Creating a network is more than just who you know, but who you connect to who. Our guest today,Tom Kulzer, is a master at cultivating relationships. Tom founded the award winning https://www.aweber.com (AWeber Communications) to help small businesses around the world better communicate and build relationships with customers and prospects using permission based email marketing. Tom's focus is strategic planning, market strategy, business development, and team building, and believes in creating a unique workplace lifestyle with a culture driven by core values all while in pursuit of growing millions of small businesses around the world.

I can’t wait to dive right in and learn how Tom brought his business from zero to one million SaaS subscribers by connecting people and generating relationships. 

Things you will learn in this episode:

[00:01 - 08:53] Opening Segment

I introduce today’s guest, Tom Kulzer

Activities and Success

Announcements 

https://travischappell.typeform.com/to/kmf5p4 (travischapel.com/makemypodcast)

Tom gives some background on his story

Always doing odd jobs 

Parents owned a garment factory 

Entrepreneurship taught or caught?

Tom’s examples 

Family business dynamic

Factors that go into it 

Tom talks about growing up learning entrepreneurship

Growing up around small businesses

Used to working all kind of jobs 

Started a software company 

Developed AWeber over time 

[08:54 - 16:44] The Benefits and Struggles of Software 

Tom talks about the value of his hard work 

Building up over time 

Evolving over the years

Benefits and struggles of building a software company 

A constantly evolving market 

Increased competition 

Engineering capacity used on stopping abuse 

Recurring and predictable 

Customer solutions operations

Pitfalls of software 

The things you don’t see 

Examples 

[16:45 - 18:28] Do What You’re Passionate About

Tom talks about the beginning of his hiring period 

First hire in customer solutions 

Loving what you do 

Work doesn’t feel like work 

[18:29 - 28:24] Closing Segment

Who you or What you know? 

What you know can open the doors to who you know 

Being the resource for others 

What then who

Important relationships that made you what you are today?

Tom’s friend that pushed him 

Relationship started from a newsletter 

Tom’s advice to his mentees 

Leadership strategies to build better relationships with customers and employees 

Be yourself 

Cultivate a genuine culture 

The RaNdoM RoUnd

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Final words 

Tweetable Quotes: 

“At the end of the day software is something where… it’s a recurring base, so it’s very predictable, it’s very measurable in many ways. It has a lot of upsides, and it definitely can scale…” - Tom Kulzer

“I don’t look at work as necessarily work… Do something that you’re passionate about.” - Tom Kulzer

“The ‘who you know’ is for other people; being beneficial to them and connecting them to other people and helping them out with whatever struggle that they have.” - Tom Kulzer

Resources Mentioned: 

https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus/ (Omnifocus)

You can connect with Tom on https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomkulzer/ (LinkedIn), and https://twitter.com/tkulzer (Twitter). Visit https://go.tomkulzer.com/home to learn more about his space. 

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