Where do you fit in your business? Beyond just running the show, are you the idea-producing dreamer, or the detail-oriented guy with a plan? If you happen to be that visionary type, time to harness that talent and kick your business' momentum into high gear.

On this episode of Inside Development, Manufacturing, & Sales, Zach takes some time out to talk solo about his experience in business as a visionary, the necessity of having the right integrator on your side, and the detail work and strategy involved in reaching a huge, big-picture goal. Tune in for an episode with some seriously high-impact advice for the visionary entrepreneurs of the world.

What You'll Learn:

• How to fully step into your unique function and talents as a visionary (and why you have to stop trying to be an integrator)
• Why getting the right people on your team is the key component of achieving your ultimate vision
• What truly committing to the endgame looks like when you're in the process of hiring your integrators
• And much more!

Favorite Quote:

"Us visionaries, we can create a big path in our mind that, to us, we just know we are going to get there, we don't know how yet - start looking at finding the people you can put in place for how you're going to get there. You know, it's life changing."

• Zach Clevenger

How to Get Involved:

Connect with Zach and Myles:

Zach’s LinkedIn

Myles’ LinkedIn

Duck Dens LLC

Lyntech Engineering

Athens Archery

Newmar

How can you surround yourself with people that fill your gaps? It’s ALL about knowing your strengths and weaknesses and hiring accordingly!

Rich Gramm joins the show today! As president of Headsight Harvesting Solutions in Bremen, Indiana, Rich is on a mission to solve problems for farmers. He is king of solving everyday agricultural challenges and has built a thriving business for himself around that lifestyle. 

On this episode of Inside Development, Manufacturing, & Sales, Zach, Myles, and Rich talk about how achieving the goals you have in business requires self awareness. Tune in for an interview that will teach what you need to elevate your business to the next level of growth.

What You’ll Learn:

• What is the most effective tool that Rich developed to teach his team a process
• How the book Rocket Fuel inspired Rich and what he applied from the book to his business model
• Why it’s important in business to not only serve your customers with good and improved products but also through supporting the products that currently exist
• And much more!

Favorite Quote:

“Sometimes our biggest strengths are also our biggest weaknesses. That’s true for me. It’s great to be a visionary and it’s great to have ideas but it’s also great to have people that help you see through those and balance it all out. Balance has not been my strength.” 

• Rich Gramm

Connect with Rich:

Headsight Harvesting Solutions

Facebook

How to Get Involved:

Connect with Zach and Myles:

Zach’s LinkedIn

Myles’ LinkedIn

Duck Dens LLC

Lyntech Engineering

Athens Archery

Newmar

You probably use your credit card or PayPal account every day without thinking too much about it, right? Underneath the convenience, there’s a lot of fees and policies at work that we don’t concern ourselves with. But what if there were a more ethical, plainly better way to go about handling our business finances?

Adam Niec is the co-founder of Certain Pay, a company that revolutionizes the way merchants think about payment processing to center the conversation on mutual partnership and prosperity rather than simple rates and fees. 

On this episode of Inside Development, Manufacturing & Sales, Zach, Myles and Adam dive deep on instilling strong values into the payment processing industry, the evolution of payment software systems (and easy online integrations), and grounding your message in true value, not unrealistic promises, without sacrificing your business. Listen in for an eye-opening interview that will change the way you approach your business’ money.

What You’ll Learn:

• What the numbers breakdown on your favorite credit cards and online merchants actually looks like (and how to use that knowledge to make more informed financial decisions)
• How businesses should be choosing their payment system based on their volume of sales and key metrics
• Why scaling too quickly at the beginning is one of the easiest ways to tank your business and your brand - financially and in the eyes of your clients
• And much more!

Favorite Quote:

“You don't want to be frivolous with your spending, but nobody ever got rich by saving money. I'm a big I believe in that concept. The abundant thinkers are the ones that really grow. And when they agree to a deal with us, like, we're probably not going to be the lowest rate - but we’re the most value. And the right kind of clients see that, you know? It's liberating.”

• Adam Niec

Connect with Adam:

Certain Pay

Facebook

How to Get Involved:

Connect with Zach and Myles:

Zach’s LinkedIn

Myles’ LinkedIn

Duck Dens LLC

Lyntech Engineering

Athens Archery

Newmar

The past year has been a critical one for no shortage of business owners, including in the branded product, product development and manufacturing space. About 60% of businesses that closed during the pandemic will never reopen, according to 2020 data from Yelp, and many remaining businesses still struggle to stay afloat. 

In times like these, it’s all the more important to pay attention to what past crises have taught us — which is why Myles is looking to his father, Matt Miller, for insight. As President of the Newmar Corporation, an automotive manufacturing company specializing in motorhomes and trailers, Matt helped steer his company out of the carnage of the 2008 financial recession. And there are a few lessons from that time, in particular, that he believes today’s business leaders would do well to heed.

On this episode of Inside Development, Manufacturing & Sales, Zack and Myles hear from Matt about how to navigate your business going from a success to a survival story — and how to bring it back to success again.

What You'll Learn:

• What it was like for Matt to grow up in the RV industry and learn from the example of an entrepreneurial father
• Why “things will either get better or worse, but they won’t stay the same” is the right mantra for these times
• Why Matt will never again do business with a national bank (and thinks you shouldn’t either)
• And much more!

Favorite Quote:

“Product is number one. It doesn't matter what else is going on. If you don't have the right product, you are going to struggle."

— Matt Miller

How to Get Involved: 

Connect with Zach and Myles:

Theduckdens.com

Zach’s LinkedIn

Myles’ LinkedIn

Connect with Matt: 

Matt’s LinkedIn

Ask any business owner today when they were first bit by the entrepreneur bug, and many will tell you that entrepreneurship was modeled to them at a young age. Zach is no exception to that. It was his serial-entrepreneur dad, Jason Hudkins, who first showed him how fulfilling it can be to work for yourself. And, in true multi-generational fashion, it was Jason’s dad who showed him, putting Jason to work for the family business after he was kicked out of school in the 7th grade. 

Despite not having received much of a formal education, Jason learned everything he could about running his father’s sheet metal fabrication business before going onto launch a successful string of businesses himself. Today, the roster of companies he’s started and sold spans industries, from automation equipment and automotive parts to firearms and cryptocurrency. The number of times he’s had to pivot is testament to the fact that, as he puts it, “products come out of necessity.” And to be truly successful as an entrepreneur in the product development and manufacturing world, staying nimble is a must. 

On this episode of the Inside Development, Manufacturing & Sales podcast, Zach and Myles talk to Jason about his biggest career takeaways, how he navigated the economic downturn of 2008 in a hard-hit industry (and what we can learn from that today), and why relationship building is so key to running a successful business.

What You'll Learn:

• Why necessity truly is the mother of invention (especially if you have five kids at home)
• Why becoming self-sufficient is so critical for business owners, and how to achieve it
• Why it can pay — literally — not to burn bridges 
• And much more!

Favorite Quote:

“Growing up with a family that was in business for themselves, you just get that entrepreneurial spirit about you that you can't be somebody else's employee. It’s just something that's ingrained in you. There are some people who like to get up and they don't like to take the risk. The reward that comes along with the risk is so worth it, but some people can't see past the risk.”

— Jason Hudkins

How to Get Involved: 

Connect with Zach and Myles:

Theduckdens.com

Zach’s LinkedIn

Myles’ LinkedIn

Connect with Jason: 

Jason’s LinkedIn

Zach Clevenger and Myles Miller know what it’s like to channel creativity and a love of product development into multiple successful companies (and one or two failed ones). From experience, they also know that learning from those who’ve gone before you is the best way to learn yourself. And that’s why, as they scale their next business, they’re bringing other entrepreneurs and listeners along with them.

Six months into launching Duck Dens, a new company that’s helping waterfowl hunters increase duck populations and success rates in the field, Zach and Myles haven’t yet hit their first $1,000 in sales. But next year, they know they’re on track to ring in $300,000. Getting from A to B isn’t going to happen overnight, though. As serial entrepreneurs, they’ve learned it’s all about resisting the urge to play the short game and opting for the long game instead. 

On this first episode of the Inside Development, Manufacturing & Sales podcast, Zach and Myles set the stage for exactly how that game should be played. They also talk about some of the “high highs and low lows” that come with building a branded product and manufacturing business, the biggest questions they’ve had to answer as entrepreneurs, and how they’re cultivating mindsets that attract success.

What You'll Learn:

• Why if you go into the business planning to “get rich,” you’re already at a disadvantage
• How Zach and Myles have approached product development at a brand-new business (and multiple businesses before this one)
• Why understanding how to help others succeed is one of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur
• And much more!

Favorite Quote:

“You have to understand that everything is temporary. Celebrate the wins. And when you're in the losses, know it's momentary. I've had some heavy depression and some losses before. And you've got to get past that and know that when you put the work in, you're going to deal with the lows and the highs will come.”

• Myles Miller

How to Get Involved:

Connect with Zach and Myles:

Theduckdens.com

Zach’s LinkedIn

Myles’ LinkedIn