loves to serve (and why they won’t just take on any client) * John shares his best tips for creating great data visualization * Plus loads more!

Steven Adejei is a British-Ghanaian author, poet, healthcare consultant, and entrepreneur.

He is the founding partner of BlueCloud Health, a UK-based African-focused healthcare firm that exists to provide solutions to health businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. BlueCloud is part of the Emerald Management Group, a multi-sectoral consultancy firm with offices in London, Dubai, and Delhi.

Steven is also an award-winning consulting pharmacist who has worked with Britain’s NHS and several pharmacy multiples in England and Africa.

Steven holds an MBA with project distinction from Warwick Business School, one of the top business schools in the world. He is also an executive contributor for Brainz Magazine.

He is currently working on his next book, ‘In Search of Permanence: Surviving and Thriving Your Business in a Constantly Changing World’ (due August 2023) and ‘From Gory to Glory, the Sorry Details’, a collection of business and lifestyle-themed poems and short stories.

Steven currently resides in Plymouth, a beautiful seaside city in southwest England with his wife Dela, and two teenage children.

What you will learn * Discover the entrepreneurial spirit of Africa * Why resilience is one of the core entrepreneurial traits in Africa * Learn about the innovations in Africa that the rest of the world never hears about * Find out what inspired Steven to begin his entrepreneurial journey * Discover how Steven helps businesses in Africa get funding * Learn the four kinds of pain that all entrepreneurs go through * Find out more about Steven’s focus in 2022 * Discover how to leave a legacy with your business * Plus loads more!

Jay Bartot is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zeitworks, an AI-powered business process intelligence platform that provides enterprises with the data-driven insights and tools they need to continuously improve and transform their business process operations.

Jay is a serial technology entrepreneur and innovator with 20+ years of experience developing data and machine learning applications for a variety of verticals such as e-commerce, online advertising, travel, medical informatics and consumer video creation.

As a Co-Founder and CTO, Jay has built technology teams, innovative analytics, machine learning platforms and products for startups like; Vhoto, Medify, Farecast and AdRelevance. These startups led to acquisitions from Hulu, Alliance Health Networks, Microsoft and Nielsen/NetRatings, where he played senior technology roles.

Prior to Zeitworks, Jay was CTO and Managing Director at Madrona Venture Labs, where he helped create and incubate nearly a dozen exceptional startups. He provided support and expertise across a number of different areas of startup creation, including; ideation, customer discovery and validation, data collection design and procurement, product development, machine learning solution design, technical vision, story and pitch deck development, technical leadership, and team recruitment.

Jay attended the University of Iowa where he studied Music, Anthropology & Computer Science.

What you will learn * Jay tells us about the slow evolutionary process of his entrepreneurial journey * Jay shares the challenges faced by his startup and how he persevered through them * Discover why timing is everything when it comes to being an entrepreneur * Find out more about the inspiration behind Zeitworks * Learn how to get your first pilot customers for your startup * Discover the common mistakes almost every startup makes * Learn why it's so important to play the long game in business * Find out what brings Jay the most joy and fulfilment as an entrepreneur * Plus loads more!

Heidi Dugan is an incredible example of female empowerment. She is the Founder and Director of Arete Group Limited, a consulting and social media company that creates tailored strategies for international brands to enter the China market.

She is the first foreign TV Host to have her own TV show in China and has become known as a leader in business and market entry, working with Chinese media and connecting with the Chinese consumer.

With Heidi’s following of over 6 million fans, she is the “Go-To” health and wellness, food and beverage, influencer and celebrity in China. Her successes include selling over $2 million worth of products in just 90 minutes on the Oriental Shopping Channel and being the only foreign host to obtain a license to live-broadcast on Chinese National TV.

Her influence across China has been recognized through media coverage in Harper’s Bazaar, Channel 9 News, Ausbiz TV, Australian Financial Review, China Daily, and Global Times to name a few.

Heidi has been recognized and awarded as Leading International Woman in Business, Best Foreign TV Host, and International Alumnus of The Year.

What you will learn * What led Heidi to start a career in TV in China * How Heidi became a social media personality * Discover the Chinese social media platforms you probably don’t know about * Find out how you can break into the lucrative Chinese market * Learn how Heidi helps brands and companies develop a strategy to break into the Chinese market * Discover how Heidi sold $2 million worth of products in 90 minutes * Find out why China is evolving so rapidly * Heidi shares her best tips for companies who want to sell to the Chinese market

Josh Dittrich is an Amazon Growth Expert. Josh and his team help Amazon stores grow and sell for a maximum price when the time comes.

Josh built, grew, and sold his Amazon brand for $10 million in less than 6 years with zero investors. He also bought an eCommerce business for $750,000 and sold it for $2.5 Million in less than 2 years, took a startup from $3 million to $50 million in 7 years, helped another brand sell for $17 million and helped yet another brand to double their monthly revenue from $250,000 to $500,000.

His book “Aggregator Navigator” is the ultimate playbook for growing and selling your amazon brand successfully.

Josh is on a mission to help eCommerce entrepreneurs live a life of freedom by removing the restrictions of time and money.

What you will learn * What led Josh to start selling on Amazon * The ways in which Amazon has transformed how consumers shop * The big lesson Josh learned from his father that changed everything * Discover a business model that can help you get your time back * Learn the little-known challenges of scaling a business * Find out how to fund your business growth more easily * Discover why having scalability is so important for business success * Plus loads more!

Kevin Snow is the Founder and CEO of Time On Target. He’s also an army veteran, an entrepreneur, a sales expert and a serious technology geek.

Text Sell Smarter to 612 429 4298 to receive a list of questions you can use to map out your client’s buying process as well as a free guide to what content is most effective for each step in the sales process.

Kevin’s expertise is helping businesses take their sales and marketing automation processes to the next level. His knowledge, skills and understanding of communication and technology are getting real results for the businesses he partners with.

Kevin knows how to integrate digital technology with your sales process in an authentic, professional way. He’ll show you what you’ve been missing when creating an effective system of outreach and trust-building with customers.

Bonus resources * Growth Mode Podcast * Success Champion Networking * Badass Business Summit * Contributing Author to the Book The World’s Worst Networker * Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook

What you will learn * How Kevin discovered his passion for sales * The power of listening and asking the right questions in sales * Why Kevin shifted his business model and removed himself as the ‘product’ of his business * The important role content plays in building trust and credibility with customers * Kevin shares his top tips on mapping out the buyer journey process * How you can use sales automation software to boost your revenue and free up time * Discover how the sales process has become more technology-rich (no more door-knocking!) * Plus loads more!

Mickie Kennedy believes that with some effort and a little money, the possibilities are endless. He is an expert at helping small businesses, authors, and startups increase their visibility and credibility through press releases.

Mickie founded eReleases over 22 years ago after realizing that small businesses desperately need a press release service they can actually afford, giving them access to the media and to a national newswire – all with a personal touch.

He holds an MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Poetry from George Mason University. His press releases have resulted in articles being published in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Bloomberg, and many more prestigious new outlets.

Mickie lives in Baltimore County with his family and two feuding cats.

He enjoys British science fiction and acknowledges an unhealthy addiction to diet soda. He still writes poetry most Monday nights (virtually) with a group of fellow misfits in Brunswick, Maryland.

What you will learn * How Mickie found himself writing press releases for businesses * Visibility: Why it’s the most common challenge for small businesses * How social media impacted Mickey’s company, eReleases * The evolution of written word communication * Find out how Mickie scaled his company to where it is today * Discover why eReleases is different from other press release competitors * Learn how to write a killer PR headline * How does A/B testing help increase customer lifetime value? * Discover why Mickie stopped micromanaging his employees and how he empowers them instead * Plus loads more!

Sam Kolbert-Hyle is the President & CEO of Brandlive. Brandlive helps the world’s best brands create experiences that move people — from town hall-style internal meetings with soul to major marketing events that drive revenue.

Under Sam’s leadership, Brandlive has grown from a handful of employees to over 150. They’ve hosted marquee events for companies like Nike, Nintendo, Ark Invest, The Wall Street Journal, Square, Google, GoPro, and Adidas.

Brandlive was ranked #1 in Live Events on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list in 2021 and in the emerging video category in 2022.

During the 2020 election, Brandlive helped the Biden campaign to establish its virtual event presence. Brandlive powered 230 campaigns for Biden’s team, securing more than $30 million in donations.

As a child of two lesbian parents, Brandlive’s values of inclusion and equity are particularly important to Sam. He has intentionally built a culture that promotes and values creativity, flexibility, and inclusion.

Sam started his career in private equity at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors in Los Angeles, a private equity firm focused on growth investments in profitable software-as-a-service and other enterprise software businesses.

Prior to Brandlive, Sam spent nine years on the executive team of Smarsh, the leading electronic archiving SaaS company valued at over $2 billion.

Sam lives in the Irvington neighbourhood of Portland, Oregon with Sarah, and their kids Ari and Sylvia.

What you will learn * How Sam got his start in the SaaS world * Sam shares about his early career working with Smarsh * Discover the little-known benefits of a SaaS model for both businesses and consumers * Find out more about the idea behind Sam’s company, Brandlive * Learn how Sam had to pivot Brandlive as a CEO * Discover Brandlive’s approach to creating remarkable digital events * Learn more about the evolution of the events industry * Discover why storytelling is so important in the creative process * Plus loads more!

Ryan Estes is an American Buddhist entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Kitcaster, a podcast booking agency and co-founder of Wildcast, a SaaS advertising platform for podcasts. Ryan facilitates thousands of extraordinary conversations.

Kitcaster currently serves 400+ clients and Wildcast is slated for a beta launch in Q3 2022. Ryan is an expert in leveraging podcasts for meaning and profitability.

Prior to Kitcaster, Ryan owned a media and marketing agency for 10 years. For eight of those years, he has hosted the founder’s podcast Talklaunch. Consistently ranked in the iTunes “Top 100” podcasts, he has recorded 300+ interviews with more than a quarter-million downloads.

What you will learn * Ryan lets us in on his previous life as a music artist * Discover how Ryan applied Buddhism principles when developing Kitcaster * Find out what problem Kitcaster is trying to solve (and how they’re solving it) * Ryan shares a story about Kitcaster’s first clients * Thinking about podcasting? Discover what you should look for in a podcast host and guest * Ryan tells us about his new SaaS advertising platform for podcasters, Wildcast * Ryan shares his top 3 tips for entrepreneurs building a business in the digital world

Chad Reid is VP of Marketing and Communications at Jotform, a leading online form and productivity software used by 16 million+ businesses, creators, and individuals.

Chad has 10 years of marketing experience and earned his Masters in Communication at Purdue University. Chad is passionate about maximizing personal productivity and watching new developments in the no-code world.

What you will learn * Chad shares his career journey and what led him into marketing * Chad unpacks the lucrative collaboration between Jotform and HubSpot * Learn why content marketing is a long game (and why the key to success is patience) * Discover a simple guide to writing a listicle post for your blog * Find out how Chad structured the SEO team of Jotform * Storytelling: Is it the most powerful marketing strategy? * Learn how Jotform increases the lifetime value of their customers * Discover how Jotform view Google Form from a competitor’s standpoint (this is fascinating!) * Find out why investment in technology is central to Jotform’s success * Plus much more!

Kyle Stout is the founder of Elevate & Scale, a leading digital marketing agency that helps 7-figure product-based entrepreneurs elevate their brand and scale their growth.

Kyle is a leading authority on how email marketing can vastly increase revenue by improving customer retention, increasing average order value, and driving repeat purchases.

Kyle started his career in digital marketing back in 2013 as a freelance copywriter, where he honed his skills in brand storytelling and email marketing. Once he had developed a set of frameworks that worked consistently across different niches, he started Elevate & Scale in 2019 specializing in email marketing for ecommerce businesses.

Kyle is a husband and proud girl-dad living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When he’s not working, he enjoys working out, staying active outdoors, hosting family cookouts, and traveling.

What you will learn * What led Kyle into the world of digital marketing * Discover why Kyle fell in love with email marketing specifically * Learn an uber effective marketing campaign approach for e-commerce businesses * Discover the marketing and remote team management tools Kyle swears by for managing his team * Why does email list segmentation matter? Kyle shares his thoughts * Learn some simple, easy ways to grow your email list * Kyle unpacks the rapid rise of TikTok and why businesses need to be paying attention

Eddy Soffer has created an easy way to invest according to your values.

He is the ESG Manager of the global firm Interactive Brokers, where he leads sustainable trading product development. He is also the co-creator of the mobile trading app, IMPACT.

“ESG” means using Environmental, Social and Governance factors to evaluate companies and countries on how far advanced they are with sustainability.

Inspired by his diverse background, Eddy created a tool to bring together global investors. He has Middle Eastern roots and grew up between Mexico and the U.S.

What you will learn * Eddy shares what inspired him to get into the finance industry * Discover why inclusion and diversity is so important * Find out about the opportunities and hurdles in ESG markets * Learn why ESG is becoming increasingly important for companies & investors * ESG: It’s not going anywhere! discover why it’s here to stay * Learn how the IMPACT app helps investors invest in a different way * Eddy shares his cryptocurrency prediction * Plus much more!

Indus Khaitan is the CEO & Founder of Quolum, a company funded by Sequoia and Nexus.

Quolom helps companies save 30% off their SaaS (Software as a Service) spending, by eliminating expenses that are unnecessary and wasteful.

Indus has 20 years of business growth, product management, and SaaS experience. He has analyzed SaaS buying for 20+ companies with over $500,000 in SaaS spend.

Indus grew up in a mining town where 2-3 homicides daily were the norm, and eventually escaped the India Coal Mafia that plagued his life. After moving to America, he decided to become a founder, a father, and a pilot. He now aims to help others make the same growth in their business and life.

What you will learn * Why Indus left India to chase his American Dream * Indus’ first entrepreneurial venture, Bitzer, and the inspiration behind the business * Indus shares his first customer story after launching Bitzer * Unpacking the exit Lessons Indus took away from Bitzer * Secrets revealed: The crucial decision that cost Indus and his co-founders $6.5 billion * Discover how Indus identified the problem with SaaS payments that led him to build Quolum * Find out why SaaS spend management is important for every business * Plus much more!

Aleks Gollu is the Co-Founder and CEO of 11Sight, an inbound video call platform. He is a serial entrepreneur with a successful track record of building innovative solutions.

Aleks saw an opportunity to eliminate friction from sales cycles, offer customers a more personalized digital experience, and accelerate revenue generation, which is what led him to co-found 11Sight.

11Sight shortens the sales processes from 10 days to 15 minutes with one click inbound video calls from any channel.

What you will learn * What inspired Aleks to found his company 11Sight * From idea to testing: Aleks lets us in on his process for developing and growing 11Sight * Discover the challenges tech companies face in today's digital world * Learn why increasing market share is critically important for your business * What's behind the rise of the digital nomad lifestyle? * Plus much more!

Jodi Krangle has been a voice actor since 2007 and has worked with clients from major brands all over the world including; Dell, BBVA & Kraft. She’s also a singer and has put out her own album of jazz, blues and traditional tunes.

Doing what she does, over the years she’s learned a lot about sound and how it influences people. Her podcast on this subject is called Audio Branding: The hidden gem of marketing (there are over 130 episodes!).

For more information on that podcast, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com and for more information on Jodi, visit voiceoversandvocals.com

What you will learn * How Jodi leveraged her voice-over services and created a thriving business * Discover the power of voice as a marketing and branding tool * Why it’s so important to develop active listening skills * The power of the pause and how to avoid using filler words * How to use intonation correctly * Voice-over brief: How to give proper direction to your voice-over talent * The story behind Jodi Krangle’s podcast

Jason Cercone is a brand builder, strategist, creator, and podcaster.

He helps entrepreneurs, leaders, and professionals leverage the brand-building power of the podcast medium to establish authority, increase visibility, and accelerate growth.

He also hosts Evolution of Brand, a podcast featuring self-defined entrepreneurs and professionals sharing inspirational stories and tactical brand-building strategies.

What you will learn * A complete guide to starting your own podcast * Why consistent podcast publishing is the key to success * The new way to network: How a podcast can be a digital networking platform * Jason’s secrets for producing a great listener experience and quality podcast content * Tips for building and nurturing your podcast audience * Jason’s best strategies for monetizing your podcast

Camela Thompson is the Vice President of Marketing at CaliberMind, the leading B2B platform for revenue
insights you can trust.

Based in Seattle, Camela has spent 15+ years in Revenue Operations in the tech industry. She worked at successful startups such as Qumulo, Extrahop, and CDK Global (formerly Cobalt) before proving herself as a customer-first growth marketer.

She is deeply familiar with the pain points that Ops teams face and is passionate about helping Ops professionals accelerate their careers.

In addition, she hosts CaliberMinds’ podcast, The Revenue Marketing Report, where she produces expert-fueled content devoted to helping B2B Marketers hone their craft.

Previously, Camela ran her own consultancy where she specialized in creating customer-centric brand narratives. She also served as Chief Marketing Advisor for Shepard Search Partners, Expert Advisor at the RevOps Co-Op, and volunteers as a marketing coach for under-resourced entrepreneurs through Urban Impact Seattle.

What you will learn * How Camela fell in love with being an Operations Professional (after stumbling into it) * The unique struggles marketing professionals are facing right now in a digital landscape * How CaliberMind is helping B2B clients with their innovative platform * How to simplify and make sense of digital marketing complexity * Plus much more!

Will Wang is the Founder and CEO of Growth Labz – a results focused marketing agency that specializes in helping B2B companies get qualified leads and land dream clients.

Will is a copywriter who regularly creates email campaigns that get 75%+ open rates and 25%+ reply rates. He helps his clients improve their sales, without any extra investment in ads.

In 2020, Growth Labs were able to give back by investing in up and coming tech companies, delivering training presentations at various events, and by offering free consulting to tech startups.

What you will learn * How Will got into digital marketing while holding down a full-time job in IT * How to write effective emails that give an instant good impression * Why copywriting is absolutely vital in digital marketing * Will unpacks his personal writing process * Discover how to split test email campaigns the right way to improve results * The surprising benefits of pursuing your passionate purpose

Sean Castrina is the founder of The Weekend MBA. He’s a serial entrepreneur, having started more than 20 companies over the last 20 years, and still seeks to launch a new venture annually.

Sean is the author of 4 bestselling business books including 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success, The Greatest Entrepreneur in the World, Developing The Entrepreneur Within and World’s Greatest Business Plan.

He hosts one of the most popular business podcasts on the planet- The 10 Minute Entrepreneur Podcast.

What you will learn * How Sean's addiction to entrepreneurship developed as he launched various businesses * The three key things a business owner needs to do to find success * Why systems and processes are so important for an entrepreneur * Why small businesses should think like a Fortune 500 company * How to identify great business opportunities * The 'Bermuda Triangle' of startups: Find out why new businesses tend to disappear

Lance Tyson specializes in generating results due to his evidence-based approach to the subtleties—and the power—of the human-to-human connection. As the trusted advisor to executive management teams across the nation, Lance has had the privilege to consult on negotiation strategies for multi-billion-dollar naming rights and sponsorship deals for the nation’s biggest sports stadiums.

Since the age of twenty-five, Lance has been onstage at least twice a week, delivering sales presentations to crowds of 10 to 10,000. In January of 1995, he joined Dale Carnegie, a leader in professional training programs, where he moved his way up the ranks, eventually acquiring ownership and building the largest and most successful sales operation in the Western Hemisphere.

After a fifteen-year run, Lance sold his interest in Dale Carnegie to form a new company, Tyson Group, an award-winning, high-performance sales training and consulting firm. The focus of the Tyson Group is to diagnose sales teams and propose solutions that deliver results that make sense for the organization’s needs. The Tyson Group isn’t just a company that provides training—they are a partner that offers solutions.

When getting the deal is critical and the sales environment is challenging, sales leaders across all verticals rely on Lance Tyson to help them find prospects, get a meeting, and close the deal.

What you will learn * What inspired Lance to start working in sales * Active Listening: What is it and why is it a top skill in sales * The story behind Lance’s book and how he developed his writing craft * Lance shares his advice on the best-systematized approach to sales * Human-to-Human (H2H) Marketing: Discover powerful ways to connect with people * Lance’s best tips to become a great salesperson

Rocky Buckley is an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, and the creator of the Platinum Path mastermind. He and his faculty of experts help thought leaders, authors, speakers, consultants, and coaches reinvent their expertise and shift into a high-priced, lifestyle-friendly business model.

He is also the creator of the Power Persona framework, a unique “inside-out” strategy for personal branding and positioning as a public figure.

Over the last 22 years, Rocky has helped his clients bring over 100 million dollars in training programs, curricula, and information products to the market. He’s consulted on over 3000 projects for clients ranging from billion-dollar brands like Pearson, Wiley, and Macmillan, to experts, authors, and entrepreneurs in 7 countries and over a hundred different markets.

What you will learn * How Rocky help his clients generate five figure profits * The strategies Rocky used to grow his highly engaged Facebook group * Rocky’s unique Power Persona framework * How to lay the best foundation when building a personal brand * The secret to systemizing your expertise to achieve work-life balance * How to leverage your time more effectively * Content Proliferation: How to repurpose your content to get the most out of it * Rocky’s best tips on designing the life you want

Luke Charlton is a Client Attraction Specialist, Business Coach, Expert Marketer and Email Sales Authority who earns over six figures a year while only working 3 hours per day.

In 2013, Luke Charlton decided to quit his comfortable government job, move halfway around the world and start an online business as a coach. Through years of trial and error, Luke finally discovered the formula for online success and is now helping over 4,000 coaches grow their business online.

Now he spends his days as a hermit living near Byron Bay, teaching others how to get more clients by sending just one 15-minute email each day.

What you will learn * Luke shares his entrepreneurial journey; from corporate drone to online business coach * Discover how to simplify your sales funnel * Learn why your business might only need a one-page website * How to use a simple lead magnet to attract your target market * Keep it simple silly! How to take the simplicity approach when scaling your business

Justin is the Co-Founder & CEO of Strike Graph, a compliance SaaS solution that helps companies move deals faster through simplifying security certifications. Within Strike Graph he has also established a foundational culture of employee growth and team diversity.

Before founding Strike Graph in 2020, Justin was dedicated to developing companies, products, and technologies in the human capital realm for over 2 decades.

What you will learn * Why security compliance is crucial for businesses * Discover why compliance is a revenue issue (not just a legal one) * How companies are leveraging advanced technology such as AI to perform audits * An overview of the different cybersecurity frameworks and standards * How Strike Graph could save your company’s deals

Justin Foster and Emily Soccorsy are co-founders of an innovative marketing and brand agency called Root+River. Root+River believes in intrinsic branding and humanistic marketing that positively impacts the world and companies.

Justin is driven by the belief that leadership begins in the heart. Not only is Justin the co-founder of Root + River, he is also a speaker, writer, poet and mentor.

Emily is the co-founder and CEO of Root+River. She brings her intelligence, drive and creativity to bear for their clients through smart, soulful marketing and brand strategy.

What you will learn * How the marketing world is changing and influencing our daily lives * Is your brand having an identity crisis? Here’s how to solve it * Audience vs Target Market: What’s the difference and why does it matter? * An introduction to the concept of ‘Intrinsic Branding’ * Why Root + River aren’t for everyone (and why you shouldn’t be either) * How do you make your customers the hero of your brand? And why is it important? * Discover why word of mouth marketing is more effective than any other strategy * How to choose your language wisely to send the right message to your prospects * Discover the ‘Defiers’: Mission-driven, empathetic and self-governed leaders * Essential reading for Marketing Professionals

Josh Whalen is the Founder & CEO of Blokes, a startup Telehealth company dedicated to men’s health.

Years ago, Josh had to seek treatment for his health problems and found himself unimpressed and dissatisfied with the industry standard.

Using his 13 years of healthcare experience and his lifelong entrepreneurial spirit, Josh is seeking to revolutionize the future of men’s health.

What you will learn * Josh unpacks his interesting entrepreneurial journey * Healthcare awareness for men: Discover the effects of testosterone and peptides on the body * Learn why too much marketing automation can drive customers away * Josh shares why healthcare is a tough market for a new entrepreneur * Why understanding the legal landscape is crucial when starting a business in healthcare * Discover the unique challenges of healthcare companies * Why using a subscription-based business model is the key to longevity in business * Learn what it means to offer frictionless service * The evolution of technology in healthcare

You know how most small to medium businesses are thoroughly confused and overwhelmed when it comes to marketing? That’s where Allan Dib comes in.

Allan helps business owners develop their in-house marketing capabilities to scale rapidly.

In fact, he’s helped over 250,000 businesses around the world clarify their marketing strategy using a tool he created called the 1-Page Marketing Plan.

Allan is a serial entrepreneur, rebellious marketer, and the bestselling author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan. In his 20 years as an entrepreneur, he’s built several multi-million dollar businesses in the IT, telecommunications, and marketing fields.

What you will learn * How Allan successfully launched his book and the inspiration behind it * The framework process of writing a book * How to find ‘cousin books’ to reach out to your target audience * Building marketing assets to drive new leads, prospects, and clients * How Success Wise helps companies get their marketing assets built through training and programs * Why a good product or service does not guarantee success (and what does!)

Tarush Aggarwal is the Founder and CEO of 5x, which offers data reporting as a service. 5x allows users to make data-driven decisions faster, which are necessary to succeed.

Tarush is also one of the leading experts in leveraging data for exponential growth in the world!

Previously, as the Head of Data at WeWork, Tarush scaled the system to support 12k employees and 100 data team members. Tarush was also the first data engineer at Salesforce in 2011.

What you will learn * How Tarush transitioned from a Data Engineer at WeWork to building his own company * How Tarush discovered his love for data * How companies can build and use data analytics in an efficient way * Modern Data Stack: one of the biggest movements in the data space * How 5x can help companies implement data strategies * The 3 main things companies care about when collecting data * How your company can become more data-driven

Toby Jenkins is a leadership coach, Olympian, and award-winning entrepreneur and author.

His purpose is to help people bring all of who they are to everything they do.

He’s worked with Olympic medalists, investors, founders, CEOs, and leaders – individually and as teams.

From leadership to wellbeing, Toby loves helping leaders and their teams work with the pressure that inevitably comes with important decisions, difficult conversations, and ambitious opportunities.

He helps them work towards their greatest impact and to be the person they want to be in the process.

Toby has spoken to thousands of people in live and broadcast audiences around the world at organizations such as Ernst & Young and the Australian Institute of Sport.

He’s married to Lucy and father to Beatrix, Heidi, and Zoe.

What you will learn * Toby’s learnings from his Olympic journey and training * The transition from being an Olympian athlete to being an entrepreneur * Constant comparison as the downside of social media * How Toby helps leaders thrive and tips on being your best self * Real acceptance as a tool to help know your purpose and vision * The Triangle Framework: Acceptance, Mindfulness, and Doing What Matters

Girish Redekar is an entrepreneur and IT pro keen on helping SaaS businesses demonstrate security chops to close deals faster.

He founded RecruiterBox, a SaaS platform that helps companies stay on top of their recruitment process, and successfully scaled it to 8 figures before exiting in an all-cash deal.

He then went on and founded his current company, Sprinto, an automated enterprise-grade cybersecurity solution, where he helps SaaS companies become enterprise-ready.

What you will learn * The metrics you should pay attention to when growing and running your company * The big challenges building a Software as a Service (SaaS) from the ground up * The importance of surveying your customers to evolve and build a product they want * Why you should over-communicate with your customers * The tools and processes you should be using to build a scalable company

Freddie van Huynh is the Co-Founder of Absolute Internship, one of the world’s largest internship programs for students. Frequently covered by Forbes Magazine, The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Financial Times, and BBC News, Freddie is recognized as one of Sweden’s top entrepreneurs, having built a multi-million dollar business from the ground up.

Fun fact: Freddie speaks 7 languages and does Brazilian jiu-jitsu for fun.

What you will learn * Why you need to experiment with life to discover why you are on this planet * If an internship is the best experience for learning * Why experience always trumps an idea * Why travel is important for discovery * If myth exceeds reality and how to overcome

Edgar Blazona is the Founder of BenchMade Modern. Edgar inspires people to think differently, solve difficult problems, and follow their entrepreneurial dreams, even when all odds are against them.

He started his first furniture company at the age of 17, after being kicked out of high school. He earned his first $400 by selling a self-made table and is now the founder of an 8-figure company.

In 2020, when the pandemic hit the entire economy, his company’s revenue went up by 100% year-over-year (now $10M+). His secret? Being resourceful and rebellious.

What you will learn * Why tapping into your “creator” is important for entrepreneurs * How Edgar doubled his sales during the pandemic * If the “Direct to Customer” model works well * What “Rebellious Luxury” is and why you should care * The secrets of Edgar’s journey from his first $400 sale to a business that today turns over 8 figures * Why Edgar values Reviews of his product as his top marketing tactic and not Facebook advertising or SEO

As a sought-after speaker, event facilitator, and executive coach, Finnian Kelly has been dubbed “the Business Mystic” because of his unique ability to put consciousness into business and inspire leaders to find new levels of meaning and purpose through their creative endeavors. This approach flowed through his term as President of the Colorado Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) – the largest and most influential community of entrepreneurs in the world. Finnian helps people ‘love their path’ so they can feel content with a life lived in the now.

As an entrepreneur, Finnian built and exited two multi-million dollar companies in the financial industry. He’s the Creator and Chief Visionary Officer of Intentionality.com. Through the four paths of the Intentionality framework, Finnian guides people to be purposeful and aligned in their beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors so they can feel more love in their life.

As a lifelong learner, Finnian has degrees in maths, physics, finance, leadership, teaching, and a master’s degree of science in positive psychology. He spent 7 years in the Australian Defence Force and graduated from one of the most prestigious leadership organizations in the World, The Royal Military College of Duntroon.

Finnian makes appearances as a financial expert and is on a mission to bridge the gap between money and spirituality. He’s appeared on Sky Business, on ABC as a political commentator, and on Ten’s morning shows as a financial expert. He also regularly appears as a guest writer for online publications – Money Management, Smart Company, Business Insider, Forbes, and more.

Finnian’s finest accomplishment to date was being featured in the popular National Geographic Documentary, Undercover Angel. This was a project where he was dropped into an underprivileged community to find out their core issues, build trust and come up with a project that would support their needs. He funded the entire program himself and worked with community leaders to form a family education center in Fakulteta, Bulgaria.

Above all, Finnian is a conscious being – committed to embodying Intentionality and inspiring others to do the same. Finnian travels the world spreading Intentionality on speaking tours, exploring new places and cultures, and chasing powder as a ridiculously passionate skier!

What you will learn * How to get FREE access to Finnian’s course “The Intentionality Compass” * The importance of routine in setting up your day and what Finnian Kelly’s routine is * The importance of intention * Why you should design your life for you, rather than live a life that society and others want * Why living in the “Now” is so important * What books and people have inspired Finnian Kelly * How to reprogram your thoughts from fear to love * The 4 Pillars of the Intentionality Framework

T.J. Gamble is the Founder and CEO of Jamersan and the personality behind eCommerceAholic, a content brand that produces educational content for the eCommerce community.

T.J’s content focuses on the technical side of eCommerce and helps cut through the marketing hype while simplifying the complexity to provide easy-to-understand and meaningful insights in an entertaining way.

His agency, Jamersan, has been working with eCommerce merchants to help them do more with their eCommerce stores for over 20 years.

Want to skyrocket your store's growth? Get the Jamersan eCommerce Makeover Playbook Here.

What you will learn * The 3 main tactics for growing an eCommerce online store * The importance of building communities for an online store * How TJ’s side hustle became his “main hustle” * The different types of content you should focus on for an eCommerce businesses * Why you should you use TikTok for your marketing * Why you should have your online store products in different marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart

Tony Ulwick is the founder and CEO of Strategyn, a strategy, and investment consulting firm. As the inventor of the Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI) process, he has successfully implemented it at some of the world’s most prominent organizations and across nearly all sectors.

Get a free download of Tony’s best-selling book here and read his blog here.

What you will learn * Why you should start a business that you enjoy doing * Innovation is not an “aha” moment but a process * Why you need to discover the unmet needs of your customer to develop a winning product * How to create a process of predictability for innovating products * The two $1 billion failures at IBM that provided the insight and motivation for Tony to start his business * Why Innovative products need to be at least 20% better to win the market and what that looks like * The importance of processes and systems for long-term business success * Why startups need a product innovation process to be successful at fundraising

Gualter Amarelo is the author of the book “Broke To A Quarter Million” and the creator of numerous life-changing training on wealth and mindset. He earned $3 million through his businesses – nearly half a million simply by using his own real-world experiences to help hundreds of students create high levels of success in their own lives.

But Gualter wasn’t always a millionaire. In fact, for about 10 years he struggled with a series of failed businesses and side hustles while working for “the man” – wondering why it seemed impossible to get any of his ideas off the ground. At one point he was so broke after a tragic divorce that, he had to move in with his brother – embarrassing at any age, but especially at age 30!

Then, he received some advice that would change his life forever. A wealthy mentor told him to study the strategies and mindset of people who were already wealthy and to find out what they had in common that made them so successful. That’s when he became obsessed with real estate and the rest is history.

Now, after years of trial and error, Gualter has created a step-by-step, copy and paste system that anyone can use to create wealth. These are powerful investing strategies that can help any investor, at any level, find the ideal people to surround themselves with and find moneymaking opportunities like magic. He just happens to call it “Alchemy.”

What you will learn * The 7 steps for successful real estate investing * What is meant by the term “off-market” and why it matters * Why you shouldn’t be afraid of debt * How to add value to a property * Why you should be a people manager and not a property manager * Why cash flow is vital and some ideas to generate a revenue stream

Dominick Keenan is the VP of Sales at ClickBank, where he focuses on supporting ClickBank’s current vendors and affiliates as well as growing ClickBank’s business.

Dominick has had several roles within the ClickBank sales organization including affiliate manager and business development before taking the role of VP of Sales.

Prior to joining ClickBank, Dominick worked in business aviation and commercial lending. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Management from Rocky Mountain College and an MBA from the University of Montana.

What you will learn * How an ambassador and influencer are different * Why you shouldn’t base your digital brand on just one platform * Why you should care as a marketer about Apple’s IOS 14.5 update * Why should you be doing affiliate marketing * Why margin is important if you want to sell your product with affiliate marketing * A book worth reading – Alchemy by Rory Sutherland * The importance of relationships for entrepreneurs * Which channels you should be using for selling affiliate products

Brent Freeman is the Founder & President of Stealth Venture Labs and a serial entrepreneur who’s passionate about using business to generate both profits and social impact.

In 2009, Brent founded Roozt.com, an online marketplace platform for social good consumer brands which was featured in Mashable, Forbes, Huff Post, INC, The Today Show, NBC, and ABC. He was honored by Forbes as a Name You Need to Know in 2011.

Today, Brent is an angel investor, former venture capitalist, and writes for Entrepreneur and INC on startup life. He is the Founder & President at Stealth Venture Labs, has co-founded five eCommerce brands, and is the Chairman of the Board of the Bay Area chapter of the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship that teaches entrepreneurship to inner-city kids.

In his free time, he loves to travel to Italy, give back and spend time with his family and friends. In 2020, Brent received the high honor to be knighted by the Italian Royal Family, Casa di Savoia, for his commitment to philanthropy and giving back.

What you will learn * Discover the 4 top KPI’s you need to measure for a subscription eCommerce business * Why you should consider creating or adding a subscription model to your business * The importance of starting your business with a MVP (Minimal Viable Product) * The 5 Criteria you need to apply to ensure your business is a success * The habits and personal routines you need to consider to ensure you are fit to grow personally as an entrepreneur * What conscious priming is and how can it help you achieve your dreams and goals * The 3 elements for ensuring you have a healthy and vibrant remote work and team culture * The 5 love languages of the work place that you need to motivate your team and the quiz to send to your team

Evan Sohn is a veteran entrepreneur and visionary executive. He is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Recruiter.com, an on-demand recruiting platform that combines AI and video job-matching technology with the world’s largest network of small and independent recruiters. I am reaching out about having him on your show.

Evan is a frequent contributor to CNBC and Yahoo! Finance, and demonstrates expertise in a diverse set of industries, including Wi-Fi, Instant Messaging, data security, customer relationship management (CRM), and much more. Beginning with his own mobile computing company in the 1990s (later acquired by Dun & Bradstreet), Evan has aided a number of venture-backed companies in growing their business. These companies have been acquired by the likes of Symantec and Verifone, among others.

A mission-driven leader, Evan is also the co-founder and Vice President of The Sohn Conference Foundation, which aims to fight pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases. Formed after the death of his brother in 1993, The Sohn Conference Foundation has raised over $95 million to fund cutting-edge research, groundbreaking technology, and innovative programs to improve patient care.

What you will learn * Why timing is the most important element of success for startups and entrepreneurs * Figure out if you are creating a new industry or market segment or disrupting an existing industry * The importance of productizing your services so they can be scaled * How artificial intelligence and technology is disrupting the recruitment industry

Lewis Rothkopf is the President of Martin, a media buying and measuring platform for marketers who want to measure their impact.

Lewis has more than two decades of experience in digital media and prior to joining Martin, he led sales and revenue, business development, and marketing at companies such as Millennial Media, Polymorph, and DoubleClick (each acquired by Verizon, Walmart, and Google, respectively).

What you will learn * How to measure the effectiveness of your ads and the metrics that matter * What ‘Incremental lift’ is and why should you care * What programmatic advertising is * The implications of Apple’s privacy changes to the iPhone for entrepreneurs * The metrics you should be measuring for an eCommerce store * Why testing is so important * Targeting the right type of users * Understanding the spend patterns of your consumers

Garret Akerson is the co-founder of Kindred Bravely , a maternity and breastfeeding apparel brand, that he co-owns with his wife, Deeanne.

In 2019, Kindred Bravely was named #20 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing, privately-held US companies and they also won the Shopify Build a Bigger Business Competition in 2017 as one of the eight fastest-growing online retailers on Shopify’s platform.

The company is staffed by a remote team of mostly work-from-home moms and brought in over $9.6 Million in 2018. Kindred Bravely is a case study in female entrepreneurship and innovation which is a testament to achieving three-year revenue growth of 8,544%.

What you will learn * How to build team culture in a remote work company * The challenges of a geographically spread team and how to overcome them * The tools for collaborating that you need to know and use * Where the idea for Garret’s business came from * Whether you should start a side hustle or leave your job * How to build a community of loyal fans and customers and the two top platforms to do that * How Kindred Bravely grew to $10 million a year and 78 employees by first giving its product away

Tommy Mello is the owner and operator of A1 Garage Doors, the host of the Home Service Expert podcast, and owner, partner, or investor in 14 other businesses ranging from Christmas lights to real estate to mobile apps. He shares what he’s learned at Homeservicesexpert.com to help fellow business owners grow their businesses.

In 2007, Tommy became the sole owner and operator of a single Phoenix-based garage door service business, which came with $50,000 in debt. Today, A1Garage generates north of $50 million dollars in annual revenue, with over 360 employees in 17 states.

Tommy is a regular contributor to Inc., Entrepreneur, and other business publications on the topic of entrepreneurship and small business as well as a sought-after podcast, radio, and television guest. When not in the office or working on the businesses, you’ll find him on a plane headed to exotic destinations or chasing the little white ball around one of Arizona’s many golf courses.

What you will learn * Why every business needs a “dream manager” * How to build a healthy team and company culture * Why systems and processes important * The top 4 types of software that you need for your business * Why you should give yourself the permission to read as an entrepreneur to keep growing

Today’s partner is Synder - An easy-to-use accounting solution for eCommerce businesses to keep track of multiple sales channels in one ecosystem. Listen to the podcast or scroll down to grab your Synder coupon and find hidden streams of income in 2022.

Raul Galera is the Chief Advocate at ReferralCandy, the #1 referral program platform online.

ReferralCandy.com is one of the pioneer referral marketing companies in the eCommerce industry. They have worked with thousands of brands, including Reebok, UniQlo, and Tidal, among many others.

Since its launch in 2009, they have over 30,000 paying users with over $10M in annual revenue. What’s even cooler is that since they’ve paid out over $300M in referral commissions to clients.

Referrals are critical for a lot of businesses. For instance, MorningBrew has reached over 2.5M subscribers and attributes 30% of its subscribers to their referral program. The same goes for Harry’s, when they gathered 100K emails in a single week.

What you will learn * The top 3 tools for a virtual business * How to scale digital and social “word of mouth” and loyalty for an online business * How to maintain company culture in a hybrid business model * The importance of timing * How to grow your business by 30% without spending a fortune (referral marketing)

Today’s partner is Synder

Synder is an eCommerce accounting software that automatically records sales and expense data across multiple channels in real-time. It automates bookkeeping tasks and improves your financial management workflow. It is also QuickBooks and Xero friendly if you're running your books on these accounting platforms already

If you sell products or services online using Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, eBay, Stripe, PayPal, and more – Synder will sync all your data with the accounting platforms and prepare it for easy reconciliation. Plus, there is no credit card needed, and Synder uses high-security measures to keep your business data safe.

Click here to get a FREE trial of Synder and get up to 40% off your chosen yearly subscription with the exclusive code EASYBOOKS.

BONUS: When submitting your email to Synder you'll get a unique eCommerce checklist for finding hidden streams of income made by the Synder experts.

Chandler Bolt is an investor, advisor, the CEO of Self Publishing School & SelfPublishing.com, and the author of 6 bestselling books including his most recent book titled “Published. The Proven Path From Blank Page To 10,000 Copies Sold.” Self Publishing School has been an INC 5000 company for the last 3 years in a row and is one of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the US.

Chandler is also the host of the 7 Figure Principles Podcast and the Self Publishing School Podcast. Through his books, podcasts, YouTube channels, and Self-Publishing School, he’s helped thousands of people write a book that grows their income, impact, and business.

What you will learn * How to make time to write a book with the 30 day challenge time blocking tactic * Tips to write an outline for your book with mind mapping * Discover the secrets of what you should write about * How to use a book to grow a business * Why starting to write before you’re ready is vital * The 4 step structure and process to write your book – “MORE” * The important steps for launching and promoting your book * The importance of creating “Authority” * Create a minimal viable product first to discover what your target market wants * Target one niche first and expand to other niches later

Matt Remuzzi is the founder of CapForge, where they focus on bookkeeping for online entrepreneurs. Within just a couple of years, Matt has been able to scale it from just himself to 55 employees. Over the years, Matt has worked with thousands of clients and has helped them get their finances in order and get them past the fear of being judged on their bookkeeping.

He talks about how accounting isn’t the sexiest part of business, but it’s critical to a business’s success. Specifically, he shares practical advice on how people can use accounting tools, so they can keep more of their hard-earned money.

What you will learn * Why fast growth can be dangerous for your business * Why falling in love with the process of accounting will help you sleep at night * What tools are important for controlling your business * How bookkeeping for an Amazon online store is different from other businesses * Why cash flow is important * Reasons you should hire a bookkeeper or accountant for your business * How technology has changed the accounting industry

Sonciary Perez is a Boston-based founder on a mission to change the interaction with customers through fast technology to deliver exceptional experiences. She is Co-Founder of Quala.io, the only frontline intelligence platform for B2B SaaS companies that helps them better serve, retain, and upsell customers.

With two decades in early-stage B2B SaaS, she has dedicated the last twelve years to focusing on building and scaling pre-and post-sales motions. Ten of those years were at the helm of customer success, services, and support teams.

Before Quala, she co-founded Promoboxx, a marketing technology startup connecting brands with independent retailers to increase awareness of where to buy goods locally. She also serves as a Mentor with Techstars Boston and represents BOSS – an accomplice VC’s syndicate of hundreds of Boston Angel Investors.

Sonci is a well-versed, insightful speaker and is eager to provide customer success leaders and innovators in SaaS businesses with fresh perspectives on how to improve customer health, gain retention, and create expansion to upgrade their company.

What you will learn

How Sonciary Perez deals with doubt and fear
Where she gets her ideas from
Whether you should choose one customer persona to target or several
What her “Aha” moment was
Why “speed” is important

James Oliver, Jr. is the Founder and CEO of the ParentPreneur Foundation, which empowers Black ParentPreneurs, so they can leave a legacy for their beautiful Black children. He is also the founder of WeMontage.com, which turns your photos into repositionable wallpaper, and the author of The More You Hustle, The Luckier You Get.

What you will learn * Why your network is your net worth * How a rising tide floats all boats: Sharing success around the world * The value of social capital and the proper way of spending and growing it * Why you need a give first mindset * How to avoid the trap of a scarcity mindset * Reducing inequality in the black entrepreneur community * The substantial effects of empowering black parent entrepreneurs

The More You Hustle, The Luckier You Get: You CAN Be a Successful Parentpreneur

Karthik Suresh is the co-Founder of Ignition. Ignition is the world’s first go-to-market platform (GTM), allowing businesses to manage all stages of the product life cycle.

Karthik has extensive experience building and launching products across consumer, enterprise, and data domains.

Having led product teams at both early-stage startups and tech giants, he offers valuable insights into all aspects of product development and market strategy.

He is a product and a technology leader with experience as a founder, an early startup hire, and a key player in defining product strategy, and finding a market fit.

What you will learn

The 4 big challenges for launching a new product and how to use Ignition to solve them
The truth about customer feedback
Why customers will “stop lying when they start paying”
The art of fundraising
The big problem for teams when going from idea to action for a new product
The steps involved in a “Go to Market” launch

Jason Gladu is an operator by nature. He is President at Avani Media, one of the fastest-growing demand generation and marketing agencies in the US, and an expert in Content Syndication and B2B marketing. His company helps firms of all sizes – from startups with series-A funding to Fortune 200 companies – gain clients by developing targeted and personalized campaigns.

He is constantly engaged in the “War for Talent” – seeking the best talent to raise the profile of content marketing as a whole.

Jason has been in digital marketing since 2009 working for companies like Spiceworks, Ziff Davis, and Mindshare.

In addition to running Avani Media, he speaks on podcasts and at conferences, usually on demand and lead generation, and invests in commercial real estate.

What you will learn * The importance of company and team culture * How to manage a virtual global business * The best platforms for distributing content for B2B * What the “dark funnel” for lead generation is * If the lead funnel for demand generation isn’t a straight linear process what is it? * The importance of communities for driving sales

Jenny Harlen is an entrepreneur in the field of food waste – helping people to return organic material to the soil where it is needed to improve fertility as well as help counter climate change. Originally from New Zealand, she has started companies in Sweden and Myanmar based on innovative methods such as bokashi composting (a form of natural fermentation that boosts the soil microbiome and helps sequester carbon in the soil).

The company she runs in Sweden with her six colleagues, bokashi.se, was recently awarded third place in Sweden’s annual Entrepreneur of the Year award. While the company is not big by any means, the award recognized the sustainability of the concept, the solution, and the business itself over the decade and a half it has been working for change in this critical environmental area.

Jenny has built the business organically since 2007, harnessing the power of social media to create a market for a previously unheard-of product, and a solution for a need that society has until very recently been largely unaware of. Her driving force has always been to do something that is needed, and that makes sense on a personal as well as global level.

What you will learn * How Jenny discovered her passionate purpose * Where energy and drive comes from * How to overcome fear and doubt * What you should be doing comes from an intersection of 3 things * The power of taking time off and silence can produce insights and get you in touch with your intuition * Why timing is important in business * How living simply gives you freedom and autonomy

Tim Cakir is a growth consultant who helps companies, entrepreneurs and students achieve fast and consistent growth.

Working with 17 startups to date, some of his best achievements include helping two startups receive 1.7 million euros in Horizon 2020 funding, increasing MRR of one startup from $80k to $300k in less than 18 months, and completing projects such as the implementation of OKRs, building company dashboards, rebranding, and product launches.

In addition to that, Tim’s passion for helping people realize their potential to bring ideas to life means that he also teaches Bachelor and Masters programs at two universities in Barcelona, ESEI International Business School Barcelona, and Geneva Business School.

During his spare time, you can find him sailing, watching F1, or growing veggies in his garden. On Saturday nights, you might find him in the DJ booth.

What you will learn * How top CEO’s achieve growth by being obsessed with solving problems for customers * Growth comes from getting your team to understand the vision though good communication including asynchronous video * A top book for growth is Atomic Habits how a 1% increase a day grows your world and your business * The importance of the PARA Method for organizing digital information (Project, Area, Resource, Archive) * The differences between great CEO’s and bad CEO’s * Top communication tools: Grain.com, Notion.com, and Loom.com * Collective Intelligence in a team: Creating space for team members to bring ideas * How to embrace innovation as it happens every day

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

With over 20 years as a successful entrepreneur, investor, and advisor in the hospitality and entertainment industries, Michael Sinensky is the Founder and CEO of simplevenue, a leader in micro concept entertainment and hospitality venues.

He also started WeShield during the global pandemic, which sells PPE and medical supplies to Health Care providers, Fortune 500 companies, and government organizations.

What you will learn

How to be resilient during hard times
How to overcome business failures and get back up again when times are tough
How to nurture your network effectively
How to reduce and manage business risks

Rick West is the CEO and Founder of Field Agent. Field Agent connects brands, retailers, and agencies with customers across the country and around the world to help you win at retail.

His platform harnesses smartphones across the country, bridging the gap between you and your customers. Rick created Field Agent to solve retail’s biggest problems. Rick’s app helps you make money while you are on your phone.

What you will learn

The value of leaping into the unknown and pivoting as an entrepreneur
How developing business relationships and connections really matter
Insights on how to scale a business
Being significant by staying within your rails and not chasing shiny objects
Bringing your focused attention to your intention
How opportunities reveal themselves with new technology
The power of crowdsourcing
The real entrepreneur’s mindset
Saying no a lot more and deselecting as a way to find success
Using technology such as smartphones and mobile apps to scale a business
Why product-led growth is an important B2B approach
Eliminating friction to drive business growth

Aggelos Mouzakitis is the CEO and Growth Product Manager of Growth Sandwich.

He is among the first Customer-led experts in the world, leveraging advanced, Jobs-to-be-done customer research to orchestrate and guide Growth for B2B SaaS companies.

A and B series SaaS companies are hiring him to organize, design, and execute programs that infuse the whole company with qualitative data, empathy, and the necessary knowledge to address any growth dilemma.

In the last 4 years, he has worked with more than 100 SaaS companies and trained literally, thousands through his physical and online courses.

What you will learn

The importance of detailed growth and marketing strategies
How customer research can help you deeply understand the needs, problems, motivations, and fears of customers
How proper positioning improves your conversion rate, reduces growth rate, and eventually makes more money
How to find out what your customers want (interviews, surveys, client touchpoints)
Three learnings in Aggelos Mouzakitis’ entrepreneurial journey: 1. Don’t obsess about what other people are doing, 2. Embrace your vulnerability, 3. Take care of yourself

Josh Little started his career as a teacher, and evolved into the founder of four tech companies: Brinemaster, Volley, Qzzr, and Bloomfire, collected and used by hundreds of millions of people.

His work has been featured in TechCrunch, Mashable, Entrepreneur Inc., and Forbes. He's currently on a mission to save the working world from “death by meetings.”

In his hometown, Josh saw three options:

Work at the large state prison in the town
Work at the power company where his father worked
Become a teacher

By the time he started student teaching he knew it wasn't his thing. He saw that in his father - he would never leave his work for any reason - but recognized that passion wasn’t in his life. He taught for about a year and, although he loved the art and the craft of teaching, he just didn't love it as a career.

He was very successful in sales - the same skills that made him a good teacher made him good at sales, and that started his career in the corporate world. Two or three days a week, Josh worked sales at night as his side hustle. During the day, he was a full-time teacher. He learned very quickly that he could make more in those two or three days than he could make his entire week at school.

More than that, Josh discovered that sales was fun, and he could accomplish things faster and get rewarded for them. After selling over the phone, working for internet providers, he fell into healthcare-oriented products.

In his words, it turns out if you can motivate 11th graders to not burn down a school (a real event that happened a year before Josh started teaching at the same school), you can also motivate people to buy something.

What Comes First When Choosing a Business When choosing a business, there are many factors involved. In Josh’s career, his first real business started when he was 11.

It was a profitable lawn mowing business, a clear sign of an entrepreneur at an early age. His mom was an entrepreneur, though she didn't know it. She just did odd jobs: cleaned houses, painted walls, wallpapered. He thinks it’s funny that he grew up in and around that, but didn't understand what that was or how to do that.

Then he went off to college, got a degree, and thought that was the end-all, be-all. Until he read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, a book that has changed the direction and perspective of a lot of people.

It was like a revelation: You can own a business, and if you want to, you can be wealthy.

From there, it took five years of thinking, talking and having lots of lunches with coworkers and friends about choosing a business they could possibly build, and planning and validating before he officially stepped out and got started.

In the end, he knew he had made other companies millions of dollars selling their “stupid products”, and if he could sell their “stupid products”, he knew he could sell his own stupid products.

During his time as a salesman, Josh spent a lot of time traveling, and filled journals with product ideas on years of flights, from water flavoring packets to car air fresheners.

He knew he needed to choose an idea that wouldn't require an insane amount of capital, so he could become profitable as soon as possible.

Josh realized very quickly that companies continued to seek him out for training their teams, and he found he was keeping the circus together by himself. It had basically already become a full-time job just to coordinate all of it, and he thought that there should be a company that does the job for them.

Since Josh couldn’t seem to find that company, he left and created it, which is now Maestro. Nearly every other training manager in medical device and pharma felt the same way. They were able to build a network of the “who's who” of clients in the field pretty quickly, and today Maestro builds content for Netflix, Microsoft and a range of other cool companies.

Since leaving his job cold turkey to start his own company, Josh has learned all of the ins and outs that were so difficult for him at first. He learned and grew with Maestro until 2010.

The Next Problem to Solve Twitter was on the rise, and Josh decided to make his next move. They took the profitability of Maestro and invested that in a software platform called Bloomfire, and it worked.

The world was just getting used to Twitter, and then they launched their idea: why not be social at work? Now in 2021, of course, we're sharing videos and messages with our coworkers and chatting, but back then it was a wild idea. Luckily, there were many forward thinking companies that adopted it. Eighteen months later, the company was acquired, and was recently acquired again by a private equity firm.

It turned out that their predictions were right, and popular, but just really, really early.

Bloomfire’s goal is to capture tribal knowledge - to connect like-minded thinkers and professionals to collaborate and create. As quickly as the idea was built, loved, and bought, Josh was ready with his next idea.

Evolving the Answer At this point, Josh had been essentially working on the same problem for over a decade: how to get the right information, to the right people, at the right time, at work?

In essence, both Maestro and Bloomfire were addressing this, but he knew there was more, especially as working at home and remote team management grew in popularity.

This new idea took the richness of Zoom and the flexibility of text, and combined them.

Volley was born.

Their goal is to enable deeper work for remote teams. The word volley is used in tennis, in volleyball, and even ping pong, and it simply means to send something over to the other side.

The “comeback part” is called a rally, and they thought about naming the company “rally” for that reason, but rally didn't seem to connect as well as volley. A volley is a back and forth motion that leads to victory.

Especially coming from a complex, technical medical-sales background, trying to get across a simple message about a complex product requires distillation.

Communication is our culture: without communication, we have nothing. The way we communicate is the way we relate, the way that we trust, the way we work as a team. Volley hopes to be a big part of that.

Relationships aren’t new, but now we’re trying to establish them in a remote environment, and that means that every interaction counts. Communication matters most for them.

For this reason they are choosing to use Volley, because you can speak seven times faster than you can type, and time is of the essence.

Startups, side hustles, and small e-commerce companies are using it, as well as coaches, influencers, and individuals who want to connect with their audience.

Josh hasn’t stopped yet - in fact, he’s still taking these same principles and growing them into better, more useful tools.

To try out Volley, you can download the app for iPhone, Android, Mac and PC and invite your team. While Josh’s LinkedIn is included in the intro, you can also find him through his family’s traditional pickle business.

For more content like this, check out The Jeff Bullas Show.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

Adam Stott is the owner of Big Business Events, and one of the UK’s top business advisors and specialists in growth. By the age of 19, Adam had bought his first house, and was earning in excess of a hundred thousand pounds per year by the age of 28.

He was running a company with 30 million pound turnover that was employing a hundred people by the age of 33.

Adam was up on the use of social media, and now helps a lot of people with their social media to grow their business, and remains a key influence with a huge social media following.

As he’s come to say, “He was born to make bucks”, and now he tries his best to help others do the same.

Before his success, Adam was a terrible, terrible student. He didn't finish school, and has come to find that most of the business basics aren’t something you can learn in traditional schooling anyway. In order to do well in school, you have to sit for exams and memorize things, but that simply didn’t work for Adam.

What inspired him to be an entrepreneur was the realization that he didn’t have to be good at school to figure out what he loved and become successful. He very quickly learned what he didn’t like, but the experience led him to a job in sales, which unlocked his passion.

Once he started selling TVs and washing machines, he went from being the most unenthusiastic person (doing manual labor, or anything else, on a building site, trying to avoid doing any work), to an enlightened, Tasmanian devil of sales.

So how did this evolve into business? He hit the glass ceiling - the limits of what you can do when you're working for other people. The next option was to start his own business, which is exactly what he did.

Big Business Events Adam’s first business experience was more of a salvage journey, working in multiple different sales roles. Every time he found something that he was good at, he became even more enthusiastic.

He started to really learn sales, studying it and mastering it until it became natural.

Adam started his first business in 2008, right in the global financial crash. Just prior, he was in a highly paid job at BMW. He had a brand new car every three months, and quit, sold his house, and moved back in with his parents to start this business.

He was leaning on excuses as he watched his money dwindle away - he started at the wrong time, the economy was bad, he was just unlucky. Luckily, one of his mentors shook him out of this mindset, revealing to him that this was the reality.

He wasn’t in a recession. The economy was alright. Winners make their own.

After this, he started building his business.

He moved from a Sales frenzy into Marketing, listening to everything he could. He went from knowing zero to virtually every marketing technique: everything about copywriting, everything about direct mail, everything about email marketing and automation.

Finally, he started exploring social media, which was the catalyst of his growth.

He achieved seven figures in his first year, and then another year had completely different results.

That year was an incredibly important time for Adam, because he wasn't going to be able to grow anymore without the right structures in place.

In the next few years, they were able to grow the largest social media following in the world in that industry.

Adam went from being broke to managing over a million pound a week.

This turned into a massive amount of stress over the course of seven years, which led him to radically change his perspective, and look for fun.

That’s when he closed the car business and started Big Business Events.

Business Advisors When he first started out, Adam didn't believe in business advisors. He had access to wise people, but wanted nothing to do with them. Looking back, he sees how his ego prevented him from growing. In his mind, he had something to prove.

When he moved to the United States and started working with Americans, he met a few people that had rapidly grown their acumen, their knowledge, their business, and as people.

He saw firsthand that the transference of knowledge gets better results. This really woke him up and he thought,

Why am I not doing this?

Just like sales and marketing, Adam started to invest a lot in coaching.

Since then, he has found that the fastest way to learn what you need to learn is through coaching and mentoring. It was this experience that led him to see the gap in the market - he had mastered his field, and now he had an opportunity to train others.

Consulting Big Business Events holds in-person and online events for people looking to start and grow businesses. One of their most popular events is a social media event called “Social Media Domination”, during which Adam shares his strategy from his car business, and how he grew into a multi-million pound business.

Every single client always starts with the same four step strategy. It’s easy, repeatable, and has reliable, measurable results.

Separate from these foundational workshops, they also offer further training that can be personalized to your company’s specific circumstances.

During their 2-3 day conferences, they focus on a few key questions:

How do you turn social media into a machine that delivers you clients consistently and sustainably?

How do you turn advertising into profit?

How do you set up a business in a way that it works like a machine and produces profitable results?

Finally, Adam and his team of business advisors offer the products that they’ve developed to help answer these questions.

The Importance of Personal Growth for Success Business growth is really important, but doesn’t exist on its own. If you don’t evolve as a human being, it won’t matter how much money you have - you won’t be the person you want to be.

If you find the people that have done what you want to do, and those people are qualified business advisors and excited to share, don't be afraid to ask for guidance.

If you want to grow a business, your business will grow in direct proportion to the amount of conversations you have. The more that you do that, the more results you will see professionally and personally.

To engage in more conversations like this, you can find Adam Stott by connecting with him through his website, or listen to The Jeff Bullas Show here.

Stephen Somers is from Ireland, about two hours south of Dublin, which is a beautiful city.

Stephen is the CEO and co-founder of Marketplace Superheroes, an eight-figure, online education service platform that teaches people how to launch products on amazon to build a five to seven figure business.

In seven years, Stephen and his business partner Robert Ricky have grown the company from a single online program to an award-winning business with a team of over a hundred coaches, support staff, and service providers, and close to 10,000 members.

They are focused on one thing, to serve one purpose: helping their members build and scale their Amazon business as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Stephen and Robert also run their own eight figure Amazon business, with well over $20 million worth of physical products globally.

Steve was originally working in the mental health sector in Ireland, but was actually trying to break into the music industry. He was working in a job in the mental health commission as a data processor, starting out as a temp, actually training all the people that were given the full-time job.

Amazingly, the CEO at the time created a job specifically for him, and he was finally given a full-time position. His band had just ended, and he was in a difficult position. He didn't finish college - three years of business, two years of marketing. He had tried applying for private companies then, but without the right connections, not to mention without a degree, he had no luck.

He began reading a lot of personal development materials, knowing he needed to take more responsibility for his own life. He started with his physical health: at the time, he was overweight, drinking too much, eating poorly, and feeling sorry for himself. In short, he tackled the bad habits he had gotten into and made changes.

One of the biggest principles of personal development is recognizing the need for information, and acquiring that information. If you don't know how to get to where you want to be, you need information. Steve started Googling how to build a business, how to become an entrepreneur, and any questions that came to his mind.

He knew he didn't want to be stuck to a single location, or touch products, but other than that Steve was completely lost.

He decided his best bet was to set up a website, run some ads, do some SEO and (hopefully) make tons of money.

He met Robert through a connection from his aunt, who somehow heard about Steve’s intentions, and they started off together from there. Robert is about six foot two or three, with a big beard, and in general, a big mountain man. He had two warehouses at the time, a good amount of staff, and was selling his own branded products on eBay and Amazon.

After several months of work and experience, Steve and Robert came to an important and scary conclusion: they needed to make some big changes to reach the next level of revenue. So they got rid of the warehouses, they got rid of the staff, and really everything they could except themselves. For 18 months they worked themselves nearly to death - reaching about $1.6 million a year in revenue at about a 30% net profit margin. This margin, 30% of the sale price, is still what they shoot for in a product on Amazon.

Marketplace SuperHeroes For about four years, they ran that business together, pouring their earnings back into the company. Eventually, this turned into a seven figure business.

They had nice lifestyles, traveling with their families, and achieved the four hour workweek. In 2014, after four years of this, they noticed how many people were teaching “how to sell on Amazon”, and more importantly, that what they were teaching was nonsense.

Steve and Robert knew that there was no way they could manage selling every product they could possibly sell on Amazon, but they could help others do it for a price.

They are now an eight figure company, and much more than just an education business, although that's a big part of what they do. They have a freight company to ship their members' products from China to their warehouses in various different countries.

As of 2021, they've actually started to branch into other areas for their community.

The First Step to Launch Products on Amazon There's a lot of different ways to grow a business once you’ve finally started.

There are only two real things you need to move forward: 1) Describe your product in one sentence, and 2) Describe why you are uniquely qualified to do this.

No fancy, detailed business plans, just those two core pillars.

It's not a business plan in the traditional sense, but works better for most modern startups for that exact reason.

Goal-making can be just as cumbersome as it can be helpful. So how do you efficiently navigate goal-making?

Feedback analysis.

Review and process your previous goals, the end results, and the intentions behind the goals that brought you to your current position.

These goals, or intentions, are “north stars” for businesses.

You can achieve a year's worth of progress in 12 weeks, which some would say is impossible. It's not impossible. Likewise, you might have to completely change your expectations and goals during a set period of time due to external circumstances - a lesson every business was forced to learn during the pandemic.

As a company, Stephen and Robert intentionally only look at the next 90 days, because outside of 90 days, from a tactical point of view, you simply don’t have enough information.

Longevity George Lucas was interviewed by Bill Moyers in the 90s, and he said that it’s not enough to simply be in love with what you do - you have to be in love with the process of what you do.

This hit home for Stephen, and rings true to this day. He’s learned how to fall in love with the process, which he never thought would happen.

The reality is, there is magic in the process, and if you can continue to be curious and love the process, you’ll find yourself playing the long game.

Curiosity is key to longevity, but it’s not the only thing.

Growth and longevity are inseparable for a multitude of reasons, but in summary, you want to invest in what you already have.

The first way to grow is by adding more subscribers and more clients to your business.
The second way is to increase your average transaction value.
The third way is to sell to your existing clients more frequently.

Lots of people will say it’s easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one. That's true. It's easier to sell something to an existing client than to get a new one.

The unfortunate truth? Most people don't do that. They just keep on looking at new clients, and how to reach and expand to a larger market.

Stephen and Robert have drawn a line in their business between their buyers and their non-buyers, so when someone initially interacts with their business, they're offered things on an automated basis. For example, most people will have a “front end offer.” They launch products on amazon at the front in an automated fashion. A very small percentage of people buy, never more than 10% or 20%. But the true mark of success is when those people buy something, they move over to their “buyers list.”

Once they're part of their buyer base the goal is to turn them into what's called a “customer”, and then finally, into a “client.” What's the difference?

Buyer to Customer to Client “Leveling up” in this business is difficult.

People don't like to be sold-to all the time: you have to provide separate value as well, which Stephen and Robert emphasize a lot in their system. For this reason, they utilize strategic information for content that people want to consume.

The goal is to encourage buyers of whatever stage to go out and execute whatever they're learning, and of course to give them the desire to go further with their learning.

Connection is all about people getting to know people on a personal level, which can be intimidating and exhausting. Stephen and Robert do this by hosting a weekly stream through their Facebook groups.

They get to know their clients better.

They share great information.

They break down people's belief patterns and rebuild them.

In short, they create better clients for the future.

Perpetual Launch When you put all of this into a system, it's what Stephen and his team like to call a “perpetual launch”, where you are perpetually launching different things, but it doesn’t feel like you're just selling stuff all the time.

This program is what Stephen feels he was put on the planet to do, because any business that he teaches to do this has instantly doubled their business.

Even with their program, you have to start experimenting while you learn. Unfortunately, this experimentation can be difficult without immediate results/data. There's no feedback - you can't ask someone what they think of a product - you're simply trying to figure it out yourself based on a program.

To address this, they’ve created a virtual group: three days with their coaches to learn how to research, and have feedback, group-think sessions to launch products on amazon.

You can create new products, and you can offer your buyers the things that are in your value ladder.

It's the trust that is built in using a perpetual launch that is so important in every business.

That's what makes that side of things work.

Takeaways 1) First, you have to transition from team consumer to team producer. That's a huge change.

So what does that mean? You have to become someone who is producing things in the world. You’re not just buying things on Amazon, you're selling things on Amazon.

Don't just read about new, different things, go and do them.

2) The second was mentioned earlier, but it’s worth bringing back up again: Longevity.

Long-term thinking about anything in life goes a long way. Thinking short term in business means you're going to be disappointed, not because you're useless, but because things take time.

Entrepreneurs can be really good at telling the “miracle, overnight growth” stories, but the picture isn't always pretty behind the scenes. A lot of times they're putting out this big image, but there's not much behind it.

3) The third and final thing is finding someone who's already a step ahead of you and using them, whether that’s information, coaching, or whatever. It's the best way forward, because there are people who have already figured things out for themselves.

Building a network of support and information is important for the ultimate success of your business, on every level.

See more podcast episodes like this here.

Ryan Vice is the co-founder and CEO of Vice Software, which provides cost-effective web development services. He has 20 years of shipping software experience, six years of experience building high velocity development teams, and has published two books.

He's been awarded Microsoft's MVP award three times, and decided to transfer his skills to the entrepreneurial space.

Working for a successful entrepreneur in the 70’s meant that Ryan was able to experience all kinds of cool things - including (at the time), personal computers.

They were fairly new, and when he was introduced to the idea of coding, which would control the computer, he thought, “I should study this.”

Ryan ended up taking programming classes - just really basic stuff - but that was his first taste, and realized it was something he really enjoyed. From there, it became a hobby.

Meanwhile, when his parents separated, his life experience started to change. He saw two very different sides of the social spectrum. He was living in extremely poor circumstances in Louisiana with his mother, but a comfortable life with his father overseas in multiple different countries.

Because of this, when he was in the states, he didn't have access to computers very often. It wasn't until he was accepted to college a year later that he continued his programming journey. He was motivated by Pixar. He thought Pixar movies were really cool, and wanted to get into computer graphics.

After school, he went on the business route rather than the design route. He recognized he wasn’t going to get paid very much if he was programming video games, and decided that if he was working with code, it wouldn’t matter either way.

This led to a 10 year phase of fighting to keep a job and master his craft, after which Ryan moved to Austin and his career exploded.

He got his first MVP award, and started getting book deals.

It solidified his desire to be a consultant.

Starting Your “Side-Hustle” As stated above, Ryan had exposure to entrepreneurs at a young age. He still remembers his dad explaining to him what entrepreneurship was, so he always knew about it and thought it was cool.

His father would come home and have night league dinner table pitches:

“What about a company that does [this]?”

His father had some success in the entrepreneurial space, but his company in Singapore ended up fizzling out. He moved on and had a lot of success in the corporate side using the skills he had built.

This was the seed that would eventually lead to Ryan taking the reins and setting off himself to start his own company.

From his experience, Ryan believes you can summarize the different ways to start a business in two categories.

1) Fake it till you make it

With this approach, you're working your day job, you've got your LLC and your business partner website, and you're just going around telling people about what you do in an informal way.

2) All or nothing

Usually this tactic involves saving up a bunch of money, and then going all-out. You quit your day job, get out your “roadmap”, and you hire some people straight out of the gate.

For Ryan, who had a wife, children, and a lifestyle to maintain, the first route was his only option. He and a partner he had been working with for some time, decided to take the chance and see if they could turn their experience and unique skills into a fully-functioning, highly-efficient team.

Transitioning a Side Hustle Into Your Day Job Ryan always had a main contract that didn't involve an offshore team, so he chose to negotiate those contracts part-time, 35 hours a week.

Finally, his side hustle got enough business where he could essentially quit his day job and focus his attention on his new project.

He was able to switch from survival to sustainable in about three to four years. Initially, Ryan thought it would only take two years, but reality is often different than our expectations.

At this point, they got on a growth path, and what really allowed them to be successful was a value he was inspired by from a podcast he listened to: making sure clients were happy.

He decided to quantify that into some of their core values, and in turn their company has a completely different culture and growth pattern. This podcast principle turned into two specific points:

Customers should be comfortable with their invoices.
Never give anything away for free.

Vice Software Web Development Services Vice Software doesn't operate like most development companies - instead they utilize modern toolkits and global distributed teams.

Over the past three years, Ryan and his company has achieved 50% year on year growth, as the team grew from 15 to 45.

Their overall mission is to make software affordable and predictable, which is a more difficult mission than they first imagined.

The opportunity they noticed was that, in reference to software, people care about the quality, and they care about the budget. Most of the time, the timeline isn't that critical.

They decided to add that to the mission.

During the first phase, when they have an offer for a project, the first thing the team does is get on the phone, or a zoom call, and talk through the basics. They estimate, depending on the specific project, what the timeline would be.

The next phase takes 20 to 40 hours: development specification. So if you're building a custom home, once you finish the first phase, you have the architectural diagrams, and that makes the next steps much easier. That’s when they start to work on the infrastructure: creating a line-by-line estimate.

Once this is finished, they finally have an estimate that they can commit to. When you’re building a custom home, you're not going to walk in afterwards and, seeing the kitchen, decide it needs a bit more tweaking. With software, that always happens.

That's what Vice Software web development services are all about. They choose to put a padding of about 30% on their estimates, which accounts for the usual difference of 15%, with another 15% of wiggle room.

Until clients start using the software, they won’t know exactly what needs to be done.

The 4 Keys to Success Originally, Ryan and his team had five keys to success, but they’ve distilled it down into four key factors.

They believe that if you’re smart about your: Team, Tools, Process, and Features, you'll be able to accomplish an affordable, predictable goal.

The Team Ryan very strategically and intentionally distributes his team. They use economies of scale and keep track of their most expensive resources. They always look for the best that they can find high quality, affordable developers, to manage in the U.S., so they have access to high-end architecture and design when they need it, but only when they need it.

The Tools First, Ryan and his team do a lot with Facebook's framework called React. Ryan’s second book was actually all about React. It's a toolkit that allows you, using only one programming language, to write apps, web applications, mobile applications, backend systems, and nearly anything else you could need.

You can even store data using Json, which is a Java script format. This allowed them to hire strategically, depending on the engineers that are needed.

As your team gets bigger, you need to have quality assurance and project management across all those teams. Using the React framework, they were able to take a small team of five developers and meet the needs of their clients without having to pay a lot of specialized engineers that, when not needed, must have something to keep them busy.

The Process The most important thing when it comes to the process is making sure that you're updating consistently.

Whenever something goes wrong, use it as an opportunity to make it better. Stay informed on the newest movements in your industry.

The Features For those who enjoy watching HGTV, and real estate shows, this example is for you.

Someone will work with an agent and give them their list of “must-haves.” The real estate agent then shows them a house that checks all the boxes: $2 million. The buyer usually gets flustered or confused, because their budget is half a million. This allows the realtor the chance to reset their expectations for their budget and context.

You need to be ready to help people ask themselves what they really need. What can they really afford? Software can be incredibly expensive, so you need to make sure that you build the absolute simplest thing you can, and get it in front of your customers as early as possible.

Wrapping up To find out more about Ryan and his web development services, you can connect with him quickly through his website, Vice Software. For more content like this, explore podcasts, blogs, and other free resources here.

Hany Fam is originally from Egypt, but when he moved to Australia and studied an MBA in Sydney, he never ended up leaving.

Currently, Hany lives in Newport, a fantastic beach on the Northern peninsula of Sydney, also known as the insular peninsula.

After finishing his studies, he started working for MasterCard. Hany was the president of enterprise business partnerships, and stayed with the company for nearly 25 years. After working for a few different businesses, he decided to strike out on his own and pour everything he had into a company called Markaaz.

The Birth of Markaaz Markaaz, according to Forbes, is the world's first global platform to verify and connect every small business on the planet: around 119 million of them.

Some years earlier, when Hany was at MasterCard, they created a platform called Track, which was the world's first global trading platform to connect suppliers and buyers on the web.

This platform was created to address two fundamental problems in the market:

For Suppliers, Where’s my money? and;
For Buyers, Where's my stuff?

They learned that pre-populating a directory of all the players and having them claim their record was very different than asking people to come and sign up.

When they created Markaaz they were thinking about small businesses, well before COVID, and before all the challenges that small businesses have faced. They found that there were two fundamental problems that small businesses were facing.

#1. Drowning in “point to point solutions” These are the individual little bits of software that are sold typically between $50- $200 a month. On average, small businesses subscribed to about 25 of these small software packages, using less than 10% of the feature functionality of each of these programs while costing them about 15% of their total expenses.

#2. Wasted time In the world of small business,15 to 17 days a year is a lifetime - about $1.7 trillion a year in waste. Making sure records are being kept, and having to catch the small things falling through the cracks swallows up important time, energy, and resources. There are entire new businesses that have been created simply to meet this need alone.

Armed with the scars and souvenirs they had from building Track, Hany set off to build a single unified community for small businesses.

Getting them together in one place, and pre-populating a directory of small businesses, was a Herculean task. But Hany decided that this time, he wanted to go one step further, pre-verifying everyone in the directory using three steps: verify, monitor, and pay.

COVID and Small Businesses When COVID hit, everyone was drowning. Hany and his team heard story after story, companies asking for money, desperately looking for ways to stay afloat and wait out the storm. The usual problems that small businesses were facing escalated to a new level.

COVID aside, small businesses are the number one global target for cyber attacks, phishing attempts, et cetera. On top of this, everything is expensive for them, and they have no leverage. That became Hany’s new calling.

They weren’t looking for a quick buck or exit: they funded all of this on their own, with the hopes of creating a game changer in the market.

Verify An interesting thing that's happened in the last couple of years, particularly with COVID, is the decline of credit scores. Credit scores are broken. It's not a good enough predictor, but lots of people's credit got hurt: some voluntarily, some involuntarily.

Hany and his team set about to create a different set of insights for people, so that they weren't hampered by just their credit score. They look at things like propensity to pay, failure, predictors, what business is likely to fail in the next six months. They verify that these businesses are still in business, so before you part with your money to pay for something upfront, you can verify their credibility.

Monitor Once both parties are connected on the platform, the client can ask the team to monitor a bunch of stuff that might be non-public data: cashflow, usage of utilities, or insurance coverage.

This doesn't happen anywhere on the planet today - it's completely new. The process is permission-based, secure, and bilateral between business partnerships.

Business Partnerships and Payments Last but not least, on paper, Hany is hoping to reduce the cost of payments to as close to zero as possible, and give people radically new tools that help them manage their cash flow in ways they never imagined possible.

Small businesses usually don’t have an efficient place to keep track of all of the non-conventional finance operations. In Markaaz, they have a place where they can pull all that together in one place to pay for whatever they need.

Hany and his team have also developed a streamlined way to consider the payment preferences of the people you’re interacting with. They can pay one person using Bitcoin, someone else using air miles, and another with a wire transfer. They will decouple these transactions and handle the translation while all the while reducing the cost to as near to zero as they can get it.

The 10 Year Plan Hany and his team expect Markaaz to be a public company in the next two years, not because they are greedy pigs, but because they believe their service belongs to the public. Their principles, in the end, are what drive their goals for the future.

First of all, they are huge believers in data privacy.

Secondly, they’re big believers in data self sovereignty, which means your data is yours. If Markaaz wants to use it, they’re going to ask for permission, and if it becomes valuable, they’re going to let you share in the value of that data.

Inclusion is vital to their core beliefs - not just financial inclusion, but inclusion of businesses. They want to be the place where the smallest mom and pop in the middle of nowhere can play on the same business partnerships platform as the biggest companies in the world.

The fuel to that inclusion is data. Access to knowledge and information in an affordable, cost-effective manner is how Hany plans to pursue inclusion.

Learning Along the Way Finally, here are a few things that Hany believes are vital to share with anyone reading:

#1. Small businesses aren’t limited to working with just small businesses Lots of big banks who would normally write off smaller companies and startups are looking at Markaaz and reimagining what is possible. Don't be afraid to approach those big players.

If you've really got a solution that you can credibly talk about, it will be a huge big market opportunity. You don't need to sell your soul or your company to have them join you on this quest.

#2. Create a team of people you trust Find people you trust and people who believe with you - people who are willing to come on the journey. You're going to need every single one of them.

#3. Balance caution with appropriate risks Many people who start businesses have such a large dose of fear that it governs everything they do. You've got to find a way to get past the fear, without becoming reckless.

To find out more about Hany and Markaaz, you can head over to their website and explore what they have to offer. For more content like this, make sure to follow The Jeff Bullas Show.

Robert Alvarez is the CFO of BigCommerce, which went to IPO last year and is now valued at nearly $5 billion. He's behind about four IPOs, starting with a company called Crossroads Systems, which raised $85 million back in 1999 and 2004. Additionally, he was the CFO of Liberate Digital, another technology company that helps consumers discover and read books, and serves tech to Amazon, Google, and Apple Books.

Robert joined BigCommerce in late 2011, but started his career working for Dell as a financial analyst in 1994. He’s worked across a whole range of companies in tech, but it took him a long time to discover his true calling within popular startup culture.

Early Life and Development Robert is the youngest of three kids, and after seeing them struggle with their degrees and careers, found himself motivated by finding a secure job.

By the time he got to school, he was already able to pay his own way. His only goal was to make sure that when he graduated, he got a job.

He went to the University of Texas Business School, and clearly remembers asking the counselor which major would guarantee he would have a job after he graduated. When the slightly surprised counselor responded “Accounting”, his immediate response was “sign me up!”

About six months into his accounting degree he realized three things:

He was in it to make good money
He chose accounting for all the wrong reasons
He hated it
Robert finished his first year, hung in there, and then pivoted to being a teacher, still majoring in accounting.

During his third or fourth accounting class, Robert began to seriously struggle. Luckily, his mother was a professor of accounting in the Philippines, so she invited him home for the weekend.

That weekend, his mom was able to lay out the material in a way he could totally understand. She was critical in his ability to get that degree.

Accounting was his major, but his passion was around business. Robert believes he ended up being able to stick with accounting simply because he was fascinated by business, what it took to run businesses, and in the end accounting is a really great foundation for that.

After his various experiences helping businesses start out and max out, and polishing their financial policies, Robert truly began to tap into his gift.

What Makes a Great Startup Culture? There are three main things that Robert has identified as keys to success in the world of startup culture:

Market Size
Product Impact
Team Potential
When Robert joined BigCommerce, he ended up adding a fourth to the list:
Does it resonate with you on a personal level?

You can work at a lot of tech companies and have great success whether or not there’s an amazing outcome. It's the same amount of work, it’s the same amount of commitment, so you might as well apply a “lens” or filter to decide which companies to join.

Robert didn’t even realize the possibility of the fourth piece until he began working at BigCommerce and noticed the change. In his first month at the company, after seeing the merchants that they were helping, and their success stories, it really hit him. He resonated with the work they were doing on an incredibly personal level.

It wasn’t just a product or technology company, they were really making a difference. He thought of his father, an immigrant from the Philippines. They moved to the states when Robert was three and a half years old, and he remembered his father’s business in the Philippines. His father had dreams of doing the same thing in the U.S., but it wasn’t that easy.

The merchants they were helping reminded him of his father, and their struggles, and he couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like if something like BigCommerce had been available for his parents.

Adapting and Innovating During his 10 years at BigCommerce, eCommerce has evolved rapidly.

It took 20 plus years for eCommerce to be even 10% of retail, in 2017, and experts were predicting that it would double in five years. We've already pushed far past that mark.

As we think about the next 10 years, knowing the pace of innovation that's taken place in the last 10 years, it’s exciting to think about what could happen in the next 10.

Thinking about all the innovation that's going to come from companies like BigCommerce and the whole ecosystem of technology partners that are all working to make the consumer buying experience better, faster and more reliable, there’s no question that the field is going to experience explosive growth and change.

Looking Ahead Back in the day, you'd have to go to a branded website or marketplace to buy products, and we’re already seeing ways that the buying experience is evolving far beyond these conventional platforms.

Those buying experiences are just going to get better and better as media, advertising, and apps improve. Now, you can buy a product right there, when you see someone you follow and trust using it.

Consumers are getting the products quick enough to meet their expectations, and they’re actually receiving what they want.

As these buying experiences get better and better, it's really important for merchants to think about expanding their exposure, giving access to a larger target audience.

If you're a merchant on BigCommerce, in one click your products can be found on Amazon, eBay, Wish, Walmart, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or whatever channel you want. The goal is to ensure that wherever consumers are browsing for products like yours, they will drive that demand to your business.

Their whole model is about shared success: they price based on their merchant success, and if they're successful, they know that they will be successful.

Digital Startups When it comes to preparing and handling a digital startup, Robert has found a few things to be incredibly important: Investors, and Scaling.

Investors For most of Robert’s venture startups, they raised money through venture capital and he quickly learned that it’s really important to bring on the right investors. What is the criteria?

Investors that are aligned to the vision.

Investors that believe in the potential of the company, and are willing to play the long game.

Finally, there has to be conviction. The investors who are your early board members must share that conviction and unity in order for the project to succeed.

Scaling with Soul The second thing, scaling, is a bit more complicated.

Scaling itself is a huge undertaking, and often incredibly frustrating.

When you start hiring hundreds and hundreds of people, it's really easy for companies to lose not only it’s organization or control, but the startup culture.

They lose sight of the culture, the values, and the heart of the mission.

To counteract this, you have to put a system in place to preserve the culture you seek to create. Recruit for the culture, manage performance around the culture, and promote people based on the culture. You must hold the leaders and team members accountable to maintain it, especially when the scaling means multiple offices in different parts of the world.

It's one thing to have values on a board, or to talk about culture, but actions always speak louder than words.

If you talk to anyone at BigCommerce, no matter what location, they'll talk about something called “Bucket One and Bucket Two”.

Bucket One is your resume, your skillset, or experience. Bucket Two contains the intangibles that they look for. They really love people who are selfless. They look for people who are purpose driven, passionate, and ambitious in their thinking and their goals, but maintain a beautiful degree of humility.

They look for those who seek to learn, and who are unafraid of failing when trying something new. These people are brave enough to reach out for advice and ask for help.

At BigCommerce, humility is considered a superpower.

Bucket One, Bucket Two To give a clearer picture of what this theory is, Robert has offered an insider look at the “Bucket One, Bucket Two” method.

Bucket one is what you see on your LinkedIn: your experience, your education, your skillset.

Bucket Two is what Robert considers to be the things his parents taught him, and the things that he and his wife strive to teach their kids. These are the things that are difficult to “teach” after a certain age of development. These people almost seem wired to be selfless and team oriented.

They play the we game, not the me game. When things go right, they give credit to other people, and when things go wrong, they take responsibility for what they need to, and their desire to grow allows them to see themselves and their faults clearly. They focus on things that they can get better at, not only the things that they're already good at.

Most importantly, however, Robert emphasizes that it’s the humility that brings the team to the next level.

They have a “No jerks allowed” policy. You check your ego at the door.

Robert’s team is built on that philosophy.

You can teach a lot of Bucket One. It's really hard to teach Bucket Two.

Starting Up Life is simple, but people are complicated.

Having values or a defined startup culture, but not exhibiting them with your actions will break a team apart.

Keep it to the basics: do the things that you know you're supposed to do, and don’t worry as much about the rest.

Days can be long, but if they have a strong sense of purpose, and your team believes in the impact you’re making, then you'll find your team will stay around a lot longer.

In the end, when you’re building the team and the culture, you’ve got to follow your gut, or your heart, whichever speaks louder.

Steven Spielberg says that what you’re meant to be doing in life never shouts, it whispers; listen for those whispers.

For more content like this, check out the Jeff Bullas Show, or scroll through our free resources.

By the age of 13, Joshua Wohle had attended five different schools, until his family moved to Switzerland. He went through the public schooling system, which meant everything was in French, but he knew no French at the time. Joshua recalls the difficulty of learning and self-teaching mathematics in French, when he didn’t understand the mathematics nor the French.

He started and dropped out of university twice, once in business management and once in economics. He then moved to London and actually finished a degree in computer science, and continued his next degree remotely over a four or five-year period.

Learning How to Learn At his core, Joshua is a self-taught developer. He was building apps and websites for years before he ever studied, even forming businesses out of this. These life experiences were what created Joshua’s firm belief that you can and should learn anything you want online.

The internet has so much to offer, and Joshua believes, through his experience in online and self-education, traditional learning can’t come close to the results that other methods produce.

This led him to a question: What if we could make that experience more approachable and usable for everyone? What if you could take the experience of self-learning, develop it, and extend it - building a platform where people could become lawyers, and experts in whatever field they choose.

The second catalyst for Joshua’s interest in online education was when he began to have financial freedom. Rather than thinking about where the next paycheck was coming from, he was asking himself:

“Where do I want to go with my career?”
“Where do I want to spend my time solving problems?”
“Where can I have the biggest impact?”

For Joshua, there were two industries that he believed had true potential to impact the world: (1) Healthcare and (2) Education.

Adventures in Education After spending a few months diving into both, he quickly realized that healthcare was not for him. That's when Joshua decided to double down and figure out how to start in education.

If you're able to help people learn better, you're going to have an impact with multiple layers down the road. People who know how to learn can teach how to learn. Once Joshua wrapped his head around this, his next step was clear.

If he wanted to move into education, what area would make the biggest impact?

One of the resources that first began influencing his perspective was How We Learn by Benedict Carey, a New York Times science journalist. This book combines all we know about the brain and how it works, and summarizes it in an easy to read format. Which techniques work better than others, and why?

Joshua read the book and was surprised at how simple some of the concepts really were, and yet how little he knew about them before reading the book. Why were these things not common knowledge?

He began sharing this information with anyone who would listen, including education experts, and realized how few education specialists knew about the concepts in the book.

This was a huge “aha” moment. As a society, we know more about how the brain works, we know how we can improve the way people learn, but it’s not being applied in educational contexts.

There was a disconnect between this important information that could make everyone's lives better, and the application. Now Joshua had a new question:

Can we bridge that gap?

That was the start of everything, around 2018.

This is how Mindstone was born.

Mindstone Mindstone is all about building a collection of learning resources: increasing your focus, creating papers, writing up reports, and then developing shared insights.

The initial concept, which they’re still working toward, is to give access to countless resources to anyone who wants to learn in a non-traditional way through self-teaching.

Imagine being able to take the 50 best posts, videos, and podcasts on micro-economics, and then create a micro-economics 101 course out of this content that already exists, using methods to help people learn faster and remember more. Not only this, but at the end of that course, students can actually have a record of their learning, a certificate, or something that they can take to an employer, whether they’re currently employed and hoping for a promotion, or looking for a new job.

The product that Joshua and his team currently have is the first step.

In Mindstone, you're able to highlight, categorize your highlights, add comments, and have discussions around the piece of content. Whether it's a video, an article, or a podcast online, you can add notes and have a centralized repository of all your thoughts, highlights and other important notes.

You're not just consuming these pieces of content, but you actually have an annotation engine that sits underneath to automatically extract the transcript, so you can then annotate the transcript.

This creates a learning experience rather than a watching experience, unlike current online learning, which is closer to a Netflix-style platform.

The Myth of Learning Styles While every person might have a way they can personally understand information easier, the truth is, everybody learns better when multiple senses are stimulated at the same time.

Many people think that if they’re an “audio-learner”, they can only learn from audio. Maybe you like audio, and it's very important to know that to help with motivation, but if you were able to find a way to motivate yourself to use both visual and auditory stimulation at the same time, you'd actually learn faster.

Joshua and his team try to provide the best experience they can to unlock the learning potential of their clients, and bring their gifts and interests to the forefront.

Becoming a Better You with Self-Teaching There are two main groups of people who tend to benefit the most from Mindstone.

The first group consists of those who are trying to make sense of a particular topic, and want to have an experience that allows them to dive deep and cultivate the learning for themselves, while still having some structure that's provided by somebody else.

These people choose to go through a course because someone has done the curation work for them, and they want to be able to take that end result (some kind of certification) to use in a new job, or to elevate themselves in their current interests.

The second group are those who are self-directed and very inquisitive.

They are already going online and self-teaching themselves various topics. They have to consume a lot of information and make sense of it on a day to day basis.

In short, both of these groups are looking to become the best version of themselves.

Mindstone can cut that work in half, allowing them to access, import, and organize their findings in their own workspace. They are able to engage with it at a much deeper level, and more importantly, to get back to the information when they need to.

When you are looking for that particularly interesting section that you read three weeks ago, in an article that you forgot, you can simply head over to Mindstone and look through your highlights in a category over the last week. You can instantly go back to the source of the article and locate all the thoughts you had at the time. You could even share that resource with somebody else and ask them to share their thoughts in the relevant comments.

Exposure and Retention Outside of Marketing People who are already self-teaching can often get burned out and struggle with prioritizing. Aside from this, it becomes difficult to retain, and to know where to go next once your line of studies seems at its end.

Mindstone helps people organize their resources and make sure they're not overwhelmed, not just because they wanted to create yet another platform, but because of the science behind it.

There is an ideal frequency at which your brain is exposed to information in order to optimize for the retention of that information. Interestingly enough, we have known this in marketing for a very long time: you want to see a brand just enough times in the same weekend, during the same month to make sure that the brand name sticks in your head.

For some reason, we're not applying this when we actually want to remember something. On the platform, when you've come across something that you want to remember, you can just highlight that particular item, and alert the system that you want to remember this.

The platform then creates a flashcard for you: a space repetition algorithm, which is that frequency that allows you to remember it.

The second part of this is recall.

These flashcards don’t simply ask you to reread the particular passage, they ask questions, use fill-in-the-blanks, and other methods to force your brain to remember everything it can about that specific concept.

Finally, the third part is creating a network of information: contexts, drawing links between different pieces of information. The way that your brain learns is by connecting new information with existing information. Various parts of the platform allow you to draw links between different content, and take note of how they are connected from your perspective.

Hitting the Books Joshua and his team are taking neuroscience, educational research and technology, and combining them to amplify and accelerate the learning process.

We’re now in an age where everyone must be a lifetime learner. We all think that, once we’ve finished university we've finally arrived, and can continue in a successful career. With the immense amount of information that is constantly being poured out globally, these studies and degrees don’t stay 100% relevant for the rest of your life. You must keep updated, and continue learning.

Above all, Joshua encourages entrepreneurs and self-teaching learners alike to persist, and that the only true mistake you can make is giving up just before you make your breakthrough.

Their big vision is to build a world where everyone is empowered to learn what they want, when they want, and how they want, and leveraging the power of the internet to do that.

To find out more about Mindstone, you can start here, or contact Joshua via Twitter.

For more content like this, head over to The Jeff Bullas Show and start listening!

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens

Dan Englander is the founder and CEO of Sales Schema, an agency that helps companies customize their B2B sales process. Currently, Dan’s team has executed over 7,000 campaigns and generated over 3,000 agency brand meetings for clients with companies like Birchbox, Stripe and Venmo.

Dan moved to New York for college in 2010. He often jokes that if you don't know what you want to do and you move to New York, you end up in the agency world. He worked on some big consumer accounts, led new businesses, and ended up landing a job as an account manager. Essentially, his job consisted of a sales and client service hybrid role, selling creative services.

At first, he didn't take ownership of the sales department, but finally realized he needed to if he wanted to make any money and help the company stay afloat to keep his job.

He started taking every training course available, and studying all tactics under the sun. They did tons of inbound marketing, and figured out what it would take to sell a complex creative services product.

A lot of sales education is about tech or something tangible: how to walk, how to talk, and how to present yourself. But Dan felt like he didn't have enough instruction on how to manage a split sales and client service role, or how to juggle things that were more abstract or complex.

Dan chose to go off on his own, and self-published a book about account management. He started getting clients who paid him to give them advice about sales. What he continued to find was the main place he could help was getting prospects in the door.

Sales Schema As he built his own company, Dan saw a need in the agency space: people selling complex marketing services to mid to large companies.

Essentially, that’s what the team at Sales Schema has done since 2014. They worked to keep the pipeline full, regardless of who their clients were, however busy their clients were.

More recently, they have expanded out to other B2B sales process services and consulting opportunities.

Scaling In the early days of the company, Dan believes they were doing what most people do with outbound sales, whether it’s through a lead generation company, or people doing it in-house.

Recently, they've reached a high point of market sophistication or skepticism about marketing services. Most businesses that aren't brand new tech products, businesses that you can do from a laptop from anywhere, are often not trusted. The scarce commodity has become trust.

Eugene Schwartz talks about the stages of market sophistication, and Dan believes this is just as true today as it was then. Eugene writes about the fifth stage of marketing sophistication, when you have the most aware buyers, and the importance of identifying with them.

In short, one of the key steps they took towards scaling was spending a lot of time up front crafting a distinctive and creative campaign. A campaign might last anywhere from several weeks up to a year, but eventually you're going to have to rethink that.

Email in the B2B Sales Process Dan tried to figure out the secret to networking for years, and eventually he just assumed that he wasn’t good at it. But as he studied the problem more closely, he found that over time, it wouldn't work for anybody that was selling anything slightly “weird.”

Especially in New York, the same dynamics work, you just have to do them digitally. When you expand out to the internet and use those tools, then your networking will really take off.

Email has matured as an important channel in the B2B sales process. People often try out email, and decide too quickly that it doesn’t work for them. After investing a lot of time and energy, nobody's opening the emails, and it starts to feel like a waste.

There was a time where you could play the numbers game, build giant lists, and see what happens. Because email providers have gotten smarter. We get less spam than we used to, which means the numbers game dynamic has changed. You still need that scale, but if you're sending to a list of a hundred people, and 10-30 mark you as spam, you're not going to be able to continue doing what you're doing for very long.

All of this has led to the increase of the personalization trend.

Some people refer to personalization as using somebody's name, but with B2B sales, the bar is much higher. You get a much higher level of personalization, which means strong connections that are almost tribal.

Though things are constantly changing, what Dan and his team has seen work for longer periods of time is channeling the old school dynamics of in-person networking.

Having the ability to put people in touch with each other who already might know each other even loosely, and being able to do some form of scaled batch outreach, will increase the likelihood of warm feelings towards the campaign.

At the most skeptical level of marketing sophistication, it's more about identification. The goal?

Creating a high quality email, very targeted, with the right messaging, rather than just sending a hundred thousand emails.

Streak Dan and his team use Streak for the G suite interface.

One of the most difficult parts of a CRM is making one thing talk to another: making data go from one place to another. Within the sales world, a huge percentage of the sales process is email and phone, and Streak lives in the Gmail inbox.

There's a lot of different email platforms, one of the bigger issues is when people are trying to do outbound through a newsletter platform, or through an inbound marketing platform.

For true success in this area, you need to make the distinction between different email platforms that handle inbound and outbound.

Having the right tools that fit your B2B sales process, without getting so lost in the system that you’re working for it rather than the other way around, is the goal.

Automation Once you have a relationship with somebody, you don't want to over automate.

The main level of automation should be happening before you build that relationship.

So, instead of focusing on increasing your automation, Dan believes what is better for followup are systems and processes. Instead of saying the same message over and over to the same type of person every other day, you might have a template that you reuse and simply “fill in a blank.”

What Dan’s team pitches to their clients is their role of creating lots of relationships, and the actual wins coming from follow up. If you have a CRM, whether it's Streak or one of the million other CRMs that can do this, using a simple filter that allows you to identify who hasn’t been contacted, and the timeline of contact. From there, it's all about thinking about distinct campaigns - thinking creatively, and figuring out a reason to re-engage them.

Once you’ve developed a dependable rhythm for your team and clients, where you know generally what works and the process you use, you can begin to make little tweaks to it.

In the B2B sales process, there isn't a lot of anecdotal data, but you will notice trends, and you’ll want to make sure you're using them to your benefit.

Taking the Next Step Dan’s top tip is investing in people first, and following that wisdom. All of the techniques and advice in the world can’t replace the voices of your clients and your team.

Second: time and motivation above everything else.

You could have the best tactics in the world, but if they don't get implemented, they fall apart.

If it's just you in that seat, you might be wearing a lot of hats, but at least you can have uninterrupted time devoted to one type of task. For example, if you're crafting an outreach campaign, work on that instead of bouncing around between things.

If you have a team, then ideally you can delegate and have somebody building the list, someone else teeing up that meeting for you, securing relationships, scheduling, and allowing you to do what you do best.

Dan has a huge amount of resources on his site. They have a live training recorded from a call on Sales Schema, and for in depth relationship-advice (not the dating kind), Salesforce is Dan’s CRM hub.

To contact Dan directly, email him at dan@salesschema.com.

For more content like this, head over to The Jeff Bullas Show and start listening!

Re Perez is a branding guy. He's the founder and CEO of Branding for the People, an award winning agency that creates world-class brands and accelerates business growth with core branding principles. Since 2011, Branding for the People has advised thousands of visionary CEOs, marketing teams and conscious businesses worldwide.

He’s also the author of the best-selling book Your Brand Should Be Gay (Even If You're Not), and hosts global leadership conferences.

Re started out as a design major at NYU and had a naturally good eye for design, but was more fascinated by linguistics, culture, psychology, and the way people behave. For this reason, he ended up getting a degree in organizational behavior and communications.

He started working with designers and creative directors, and connected them with some of the big ad agencies and branding firms in New York. One of Re’s clients ended up hiring him, and he started working for one of the top global branding firms. However, on a personal level, he was still very passionate about leveraging perception. He found himself in his early thirties, working at one of the top global branding firms, wondering why he was getting passed up for the next trajectory in his career.

In response, the global human resources director said that Re didn't have enough gray hair, meaning he didn't look old enough. At that moment, he realized that people's perception can alter the trajectory of your career.

Branding Principles Oftentimes, people equate branding principles with a logo, certain colors, or the name of the company. While those are all valid and important aspects to building a brand, that's not what brand truly is. For Re Perez, branding has a three word definition: the desired perception.

Branding is the process of creating, shaping, and influencing the desired perception you want in front of your target audience or customers. From that premise, as an entrepreneur, small business, or even a midsize company, why wouldn't you want to create the right perception to attract your ideal customers, and maybe even repel your not so ideal customers?

Branding is a very powerful discipline to influence and shape the way that we live our lives. It’s about making an impact, standing for something, and having a set of values and beliefs. When companies and even entrepreneurs and small businesses get branding right, not only can it have a dramatic impact on their business growth, but it can transform or improve the quality of consumers' lives.

The Evolution of Branding Branding is foundational, whether you're applying the marketing activities online or offline. If branding is about creating a desired perception, marketing is one of several tools to create that desired perception.

You may market on social media, organic or paid, you may market through virtual events, but either way you have to make the distinction between branding, marketing, and social media. While the tactics may change from a virtual environment to a physical event or location, your branding and approach stays the same.

The Branding Principles Below are Re’s three fundamental branding principles.

Having a clear brand strategy

What's your movement? What is your value proposition? What's the personality of your brand? What are the core brand values? What is the voice? How does the brand sound? These are all layers that contribute to brand strategy.

For example: If you're building a house, you don't necessarily start with choosing the colors or furniture you want to use. You start with the blueprint: three bedrooms, a basement, where the bathrooms are located, etc. After this, you can apply an identity (a look, a feel) to it.

Having a brand identity

First, you have the visual identity, which often includes logos and colors, but also the style of your photography, etc.

Second, there's verbal identity. What is the language and the tone you want to be associated with? For example, Starbucks uses their own terms for small, medium, large.

Having a brand website, or other marketing activities

While Re and his team focus on websites, this could be a wide range of touch points. It could be your social media, events, signage, all that sort of stuff.

Over the last 10 years, a lot of brands have become more casual in their language, more playful.

Building a Website with Branding for the People The starting point for anyone who asks Re’s team to work with their brand, is understanding what they want their website to do. They start with the objective, and the scope of work for the website. A website can be three pages, or it can be a hundred pages. Do you produce content? What are the technical requirements? Will your website need to be able to collect payments? Where's all that data going once they submit their form, or any type of information?

From there, they start building out wireframes, or the structure, using the house analogy. Where are the rooms? Where's the bathroom?

Then, you apply content - before design.

Why? Because, according to Re, content drives design. If you have a paragraph or two, that's a different design layout than if you have ten paragraphs.

What’s on Brand in Branding? Now more than ever, authenticity is important. Branding principles are all about creating an emotional connection with your customers. Most people are really looking to spend their money with companies that share the same values as their beliefs - movements that they support.

It’s more than just buying products and services, it's getting behind an organization that fits a belief system.

But how do you do social good authentically, without it simply becoming a ploy? If it's true to your brand, then it’s safe to assume that it comes with the identity of your brand. If it's not authentic to you, the audience will know.

Organize, Simplify, Amplify These are the three words that Re and his team use in their methodology of building a brand.

Building a brand is both a linear process and non-linear. Part of that process is organizing all of your ideas, your thoughts, your desires, your wishes, your vision, your business goals, and your data points.

Then, you can simplify this data into a strategy, or a brand platform. It's through that lens that you can then amplify the essence of your brand. Ideally, this should be articulated using two to three words as a concept.

For example, Harley Davidson is in the business of motorcycles, but the essence of their brand is freedom in the open. That core concept, when you simplify the data, can be used as a lens to amplify.

A brand that creates an experience that makes people feel a particular way is part and parcel of the amplify phase.

Getting Started Today What's really important about building a brand in today's society is to have brand principles that are not only authentic, but a brand that is polarizing (e.g., Your Brand Should Be Gay (Even If You're Not)). You want to attract ideal fans, and then repel the not-so-ideal fans.

Your brand should also evoke emotion and peak curiosity - it should get you to want to learn more.

Finally, a brand should spark a conversation. You want people to experience your brand, engage in a conversation with you, and then ultimately buy from you.

If you’re interested in Re’s tactics, you can find out more or contact his business here. For more free content about the constantly evolving world of business and marketing, see more episodes of my podcast here.

Your Brand Should Be Gay (Even If You’re Not): The Art and Science of Creating an Authentic Brand

Avidor Rabinovich is the managing partner of Vidalgo. The web-based software is for digital artists, animators, consumers, and collectors - allowing the creation, customization, and exchange of animated artwork. It combines NFT (Nonrefundable Token) blockchain technologies with media exposure.

For the past few years, Avidor has been leading high-tech companies in multiple sectors. He wants to take museums and galleries, and digitize them, including animations. Artists and creators can create short animations to make money, which can be part of the platform while still connecting directly with clients.

These clients might be individual buyers that wish to buy a piece of artwork, but can also appeal to people who actually believe in digital art investment. In essence, this marketplace is the meeting point between creators and artists, and allows for interaction between the artists and the stakeholders.

Blockchain Technology Recently, a piece of digital artwork was sold online for around $65 million dollars.

Blockchain technology makes sure artists continue getting paid by keeping track of purchases, and the differences in prices. For example, as the art keeps getting sold, the artist takes 10% of the difference, which means that they keep benefiting from their creation.

The art you're selling can be allowed to be sold through different mediums for media exposure, and keeps being sold to other collectors, as the original artist you still benefit from each sale.

Now, through the evolution of social media, when you create content it gets shared and can very easily be separated from the creator. Many times, Google takes that content and presents it, but they don't drive viewers to your website. Google can still monetize that by selling Google ads, essentially stealing content, or at least the profit from the media exposure.

There’s a world of underground battles going on: between the algorithms and the major platforms who are working out how they can steal stuff from the small guys, how can anyone make money?

You can start off partnering with a new, smaller social media platform, but once they become big, it will take the same path. For this reason, you have to constantly make plans for the future.

You can't control Facebook. You can't control Google. But you can control YOU. You have to ask yourself, “What can I do to control what I do?”

Media Exposure Without Large Platforms In the end, what Avidor and his team are exploring are platforms for creators that allow them to make money without relying on Google or Facebook. They provide marketing opportunities, the chance to publish on their website, social media, even emails, so that you can interact with your clients without getting stopped by paywalls or fineprint.

If you are a well-known painter, and you paint a picture, you don't sell your painting for $10. You sell from your bank for thousands or millions of dollars. With Vidalgo, you can do it before you die. This is their motivation.

Even before the digital age of media exposure, artists have always been left without proper aid. Van Gough died close to penniless, because he didn't sell any art before he died. It’s an incredibly sad truth. Here's someone who's creating beautiful art that benefited the world for generations, but he dies in poverty?

Artists are not marketers or entrepreneurs. They just want to create art because they enjoy it.

What they need are people who are able and willing to provide the rest; give them a platform that takes away the complexity of marketing lessons so that they can make money.

With just a few clicks, you can do all the complex things that you need to do using Vidalgo’s artificial intelligence technology.

To get started using Vidalgo, head over to their website here.

As humans, we're naturally creative, and Avidor is providing a platform to help those creators feed their families, make money, and maybe retire to France.

Check out more podcasts here.

David Nour is internationally recognized as the leading expert on strategic business relationships. As the author of 10 books, (click here for tips on publishing) including Co-Create and Curve Benders David serves as a trust advisor to global clients and coaches, corporate leaders and rising entrepreneurs. He also speaks about 50 to 60 times a year all around the world.

He's an adjunct professor at Emory University, and his unique insights have been featured in a variety of prominent publications, including Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

He's originally from Iran, where his parents currently live, while he’s lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 40 years. David flew into the country in 1981, and landed in JFK with a suitcase and a hundred dollars. His parents shipped him to a place where he didn’t have any connections or speak the language. On his own, he flew down to Atlanta to live with an aunt and uncle that he hadn't seen since birth.

He grew up in the U.S., finished high school, attended University, and in many ways considers the United States his home, though most of his family lives in Iran.

Business Relationships David has learned how to use strategic business relationships to accelerate growth.

Like most professionals early on, David took jobs in sales and sales management. He learnt firsthand that people only buy from people they like and trust, but these two things aren’t the only keys. David believes that people only buy from people they respect.

When he moved into sales management, he quickly learned the same lesson. People work for people they like, trust, and respect.

In this way, regardless of what any of us do, we're all fundamentally in the relationship business. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to use this to their advantage, beyond family ties.

David has noticed that, particularly in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, people build relationships first from which they do business. When he moved to the states, it seemed that if, and only if, the business part works, then people would ask the person about their family, their loved ones, or develop a personal relationship. While this trend happens in many western countries, the U.S. is a prime example.

There's a disconnect that develops because of this, particularly when we go into places and people don't look like us, sound like us, or come from our backgrounds.

After his time in sales, David got into consulting and went to graduate school. From there, he spent several years at a private equity firm which eventually shut down.

David then decided to go on a “listening tour.” He went to 35 leaders that he liked, trusted, and respected, and asked them an important question.

“What do you believe I do exceptionally well?”

The consistent response was, in essence, networking.

A lot of networking was pedestrian or retail oriented, while his background was enterprise. So David decided, why not both?

What if he helped individual leaders with their teams?

What if he could help them identify, build, and nurture over some period of time, teach them to sustain, and ultimately capitalize on their biggest asset: their portfolio of business relationships?

This led to his empire, and expertise, in strategic relationships.

Relationship Economics Relationship Economics, which also happens to be the title of one of David’s books, is in short what he teaches others to utilize.

Most of his seminal work is outlined in this book, which details how to be more intentional, strategic, and how to be more quantifiable in the relationships you choose to invest in.

The first chapter covers the top 10 reasons most networking doesn't work, and in short, it’s because there's no purpose, no goal, and no plan.

When David gets asked to work with an organization, he typically works with the CEO of that hyper-growth company. They focus on the outcomes they’re after, and unfortunately, when it comes to business relationships, a lot of people confuse output (what you do and how you do it) with outcome (which is the result or business outcome).

Next, David starts to ask the “who” questions.

Who do we need? There are no new challenges, there are no new problems: the only new challenges are the ones you haven't thought of.

They start identifying who else has seen their problems and solved them? Who else has addressed this challenge or opportunity?

Who do we know? Who already knows us, likes us, and trusts us?

Customers, partners, investors?

Who's in our existing “relationship bank” that could accelerate us to the outcome we want?

10 Mistakes in Relationship Building 1. Not knowing what your priorities are, or lack of purpose. 2. Lack of intentional interaction. 3. Lack of relationship development. 4. Haphazard and reactive efforts. 5. Not evaluating what's in it for them - asking the question “how can I help them?” 6. Not asking them directly what they need. 7. Not meeting people where they are. 8. Not investing in training your team. 9. Avoiding change/criticism. 10. Making too many to-do lists.

Everybody makes to-do lists. Very few people make “stop doing” lists. What are some things you're doing with your business relationships that are not helping you? What are some things that need to change? You need to modify it to elevate the relationships.

If you can move past these mistakes and start really interacting with people, those are relationships that will stand the test of time.

For more from David, follow any of the links to his LinkedIn and books above, or head over to his website.

Looking for your next business insight? Click here for more episodes of The Jeff Bullas Show.

Curve Benders: How Strategic Relationships Can Power Your Non-linear Growth in the Future of Work

Co-Create: How Your Business Will Profit from Innovative and Strategic Collaboration

Relationship Economics: Transform Your Most Valuable Business Contacts Into Personal and Professional Success

Crista Grasso is the founder of the Lean Out Method.

Before teaching lean business strategies, Crista started out as a fine arts major. However, she knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur, and ended up changing her course to a business degree. After graduation, she was asked to become a consultant for a startup, which is really where her journey started.

She fell into project management, a lot of strategic planning, and this created a whole new path that she never predicted. Now, Crista has been doing it for 21 years.

A Need for Improvement Crista started from a place of service, wanting to help people and make sure that they were successful. In turn, they came to her with a lot of other opportunities. She worked really hard, burnt herself out, worked around the clock and put herself in a lot of debt.

She made a lot of classic, new business mistakes that were amplified by the fact that she had a product business. A lot of inventory means the expenses were very high, and she was faced with a decision. All of her sales reps were telling her that she needed to move production to China. She felt passionately about keeping the work in the U.S., but also knew the financial reality she was in.

Somehow, Crista was able to help every other business but her own: she wasn’t applying lean business methods to her own business. This was the birth of the Lean Out Method.

The Origins of Lean Business Anyone who has spent time in a corporate job has probably heard of the term ‘lean.’ It grew out of manufacturing, and Toyota is usually the company credited for this method.

This revolutionized the way that automobiles were manufactured.

Lean business, in general, is about improving quality and eliminating waste. They were able to cut down production time, remove a lot of waste and inconsistencies from the process of how vehicles were made. As a result, they became incredibly profitable and totally exceeded other manufacturing companies in that space.

For years, people studied their methods: there were even books written in the eighties about it, which was when the word lean kind of got coined.

Evolving the Lean Out Method Crista created the Lean Out Method specifically for online entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants, though it has applications for any business.

There are four main pillars.

#1. Context If you look at most entrepreneurs who are overworked, overwhelmed, and have a lack of clarity on what to prioritize, it usually stems from the fact that they have not set their context.

Context is clarity of vision: knowing what you actually want, and deciding on the things that you're investing your time, money and energy in.

You have to look at your business model and make sure that it supports your vision, and what’s important to you holistically. Our businesses are very personal to us, and our roles in those businesses are personal, too.

Context is the backbone of everything, because when you know what you want, where you're going, and why it's important, it creates clarity for decision making.

The venn diagram of context is as follows:

You - Your Business - Your Customers

If you follow these three to the center, you’re not only going to intimately understand the context, but it will give you the direction you’re looking for.

#2. Clarity When you’re developing your lean, strategic plan, you are creating long term roadmaps as well as the fine details. You know what's important, you have the big picture, but you're also creating daily and weekly plans. Crista uses what she calls the 15x1 model to help entrepreneurs learn how to create their strategic lean business plans.

15 minutes a day, one hour a week = planning.

Allotting this time will give you clarity on what to focus on in the next 90 days, and a framework to invest just the right amount of time into planning so that you stay focused on the work.

Instead of getting lost in the maze of studying, outlining, and planning, you're actually implementing it.

Using the planner, you set the context, define your vision, list your goals, and actually put your habits in place for a day. This planning asks questions that you are forced to think through:

What does an ideal day look like for you?
What do you actually spend your time doing?

Once you get your ecosystem for success in place, then you will begin to have typical weekly and daily pages, so that you can stay laser focused and actually achieve it.

Sometimes we think of ourselves as machines that we can use to achieve what we want, and forget that we're human beings with bodies and souls, needs and desires. We can’t just pull the lever everyday for the rest of our lives and expect the same results.

This means, ideally, we need to not only have healthy boundaries between our work and our personal lives, but we also need to find a way to incorporate what matters to us into what we do in our day-to-day work.

#3. Commitment To Crista, commitment means doing whatever it takes to achieve your goals, and make your vision a reality. This can be easily mistaken for the hustle mentality: 24/7, work around the clock, sacrifice, exercise, and if you still don’t make it, you might as well burnout trying.

Instead, be committed to keep going when the mindset blockers come up, when you start to doubt.

Is this going to work?
Is this idea really good enough?
Is anybody going to want this?
Am I the right person to do this?

We all have these things that come up at different points in our journey, but commitment means having a growth mindset. It's staying focused on what you said you were going to do, and persevering when things get tough.

This doesn’t just mean directly business-related things, but applies to your ecosystem for success. For example, if you promised yourself to meditate every single morning because it puts you in the best headspace you can be in, or a walk with your dog every evening to unwind, follow through on that.

Know the things that help you operate at your best, and commit to doing those things. Do not under any circumstances give it up.

#4. Kaizen Kaizen is a lean concept that's all about small continuous improvements and changes for the better. In short, it’s about reviewing, measuring, reflecting, and analyzing. What's working versus what's not working?

There's two important concepts when talking about “lean business.”

Eliminating the things that aren't working
Doubling down on and optimizing the things that are working

You can’t do these things if you don't take the time to reflect and analyze the data/information you have. Maybe it’s something you still find fulfilling. Maybe it’s still in alignment with where you want to take your business but it's just not something that you're doing at the moment. Metrics and data are critical.

People forget that they're here for the long game, whether that’s your business, or the principles you live by, and persistence and patience are very important in playing that game.

Some important data that Crista highly recommends focusing on:

Conversion rates
Optimizing > Restarting
Engagement

Starting to Reflect Finally, Crista suggests two questions for entrepreneurs to start their reflection journey.

Is this necessary?
Is there a better way (to do less and get the same or better)?

If you really give yourself the space to think about that, you will find that there's a lot of things that you yourself don't need to do.

If you don’t yet have clarity on your vision or your business model, start there, because that will help you answer those questions.

To find more about Crista and her team, or to learn from their lean business strategies, they provide workshops to help people lean things out, get simplicity in place, develop systems, build your team, and position yourself to scale, all easily accessible on their website.

For more content like this, check out the Jeff Bullas Show.

Trent Dyrsmid is a serial entrepreneur, a husband and father, and the founder of Bright Ideas. Bright Ideas is a podcast he started in 2010, when people didn't even know how to spell podcasting (let alone use podcast marketing as a business strategy).

He's had nearly 10 years experience with digital marketing and eCommerce, and interviews eCommerce entrepreneurs and other fascinating people in that niche on his podcast.

Profit magazine named Trent’s company as Canada's Profit 100 Fastest Growing Companies for two years in a row before he sold it in 2008. Business in Vancouver magazine also named Trent a Top 40 under 40 entrepreneur.

Bright Ideas Podcast Trent first started with writing. He quickly realized that in order to make his blogs successful, he was going to have to write a lot, and while he could write, and even wrote a book on top of the hundreds of blog posts, it was not his favorite thing to do.

When one of his mentors and greatest inspirations started a podcast, Trent decided to start one too. He knew it would be an easy way to create content, which would then attract an audience to sell his stuff to. But something very unexpected happened, which led Trent to encourage virtually everyone to start a podcast.

Trent believes that being a podcast host is the single greatest networking tool he’s ever discovered. Podcast marketing enables you to email a complete stranger, set up a conversation, and extend an invitation to them to be on your side.

Of course, it doesn't work every single time. If you email someone who is fairly famous, they’re probably going to say no. They already have plenty of visibility on their own platform. Still, there are lots of people who like being on shows, and being asked questions. It's a way to begin building a relationship in a very efficient way. You can go to conferences, which is time consuming and expensive, and maybe you'll meet somebody interesting, but it’s more luck-based.

With a podcast, you can be very specific about who you want to reach out to, and how you utilize your resources.

Lessons in Podcast Marketing Recently, Trent posted a YouTube video about some of the biggest lessons podcast marketing has taught him. Below are a few of the highlights:

1) Having an Editorial Calendar

Planning your content in advance allows you to align any product launches with relevant content. Trent admits that before podcasting, he didn't utilize this, but now he considers it a vital tool for maximizing your efforts and content. He recommends asking yourself these questions:

What am I going to produce, and why am I going to produce it?
Who am I going to interview?
Are there any other connections or opportunities I am missing?

2) Amplification Using Ads

Trent believes his single greatest mistake was not putting ad dollars towards promoting the show. Early on, when there wasn't a whole lot of competition, it was relatively easy to get traction, but these days there's an endless number of shows, and the production quality of the shows has gone up.

First of all, it’s really effective to get on other people's shows, because you’re tapping into an existing audience that is hopefully looking for more creators and content somewhat similar to what they’re already consuming. This is a key component to podcast marketing.

To truly succeed, you need to become proficient with advertising.Trent would dabble in it, and he would lose money every single time because he didn't really know what he was doing.

There are very clear and well-defined best practices when it comes to creating campaigns, and it's a huge waste to stay ignorant in this area.

3) Investing in Equipment

To keep up, you've got to make sure that you have good audio, which means no cheap microphones. Most people still listen to podcasts, rather than watching them. Making sure that you have really good audio, and that you're recording in a dedicated space to avoid interference like dogs barking is incredibly important.

4) YouTube

For many years, Trent’s show was audio only, and he did a survey at some point asking: Do you listen to the show, or do you watch the show? The vast majority of people said they listened to the show, and because there was a lot of extra work in producing the video version, he simply chose not to do it.

Now, Trent has a full team, including a video editor, and while it’s not easy to do, you eventually must get to the point where you have the systems, the people, and the teams to get on YouTube. YouTube is an incredibly powerful place, so if you're not putting your show on YouTube, you're just missing out on views.

If you're going to go through the effort to create the content in the first place, you might as well try and get as many views and downloads as you can.

Adventures in “Aha Moments” Trent has had two “aha moments” that have radically changed how he approaches his business.

The first? Repurposing Content.

When you produce a show, you get a 40 minute long piece of video, but very few people who haven't listened to your show before are going to listen to all of a 40 minute show. Especially if you don't get to the good stuff within the first 5 to 10 minutes of the show, these new listeners are not going to stick around.

For this reason, Trent and his team developed a system that they call the “Social Media Content Engine.” Basically, they take the raw content, watch it through, and search for 15-32 second clips, 1 minute clips, and 5 minute clips of the best pieces of the conversation.

They then follow their standard operating procedures to turn 1 piece of content into somewhere between 50 to 100 social media posts. In the beginning he didn't do this because, as one might imagine, the process sounds daunting.

It sounds like an incredible amount of work, but if you have the right systems in place, and you employ a virtual assistant or two, they can be the ones to follow the systems and do the majority of the work.

Trent goes into detail about this system in his published playbook, available for anyone who wants to use their system for content repurposing, all through Flowster.

In the first week of using this content engine, they had a 78% increase in the number of social media posts with no more labor on Trent’s part. They also had a 380% increase in engagements, and their engagement rate per post was 167% higher than before.

The second “aha moment” was using paid amplification, or advertising.

Much to his detriment, Trent had largely ignored advertising because he always incorrectly thought that if he produced enough great content, people would just find it.

10 years ago, you could get away with that to a certain degree, and for many, many years, he didn't have a real way to monetize his show, including sponsors. In truth, it simply hadn't occurred to him. In any case, Trent wasn't really in the selling/training courses space: he was the content creator!

Anytime that he did dabble with trying to create any type of ad campaign, he would lose money, and it just seemed massively overwhelming. There's so many variables to test, and then how are you going to monetize it? Instead, Trent focused on the things that he knew how to do.

For the last few years, thanks to the support of some affiliates, Trent really didn't need to worry that much about traffic. They were making a lot of money, and looking back, Trent labels this as the “fat, dumb, and happy” stage.

This lasted until Trent was introduced to the idea of Rapid Testing:

What problem is the most pressing problem that my target audience of business owners might want to buy a solution to, and what are the words that they use to describe that problem?
Too many users churn out the software too quickly, which is the kiss of death for software, so many startup entrepreneurs fail for this reason.
Then, who should he sell his material to?

Using Canva or some type of app, you're going to make a square (800x800 pixels) and put it on some unusual background - two colors, or something that is going to interrupt people's pattern as they're scrolling. You don’t want to use a picture of a girl or a car, just something unusual that will capture their attention for just a split second. Then, you're going to put a statement, just one short sentence on the ad.

This is the sentence that describes the problem, or a problem that you think your potential target audience might have. For example:

“I'm not getting enough leads.”

“I'm having a hard time delegating work to my team.”

“My team's letting work fall through the cracks.”

“I don't have enough appointments in my calendar.”

These statements create a level of curiosity to generate clicks. You’re not looking for conversions, leads, or sales, just clicks.

Using these statements, you need to make 1 ad per target audience. Pick a target audience between 1 and 5 million (Facebook pages help with finding this information). If it's more than 5 million, the data's not good.

Now, run the ad set and see what happens. Here’s what you’re looking for:

400 impressions
At least five clicks
Cost per result at less than 50 cents

If something gets 13 clicks on only 400 impressions, that tells you that this statement is covering a very real problem.

Using this method, in the space of a week, you can test 100 to 400 different messages, or problem statements.

Flowster Trent and his team started writing the code for Flowster in the summer/fall of 2017, and they spent a year writing code before they had their MVP. Flowster is essentially a thorough resource for startups, including a team ready for troubleshooting. In fall of 2018 it was finally released, but Flowster was never really marketed as an independent software company until recently.

Flash forward to 2021, and Trent realized that he was doing a disservice to himself and the company by not marketing the software company as a standalone software company. Really, WEBS - the original collection of standard operating procedures they had to offer - was just one playbook.

Now, they have tons of them, and they're creating more through partnerships all the time. Trent compared Flowster to Netflix: why would you want Netflix if there was only one movie? It would only be interesting to people who were interested in that movie. The team decided to add more “movies” and “TV shows” to appeal to a larger audience.

What was the big problem Trent was trying to solve? He actually started it for himself, as a solution to the work that was slowing him down during the early stages.

Trent realized that, in addition to owning the content, the standard operating procedures, he should probably own the software layer as well.

That was why they decided to create Flowster.

Podcast Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs Scaling can be difficult (in fact, we talk about it a lot on The Jeff Bullas Podcast, including this interview with Andrew Barlow). Trent’s tips focus on the simplest and best ways to succeed in scaling podcast marketing.

1) Hire an Assistant

Trent wisely notes that if you don't have an assistant, you are the assistant. The very first thing that you should do is hire an assistant, whether they are virtual assistants, overseas, personal assistants, regardless of what job you need them to do, you need to get help.

2) Create Procedures

Put systems in place so that when you hire people, they don't have to have experience in your business to know what you expect. All they need to do is follow instructions, and execute those procedures. Basic market research, looking up contact information, managing your inbox: whatever it is, look at what sucks up your time, and identify which of those things can be translated into a simple process for someone else to handle.

For more from Trent, you can follow his wisdom for free through Twitter, or learn more about his work through any of the links already provided. Interested in more content like this? Check out The Jeff Bullas Show!

Evan Cummack Evan is the CEO of Fin, a company shaping the future of work.

Fin Analytics is a cloud-based, comprehensive measurement platform for operations that helps with running your business, driving efficiency, and reducing operating expenditures through data-driven process improvements.

Prior to Fin, Evan was a General Manager at Twilio, the fastest growing SaaS company in history by revenue. Evan joined Twilio in 2011 as one of the company’s early employees and helped to shape the company's unique "middle out" sales strategy, as well as led the development of new products and businesses over the course of a decade.

Twilio Twilio was started in 2008. Evan joined towards the end of 2010, as the company was raising series B financing, but still had a very small team

Evan was a founding member of the go-to market team. Within a few days, they went from a relatively self-service, basic company to an active enterprise solution, putting sales into motion by taking their product to market.

The idea for Twilio came from one of the founders, who had worked on various projects prior. In each of those cases, there was a problem that he was trying to solve as a software developer. Every function had quite a bit of exposure or experience with software development, and as a software developer, he felt that he should be able to build things. At that time, telecommunications phone systems couldn’t do anything, and it was dominated by companies that would install hardware and configure it for you.

Cloud computing was emerging at the time, AWS was growing very rapidly, and it seemed possible for the first time to take a closed off network that carries billions of dollars of economic value over a year, (the telecommunications network), and discover ways to expose that to the millions of software developers around the world who will be able to do creative things with it.

That was really the genesis of the company, and that philosophy stuck with the company for a long time. Eventually they grew to a point of expanding into other types of products that were not strictly involved in telecommunications, but it was enough to keep them busy for a number of years early on.

Savannah Peterson As a Forbes 30 under 30, Savannah has an incredible repertoire under her belt.

She’s worked at Fox Sports, was the Director of Innovation Strategy at Speck Design, among other accomplishments, and started Savvy Millennial. Now, she teaches entrepreneurship and other relevant topics for running your business at Stanford, NYU, PACE, and Xavier.

Savvy Millennial In short, Savannah and her team want to make the future less scary by building community around new technology.

Specifically, they work almost exclusively with series A, high-growth startups who are looking to get to their first thousand or 10,000 customers.

Using a variety of carefully crafted tools and techniques, Savvy Millennial is a company that helps up-and-coming businesses build their brand, market themselves to the correct audience, and create their unique culture and community.

Community For these two professionals, community is considered to be their first defensible asset. If people are passionate about the solution that you provide, they'll ride with you through pivots and through the ups and downs that every early stage company has.

To achieve this loyalty, it’s important to be engaging, transparent and authentic about user feedback, and keep consistent communication with your early customers while running your business.

When a company chooses to build up the community around their product, reinforce why that product adds value to that person, and encourage them to share that story, not only are they changing the size of their marketing teams, they're also tapping into the key to achieving a repeatable enterprise situation.

There are two important realities. The first reality is that everyone wants to work as efficiently and intelligently as possible. The second is that every single human being works differently. We all have different processes for how we use programs, log into zoom, or work in a document, and when we are aware of those processes, we're able to figure out how everyone can work more efficiently and raise the water level together.

This is what the team at Fin hopes to do.

Fin Fin is the answer to the technology bottlenecks that are holding people up, causing frustrations, or causing problems. Starting with the understanding that most enterprise work today happens inside a web browser, Evan and his team decided to start instrumenting the browser itself.

They started by seeking to understand all the different applications that people use during the day. What are the tasks that they're completing? What are the workflows that they're following? How are they using these different applications to make these decisions?

Fin uses UCI laid on top of collected data to gain insights, and make the best recommendations.

Fin allows you to perform the studies you need without sampling. You're actually looking at the entire population, the entire data set of all work being done, and using that to make inferences.

With the explosion of software as a service, it's completely changed the way we work: instead of the CTO, or someone dictating the software you’re going to use and exactly how to perform certain tasks, an enterprise will simply go and find their own tools.

It's great for entrepreneurs, because you can very easily create these highly specific SaaS programs, but it makes it harder for an IT department or an enterprise to actually understand what is being done/used on a regular basis.

Applications for Running Your Business With the current situation being as it is, Fin has started providing a tool that identifies how people are working, no matter where they are. This led to some incredibly important insights.

First, it provides information on wifi and computer performance, which means they can provide insights about a particular cohort of workers who may not be delivering as much as everyone else simply because they've got slow internet.

For obvious reasons, this prevents conflicts, miscommunication, and higher retention rates. Rather than looking at the numbers and making undeserved cuts, you can invest in giving these people better technology to use at home.

Evan operates on the assumption that all team members want to do their best work, and therefore removing roadblocks, whether that's bad software, bad networks or bad training, is an objectively helpful thing to do.

Addressing the Big Challenges Still, there are always certain challenges that pop up, regardless of the stage you’re in, or the measures you take to gain experience running your business.

#1. Onboarding How do you make it simple for people to onboard?

When Evan left Twilio, they had around 8 million customers. Because of this, they obviously needed a model that was self-service oriented, or at least self-service compatible.

The bottom line is, you can't be in the room all the time, and your customers need to be able to trial your product in order to make a decision to use it. This has to happen whether you can be in the room or not. From Evan’s perspective, facilitating that aspect of the community to be as hands-on with customers during the onboarding process as possible, even if it's a relatively rapid process, is a huge part of successful community and product design.

It takes a couple of hours for the team at Fin to onboard most customers, but they are still actively involved in that. They might not get to meet all of their customers, but they get to understand their problems.

When it comes to scaling, they are investing heavily in building tools that allow people to onboard themselves. One of the nice things about the technological approach that they’ve decided to take towards this particular problem is that they are focused on things that happen inside a web browser. This lowers the technical barrier, versus some of the other practices that have been used historically.

#2. Retaining The truth? Both Savannah and Evan claim people stay for the community.

One of the key moves that Finn made in the early, pre-pandemic times was hosting dinners and inviting the community to them. This is where many of their initial customers actually converted from. Their customers feel like they have friends on the team, and everyone has personal access without overwhelming the staff.

When it comes to customer solutions, they have a strong rapport with their customers because they’re very candid.

As they are expanding globally, they look forward to bringing their community together, both virtually and in-person. In fact, they plan on creating a show around it.

The tactic of overly aggressively trying to fit a product to a customer that was never a great fit in the first place will always lead to losing members of your community.

Tips For Running Your Business First, talk to your customers early and often.

Think about the community that surrounds your business, and build yourself up from that.

There is a healthy tension that always exists between the marketing community and product, but the reality is, if you build it and it's just sitting there, they won't come.

Talking to your customers about the good stuff as well as the bad, and learning how to take constructive criticism even when your loudest users are not actually correct in their assumptions, is so critical.

Look for the needs. Don't just make another thing to make another thing: innovate, don't iterate.

According to Evan, a common mistake made by those on the executive level is self-validating ideas.

This happens when you’re “talking” to your customers and getting feedback, but what you're really doing is trying to validate that you are correct. Whether on purpose or not, you end up asking loaded questions or interpreting things in a way that confirms your biases.

Instead, learning to actually listen to any problems, or improvements, can make a huge difference early on, and is an underused resource.

Along the same lines, it can be quite easy to get overwhelmed with managing all of the various social networks, and their unique systems. Comparison is a poison:

“There's so many people doing this already!” It's kind of like Instagram, where people show the most polished, perfect images they can, often missing the more realistic parts of life.

For beginners, there is a tendency to do the same thing: it’s easy to look at all these companies, their techniques, and get distracted by their success. It’s unhealthy for your personal life, and it’s just as unhealthy for the business.

The better thing to do is focus on the specific problem that you're solving within your own team. Talk with your customers, understand their problems, and make sure that you're solving it in a way that builds rapport and loyalty with your clients.

Finally, give yourself a mental health break.

Running your business, scaling a business, everything that we do is incredibly hard. If you're reading this, you're probably doing something very challenging that may or may not have been done before, and you need to give yourself credit for that endeavor. Part of that means taking care of yourself, and giving yourself the grace to continue innovating and making mistakes.

If you don't put your own oxygen mask on first, you can't help others. If you haven’t polished your current process, you can’t go get new customers. You can't close bigger deals and you can't hire the best team possible.

In the end, we are holistic human beings. We're working hard to make the world better, but don't forget that you've got a soul, a heart and a mind and a body that needs to be nourished.

Dave Lavinsky is a serial entrepreneur, having founded several companies in industries from consumer products and services to software, websites, and technologies. He’s been running Growthink, a consulting information products firm, since 1999 and in that time has helped over half a million entrepreneurs and business owners. His main areas of expertise are developing business plans, raising capital, and methodical and sustained growth. He’s also written a book called Start at the End about how companies can grow bigger and faster by reversing their business plan.

How it Started Lavinsky was at business school from 1997 to 1999, which coincided with the rise of the Internet. Many of his classmates at that time were creating and launching internet companies. He discovered he had a knack for developing business plans, a skill which every entrepreneur needed. He began helping his classmates with business planning.

At the same time, he had jobs working in local juice bars just to earn some money, and he wanted to launch a smoothie that would be sold in supermarkets. He worked on planning that as well. One day, his wife came home and told him she was pregnant, and that’s when he decided he needed a more sustainable income. He decided to create business plans for customers on the side while he pursued his smoothie company.

The Los Angeles Times wrote an article about his budding business. The day it was published, he got a flood of emails and calls that really took his business off the ground, and showed that there was a real need for the services he was providing.

Keys to Growing the Best Companies Lavinsky has spent a lot of time understanding what makes the best companies, and for him two things stand out.

Great People. Nobody can create a successful business on their own. Finding the right people to bring in new ideas and perspectives is crucial.
Great Systems. The business should run smoothly without you. Organization and time management are all aspects that technology can help with.

With these keys, entrepreneurs can focus on growing a business instead of the day to day intricacies of running it.

How Technology Has Transformed Business There have been two major developments that have transformed the business world. They are social media and smartphones. These technologies have changed how people communicate, consume products, and store information.

Social Media Lavinsky believes that every business owner should have a good grasp of their consumers’ use of social media and how best to leverage it for growth. Social media campaigns can be effective for increasing brand awareness for consumer products and interacting with customers.

Smartphones Enterprise and consumer-based businesses should create products, services, and communication techniques that work well in a mobile environment. While typically enterprise customers will interact through traditional computers, the transition to mobile should still be seamless.

The Power of Content Content marketing is a vital part of developing business plans for modern brands. It allowed Lavinsky to transition his company from a service provider to a product provider, which creates a more consistent revenue stream- products are much more scalable than services are. He has also found that many businesses are in need of content to promote themselves on the Internet.

Reducing Churn It costs seven times more to onboard a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. Business owners should be willing to spend money to keep existing customers by investing in that relationship. Showing reciprocity can help customers develop loyalty and good favor with you, which will reduce churn. In addition, do research on people who do leave to see what their reasons were to end their relationship with your company. Once you find areas that are causing a lot of churn with your customers, you can implement policies to fix those problems.

Writing Great Business Plans A good plan should be able to, concisely, explain what the company will do. Lavinsky has talked to many entrepreneurs who cannot answer that question well, and that is the first sign of trouble. A sentence or two that defines the company will help create a sense of direction. It will also be harder to get customers and capital if others struggle to understand what you’re trying to do.

The second element is an entrepreneur should be able to answer this question: why are you uniquely qualified to succeed? This can include things like experience in the field, relationships with customers, contacts with potential business partners, etc. The exercise of answering this question can itself lead to better ideas for business growth.

Funding a Business With cloud computing and the internet, it has become cheaper than ever to start a business. This means that entrepreneurs can start with virtually no money, but there is also more competition in each space.

What Lavinsky finds particularly interesting is the rise of crowdfunding. Gone are the days when a few wealthy people decided which businesses would make it to market. Now, funding is democratized with anyone able to chip in to an idea they think will do well. This also provides a great market research opportunity for budding business owners: if people contribute to your fund, it means they’re interested. Otherwise, you get your first indication that this idea might not work with consumers.

Tips For New Entrepreneurs Lavinsky has the following advice for anyone starting out developing business plans for a new venture:

Don’t be afraid to share your ideas. It’s not the idea that matters, it’s the execution. Let people support you and give you feedback early and often.
Don’t act on a new idea right away. Think about it over a few weeks and really consider if it will work.
You don’t have to write your business plan until you know you have a viable product. After that, it’s worth writing one to create a roadmap.

With these tips and a solid idea, entrepreneurs will be well equipped to begin creating an actual business and driving it successfully to market.

Start at the End

Akeel Jabber is a technology investment director at HoriZen Capital. The firm invests and acquires Software as a Service (SaaS) companies. But he actually started out in a completely different industry: petroleum. As a petroleum engineer, he worked around Alberta Canada optimizing wells and drilling sites.

Seven years ago, he made the leap to entrepreneurship, although his interest in business started all the way back in his university days. In college, he started a recruitment firm, which gave him his first taste of leading a business. Even earlier than that, he started investing in the stock market. He made some money, and lost some money. What he learned was that public markets are volatile, and it’s hard to predict earnings.

Meanwhile, regular people have to compete with Wall Street hedge funds, who have access to far more capital and can take much bigger risks. They also have incredibly advanced algorithms that can predict which trades to make to maximize profits based on a number of different factors.

Jabber’s Journey to HoriZen Capital Jabber discovered his passion in finding a way to replace his income with passive investments and assets. He dabbled in real estate in Canada, which provided good returns. At that point however, he was 25 years old. The real estate market was just growing too slowly for him: he wanted something with a higher reward. That’s when he invested in a physical business - a franchise gym in Canada. He learned about recurring revenue and managing contracts. Even in that model, he felt the limitations - scaling up was incredibly expensive.

Then he discovered a solution: online businesses. These businesses have the same potential for growth as physical businesses but with much fewer incurred costs. He learned about online SaaS marketing, search engine optimization, and handling growth online. He got involved with a firm that was acquiring businesses, and came on as the CEO of a small online business. Within five months, he was able to double that business’ bottom line, which showed him that he had the skill to make a difference in this space.

Two years ago, Jabber left that firm to focus on launching his own - HoriZen Capital, with a particular emphasis on working with SaaS companies. At that point in his career, his focus shifted from generating income and maximizing returns for those businesses to empowering entrepreneurship by providing mentorship and financial resources.

The Acquisition Process What excites Jabber most about SaaS marketing is how quickly his products can make an impact, and how quickly he can get feedback from users. There are many different opportunities for growth and innovation. He prefers partnering with founders who have the technical expertise to build fantastic products, and then Jabber can come in with SaaS marketing and sales knowledge.

When he finds a partner to work with, the first thing he does is evaluate the growth opportunities. He finds playbooks to apply that would make a positive difference in the growth rate of the business. He and his team focus on data. After looking at the company’s traffic and conversions, as well as the people at the company and the ideas and skills they have, he makes a game plan on how to help. This includes thinking of other monetization strategies, minimizing lead loss, reducing overhead, and developing strategic partnerships.

SaaS Marketing and Lifetime Value of Customers Churn is always a problem with SaaS marketing. With so many products available on the market just a click away, keeping clients around requires both a stellar product and a stellar customer-company relationship.

Under 2% a month of churn is a good place to be according to Jabber, but of course the best scenario is to have negative churn - where companies can keep customers around and continue to upsell them.

Data collection on churn is a big challenge, but incredibly useful for companies to do. It will help them find out why customers are leaving, how long they stay on average, and what they can do on a product and service level to change those numbers. Jabber has found that with even a 1% reduction in churn, a company can see exponential growth in revenue.

Investing in a good onboarding experience is crucial in minimizing churn. Showing the value of a product as quickly as possible after onboarding will help customers stick around rather than growing frustrated with learning a new software. Following a subscription model is another great way to keep customers on the product for longer.

Reaching customers is a challenge as well - Jabber has found that search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising were the best ways to go. Paid advertising requires more fine tuning with making sure that the money going into it is leading to the acquisitions that are needed to keep costs low and get a return. SEO on the other hand continues to reap benefits for years without a lot of monetary investment.

HoriZen Capital As it stands, HoriZen Capital has grown to eight people, and they help six to eight CEOs a week with everything from selling their businesses to growing their customer base. Originally, they would take control of 51% of the business, but over time they stepped off the gas to work with founders who were less willing to sell their companies to partners. They then work on increasing year-over-year growth and then look for further investment from venture capitalists or take over full control at that point.

Now that Jabber has found an industry that he is truly passionate about, and feels like he can make the most impact in, he’s doubling down on this field with his work at HoriZen Capital. SaaS marketing is more and more in demand, with more buyers and a growing number of companies entering the space.

With COVID and everyone being more remote, people are getting comfortable with adapting to online platforms to do tasks. Also, the media community is growing. Online content marketing and creation is becoming more and more important. With people moving online, the innovation in the SaaS space continues to excite Jabber for what’s to come.

Alex Pirouz’s entrepreneurial journey started at the age of 13 when he got involved in a school charity fundraiser selling chocolate door-to-door. He had always been a good communicator and he enjoyed working with people to accomplish a goal. After quitting school halfway through his eleventh year, he went on to launch businesses in the property, health, publishing, and advertising industries with no real success.

Hitting rock bottom at the age of 26 and having less than $1,500 to his name, he decided to give it one last roll of the dice partnering with a friend to launch a door-to-door sales company in Wollongong. Over the space of 18 months, he managed to scale the business into a seven-figure company employing over 45 staff.

After successfully exiting that business he went on to launch and exit another business in the automotive industry before moving back to Sydney to start his own advisory firm. Using LinkedIn selling to grow that business, he saw a need for LinkedIn marketing services with other growing businesses, and so he launched his eighth company, linkfluencer.

Motivation is Key Pirouz was originally driven by money. To this day, he believes this was the reason he failed in his first four businesses - he was only chasing monetary success. He worked with a mentor who taught him to instead pivot his focus to two things - impact and legacy. As soon as Alex made that change in his thinking, he became much more successful.

His end goal is to create community housing around the world that will get kids off the street and into good homes. This includes not only a roof over their heads, but also educating them and then introducing them into the workforce. This is the impact he wants, and in order to materialize this goal, he needs concrete results. He is motivated to get these results by the thought of the positive impact he could have on the world.

Discovering the Power of LinkedIn Selling LinkedIn selling and marketing became Pirouz’s passion project. His seventh business was an advisory firm, which he grew entirely through LinkedIn’s platform. Pretty soon at his seminars, people were asking more questions about how he managed to fill the room via LinkedIn rather than about the topic of the seminar. That’s when he realized there was an opportunity in that space.

He sat back and took a look at all the campaigns he’d been running on LinkedIn and noticed that there was a similar process behind each one that was leading to its success. That’s how he got the idea for linkfluencer.

Over the course of the next few years, Pirouz discovered that while customers saw how useful LinkedIn selling was for growing a business, they couldn’t manage it themselves. Keeping track of all the conversations, contacts, and content was unwieldy at best and nightmarish at worst. Scaling conversations and lead generation required a more software-orientated approach. This inspired Pirouz to create Jayla, which simplifies lead management for anyone on LinkedIn, at a price point that is affordable.

Common Pitfalls on LinkedIn The biggest problem Pirouz sees with people on the platform is that they don’t have a consistent strategy. They are sporadic with the conversations they have and end up wasting time without a proper step-by-step process to follow.

Jayla can help customers by keeping track of potential opportunities and reminding people when follow ups are necessary. The process looks like this:

A customer marks someone as a potential opportunity in Jayla
They supply a date for when they want to follow up with that opportunity
Jayla sends the customer an email with a list of opportunities that require follow ups.

Building a Good Strategy for Lead Generation One of the problems with LinkedIn is many people don’t know what the outcome is that they’re looking for when leveraging the platform.

Lay the Foundations Have a clear concept in mind for what it looks like when your LinkedIn selling strategy has succeeded. If there is a certain sales target, use that.

Create a Profile Who is the customer that will be most interested in your product, and will they provide the path of least resistance to getting your target met? Create a profile that you will use to find ideal candidates on LinkedIn.

Get Your Targeting Right This part is crucial. Create a profile and message that will be the most compelling to your target audience. Use that to reach out to potential customers.

Implement Have actual conversations that will lead to sales. Software like Jayla can help scale this step to make it much easier to maximize sales opportunities.

How a Small to Medium Business Owner Can Use Jayla The first step is to go through the online program to get your strategy locked down. Then you will have to implement that process, and when opportunities open up, keep track of them.

Jayla’s features allow you to find someone on LinkedIn who matches your profile and add them as an opportunity. You can include information such as the likelihood that the deal will close, the stage the customer is in, and more. You can also include a date for follow up. Then, on the Jayla homepage, you can see, in chronological order, all the leads you need to follow up with.

With everything included in Jayla, you don’t need to buy another CRM or have spreadsheets to keep track of all of your LinkedIn contacts. Jayla also has a reporting functionality, which tells you how many invites you’ve sent, how many people have accepted, and so on. This allows you to perform analytics on the quality of your customer profile, conversations, leads closed, and the time you spend on LinkedIn.

You can also filter opportunities by location and deal price to prioritize who to meet and when. With all these features put together, it is a powerful platform to expand your market share.

These tips will help anyone keep clients longer and grow their business using LinkedIn selling.

Twelve years ago, Dennis Williams was running a mortgage company when an account manager from a large bank dropped by and posed the question; “How can our clients pay off their mortgage in half the time without changing their spending?”

What surprised Dennis the most about the answer to this question was that interest rates didn’t matter. He couldn’t believe it at first - it ran counter to all financial wellness advice in the United States. But he did the math and discovered it was true. At that point, he started developing a tool to share with other customers. With some financial backing, he was able to create it as an application called Cash Map.

The Budgeting Mindset Many people dislike budgeting because it makes them feel poor. More specifically, it makes them feel as if they are taking away from the happiness they feel today. It creates a mindset of scarcity. Instead, Dennis Williams recommends the following approach to financial wellness. Consider the next five, ten, fifteen, or even twenty years. What are the things that you want to do or have in that time that will bring you the most joy? Then, use those to motivate yourself to save.

Common things that bring people joy are:

Finding more time to spend with loved ones.
Taking vacations.
Retiring early.
Funding education for kids.

Make Your Money Work For You Banks make money by collecting interest. Typically this is done by calculating an individual’s outstanding balance on a loan on a daily or monthly basis, and then using a compounding or simple interest formula to determine the amount in interest that is owed.

Williams gives an example of how leveraging interest can work in our favor. Suppose an individual has a bank account where they can accrue twenty percent interest on their savings account. In this scenario, this person will put money into the account as fast as possible to maximize the growth of their hard-earned money. They’ll also wait until the last possible moment to withdraw money to pay their bills.

When people deposit their paycheck, the money sits in their checking account doing absolutely nothing until their bills get paid. Meanwhile, their credit line continues to accrue interest based on their outstanding balance. What Williams suggests doing instead is to put that money directly into your line of credit rather than your bank account. This reduces the outstanding balance and thus reduces the amount of interest that your bank can charge you. The money that you save on interest you can then invest, which will grow in the market and you’ll end up making more money in the long run, decrease your debt, and improve your financial wellness.

You’ll then be in a much better position financially to do the things that you know will bring you the most joy in life.

Financial Wellness with the CashMap App CashMap is available both on the Apple Store and on Google Play. The lowest cost is $15.99 for a monthly subscription, or $249 for lifetime access, with upgrades included. Williams’ goal is to show people that with small changes in how they spend their money they can dramatically improve their financial wellness.

He is not asking people to budget. There are plenty of great budgeting tools out there, and as he has seen, people don’t like budgeting anyway. It can be both overwhelming and demoralizing. Instead, the tool simply asks what they are currently spending on a monthly basis. Even if a household only has $100 left over, the tool will find ways to make that $100 go as far as possible in reducing debt.

The next step of the tool asks users for the date that they pay their bills. They enter additional information such as other outstanding loans (car loans, etc.), what percent of their paycheck they set aside for savings and the rate of growth of their savings, and other relevant data. Finally, the tool asks for the loan that the user is trying to pay off, typically the one with the highest interest rate.

Once all that information is given, CashMap returns a hard date on which the money will be paid off, the amount of interest the user will save, and what the savings growth will look like over the life of the loan.

Results Williams has seen interest savings of over $50,000 on a consistent basis for users on the app. Total savings growth is around half a million dollars - no small sum for most families. He has also noticed that when people see the amount they could save, they start to find ways to increase their income or decrease their spending to maximize their financial wellness. The app allows them to save and create new scenarios with changes in income and savings so that they can compare and see what the impact would be of, say, an additional $500 a month in the bank.

Spreading Knowledge When Williams first created the app, it was meant to be self-involved. But he started to get feedback that people didn’t understand how to create plans to meet their financial goals, and they didn’t trust their bankers to guide them through it. He then created an eight-week coaching course that walks people through the process one step at a time.

He wants people to feel guided and empowered to take charge of their own finances. In his experience, less than a third of people feel like they can do this on their own. Most people don’t have the financial expertise to understand the nuances of interest and banking. This coaching program helps people feel more in control of their money.

Twice a month, he conducts a free live webinar where he answers questions from people related to financial wellness. He also makes himself available to have direct chats with people to get a better sense of their individual circumstances. He strongly believes that by spreading his knowledge in this area, he can help others leverage the same techniques that banks use to make money.

Lance Mortlock has spent his career working in the strategy space. Early on, he was part of a team at Shell looking into its planning processes, which gave him exposure to one of the imminent leaders in scenario planning. Shell took military planning to the next level in terms of utilizing scenario-based planning in the private sector. Mortlock took what he learned from professionals there over the coming decades with new clients all over the world.

What is Scenario-Based Planning? In simple terms, scenario-based planning is about thinking of different possible futures. It’s not about focusing on what will happen, but rather what could. It’s impossible to accurately forecast the future - the pandemic is a great example of that. Our current circumstances can plan out in different ways, each of which requires a different response and strategy to be successful.

Helping Organizations Plan for Futures Post-Covid Mortlock says now is a good time for organizations and governments to think about what’s next. Many countries are at the stage of reopening, especially in the developed world. As things more or less return to normal with rising vaccination rates, institutions have a chance to consider what the future holds. With one catastrophe behind us, there is no telling how many more may lie ahead. Preparing in a thoughtful way for these potential outcomes is crucial.

Covid hit supply chains particularly hard, and even as countries reopen many industries continue to be impacted by shortages and delays upstream in manufacturing. Scenario-based planning for the future should include an examination of supply chains and other business-critical operations, and how to make them more disaster-proof.

Rise of Remote and Hybrid Work There are three scenarios according to Mortlock that impact the working model of the majority of companies in the world:

The pandemic is evasive and continues to be a threat with the emergence of new variants, causing remote work to become a more permanent solution.
Vaccination programs are successful and occur at a fast enough rate to combat mutations in the virus, allowing people to return to offices sooner than expected.
Despite mostly beating the pandemic, society has fundamentally changed and people and companies have realized that remote and hybrid work has benefits and should be supported long term.

Current events suggest that the third scenario is the most likely. Many companies have adopted permanent hybrid models based on data showing little to no drop in productivity from employees over the past year.

Planning for an AI-Driven Future Traditionally, AI has been used in operational processes, but what we are now seeing is its use in strategic processes. Companies have more data than ever before, and making sense of it is the challenge that AI is built to answer.

Investment bankers use AI to make decisions about highly complex rapid transactions. The United States Government uses machine learning models to predict hurricane landfalls. The list goes on - computer models are everywhere, and they are our best tools for understanding and making decisions about a world full of information.

Simple Steps for Scenario-Based Planning 1. Define the scope. What is your company trying to achieve through scenario planning? Think about who you want to involve in this. 2. Do the research. This involves exploring the internal and external environment. 3. Analyze the trends. Understand what the research is telling you. What are the risks and the uncertainties? 4. Build the scenarios. Use the research and trends to determine what possible futures there could be for your company. This includes the signals that you want to watch for which will let you know which scenario you’re in. 5. Stress test your strategy against each scenario. 6. Monitor what’s going on in the world so that when a scenario plays out, you’re ready for that, and more importantly your strategy is ready to pivot.

These six steps should help any company, from a non-profit to a large-scale corporation, with succession planning.

Three Types of Knowledge for Succession Planning Mortlock describes three different types of knowledge that play a role in scenario-based planning. Planning for the future has to involve thinking outside our comfort zone.

Things you know you know We draw on our memories and knowledge of the past to come up with plausible scenarios for the future- scenarios that we can imagine occurring with reasonable certainty. These are easy enough to plan for because they’ve usually happened before. Natural disasters are an example of this.

Things you know you don’t know Emerging frontiers like machine learning, technological advancements etc. are all areas where we know that things will change dramatically, but we aren’t sure exactly how. Scenario-planning for these events involves some creativity, but the groundwork already exists to push our planning in the right direction.

Things you don’t know you don’t know Before 2020, nobody could have conceived that a pandemic would force large swaths of the population to spend months at home. There was nothing to prepare us for such an outcome because we hadn’t lived through anything like it before. These are the hardest scenarios to plan for, but are the most crucial to create a viable business strategy.

The Right Amount of Planning Aim to flesh out 2-4 scenarios in depth. More than that becomes unwieldy and distracting. Even then, businesses cannot build shock absorbers into their strategy for every potential outcome. There is a delicate balance between being prepared for the future and capitalizing on the current climate. The role of leadership and management teams is to determine what that balance looks like for their institution.

Mortlock also emphasizes how important it is to look at both the possible upsides as well as the downsides in scenario-based planning. Risk mitigation is important, but maximizing potential profit is a requirement to growing a business and making it successful in the long-term.

His final piece of advice is this: don’t be overwhelmed by future thinking. The process can be scaled down to fit a smaller business. Pick the steps that make the most sense to you and start with those. This will help you disaster-proof your organization.

Russ Rive is a serial entrepreneur with experience building virtual reality and enterprise software as a service companies.

Growing up, Russ really enjoyed taking machines apart and putting them back together again. He had a bunch of different remote control toys, and was always fascinated by being able to remotely use his actions to affect something from a distance.

When it came time to go to university, he dove into everything electronics. At that point, he was able to build virtually anything, piece by piece. He naturally moved into software, realizing that the next layer of tech would be software. It was 1996, the first internet boom in Silicon Valley, and he was asked to work with his cousin to start up a company as a summer job.

Russ packed up, traveled from Vancouver to Silicon Valley, and found himself in a completely new world. The internet boom was taking off and the energy was off the charts. Long story short, he never ended up going back to complete his computer science degree.

He started working for Webmaster, the plumbers of the technology world at the time, and entered into a constantly evolving industry.

EverDream In 1998 he ended up starting EverDream, which was acquired by Compaq a couple of months later. Meanwhile, he worked with the startup, using his background of automating data centers, and growing up as the geek of his family who was always called for any and all computer problems.

As he developed his skills, following the needs of the industry, he began to realize that everything he was working on had a “remote control” or virtual reality type of quality to it.

They managed to survive the “.com crash”, and their little steam engine became a real little business. At the same time, Dell was starting to get into the services business, and needed to layer services onto their computer hardware business. Russ’ company was the golden ticket, and they became part of Dell’s services.

They were onto version eight or nine of the platform, constantly improving and updating the automated services, when he felt the itch for something more. He needed to get his creative juices flowing again.

By chance, he met Liana, a Brazilian who is now his wife, at Burning Man a couple of years before they sold EverDream. She was working on her master's in Interactive Media at NYU, and they started dating long distance. He attended her showcases, seeing incredibly creative electronics, software, and even artistic projects, and started some projects of his own.

He began playing, getting back to soldiering and building, and he ended up moving back with her to Brazil, just to take a year off and think about what he wanted to do next.

They began building these little creative experiments for interactive, physical computing: the art side of technology, design and architecture. At the time, there wasn't anything like it: you actually had to be a software engineer and electrical engineer to discover it.

Russ and Liana were a prototype factory of insane experiences, electronic sensors, body skeleton tracking, and pushing the limits of technology interaction.

They ended up with an educational museum of installations, full of things like a periodic table of elements with reverse engineered interactive glass that allowed you to drag the elements into a “magic cauldron” that could combine and create all sorts of things, and then tell you what it could be used for.

This evolved into big party virtual reality experiences, with full-immersion, massive DJ stages with lasers, smoke machines and projections, creating virtual layers in the real world and teleporting you to another place.

They were the early pioneers of thinking beyond the screen, beyond the keyboard, beyond the feeling of physical technology.

SuperUber After EverDream, Russ co-founded SuperUber, a high-tech, immersive experience design agency, working at the intersection of architecture, design, art, and technology.

SuperUber's projects included Beyonce's performance at the United Nations headquarters, World Humanity Day, and projections for the closing ceremony of the 2016 Olympics.

SuperUber is still working on really interesting projects through experimentation and research. In the SuperUber lab, where they are constantly playing with new concepts that aren't commissioned, they have an artistic creative process. They experiment and play with things they would eventually like to see, and create learning opportunities.

Because of this unique dynamic, an architect can solve a software problem, and a software engineer can solve a design problem, because everyone on the team has a chance to solve a problem in a different way.

Russ’ current project is SuperViz, which was born out of SuperUber's need for remote collaboration, combining mapping reality and virtual reality into one experience.

SuperViz Their headquarters are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but SuperViz do projects all around the world. Recently, they did a piece for the London Design Museum about moving to Mars with the Science Museum in Miami.

Russ had to do remote visits at installations, or technical visits at places across the world, which got complicated quickly during the pandemic. They had to quickly come up with new systems in order to fulfill these important needs without having to get on a plane and fly.

Luckily, because they had already thought and imagined spaces in 360, when they started thinking about this new need, they used the same techniques. They asked themselves, what if they took a regular 360 degree photo, threw it into a unity app, and then built a meeting place inside of it?

They found even if it was only 70% as good, it was an amazing solution. Most of the time, you’re needing to solve really basic problems - where should the cables run, what's happening with the projector, etc. Using this technique, you could have a very productive meeting instead of a regular 360 degree photo.

SuperViz has the benefit of locking in the provincial memory. This is incredibly powerful because it activates a very different type of memory than just if you're watching a video or a PowerPoint. For example, if you ask someone to describe the hotel room from your summer vacation two years ago, chances are you're going to remember specific, accurate details about the space and how it functioned.

Because it's a provincial memory, when you are somewhere, you smell it, you hear the memories, you're more alert than ever. You are able to be truly present. Normally, being in-person somewhere is a very visceral sensorily central experience compared to just watching a webcam or listening to music, but SuperViz took that assumption as a challenge. Not only do they have simplified versions that use standard mouse-grab navigation, but they immediately applied virtual reality technologies to the immersive experiences.

Creating Events Right now, Russ and his team have pilots going on, where they live stream a popular location, allowing friends to meet together, rather than just supervisors or business teams.

This allows businesses to keep business moving, and create VIP tables at virtual events where you can see each other in webcams or avatars, with branded entertainment experiences.

Of course, with any startup, the danger is broadening your focus too quickly, and with Russ, the temptation to experiment and push the limits is always there. Since they’ve chosen to build a platform for companies to use, it gives their team the consistency of feedback and updates, while they toy with the newest ideas that haven’t yet been implemented, like live 360 feeds.

Virtual Reality for Educational Purposes Some of their clients are using it for employee onboarding during COVID. For example, lots of people have been hired that have never seen the original, physical office. In some cases, that office doesn’t even exist anymore. The ability to walk a new employee through the virtual office, introduce the departments, give them a tour of the factory, and introduce them to team members often makes the experience and commitment more real for new hires.

They also have cultural centers using their platform, creating art exhibitions, or 360 degree environments that show video art. For these clients, the most important factor is that they can take them in groups. The curator can do group tours, take people through specific areas, give them the full experience, and make sure the educational value stays the same, especially for student groups.

They’re still able to cultivate the whole experience: access to the guide, being there with other people, talking to your friends, and conversations that simply can't happen with a static virtual experience.

This is one of the many ways Russ hopes to address the growing issue of Zoom fatigue.

Whether it’s on a beach or the surface of Mars, having the option to meet somewhere else through a high-quality platform experience helps bring life back into virtual meetings.

The Future Russ and his team are well aware of the many concerns involving long term virtual reality technology. Certainly there have been dozens of conversations started, both through literary fiction and as technology advances.

While the technology isn’t quite there yet, Russ is already opening up conversations through social media, getting as many experts’ brains involved as possible, to continue looking at the benefits and consequences at every possible angle.

To keep up with these conversations, you can follow Russ on LinkedIn, or his current project’s website, SuperViz.

For more podcasts, blog posts, or other free resources on business and life in a digital world, go here.

Greg Digneo has been part of both failed marketing agencies and successful marketing agencies. He also worked on Time Doctor with Liam Martin, managing remote workers for about five years. Back in 2008, he decided he wanted to work for himself. In the middle of the economic crisis, as the housing market collapsed, Greg started to study copywriting and SEO. One gig became two which became four, and someone asked him if he wanted to make a website.

This evolved into email marketing, and fast forward four or five years, a new company was born from a bunch of freelancers. It was a total burnout for a long time, the cashflow was poor, and it wasn't a liquidable asset of any sort. Long story short, it failed.

There were no systems put in place, because he hadn’t meant to start an agency. He had no idea what he wanted to do at the time, so he didn't have the forward-thinking necessary to control the flame, and he got burned.

Enter Time Doctor. Liam Martin was one of Greg’s clients, and after working with them for six months, he found himself falling in love with the work, and asked to be full time.

Time Doctor His main role was copywriting and SEO and growing the Time Doctor blog. When he first started, they were getting around 30,000 visitors a month, and by the time he left they were getting 400,000 visitors a month.

Greg learned two key things during this time.

SEO is not that difficult to learn.
SEO is a grind.

Copywriting and SEO Search engine optimization is making sure that your content is ranked as high as possible on Google, so that you can be found when people search for key terms, phrases, or words. Greg is a master at this, and the founder of the next step in his career, Content Guppy, which will be covered in detail below.

While copywriting and SEO may be fairly simple to understand, it is incredibly hard work every day. However, there are three things Greg believes that, if you do well, will show results.

Find keywords that have search volume
Write good content
Build links

Doing these three things day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, will guarantee an increase in visitors/views.

Optimizing your website or blog for search engines is a long game.

To grow traffic, you need to lay out a strategy for content to make sure it’s not fluff, and break it up into what's called “top of funnel content” and “bottom of the funnel content”.

Content Guppy Content Guppy is a digital agency that focuses on great copywriting and SEO, to help others organically find your company’s content on Google.

Greg has created a five-step-SEO process to optimize your site.

Number one of that process is keyword research: finding key topics that have high search volume. There are three criteria for a successful keyword.

A word that is not overly competitive.
A word that is relatively easy to rank.
A word that is relevant to your product or service.

The second part of the SEO process is SERP: Search Engine Results Page. If you want to outrank somebody, or replace somebody in the first page of Google, you have to create something that's better than what they have. Google likes latency, so once they find something that works, they want to stick with it for as long as they possibly can, until it's proven that yours works better.

How do you prove it? Look at the top search result, and then replace their generic topic with helpful, super specific, actionable, on brand content. Instead of staring at a blank page, Google is going to tell you what to write, and all you have to do is make it better.

Third on the list is content creation. The key to content creation is creativity. You need to create something very thorough that answers the consumer’s question as specifically as possible.

Whenever and however possible, put your own unique spin on the content - whether that’s a personal story, a secret sauce, or an ideology - and lean into it.

This leads into our fourth step optimization - making sure that you touch on all the concepts that Google wants you to cover in order to rank. You need to make sure that the keyword is in the headline and first paragraph, and to make sure that the sub-headlines have the primary or secondary keywords as well.

The last step in the process is promotion and link building.

Everybody is going to post on social media and send it out to their email list, so the more you have in terms of distribution, the more you're ahead of the game.

In tangent with this, you must find ways to get people to promote the content. Why would they do that? Maybe you've featured them, you've written a case study about them, or you've linked to them in some way. Those are two amazing ways to get people to promote your stuff for you. The third way is to incentivize them with a little bit of money. The best part is that anybody could do this just by finding a tool or a partner of some kind, which leads into link building.

Link building has been at the core of search engine optimization since day one. In other words, domain authority is credited to how many people are linking to your website or content.

Over time, link building has become much more difficult, and usually is going to be the single biggest challenge for companies who are looking to rank.

Acquiring a link is almost like customer outreach: you need to give that person a reason why they should link to you, whether it's through promotional trade, or partnership, or some other incentive.

Once the deal is made, it comes down to linking, linking, and more linking. Then, when consumers follow the link, they drive traffic to your site.

Learning to Roll With the Punches SEO and Google are evolving constantly, which keeps everyone in the business on their toes. Copywriting and SEO can work great, though it can't be your only play.

Just like Facebook ads, you need three to four lead acquisition strategies for a mature company.

Previously for Greg, Facebook and Twitter drove 30-40% of their traffic - sometimes even higher.

Google gives more attention to organic content creators than the social media platforms do today, which is frustrating to watch. The evolution of the digital media space has literally stripped almost any organic growth, unless it’s controversial or bad content.

As far as looking towards the future, Greg admits it’s not his strong suit. Like so many of us, he wishes he could know in advance what’s coming next, especially after such a tumultuous couple of years.

Still, he believes that for the foreseeable future, the best content is going to be rewarded, even if new AI tools evolve to the next level. In the meantime, play the long game.

You can find Greg on LinkedIn, or on Twitter for more expert insights on SEO. To see what’s going on at Content Guppy, you can follow this link to their website.

Check out other stories like this on my podcast here.

Founders of Proofpoint Marketing, Mike and Gaby Grinberg are a husband and wife team. Together having over 30+ years of marketing experience, they started Proofpoint Marketing three years ago. Proofpoint Marketing was built on a completely remote model with a customer first mentality. Mike and Gaby describe themselves as a couple of hustlers with agency, corporate and startup experience.

They take tried and true strategic and tactical concepts and apply them to new marketing channels and technologies. Proofpoint Marketing is made up of a team of committed and experienced digital doers with a curiosity for consumer behavior, a knack for business and a passion for driving growth. They thrive in a remote environment.

Discovering Passions Gaby has always been attracted to marketing. Even as a young child, not really knowing what it was, the idea of branding, company logos, colors and design were things she was fascinated with. She had a bit of a photographic memory, specifically for the logos, shapes, colors, and taglines of businesses.

In college, she attended Boston University and majored in public relations, a cousin to marketing, with a minor in international relations. Gaby had every intention to move into foreign service, at an embassy, though not necessarily as an ambassador. She was very interested in international relations, and speaks several languages.

As a first-generation American, whose parents both immigrated, Gaby loved the idea of serving her country and working internationally. However, a specific incident stopped her in her tracks.

A very honest professor complimented her on her grades, talents, and passions, but offered a warning. He said “Your strengths are in public relations. I think you should focus on communication, marketing, and PR. If you want to pursue IRR, I'll support you, but International Relations is a tough gig, and for someone as bright and vibrant as you, you're going to get trampled on. If you have any intentions of starting a family, or having a husband, it will be difficult in that line of work.”

Gaby knew that getting married and having a family was always going to be part of her plan, and after taking in her professor’s words, she found that they rang true.

This moment solidified her career trajectory, and she hasn’t looked back since.

She started off at a traditional ad agency in Boston right around the time that Facebook was born, alongside other social media networks. Gaby got involved in the digital space, and has worked in-house for large corporations, as well as doing some startup work.

Creative Opportunities Mike’s marketing journey was a little shorter than Gaby's. He was also originally not looking into marketing, but rather the creative side of things: graphic design.

At one point, his parents, offering to pay for his studies, suggested he lean into the business world, rather than the arts. Mike’s response? Marketing.

He figured that marketing was as close as he could get to his original passion. He double-majored in Marketing and Graphic Design, believing he would just go down the graphic design path, and learned very quickly through internships that he absolutely did not want to be in design. He found it too subjective, and found his place in digital marketing instead.

Proofpoint Marketing To understand how Proofpoint Marketing came about, you have to follow Gaby and Mike’s story as a husband and wife team.

When they first met, they were both working for marketing agencies in downtown Minneapolis. Gaby’s company at the time had subcontracted the company that Mike was working for on a project that she was managing for one of their clients. They of course knew none of this until their first date!

It was serendipitous, and they appreciated having the crossover in passions, but they didn’t start out their romantic relationship with the thought of working together. In fact, they were both adamant that they would never work together. At the time, their ideal was to enjoy their careers, which were both quite reliable and successful, and to keep their personal lives apart from their professional lives.

However, as everything in life, you make plans, and then those plans get tossed out the window. In 2015, the young couple found out that they were pregnant, and shortly after their daughter was born.

Gaby experienced severe preeclampsia, and the baby was born severely premature. She was born four months early, weighing less than a pound. To make a very long story short, it was a very unexpected change in their trajectory together.

Soon after, the company that had once been supportive of Gaby, and excited and encouraging when she was expecting, laid her off once the baby came.

The young married couple, first child born severely premature and in severe medical distress, was now on a single income, and had lost their health insurance (Gaby was the primary healthcare holder).

With the medical bills piling up, and their new daughter needing a full-time caregiver, Gaby became a stay-at-home mom.

Just shy of its second birthday, as Gaby was finally in a position to go back to work, the startup Mike worked at went bankrupt. They had lost their funding. It was all over the Minneapolis news, and they found themselves at another major crossroads.

Their immediate thought was to bite the bullet and get corporate jobs. It would be safe, secure, even if it wasn’t ideal. Their second idea was, “Or, we could do something crazy.”

During the interim, as Gaby took care of their child, Mike started taking on some consulting work while also working full time. He started growing those accounts over two years, and even started a site.

After sitting down and really asking themselves if they wanted to go corporate, it was a side-hustle that became their full-time hustle. They decided to take the clients that he had, these small accounts, and turn them into something.

This is how Proofpoint Marketing - the husband and wife team was born.

It was certainly inspired by their daughter, her prematurity, and of course all of the little unpredictable bumps and valleys, but there was something more to the change.

Somewhere along the path of each one losing their jobs, circumstances that were completely out of their control, poor management decisions that caused a company to go into bankruptcy, they decided that they were tired of having other people dictate their careers, and their family life.

Now, they are in full control of their destiny, of their income, of their family life, and the culture and company that they can create; Mike is CEO, runs agency operations, and agency strategies, while Gaby runs agency marketing, employee and client success, and HR.

Starting the Company as a Husband and Wife Team The very first challenge they faced was finding more clients. They had three client engagements at the time, and they weren't very big. Looking long term, the business wouldn’t be sustainable without more clients.

In solving this problem, they learned it’s better to find your niche and invest in it, sooner than later. In the beginning, they made the mistake of working with anybody they could, which led to them firing their largest client after just a few months of working with them. They transitioned from everything, to all B2B, into specific industries like med tech and manufacturing companies

The next challenge was figuring out when and how to scale. Do you start with contractors? Do you hire full-time people?

Since then they’ve settled on a hybrid of full-time and contractors, depending on the roles and circumstances, but it took them a little while to find what worked for them.

They knew fairly early on that they were going to be remote- it just made sense. Why would you want an office when you could go without one? As soon as they started hiring people, they realized the choice wasn’t as easy- in order for it to work well, they actually needed to build a remote culture.

When Covid hit, their biggest issue really came to light: sales. As two experts in the marketing world, they found that their difficulties in finding clients became even worse overnight. Luckily, they connected with a Sales Rep on their podcast that they took on to their team, and now have their sales needs completely covered.

Working Remotely No amount of technology and tools will answer the questions when transitioning into remote work. Technology is great, but without applying new theories, expectations, and tactics, there will be problems. You can’t copy and paste a “normal” in-office culture into a virtual setting.

The value of remote is asynchronous communications. You have to lean into that, and figure out how to build your culture and your process.

Outside of that, their tool stack is fairly straightforward. They have a project management tool, Click Up, Slack for communication, Workforce, Gusto for payroll, and even various tools from Google for business.

Finally, Gaby and Mike believe it’s imperative for remote companies to document their processes and procedures. Document your standard operating procedures for each area of your business, and keep track of the changes you make. In 6 months, you’re able to isolate certain problems, and look back to what changes (or lack thereof) might have contributed to the issue.

Work-Life Balance in Proofpoint Marketing From the very beginning, Gaby and Mike knew that they wanted to address some of the issues they had within their previous business cultures, specifically in the way they were treated while dealing with the birth of their daughter.

At its core, Proofpoint Marketing is a family first company.

They don’t claim to be like a family. In fact, they are nothing like a family! However, they want to be a family first company: whether there’s a family emergency, a kid is stuck at home, husband's sick, mom is in the hospital, whatever it may be, their employees can feel safe knowing their job is safe, and there’s a team ready to support you.

They want to encourage their team members to take care of their families, because ultimately they're working for other needs, not completely for the success of the company. They're working for their passions, and they're working because they have other people that rely on them.

To learn more about Proofpoint’s values, vision, and career opportunities, you can head over to the Proofpoint Website. Mike and Gaby are also very active on LinkedIn, and recently the husband and wife team launched their B2B marketing podcast, Show Me The Proof, Get To The Point.

For more content like this, listen to The Jeff Bullas Show.

Most people in Andrew Bartlow’s industry are office managers or recruiters who have stumbled into human resources. Andrew found his way in through a formative experience in high school. There was an organized 3 year labor strike of auto workers in his hometown of East Peoria, Illinois. It was on the front page of the Peoria Journal Star every day for three years, and he learned about labor negotiators, the impact that human resources could have on a company, a community, and all of its workers.

From this passion, Andrew chose to pursue law school, got into Cornell and Northwestern, took a bunch of negotiation classes, and found that just down the road, the University of Illinois had the top Labor and Employment Relations Program in the world.

He never looked back.

Fortunately, he was part of a great program in the mid-90’s, which meant company interest was a hot market. As he was completing grad school, he had several internships - one with Cummins, one with General Mills, and ended up taking on a full-time job with Pepsi.

At the time, Pepsi was known as the top human resources function in the world - a huge opportunity for someone so captivated with the industry. He worked with Pepsi for three or four years, taking on four or five jobs during that time. This was part of why they were so well-known for HR - they weren’t afraid to scale staff and move them around which meant employees got an accelerated experience.

At 23 years old, Andrew had the opportunity to become head of HR for a startup that went international, funded by KKR, McKinsey and Deloitte.

Like so many other startups during the .com boom and bust, most of their clients were in the tech space. They busted, and then went belly up. They grew from 20 people to 120, and then down to zero. He laid everybody off, laid himself off, flew back to reality, and took a job at General Electric in Chicago.

Scale Staff For Success Living in the Bay Area, Andrew found himself in the cradle of startup culture. He’s been part of the high-growth culture for 15 years or so, and the human resources management of those organizations. He brought with him the academy experience of the great masters, education, and the Pepsi and GE experience.

Within the startup community, if it's not big name tech, if Google didn't do it, they don't care. If Wells Fargo did it, they want to do the opposite, because they don't want to be like those big stodgy, old, slow bureaucratic companies. Andrew noticed a gap, a need, where the avoidance of some tried and true practices that could really help some small companies was destroying them.

He started trying to elevate some of the management practices at these high growth companies, which is when he dove into content versus context.

Why shouldn’t startups model companies like Google?

That was the big question. Unfortunately, there is often a detrimental pride that comes with creating a startup, which leads to throwing away the old rules because “they don't matter anymore.”

The reality is, some of the old rules, processes and frameworks still work. There's no such thing as a best practice. It all depends on your own context, so whatever worked for Google might have worked for them in the moment, and whatever works for Facebook works for them in the moment, but simply copy and pasting trendy principles won’t mean a company will have the same results.

There's a real risk in taking someone else’s content and shifting it into your context without applying some critical thinking.

It’s a balance: you can’t throw out the ideas of the old economy without at least considering it, and likewise, you can’t just apply the practices of some big successful company.

If you’re looking to grow a business fast, you need to be documenting the processes. If you're scaling staff, you need to know what your processes are, and that needs to be communicated to the rest of the team. For small companies, it can be difficult to find the resources to document their processes. Some policies might be getting tweaked every 10 minutes as your business changes and evolves.

Fast, sustainable growth is driven by your operating practices and how you choose to manage and run your organization.

Pillars of People Leader Accelerator Andrew, with his team at Series B Consulting, have created a training program to help professionals who are working in a rapidly changing work environment. Here are a few of the pillars they built this program on:

Context over Content

Again, there's no such thing as a “best practice.” Be really cautious about lifting and shifting. Don't just do things to keep up with the Joneses.

Have a Plan, and Expect the Plan to Evolve

The second pillar is to have a plan - full stop. Have a plan, and then expect that plan to evolve. There can be a strong reluctance within startups to commit to a plan, to a goal, or anything solid. There's a fear that if something is written down, and the team can’t achieve it, then the employees will quit, the investors will move on, and the business will dry up. It’s not necessary to have a strict rule or policy for every single thing in order to develop highly productive people. But how are they supposed to know what they should be working on if leadership doesn’t have clarity at the top?

Master Only the Basics

It's really easy to get distracted by bright, shiny objects and novel practices, and in the land of startups you’re constantly reading the latest HBR articles, attending investor meetings with other CEOs, and in general interacting with people doing cool things.

For startups that are in high growth, high tech change, high stress environments with limited resources while also trying to scale staff, choices and sacrifices must be made. You have to ruthlessly prioritize - you might have a novel product or a novel service, but you don't need to create a novel organizational system to run the company. Instead, choose to become really good at the fundamentals.

Tools of the Trade Effective tools are a necessary requirement for the job. In this industry, you aren’t stamping out widgets. The teams need Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and email. So much of the work happens via collaboration and teamwork that collaboration tools like Zoom and Dropbox have become essentials.

One of Andrew’s favorites is Calendly, which allows people to book time on a set calendar and immediately sets them up with a zoom invitation.

Google Drive is fantastic for easily sharing content with everyone. This tool in particular has become a core item, especially when teams are divided all over a nation, or even globally.

Human Resources in Remote Work Remote work, or working from home, is one of the most popular topics to date. There's a lot of interest in it. Like all things pandemic-related, the consequences can be both good and bad. There’s higher stress levels being created by remote work simply because people are working more time. It’s much more difficult to set boundaries, and even though there's no commute, zoom fatigue has become its own beast.

People are sick. People have lost loved ones. Kids are not yet fully back to normal school. There's a lot going on.

On the bright side, employee mental health is getting a lot of attention. The real question is, how relevant will that ultimately be?

Once we get through the pandemic, there'll be a transition into a new normal. Kids will go back to school, illness and the need for social distancing will decrease, but in a remote and distributed environment, the mental health aspect will at least remain, though it didn’t make Andrew’s top 3 list.

The New Workforce Companies still need to attract and retain good workers, and there are some tremendous advantages to this new distributed world. Employers, instead of looking down the block or within an hour commute of their office, can look around the world for workers.

For workers, it’s no longer expected to move/live in a high-cost, high-tax, small quarters, high density city to get a good job. You can stay in your little hometown, close to your parents or community, and continue to receive help in raising your family. You can live a completely different life than you could before.

Andrew predicts that there will be a decentralization away from cities, and employers will need to decide if forcing people back into the office is worth losing good talent. The candidates, or employees, have more power than the employers today.

To make sure communication is evolving with new work situations, there'll be more attention on performance management and productivity feedback.

For quality consultation services on fast growing start-ups, scaling people, and rapidly evolving companies, you can learn more about Andrew, his team, and their resources on their Series B Consulting website.

Recently, he’s collaborated with Brad Harris on a guide book (Scaling for Success) for leaders looking to scale, while still retaining all of the necessary, fundamental parts of their organization.

For more content like this, check out The Jeff Bullas Show for interviews with other experts in the industry.

Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High-Growth Organizations

Jake Jacobs worked as a bartender during his university years, which is when he first got an opportunity to look at the psychology of change in a business. He contracted with the owner of the bar to work on a consulting project with the goal of making it a better place to work.

He interviewed people there and set up meetings, and heard positive feedback that it was working. At that point, he realized he was onto something. He enjoyed the process of applying psychology to a business so much that he wanted to make a career out of change management.

From there, he worked on big consulting projects at Ford Motors and Marriott, both of which taught him that the key to a successful organization is a collective effort to find ways to better serve the customer. That stems from a constant awareness of the status quo.

Importance of Awareness in Change Management A good leader should be in touch with who they are, as well as having a sense of direction in terms of growth. Jacobs suggests creating a list of adjectives that leaders and aspiring leaders want to be described as. Then, go to your manager or close colleagues and have them create a list of attributes that describe you as you are now. Compare the two and and use those as a starting point for self-reflection and accelerating change.

The other important awareness is of others. To effectively communicate and understand each other, we have to be able to step into a different world. Jacobs likes to say that we should always try to communicate with someone in their language rather than getting caught up in our own paradigms, lingo, and perspective. This forces us to be more aware of the other person, and more perceptive to what they have to say in response. Most importantly, it grants a comfort level for more honest and revealing communication.

As organizations start to scale, the ability to communicate well becomes increasingly vital. Such organizations also begin compartmentalizing areas, so certain people will be experts in one product but not another. In these cases, being able to communicate in a way that is understood by all other parties can make change management far more effective.

Four Elements of Accelerating Change In Jacobs’ book, he describes four things that are necessary for successful organizational change.

Levers

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I can move the world” - Archimedes

To Jacobs, levers are anything that give you more bang for your buck - they magnify your efforts. The lever itself is anything that provides an opportunity for greater impact. These eight levers can make change management efforts more successful.

Pay attention to continuity. When people work on change, that’s all they focus on. However, it is just as useful to think about what not to change. The values that define an organization, as well as the things that it does well are important to highlight to increase confidence and create a firm foundation on which to create change.

Think and act as if the future were now. This lever is a paradigm shift that encourages leaders to plan for the future in the current moment. This involves paying more attention to cultural changes, technological innovations, and new market models.

Design it yourself. Don’t just follow a prescriptive formula. Create a process specific to your organization and your goals based on what is right for you, then carry that with you into the future.

Create a common database. Information is power, but in the world of change management, it is only useful when it is in the hands of everyone. Data shows that seventy percent of change objectives fail to meet the desired result. Change is not easy, and requires firm organizational infrastructure to succeed. Part of that infrastructure is the widespread availability of information on internal processes to people inside the organization, at all levels.

Start with impact, follow the energy. Rather than starting from the top down or bottom up, look for the opportunity to make a difference, which will give you the most momentum. Begin there and then go to where people want to move next.

Develop a future people own. People are only invested in goals that affect them in some meaningful, compelling, positive way. Those are the projects that people will work hardest for, and those are the ones that will ultimately be the most successful.

Find opportunities so people can make a meaningful difference. Change is a unique opportunity that requires commitment above and beyond people’s day jobs. When one leader or group of leaders create change, they should find ways to bring in people from all over the organization by creating an opportunity for them to do something truly meaningful.

Make change work part of daily work. Everyone has full schedules, so adding another committee for change work can feel overwhelming. Instead, integrate it in smaller pieces throughout the workweek to make it more achievable and manageable.

Resources The more you take advantage of the levers, the less resources you’ll need to make the same amount of change. The resources that you save can then be invested in research and development or other innovative business practices that didn’t make the priority list before.

Pivot Point Clearly defined results are crucial to making change happen effectively. At every stage of the process, know the milestones you need to reach, and have standardized methods of measuring how far you are from your end goal.

Moving the Right Object Create the right goals. Everyone in the organization should have a common understanding about what the end result looks like, how it will be measured, and why it is compelling and worth devoting considerable organizational effort to.

Approaching a Rapidly Changing World With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the world rapidly came to a halt. At the same time, almost paradoxically, the rate of change in many industries exponentially increased. As people stopped to think about the current state of work, they came up with new and innovative ideas for what a workplace should look like, and how self-organizing systems and companies should be run to promote ease and efficiency.

Companies shouldn’t rely on the old way that we used to do things. Instead, they should invest in finding what works best for their workforce and strive to accelerate change.

Discover more stories like this on other episodes of The Jeff Bullas Show.

Leverage Change: 8 Ways to Achieve Faster, Easier, Better Results

Vikrant Shaurya’s journey to the self-publishing world started in an unlikely place: engineering college.

In India, engineering is seen as a respectable profession that can set people up to have a comfortable life. Because his parents wanted him to pursue that field, he enrolled in engineering college. But Shaurya quickly realized that engineering wasn’t for him.

One day, he read a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. This book gave him the courage to drop out of school and pursue a different path. It was the first moment that he felt the power of books.

Today, his career revolves around his passion for books and helping others struggling with writing a bestseller. But he discovered this path simply by trying to find ways to make money that involved zero initial investment. That’s when he stumbled upon self-publishing.

Vikrant self-published several books under pen-names which propelled both his finances and his interest in the self-publishing world. From there, he transitioned to helping others share their stories with the world and grow their businesses through coaching.

When he realized that he was not only helping people publish books, but also helping readers whose lives may one day change because of these stories, he truly felt like he had found his life’s calling.

How Books Can Grow a Business Books, especially writing a bestseller, can transform a personal brand. For example, suppose you are looking to hire a sales expert to help you design a website that will maximize your lead conversion rate. You have a list of ten possible people you could hire. Of those, two are published authors, and of those, one is a bestselling author.

In this scenario, you would almost certainly choose the bestselling author to help you with this project. The fact that they wrote a book shows they have expertise in this area, and because it is a bestseller shows that others believe this person is credible. If you are looking to build this instant reputation, writing a book is the way to go.

Having a book written sets you apart from others with similar services in the market or industry you’re in. It’s the best way to establish your authority and distinguish yourself from the rest of your competition. While self-publishing may seem daunting, Shaurya has created a platform to make it easier for new and upcoming authors to bring their stories to the world.

BestsellingBook.com Writing a bestseller is a big project. The book itself is one thing, but promoting it is quite another. Many people try for years to publish a book, but all the moving parts overwhelm them and they end up not starting at all. Shaurya’s company BestsellingBook.com helps people through this journey, which is defined in three steps.

Step 1 - Produce This step is all about creating the manuscript. It involves finding the target readers, researching other books on the market, and discovering what it is that will make your book stand out. This is a process. Many people try to sit down and shell out thousands of words right away - it’s never that simple. Instead, Shaurya encourages people to create a more delineated timeline for themselves to keep them on track and prevent them from losing sight of the end result.

First, people need to lock in the outline, and then work through the story chapter by chapter. Then, there’s the editing, proofreading, and rewriting process, which can take just as much time.

Step 2 - Publish After the content of the book is done, there are other tasks that are required for publishing. Creating a cover and interior design for the paperback, kindle copy, and hard copy, as well as the book description, all are taken care of in this step. Ensuring that the book looks good can make it easier to promote later.

Step 3 - Profit This is the stage that stumps a lot of people. How do you take a well-written book written by an industry expert, and get it in the hands of interested readers? Marketing, getting good reviews, and making it accessible for purchase all factor into this step. You can also get marketers to help you with this through the services Shaurya’s company offers.

How to Write a Bestseller in 90 Days Shaurya’s site has a free checklist that amateur writers and self-publishers can download to guide them through the three pillars of publishing. Seeing all of the steps laid out can simplify the process.

It also comes with a blueprint that goes more in depth for each step in terms of exactly what needs to be done. This is a great option for anyone who doesn’t have the money to engage in consulting services but would still like some guidance to bring their knowledge to market through self-publishing.

The Impact of Books For every book that Shaurya’s company helps publish, countless readers’ lives are transformed by those stories. Whether it be a doctor who invented a natural insulin alternative and taught readers about the real impact of insulin on their bodies, or a woman whose daughter suffered a terrible accident and inspired readers to keep fighting their battles. Books have an incredible power to connect people to each other and spread knowledge and positivity.

Tips on How to Write a Bestseller * Write a really good book. This seems obvious, but it is the most important step in the entire self-publishing journey. It may be possible to take a mediocre book to the top of the bestseller list, but it will be a lot harder. * Package it well. Even though people say not to judge a book by its cover, the truth is everyone does to some degree. A good quality cover and design will make a book seem a lot more authoritative and potential readers more inclined to choose it. * Use expertise when you can. As a first-time writer or self-publisher, don’t expect that you’ll know what to do at every turn. Reach out to publishing and marketing experts when necessary. BestsellingBook.com is a great place to start.

For more interviews like this, subscribe to The Jeff Bullas Show on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

Bill Woolsey is the president and founder of FiveTwo, a network that equips entrepreneurs to launch a variety of sustainable startups with a special focus on people with a faith-based business. Woolsey started FiveTwo in 2015, when they launched a training process that helps entrepreneurs grow nonprofits and startups and make a difference in financially sustainable ways.

His personal faith has played an important part in his journey to create FiveTwo. He fundamentally believes in the importance of community support, giving back, and spreading love through faith-based business.

The Beginning Since 1987, Woolsey has been an active pastor and evangelist. His mother was a serial entrepreneur who was involved in everything from real estate to pottery and other business ventures. Her influence gave him an eye for business, while his work as a pastor and faith-based leader nurtured his love for people and community. In 1997, he and his family were asked to start a church in West Houston. For Woolsey, it was the right place and right time, and everything was perfect. The church came together and grew into a very large multi-site community.

During that process, he started working with church planters, who were starting churches across the United States and realized very quickly that starting was the hardest part. Building momentum and spreading awareness of a new endeavor takes time and resources. On top of that, people have to find a way to make money. This inspired Woolsey to reach out to more members of the Christian community to provide faith-based business guidance.

Woolsey realized there is a whole slice of people out there, Christian, people of deep faith, who want to live out their faith. By 2015, the network had grown so much that Woolsey could no longer lead both the church and the mentorship program, which was called FiveTwo. So, he went all in with his work on FiveTwo and that’s how he got to where he is today: training Christian men and women to launch new ventures that help people.

Guiding Principles of a Faith-Based Business When people come to Woolsey with business ideas, he asks the following questions:

Who are you trying to serve? Who are you reaching? In secular terms, this is asking who the customer is. Many times, people want to create a product or a service but haven’t thought about who would use it. The first step is to understand the customer, their pain points, and what they’re looking for.
What is the value proposition? In other words, what value are you going to bring to the customer you have in mind? This should be well-defined in terms of a product or service, and the benefit should be measurable in some way.
What is the relationship between you and the customer? What channels do you have to build this relationship? Most of the people Woosley works with are not social media based organizations. Typically they have a much stronger local focus. Those businesses have to think harder about the channels they use to reach out to people.
How will you create an income stream? Woolsey’s programs teach people how to fundraise and generate cash flow.

Working with Nonprofits Woolsey also works with nonprofits to help them make more of an impact and spread their values. Many of the principles of business apply to nonprofits, in terms of making donors happy and establishing channels of communication. There are guiding principles for nonprofits too, according to Woolsey:

Invest in Your Donors In the nonprofit world, there are actually two customers; donors, and the people who will eventually receive the product or service you want to provide. A donor is someone who shares your cause and your values. When people join organizations based on values, they usually do it subconsciously, they don't realize that's why they're joining. In a church setting, or even in a business setting, when they walk in, values live and breathe through the atmosphere and the culture that is present in that organization.

Creating a positive relationship with donors is important. Donors should feel that their money is an investment that will further their values or will provide value to their lives in some way. People give money to people, not organizations. Developing trust is crucial to getting their support.

Seven Steps to Start a Faith-Based Business In his book Seven Steps to Start, Bill Woolsey articulates the seven things that are necessary to start a successful business. This is general advice that anyone can use to prepare for a new business venture, regardless of what it is.

Step 1 - Know your passion. A business can only go as far as the vision of the people who create it. More importantly, creating a business around your passion will be more fulfilling.
Step 2 - Get perspective. Why are you choosing to do this? Do some auditing of your experience, and the context that you've been dropped into.
Step 3 - Plan your steps. Determine the process for making your dream a reality.
Step 4 - Enlist the right people. Networking and community are crucial in making businesses successful. Build that team of leaders who you can delegate to and who you trust. They should share your cause and your passion, but they shouldn’t share your gifts. They should complement them, so you can make sure your team is strong in every aspect.
Step 5 - Practice and progress. Learn from yourself and from others, and find available resources when you get stuck.
Step 6 - Continue to persevere. One of the biggest reasons that startups fail is that the founder gives up. Know that creating a business isn’t easy, and it requires facing challenges and adapting to changing circumstances.
Step 7 - Start propagation. Expand and amplify your results. Woolsey believes that if people truly feel driven by God to create these organizations, they should multiply their impact to further positive faith-based business and work.

Finally, remember that while starting a business is risky, failing isn’t the end. Even if things go wrong, you’ll come out of the experience with new knowledge and perspective that will make you a better leader in your future endeavors.

Watch or listen to more episodes of The Jeff Bullas Show here.

Seven Steps to Start: A Sacramental Entrepreneur's Guide To Launching Startups That Thrive (Sacramental Entrepreneur Series)

Artin Nazarian has quite a story.

As a refugee from war-torn Iran, he and his family moved to the USA. Artin discovered his entrepreneurial spirit after selling hand-drawn art to other students in elementary school.

After moving to Los Angeles, Artin was inspired to pursue filmmaking, which led to a job at Walt Disney Studios. He rose through the ranks, becoming an executive before the age of 30.

Since then, he has contributed to the launch of Disney+, assisted the integration of the $71 billion acquisition of Twentieth Century Fox, and worked on legendary brands, including Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar.

On the “side,” Artin has raised over $4 million to build software products and launch tech startups.

Today, Artin is a senior executive at Disney, and the author of Side Adventure, a self-published book about how to start a side hustle while you keep your day job.

Many of us strive to be the best version of ourselves and realize our full potential, but end up settling for a job that earns enough money to be comfortable yet doesn’t fulfill our aspirations. By reflecting on both failures and successes, Side Adventure offers experience-rooted guidance.

Early Life in Iran Artin was born in Tehran, the capital of Iran, a Muslim country. He and his family are Christian Armenians, a group of people who were persecuted and constantly “relocated” during the Armenian genocide. For generations, his family and people lived in peace, until the regime change in Iran in 1979. Since then, things have changed a lot for Christian minorities.

At the same time, the Iraq war started. All through the eighties, Artin and his family watched bombs drop around the city. It wasn't what you may remember with desert storm laser-guided missiles hitting specific targets. These were primitive bombs: planes flying over civilians simply dropping bombs.

When they would hear the sirens go off, that was an indicator that there was an Iraqi plane in the area. People would go on rooftops to watch, simply because the anti-aircraft missiles looked like fireworks, especially to Artin as a child.

It was a unique and complicated part of his story, and Artin found that most people had a hard time relating to him in the US. Almost no one, especially around his age, had gone through anything remotely similar, unless they were living in that region at the same time.

He left the country at eight years old, with his family making their way to Madrid. Just recently, his father revealed that during the flight from Taiwan to Madrid, their plane was hit, which took one of the engines. The pilot decided to keep going, and they made it to their destination.

Madrid, Culture, and Language Artin was thrown into fourth grade elementary school in Madrid, speaking no Spanish, only Armenian and Farsi. Luckily, as an open and energetic kid, he had no issues mingling, learning, and eventually speaking Spanish quite well.

In order to make friends he started drawing for the kids. He always had a knack for drawing animation-type characters, and suddenly he was surrounded by kids asking for drawings of Disney characters.This soon became a way to start a side hustle and make some extra money.

Eventually, they got their green cards from Madrid, and moved to Los Angeles, a suburb called Glendale.

LA Life and Education As Artin got older and eventually graduated high school, he decided to go to film school. Obviously, LA was the perfect place to get roped into the industry - it’s where you see the glitz and glamor of film and fame.

California has the second largest concentration of Armenians, but because it's Los Angeles, there were also a lot of Latin Americans. He became the Armenian boy that was translating English to Spanish for the Mexican kids that had just come to LA. As a translator, he made a lot of friends, and his unique experiences led him to a growing network of diverse cultures and relationships.

As he got deeper into his studies, Artin realized the glitz and glamor wasn’t the true reason he had been drawn to the film industry - it was the creation. He fell in love with the idea of making a film that could last forever.

In order to graduate, the requirement was to create a short film or a leading role. The school provided grants to five of the projects, and while Artin was luckily selected to receive one of the grants, he still needed about $5,000 to make the movie. He had to find a way to raise the funds, and that's where his entrepreneurship skills kicked in.

He asked himself, “What do all the film school students want?”

They want their project to be seen to get their big break. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas both had film school projects that kicked off their careers. He decided, what better way to capitalize on this need and showcase the films than hosting a festival? He came up with the film festival brand, put posters up everywhere, and as an intern at Sony (at the time) managed to get one of the executives to be a judge.

Shortly after, checks started arriving at his house. He ended up raising $5,000, hosting the film festival, but nobody knew Artin was behind it.

Once the films were produced, a handful of them got selected to be screened at the Academy Theaters, and again, Artin was selected. That night at the theater was his second “aha” moment. As he sat in the chair, and the big lights went down, his name came up on screen:

“Written and Directed by Artin Nazarian”

He looked to his left, seeing his parents sitting there, and the smiles on their faces. It’s a moment he will never get out of his head.

More than anything, he realized he wanted to make his parents proud. Whether it's making a movie or writing a book, creating a startup, it's all about making his parents proud.

Once he realized this, it felt like a weight lifted off his shoulders. He didn’t need to become the next Steven Spielberg or a famous lawyer to capture that feeling.

The Disney Connection Artin had some ideas to write movies, but obviously had no way to get them sold. He and a close friend were working at a Macy's department store in Los Angeles about a year after his graduation, which led to a fortuitous moment.

A woman came into the shoe department, and after picking out a few pairs, handed his friend her credit card. They happened to notice the Disney castle on the card, and struck up a conversation.

It turned out, this woman worked with Disney to release VHS and DVDs. While this isn’t quite so relevant now, 17-18 years ago, that was the big thing.

They had the opportunity to pass on their resumes and shortly after they both got called in. This is where Artin’s journey at Disney began in a post-production department.

Still, this wasn’t what they’d gone to school for, and it wasn’t what they wanted to do. They started writing scripts and making short films, music videos, and commercials to hone their skills as much as possible.

The true difficulty was to get financing for a movie, just because it's such a risky investment. Artin started looking around and noticing that lots of money was going into technology. He started reverting back to his entrepreneurial spirit and learning how software development and products worked.

He started with huge failures, from 2004 to 2009 there was one failure after another. But as he learned and grew, he landed his first big investment and they were able to raise $4 million.

This became the big Side Adventure that he writes about in his book.

Start a Side Hustle the Side Adventure Way It took about two and a half years to write the book (about a year longer than he originally planned). Artin believes there are five steps to start a side hustle.

Get Inspired The “inspire” section is his story. He doesn’t believe his story is totally unique, but he hopes that his story and finding what drives him (his parents) inspires others to believe that they can do it too.

He didn’t have to have a family that could give him a hundred thousand dollars. He didn’t need to go to Harvard or a super prestigious school. He didn’t need to have high-up connections.

He could do it, as long as he was resourceful. This is how the book starts.

Leverage Step number two, leverage, comes from using whatever you have as an opportunity to learn. If you are working at a job, whether it's the corporate world, small company, or a small business, there's a huge opportunity there to learn. Instead of being stuck in whatever role HR has told you to do, you need to play whatever role you've been given, step outside of that role, and take initiative to learn other disciplines through the organization.
Add Value Once you start learning other areas, you're able to identify problems that you might not have seen before, which is where adding value comes in. Solving problems is the easiest way to get promoted, especially in a larger organization, because senior level management is always looking for more people who can solve big problems and add value to the company.

Whether it's at the bottom line, whether it's adding revenue, whatever the problem is, it's adding value. Once you understand how a broader organization works, it’s easier to identify problems. Find the problem, solve it, and then make sure you put a spotlight on that problem to market yourself.

Identify it Identifying problems that you can solve is part of that, but it’s also important to personally identify if you actually have the right puzzle pieces in place to pursue the venture. Artin discusses how to understand if you're ready financially to take the step.

Once you have those pieces in place, you're in a very good place to start a side hustle and your percentage of success goes up.

Move The last step is to move. Whether it's growing something from a side adventure to a main adventure, or moving it from inside your head into the real world, you need to always be looking for the next step.

Before you actually go down the path of spending money and building that product to start a side hustle, validate the idea. Artin gives his steps and reveals how to put this idea into action in the book.

Finally, don't be scared to pursue your idea. Fear holds people back. As long as you take one step forward, and think about it as a marathon and not a sprint, you'll build the momentum you need.

The book Side Adventure is on Amazon, and you can buy it in a range of formats from print to Kindle. For more great resources and conversations about entrepreneurship, great ideas, and even greater people, check out more episodes of The Jeff Bullas Show.

Side Adventure: The playbook to leverage your corporate job, pursue a side venture, and find happiness and fulfillment.

The ecosystem of the Internet is powered by one thing - advertising. Websites are free to visit because advertisers can purchase space to display ads for viewers.

The two main characteristics of a healthy Internet is free access and consumer trust. To ensure the latter, Matt Gillis, founder and CEO of clean.io, has created a solution to a specific digital problem - malvertising or malicious code.

What is ‘malvertising’? Malvertising is the use of advertising to load malicious code onto third-party websites to essentially do bad things. Broadly, this can include things as innocuous as creating a poor user experience all the way to tracking and stealing customer data.

This is how digital advertising works today:

A content creator has a website, xyz.com.
This creator has worked hard to gain viewership, and now in order to generate revenue, they want to show ads.
They create blocks on their site that will contain ads.
Then, an ad service places ads inside those blocks.

But ads aren’t just images. You’ll notice when you click on an ad it typically redirects to another page. That is all powered by underlying code that is injected into xyz.com’s website. While the original creator controls the code they wrote, they don’t control the code for the ads. This creates an opportunity for unethical characters to inject malicious code without the creator’s knowledge.

You may recall an experience when you were scrolling on a site and the ads redirected you to a product, or took over the screen. That experience probably changed the way you viewed that website, and now you think twice about visiting it again. Content creators face this problem every day. A bad ad experience can turn viewers away forever, and that’s lost revenue you’ll never get back. Matt’s company protects about 8 million sites a month from this sort of behavior.

Combat Malicious Code with clean.io The best way to solve the malicious code problem, according to clean.io, is to allow hackers to place ads on webpages. Then, clean.io adds a single line of JavaScript code in the header of a webpage and analyzes all the code on the page. It allows the image of the ad to render, because it is harmless, but disables the underlying malicious code.

This serves two purposes. First, it prevents malicious code from executing on the host site. Secondly, it creates a financial disincentive for the malicious code creators. They paid money to place their malicious ad on a webpage, but the code they wanted to execute was disabled. What usually happens is these bad actors block sites with clean.io technology, so their ads are no longer displayed where the malicious code is disabled.

Growing During a Pandemic The early days of a company are about growing relationships. 2020 was a difficult year for that because of the pandemic. With in-person meetings nearly impossible, Gillis had to rise to the challenge of building a network in more creative ways. Remote communication became his main tool.

Gillis needed to secure funding, and for that he had to gain the trust of venture capitalists, all while the world was almost entirely shut down. Investors couldn’t come down to his headquarters in Baltimore to see the work the company was doing. Instead, he had to sell them on the potential of the product and build trust from the ground up. Even though he signed term sheets and gained financial backing, he still hasn’t met his lead venture capitalist in person.

He relied heavily on his reputation. Many people he would reach out to would actually look at his LinkedIn profile and go through every single mutual connection. His background helped people trust that he had experience and was going to deliver. His social footprint really mattered in forging connections with others during the pandemic.

Building the Best Product Matt wanted his product to be so good that it could sell itself. Cybersecurity companies face a unique challenge, because once their product is out there, people will immediately try to find ways to circumvent it.

The enemy that clean.io is fighting can be anywhere and everywhere. These malicious advertisers are nameless, faceless. They’re constantly evolving and innovating to get what they want. To make this a viable business, Matt knows he couldn’t just launch a product and let it be. The product has to grow and innovate as well.

A product-focused approach to growth worked for clean.io. Their product started going viral from word of mouth. Matt and his team didn’t hire a marketer until over two years into the venture. He focused all of his energy on building the best product that everyone would tell their friends about.

Building a Strong Business Creating the best product is only half the battle. The other half is finding market share and getting consumers onboard and interested in the product. Luckily for clean.io, it had already built momentum from the publicity it got just through word-of-mouth. Six months ago, the team hired a professional marketer to take their marketing to the next level and start attracting more customers.

Looking to the Future Gillis envisions a future where the world’s largest eCommerce sites rely on his product to stop malicious code. They’ll prevent consumer-focused extensions from operating on their products. These extensions work by scraping the internet for coupon codes and applying them at checkout on these sites, costing them revenue.

But he recognizes that the process of building a scalable business is a marathon, not a sprint. He’s looking forward to each step in the journey, and recognizes there will be more challenges and opportunities ahead.

Lessons For Budding Entrepreneurs Gillis chose to work at a company that started with just five people. Although the product seemed sound, it was still a huge risk. At that stage, it’s impossible to tell if an enterprise will succeed.

But he chose to think of it a different way. The worst thing that could happen was he’d get to try this out for a year, run out of money, and then he’d be job hunting again. But the experience would make him even more valuable as a future hire. This gave him the courage to leave his safety net and try this new opportunity.

If you have an idea for a side hustle or a new product - go for it. You can only gain experience. Learn more about building a successful business here.

When it comes to talking start-ups and growing your business, especially in the digital age, an important topic that often makes its way into the conversation is lead generation. On The Jeff Bullas Show, we’ve interviewed dozens of experienced innovators on the subject, including Boris Pfeiffer Riddle.

More recently, I wanted to find out if it’s possible to keep up with the amount of leads generated by social media. Will there always be some degree of lead-loss?

Steve MacDonald is the CEO and founder of LeadKlozer, a Facebook growth suite designed for digital agencies and Facebook marketers. He believes new software is the answer to capturing more leads on platforms like Facebook.

Steve has almost 30 years of branding and marketing experience and has spent the last decade training more than 10,000 entrepreneurs on how to use social media to grow their businesses. He’s served as the founder of a global social media university, CMO of a Hollywood start-up, Director of Client Services for a top ten digital marketing agency, and Director of Strategic Planning for Mazda Motors. To top it off, he was trained in branding by the former CMO of McDonald’s.

Reducing lead-loss by understanding social media metrics Preventing lead-loss starts by understanding your metrics. Tracking “engagements” is one of the most popular KPIs for a brand on social media. For example, these actions could include a like, comment, or share. However, many argue that sales are a better metric to track the performance of a social media strategy.

Even in the digital world, it’s hard to identify how overall engagements increase through social media. People follow you, they check you out, but how do you attribute that or utilize that for your brand?

When people follow an account on social media, they leave footprints: likes, smiley faces, comments, messages, and more. These are all important indicators that they're engaged with who you are as a brand.

The problem then becomes tracking this engagement.

Once you start seeing engagement, it becomes impossible to keep track of it all, which in turn causes lead-loss. You begin missing opportunities just because you can’t manage the activity of users who interact with your brand.

Steve turned this pain point into a business. He saw an opportunity. His team spent months searching for a tool that could track individual engagements. It turned out, nobody did it. This was the spark that led to LeadKlozer.

Closing more sales on social media If you talk to any highly successful salesperson, they're going to tell you the best opportunity to engage with a prospect is right after they've reached out and made first contact with you. That's when your business is at the front of their mind.

In essence, this means you want to know when the top 10% of your fans are engaging with your content. Who are your super fans and how are they reacting to your most recent post? Is it possible to communicate with them?

LeadKlozer invented a system to prevent lead-loss by giving businesses a direct line to chat with fans who are boosting your engagement. It allows you to create a conversation that could potentially close a lead, hence the name of the company.

If you're not taking every opportunity to capitalize on that conversation and close that business, then you're missing opportunities that you used resources to create.

Facebook wasn't designed as a follow-up tool, it was designed as a social network, and as much as they cater to businesses with the ad platform, they still haven't designed it as a follow-up tool.

70% of leads are never followed up with, and that's happening at an even greater rate on Facebook because you simply can't keep track of it all. You can't manage it manually.

Leads are the lifeblood of any business.

What are the most important types of engagements on social media? Without giving away the secret to their success, Steve and his team have ranked the sources of engagement, giving a different priority to each type of engagement. They use a sophisticated algorithm, but it can be explained fairly simply. Before the ranking, it’s important to understand:

All of these things are relevant to how recent the engagement was. A phone call today is obviously more important than a phone call from a month ago. The passage of time is not favorable to leads. Part of the algorithm’s job is to score the priorities using points. As time passes, it decreases the priority points.
Manual programs in the LeadKlozer system allow you to make sure no leads are bypassed by the automated system. This system ranks leads using colors: blue for cold, green for neutral, and you can manually put them to orange for warm and red for hot. Every time you change that status, you're telling LeadKlozer something really important.
Facebook is still king. There's no one solution, and there’s a lot of diversity in how to use it, but when it comes to gathering and connecting with leads, Facebook cannot be beaten.

With these principles laid out, here are the ranked engagement avenues:

Comments
Messages
Ads
Reactions/Live streaming

Obviously, it‘s vital to be able to put this information together, to notice when the same lead continues to pop-up. In LeadKlozer, you can literally put together a list of everybody registered for a webinar in priority of their smart score, or how engaged they are with you. This lets you know who to follow up with.

This ability gives a whole new dimension to sales and following up with leads because you're not just guessing who you should be following up with. We all have limited time, and of course, everyone would like to scale their business and have lots of people and salespeople that could help out, but for the majority of us, there’s simply too much to do and too few resources.

If we don't use our time in a smart way, if we're not following up with the right people, we're going to tread water, waste time, and no business can afford to do that.

Facebook myths that result in lead-loss Steve says there are three common Facebook marketing myths that all social media marketers need to understand:

Missed comments are unavoidable.

Facebook makes it so hard to follow up on comments, so we miss them. The bottom line is that it's too hard to keep track of all your comments. Comments are the number one way that people reach out and create a direct conversation with you. Luckily, LeadKlozer has designed its software to make sure you are able to access missed comments and follow-up without an hour of searching and navigating.

There's no way to know who your most important fans are.

Who should I reply to? Who should I spend the most time with? The number one way to increase revenue is to cross-sell and upsell existing customers, which means you’re going to comment extremely differently with someone you’re familiar with, rather than somebody who is brand new. Normally, because we don't have any of that information or context, we can't do that. We can’t make those changes in communication, which means we lose a highly successful sales process.

But with LeadKlozer, that changes. It’s only a myth because there was no tool to help you do it previously.

You can’t reply or respond to likes or reactions.

On average, posts get 10 times as many reactions as comments. We don’t think about the reactions or reply to them because Facebook gives us no way to do that.

However, if we combine the fact that we know the “reactors” ranking, we know who's important, and we know if we have had a one-on-one conversation with them because of LeadKlozer’s technology, we can engage with them.

Who should use LeadKlozer to help combat lead-loss? Any type of business that sees success engaging with their audience on Facebook should consider using LeadKlozer.

If you've got engagements, then you're creating leads, and if you're creating leads, you have the opportunity to create engagement priorities and new ways to identify and follow up with leads.

In the end, it’s more about who is using Facebook to generate leads for their business. If you're doing that, you're getting engagement. If you're getting engagement, you're missing opportunities because you can't keep track of them.

The future of LeadKlozer is bright. Currently, they are working with Instagram in the beta-stage of testing, so that companies can start using the data from Instagram effectively in the same way to help combat lead-loss.

They plan to keep adding social networks, including Twitter and LinkedIn.

The LeadKlozer team strongly believes their software is going to help agencies and businesses of all sizes turn engagements into leads more effectively on social media.

To find out more about this tool, check out LeadKlozer’s website and get involved!

For more from the Jeff Bullas Show, listen to the most recent podcasts.

Scott Lee is the CEO and founder of Gooroo, an educational technology company that provides accessible videos through 'Gooroo Courses' and personalized tutor matching services.

Scott’s mission is to reimagine education, unlock every student’s potential, and promote lifelong learning for all.

Previously, Scott was a Senior Analyst at JPMorgan Chase’s Chief Investment Office. Prior to Gooroo, he also founded Peertutor.co.kr, a non-profit platform that connected underserved children with English tutor volunteers. He then founded Mud Cafe, a niche online fashion retailer.

The Story of the Guru Behind Gooroo Scott grew up in South Korea, and moved to the U.S. when he was in high school. He wasn't able to speak English, so his friends and teachers helped him significantly as he adjusted to the culture, schoolwork, and got involved in different sports.

He developed a passion for entrepreneurship at a young age. His first venture was a peer-to-peer tutoring club at his school in Hartford, Connecticut. When he first arrived, even GPS was not helpful. Coming from a small country, the forest was huge from his perspective. Likewise, the school was humongous, and it was hard to find tutors. In South Korea, there are tons of tutoring centers and tutors all around the city.

When he returned to South Korea, he wanted to volunteer with underserved children because he felt extremely fortunate to study in the U.S. It was a way to use this privilege to give back.

He reached out to centers who needed volunteers, contacted college students, and after coming back from the army, it was clear to Scott that education and unlocking students' potential was his passion.

After graduating from Columbia, he briefly worked at JPMorgan and quickly realized that he felt more comfortable as an entrepreneur.

Gratitude and perspective rules Scott’s energy and vision in all the projects he takes on.

Scott tells a story about how his grandparents escaped from North Korea and that his father lived with six siblings in one small room.

Korea was a disaster after the Korean war. His family had to leave their first son with a relative and were never able to find him after they left. A lot of people suffered in Korea, and education is a huge opportunity.

Now, he teaches six to eight students on Sundays during his church service, and Scott believes he learns just as much from them. Everything is a learning opportunity, and human interaction is precious.

Covid has highlighted the importance of community, connection, and conversation.

Scott didn't speak English for two years while living on a mountain in Korea. After not studying for two years, his brain felt frozen and he dealt with comparisons once he started attending Columbia University.

He started panicking and realized he desperately needed a tutor. He was shocked yet again at how difficult it was to find a tutor, despite there being so many talented, intelligent people in the U.S.

Young and overly confident, Scott decided to build an app that would be like Uber for tutors. He now admits he greatly underestimated how difficult findings tutors would be.

At the same time, he was battling his discontent working at JPMorgan, though his parents were incredibly proud and envisioned a lifetime with the company. In Asian culture, you’re supposed to get a safe job, work there your whole life, retire, and die. This type of thinking mostly came from Scott’s mother, who was married to a risk-taking entrepreneur. Evidently, that passion was passed down to Scott.

Scott left JPMorgan and leapt into the jungle of New York.

He bootstrapped initially, using some savings, stocks, and support from his father’s businesses in the U.S. and Korea. Without these resources, it would have been hard to fundraise. He was a first time founder, overly confident, and had no tech experience.

Scott and his group made a prototype, built the tutor app, and made a lot of mistakes along the way.

They had over 40 investors in the first round, which is unheard of, but initially it was very difficult. He learned a lot from his parents, students, and teachers, but in the end, persistency was the most important piece.

Gooroo’s Boom During the Pandemic With Covid-19, online learning has become the norm. While Gooroo focuses a lot on Metro cities, they’re now all over the United States. They also have Chinese students and offices in Shanghai and Jakarta.

One of the most unique parts of the platform is the personalization. The platform matches a tutor with a student, using a customized and specific testing process.

The pandemic has affected over 1.2 billion learners, making quality education a global problem. Tutoring is an amazing resource that Scott and his group wanted to make more affordable, while adding value to this service with the help of current technology. They wanted to make tutors available to everyone, not just the wealthy.

Currently, Gooroo covers all of the normal courses, but also includes topics like personal development, chess, music, singing, cooking, and so on. Now, they’re launching group clubs, which are extracurricular activities for K-12 students with engagement and project based learning. The goal is to allow students to explore new areas and unlock their potential.

Scott believes that a student’s super power is the freedom to think outside of the box, something that schools often cannot achieve due to lack of funding. Extracurricular activities are limited based on where neighborhoods and schools are located. They believe this focus will be extremely important, especially in the future.

The Future of Education - Online Learning There is still a lot of today’s education that is focused on memorization and non-practical information. In the end, the future of education will focus a lot on independent, critical thinking, with the mindset of creating lifelong learners.

People need to realize that your job can be replaced at any time. Your major can disappear while you're at college. What's possible because of AI, and the pace of the AI being developed, means we have to keep learning and get good learning. You have to be creative and unique so that AI cannot replace your job and what you do.

That's why humans are so amazing. We are masterpieces.

The future of education has to focus on enabling everyone to live up to their potential. It is critical. Not living up to our potential creates a toxic environment because we feel accomplished by doing and living our lives, not by getting money.

It’s time to rethink what education is really supposed to do for future generations.

How do we help students find out what they should be doing? How do we aid them in self-actualization? How can we create resources to help others find their path as human beings?

One-on-one learning is ideal simply because you can ask about your learning styles, and teachers can observe how each student learns and build relationships that inspire them. Matching tutors with students who have common hobbies and interests increases that connection and multiplies the effectiveness of the relationship.

Alternatively, the group clubs are more project-based and have a lot of different ways members can interact, while keeping affordability and accessibility in mind.

Parents are also more aware of how their kids are learning, because they are given tools to learn their role. A lot of times, parents receive little to no education on parenting, and they make a lot of mistakes with their first time raising kids. Learning how to do that doesn’t happen automatically. Educating parents on what kind of learner their child is increases their chances of success as a parent.

Communicating well to parents about their kids, and helping everybody to stay on the same page is critical. This is a huge problem for schools and parents. They are extremely disconnected. The only thing that parents are told is about their children’s grades and when they have problems.

The process of transforming the education system for the future happens one step at a time.

Online Learning Styles and Modalities Over the last six or seven years, Scott has dedicated some of his time to learning about styles and modalities. He has been fighting to normalize the reality that every student learns differently.

Using a one size fits all system means some students are led to believe that they're bad students, when in reality, the material hasn't been given in their learning style.

That's not their fault, and students need to know that it's not their fault.

It's tricky because school resources are limited, and teachers are stretched and underpaid. On average, teachers burnout in four or five years.

Filling the gap is possible for a tech company like Gooroo, especially if they try to think about how to go above and beyond helping those students to find their learning styles, and how to unlock their potential.

Gooroo’s mission is to reimagine education and unlock every student's potential through technology.

Gooroo is an education technology company, not a technology education company. This means they have to focus on the future of education, and how to help students go above and beyond. All this while continuing to be innovative and creative.

Technology is a tool to educate, inspire, and guide: Gooroo uses artificial intelligence for the matching algorithm, but this technology was built by their tech team. Behind the scenes, their instructional coordinator, teachers, founders, and all the humans involved are the ones who keep things going.

To learn more about Gooroo, check out its website. For more content like this, browse previous episodes of the podcast.

Jeremy Epstein is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Gtmhub, the world’s leading SaaS provider in OKR (Objectives and Key Results) goal-setting methodology. In December 2020, Gtmhub raised the largest Series B round in the history of the category ($20 million) and serves global brands like Société Générale, CNN, Adobe, and TomTom.

Jeremy was the CMO for a company called Sprinklr, which is one of the first automatic marketing platforms. Sprinklr had around 14 employees when Jeremy started, and when he left the company had 1,400 employees and a billion-dollar valuation. Although Jeremy had the experience and results to prove his worth, he decided to leave it all. He was halfway up the corporate ladder and decided to leap off.

Jeremy then went into the world of crypto currency and started a consulting company called Never Stop Marketing. He became passionate and curious about the world of crypto currency, and in the meantime, he had also become the CEO of a company called Gtmhub.

Sprinklr Jeremy started blogging in 2000, which was the very beginning of social media. He had a Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2007, and he realized social media was the way to go.

He started thinking about the significance of the arrival of this technology and came to the conclusion that this was going to fundamentally change marketing, the area in which he had spent his entire career.

Realizing that now customers had a voice that could be amplified and multiplied, globally and for free, marketing has been fundamentally changed into a two-way discussion. That’s why when the CEO of Sprinklr showed Jeremy the software that would help large organizations have authentic conversations with global audiences in the millions, across teams, divisions, and business units, Jeremy immediately recognized that the software was something everyone was going to need.

Obviously, Sprinklr grew quite rapidly, the most recent valuation was just under 3 billion. Also, the bulk of the fortune 500 companies now use Sprinklr to manage all of their social engagement.

While it is true that Jeremy had enjoyed his four and a half years at this company, as a marketer he preferred storming the beaches. He knew his work with Sprinklr had come to an end.

Cryptocurrency and OKR As Jeremy was looking for the next beach to storm, he started getting more curious about cryptocurrency. He had purchased his first Bitcoins back in 2013, but hadn’t thought anything of it until a few years later. He spent six months reading everything he could get his hands on- nearly 350 white papers over the course of six months. There was a day in late 2016 when he sprang up off his couch and realized that cryptocurrency was a tsunami that no one knew was coming. This was the missing piece for the internet and social media.

He knew he needed to be involved, and spent the next four and a half years writing three books, around a thousand blog posts, 150 articles, briefing generals at the Pentagon, giving keynotes around the world, and advising startups about the space around their crypto and marketing area.

Jeremy was introduced to the CEO of Gtmhub right at the beginning of the pandemic, started to work as a marketing advisor, and was then introduced to Objectives and Key Results (OKR). For example, getting into better shape is an objective, but that's meaningless in the absence of key results. So does getting in better shape mean you're going to be able to run a marathon? Does it mean you're going to lose 10 kilos? Does it mean your going to decrease your blood pressure? Does it mean a smaller waist size? What results are you looking to accomplish?

Choosing a certain set of results will then inform the strategic steps you need to take to achieve your key results.

This allows employees to their primary objective every single day. What are the key results? Having these objectives give you that focus and accountability, because you're making a promise to your organization, your partners, and your customers.

Benefits of the Objectives and Key Results Methodology Once Jeremy started to get his head around this, he felt like he was discovering a nuclear power.

One of the four main benefits of Objectives and Key Results is alignment, which means getting the business and teams aligned. The second is focus: the strategies involved in OKR allow for unity in focus across the board.

The third benefit is transparency, which means everyone can see how it all works.

The final benefit is engagement: everyone then gets engaged because they know what they're meant to be doing. As a knowledgeable worker, you own your outcomes.

This is a mindset shift from the industrial revolution, where worth was measured by output. I mean, currently it would be similar to asking how many widgets could you turn per hour? Today’s environment values the knowledge that a worker brings and therefore it’s not as important the amount of time spent doing a certain task. It's not about time. It's about value and results.

4 Myths About Cryptocurrency 1. Crypto assets are worthless. 2. Crypto assets are for criminals. 3. Existing markets are good enough in this marketplace. 4. Investing is all art or science.

Crypto Futura Fund is dispelling the myths about cryptocurrency. The over-centralization of technology has led to some challenges in the social media world. It's also led China to a total surveillance state. In essence, using cryptocurrencies democratizes finances.

Right now there are 2 billion people in the world who don't even have a bank account. That’s because there are many barriers to getting a bank account. This problem goes on, because if you don't have a bank account then you can't get a loan, create a new business, or do many other things. This limitation can sometimes lead to poverty.

Jeremy saw the need for a system that allows people to get access to finance, financial tools, and instruments. The resources that you've worked so hard to store up and save for your retirement are being eroded on a daily basis. This means that allowing people to have access at any point, anywhere, and to give them the ability to transact with anyone for whatever reason is one of the most powerful forces in the market.

Jeremy and his team are highly confident that their efforts are going to revolutionize the financial system.

For more topics like this, listen to The Jeff Bullas Podcast.

Originally, Neel Parekh studied economics and psychology, but only because those were the two closest degrees to business available. Even at that point, he wanted to do something in business. Growing up with parents who were small business owners, he always felt he would end up doing something similar at some point.

He completed several internships throughout college, but his first real job was at a venture capital firm.

The focus was PR growth and private equity, which meant he was writing checks for five to $20 million to different companies for a minority stake. It was exciting. He was getting to invest in software companies and high-end tech companies.

The switch happened when Neel was on Reddit looking at different ideas of what to do next. He wanted a side hustle. Though he enjoyed the excitement of his job, Neel was looking forward to a change worth quitting for, something that allowed him to travel. He came across a post on the entrepreneur subreddit, of someone who started a cleaning company. He had posted the steps, and Neel thought, why not?

He started following the subreddit, researching the framework, and then took it and made it his own.

In 2020, Neel launched MaidThis Franchise, which is the first-ever U.S.-based cleaning franchise specializing in vacation rental cleanings. He is the Founder and CEO of MaidThis® & MaidThis® Franchise, a cleaning franchise that helps residential homeowners and short-term rental hosts (Airbnb, VRBO, etc) with their cleaning. MaidThis is a completely remote business model and operates locally with a global team. His business was designed for remote work, which is very timely for the current economic climate.

Noticing Entrepreneurial Opportunities When Neel first started out with his side hustle, there wasn’t a grand master plan. He chose to focus on Airbnb hosts because he saw the vacation rental company growing into a hundred billion-dollar brand. There were no conscious plans or goals, it was simply about noticing the opportunities and taking advantage of them.

While many companies like these were popping up, Neel had chosen to operate remotely from day one, out of his necessity to have a side hustle while he was working his day job.

This gave his business a huge competitive advantage. They could recruit around the world with no office overhead. All of those dollars could go to marketing instead. Having a more lean infrastructure is a big leg up.

His business also coincided with the boom of vacation rentals. As work became more complicated, people began converting their homes or secondary spaces into vacation rentals. Instead of going to hotels, overcrowded amusement parks, or tourist spots, people began looking for small, well-maintained rental homes for a safe getaway. With this shift, homeowners now needed more cleaning each month.

How a Cleaning Franchise Works Over seven and a half years, Neel and his team have spent much of their time examining their mistakes, figuring out how to run a remote business and a cleaning franchise. Trial and error, practice, and time are the most important and unavoidable factors of this process.

There’s been a lot of demand for their business to expand into other markets, so to resolve this, Neel and his team have packaged the system to partner with franchisees. For example, if someone wanted to use their cleaning system in Vegas, they could partner with Neel for support from their team and brand recognition of a franchise.

For any service-based business, finding staff is always one of the most difficult parts to scale. That's always the bottleneck. It's similar to the chicken or the egg debate. When you have jobs, you need cleaners. If you have cleaners, you need more jobs. It’s always fluctuating, and it's never going to be perfect. For Neel and his team, this is something they consider when deciding to award a franchise to someone in a certain locality. There has to be enough talent pool in the market in order to recruit the necessary amount of staff.

Tools for Remote Teams Slack One of the most important tools in Neel’s arsenal is Slack. Slack is the central hub for their operations team. The efficiency of a tool like this for remote work is enormous. You can't just rely on emails and wait for someone to reply. A quality communication platform is the core of a successful cleaning franchise.

Launch 27 The next piece is a quality CRM. Neel’s team uses Launch 27 to allow customers to go online and schedule appointments. This system also sends a schedule to cleaners and keeps the bookings updated.

VoIP The third tool Neel recommends (though not necessary for every business) is a VoIP system for phone calls. This allows the remote team to log in from their home computers to the phone line, dial in, dial out, and manage calls.

The truth is, you don't need to build something unless you absolutely have to. There are many ways to automate things, dozens of software systems, all to keep everything moving as quickly as possible.

Common Challenges Starting From Scratch In the beginning, the biggest challenge is always getting customers. However, the first major issue Neel and his team faced centered around the parts of the business they had no experience in. They didn’t know how to make a website.

Neel works in finance as a master of Excel spreadsheets. But creating a website? Impossible. Everything from formatting to marketing had to be done completely from scratch.

Finances, on the other hand, weren’t difficult to find. The beauty of having a remote local business, where you could do things very lean, is that you need very little cash to get going. Neel’s business was 100% bootstrapped.

Working and Leading Remotely Running a remote business is where it can become more complicated. For those who want to travel, bad wifi will eventually happen, and in certain areas, no amount of money can fix it. In these scenarios, mobile hotspots are a godsend. Of course, you're never really unplugged. In the beginning stages, you're always tethered, and you have to be in a place with reliable Wifi.

After that, the challenge is productivity. When traveling to a new city, most people find it takes about a week to get settled, discover which coworking space they’ll use or find a local coffee spot. It just takes time to get into the rhythm. For those who seek out this lifestyle, it’s important to be aware of the loss of productivity and how to combat it.

MaidThis Today, Neel’s cleaning franchise has nine office staff members, between 25 to 40 cleaners at any given time, with services in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver. Currently, they’re discussing which locations should be next. An ideal spot would be a good mix of both residential and vacation rental spots, like Phoenix, Arizona. They’re also considering large, competitive cities like NYC.

For Neel, the most important thing is to continue learning the market, so when the unexpected happens, there’s room for flexibility.

To hear more from Jeff Bullas, check out the podcast!

Mark W. Schaefer is a globally-recognized author, speaker, podcaster, business consultant, and blogger. In fact, he runs one of the top five marketing blogs in the world. He teaches graduate marketing classes at Rutgers University and has written eight best-selling books. Mark’s new book Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business and Life Against All Odds is an essential new path to being seen and heard in a busy world.

His many global clients include Pfizer, Cisco, Dell, Adidas, and the US Air Force. He has been a keynote speaker at prestigious events all over the world including SXSW, Marketing Summit Tokyo, and the Institute for International and European Affairs. He has appeared as a guest on media channels such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and CBS News.

Bet on Your Ideas Before all of this, Mark worked in the corporate world, stuck in a marketing job. The internet was just starting, and Mark very quickly believed there were business applications for the internet. He asked his boss if he could get an AOL account and put it on his expense account, and after a long debate over why he thought it was a waste of money, he agreed. Mark’s ideas started taking off, and a few years later, the fortune 100 company woke up, saw the need for a larger investment in their internet ventures, with Mark at the helm.

That was where his career in the e-business digital space began. He eventually quit and started his own project centered around social media. He started a blog and it took off, which led to books, which led to speaking and eventually to his position at the university.

Play the Long Game He didn’t write his first book until age 50 and his first blog post was published at 48 years old. He has been on a constant journey of reinvention, morphing into the opportunities that are presented. This is part of most people's reality: oftentimes, you don't follow a dream, the dream follows you.

Originally, none of this was his dream. He could have been the CEO, probably of a big company, and he realized he just didn't want that lifestyle. Now, he continues to make choices for the lifestyle he actually wants.

His latest book is about getting to the heart of being human. As we all grow a little bit older, we start to reflect a little more.

Discover Your Cumulative Advantage The number one issue for any person or business in this world today is this:

How can I be heard?

Mark explores the nuances of becoming known in the world, becoming heard in the world, and how things really catch on. The key? Telling a full, quality story.

The hero's journey story arc can be a simple, step-by-step narrative and still be incredibly powerful. Stories connect to the essence of being human, and it resonates with every one of us as humans are constantly trying to make sense of what they don't understand.

Over the last 10 years, Mark has learned how to become the signal instead of the noise, and through his books and blog, he’s helping others to do the same. He’s been writing about influence marketing, content shock, and developing your personal brand, and now through Cumulative Advantage, he’s sharing how to build momentum. Even if you’re great, you're being buried. You might not ever be heard or seen. You need the momentum.

Adapt to the Changing Landscape Social media is going to be really upended in the next few years. In many cases, these platforms are based in America, and marketing professionals are starting to rethink these monopolies. Are they good, or are they bad? How do we co-exist with this power that they have? How does this impact free speech? How does it impact politics? To what extent should it be regulated?

This has become even more evident in the last couple of years, and in response, there are going to be new opportunities. People are isolated, people are lonely, they want to connect, they want to have conversations, and a lot of people have more time on their hands than before.

There are going to be lots of fractures in the status quo around social media, especially involving marketing. Mark believes we won’t even recognize what marketing looks like two years from now.

While questions bring changes, and changes bring disruption, in the end, these are questions we've got to ask, because if we don't, social media and big tech might begin to dehumanize us. There are some real issues regarding anxiety and depression that are rooted in the power that we’ve given social media. This anxiety and depression, mixed with fear and grief over loss, has become a dangerous cocktail. There's so much pressure on image, perfection, competition, FOMO, and imposter syndrome. We have to start asking ourselves, what have we created? And what can we do to change it?

Leave Your Mark The goal of Cumulative Advantage is to help people to gain some insights into what it means to be human, to seize their calling, and make a difference. At the end of the day, it’s about having a cumulative advantage and changing the world in some way, whether it's large or small.

To learn more about Mark Schaefer’s other books and resources, check out his work at Businesses Grow. For more of Jeff’s thoughts and conversations, tune into more episodes of The Jeff Bullas Show.

Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business and Life Against All Odds

Boris Pfieffer is a quiz and game creator currently working in Germany. He's been creating games and quiz platforms for a long time and has even been bought out by different companies multiple times. But how does Boris’ work fit into what we talk about here at Jeff Bullas? It’s simple, and we’re going to share how you can use gaming and quiz platforms as a lead generation strategy.

Boris has always been connected to the online industry and started his first company building websites when browsers first came out. However, what got Boris into the first big quiz platform, which was called Tickle.com, was something a bit strange.

Tickle The founders of this website were Harvard graduates who near their graduation took the Myers-Briggs tests on paper. They thought it was crazy that during the.com boom, a university like Harvard was still administering tests like these on paper.

This is when they decided to found a high-end test-taking company, hiring psychologists and creating very sophisticated tests... that no one was interested in.

As the demand for their product was low, they were looking at closing their doors when they decided to try something different. They created a test called “What dog are you?”

This single massive hit catapulted Tickle to the 28th biggest website in the world. Although nobody knew the name Tickle, you could talk to random people and they knew what dog they were due to a test they had taken online recently.

From there on, Tickle became a massive test platform and eventually, the high-end tests (IQ tests and other personality tests) started becoming more popular as well. But, the reason these tests became more popular the second time around was that the creators found a way to make them fun.

Everyone enjoys taking “silly” tests, and these tests/surveys were around long before the internet. You could pick up any old magazine and it would have a test in it.

Boris and the other founders managed to make their website really big in Europe, which was much harder than you'd think. Even though the UK was their first market, followed by Germany, there was no way to translate the test.

They had to hire local psychologists in England to help them rewrite even the fun ones, because there were important cultural differences even between a shared language. For example, Americans apparently like to stick their tongues on frozen lampposts. The English don't do that. If you have questions like that in the test, someone in England will always answer differently than an American, which skews the results.

What Happened to Tickle? After a while, Tickle was sold to Monster.com, the big job board, for over a hundred million. Monster didn't do such a great job of making Tickle grow. It was a typical case of a management team loving the idea and knowing how to use it for lead generation. This is a pretty obvious connection. If you have people taking tests, and you know what personality they are, you can direct them to jobs that actually fit them- even surprising jobs that they would never think would fit them!

But then the management team changed, and someone new came in. This new person wasn't from the online world, and things moved in a different direction very quickly. Tickle became less exciting and the tests weren't all that important anymore, so they eventually just let it die. It happens often in acquisitions- someone has a bucket full of money, an acquisition is made, but they don’t have the same passion because they're not the founders.

Boris chose to stay with Tickle through the acquisition for seven years because he found the work really interesting. Due to the rise of social networks, and because they had so much traffic already on Tickle, they knew how to sell ads and monetize traffic. So Boris and his team managed all the up-and-coming social networks, media inventory, all their traffic, and four or five billion ad impressions every month.

Eventually, Monster decided they didn't want to continue with the project and Boris left.

The Fall of MySpace and Facebook Gaming Boris and the rest of the previous Tickle founders started 10 different companies, one of which was a very successful online game. Boris moved from a small gaming company into a big gaming company, leading to setting up Cabana in Europe. Eventually, Cabana became one of the top mobile game publishers.

Cabana was sold for around 900 million, and Boris left Cabana when there were over a thousand people.

From Boris’s perspective, it was an interesting journey starting out with MySpace games until they became obsolete, then moving to Facebook games. Once Facebook started charging their 30% tax on all revenue generated from games, Boris tried to make a unique portal that unfortunately didn't work out.

At this point, one of the founders suggested focusing on mobile gaming.

Their first mobile game was a massive hit, which solidified their choice to transition into a mobile game company.

With their newly formed company, Riddle, they avoided putting all their eggs in one basket. They didn’t want to rely on someone else’s platform, which turned out to be a really good move because just after quizzes on Facebook became a big thing, the Cambridge Analytica scandal struck.

This was a very well-covered scandal and it involved quizzes running on Facebook, which stole people's data and then sold it to the highest bidder without Facebook's knowledge.

After that, no one could run quizzes on Facebook anymore. In fact, much of the interactive content on Facebook and similar platforms, like Twitter, ceased to exist. This led to a lot of broken dreams.

Lead Generation, Data Protection, and Consent The most recent conversations happening between entrepreneurs are all about GDPR and Apple's recent announcement- they're not going to give access to Facebook to collect data.

From those of us on the outskirts of what’s going on, it’s obvious that everybody that's built a business around stealing people's data without their consent is going to be in big trouble from lawmakers, and from Apple.

But as far as consumers go, how much do they really care if they’re willingly installing Tech-Talk or other tracking apps?

Would Tech-Talk be considered a data-stealing app or data collection app? Can you call it stealing if consumers are installing it and willingly know that everything they do is being tracked?

This particular app knows so much about you and it needs to know a lot about you- that it can optimize the algorithm and make it fun for you. In the end, there's always a trade-off to having a fun online experience if you want relevant, like Tik-Tok content that appeals to you. As of right now, the paradox is that you have to give up your data so that the app knows what content to procure for you, otherwise the app ceases to “work.” You give away your data in exchange for a more personalized experience. In the process, someone learns more about you than you realize.

Boris realizes that these quizzes are great for lead generation, but consent is 100% necessary. If someone takes a quiz and wants to fill out a form to receive more information/personalized content, they have to tick a box to say it's okay.

Consent is valuable for both parties because it allows you to get better information afterward. Obviously, if you collect data from customers with consent, it's much more valuable than nonconsensual, potentially fake data.

In other words, you're getting data that's more credible.

Riddle To give a super short definition, Riddle is an interactive platform that allows you to generate leads.

They offer a content creation tool, which you can use to create 16 different types of interactive content like quizzes, personality tests, and little games. These all have the ability to add a lead form at the end before the results are shown. You can make the lead form optional or skippable.

It's used by fairly big companies like BBC, NFL, Red Bull, lots of pro soccer teams, and even smaller bloggers and consultants. For the most part, it’s used to drive engagement.

For example, BBC children obviously wouldn't generate leads- they couldn't target children- so their mandate is time on site. They focus on giving the kids something to do, being educational, and using the platform for highly educational games, and supporting homeschooling.

A good example of a company using Riddle to generate leads involves a female magazine’s online site. They were asked by a car company which cars would best fit their market. The traditional way to find out is using a survey company to call your readership and ask questions. This usually leads to a lot of frustration, awkwardness, and hang-ups, giving very little helpful feedback.

Instead, they used Riddle to create a fun test to get good feedback. Although the test isn’t super direct, it does ask questions about cars and colors, which in turn gets the clients in the right headspace unconsciously. The next question asks if you won the lottery, which of these four cars would you buy? That's the relevant one. Since you’ve built up the trust and relevance, people are less likely to feel targeted. They think about it and give an honest answer because they’re enjoying the test.

You might spend hours writing or working on your content, but your efforts are partially wasted if you can’t get a quick overview of the customer’s sentiment. There’s a way to maximize the efficacy of your work by using quizzes for feedback and lead generation.

For more content like this check out the Jeff Bullas Show on YouTube or the website. To learn more about quizzes (or to do a few yourself), head over to Riddle.com and ask for Boris.

Charlie Bailes is a fourth-generation entrepreneur. In 1936, his great, great grandfather started ABC Fine Wine and Spirits, a family-owned business. We're going to discover a bit about the history of the company and how it fares in this fast-changing landscape.

Charlie shares what it’s like to be a fourth-generation entrepreneur and how he developed a passion project on the side.

ABC Fine Wine and Spirits Jack Holloway started the company in 1936, a time in which the phone book was still the norm. That’s reason number one for the name. The United States is very particular when it comes to regulation and taxation of liquor, which means each state has the right and ability to do whatever they want. In many states, the ABC store stands for either Alabama beverage control or alcoholic beverage control. The name turned into a happy, useful, coincidence.

In the last few years, a rebranding effort has led to the new meaning: Adult Beverage for a Celebration. Selling booze is a fun industry that deserves something with a fun ring to it.

At the end of the prohibition in 1936, Charlie’s grandfather was working in a cigar shop when he got the idea to start selling package liquor and pitched it to his boss. The end of the prohibition seemed like an apt time for this innovative idea.

His boss basically told him it was a horrible idea and that they would never do it. So Jack, being the entrepreneur that he was, decided to develop the idea on his own. His first location was in downtown Orlando, and that landmark is still there. Today, it’s a well-known restaurant by the name of Cantina. Now, almost eighty-six years later and in the fourth generation, the business is still growing.

Finding Opportunities from Problems There were a lot of interesting things happening around 1936. Every company deals with unique problems starting out, but for ABC, the problems were more complicated. In other words, the opportunity they had was directly related to their biggest problem. The problem was prohibition, and then the whole market opened up.

The Bailes side of the family entered through Jack’s daughter, Jackie Holloway, who married Charles Bailes Jr., a Georgia Tech engineer that built the highway system across Florida.

Jack passed away in the early nineties, and the torch was passed to the third generation at that point. The business model across central Florida was setting up small corner liquor stores, and in the 90’s this turned into 100 bars attached to those 200 stores.

Currently, they have 126 stores across all of Florida, from the panhandle down to Miami, and other stores all up the East Coast. The average size of their stores is about 10,000 square feet. Over the past 30 years, the third generation orchestrated a complete change of business model.

Family-Owned Business There were great times, there were bad times, there were times of division, and times of working together. What helped the family get through these times was understanding that the company is more important than the individual.

The executive team deserves a ton of credit for instilling that into everybody, but it really started with Jack and Charlie Jr. working together, figuring things out, and understanding that the business is bigger than any individual or either family.

Charlie believes that might be one of the secrets to why the company is still around. There are a lot of companies that tear each other, and themselves, apart. There are a lot of companies, especially a family-owned business, that see the younger generation not being interested in taking over and selling out or breaking up the company.

In America, personal freedom is considered sacred, so how were they able to put it aside for the good of their company?

We’re trained in America to value individualism. We glorify the people that accomplish things themselves and build the empire on their own. This idea is fundamentally flawed.

There is a 0% chance of ABC being the business it is today if it weren't for the teamwork, collaboration, and respect that the two families have for one another. The foundation of the company is the strength of the relationships, and not personal pride, personal agendas, personal success, money, fame, or anything else.

That’s what's missing with so many companies, but ABC seems to have a lot of it.

Their mission statement is to make everyday celebrations exceptional for team members and guests. Their employees are called team members, and they are intentionally put in front of the guests because ABC believes in serving family first.

It doesn't mean you always get along with your family. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns, but it's family. Regardless of how much you dislike the other person at any given time, it's always rooted in that strong family bond, and team members are part of this family.

Strategies to Encourage the Family Mentality Charlie believes it's the way that they interact and treat each other.

When they hire somebody from a much larger company, about a week into their job they normally get some type of call or email or text or something that’s welcoming and encouraging.

The response is always the same:

“Is this really how you guys work?”

“I've never been so empowered on my job.”

“I've never been so trusted on my job.”

“I've never had so much freedom to be myself, to operate the way that I like to operate.”

“I’ve never been simply treated as an adult rather than micromanaged to the nth degree.”

ABC instills its guiding principles, mission statement, and core values into everything, including its team members. Respect, inspire and empower. Those aren't just fun words, they’re the words ABC lives and breathes by. When they hire somebody new, they give them the respect that they deserve. They bring members to do a job, and they want to give them the respect and empowerment to do it. They attempt to inspire each other with their principles, values, actions, communication, and the way each other is treated.

Keeping the culture family-oriented means recognizing birthdays, recognizing anniversaries, using incentive programs, and investing in great benefits.

Charlie believes what really sets his company apart is the three core values mentioned above: respect, inspire and empower.

Translating Culture and Skills from the Physical World to the Virtual World Now, everyone has to rely more on technology and tools to deliver integrity, inspiration, and empowerment. How do we translate that success from a physical world to a virtual world?

The nice thing about remote work is having to rethink the organization and revamp the business model. ABC did just that- moving away from creating bars and small corner stores and creating large, multi-level liquor stores.

When it comes to success, Charlie stands firm on the principle that “You never arrive”. As an individual and as a company, you have to constantly evolve, because change is going to happen with or without you. Change can lead to extinction, or it can lead to a business boom. Around the year 2000, the last ABC bar closed. It took about an eight-year period between 1992 and 2000 for every bar to close. The motivation behind that change was actually very simple, according to Charlie. They wanted to create an environment where female consumers felt comfortable shopping. ABC sees their business through a family lens, and they recognized that having a liquor store that’s open until 2 am with a bar right next to it that operates until 3 am doesn’t really scream “family environment.”

That pivot resulted in a multitude of changes, including no longer selling smut magazines and not letting anybody in the store who's not over 21 years old. They get a good amount of guest complaints every week because of this, but the arguments against the change don’t work with the core values.

Bottom line, they want to have a safe, family-friendly environment, and they actually made the necessary changes to achieve this goal. They chose to put their culture, safety, and families over profits. It's a lot easier to do that when you're privately held and you can plan long term, as opposed to being a big, publicly-traded corporation that needs to hit quarterly earnings.

A Passion for Health and Wellness Charlie might be running HR, but he’s branched out into a side-hustle as well.

It spawned from his own experiences within his family. Everything is about family for Charlie, who is also a health nut. He loves reading leadership books and nutrition books written by doctors. His three kids, ages seven, five, and one, keep his house very busy.

Becoming a father was the first time Charlie had real responsibility for someone else, and unfortunately, his wife started having repeated health problems. After going to the hospital a couple of times, asking what was going on, and just being given medication in response, it became a frustrating cycle. Many people have experienced the pain of doing everything the doctor says without seeing results.

So Charlie dove into the literature, reading around 40 or 50 books written by doctors, subscribing to journals, and listening to more than a thousand podcasts in the health space. They made a bunch of dietary changes and lifestyle changes, and that's what spawned the side hustle.

Outside of ABC, Charlie also sells collagen protein supplements and helps people navigate frustrating health problems. At the end of the day, he just wants to help people who truly want to be helped.

Charlie, a 34-year-old who is still very much at the beginning of his career (a career student, he likes to call himself), left us with some parting wisdom. He’s given us three vital tips for success in a family-owned business and life in general:

Accept that you really have no clue
Accept that there's always going to be better information
Accept that we can always become better listeners

More often than not, the older generation in the company is trying to help the best way they know-how, and it’s the responsibility of the young entrepreneur to take advantage of this experience. Life is going to be so much easier and more fulfilling.

To find out more about what Charlie is doing at ABC, or with his side hustle, go to CBSupplements.com. For more blogs and podcasts like this one, listen to The Jeff Bullas Show.

This week on The Jeff Bullas Show, we spoke with Xenia Muntean who’s the founder of the digital startup Planable. She launched the company because she knew scheduling social media posts and content planning should be easier.

After running a digital agency, creating and publishing content, and trying to schedule it, she discovered a big problem. How do you simultaneously manage content, get it published, and get it promoted? This question inspired her to eventually close her agency and start Planable.

Xenia went to Silicon Valley, where she was trained by Tim Draper, and now has clients like Coca-Cola and has been recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. We’re going to talk about how she achieved this success and came up with her brilliant idea.

Scaling Through Automation Content marketing became very complicated very quickly. In 2009, it was like the Wild West. There were almost no tools and nearly everything had to be done manually, so when Xenia started experimenting with automation in 2010, she got a lot of negative backlash.

She realized early on that you can't scale yourself. If you're going to manually tweet, post on LinkedIn, Facebook, and every other platform, you won't have a life. Your work will consume you 24/7. If you're a digital agency, then you're doing this for multiple clients, which makes it even more difficult to keep up the quality.

So, once you solve the first problem of publishing, by automatically scheduling social media posts, you will naturally see a rise in content. This leads to more content production now that it’s easier to publish it. This means the problem has become how to coordinate that content and to make sure that you're putting out good content. It needs to be on-brand. Content that represents you. Content that’s meaningful and valuable to your audience.

Planable solves these problems by answering questions like:

How do you manage an entire pipeline of content in a collaborative way?

If you're a big company, you have lots of people that are involved in the process of social media content, from creation, execution, scheduling, reviewing, and publishing.

Planable helps manage that.

Growing a New Digital Startup After capitalizing on an opportunity, Xenia found the hardest part was keeping the momentum going. Balancing the energy to grow the company while avoiding burnout was challenging. In essence, there was a need to continually evolve and scale as new goals were set.

After a year-and-a-half, Xenia was running out of money. This led to working in marketing to alleviate the financial constraint. Planable needed to put the product on the market, but they also needed to figure out how to get some external financing. They chose to partner with AppSumo, a marketplace for products that allow customers to buy a product, or a lifetime subscription to a product, at a set base price.

Founders hoping this will be their miracle solution, be aware that AppSumo takes 70% of the profit. It's a commitment, something that you have to decide will be worth it for your unique circumstances. For Xenia and Planable, they were willing to try anything, experiment with anything, and on the first day (after sending only a newsletter) they were flooded with traffic.

They made around $200,000 in only a couple of weeks.

These early investors were so excited about the product that they tweeted about Planable, wrote blogs, and told their friends. When the deal was over, they continued getting traction and saw an uptick in subscriptions. This simple choice got the ball rolling and as word of mouth started spreading, the new digital startup was pushed into the market.

They hired a marketing team, and from there on, they never stopped growing.

Onboarding Customers Onboarding is difficult because although there are different models, it’s usually self-service. You have to build a great product experience to guide the user through the process and help them understand. This becomes crucial when you have hundreds of customers per month and thousands signing up because you can't hand-hold or do demos with every one of them.

The trick with onboarding is to build a really, really good experience. If you have a product that is simple, then you can connect your social media accounts and it generates or mirrors your feeds.

This gives you an advantage because people are able to onboard themselves faster. The subscription model is great, but you have to make sure onboarding is as easy as possible.

Techniques for Retention Apple has a pretty good model that works for them as well as many other apps, though it may not be that ethical. They rely on making it difficult to access your subscription and then nearly impossible to cancel it.

It's very controversial. Making it harder and even requiring an email to cancel is not for every business, and it’s definitely not something Planable uses. They simply don't want to keep hostages.

They’ve implemented some touring techniques: giving people discounts when they leave to entice them back, for example. In the end, if the product is not a good fit for someone, then that's it.

So, what’s the real battle? The evolution of what we do changes so quickly that the trend today can disappear tomorrow.

After investing time and money into a new addition or service for your platform, it can fade to the background in months as new trends and needs take precedence.

Even though you’ve broken through, now you’re trying to maintain your position and find that direct tactics towards consumers don’t seem to be working. So, where do you put your energy to achieve retention?

For digital startups, it’s easy to build products. The competition is fierce, especially in the world of marketing tech.

Being in this competitive space means you have to put some effort into not looking at your competitors, minding your own business, building, growing, and following your vision. You can’t fall into the trend trap, you have to do what makes sense for your business and stay focused on those natural areas of growth in the market.

To truly achieve retention, you have to stand out from the competition with a clear unique brand.

Working With APIs An API (Application Programming Interface) is the link or connection to any platform, and there are certain rules about how you use that connection.

API is what allows communication between two platforms. For example, if you're trying to use the connection to publish your content on behalf of your clients to Facebook, you can only do what they allow you to do.

It was limited by design for a while, meaning that apps like Facebook didn't want third-party apps to be able to automatically publish content on Instagram. The capability of an Instagram posting schedule was the biggest request the team at Planable had for a long time, and it was the biggest bottleneck to their growth.

For Xenia, it was downright painful, as a founder, to observe hundreds of requests and tickets every year that would go unanswered because of the app’s policies. Hitting this roadblock made scaling nearly impossible. They were losing business, losing prospects, but worst of all, they were losing customers because they wanted to be able to create an Instagram posting schedule.

You could do scheduling on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, but you couldn't do it on Instagram just because the API didn't have the correct feature.

A few years ago, Instagram did release functionality in their API that made it possible to schedule social media posts, but they only released it to their specific marketing partners at the time. Unfortunately, Planable was not on that shortlist.

Finally, around 2017, Cambridge Analytica hit and after years of testing, Instagram finally released the API to the public in 2020.

Many digital startups rely on API, and Planable is now generating 80% of their revenue through Facebook, which is nerve-wracking considering how complicated API can be.

Think about the power an API has. If more than 25% of your revenue comes through one source, you've gotta be a bit nervous because they can almost destroy you overnight by blocking or turning you off. In a moment, they can choose to not let you “play the game” anymore.

At the end of the day, it’s all about understanding how a business operates and making sure that you are not too reliant on any customer or any supplier.

To avoid getting even further dependent on API, Planable decided to move into the collaboration space more and more.

Where Is The Line in Automation? Content is a very human thing. Creating content and reviewing it is human. Someday there might be an AI that can look at content based on a set of keywords or a set of criteria, and flag content that is not on brand. However, that will likely not be in the near future.

Scheduling social media posts? A great use for automation. Creating content? That’s a whole different level, and it’s still too far away to even consider. For now, leaning into the “human touch” is what makes quality content, and what keeps people around.

A B2B or a SaaS business subscription can be amazing because it has scaling potential. You could literally reach millions of people around the globe! At the same time, getting started is hard, not just because of the competition, but also because it’s simply just hard. You need to know who your persona is and you need to know who your ideal user is because it's just such a huge ocean you're fishing in. If you’re allowing the frenzy of competition to push you beyond what you’re ready for, then you won’t see the same results. Don't look over your shoulder too much, but keep an eye on the future and write your own story.

For more inspiring lessons from digital startup founders, tune in to The Jeff Bullas Show.

This week, Dan Morris joined us on The Jeff Bullas Show. Dan is a bit of a growth expert when it comes to B2B companies, and we're going to dive into some of the challenges, opportunities, and frameworks that he uses to help founders grow a remote business.

Dan got his start working with smaller fast-growing companies, and over the last 15 years, he’s helped found teams in the US, the UK, and Australia. Developing sales processes and accelerating growth are his areas of expertise. Some of these teams have ended up exiting for over a hundred million dollars.

Pulling from his unique experience, we’re diving into Dan’s best tips for growing a remote business.

Develop a Winning Framework Oftentimes, founding teams either don't have the time or the experience to focus on developing a repeatable process that helps them grow. These mistakes can lead to wrong decisions, such as hiring salespeople too early and then having to let them go, or hiring too fast, not reaching productivity, and burning through cash.

Review, refine, rollout, and replace. That’s the framework Dan has used for all these years.

Service-based businesses can sell things in bundles or tiers. However, as a business owner, you need these bundle sales to make sense to your team so that they know what they are striving for. If they don’t understand the incentive plan, they will often underperform.

Let creativity inform what they're able to put in front of a customer. The question has always been, how can we get people to the next level? If you're selling content, how many units of content do they need for their primary project, and what can we potentially tap into looking at their final goals?

If you're doing a series of blogs, would it be useful to have videos to go with them? Can you put some sort of incentive together for these packages? What is the social element to this? What will this individual customer need in the future?

Equip Your Team with the Right Tools for Remote Business Remote business has been accelerated for a much longer time than just what COVID has caused.

Over the last couple of years, businesses have been looking at flexible office spaces and making it easier for companies to access multiple offices. There are software businesses that are making it easy for much larger businesses to buy units of working time in lots of different locations for the benefit of distributed teams. This comes from HR teams recognizing for some time that people prioritize quality of life, as well as being able to commit their time to work.

Most people want to have a dedicated workspace wherever they are. The large corporate monolith headquarters are less popular than they once were, and this last year, in particular, has put a real magnifying glass on this idea. This is part of why businesses that had already invested in solid CRM have reaped the benefits.

There are a few tools we’ve found to be helpful in maximizing a remote business and the work from home model. The first would be Zoom, obviously, but the others work alongside Zoom. The two most common ones are Chorus, which basically takes notes for you while you're doing a zoom call by transcribing it, and Jiminy, which empowers coaching and meeting reviews.

Align Marketing And Sales There is a very interesting tension between marketing and sales. Sales teams claim that marketing isn’t producing enough leads, while marketing says they’re sending over lots of leads without seeing results. The sales team responds that the leads don't convert because they haven't been qualified well enough, and on goes the communication cycle. This is a common problem.

Imagine a spreadsheet where the finance team has told you that your best customers are listed A to Z down the side, along with how much they spent last year. Marketing can then use this information to tell you the name of the person at a company that is in the database, and maybe their job title. As you can see, most of the time what you really want in order to be able to create an addressable market is more information.

What does the company use that you can provide? What’s their revenue, location, or any other pertinent details?

If you can then agree that people who match certain criteria are going to be the best targets for sales, then you can also agree that marketing can invest their budget towards people like them.

Implement a Content Marketing Strategy Content marketing is a big, big word. HubSpot was one of the original “inbound marketing” pioneers. Customers actually reached out to them, rather than them having to chase the customers.

Content on its own can do a lot. People have been researching the power of content since 2007-2008. Ever since, people started blogging, creating content, and in general investing in regular content on their website.

Some businesses rely on random acts of marketing, just creating content because it makes sense to them at the time. This makes them accumulate a huge amount of content, but it isn’t organized in a way that takes people through what they actually want.

To fill in the organization void, there are four steps in the marketing matrix or the sales funnel:

Awareness
Consideration
Decision
Advocacy

Let's review the types of content that would fit into these four steps.

Awareness Awareness is at the top of the funnel. You want to attract as many subscribers as possible by covering larger topics. For example, the marketing team would be running targeted campaigns for people who visited the website and retargeting them to get them to download a piece of content or to engage in some more of the web content. The social media team would be working towards driving people back to those web pages.

Maybe you're doing a press release about a customer that you won over, or a problem that you solved. These are all ways to engage with people who've never heard of you before, some of which might bump into your content when they're looking to solve a problem. Practically anything that lets new people see your business, be it virtual events, trade shows, or being seen on stage.

Consideration Consideration is the next step. You need to build a long-term strategy with a platform, which means finding a way to streamline the switch or combination of services. If you're buying new, innovative technology, those are the sorts of things that work really well in the consideration phase.

Decision Getting to the decision step means you’ve got a hot lead for the sales team. You've got people who are contacting you, they've signed up, and they want to see a demo. They want to see a proof of concept. They want to see a proposal or a case study. Since these clients are mainly looking for the same thing, this step is where you’ll want a one-page summary or a project plan template. This will cover the starting point, where you’re hoping to go, and the information needed to outline the collaboration.

If you're creating content for your funnel, then creating a framework or a template can work really well. You may include things like costs, revenue, modeling, exercises, or ROI calculators.

Advocacy Finally, if you’re able to engage clients in this cycle, to “buy-in” to what your company is doing and where it’s going, they become advocates for your business.

Once you've got somebody up and running, you've done some consultation with them, and they started seeing the results, then you can start interviewing them.

You can break down the results into case studies. You can start getting them to speak with you at events. They can contribute to written or other content that you're doing, as this can add to the credibility.

The focus is working with founders who are trying to get themselves out of the day-to-day sales and help them enable the growth team, which means adding salespeople who can hit these repeatable processes.

If you can support a sales and marketing team by creating these types of content, then they’ll always have something at hand and your business is much more likely to grow sustainably, mainly because they won’t have to make it up as they go along. Your teams can just go into your content library, pull something up and use it as a reference point when talking to potential clients. This means that they can save their energy for communication and listening rather than having to create on the fly.

To find out more about Dan Morris and how these principles can be applied to your own remote business, check out his work at MindRacer Consulting.

For more great conversations and information, check out The Jeff Bullas Show!

Matthew is on a personal mission to help entrepreneurs who are completely buried and being held back by the day-to-day operations to focus on growth and taking action that matters.

He is the Founder of Extend Your Team.

And “Extend Your Team” connects the best remote workers to U.S. businesses.

Unlike other agencies, we source, onboard, coach, offer healthcare, and free high-speed internet to our global team members to ensure that you are successful.

How Matthew WENT from working 14 hours a day to 3 hours a day within 45 days.

What you need to FOCUS on as an entrepreneur (no, it's not operations or social media)

The TRUTH about companies hiring people overseas

How to find the people who can run your business BETTER than you

Why you should NOT hire a VA (hire your next business leader instead!)

What you will learn

That most opportunities are an accident and not planned.
How a side hustle became a big business opportunity
Why spreading the risk is important when a crisis happens
How Matthew went from working 60 hours a week to 15 hours a week and makes more money.
How to hire a manager for your business
Why you shouldn’t hire a VA (Virtual Assistant)
Why you should fire yourself
The importance of creating a job description.
The importance of documenting your processes to scale your business
Tools for remote work worth checking out for team tasks, managing, documenting your training and processes.
- Loom
- Asana
- Monday
- Process Street

Chris “Mercer” Mercer, co-founder of MeasurementMarketing.io, is a sought after measurement marketing expert. Mercer (as he’s known) and his team have been helping marketers, marketing teams, and agencies know, trust, and grow their numbers.

First by planning out what’s important to measure in their marketing, then how to actually measure it (using tools like Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics), creating dashboards that are actually useful, and pulling actionable insights from what’s being measured to begin forecasting and optimizing future results.

Mercer spends countless hours reading, practicing, adjusting and innovating to improve his skill set. He has a knack for teaching, and is known for his ability to simplify even the most complex ideas for his audience.

He can be found speaking at conferences and events, such as Traffic & Conversion, Social Media Marketing World, Content Jam, TravelCon, Digital Elite Camp, Baby Bathwater Institute, and others.

What you will learn

What does “Truth is in the Trend, Power is in the Pattern” mean?
The importance of data for marketing decisions
Why true education comes by “doing”
How “Mercer” found riches in the “niches”
Why you need to be ready to start when you get “the call”
How to identify when you have that “Aha” moment
Why action is key and trumps ideas
Why you should be documenting to teach the team
Should you document processes with text or video?
The difference you need to understand between “process people” and “project people”
Have we reached “Peak Pixel?”
Are new laws on Privacy threatening the digital marketers “status quo”?
The Big Question To Ask - “How Did I Get This Result” and what does that mean?
The 5 step framework for making sense of business marketing data
1. What question do I want to get an answer for?
2. What information do I need to collect to get that answer?
3. What action will I take based upon the answer?
4. What’s the forecast for that action?
5. Then optimize your actions to improve the results

Lane Kawaoka is the founder of Simplepassivecashflow.com that helps entrepreneurs and professionals grow their wealth.

After 12 years as a Licensed Professional (PE) Civil/Industrial Engineer, he fired the boss and began to focus 100% of his time on investing and helping others with his Passive Investor Accelerator & Mastermind.

Lane began investing in 2009 in rainy Seattle, and being a ramen eating cheapo he was able to buy a property early right after college.

After discovering the difference between ‘Cashflow Investing’ and ‘appreciation investing (gambling/speculating)’…he moved his portfolio into 11 single family rentals in Birmingham, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Pennsylvania.

Today, he is investing in syndications which invest in Class C & B Multi-Family Apartment, RV Parks, mobile homes, and assisted living facilities because of this Nation’s demand for affordable housing – not rich people Class-A assets.

His mission is to help regular people into good deals that were once only accessible to the rich. The passive income from investing in stabilized rental properties made it possible for Lane to move back home to Hawaii where the cost of paradise is 10%+ cost of living and -30% less pay for comparable jobs in the US mainland.

There he was able to live a lifestyle where he was able to bike to work. It did not take him long however to finally quit the day job and ditch the e-bike for a Mercedes.

Annoyed by the bogus real estate education programs out there (that take money from people who don’t have it in the first place), he set out to make a free website to help other hard-working professionals, the shrinking middle-class dispel the Wall-Street dogma of traditional wealth-building and offer an alternative to “garbage” investments in the 401K/mutual funds that only make the insiders rich.

He helps the hard-working middle-class build real asset portfolios by providing free investing education, podcasts, and networking plus access to investment opportunities not offered to the general public.

“The true meaning of wealth is having the freedom to do what you want, when you want, and with whom you want. Building cash flow via real estate is the simple part. The difficult part occurs after you are free financially to find your calling and fulfillment. But that’s a great problem to have ;)” excerpt from “The One Thing That Changed Everything”

What you will learn

A top recommended book - “The Millionaire Real Estate Investor' by Gary Keller
The importance of a 1% rent to value ratio (RV)
Why investing for capital gain (or appreciation) is like gambling
Why you should look to invest in secondary real estate markets
Why you should focus on the real estate for the middle class
Why Lane moved from a direct ownership model of investing in real estate into more passive “Limited Partner” syndication deals.
Why a good deal is based 50% on the numbers and 50% on the people involved
The importance of doing the research before buying
Why savvy real estate investing needs good peer networks.
The importance of podcasting for building business networks
How real learning happens. By doing.

The One Thing That Changed Everything

David "Ledge" Ledgerwood co-founder and managing partner at Add1Zero.

His goal and teams super powers are about adding one more zero to the revenue of companies. To 10x revenue from 500k to $5 million.

Throughout his career, Ledge has closed over $35M, with an average deal size in excess of $150,000. He has deep-rooted expertise in selling software and services and has helped several companies grow into the mid-7 figures.

Ledge was the host of roughly 200 episodes of Gun.io's The Frontier Podcast that featured interviews with professionals across the software engineering leadership spectrum, so he is well versed in the podcasting realm.

In 2007, Ledge walked out of his job and moved from New Jersey to Nashville to start a company. He got to a $500K run-rate before the Great Recession chewed him up and spit him out, but he never lost the startup bug. He then moved into EdTech and built his business development chops, hopped to a COO role, consulted, mentored, and coached. In 2015, he joined Gun.io.

What you will learn

The power of algorithms and their pervasive control of our lives and business.
How revenue cures everything.
The importance of “nicheing” down to succeed in business.
The Framework to grow your B2B company from 500k to $5 million.
Why you need to package your services.
How to scale your business with systems.
Tips on how to standardize your product and service offerings.
What does a revenue machine look like?
Is a documented knowledge base your key sales tool?
Why documenting on video is an important part of knowledge capture and sharing.
Discover some tools to improve your business.
What is a podcast superpower that you never heard of?

Bretton (Brett) Putter is an expert in company culture development who is consulted by companies and leaders worldwide to help design, develop and build high-performing business cultures and remote work.

He is the CEO of CultureGene, a culture leadership software and services platform. Prior to founding CultureGene Brett spent 16 years as the Managing Partner of a leading executive search firm based in London working with startups and high-growth companies in the UK, Europe and USA.

In 2018 he published his first book, Culture Decks Decoded and his second book “Own Your Culture: How to Define, Embed and Manage your Company Culture” in September 2020.

Brett has conducted eight months of research interviewing leaders of top and high growth organizations like Basecamp, Zapier, Buffer and others. He’s put all his findings in his recently published second book, “Own Your Culture”, which is a blueprint for leaders who want to build a strong, functional company culture in their organizations during this ongoing pandemic.

For Brett, strengthening your culture is doing the same for your business, as giving organizational culture the attention it deserves is a key factor to drive growth and can certainly help starting and sustaining a business be less of a grind.

What you will learn

The 9 rules for running a successful remote work business
How to overcome the first big challenge for remote work - Denial!
Why allowing employees to “decompress” is vital
The importance of applying the “Pomodoro Technique” to remote work
Why you should adopt an asynchronous communication practice.
Discover the remote work company with 1,300 employees that documents every business process. And has an 8,500 page open source document for the world to see.
Why you should support your remote teams as part of your remote work culture
Is there an opportunity (need) for a company to build a remote work operating system?
Find out why these 9 rules are essential in 2021if you are running a remote work environment or a hybrid.
1. Build social connections at a distance
2. Create recorded processes for your business
3. Focus on communication
4. Document everything
5. Create a structure
6. Develop and nurture transparency, trust, and accountability
7. Focus on results, output and outcome
8. Customize your hiring process
9. Be deliberate about your culture

Own Your Culture: How to Define, Embed and Manage your Company Culture

Goose McGrath and his partner run a company called Dashdot, a property investment advisory firm that is 100% committed to finding and acquiring cash flow positive properties, in high growth areas, with value add potential.

This methodology is called the The Holy Trinity and it is at the heart of everything they do. Goose’s journey to entrepreneurship was not an easy one. After life hardships and a failed business he battled with a drug and alcohol addiction. It was at his lowest point that he found love started a personal quest to achieve greater levels of wealth, stability, and fulfillment in his life.

Goose has learned to make personal wealth building a priority, because the more choices you have in life, the more you can impact others.

What you will learn

Why you should apply the 3 key pillars (The Holy Trinity) of positive cash flow, high growth regions and adding value when buying an investment property.
The driving forces of affordability, lifestyle, and infrastructure in the real estate market.
The impact on property from lower volumes of international travel
Why you should maximise control for your investments
The importance of getting clear about your property investment goals before buying (or even looking)
How to apply the Apex progression framework of Foundation, Acceleration and Legacy.
Discover the importance of starting slow and simple in the foundation phase with 1-3 properties
The acceleration phase of adding value with the value add of cosmetic renovation, buying under market value, building granny flats, and subdivision
Discover the final legacy step and the next level of complexity
Remove the emotion when buying property
When should you exit a property investment?
The importance of having 3-4 exit strategies

Discover how Ben Aston turned a part time side hustle and passion into a $3 Million a year business while he had a 9-5 day job.

He initially launched his first terrible website, aged 14, and was hooked. 20+ years later, he's still at it, but things are going quite a bit better.

Ben is now a digital project manager guru and online entrepreneur - the founder of Black & White Zebra, an indie media company on a mission to help people and organizations succeed.

He is also the founder of the largest and fastest growing communities for digital project managers - The Digital Project Manager.com with 500k+ visits/month, 30k subscribers and 4k members.

What you will learn

The power of micro niches to succeed in business
The problem of churn for a membership business
How to build an online community that pays you
Using a brand experience to grow your business
How to monetize a podcast
How to use content to sell a community membership business model
Monthly or annual membership fee biz model?
The importance of constant testing
Why creating content that solves pain points can help create loyal customers
Why you should use SEO tools like Ahrefs and Clearscope to optimize and create the right content
Discover why creating content that matches user intent is so powerful
The importance of the onboarding process that adds value with content and connections in the community
How to build a community built around a shared passion
Create a movement not a business
Should you play the long game?
Is 800 people in the community the sweet spot?
How to create content that doesn’t age and remains evergreen.
Why you should be creating High Level Frameworks and Principle centred content for your readers
The importance of hiring great people
Ship your product and learn from the experience instead of seeking to be perfect

Mark Herschberg is the author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You.

From tracking criminals and terrorists on the dark web to creating marketplaces and new authentication systems, Mark has spent his career launching and developing new ventures at startups and Fortune 500s and in academia.

He helped to start the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, dubbed MIT’s “career success accelerator,” where he teaches annually.

At MIT, he received a B.S. in physics, a B.S. in electrical engineering & computer science, and a M.Eng. in electrical engineering & computer science, focusing on cryptography.

At Harvard Business School, Mark helped create a platform used to teach finance at prominent business schools. He also works with many non-profits, including Techie Youth and Plant A Million Corals.

He was one of the top-ranked ballroom dancers in the country and now lives in New York City, where he is known for his social gatherings, including his annual Halloween party, as well as his diverse cufflink collection.

What you will learn

The Career Toolkit for success
The importance of listening to the whisper to discover your life’s purpose.
What jobs can the robots do and not do?
How should people reinvent themselves?
What is the role of the government, companies and ourselves in re-education?
The importance of aligning interests and skills with your next job.
The importance of communication, networking, negotiation, and ethics for life and business success.
How to reinvent yourself?
Why you should create an imperfect plan
Why you should self test your plans
Learning from mistakes is vital
Why discovering what you don’t like is vital
How to discover your dream career?
Different tactics for testing your next career

Perry Marshall is one of the most expensive business strategists in the world. He is endorsed in FORBES and INC Magazine. He’s guided clients like FanDuel and InfusionSoft from startup to hundreds of millions of dollars.

His newest book, Detox, Declutter, Dominate: How to Excel by Elimination (co-authored with Robert Skrob) reveals how readers can grow their business 4X faster by eliminating 80% of wasted effort

He founded the $10 million Evolution 2.0 Prize, with judges from Harvard, Oxford and MIT. Launched at the Royal Society in London, it’s the world’s largest science research award.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs uses his 80/20 Curve as a productivity tool. His reinvention of the Pareto Principle is published in Harvard Business Review.

His Google book laid the foundations for the $100 billion Pay Per Click industry, and Ultimate Guide to Google Ads is the world’s best selling book on internet advertising.

Marketing maverick Dan Kennedy says, “If you don’t know who Perry Marshall is — unforgivable. Perry’s an honest man in a field rife with charlatans.”

He’s consulted in over 300 industries. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives in Chicago.

What you will learn and discover

The importance of applying the star principle to your business planning
Why you should start your day Being first, thinking second and doing third
Discover the 7 steps to scaling and growing your business
What are the 2 key tactics for starting and building your business
Should you create a niche where you can be the #1 business
Why you should try and start a business in an industry with a growth trajectory of at least 10% a year
Why You Should Apply the 80:20 Rule to Your Business
The importance of “re-creation” for solving problems and sanity
A Small Book with Big Ideas You Need to Read

DETOX, DECLUTTER, DOMINATE: HOW TO EXCEL BY ELIMINATION

Ultimate Guide to Google Ads

Lisa Song Sutton is an entrepreneur, real estate investor and former Miss Nevada. She started her business career working in a top Las Vegas law firm. She then went on to create multiple companies of her own. Her first business, Sin City Cupcakes is an iconic Las Vegas treat that delights tens of thousands of locals and visitors each year.

Lisa is also co-founder of Ship Las Vegas, Elite Homes – Christie’s International Real Estate, and Liquid & Lace swimwear.

Lisa often publishes articles for Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Business Insider on business and entrepreneurship. She’s passionate about sharing her message of leadership, empowerment, and action with various audiences, encouraging people, especially women, to take a seat at the table and make their voices heard.

Lisa continues to stay actively involved in her community serving on nonprofit boards, including StartUpNV – Nevada’s only statewide business incubator and has been selected as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and was named a Top 10 Social Entrepreneur to Watch.

What you will learn

What Lisa learnt from being the only woman in the room
The “big” secret behind running 4 successful business at the same time
How to collaborate to grow your business
Why you don’t have to take big risks to succeed as an entrepreneur
The reasons
How to use Yelp and Instagram to drive awareness and grow your brand
Why it is best to not do too much different advertising
The importance of focus
The power of image and visual based content marketing
Why Pinterest shouldn’t be ignored in your marketing plans
Why you should plan for a disagreement when everything is going well
The wisdom of “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

Liam Martin is a serial entrepreneur who runs Time Doctor and Staff.com — one of the most popular time tracking and productivity software platforms in use by top brands today that helps companies manage remote work.

He is also a co-organizer of the world's largest remote work conference — Running Remote.

Liam is an avid proponent of remote work and has been published in Forbes, Inc, Mashable, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, The Next Web, The Huffington Post, Venturebeat and many other publications specifically targeting the expansion of remote work.

The mission statement that feeds all the products and services that Liam is involved with stem from empowering workers to work wherever they want, whenever they want. Liam has an undergraduate and graduate degree in Sociology from McGill University.

He lives in Canada but travels 3-6 months out of the year due to his ability to work wherever and whenever he likes. He chooses a new place to travel a few times a year but usually spends time in Austin, Las Vegas and Ubud (Bali) each year and loves to encourage others to work remotely on his travels.

What you will learn

How Artificial Intelligence will impact work and marketing in the next decade
The roles of an AI assistant do to help and boost your marketing efforts
How a robot can predict when your employee is going to leave
The work productivity metrics that matter
Is a 40 hour work week more productive than a 26 hour work week?
Is the 200 year old post industrial 9-5 work model broken?
Why introversion is one of the biggest psychometric measures that denotes success for remote workers
Is the future of podcasting Avatars?
What rules do we need to put in place to protect from the robots?
Can good content be written by a machine?
Why the 2 success differentiators for remote teams is, communication and process documentation.
The importance of “asynchronous communication” or “on demand communication” for company messaging.
Three tools to consider for process documentation. Trainual, GitLab and Google Docs.
Why you should have no sacred knowledge within your organization.
The vital business skill of making sure that everything in your business is written down, and put on a system like that for anyone else to consume, inside of the organization, that allows you to scale that organization.
The 8,500 page manual on how GitLab (the largest remote working company in the world) manages the company and remote teams.
The hierarchy of communication, which is in person beats video, video beats audio, audio beats instant messaging, and instant messaging beats email.
When you move up the chain, you become more synchronous, as you move down the chain, you become more asynchronous.
Why fast communication is the key to success and empowering staff to execute is vital
How Hotjar is one of the fastest growing SaaS in the world
Work Culture Defined: What actions, or traditions, or activities do you do, that would seem weird to others?
How to create a productive “Digital Nomad” practice. Find one great location with good internet and create a work/life routine that works in that one place.
Why you should do “Slow Digital Nomading”
How Liam Martin has used millions of workers data to redefine work and gain insights and wisdom.

John Warrillow is the founder of The Value Builder System™, a simple software for building the value of a company used by thousands of businesses worldwide. Offered by a global network of independent advisors known as Certified Value Builders, The Value Builder System™ incorporates several diagnostic tools, including the Value Builder Score. Those businesses that achieve a Value Builder Score of 90 or greater are worth double the average-performing business.

His best-selling book Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You was recognized by both Fortune and Inc. as one of the best business books of 2011 and has been translated into 12 languages.

John is the host of Built to Sell Radio, ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s 10 best podcasts for business owners.

In 2015, John wrote another best-selling book, The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry. Prior to founding The Value Builder System, he started and exited four companies, including one acquired by a public company. He lives with his family in Toronto.

He is releasing his new Book “The Art of Selling Your Business - Winning strategies & Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top” on January 11, 2021.

We have put together a set of gifts for people who pre-order his new book and you can find them here: www.BuiltToSell.com/selling

You can also follow John’s work by signing up at BuiltToSell.com.

What you will learn

How to design and build a company that you can sell
Why growing a business is like raising a child
Why you need to create a company that thrives without you.
The insights on the trifecta of scale which is Teachable, Valuable and Repeatable. The TVR Model
The importance of recurring revenue.
Discover a powerful business model you shouldn’t ignore
The importance of the onboarding process for the subscription business model for reducing churn
The magic of the 30 day onboarding window and why you should focus on its retention success
Find out the examples of the things you should do in the first 30 days to succeed in a subscription model business
The importance of keeping things simple
What is “De-Risking” and the Switzerland model?
Why you shouldn’t be too dependent on any one customer, supplier or key employee
Are you at risk of having your company being worth “zero” if you don’t sell by a black swan event?
Why selling your company is an art and not a science.
The importance of company positioning. Eg From just a website company to an e-learning niche
The crucial tactic of positioning your company in a “Trending” niche.
What is a standard operating procedure for your company. And why you should have one.
How to double the value of your business
Who is a certified value builder and where can you find one?

Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry

Ted Cohn is the founder and CEO of Wildeye and is a tech executive with a history of innovation with 10 patents to his name.

He has had the honor of working for Steve Jobs on a number of NeXT projects. Ted has quite a few anecdotal stories about Steve, including famous individuals he toured through their office, remodelling fiascos, and how he treated people.

At Wildeye he and the team have created a marketplace called BidToTalk that lets people bid or pay for one on one video calls with influencers, athletes, professionals, or anyone.

The technology handles search, bidding, scheduling, payment processing, security, and video calls.

Ted Cohn has over the last 3 decades established a remarkable career working in the software development, consulting and entrepreneurship niche.

Some quick, fun highlights of Ted’s career.

In April 2009 Ted became the first hire at Barnes & Noble to develop the Nook. He was in charge of leading the early software tech team with an insanely difficult goal of shipping the Nook by Christmas that year.
A co-founder at Ugobe, Ted worked alongside Bob Christopher and Caleb Chung who developed the Furby in raising $26M in funds to create Pleo, a lifelike dinosaur robot that was massively popular when it hit stores.
Before the days of Google establishing itself as a modern tech giant. Ted helped in the development of paid search ad technology at Webcrawler/Excite.

What you will learn

How to add more humanity to your marketing
How to reach the right influencer.
Is Engagement the big problem for influencers in a world of noise?
Are the social media platforms too powerful?
Are the machines running our lives?
The big problem with digital advertising.
The 2 sides of Steve Jobs
Is social media bad for you or good for you?
How to reach the unreachable

Rob Shavell co-founded the Internet privacy company Abine.com

Abine, Inc. provides internet privacy solutions. The Company offers tools for consumers to control what personal information companies, third parties, and other people see about them online.

Rob brought Abine’s core products to market, including DoNotTrackMe, which has protected the privacy of over 10 Million consumers and has been featured by hundreds of news outlets, including CNET, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times.

Prior to Abine he had been involved in the startup scene in multiple roles and was the VP of Product at Identity Force, an identity theft provider

He was the co-founder of one of the first consumer group travel portals, "TravelTogether.com”

Rob was also an associate at Softbank Capital Partners (Boston) and Softbank / Mobius Venture Capital (Silicon Valley).

Rob has a BA from Cornell University where he began his studies in the school of Architecture.

What you will learn

We are at just at the start of the application of some controls of the big social media giants and digital platforms
Are the machines out of control
Are you protecting your privacy rights?
The solutions to get your privacy back
What is Artificial General Intelligence?
The 3 big privacy problems to solve.
- Your data is leaking out there and you don’t know it
- Your data you shared is out there.
- How can you remove the tracking?
The 3 solutions.
- Masked email address,
- Masked phone number
- Masked credit card

Dan McGaw is an award-winning marketer and entrepreneur.

He is the Founder and CEO of McGaw.io, an analytics and marketing technology agency.

Dan is also the Founder and CEO of UTM.io, a campaign data governance tool used by companies like Shopify, Unilever, and Intuit.

Coined as one of the original growth hackers, and one of the godfathers of Martech (Marketing Technology), he has helped 100's of companies build their marketing tech stack and accelerate their growth.

In 2015, Dan was selected by the United States Department of State to be an Ambassador of Entrepreneurship, where he had the privilege to advise the government, universities, and private corporations on how to build entrepreneur ecosystems.

Coined as one of the original growth hackers, he has led the teams at Kissmetrics.com, CodeSchool.com, UTM.io and more.

He knows what needs to be done to grow a business and how to manage a team to get it done quickly. Using a data-driven approach, Dan is able to build and oversee new marketing programs that can create sustainable growth.

What you will learn

How to maximize revenue by creating multiple cash flow streams
The dangers of putting all your eggs in one basket
Why going with the flow worked for this entrepreneur
How necessity can turn into success
Why understanding the cyclical nature of your business is vital
Forget complexity and just convert customers on your website
The importance of starting small and keeping it simple
Why conversion should be your focus and not just demand and traffic
Discover the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur
Hiring the right people is the best asset you will have
Why your only as good as your team
The importance of communication skills
Why soft skills matter in business
Why data is vital for entrepreneurs to guide decision making
Books you should read
- Build Cool Shit - Dan McGaw
- The Hard Things about Hard Things - Dan Horowitz
- Principles - Ray Dalio
- Stillness is The Key - Ryan Holiday

Jeff Wald is the Founder of WorkMarket.com, an enterprise software platform that enables companies to manage freelancers (acquired by ADP).

Jeff has founded several other technology companies, including Spinback, a social sharing platform (eventually purchased by salesforce.com). Jeff began his career in finance, serving as Managing Director at activist hedge fund Barington Capital Group, a Vice President at venture capital firm GlenRock and various roles in the M&A Group at JP Morgan.

He is an active angel investor and startup advisor, as well as serving on numerous public and private Boards of Directors. He also formerly served as an officer in the Auxiliary Unit of the New York Police Department.

Jeff is the author of “The Birthday Rules” and “The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations”.

Jeff frequently speaks at conferences and in media on startups and labor issues. Jeff holds an MBA from Harvard University and an MS and BS from Cornell University

What you will learn

When do you use freelancers instead of full time employees?
Is outsourcing a cheaper form of labour?
Is the internet reducing transaction costs?
Discover the insights into the three historical functions in technological change; mechanization, electrification and computerization
To understand the future of work you need to study this. History of work, the data in the world of work and then how companies actually engage workers
Why you shouldn’t just hire cheap labor
Will 50% of work become remote?
The future of work will be fluid, team-based, work-from-anywhere and always-on-job
Who should pay for retraining in the new world of jobs?
Why we need regulation and a social safety net.
Do unions need to reinvent themselves?
The Big Leap - Robots and AI
The Future of Work is Not Doom and Gloom
Why raising a lot of money for your startup is a 2 edged sword
Finding the right problem and solving it is hard
The big question most startups don’t answer
Why Solving Problem #1 Is Vital
Why most startups fail
Why failure is your most likely outcome
Do you take the money or the stock?
The Two Big Work Trends of “Hard Tech” and “Hard Human”

The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations

Taylor Ryan is an American entrepreneur living in Copenhagen, Denmark and a 6x Startup founder with 13+ years of marketing and start-up experience spread across 10 industries within large and small organizations.

Current CEO of ArchitectureQuote - Saas Platform for Architects and Growth Hacking Agency - KlintMarketing.

Taylor is an angel investor and advisor to numerous tech startups around Copenhagen.

Over the last 4 years, Taylor has built and run the marketing departments for some of fastest growing startups in Denmark.

Often described as the “best growth-hacker in Denmark,” Taylor runs workshops and keynotes on subjects ranging from marketing tech stacks to corporate innovation.

His latest venture is organizing Growth Secrets, a free growth-hacking event series for Copenhagen’s startup community and online training courses.

His mantra - When there’s no budget or resources, you have to work smarter. You’re forced to teach yourself how to get results or get out of the way.

Connect with Taylor Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorryan/

What you will learn

That persistence is an important character trait for success
Learning isn’t just a school based activity. It comes from “doing”
Action trumps ideas
Why listening to your heart and tapping into you intuition
Learn to listen to your intuition
Discover a country which supports a healthy work/life balance
The importance of trying to find “that” big problem to solve for businesses
Do You Need To Sell Your Soul to Succeed in Business?
Need To Sell Your Soul to Succeed?
Does Business Success Need a Warrior Culture?
What Does Success for This Entrepreneur Mean?
Force vs Flow - A Discussion
Is Success in Life a Journey or a Destination?

Shir Ekerling is the CEO and co-founder of accessiBe, a platform that makes it easy for people with disabilities to access the Web. Over 65,000 websites are using accessiBe and more than 600,000 people are using websites optimized with its AI-powered platform.

CDC states that 25% of people have a disability that affects their ability to access a website.

Shir is a tech entrepreneur and software engineer with a vast history of establishing and scaling SaaS companies and web agencies as CEO and CTO.

In February 2020, accessiBe secured $12 million in funding from K1, a leading investment firm that focuses on global high-growth enterprise software companies. accessiBe is the only company that produces an AI-powered accessibility platform that’s capable of meeting and exceeding requirements for access to the web for people with disabilities.

What you will learn

The worldwide movement to provide access to websites for people with disabilities
How to unlock the genius of 1 billion people
The importance of acting on your passion.
Discover the 3 success steps that work in life and for entrepreneurs.
Why creating is essential for entrepreneurs and humanity.
The value of sharing your creation with the world.
What is the right funding strategy.
How often to share your growing business reporting with investors.
The value of partnering with your investors to gather insights and learn fast.
Startups need to build technology and grow marketing as fast as possible to build global domination.

Robbie Kellman Baxter is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a management consulting firm, as well as the author of the bestselling The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue.

Her new book The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave was released in April of this year. (Download a chapter of the book for free)

She coined the popular business term “Membership Economy", which is now being used by organizations and journalists around the country and beyond.

Her clients have included large organizations like Netflix, the Wall Street Journal, and Microsoft, as well as dozens of smaller venture-backed companies.

Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries. Before starting Peninsula Strategies in 2001, Robbie served as a New York City Urban Fellow, a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and a Silicon Valley product marketer.

Robbie has been quoted or interviewed by dozens of media outlets, including CNN, NBC, and NPR. As a public speaker, Robbie has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities.

She has an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

You can find more about Robbie on her website https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/

Additional goodies for your audience are available here: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/audience

What you will learn

How to use the subscription business model to transform your business
The membership economy success secrets
Why you should know what problem your solving for your customer
Tips on how to create and sell digital products even when you have a physical product
The importance of getting that first sale commitment
How Peloton is transforming and disrupting the gym business model
Why owning your content is important
Create premium content that people will pay for
The power of limiting free content to 5-10 pieces a month. Then ask for a subscription to get the rest.
Understand this distinction: Membership is about the way you feel about your customers, subscription is a pricing decision that you make to capture the value from those customers
Subscription model can work for solopreneurs who have expertise and are subject matter experts
How retailers can create a membership model with loyalty programs where you pay up front for additional benefits.
Why the subscription model can apply to almost every industry
The 3 vital steps to a successful subscription model of launch, scale and lead
- Step One: Launch - Understand your customer first and then two continue to offer them that forever promise and deliver on it. And keep your product and offer simple.
- Step Two: Scale - Use technology to scale and watch your top two metrics of customer acquisition costs and lifetime customer value.
- Step Three: Lead - Keep evolving and lead in your industry to continue to grow a loyal customer base with minimal churn.

Oren Greenberg is the founder of Kurve – a modular growth marketing consultancy.

He has an impressive track record of results including;

Managing over £10M in annual marketing budgets.
Juggling paid search campaigns with over 13.7 million key phrases.
Growing organic traffic from 2.3M a month website page views to 3.1M a month for a single client.
Scaling paid search delivery by 139%.

He spends his days helping FTSE 250s and funded startups to navigate the perilous waters of growth and marketing.

Oren’s highly regarded digital strategy and commercial expertise have been instrumental in the growth of client brands including Investec Bank, Peakon, Wonga, Wink Bingo, Nutmeg, Funding Circle, MarketInvoice and innovation incubation projects within Canon, HomeServe.

Oren has been featured in The Telegraph, Social Media Examiner and the HubSpot blog and is an instructor on Skillshare and Jolt.

He also teaches meditation after a long stint in the Himalayas practising not talking for ten days, an incredible feat if you ask anyone who knows him; he also sculpts and has a pet yodel called Bobbi.

What you will learn

The Integration of the 3 growth hacks of Design, Data and Coding are a super power
Is the era of the “Mad Men” advertising over?
The secrets of SaaS companies
Why you should think global
The importance of “Product Marketing” first
Insights on using data to guide your business growth strategies.
Why you should be implementing outbound “and” inbound marketing tactics
The importance of focusing
The 7 foundational steps to growth marketing
- Who's your customer?
- Where do they hang out?
- What are their pain points
- What's the compelling message to solve that?
- What's your offer?
- What are the numbers and is it working?
- Who is doing it? - The specialists

Tim Ash is an acknowledged authority on evolutionary psychology and digital marketing. He is a sought-after international keynote speaker, and the bestselling author of Unleash Your Primal Brain and Landing Page Optimization.

Tim has been mentioned by Forbes as a Top-10 Online Marketing Expert, and by Entrepreneur Magazine as an Online Marketing Influencer To Watch.

For nineteen years he was the co-founder and CEO of SiteTuners – a digital optimization agency. Tim helped to create over 1.2 billion dollars in value for companies like Google, Expedia, eHarmony, Facebook, American Express, Canon, Nestle, Symantec, Intuit, Humana, Siemens, and Cisco.

You can contact Tim at timash.com.

What you will learn

That life is more than a paycheck
Is capitalism killing the planet?
The biggest challenges to create sales processes that work well
The difference between big ticket sales and low ticket sales
The secrets behind conversion rate optimisation
The painful truth behind writing a book
Why babies and websites have similar challenges
The content marketing journey that works for sales
Why you need to create content for conversion
The importance of value based selling
Create content for the customer journey
The importance of being true to yourself
Double down on your strengths
Why consumers are bringing a knife to a gun fight
Why humans need to be aware of how the corporations are playing the selling game
The 2 addictive technologies
Is social media is breaking down our society
Are we missing a common reality that holds society together
The power of myth
The 5 keys to optimizing life
1. Get quality sleep
2. Be in your body
3. Access intuition and emotions
4. Avoid artificial addictions
5. Don’t be a loner
6. Learn from others and teach something

Bryan Clayton is CEO and cofounder of “GreenPal” an online marketplace that connects homeowners with Local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the “Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 200,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day.

Before starting GreenPal Bryan Clayton founded Peachtree Inc. one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee, USA, growing it to over $10 million a year in annual revenue before it was acquired by Lusa holdings in 2013.

Bryan‘s interest and expertise are related to entrepreneurialism, small business growth, marketing and bootstrapping businesses from zero revenue to profitability and exit.

What you will learn

How to transform a traditional business into an app
Overcoming the challenges the supply and demand in an Uber inspired business
How to create a predictable sales funnel
The importance of input and output metrics for achieving sales goals
Discover the formula for business success
How to use LinkedIn to grow a B2B businessWhy you should be using a CRM in your business
The vital truth of keeping moving forward to keep growing
Retirement is overrated
The importance of pivoting when business isn’t working
The inspiration provided by the book “The Startup Owner's Manual” by Dorf and Blank
The danger of assumptions
The playbook for conquering an industry
Why convenience rather than cheaper was the problem to solve for customers
Solving the chicken and egg for an Uber style business
Recruiting with a Google Ad
Creating demand with organic Google search
The importance of Google authority for a digital business
How local search drives the success of this business
Why they created 3,000 individual pages on their website to drive sales

Lee Goff is an entrepreneur who grew up In the deep south of the USA. He was raised In Pascagoula, Mississippi by people who taught him to work hard and do what is right. He started his first agency, GETUWired, In 2003 in his upstairs bedroom with absolutely nothing.

After growing GETUWired into a multi-million dollar digital marketing agency, winning 2012 Technology Partner Of The Year, 2013 Infusionsoft Innovator Of The Year and also Top Company Culture - Entrepreneur Magazine In 2015, he decided to step out and retire. He thought he had “arrived!”

Through the stress of starting and running this agency, he suffered a massive heart attack at the age of 43 in the same month he sold the business.

Since exiting In 2016, he has focused all his energy on creating and implementing guaranteed ways to make starting, scaling, running and potentially selling a successful agency easier and dramatically faster, more enjoyable... while still being very profitable.

What you will learn

The importance of life balance
Life is not all about money
Discover what’s important
How to work smarter and not harder
How to create quality of life as an entrepreneur
The predictable growth formula
Why you need systems and processes to scale your business to the next level
The importance of keeping your product line simple
The 4 step sales system:
- 1. Lead Magnet
- 1. Lead Harvesting
- 1. Automation and pipeline management
- 1. Key Performance Indicators

Carl Gough is the founder and CEO of Meetmagic.org that turns business meetings into funds for charities by repurposing marketing dollars that every company spends.

His goal is to raise $250 million for charities by 2026 by organizing 10,000 meetings in 10 cities. In essence he helps companies grow and charities raise money.

Carl is originally from Nottingham in the UK. He became involved in the charity sector and then The Growth Project which is a Saunders Family and CBA backed venture to mentor 100 charities over 5 years.

He decided to take what he was good at (opening doors) with what he is really passionate about (helping charities) and created meetmagic.org.

What you will learn

How success can intersect with your passionate purpose
How to setup effective business meetings
The power of inspired Destiny
The importance of changing your thoughts to change your life
Are you paddling upstream or downstream?
Why you should stop running pointless meetings
How to run effective meetings
Learn the code of conduct for running great sales meetings
The importance of value based selling
The power of corporate social responsibility
The critical selling technique of aligning values
Does the shareholder business model drive the wrong behaviours?
Is a 4 day week more effective?
Why this social good business thrives
How to book meetings that work
Selling from the heart

Franziska Iseli is the co-founder of Basic Bananas. Basic Bananas was founded in 2009 by Franziska Iseli and Christo Hall with a mission to support small business owners around the globe with marketing mentoring programs.

As with many business fairy tales, Basic Bananas did start in a garage, however not in Silicon Valley, but in Sydney, Australia. With a team of two, Franziska and Christo started running workshops in Sydney and then slowly grew to other cities around Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and Europe with more regions being added as we speak.

Franziska and Christo realised that there is a big gap in the market for high quality, practical and effective marketing education and mentoring for small business owners.

The mission is and has always been the same; to support business owners through marketing mentoring. Basic Bananas has grown into the world’s largest marketing mentoring organization and our programs and resources are positively impacting thousands of business owners every single day!

She also is the CEO of “The Business Hood”, Oceanlovers and Moments of Humanity.

In 2013 Franziska was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award recognizing her innovation, creativity and philanthropic involvement. Franziska is a board member at the Entrepreneurs Organization, sits on the judging panel for Singularity University and has run think tanks at the United Nations to address the UN sustainable development goals through entrepreneurship.

Franziska is the author of two bestselling books with a third one just released this year (Sir Richard Branson wrote the foreword). She is regularly featured across the media including INC, Forbes, Business Insider, Virgin Inflight Entertainment, Marie-Claire, Cosmopolitan, SmartCompany, Dynamic Business Magazine, BRW, 2UE, Channel 9.

Franziska is a Swiss born Australian (or Swaussie) and is known for her down-to-earth attitude, infectious energy, integrity and courage to take the lead.

What you will learn

That success sometimes means doing what it takes.
How to pivot when things change.
The importance of a crisis for powering change.
The importance of standing out.
Growing your business with global partnersHow to build a business template and take it to the world.
The importance of seeing a gap in the market and going for it.

Dr. Rick Chromey is a cultural explorer, social historian, generational futurist and international keynote speaker. A best-selling author, he has penned over a dozen books on leadership, natural motivation, creative communication, and classroom management.

His most recent work, GenTech: An American Story of Technology, Change, and Who We REALLY Are is now available online and in bookstores everywhere. His book is a humorous romp exploring why labeling people by when they are born, like “Baby Boomers” and “Millennials” just doesn’t work!

Instead, Dr. Chromey explores the technology we use during our “coming of age” years between 10 and 25 years-old. Learning where people fit and the wealth of what they bring through technology use will change lives, whether in the boardroom or classroom. Learn more about Rick at http://www.rickchromey.com.

Rick has served as a pastor, professor, speaker/trainer, and consultant, working in the nonprofit and corporate sectors. In 2017, he founded MANNA! Educational Services International to inspire and equip leaders, teachers, pastors, and parents.

Rick holds a doctorate in leadership and emerging culture; and travels the U.S. and world to speak on culture, faith, history, education, and leadership topics.

What you will learn

The technology that is transforming who and what we are as humans.
Discover the 3 phases of the last 100 years
How technology impacts each generation between the ages of 10 and 25
Why we are at the start of the robo generation
When did the age of robots start?
Discover the addictive technologies
How the last 150 years of the technology of audio, video and digital is changing our world
The one big weakness of robots
The importance of a digital detox for mental health

GenTech: An American Story of Technology, Change and Who We Really Are (1900-present)

Justin Singh is Founder & CEO of “Outdoor Inspection Services” (OIS), a business intelligence platform currently operating in the Australian $1 Billion a year out-of-home advertising industry.

OIS provides a “advertising verification” service to companies that have paid to advertise on out-of-home media such as bus shelters, roadside billboards & shopping center signage, with clients including Telstra, The Australian Federal Government, Uber, Optus & Samsung to name a few.

A major element of the service focuses on engaging a crowdsourced workforce that can simply grab jobs and complete reports through the “Outdoor Inspection Services” App anywhere in Australia, with current testing in the US & UK.

Post revenue, OIS is currently in raise mode to further develop its new software and scale it’s offering into the $52 Billion global out-of-home advertising market.

Justin has always been entrepreneurial in his nature, setting up his first ‘fencing panel’ business aged 14.

Later in life he went on to work in senior advertising executive positions in London prior to moving to Australia in 2000 to work on the Coca-Cola Sydney Olympics account.

He has subsequently established a number of businesses, including his own Marketing Agency and OIS.

What you will learn

The danger of complacency.
How to use a business intelligence platform to keep your advertising agency honest.
The power of experiential retail.
Discover brand building the old fashioned way.
Why omni-channel marketing and retail is vital.
Discover an app for earning some money as a freelancer.
Why reinvention is needed for business survival.
The importance of empathy
Should you be using this non digital approach to build a brand?

Kerwin Rae is a businessman, entrepreneur, investor and international speaker.

As one of Australia's leading business strategists helping business owners succeed for over a decade, he has consulted in 11 countries and over 154 different industries and taught over 100,000 people the world over through his seminars and workshops. To date, Kerwin has helped his clients make well in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Kerwin has addressed and worked with all levels of business, specializing in small to medium businesses, and national and international franchise groups. He has also coached thousands of consultants and coaches in numerous countries on business development, marketing, sales, human behavior, and entrepreneurial psychology.

He is the founder of the Fast Growth Summit, Nail it and Scale It, the K2 Elite Business Accelerator and the host of the popular podcast “Unstoppable”.

What you will learn

Why doing what you love is a great place to launch your business.
The journey to happiness involves pain
How a traumatic health event turned into a successful business
Discover how this entrepreneur discovered happiness (and success)
Do what matters
“Stuff” doesn’t make you happy
That business is a team sport
The power of joint ventures
Discovering Self Belief
The true source of happiness
The big reasons behind Kerwin Rae’s success
The 5 steps businesses need to embrace during the CoronaVirus Crisis
1. Go remote
2. Streamline
3. Preserve cash and capital - Hibernate or pause
4. What does wind-up look like?
5. Bounce back

Mike Plener is Founder and Chief Executive of MyCatapult and Reboot Australia.

Here he helps business owners get the right tools and connections to ensure they grow their businesses rapidly and successfully. He works with business owners from the start–up stage, through the growth phases and through to a successful exit.

Mike studied at the Technical University of Denmark and Copenhagen Business School. Mike has over 25 years’ experience specialising in marketing and business development – both B2B, and B2C.

In the corporate world Mike worked in an aggressively expanding business where he learnt how to successfully integrate one merger/acquisition after the other, harnessing rapid growth.

Since then he has built 2 consulting companies, launched online and offline, built several large brand campaigns, built successful teams, and, over the last several years, built a software business from zero to several million dollars in sales.

He and the team have the skills and resources to help startups grow and scale.

Mike has also recently started an organization for social good called ReBoot Australia to help businesses survive and thrive during the business crisis caused by the Corona Virus pandemic

What you will learn

The power of the art of quiet observation for business inspiration ideas
The 5 key steps for startup success
1. Choosing the right industry niche
2. Having a passion for the industry
3. Developing a solid business model
4. Funding
5. Optimizing the business for acceleration (growth)
The importance of being a passionate insider in your industry
How to build trust between investors and startup founders
Tapping into the passion behind “The Why” for startups
You need the right investor that you know, like and trust
The boring but important discipline of a good business model of proper systems, processes, and procedures
How to back winners in the right markets
The importance of big trends
Some of the top thematic industry segments to watch for the biggest opportunities
- Food tech
- Agricultural tech
- Medical tech for the aging population

Frances Quinn is the Founder and CEO of Athena Consulting, who started a business after getting fired. Twice.

Starting from humble beginnings, she left school at 16 and set about making her way in the corporate business world. After an 18-year career collecting skills, knowledge and experience spanning customer service, people leadership, business operations, project leadership and operational effectiveness, Frances took the leap into Entrepreneurship and started her own consulting firm.

Over the last 6 years, Frances has focused on driving sustainable growth and building a high-performing team for Athena, delivering projects that have impacted over 1 million customers, delivered cost savings of over $10 million dollars, and enabled businesses to 10x their growth. Frances and Athena have both been recognised as the Winner of the “Stevie International Business Awards”, and as Finalists in the MyBusiness, Women with Altitude and NSW Chamber of Commerce Awards last year.

Throughout Frances' journey, she has overcome many personal challenges, developing resilience and a personal growth mindset, which have been huge contributors to the success she has achieved. She is currently writing a book called ‘Surrender to Success’ to share the methods she has used to fuel her journey in life and business with highly driven and ambitious humans.

What you will learn

The importance of the customer experience for business success
How technology is changing this industry
How the pandemic is accelerating change
Discover the “WOW” framework
How to productize your services
The importance of working on the business instead of in the business
Why you should scale yourself
Why business success is a mind game
The technology tools to use for virtual teams

Huyen Truong has lived and worked on three different continents, but was born and raised in Vietnam in a poor working-class family during the centralised economy period of the 1980s. It was a tough period back then. But since making her home in Australia she has created a successful 7 figure business.

Her first entrepreneurial experience was when she started selling candy when she was 5 so she could buy some treats for herself.

Her parents were able to send her to university in the USA during the financial crisis of 2008- 2010.

On graduating from the university of Missouri-Columbia she moved to Australia with no job, money, family or friends and with over $100,000 in student debt.

Huyen Truong has gone on to become one of the top digital marketing lead generators in the world for cosmetic and plastic surgeons.

She has a special interest in the aesthetic industry, and a deep passion for helping cosmetic and plastic surgeons from around the world to thrive and achieve great success in their practices.

You can find Huyen on LinkedIn and at her business website Online Marketing for Doctors.

Books Huyen Recommends

Build to Sell by John Warrillow

Which is about creating a thriving business without you and that’s not dependant on you to run it.

One Thing by Kelly Geller

Extraordinary results happen only when you are able to focus and concentrate on what’s most important to you. As Steve Jobs once said “Focus does not mean saying Yes, it means saying No”.

What you will learn

The power of persistence from a female entrepreneur
Secrets of success from poor working class origins in Vietnam
The power of creating a niche business
That inspiration can come from the strangest experiences
Why keeping it simple is a recipe for success
How to get to know your target audience
How to convert your passion into a full time business
Discover the power of focus
The importance of video marketing
How to create trust in a digital world
Inspired insights from a Business That Built Websites for Dead People
Why Marketing to Everyone is Selling to No-One

Joe Hoolahan is the Founding CEO of JESI, a global software business that manages the safety of remote or isolated workers. JESI is an anywhere, anytime tool solving the mobile workforce challenge of knowing where people are located at any point in time.

During the recent COVID landscape, JESI has provided clients with a critical platform to assist in the management of the teams who now find themselves isolated, remote, working from home or working alone on sites.

A champion of regional innovation, Joe played a founding role in developing an innovation centre for the Townsville Region in Queensland Australia where JESI was founded and still has a presence. JESI also now calls Brisbane home.

As testament to the ability for technology businesses to operate globally from any location, in 2016, JESI was the first regional business to receive direct investment funding from the Queensland Government under the Advance Queensland scheme along with their Co-investor Future Now Ventures.

Prior to establishing JESI in 2012, Joe worked as a business development and marketing specialist within the corporate training and sporting sectors. His experience includes working with established brands such as the North Queensland Cowboys and Tec-NQ with extensive connections throughout the regions of Queensland.

What you will learn

Why listening to your customers is your best investment
Importance of global markets for scaling your business
The fastest and cheapest ways to learn without going broke
Insider tips for the global scaling of your business
Why automation is best friend for business growth
Why you need an internal champion for Enterprise sales success
The 2 key skills needed to pivot a product during the pandemic
Why boring data can keep people productive and safe
The importance of nurturing relationships for long term business retention

Trevor Oldham is a 23-year-old entrepreneur, author, and founder and CEO of Podcasting You, a done for you podcast booking agency that enables six and seven-figure individuals to speak to their ideal audience to increase their leads, attract new customers, and grow their brand.

Prior to Podcasting You, Trevor started “Become The Lion” which was a motivational based company that grew to over 600,000 followers in the first year. He's on a mission to teach entrepreneurs that age is not a factor when it comes to success.

Discover the secrets behind a successful podcast.

What you will learn

The podcaster that has just made $100 million from his podcast
The content creation secrets of top podcasters
Who should be on your team to create, publish and promote your podcast
Why a successful podcast as a marathon and not a sprint
The importance of planning and process for podcasters
How to use freelancing sites as a search engine for finding what people want
The secret to getting booked on podcasts
Top tips for young entrepreneurs
How to build a company with remote employees
How to go from freelancing to building a company
How to overcome perceived limitations
How to grow a massive social media following

Elma Beganovich is the co-founder of Amra and Elma (A&E) is a digital agency that specializes in a business niche growth industry that didn’t exist just 10 years ago. She is one of the top New York City’s lifestyle influencers with over 1 million followers across her social channels.

Amra & Elma has a large client portfolio of Fortune 500 companies such as Wells Fargo, J&J, P&G, and Netflix. The founders, Amra and Elma, are mega influencers with over 2.2 million social followers;

Elma leads A&E’s efforts in building the list of world renowned partners and clients. Her area of expertise includes identifying roles that A&E can play for a variety of brands in different industries, as well as developing terms and scope of those partnerships.

She holds a B.A. in Government and French from Georgetown University (2007) and a J.D. from University of Miami Law School (2011). She attended Georgetown University School of Law for the LLM program in Securities and Financial Regulations (2012) and is a New York barred attorney.

She is one of the top New York City’s lifestyle influencers with over 1 million followers across her social channels. She has been named as a leading influencer marketing expert by Forbes, Business Insider, Financial Times, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, WSJ, ELLE Magazine, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and many more. Her clients include Fortune 500 companies like Johnson & Johnson, LVMH, Procter & Gamble, Uber, Nestle, HTC, Huawei and more.

You can see and read more about A&E on Forbes, Bloomberg Television, Financial Times, Inc., and Business Insider Video.

What you will learn

The power of the new trend of “cause marketing”
Why timing can be everything when you launch your business.
What social responsibility in business looks like
The importance of learning from doing in a fast changing business landscape.
The steps you need to take to keep growing your business even when you get the timing nailed.
Some of the pitfalls that entrepreneurs all hate.
How influencer marketing works.
The correct process for engaging an influencer(s).
Should you be using TikTok?
The key metrics you need to measure for influencer marketing success.
The top technology platforms used by influencers and agencies.
A key difference between B2B and retail influencer marketing.
Why you should be using the magic rule of seven.
The importance of playing the long game.
Why keeping your KPI’s simple is vital.
What the creative process looks like from the inside.

Matt McWilliams has worked in small business and online marketing for most of his life. Mostly because he said that he could never make it in a “real job.” At the age of 23, He was fired by his dad. At the age of 25, he was arrested and faced up to 42 years in prison.

But by the age of 27, he was an executive in a thriving start-up. They won the Best in Business Award from the Nashville Business Journal that year and by year’s end, and had 50+ people working for them. Matt was personally leading a team of 12 people…and had no clue what he was doing. He knew he wasn’t a good leader and everyone knew it. He was their first employee and helped start the company above the CFO’s garage.

Matt managed to get fired from there but went on to find success at a new company. And in 2010 Matt was recognized as the top Affiliate Marketing Manager in the world by the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards. He left that company and went back to the previous company. Yes, the one that fired him. Eight months later, the CEO left and the company laid off more than half the staff. Matt was one of those people. Firing number four.

So in November of 2011, he was unemployed, had a brand new house, a six-month old daughter and stay-at-home mom to support. He came to realize that he should try and change the world. He also resolved never again to be dependent on an employer for income or others for approval. He wanted to leave a legacy. He says he has failed at mostly everything he’s tried the first time but usually learned from those mistakes.

Matt published the book Internet Marketing From The Real Experts and has published countless articles in industry trade magazines. His consulting company, Matt McWilliams Consulting, Inc., has clients all over the country in various industries ranging from educational courses to consumer goods and the financial industry.

Today He helps online business owners and brands, small and large, to leverage the power of partners to grow their businesses. He teaches you how to make money as an affiliate and how to work better with affiliates. He’s known as “The affiliate guy”.

What you will learn

What affiliate marketing is really about.
How to make money online with no products.
The power of using other people’s network to grow your business.
The importance of doing for powerful learning.
Why failure is the ultimate teacher.
Why business is a team sport.
The secret sauce of leveraging your time to increase sales.
The insider tips on how to start an online business in a few simple steps.
The fastest and easiest way to grow your business leads.

Internet Marketing From The Real Experts

Coran Woodmass is the Founder and Managing Partner of The FBA Broker, a business brokerage that exclusively works with Amazon ecommerce businesses looking to sell their company for 7 or 8 figures.

The FBA Broker uses a hybrid approach to marketing businesses to both strategic and ecommerce buyers to help their clients ensure the maximum value and best deal terms when selling their business.

Over the past four years, Coran and his team have become the worldwide market leader in Amazon FBA business sales data through researching and reporting on the entire market of Amazon FBA business sales.

What you will learn

What products are selling well during the pandemic.
Why building a brand on Amazon is vital to ecommerce success.
Why testing your online business on Amazon is a great idea.
What products categories you shouldn’t launch on Amazon.
How to build the business around a hero product and then add a suite of products.
What is the capital value ceiling for an Amazon store?
Why knowing your target market works well.
Discover the big Amazon trends that are the difference between winning and losing.
The importance of controlling and owning your own ecommerce store.
The power of a monthly subscription online store.
Discover the secrets of an online business that sold for $1 Billion.
What products sell well online during a recession.
What percentage of businesses are saleable on Amazon.
The 3 stages of building an Amazon online store.
The difference between “Cash Flow” and Cash Pile” and why it matters.
How and why smart entrepreneurs reduce risk.

Alexandra Watkins is the Chief Executive Boss Lady, Eat My Words at www.eatmywords.com the only branding firm on the planet that specializes in creating brand names that make people smile instead of scratch their heads. It is a leading and outspoken authority on brand names with buzz.

Since 2005, she and her naming firm, Eat My Words, have created love-at-first sight brand names for countless startups and clients including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, Google, Twitter, and Colgate.

Her breakthrough creativity book, “Hello, My Name is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick,” was named a Top 10 Marketing book by Inc. Magazine and a Top 10 Branding Book by Branding Journal. She is a popular guest speaker at tech conferences and MBA programs and is a former NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center Author in Residence.

Her personal name hall of fame includes:

The Wendy’s Baconator.

Neato robotic vacuum.

Burger King’s - Mac n’ Cheetos.

Spanish language school - Gringo Lingo.

Frozen yogurt franchise - Spoon Me.

Alexandra’s breakthrough creativity book,

“Hello, My Name is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick,” was named a Top 10 Marketing Book by Inc. Magazine and was one of only three books shortlisted for the 2019 Outstanding Works of Literature OWL Award in the crowded Sales & Marketing category.

She is a former NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center Author in Residence. Currently she is Author in Residence in her San Diego pool house.

What you will learn

How to create and register a domain name for your brand when someone else owns it.
Discover some brand name disasters.
Where to start with your brand name inspiration.
Some examples of fun brand names.
Why memorable beats smart.
All the reasons you shouldn’t hire left brain people for right brained creative projects.
Why you should keep your brand name simple to spell.
What are the most trusted domains?.
The secret to discovering what you should be doing in life and business
Why making people smile is better than making them scratch their heads

In 2014, while on maternity leave, Sophie realized she didn't want to return to full-time work.

So she started an Amazon store and sold $1M in products during her first year in business.

It was the ardent desire to stay at home to care for her expanded family led Sophie to explore home-based business options.

How did she do it?

With the popularity of internet businesses on the rise, Sophie enrolled in an Amazon Private Label Selling course. Whilst the course offered solid information to get her business off the ground, the advice was to start by procuring inexpensive, popular items from China.

Something about this didn't feel right and so instead of following the trend, Sophie sourced and invested in a handmade product from Nepal. Her gamble paid off and through strategic branding efforts and leveraging the skills she gleaned from her time in the workforce.

After the success of her first product, Sophie went on to launch 400 items and sold her first Amazon business for seven-figures.

Over the next 2 years, she established and scaled multiple Amazon businesses. She founded and sold an organic tea business, Higher Tea for multiple six-figures USD.

In 2016, Sophie founded Sell Global, a company which aims to help exporters increase revenue and sell premium products online through their done-for-you service.

In the same year, Sophie became a finalist in the Wellington Gold Awards for Emerging Exporter of the Year.

With her success in building and scaling product based business online, Sophie now leverages the experience she has gained in building multiple 7-figure Amazon businesses to deliver coaching to those wanting to launch their international business along with a membership-based Product University called Blue Sky Amazon.

Sophie lives in Wanaka, New Zealand and has two young children.

What you will learn

Learn the top tips for starting your own Amazon store why still keeping your day job
What sort of products have made this Amazon store owner a millionaire.
How breaking the accepted standard rules led to a million in sales in year one.
The secrets behind selling an Amazon store for 7 figures.
The strange Amazon code no one tells you about.
Why being different works in business.
How the Corona virus is helping sell more products on Amazon.
The power of keeping it simple and why it works for this entrepreneur.
Discover the simple app for getting things done.
How the two core principles of self care and business care are vital.
Find out the daily routine of a successful entrepreneur.
How Sophie balances family and business life.
The importance of continuous life education.
Why you can be a global leader and expert in emerging new niches.
How this entrepreneur delegates for business success.

Jemma Green is the Chairman & Co-founder of Power Ledger, which is disrupting and reimagining how we generate, buy and sell energy. She was involved in Australia’s first coin offering of $34 million to fund her startup in 2016.

After completing a degree in finance, Jemma started her career in banking at J.P. Morgan in London. While there, she saw first hand the dilemmas and problems that came with bringing corporate social responsibility to the business world. After a decade in the UK, Jemma returned home to Perth to pursue a doctorate at Curtin University in electricity market disruption, which she completed in 2017.

This work turned out to be the perfect segue to starting up her own business, a blockchain powered peer to peer energy and carbon credit trading platform called Power Ledger. The company is four years old and has projects in the US, Japan, Europe, Thailand and Australia.

Jemma is an expert in residence at Curtin University helping with commercialisation of technology and the startup ecosystem. She also serves on the board of Water Corporation. Somehow she found time to become Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Perth and a mother of two children. Jemma helped set up Australia’s first fossil fuel free superannuation fund and has sat on numerous boards championing sustainable business. She gives regular talks on technology and leadership in business and recently received the EY Fintech Entrepreneur of the Year award.

She lives in Perth and invents Italian style dishes for relaxation. You can find her on Twitter and Facebook.

What you will learn

The importance of down time, silence and space for inspiration
Discover the opportunity that comes from great timing
How the intersection of different technologies is transforming the 100 year old energy market
How households are making money from their solar batteries and not just their solar panels
How blockchain is disrupting the energy market
The insights on fast moving markets to fight, flight or innovate
The importance of being customer centric for business survival
The advantages of blockchain funding over VC funding
Scaling global growth through international collaboration
Why backing yourself and your own judgement is a super power
The importance of learning from your failures
Why you need the power of passion

Suzi Dafnis is the CEO at HerBusiness. It is a global connection network for over 30,000 women in business to get the mentors, contacts, referrals, knowledge, and skills they need to grow their confidence, make more money, build their businesses, expand their network and create the lives they love.

Suzi’s entrepreneurial journey started in the spare room of her Sydney apartment in 1994 when her business partner and her started a boutique events company that represented speakers and authors from the USA in Australia.

Over the years she has grown multiple multi-million dollar businesses in the events, publishing and education niches – with teams in Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.

Suzi’s BIG passion is helping women business owners to grow and scale their business, so that they can create their ideal lifestyle and make a difference in the world.

Discover her success formula of vision, collaboration and courage.

What you will learn

How a mission bigger than herself has driven this entrepreneur to succeed
The importance of the right mindset for growing multiple multi-million dollar businesses
What Suzi learnt from working at Virgin Records about building a personal brand
How to grow a virtual connection network of 30,000 people
The secrets of powerful business collaboration
That knowledge is power for entrepreneurs
How to take advantage of the power of connections and networks
The need to dive deep and access courage during tough times
The magic of motion and action over ideas

Aaron Agius is an experienced search, content and social marketer. He started his own consultancy in 2008, with a revenue of forty cents on his first project, to four hundred dollars the very next day. Today he has revenues in the 7 figures and a global virtual team of over 70 people.

He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Louder.Online, a digital marketing consultancy that specialises in Intelligent & Effective Search, Content & Social Marketing. He has been working in the digital and technology industry over the last 2 decades.

The company’s grown considerably over the years. Notable clients include global brands such as Salesforce, IBM, Ford, LG, Coca-Cola, Intel, and many more.

He has also worked with a broad range of small businesses, with the sole aim of creating actionable and thoughtful digital marketing strategies that achieve results.

His expertise and efforts were also recognised and featured by The Huffington Post, Forbes, HubSpot, Inc., Content Marketing Institute, Entrepreneur and the Sydney Morning Herald.

He has had over ten years of experience in business management, and is regularly invited to speak at various digital marketing and networking events.

What you will learn

How Aaron Built Global Business With Zoom (and Other Virtual Platforms)
Why doing is the new learning
Designing your life around your business and passion is now possible
The importance of managing cash flow
The big shift to virtual and how to do it
The importance of offshore and outsourcing teams for businesses growth
Cheap countries to live in while earning USD
How to use the power of the internet to scale your business globally
The flexibility of virtual teams
Books and mentors that inspired Aaron
The importance of personal and business brand building for attracting multi-million dollar clients
Old business models that are broken and the new way to start and grow a business online.
Why playing the long game and persisting is worth it
The synergy of multi-channel marketing.
Which countries to use for each marketing category
The importance of proper processes and systems
The vital tasks of educating suppliers and customers if you want to succeed.

Virtual events are a hot topic due to the pandemic. In this episode we learn the secrets of one of the world's top experts in launching and running online conferences and lead generating digital summits.

Liam Austin is a virtual event strategist, having launched over 15 virtual summits and online business networking events, hosting over 400 speakers whilst educating 100,000+ business owners through his programs.

As the co-founder of Entrepreneurs HQ, Liam is a specialist at making it easy for people to create their own online summits with his online training business “Virtual Summit Academy” and virtual conferences to grow their email list, authority, impact and revenue.

What you will learn

The future of online events
Discover the secrets behind one of the world's top virtual events experts
How to run a business from anywhere in the world during a pandemic
That success is not an overnight event
Running an online dating site can help you run virtual summits
That love stories have happy endings and also successful business outcomes
How to design a business for your life
The importance of testing and data for business success
Using online summits to generate leads is a powerful marketing tactic
What are the biggest issues putting together a virtual event
The benefits of virtual conferences over live events
How to use virtual events to pitch your startup and raise funds

Since Josh Turner started LinkedSelling in 2011, the company has gone on to be named multiple times to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in the US. His workshops, systems, and software for getting leads and clients have been taught and implemented by over 500,000 business owners and entrepreneurs, generating over $1 Billion in sales for his clients.

He is also the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of two books, “Connect” and “Booked”, and the Founder and CEO of LinkedSelling, a B2B sales development and lead generation agency.

Josh is also the founder of Connect 365, a sales automation platform.that scales your leads and sales with software. They represent clients across the globe, in a wide variety of industries. He is considered one of the leading experts in the world when it comes to growing your business using LinkedIn.

What you will learn

The software and automation you need to scale your lead generation and sales
The importance of learning from your failures
The books and people that inspired Josh Turner
The importance of focus
Why hiring the right people is vital
Mistakes to avoid in business
Why Entrepreneurs should work on their business rather than in it
The importance of energy management

In 2000 Emeric Ernoult had a vision similar to Facebook’s but it was the wrong timing, wrong country and poorly executed. For the next 10 years and after multiple failures he and his business partner finally succeeded.

It was only after a decade of pivoting and persistence they stumbled onto an idea of what is now a very successful venture. They built apps that helped people run competitions and games on Facebook. But it was bespoke and didn't scale well. But from that discovery and technology they built a platform that allows people to manage and publish on multiple social media platforms.

He is now the CEO and co-founder of Agorapulse (www.agorapulse.com), a Paris based Social Media Management Software launched in 2011. Agorapulse is currently being used by more than 17,000 users across 180 countries and generates over $11 million a year in recurring revenue.

What you will learn

Why persistence is an essential entrepreneurial character trait
The need for clear focus and vision if you want to succeed
The importance of creating and building a scalable product and service
How to scale your sales without having to raise a lot of money
The key to finding and building a great team
The low cost and powerful tactic that Agorapulse used to build product distribution and awareness
The importance of timing
Use your uniqueness to get attention and be memorable
Why you sometimes need to be obsessed
Why failing is part of the journey
3 secrets of business success

Danny’s entrepreneurial journey has had many twists and turns. He built Mirasee after his previous startup imploded in 2008, leaving him $250K in debt. But he’s fond of saying that “failure is only failure if it happens in the last chapter; otherwise, it’s a plot twist.”

His love-hate relationship with education began when he dropped out of high school at age 15 to start his first business. His frustrations with education were driven home many years later when he completed his MBA from Queen’s University School of Business.

“Teach Your Gift”, his latest book, is the culmination of years of research and contemplation on higher education. Danny asserts that education doesn’t have to be the overpriced, obsolete white elephant it is today. Instead, it can be the “lighting of a fire” that solves problems and drives innovation, making students valuable to and valued by society.

Discover how Danny is disrupting business education while earning 7 figures and manages his team of 35 virtual employees that work from all around the world.

What you will learn

The skills for scaling a business through relationships and referrals
That finishing high school is not a big deal or the recipe for success, Something else is.
How to get other people to help you write a book for free
How guest blogging can build global visibility
How to get influencers to help you build a personal brand
Why over delivering makes you stand out and gets you remembered
How great content (and influencers) builds your email list and distribution
The importance of “quality decisions instead of just being focused on the quantity of work”
Learn how a productive day can be achieved before lunchtime
When are the peak times for deep work?
Why learning to handle tough times is an important lesson - “Don’t wish it was easier, but work to be better”
How education is broken in 2020

Books to read:

Getting to Plan B - Randy Komisar
Teach Your Gift - New book by Danny Iny

InVideo is currently used by over 100,000 users globally from 150 plus countries and it's funded with the multi-million dollar backing by Sequoia Capital, one of the stars of Silicon Valley venture capital funds and other angel investors.

Sanket Shah is the CEO of InVideo.

Seven years ago, Sanket started creating videos on non-fiction books and uploaded a bunch of them to YouTube. These videos got a huge traction on YouTube. But Sanket realized that the process of video creation was cumbersome. It wasn't a great experience.

So in 2016, after his last company, MassBlurb got acquired for a few million dollars, he and his partners were wondering about the next big thing, What would be the next gig?

The answer lay in trying to solve a problem that he had experienced as a video creator a few years before. The time consuming and complicated task of video creation, editing and publishing. They are building the tech to fix that.

Along the way he has discovered the importance of hiring the right people, performing “good” customer research and discovering the right “Go to Market” traction channels.

What you will learn

The importance of market size to create a scalable business.
Why a high gross profit margin is the difference between success and failure
The type of customers you need to avoid and the ones to chase
How they identified a problem and created a scalable solution
The critical focus of developing a user friendly interface and user friendly experience
The secret sauce of great 24/7 customer support
Why thinking is underrated and needs to be nurtured and practiced
Discover why your first business idea is often not correct and you will need to pivot

Steve Rayson is a serial entrepreneur that loves building and selling companies before they get too big. His last business he sold for $20 million when it had only 6 staff and was making a turnover of $6 million and had a net profit of $3 million a year.

He originally worked in management consulting for KPMG and Ernst & Young before becoming a serial entrepreneur. He went on a course to learn about the Internet in the 1980’s and saw the opportunity to start an online education company. That was Kineo (an e-learning company). Then he started Buzzsumo with 2 developers in an industry he knew nothing about and bootstrapped the startup with just a few thousand dollars.

Steve has set up, grown and sold three companies including: Kineo and BuzzSumo, a social media data company.

He is an entrepreneur passionate about startup businesses and growing them without VC or institutional investment.

What you will learn:

Why giving away your knowledge for free works
How webinars scale your time and reach
How to work with influencers to get global attention
Why building a business today is much faster and cheaper in a digital world
How to grow a business with the freemium model
Why you need to build a quality product fast and keep innovating to stay ahead of the competition
Discover the advantages of selling a software product vs selling a services business

Notes: These are for my information and not to be used in the post or iTunes

Tools

Satismeter.com that measured NPS (Net promoter scores)

Slack

“Speed to value” - How long do I have to use this product before I get value out of it?

Books

Love is the Killer App
Crossing the Chasm
Lean Startup
Managing the professional Services Firm

Takeaways

The importance of understanding that business is a team sport.

The importance of persistence (posting to 300 forums)

Why paying double the money for one good developer is better than getting 10 average developers and worth more than 10 marketers.

The importance of a high energy team

The importance of investing in yourself

At the age of 18, Jonny Hendriksen moved to Japan from his home city of Auckland, New Zealand. He dabbled in various ventures including starting a successful and one of the first web hosting companies in 1997, based in Tokyo.

But at the age of only 29 in May 2000, Jonny Hendriksen and his business partner were the first foreigners to list a company (ValueClick) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. They raised $40 million at a market valuation of $400 million that soared to $1.8 billion. A few months later the dot com bubble burst. The timing was impeccable. Value Click was one of the first companies to introduce the “Cost per Click” (CPC) advertising model to the Internet.

In 2008 he moved back to New Zealand and bought the Terrace Downs golf resort. But the itch to get back into the web industry was too hard to ignore. And the new venture “Shuttlerock” was born shortly after the New Zealand earthquake leveled the city of Christchurch in 2011.

In 2020, the company is now a global Facebook media partner that produces video advertising at scale for Facebook and Instagram from brand approved creative assets. They have offices in New York, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Paris, and Berlin with the head office based in Nelson, New Zealand and currently employs 150+ staff.

What you will learn

Discover the 4 key pillars of a successful business.
A surprising event that led to Shuttlerocks’ success
The ancient philosophy that guides Jonny Hendriksen in business and life
Why company culture is important
How to embrace the journey and not the destination
The importance of the “pivot”
Why the big business idea should be looking to solve a big problem

Jon Ferrara is a serial entrepreneur and is best known as the co-founder of GoldMine Software Corp that was launched in May 1990. And sold just 9 years later in 1999 for $125 million after reaching annual revenues of $100 million.

They never chased Venture capital funds or borrowed money but boot strapped the startup with only $5,000 in the bank.

Jon and his partner founded the CRM revolution and it was one of the early pioneers in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for small to medium sized businesses. Goldmine was one of the earliest products in the space between collaboration, contact management, and sales force automation, way before Outlook and Salesforce even existed.

He sold his business just 4 months before the dotcom bubble burst.

For the next 10 years Jon decided to focus on his family and his health after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2000 just after the sale of the business.

In 2010 he re-entered the business world and kicked off his new social CRM venture project, Nimble after seeing and sensing the power of social media to transform global relationships and business.

What you will learn

The power of a passionate purpose
Why you need to find a way to distribute your products.
Discover the power of relationships to supercharge business success
Learn the importance of storytelling as an entrepreneur
How to scale your business
The importance of balancing family, personal, health and business priorities
The books and resources that have inspired and sustained Jon on his journey

At the age of 25 Mellissah Smith made her first million dollars.

But by the age of 30 she quickly came to realize that when she wasn’t working in the business the revenue stopped. And she learned that one of the secrets to a successful business is being able to scale and delegate and work on the business rather than in it. That’s when she started her business “Marketing Eye” that is acknowledged as being in the top 10 marketing consulting firms in the USA.

Marketing Eye is an international marketing consulting firm, and designed so that clients buy the brand and not the person and was built out in a way to be an outsourced marketing department. And if you can remember 20 years ago, an outsourced marketing department wasn't a big thing. It wasn't what everyone was doing. Companies had an ad agency, and a PR agency. But they didn't have this concept of an outsourced marketing department.

So she designed and set up a formula and process around that concept. She also started a magazine alongside that so that her clients could have a voice in the media. She didn’t know it at the time but she was also a content marketer before the term was coined.

But 3 years ago she decided that she wanted to disrupt the way in which companies develop marketing strategies by automating the process through AI and machine learning.

That was the start of Robotic Marketer in which she is also the founder and managing director.

Welcome to the Jeff Bullas Show!