Is working in management consulting as glamorous as it seems? What’s the best thing you can do to improve your public speaking skills? How can you use different pricing strategies to scale up your business? Welcome back to How They Get Stuff Done . Today I’m speaking with Judson Rollins. Judson is an aviation strategy consultant and a monetization architect for expert service providers who want to decouple their revenue from their hours. Judson and I discuss finding the middle ground between per...
Apr 22, 2024•59 min•Ep. 22
Why does Game of Thrones cost $70,000 to watch? What happens when you choose to believe that everything is your responsibility? And why do smart people not think that others are stupid? Welcome back to How They Get Stuff Done . Today I’m speaking with Derek Sivers. Derek Sivers has been a musician, a circus performer, an entrepreneur, and a TED speaker. He’s the founder of CD Baby, an online distributor of independent music. He’s written several books, including How to Live and Hell Yeah or No ....
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 21
Jack Ellis is the co-founder of Fathom Analytics, a privacy-first Google Analytics alternative. Jack also teaches an online course on Laravel, a popular PHP framework, and hosts his own podcast, Above Board, where he discusses running an indie and bootstrapped software company. Jack and I discuss: How he runs his company people-first What happens when you judge your employees on their work, rather than on other measures Lightweight ways of collaborating with a small team The importance of online...
Oct 20, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 20
Floris van der Pol is a Dutch philosopher, writer, and self-described “reading addict”. He publishes book reviews on YouTube as well as videos on reading more generally and on living without a smartphone, which he has done for years now. Floris also writes a newsletter with essays on philosophy and literature. I met Floris in a course I was taking on YouTube—the Part-Time YouTuber Academy by Ali Abdaal, if you’re curious—in which Floris gave me fantastic feedback on some of my own YouTube videos...
Jan 22, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 19
Derrick Reimer is the founder of SavvyCal, a tool for scheduling meetings that both you and the people you are scheduling with will love. He's also the co-founder of Drip, a marketing automation tool, and he is the host of the Art of Product podcast. I have long enjoyed using an app to schedule my meetings. For example, I scheduled meetings with my coaching clients. Rather than going back and forth with endless emails, trying to find a mutually convenient time. I just send people a link so they ...
Oct 22, 2021•56 min•Ep. 18
Dianna Allen is the founder of two businesses: TERRA, a lifestyle shop that focuses on scented candles and Inventora, an app that helps businesses who handmade products track their inventory. I first heard about Dianna earlier this year—or perhaps it was last year—when my girlfriend mentioned some girl who said she was starting a candle shop and was tweeting about her journey publicly. A bunch of time passed and then recently, my girlfriend said hey, remember this girl I mentioned who started he...
Oct 13, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 17
Steph Smith is a growth marketer, writer, and indie maker. She works for The Hustle, helping to run one of the world’s largest newsletters. But she has lots of her own projects. She has written a book about content marketing, she runs an online course about time management, and she has a podcast about, quote, “shit you don’t learn in school”, unquote. When I first encountered Steph on Twitter, I sensed that she and I have very similar views on productivity, so I was keen to get her on the podcas...
Sep 25, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 16
Andrew Barry helps people teach better online. He owns and runs a training business in which he helps rapidly growing companies educate their people and their customers. Separately, he works with online course creators, helping them to create engaging cohort-based courses. Andrew also hosts his own podcast, titled “How Did You Learn That?” Over the past few months, Andrew kept popping up on my Twitter feed. Since I sell online courses—meaning, I teach people online—many of his insights resonated...
Jun 12, 2021•48 min•Ep. 15
Matt Ragland is a productivity teacher, like myself. He has worked for ConvertKit, an email service provider I use and love and for Podia, an online course platform, which I used to launch my business. These days, he helps people—and particularly makers and creators—be more productive. He does that with courses, videos on YouTube, and on his own podcast, Connect the Dots. Matt is really big on bullet journaling, which is quite a different experience from using digital task managers, so I was kee...
Jun 01, 2021•52 min•Ep. 14
“If you are not interested in helping your clients, then you should just stick to employment.” Jonathan Stark is a former software developer who is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing. He is the author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts, the host of the Ditching Hourly podcast, and writes a daily newsletter on pricing for independent professionals. Jonathan has also written a number of books, offers a coaching program, and runs live group courses. I ran into Jonathan’s writings a few years ag...
May 11, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 13
“It was always in the back of my mind: what am I going to do for dinner? … Having what I’m going to cook sorted out releases my mental energy.” Brigitte Gemme is a researcher by training. She has a PhD in sociology and she worked at the intersection of government, universities, and industry, particularly on the topic of natural resource management in Canada. These days, however, Brigitte does something completely different: she offers a vegan meal-planning service. I met Brigitte a few years ago...
Apr 24, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 12
“It doesn’t have to be perfect consistency. It doesn’t have to be every single day. If you intended to work out five days this week, but you only got two… you’re still exercising.” Dave Ceddia is a user interface developer. He builds UIs with React, a Javascript library, and he also teaches people how to use React in a book and a course, both called Pure React. Lately, Dave has been working on a new project called Recut. If you’ve ever edited video, you might have had to spend quite some time ed...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 11
Janelle Allen helps business owners optimize their marketing strategy. For example, she recently worked with Crowdcast, a webinar platform, and if you check out Crowdcast’s website today, you’ll see that it’s so clear compared with what it used to be like. Janelle also teaches small groups of primarily service-based business owners to create and market online courses. With a background in writing as well as in instructional design, you can see why she’s good at what she does. Some time ago, I wo...
Apr 07, 2021•56 min•Ep. 10
“Email is like trying to save money, but every day walking through the mall.” Jesse Mecham is the founder of You Need a Budget, or YNAB, an app that helps you gain control of your money. Until just a few weeks ago, Jesse was also the CEO of YNAB, a company with more than a hundred employees. He has also written a book and he hosts a podcast, both of which are also titled You Need a Budget. Oh, and did I mention that Jesse has seven kids? I was keen to speak with Jesse not only because I used YNA...
Mar 15, 2021•50 min•Ep. 9
Today, I’m telling you my story. Many people have asked me to share my story and to explain how I work and why I do the things the way I do. So this is a solo episode, just me telling you about my life over the past nine years. Some topics I cover: What working as an economic/litigation consultant for a top firm was like How I burned out and what burnout did to me The symptoms of burnout and which ones I suffered from My “wantrepreneuring” journey A few failed online businesses I tried to start ...
Mar 08, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 8
“If you only have two hours a day and you need to get paid, is posting to Instagram Stories really gonna put money in your bank account?” Graham Cochrane is an entrepreneur, podcaster, YouTuber, and business coach. In 2009, after getting laid off twice in one year, he started to teach people how to record professional-sounding music from home. That business, the Recording Revolution, took off and today the Recording Revolution YouTube channel has 600,000 subscribers. Teaching people online trans...
Mar 01, 2021•57 min•Ep. 7
“If I have something on my calendar that I’m dreading, I have to be really careful about it. If I let myself get obsessed with the fact that I don’t want to do it, then it can throw off my entire day.” Corbett Barr has been self-employed on the Internet since 2005, earning a living from blogging, podcasting, online courses, software services, and more. He is perhaps best known for being the founder and CEO of Fizzle, a community and library of courses for independent entrepreneurs who want to ma...
Feb 22, 2021•53 min•Ep. 6
“If I would have heard me ten years ago, I would have been like… that lady is on something. Like, you cannot get things done like that. And yet, I accomplish so much more now.” Jessica Eley is a mindset coach for high-achievers. She helps them reach their big goals without feeling shitty in the process. Wondering what a mindset coach is? You might hire a fitness coach to help you improve your physical fitness. In the same way, you hire a mindset coach to improve your mental fitness. I’m particul...
Feb 15, 2021•47 min•Ep. 5
“I’d rather be really working when I’m working and really be with my kid when I’m with my kid.” Marina Díaz is a psychologist and online course creator. Her courses cover a variety of topics: one is a therapeutic writing course based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Another teaches how to build an effective morning routine—something we discuss in our conversation as well—and a third course is about planning your days with a bullet journal. On top of that, Marina runs a monthly members...
Feb 04, 2021•47 min•Ep. 4
Today I’m speaking with Steve Pavlina. Steve is one of the world’s most successful personal development bloggers. To date, he has had over 100 million visits to his website. Steve has also written more than 1,700 articles on a range of personal growth topics, including productivity. He offers several courses—one of which we discuss in the episode—and he’s the author of the book Personal Development for Smart People, which has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Steve and I discuss:...
Jan 28, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 3
Today I’m speaking with Francesco D’Alessio. Francesco is the creator behind the Keep Productive YouTube channel, where he helps his 200,000 subscribers find the most suitable productivity tools for work and life. Like myself, Francesco is an online course creator: for example, he offers courses on the productivity tools Notion and Obsidian. Francesco also recently launched Keep Focused, a second YouTube channel with an accompanying community, with a focus on productivity tips, rather than tools...
Jan 18, 2021•39 min•Ep. 2
Today I’m speaking with Sabyasachi Sengupta. Originally from India, Saby now lives and works in Amsterdam as a business developer at ABN AMRO. He is an accomplished speaker, having won the European Championship of Public Speaking, and he speaks professionally even during global pandemics. Saby recently published “What’s Your Plan B? Turn Adversity into Your Benefit”, which couldn’t be more timely. Saby and I discuss: How he found the discipline to write a book in addition to working full time Wh...
Jan 01, 2021•35 min•Ep. 1
