In studio today is former teacher and basketball player turned internet business instructor and solopreneur, Omar Zenhom.
We talk hoops, how messed up iTunes is for Podcasters, how get got a bunch of haters by giving away a free webinar on Podcasting, why the teaching profession is screwed up, and how to get the equivalent of a $135,000 education for just $100!
Omar and his fiance Nicole have a great podcast called "People Who Know Their Sh*t", and they are about to launch the $100 MBA Show.
More About This Show
Like so many great solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, Omar has taken lessons from the different areas of his life and applied them to his business pursuits. As a young man, he was a track and basketball athlete both of which taught him the value in perseverance and to focus on your own improvement, not how you stack up against others.
Omar has taken that attitude of perseverance and personal betterment into his work life, from his previous career was as a teacher to his online endeavors.
Previously, he taught at both the high school level and at the university level. Though he thoroughly enjoyed teaching and the students in his classroom, and was quite successful at it, he became disillusioned by the education system. He believes it strips teachers of their creative license at the door and everyone suffers for it. He taught for over 10 years until one day he discovered the possibilities of the Internet and new path was opened!
You'll also discover things like:
* What did he learn when his first podcast was removed from iTunes?
* Why you need to be YOU in the marketplace.
* How his company's name, Business Republic, was born.
* The #1 misconception he hears from his audience - Omar debunks it.
* Why a great idea is worthless.
* And lots more!
In 1998, Omar began playing around in the online world. He explored eBay and making money there as well as creating web sites for other people. It took him about 8 months before he resigned his teaching position to pursue his online endeavors full-time.
Still feeling insecure as an entrepreneur, Omar applied for the Wharton School of Business and was accepted. During his first semester, his marketing professor pulled him aside and asked him why he was there. Omar told him - he wanted to be a great entrepreneur and his MBA schooling would provide that. His professor responded by saying an MBA was not the way to become a great entrepreneur. Instead he offered Omar a list of 40 books to read that would help him on his way and told Omar to drop out.
Omar did leave after his first semester because he understood he was at Wharton simply to bolster his confidence. He felt insecure about being in the online marketplace without the letters behind his name, not because he needed the schooling to be a great entrepreneur.
Seeing the opportunity in his experience, Omar and his fiance Nicole created their $100 MBA program. It's a course designed to give entrepreneurs an MBA education, without the time and monetary investment of an actual MBA. With Nicole's New York Film Institute education under her belt, they designed a series of eight core courses laid out in video format and complemented with written notes and checklists as well as an online forum for their participants to meet other like-minds.
Building off the success of their course, Omar and Nicole are soon launching their $100 MBA podcast. The format will be a short podcast aired 5 days a week with all content, no fluff. It's designed for the listeners to tune in, learn something and then go apply it. The topics discussed will be covered in chunks, meaning marketing will be the topic for podcast number 5-20, sales from 21-35, etc.