So for me something that was really important was trying to really take it one step at a time. There were a couple of times where I put it down and did not touch for a month at a time. And I do think that why it took so long to finally publish it. But, once I kind of set deadlines for my self, and they were very manageable deadlines. At first I felt like maybe they were too small because they were small chucks to work on at a time. It was nice to be able to take a month to only go over so many p...
Jan 14, 2021•24 min•Ep. 16
Don't have an entrepreneurial seizure. Don't just do it because you're tired of your job. Look at what it takes to run a business. Look at all the things you have to have in a row. If you need help, talk to Devin. He will help you. If you have a cool idea, talk to Devin. He will help protect you. There is one thing we have been so hypervigilant about that we have locked it down so much that it impeded our growth. So we have the trademark, now I want to look at a patent to help me protect the met...
Jan 13, 2021•39 min•Ep. 135
You really need to love and be super passionate about whatever your going to do. Because it is going to take away time from other things that you love to do like your family, or another passion whether it is golf or whatever it may be. Your going to have to sacrifice and take away time from something that you love to go and build this. Because most likely you don't have the resources to not be working and build it as a full time job. So for me whether it was Vibio or content creation I have has ...
Jan 12, 2021•39 min•Ep. 134
First is start as soon as possible and don't waste your time. Define your priorities, each day study something new, and don't hesitate to ask. People are open when they ask. If you have a question ask someone and they will responded.
Jan 11, 2021•22 min•Ep. 133
Research first. Do your research, do not jump into something without a deep dive into something that you have interest in. A lot of times these interest come from things that happen to you, and that's great. Before you go diving into things I have a perfect example to share. I was competing with virtual private networks. So virtual private was a much better play because they were making money. They could sell where as I was free. I was stuck in the browser world which is free and I could not fig...
Jan 08, 2021•31 min•Ep. 132
I have had those conversations with people who are in that same boat and they say what you are talking about sounds great, I know I need it but I don't have that money. What do you think I should do? And I say you know what keep doing what your doing. Keep working your job and keep trying to set aside a little bit of cash, keep working on your plan, and get yourself in a little bit better financial position to actually launch this business the right way. That is actually my best advice. I don't ...
Jan 07, 2021•38 min•Ep. 15
Be confident in yourself and be positive. You never know what will happen in the future. You will definitely have your ups and downs and you will never know where you will find your treasure. Have a plan but always be flexible and always be positive. Never think that something went wrong. Even if something went wrong it is a lesson and you need to study something.
Jan 06, 2021•27 min•Ep. 131
Every entrepreneur needs to develop grit and practice gratitude. What I mean by that is with developing grit there is no easy business. If it was easy everybody would be doing it and nobody would be willing to pay you for it. You are doing something hard and so you are going to have days that are awful. You are going to have days where your partner is depressed and you are depressed and you don't feel like you can go forward. That's where I feel like you really have to take a step back and say o...
Jan 05, 2021•30 min•Ep. 130
Failing is another story but definitely on your own path to your successes whatever it is. It will be rocky and you will have ups and downs and it's hard as hell. So definitely I think perseverance is the number one thing I could advice anyone. I tell that to myself every time it is hard. It was hard when it was Corona like two months ago. So you just wake up and say oh it's this time of life again. You just have to wake up in the morning and plow through the day.
Jan 04, 2021•30 min•Ep. 129
If you have the chance to do research on an angel, which almost every single time you will. Whether raising money from a restaurateur, ok what type of restaurants do they like? what type of food do they like? Are there talk with them at conferences? Watch those talks, read their white papers, look at what they invested in on crunch space. See if you can learn anything about their family. Do their kids go to a private school or college or something like that? Do you have anything in common with a...
Dec 31, 2020•34 min•Ep. 14
I truly believe that success in creative business comes down to the mindset and the skill set of the leader. And honestly 80% mindset. And so what I have really been focused on is not just tactically what does a business look like, and how you do sales, and marketing, and finances. What's the mindset that helps somebody be good at those things so that they have the desire to go learn how to improve and grow their business. So that they can get better at their craft or skill set.
Dec 18, 2020•29 min•Ep. 128
You want to go after a key word that is a little bit more niche. There might not be as many people looking for it but it's hyper relevant and it's easy to rank for. You can be the big fish in the little pond an own whatever traffic there is going to those key words. For most small businesses that the direction you want to go.
Dec 17, 2020•38 min•Ep. 13
You never know when your time is up, So spend every moment of your time with something you love. Just find what you love and do it. I have found so many kids that don't like school and I tell them dude find something that you can do after school that you love, even if it is a sport. Because you just never know. I could go to school tomorrow driving and boom a car hits me and I am gone. You just never know.
Dec 16, 2020•23 min•Ep. 127
Grow their network and find a mentor or a coach who can really help guide you. There is no way I would be where I am today had I not worked super hard to find people who had the type of lifestyle, that had the type of businesses that I wanted. And I hunted them down and pursued them and I worked hard to build really great relationships with a handful of really successful entrepreneurs. And that has made all the difference for me in terms of opportunities that have opened up, having them give me ...
Dec 15, 2020•27 min•Ep. 126
I can't be in a conversation without talking about LinkedIn to the point where anyone thinking they want to be an entrepreneur at some point or even they are now to leverage LinkedIn. It's the one platform for professional business purposes. Leverage the platform is my biggest thing. Sometimes I get clients who wait until they are at the point of frustration where they may have to close their business and it's like no you should have connected with me a long time ago. Making sure they are levera...
Dec 14, 2020•30 min•Ep. 125
Follow your heart, Follow your conviction because you are the person who knows why you started the business in the first place. It's always good to pivot and take in feedback and change. I am not asking you to be ridged but, I think if there is one thing you can be ridged about it is telling people hey I want to follow my conviction, I want to follow my heart so that if I lead a life and fail I can always get up and change course and be satisfied. But, I never want to live with that regret that ...
Dec 11, 2020•31 min•Ep. 124
Sustainability is no longer as nice to deal with. It's a transforming industry. People are making their buying decisions based on those practices and it leads to a competitive advantage.
Dec 10, 2020•25 min•Ep. 12
It does not matter how much you know, but how much you are willing to learn. And I think growth mindset along the way. I have seen even among my business partners, It's really understanding that you are not going to have all the right answers but if you are willing to fight for it then that's what is going to make the whole difference. I just look back on where I was when I first started this. I did not know anything about business, nothing about strategy, and nothing about building products. Ju...
Dec 09, 2020•27 min•Ep. 123
My big thing in terms of advice is to just Start the business. Its not going to turn out the way you want it to, almost certainly. Whether that means you need to make a small pivot or the business was not meant to be there is something that is not going to work out the way that you are expecting it to. So I think the important part is to just start and you will learn as you go, adapt as you go, and pivot as you go. I think that is really the most effective way to learn.
Dec 08, 2020•26 min•Ep. 122
I'm a huge fan of side projects and side hustles so to speak. Before you decide to change your life, quit your job, or take money out of your 401 K, try to get one customer. Try to just do one thing. Try to validate the idea in a number of different ways.
Dec 07, 2020•38 min•Ep. 121
There isn't necessarily a right way to do it. I would say that if you are trying to figure out what to do as a start up and where to start the most important thing to do is start. If you can get 80% of the way there then often times that remaining 20%, lets say that remaining 20% is the gap between where your at and a perfect answer, a perfect product, a perfect sales pitch. Often times that 20% is more of a nice to have then the 80% of actually having something there.
Dec 05, 2020•27 min•Ep. 120
It's about persistence. I actually think it was Ryan Smith with Qualtrics he said the same thing about being all in. So if you are doing this be all in. Also be persistent in what you are doing. If you do run into some road blocks, and they are legitimate road blocks, evaluate that. Maybe you are not on the right course and maybe you need to make some adjustments. However that happens just keep at it. If it is something that is legitimately a great thing that will help whatever market you are in...
Dec 04, 2020•27 min•Ep. 119
Identifying where your largest community is. I always want my clients to get the biggest bang for their buck when they are looking at their content. So finding where the majority of your people are and targeting the top three to five questions, interactions, or response that you see most often is a really great place to start when you are looking to create content. Chances are you are already engaging with those people and working to answer that question anyway. So building the content is an opp...
Dec 03, 2020•28 min•Ep. 11
If you feel like your business is stagnant, or not moving like you would want it to then focus on talking to new people. If you set aside an entire afternoon and just talk to new people then you will fill up your next weeks schedule. It does not have to be people in your industry. If you sell shoes talk to the guy that sells carpets and see how he dose it. Talking to new people I think has been one of the biggest drivers for our business. We are always looking for new people to connect with via ...
Dec 02, 2020•27 min•Ep. 118
Be Stubborn. I never ever quit. When it looks like this is a terrible idea or you hear no for the thousandth time you just have to preserver and keep going an pushing because it only takes the one time. You can quote Edison, Colonel Sanders, and other people but it really only takes the one time for it to blow up. If you stop then you will never find out that one time.
Dec 01, 2020•24 min•Ep. 117
Priorities change, life is a journey. Find the right framework to help to ask the right questions. I think that is key for any entrepreneur.
Nov 30, 2020•29 min
Find people that you really trust and partner with them. It's crazy what you can do with other people compared to what you can do alone. It does not matter how smart you are, or think you are. I was so reluctant in the beginning to get on board with an investor and to partner but taking his money and also having him as a permanent consultant to the company and getting his whole life's worth of expertise has just been invaluable.
Nov 28, 2020•25 min•Ep. 116
Learn how to sell. I think a lot of people who want to start businesses focus on a lot of different things but, they don't actually go out and get customers. I think Mark Cuban said that "sales solves all problems" or something like that. I think that is something that is super underrated. People are a little bit thinking we are in the tech world so we are all on the computer, not really talking to people, we are not going to go out and make a sale. That's the life line of the business. If there...
Nov 25, 2020•29 min•Ep. 114
Meet with 2 new people, 3 new people, 4 new people a week. As many people as you possibly can. I have found that people absolutely love to support business owners. It's still one of the reasons I think America is such an amazing and great country. Entrepreneurship is such a foundation for what this whole country is built on. To me I have seen so many times someone who just wanted to support me as a young entrepreneur trying to build something. I would encourage anyone who wants to start a busine...
Nov 24, 2020•32 min•Ep. 113
Focus on your customer. A lot of start up business owners my self included like to think about your product and/or service. That is probably the part of your business that you are most passionate about. In my view, the way that you actually make a business succeed is start with your customer. Who are you going to sell to? What are you going to sell? Why would they care? If you can get those first few customers and actually make a sale then you are on your way. Try and resist focusing on your pro...
Nov 23, 2020•28 min•Ep. 112
