I learned a lot in this episode, including how bad commercial salt is for you and how a hostess gift idea sparked a thriving coast to coast e-commerce business selling specialty foods. I had no notion such a product even existed but Kimarie Santiago not only makes her own but has gotten so many people enchanted with her product it can now be found in restaurants, food stores and even in an online meal delivery service. The story of how she got started, the steps she took to build a brand and start selling and where she is going in the future are all covered. I love this story and especially because, like so many great food stories, it starts with selling at a farmer's market- the original entrepreneur launching ground!
Making a million dollars in one business is amazing. Making millions of dollars in multiple industries makes you a true rock star of entrepreneurship! Andrea Lake is a rock star. Even better, she is happy to share her secrets. Secret one is to find someone who has already achieved the kind of success in your industry that you want, get them to mentor you and then shut up and listen. Learn like a sponge, follow the same path and pretty soon you too can be sitting pretty. And even better, once you know this formula, just like Andrea, you can apply it to all different kinds of businesses and repeat your success over and over. Just be sure you in turn are willing to give a hand up to those coming behind!
I love this story because it is such a pure tale of coming up with a brainstorm for an idea one day and turning it into a product and turning that into a product line and then continuing on to a type of success orders of magnitude greater than ever imagined. Noah of istabilizer.com did just and tells us exactly how in this episode. He came up with his own design, found a factory to make it and built it from there into a large and now globally reaching brand across three related niches. It is an inspiring story, all the more so because it features an accidental entrepreneur and one who did it all on his own.
There is a ton of competition in just about every niche out there and the only way to stand out and get seen and heard is to differentiate yourself by owning a small segment of the market you're in. In my conversation with Greg we cover how to find that voice and figure out how to stick out from the crowd in a way that is going to make the key difference for your business. If you own a certain niche in the minds of your customers not only will you grow faster and find it easier to attract new customers but you will also not have to compete on price and you won't be as vulnerable to new competition coming into the space. Any business can do it you just have to make the effort to discover what yours is going to be.
Sometimes the path to being an entrepreneur is smooth but most of the time it has ups and downs and some pretty scary failures along the way. Stephanie Nickolich knows how that goes. She went into big debt in trying to start her first venture but bailed herself out by finding a great mentor and learning how to do it the right way. But she didn't stop there- she took what she learned and leveraged it into a way to help others turn their passion and expertise into valuable educational products they could then sell online to the benefit of all. She's got a great story and it a perfect demonstration of how persistence is one of the most important qualities in any entrepreneur. That, and finding a great mentor!
Starting a great business is as simple as identifying a pain point in the market and stepping in to provide a compelling solution. In the case of Armando and AdEspresso, it just so happened the pain point they found was part of the billion user Facebook phenomenon and as a result their sales took off like the rocket they strapped themselves onto. He shares with the process they went through sa well as some gret tactical Facebook advertising tips and why it can be such a great platform for building any business as long as you understand it and use it the right way. We also covered his path to being a founder, content marketing and general entrepreneurship topics in a fun and informative thirty minutes.
In the old days SEO was easy and pay per click ads were cheap. I miss the old days. Now, things are different and if you want to have a great supply of interested and ready to buy leads you need a content marketing strategy to funnel people into your site. Fortunately, there are experts like Eric Siu who can help make sense of all the options and come up with an overall strategy that will help your business without sucking up all your time. I came away a lot smarter from my conversation and with a much more focused to do list for my own content marketing efforts and I'm sure you will, too.
After a long successful career in the print magazine publishing world Margaret Brown decided to go out on her own and the obvious way to do that was in the digital world. It is almost impossible to start a new print magazine without huge funding and a long runway to wait for profits but in the digital world the opposite it true- you can launch cheaply and survive with a much smaller audience because of the vastly different economics. That doesn't mean it's easy though! I had a great conversation about the challenges of finding a platform, a business model and keeping it all going through rapid growth and the addition of more and more editions.
You can do your best work if you don't feel your best and studies have shown that working out is a good way to increase your business' ROI even as you spend less hours at the office. Brandon Epstein has taken these lessons to heart and with a partner started a company to help teach entrepreneurs and business owners the science of getting fit to benefit both themselves and their businesses. And it's more than just a regime of healthy eating and lifting weight- his whole approach is to help people become better connected with themselves so they can put the best version of themselves forward. He is a big believer in mediation and finding your right path- and then charging up it full speed!
There are plenty of people making money with AirBnB but the ones doing it as a business are called Superhosts and they represent 40% of the total AirBnB units available. They know how to wow guests, keep their vacancies low and their reviews consistently great. Ryan has taken it a couple of steps further. He has more units than most and yet maintains a full time job that often keeps him far away from his units but he still manages to keep the whole operation running. Even more impressive, his new business model won't even require that he own the properties he rents and he is already doing it! Making money this way is open to everyone and is a really exciting opportunity we chat about in this interview.
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