Business Growth

Joel Widmer talks about productivity hacks for entrepreneurs. We speak about the boring things you can do to become more productive as a business owner. He recently put out a course with raving reviews. Check it out here https://www.udemy.com/productivity-hacks/?couponCode=DoBoringWork 0:12 Introduction 1:32 Finding the sweet spot” for productivity 3:06 The myth of naturally productive people 4:55 Making the transition from being lazy to a hard worker 7:24 How to trick yourself into being more productive 10:50 What to do to be more productive with email 11:53 Being productive as a solopreneur 14:04 Josh Kaufman’s 99 Best Business Book article http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ 19:25 Srini Roa 1,000 words a day example of hard work http://unmistakablecreative.com/ 25:31 Is social media productive or a trap? 29:35 Joel’s guilty pleasure for wasting time 31:13 Ask the question “what am I avoiding?” 33:10 80/20 rule and the extra bit of work 34:16 Article from James Clear http://jamesclear.com/stay-focused 37:35 Boring things to free up mental ability 46:32 Before/After’s of productivity 49:40 Joel’s productivity course https://www.udemy.com/productivity-hacks/?couponCode=DoBoringWork 52:03 48 hour challenge *I’m not compensated for talking about Joel’s course… I just think it’s great stuff that helped me out and will help you out too. Tools and resources mentioned in this episode: www.rescuetime.com www.toggl.com www.freshbooks.com www.fiverr.com

Davis Smith, the founder of Cotopaxi.com talks about raising millions from VC’s to start his businesses, while maintaining a pledge for good to the world 0:29 – Introduction 1:12 – His first startup Pooltables.com 4:13 – Growing up in Latin America and world traveling 5:30 – Talking about taking risks and stepping into the business full-time 7:28 – His first business exit 9:00 – After selling his company he went to Wharton School of Business 12:55 – Raising venture money on Sandhill Road and starting baby.com.br 15:20 – Obstacles and surprises he faced with baby.com.br 20:19 – Meeting Edgar, the pivotal life changing moment while living in Peru 26:22 – Non profit vs profits for good 28:48 – Creating the Cotopaxi business model at 2am “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul” Dieter Uchtdorf 30:42 – How to find and apply your inner creations and business models “It takes the same amount of time to build a hundred million dollar business as it does to build a one million dollar business” 32:16 – Closing the feedback loop 38:37 – Bootstrapping vs venture backed business 41:24 – The Questival, catapulting the Cotopaxi brand and awareness 44:06 – They are a benefit corporation set to give back for the life of the business 48:06 – His vision of the company in the future 50:40 – Davis’s 48 hour challenge Check out their cause and gear at www.cotopaxi.com

Stephen Key, best-selling author of One Simple Idea shares how to build your idea muscle and get your ideas to market the fastest and easiest way possible. 0:00 – Introduction 0:47 – Licensing, renting ideas to new partners 2:35 – Stephens story of “Hot Picks” guitar picks with Taylor Swift 4:46 – “Love your customers and they will love you back” 6:05 – Don’t reinvent the wheel with licensing ideas 7:54 – The Michael Jordan basketball idea 11:08 – Building your idea muscle 14:33 – Minimum Viable Product for licensing ideas 17:00 – Speed to market is the best way to protect your ideas 19:38 – From gag gifts to evergreen products 21:40 – What he would do different if he started over again 24:08 – The ultimate art is business 26:02 – How you can apply licensing to grow your business Get your copy of his book One Simple Idea http://www.amazon.com/One-Simple-Idea-Licensing-Goldmine-ebook/dp/B004H4XL8S 28:24 – The 48 hour challenge Check out his thoughts and ideas at www.inventrite.com

“The 7 Day Startup,” a must-have book for startups by Dan Norris. We talk about building a business with growth in it’s DNA. In 10 months from $0 to $16,000 a month in recurring revenue. Free copy at www.wpcurve.com/7daystartup 0:00 – Introducing Dan Norris and his fantastic beard 2:06 – You Don’t Learn Until You Launch 3:35 – “Who’s paying me?” – In 10 months from $0 to $16,000 a month in recurring revenue 5:07 – What he did different on this new startup 6:28 – Is what you’re doing profitable? How much profit margin is there? 10:20 – His “NO LIST” 15:05 – How solving your customers problem automatically grows your business 17:42 – Brining new employees into the business Message from our sponsors LeadPages www.businessgrowthpodcast.com/leadpages and Office Auto Pilot www.businessgrowthpodcast.com/OAP 23:30 – Growing with more customers not enterprise 29:20 – Dan laughs at a half million dollar investment/valuation 32:57 – What we would do with a $75,000 investment 35:45 – Getting distracted 37:45 – Naveen Dittakavi’s example of staying in the model he loves 41:25 – Why the key focus is on the customer 54:10 – Get a copy of his free book “The 7 Day Startup” www.wpcurve.com/7daystartup or hit him up at [email protected] Leave a review and let us know what would you do with a $75,000 investment in Dan’s startup?

Nancy Tedeschi is the inventor of Snap It Screw. We talk about inventing physical products, getting on the shelves of Wal-Mart, and creating a global brand. Her invention http://snapitscrew.com has revolutionized the eye glass industry and made millions of dollars. 0:00 – Introducing Nancy and her inventions 1:14 – Her biggest breakthrough “Snap It Screw” 3:10 – Inventions… “if you can do something simpler than what’s out there now, then that’s how you test whether you have a good product or not” 3:41 – There are 2 kinds of inventors 4:24 – She talks about the many challenges while growing up 7:37 – How she found her confidence 10:25 – Why she QUIT 12:11 – Getting her patents 16:34 – Stephen Key told Nancy she was nuts for taking Snap It Screw to retail 17:53 – How it took over a year to get her product into Wal-Mart 24:56 – Why fear almost paralyzed her 28:35 – “It’s all about the money, until it’s not about the money” 31:00 – Bootstrapping vs. taking Venture Capital 32:22 – Advice for creating physical products. 35:50 – The 48 hour challenge Say thanks to Nancy at [email protected] and visit her site http://snapitscrew.com Image of Nancy featured on http://www.businessobserverfl.com/section/detail/snap-success/ Please leave a review and comment on this interview. Thanks.

James Altucher challenged Joe Choi to write a book. Within 11 days he completed “Happy Foods”. He talks about turning ideas into reality. Joe’s latest experiment and project is 1,000 Monthly Blog Visitors http://fescuefairways.com/introducing-reach-1000-monthly-blog-visitors/ You’ll discover how to overcome the roadblocks that come your way with new ideas. 0:00 – Introduction with Joe Choi 0:46 – How he got the idea and created his book “Happy Foods” 5:14 – Why outside insight can overcome your roadblocks 7:20 – REMEDY for FEAR Talking about Tim Fite www.timfite.com the interview http://youtu.be/jifnc93r5s4 11:26 – When to finish and idea or cut and run 14:08 – Joe’s current project 1,000 Monthly Blog Visitors http://fescuefairways.com/introducing-reach-1000-monthly-blog-visitors/ 21:30 – Writing and Selling your passion 22:52 – How consistency and execution effects relationships 24:45 – What mentorship really looks like Say thanks to Joe https://twitter.com/jchoi007 and check out his website http://fescuefairways.com 30:40 – Joe’s 48 hour challenge

Kevin Davis of PaidTraffic.co talks about how businesses can leverage pay per click advertising on Facebook to grow their business. In this interview you’ll see exactly what a 7 figure ad manager does for Facebook pay per click Ad campaigns. httpvh://youtu.be/5oynLKdl0Vo 0:30 Kevin talks about vanity metrics vs business critical metrics The metrics he focus on: How many leads came in? How much money did we spend? How much did those leads cost? 3:00 How tell which type of lead to acquire and how much to pay “An email lead has no value unless it converts to a sale” 4:46 Why eliminating low cost campaigns can make sense 8:35 Cash-flowing campaigns is the stopping point for many business owners. He shares how to solve that problem 10:17 Obstacles you may face when running Facebook Ads 12:15 Why focusing on “LIKES” and “SHARES” will KILL your business 14:11 The “silent sales force” …retargeting 18:29 Why he uses multiple retargeting platforms 21:56 Case Study with http://www.wpcurve.com 26:00 Why he suggests starting with 10-15% retargeting budget 29:49 When you shouldn’t run ads 32:18 How to use retargeting to run ads to your internal email list 38:07 Using partner categories to SCALE CAMPAIGNS 40:55 Get a FREE $70 Retargeting Ad Credit http://paidtraffic.co/perfectaudience and http://paidtraffic.co/adroll 43:08 The 48 hour challenge Connect with Kevin and get your Free Google Analytics Dashboards at http://www.paidtraffic.co

www.eyeballdivision.com/businessgrowthpodcast talks about the 3 Pillars to Entrepreneurship and how the “critical thinking process” is vital to your success as a business owner. 1:05 The 3 Pillars of Entrepreneurship 1. You 2. Your People 3. Your Business Model 4:21 How your team plays a vital role in the businesses success 7:05 Do you knowing your CAC? 8:57 Andrew explains the cause of his failures in the past 11:16 Finding the value between margin and value 14:55 Why most businesses don’t know their numbers 18:45 Fear and Laziness 19:20 One of the most critical habits to develop 21:42 The “thinking process” of brainstorming: “What’s the constraint?” 25:31 Going LEAN through the 5 Why’s 34:34 His biggest piece of advice for you http://www.eyeballdivision.com/businessgrowthpodcast

Naveen Dittakavi www.HowToBuildRecurringRevenue.com talks about how to build recurring revenue in your business. He also shares how he moved upmarket to increase prices and what he does to avoid churn. 0:48 80% of the work is done BEFORE you meet somebody. He prepared for over 30 hours to meet his mentor Ramit Sethi 2:38 After meeting Ramit he changed focus to work on simple key pieces 5:10 Why recurring revenue has giving him real freedom in his business 7:15 How saying “NO” is so difficult and what he did to overcome that problem 9:22 The reasons why to validate ideas very quickly and how invisible future fears cause roadblocks 13:23 AUTOMATION is the paralyzing word for software developers and entrepreneurs 16:13 Marketing wasn’t necessarily the cause of sales but rather gave him clarity to acquire more valuable clients 18:15 Modeling Others: “We don’t want to model people where they are now. We want to model people and understand what they did to get there” “What can I do for my client to help him or her succeed?” 19:33 How he changed his mindset from thinking he just developed code to knowing he was an asset helping his clients. 20:10 His process for MOVING UPMARKET and taking his customer experience to the next level Tool: Use AwayFind and setup alerts to acknowledge VIP’s 22:50 How positioning his business as a value added service provider and not a normal dev shop differentiates him in the market 25:20 What separates the people barely scraping by from high producers? 26:30 Story of how he avoided churn from a client that has been with him for 10 years. 29:45 What he does to AVOID CHURN “To avoid churn, I just make sure they are happy” “We manage churn by building and maintaining real relationships with our clients” 31:42 What barriers he had created in his mind to growing his business “The fundamental tenet of marketing is to keep doing what works until it stops working” 35:20 We talk about Naveen’s mom and a funny story he had explaining his business to her 39:35 The most important paradigm shift he had to overcome 42:39 Understanding what you really want is a key factor in growing your business 44:10 Do the exercise of the 5 year and 10 year path 46:37 How to drill down into the small next steps when looking over big goals Learn more about creating recurring revenue at www.HowToBuildRecurringRevenue.com and view his blog www.dittakavi.com 51:27 The 48 hour challenge Click here to download the transcription

Jordan Harbinger from www.TheArtofCharm.com talks about how he creates valuable relationships that have helped him build a multi-million dollar company. 1:54 Explains what it means to be trapped with the “Golden Handcuffs” 4:35 His focus is 1. Good Customer Service 2. Killer Products 3. Delivering Valuable Free Content 5:02 Relationships are so critical to his multi-million dollar business, he explains why 9:00 How introductions open the doors to investors and key players 12:05 If you’re looking to get value, give value first 13:38 Why people don’t provide value to other, and how to overcome that 15:58 How he created the habit of helping others 20:30 He mentions the #1 thing that is responsible for his business success 21:57 The 4 Hour Work Week vs Paul Graham “do things that aren’t scaleable” 25:05 What to do to provide value to team members, and how to get them to follow the example 28:03 The signals of a “top performer” 33:04 How they grew from $100,000 to $1,000,000+ in sales and what they focused on 36:39 His parting advice that sets him apart from everyone else. Treat everyone like friends and family. 41:53 Jordan’s 48 hour challenge “Stop looking for the return” Say thanks to Jordan at http://www.theartofcharm.com