Online Things & Internet Stuff: Recent Episodes
Will Myers & Ren Little
We talk about tech, and small business life, and entrepreneurship, and sometimes marketing, and, um, Squarespace, I guess. And all the other online things & internet stuff.
Churros and crepes are both better with chocolate. This is one of the many things we learned while skipping around Spain and France for a few weeks. If you’re one of those people who thinks it would be really cool to be able to travel whenever you want without having to take off time from work, you should listen to this, because thats what we do. And we usually learn some things about life, love, and business, which we will share with you in this episode.
To be honest, this podcast was hard to release because it's a little more personal and a little less business/tech related. But hey, thats what we get when we let Dr. Larry Little takeover and turn the tables to interview US! Listen in as he pulls out our innermost secrets and fears (ok more like the lessons learned and challenges around our own entrepreneurial journey/relationship). Fun fact, along with being a globally sought-after speaker and executive coach and creator of the Make A Difference framework, Larry is Ren’s father, so there’s some tea and we are here to spill it.
You’ve probably heard a lot of people yelling at you about the importance of having goals, especially if you’re an entrepreneur/small business owner. Well, we’re calling bull. Actually, Will calls bull and Ren proves him wrong. If you’re struggling with the roles of missions and visions and goals and values and all the fluffy parts of your business, this episode will not provide clarity but it will give you some things to chew on. Also we talk about WeWork’s lies and false valuation and how terrible they are as a company.
“Can you just throw up a quick website for me?” “What if we just start posting on Instagram more?” “Could you just make it look good?” Oh yeah? How about you can just kiss my... anyways, we have some strong feelings about the word “just”, especially when it comes to client requests that are prefaced with it. We’re going to do some therapy around that, and then jump into some tech updates that you should, as an entrepreneur and human in the current age, be aware of: Apple’s Sept 10th event, the current state of the media Streaming Wars, and the those latest scandal with those sneaky little spies invading your privacy, Siri, Alexa and the gang.
The Queen of Networking herself graces us with her royal presence on today’s podcast. Elizabeth is potentially the most well-known person in Jacksonville, FL, and you’ll find out why if you listen. From why she switched to Squarespace from Wordpress, to her year long experiment with attending 3 networking events every day, to her first career in teaching old people how to internet, Elizabeth is a delight to hear from and has a world of wisdom to offer her fellow entrepreneurs.
Note: I was totally, 100% wrong when I said they jumped from Squarespace 5 to 7. There was definitely a Squarespace 6.
3,000 miles. 50 driving hours. 8 days. 3 hearts. 7 feet. One Prius and a whole lot of beef jerky. Y’all we road tripped from Seattle to Atlanta, and here are our biggest highlights and take-aways, with some sweet little business lessons learned thrown in for good measure.
Ok, so we love/hate social media. And only sometimes. It’s a confusing relationship really, and I think that’s probably true for a lot of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and laymen people out there. We’re going to talk a bit about how your product packaging effects your social media strategy, and the difference between tightly and loosely packaged products.
You’re a small business owner. A freelancer. A side hustler. You can do really cool things for people. But HOW do you get people to actually buy from you? Whats the secret to learning how to sell what you do and make your business sustainable? Well, if there is a secret, we don’t know it, but here are a few of our thoughts on the different types of marketing for small businesses and how your marketing should evolve as your business grows.
» 2:20 - Barney’s business bio.
» 4:44 - How did it feel to watch your company go down?
» 12:40 - How Barney doubled sales for 13 years
» 13:37 - Avoiding Entrepreneurial Loneliness
» 23:19 - Do friends & family want you to succeed?
» 27:43 - The Tough Truth. «« LISTEN TO THIS» 33:15 - How to manage your time as a solo-preneur?
» 36:50 - The small business rollercoaster.
» 39:10 - How to fix loneliness?
» 42:00 - Dealing with spouses.
» 46:30 - You need a community.
» 47:05 - Barney’s Business support group.
» 51:25 - What books are you reading?
» 52:50 - What should every entrepreneur do every day?
» 54:10 - Favorite profession & personal accomplishments.
Intro / Outro
Jesus On The Mainline, by Ry Cooder
» What We Discuss:
0:50 - Game of Thrones Discussion
7:40 - We hate SEO
12:40 - What is SEO?
» Intro Song: Game of Thrones Intro Music by Will Myers & Ren Little
» Squarespace SEO Checklist
» What We Discuss
2:57 - How Ren Bootstraped - A story of survival
21:08 - Option 1: The Employee Round
40:14 - Option 2: The Visa / Mastercard / AMEX round
55:00 - Option 3: The Friends & Family Round
» Intro Song: Attack on London by Cody Martin
» OTIS.solutions
Online Course Platforms:
» Kajabi.com
» Thinkific.com
» Teachable.com
» MightyNetworks.com
» Intro Song: Stay Right There by Michael Shynes
» Our Squarespace Meetup Group
Links:
» https://mailchimp.com
» https://www.squarespace.com/email-marketing
» Intro Song: One by Barrows & Sons
Resource
Billie Eilish bad guy - intro/outro song (explicit warning)
Squarespace - The online software we use to build websites
Acuity - The Schedule App that Squarespace bought.