Hooked On Startups

Football coaches, basketball coaches, or rugby coaches are very different from business coaches. While many people don't expect business coaches to be as hard or as demanding as those other types of coaches, Robert Clinkenbeard begs to disagree. Robert used to be a rugby player and is a four-time Ironman. He is also the CEO of The Radix Group LLC and the author of Ironman Mindset for Entrepreneurs. Join Matthew Sullivan as he talks to Robert about his business coaching career and how he fits his Ironman triathlon training into his coaching. Learn how Robert balances his career while having time to practice in order to level up his business.

Raw land may not be the most pleasing asset in all of real estate. Undeveloped plots are often full of grass and dirty all over. But for Mark Podolsky, this neglected land can be turned into the best passive income model. Joining Matthew Sullivan, the Land Geek explains the benefits of doing business with raw land, particularly the exemptions one can get from owners' real estate legislation. Mark talks about the rise of interest in this kind of asset during the height of COVID-19, making 2020 one of his best years in business. He also shares his mission on educating the people about tax liens and land auctions through his book Dirt Rich and his two programs focused on land investing.

Ken is a member of Gensler's Board of Directors and the Gensler Management Committee and the Co-Managing Principal of Gensler's Southeast Region. Gensler is the largest global architecture, design and planning firm with more than 5,000 professionals networked across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas.

Ken Baker is considered a global expert on workplace design and planning, having designed more than 10 million square feet of corporate headquarters and offices for law firms and financial institutions around the world. His background is also fine arts, music, 20 years of piano and voice, acting, and drama.

In this interview we discuss:

How do you create a unified culture across a firm with more than 5,000 international employees?

How do you maintain innovation in the workplace through design?

Why is it important to keep listening to clients and being receptive to new ideas?

1:08 - Introducing Ken and some background on his career.

1:55 - Digging into what makes Gensler so successful.

3:03 - Creating a unified culture across a firm with more than 5,000 international employees.

6:38 - The importance placed on people in the company and how Gensler is innovating on the traditional ideas around architecture and design firms.

9:01 - What drove the move away from older models of architecture businesses and how Ken's artistic background influenced his approach.

10:55 - Using interior design as a key differentiator in the field.

13:20 - Ken's memory of his first client meeting and his mindset around the meeting.

15:32 - Getting a perspective on how much Gensler has grown since Ken came on board and how that molded their business model.

17:31 - Understanding the importance of culture in a growing business.

18:44 - Providing a link between design and the bottom line of businesses through the workplace surveys.

21:38 - Wielding the learnings from the surveys to develop the Gensler Experience Index.

23:12 - Maintaining innovation in the workplace through design.

25:01 - Surprising findings from the surveys.

27:07 - When companies began understanding the importance of people and culture.

28:33 - Gensler's big hairy audacious goals and projecting where they'll be down the line.

29:53 - How Ken sees people working in 10 years and how offices will evolve to foster productivity.

32:40 - Playing the long game and constantly trying to improve and find new things.

34:44 - The changes that Gensler has been driving through their design and research.

36:36 - Why it's so important to just listen to clients and stay receptive to new ideas.

39:33 - Clients that Ken has worked with for over 20 years and the importance of accountability.

42:45 - Authentic passion and trust as underpinnings for successful client relationships.

46:40 - The questionnaire.

49:22 - Learning more about Ken and Gensler.

50:31 - Ken's story about inviting people in to check out the Gensler offices.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

Gensler

Art Gensler

Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill

Gensler Workplace Surveys

Gensler Experience Index

Atari

Apple

Moonshots versus Roofshots

Starbucks

Diane Hoskins

Gensler Research Catalogue Volume 1

Gensler Research Catalogue Volume 2

The man who created Bluefish, the internationally famous company that makes once in a lifetime events happen for the rich and famous reveals his trade secrets for making things happen.

Steve Sims's day job is to make the impossible possible. With his help and expertise, his clients' fantasies and wildest dreams come true. Getting married by the Pope in the Vatican, being serenaded by Elton John, and connecting with powerful business moguls like Elon Musk are just a few of the many projects he has worked on.

He rarely reveals how he accomplishes the feats that make his clients so happy. Check out this fabulously fun episode for some wonderful, hard-won insights from a man who is truly larger than life!

1:11 - Welcoming Steve to the show and giving some background on him and his book, Bluefishing.

3:03 - How he got into the line of work that he's in and his view on failure.

6:06 - The importance of his mindset in terms of how he helps people.

7:33 - How growing up in a working class family in the 80s and 90s has influenced his mindset.

11:24 - Refusing the accept anything as impossible and looking at problems in a different way.

12:57 - Steve's invincibility complex and pursuing "impossible" things by asking why.

15:38 - Changing perceptions of reality to accomplish seemingly impossible things and people's tendency to talk themselves out of things they want.

17:54 - Story of a client who Steve helped to meet Richard Branson.

19:36 - Cultural differences in self-worth that Steve has noticed.

21:55 - How and why he winds up being a kind of mentor to some of his clients.

24:40 - Steve's view on authenticity and his counterpoint: transparency.

28:05 - Advice for being more transparent and his approach.

31:16 - Different approaches to connecting with people and expectations.

34:08 - Effort in conversations versus decisions when it comes to connecting.

35:30 - Things Steve has learned about transparency that have helped his approach to his business; Steve's "chug test" and deciding who to deal with.

41:58 - The importance of things like the chug test and the possibilities opened up when surrounded by people you work well with.

43:00 - Being more aware of your own definitions of success.

45:21 - Changing your perception and the path that led to Steve's changes in perception; what he sees as the next steps past a change in perception.

48:07 - Part of the process behind writing Bluefishing and what the next thing he's working on is.

51:37 - The questionnaire.

53:39 - Getting in touch with Steve.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen by Steve Sims

Bill Gates

Steve Jobs

Elon Musk

Richard Branson

Joe Polish

David Allen

SteveDSims.com

Twitter

In this episode I speak to Joshua Long - an entrepreneur, strategy and sales guru and a consultant who focuses on helping businesses break through their current revenue plateaus and unlock rapid growth.

He launched BottleneckBreakthrough.com to focus on unlocking sustainable growth for businesses, and has just launched the'Bottleneck Breakthrough' book to help entrepreneurs and business owners implement his Bottleneck Breakthrough Method.

1:18 - Welcoming Joshua to the show and some of his background information, including his business, BottleneckBreakthrough.com, and his book, Bottleneck Breakthrough.

2:58 - Looking backwards as a problem for personality types and businesses.

4:22 - The importance of mindsets and why it can be difficult to address.

5:10 - Building credibility with early wins; often not being qualified to run a business when you start a business and Joshua's experience with that.

6:30 - Venture capitalists investing in teams rather than companies and how that relates to learning as you go and being agile; reaching a ceiling in business and needing outside assistance to continue forward.

8:00 - The counter-intuitive nature of entrepreneurs needing to be aware that they eventually get to a point where they've reached the limits of their own ability and Matthew's example from LinkedIn.

10:48 - Perspective as one of the key things Joshua brings to people's businesses and seeing things holistically.

12:27 - Working more with established businesses rather than startups.

13:33 - Focusing on outcomes as a way to connect clients to how Joshua can help them.

16:03 - Looking at mindsets and limiting beliefs to figure out why you're doing something the way you are and how that affects companies.

19:22 - Differentiating Joshua's services from the shallower approaches to consulting; comparing paying for coaching to buying a gym membership.

25:02 - The effects of working with people like Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins; Joshua's story from a former colleague in medicine regarding the importance of reps and data.

29:37 - Being able to see through the noise of your business and leveraging your relationships in order to see more clearly.

32:27 - Why intelligent, capable business owners sometimes overlook some of the most simple business principles.

36:24 - The element of fulfillment and how Joshua's guidance can help clients to get closer to that.

39:09 - The different terms and titles that get thrown around in Joshua's industry and how he addressed them through his book.

43:00 - Not running people's businesses, but just giving businesses new ideas and empowering them to make new strategic decisions.

46:35 - Where Joshua sees his own bottleneck.

48:42 - Bringing in coaches for himself and the value of investing in yourself.

54:46 - The questionnaire.

56:52 - Getting in touch with Joshua.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

BottleneckBreakthrough.com

Bottleneck Breakthrough book

Reid Hoffman

Peter Thiel

Chet Holmes

Jim Rohn

Perry Marshall

Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

Facebook

LinkedIn

In this episode I chat with Hillary Gadsby - an event and marketing dynamo and co-founder of The Boss Box. Hillary is also a best selling author and founder of StilettoGal.com, a multi-media company for women in business.

Check out how Hillary created the buzz for the Boss Box, overcoming the difficulties female entrepreneurs face when starting their businesses and how she found the drive to pursue her businesses and brand to create a movement rather than just a product.

1:30 - Welcoming Hillary to the show, background on her, and background her businesses and how they got started.

3:48 - Personal relationships being key to sales and business connections.

4:54 - The importance of collaboration.

6:13 - Challenges in building A Gadsby Affair, particularly without a professional mentor.

8:20 - The process to bring on partners and contractors.

9:37 - Why she didn't have a mentor early on and how that led into her passion to mentor other women.

10:36 - The added difficulties female entrepreneurs face when starting their businesses and how Hillary dealt with them.

13:26 - Hillary's moment of realization that she could leverage her experiences to help others through the Stiletto Gal.

15:30 - The challenge of getting people to open up and be vulnerable in an interview or conversational situation; how Hillary goes about addressing that.

18:23 - How Hillary found the drive to pursue her businesses and brand even through difficult times.

20:27 - More details on The Boss Box and creating a movement rather than just a product.

24:04 - The ways Hillary sees women doing business differently.

25:15 - The level of collaboration in the community that she's building and what the key point of her mission is.

28:14 - Hillary's feeling of being called to do this work and some developments coming to the Boss Box.

30:42 - How Hillary's approach to helping people is different and addressing the "get rich quick" schemes out there.

31:42 - The importance of authenticity in her work and the challenges she's facing with the Boss Box.

34:23 - Understanding what a position needs to do before hiring someone to do it.

36:42 - The "buzz" you get from creating businesses and feeling a pressure to get better.

38:55 - Continually being a learner and looking to others' experiences.

40:22 - Deciding to make the Boss Box a quarterly delivery.

42:45 - The questionnaire.

46:34 - Learning more about Hillary and her businesses.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

The Boss Box

Stiletto Gal

A Gadsby Affair

Business Forums International

BDO

The Stiletto Gal Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

The Boss Box Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Before Dave Goodman was the bearded, apron-wearing Coco-Jack inventor and entrepreneur who received a $125,000 deal from Mark Cuban on Shark Tank, he was a rock-and-roll drummer living in New York City.

Following years of training at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute of Music, Dave began his career as a classical pianist, conductor, and composer, going on to start his own orchestra. "Once you start working for yourself, it's hard to work for other people."

For Dave, however, "taking time off" meant immersing himself in fields such as economics, neuro-linguistic programming, hypnosis, mythology, and aviation. As part of his health recovery, he also became a raw food vegan and lost over a hundred pounds. "That's how I discovered Asian coconuts. I put them in smoothies, drank the water—coconuts became a part of my diet." The only problem was, there was no easy way to open these coconuts. "As a musician, I didn't want to throw a knife at my fingers all day."

Find out more about Dave Goodman and the amazing story behind his invention of the Coco-Jack, a safe, easy way to open Fresh Coconuts, no matter what your size or strength.

1:07 - Background on Dave and his current venture, Coco Jack.

3:40 - Dave's experience as a classical musician and founding the Wild Ginger Philharmonic.

6:20 - Dealing with burnout from the entrepreneurial pursuit of the Wild Ginger Philharmonic and digging into economics and business as a self-study.

10:13 - How Dave sees the cultural idea of the "suffering artist;" connecting economics to his passion for music.

13:24 - How new payment methods can affect the arts and classical music.

15:20 - Dave's entrepreneurial ventures as a creative outlet.

17:19 - Why he got into coconuts.

20:23 - Finding the niche for an easier way to open coconuts and the massive scale of the market that unfolded.

21:36 - How he got the ideas together, developed the product, and the initial steps for starting the company.

23:31 - Going into a venture without preconceptions and staying open to bringing in help; building brand loyalty through authenticity.

26:19 - Information on Dave's experience with being on Shark Tank and getting investment money from Mark Cuban.

28:45 - How they've been funding the company.

29:59 - Balancing capital between the various expenses in a new business.

32:10 - Advice Dave would give to people developing a product.

33:36 - Where he's seen the most sales success and how to get to that success; advice for effectively utilizing Facebook ads.

35:38 - The role of design and Dave's story of developing his logo and brand.

38:00 - Maintaining an understanding about all the aspects of your business while leveraging other people's skills to complement your own; the art of entrepreneurship.

42:09 - What Dave's upcoming plans are and his life as a digital nomad; details on how he runs his business.

50:18 - The dangers of planning too much and not doing; constantly learning, growing, and evolving from failures.

57:00 - Being present with your business in order to pivot and let go of ideas at the right times.

1:00:32 - The questionnaire.

1:08:35 - Getting in touch with Dave.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

Coco Jack (Use promo code "Matthew" to get 10% off)

Wild Ginger Philharmonic

The Great Courses

Timothy Taylor

Shark Tank

Mark Cuban

Facebook ads

Isaac Morehouse - Praxis

Contact Dave at [email protected]

In this episode I chat with Nicholas Amato, Founder and CEO of 803Mine. We have a really in-depth discussion on:

What Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining is

Why Bitcoin is valued the way it is

We put some numbers to the exponentially increasing scale of computing power needed in this industry

We discuss how mining is monetized and the scope of the industry's growth

1:18 - Introducing Nicholas and his company, the 803 Mine Project.

2:09 - What bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining actually is.

4:27 - The value and importance of a crypto mining company and how mining relates to the block chain.

7:48 - How large the scale of required computing power is now and how it has grown.

9:54 - Nicholas's career background and how that has influenced his current work.

11:29 - Speculation versus likely use cases for the value of bitcoin; how 803 Mine is looking to aid US national security.

16:13 - Putting numbers to the exponentially increasing scale of computing power needed in this industry; how mining is monetized and the scope of the industry's growth

20:26 - Integrating the various cryptocurrencies over time.

22:20 - The possibly destabilizing effects of bitcoins in certain hands and the importance of bringing more block chain control on shore.

26:11 - The difference between other token based businesses and 803 Mine's model.

30:17 - How Nicholas sees legislation evolving around cryptocurrency and mining.

35:29 - Details on the membership offering from 803 Mine and how to learn more about it; the untraditional approach Nicholas is taking to raising money and running his business.

43:28 - Nicholas's excitement for this space and the work he's doing.

45:10 - The questionnaire.

1:00:05 - Learning more about 803 Mine and getting involved.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

803mine.com

Satoshi White Paper

Satoshi Nakamoto

Efficient Market Hypothesis

PETAFLOP

The Howey Test

FinCEN Regulations

Focus at Will

(Episodes #050 with John Vitale and #010 with Will Henshall)

Hal Finney

In this episode I interview Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Dr. Brent Ridge, co-founders of Beekman 1802 – a TV Show, Mercantile, bestselling cookbook and memoir, website and tourism destination all inspired by the Beekman 1802 Farm in Sharon Springs, NY.

In 2012, the duo competed and won the grand prize in CBS's The Amazing Race. Over 10M viewers watched for 12 weeks as Josh and Brent beat 20 other competitors in a 45,000 mile race around the world through 12 cities in 9 different countries.

Check out the full episode to find out how Josh and Brent overcame some huge challenges and how, with determination, persistence and inspiration, they created one of the fastest growing lifestyle brands in the country.

Check out the full episode here:

1:01 - Introducing Josh and Brent from Beekman 1802 as well as how the company got started and some background.

3:30 - Digging into the desperation part of their story.

4:33 - Using your overall vision to push through the desperate times and how Josh and Brent really got their brand launched.

8:14 - How the story of starting a company intertwines into the overall brand.

9:13 - Facing the big challenge of pricing when dealing with a wholesale situation and how they dealt with it.

10:42 - Stages of success and never feeling like you've ever truly made it.

11:42 - The differences they saw from their previous career stages and how they utilized social media early on; their anecdote about a celebratory bottle of champagne.

14:20 - Shifting industries in the middle of their careers, but finding the underlying principles and lessons from each stage.

16:07 - Finding the determination to work through the early stages and begin settling into their trajectory towards creating a lifestyle brand and their own ethos.

19:55 - Making truth and transparency core to your business and how social media plays into that.

21:08 - Generational differences in receptiveness to different marketing messages.

23:44 - Challenges Beekman 1802 has faced in maintaining their brand while scaling the company and how they've addressed it through transparency with their customers.

28:25 - The purpose that Josh and Brent are pursuing and the responsibilities they feel to their both their customers and the artisans they work with.

32:04 - Connecting the message of their artisanal brand with people who may not always be able to pay top dollar for the higher end products; maintaining their product quality over their profit margin.

37:19 - Creating a high quality, egalitarian experience with an approach similar to Disney.

39:42 - The rapid fire questionnaire.

45:34 - Getting in touch with Josh and Brent and learning more about Beekman 1802.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

Beekman 1802

Martha Stewart

Henri Bendel

Anthropologie

Disney

Target

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then according to the SEC it's a duck. Or, more likely, your so-called utility token is more likely a security.

If you don't know the difference between a security token and a utility token, you should listen to this episode.

Even if you think you do, you should listen anyway.

In this episode I interview Marc Boiron – ICO and blockchain attorney at Rutan and Tucker in Orange County.

Marc has leveraged his strong corporate and securities law background and his near obsession with blockchain technology to build a practice advising blockchain companies on a breadth of issues, including ICOs, smart contracts, and cryptocurrency laws.

Because, after all, nobody looks good in orange…

Check out the full episode here:

1:10 - Marc's background and focusing his law practice on blockchain technology.

2:22 - Why Delaware is often sought for business incorporation.

3:47 - How Delaware approached the way blockchain relates to the law.

6:07 - Some issues regulators are facing with ICOs so far.

9:23 - How this affects startups, why Delaware is so much the focus of discussions like this and why companies are going offshore to avoid ICO regulations.

13:23 - Looking at the example of Tezos and what it means for the velocity of change in this industry.

15:41 - Points of reference for the scale of cryptocurrency and what kinds of firms Marc sees getting involved with blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

18:00 - How the ICO/TGE markets are maturing and becoming increasingly global.

20:26 - The process that established US companies have to take in order to be seen as an offshore entity and some of the associated costs with ICOs.

26:24 - Where Marc sees the big issues coming from and what he expects to be working on in 12 months.

30:18 - The two-step process for ICOs with startups.

31:21 - How doing a token presale to the public can work.

32:20 - Comparing tokens to a normal regulation D offering and how that could split the capital raising world.

33:51 - The potential for one big, global market for cryptocurrencies compared to all the separate markets that are currently active.

35:41 - Marc's view of the future of cryptocurrencies in places like the US.

37:23 - The explosion of change in Marc's field.

39:43 - The questionnaire.

43:38 - Getting in touch with Marc and learning about what he's up to.

Resources and Links Mentioned:

www.overstock.com

ICOs

Regulation D

Regulation A

Tezos

JOBS Act

Smart Contracts

Howey Test

Coinbase

Tim Draper

Marc's blog - Blockchains 360

Email Marc at [email protected] or call at 714-338-1861