Jon Nastor's Hack the Entrepreneur

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Jacqui Ma got a business degree and worked in the manufacturing industry for a couple of years, then went back to school to study industrial design.

She began her career designing products such as medical equipment and furniture before getting into luggage design â€"â€" which then lead to designing all types of bags. Since then she has worked for PUMA and consulted to Amazon Fashion.

During all of this, she was living above a bike shop in east London and is a cyclist. She saw a gap in the market for fashion inspired bike bags, and she wanted to design something that women cyclists would appreciate.

After designing prototypes and setting up manufacturing in China, Jacqui founded Goodordering with a desire to create and a successful crowdfunding campaign.

In this conversation, we discuss

• Using your bosses as early business and growth mentors
• How vulnerability can drive the foundations of your business
• Finding and harnessing the entrepreneurial mindset in the most unlikely places

Now, let's hack...

Jacqui Ma.

To put FIN to work for you for free, go to: https://fin.com/hack

My guest today graduated from Yale Law school, spent some time working at a London law firm before deciding that she wanted to start her own business.

During this same time, her husband began taking photos of weddings on the side. That was 12 years ago, and they have scaled from one-off wedding photography to being named top wedding photographers by Profoto.

In this conversation we discuss:

• Taking (calculated) risks to accomplish your goals
• Why you need to look around and see what everyone else in your market is doing
• How to set monthly, yearly, and five year goals

Now, let's hack...

Mary Marantz.

Discover.bot a digital space for bot developers and enthusiasts of all skill levels to learn from one another, share stories, and move the conversation forward. New to bots? Get started with their Beginner's Guide.

My guest today started his first business in 1999 out of the library in his college.

From this original venture and $5000 in startup money, he has built his original idea into Millman Multimedia, the umbrella that encompasses five companies and 350 employees.

This is a fascinating conversation obout growing and scaling, the constancy of change, and bringing production in-house to grow and optimize your processes.

Now, let's hack...

Ryan Millman.

Discover.bot's a digital space for bot developers and enthusiasts of all skill levels to learn from one another, share stories, and move the conversation forward. New to bots? Get started with their Beginner's Guide.

To redeem a free $100 LinkedIn ad credit, go to LinkedIn.com/hack. That's LinkedIn.com/hack for your free $100 ad credit.

My guest today is a small business advocate, mergers and acquisitions expert, and an entrepreneur.

Back in 2012, she founded the Wine Education Institute, which she build until 2015. Then she became the co-founder of MOD Assistants a shared personal, business and virtual assistant service.

After successfully starting and selling a second business, Jessica decided to share her guidance and insight with other entrepreneurs by co-founding Transworld Business Advisors of Colorado. As co-owner and President, she leads her team with strategic direction and growth initiatives.

Now, let's hack...

Jessica Fialkovich.

Discover.bot a digital space for bot developers and enthusiasts of all skill levels to learn from one another, share stories, and move the conversation forward. New to bots? Get started with their Beginner's Guide

Tibor Laczay is truly disrupting and transforming an industry fighting to retain its hold on the market -- and losing the battle.

In 2003 with his wife and co-founder, they started in their garage with no outside funding of any sort and created what is now Zenni Optical.

If you are a glasses wearing individual like myself, then you've heard of and possibly purchased a pair of glasses or two from Zenni. Their growth has been staggering. As they celebrate 15 years in business, they are also celebrating selling 24 million pairs of glasses worldwide -- at a rate of 15,000 per day.

What started in their garage, now has its headquarters in Novato, California, with nearly 1,000 employees worldwide -- including one of the largest end-to-end manufacturing facilities in the world.

In this conversation we discuss:

• Why disruption is inevitable and you can't stop innovation
• How to ignore your competition (and leave them trailing behind)
• Why you should forget the money and follow an extreme passion

Now, let's hack...

Tibor Laczay.

To put FIN to work for you for free, go to: https://fin.com/hack

To redeem a free $100 LinkedIn ad credit, go to LinkedIn.com/HACK.

My guest today is process-oriented entrepreneur from a small town up here in Ontario.

Just over two years ago she was working for a cool startup in Toronto, but became tired of the hustle of the city. To deal with this, she moved to Collingwood, a small ski resort town and began looking for work.

Her search introduced her to Jon, who has changed from employer to co-founder of their new venture called Content Refined, a content marketing service company.

Now, let's hack...

Madeleine Taylor.

To save on your next domain, visit https://Hover.com/hack

Jon Ferrara is an entrepreneur and pioneer in customer management software.

He is best known as the co-founder of GoldMine Software. Him a a business partner started Goldmine in 1990, grew it to $25 million in annual revenue in 1999 when it was acquired for $83 million.

He took a brief retirement before jumping back into building products. He is currently the founder of Nimble, an award-winning social sales, and marketing CRM for individuals and teams.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why you need to sell people a better version of themselves
• Using social media and strategic content sharing to scale your business
• The 3 P's Purpose Plan: Passion, Purpose, Plan

Now, let's hack...

Jon Ferrara.

Today's sponsor is LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. To redeem a FREE $100 LinkedIn Ad Credit, go to https://linkedin.com/hack

Today's guest is an internationally recognized SEO expert who's worked with companies like Disney, Apple, and IBM.

His name is Brian Dean, and he is the founder of Backlinko, an SEO blog launched in late 2012. Brian has grown Backlinko from 0 to over 180,000 visitors a month. In short, this guys knows how to get stuff ranked in Google.

Here's the story behind the episode...

Back in July, after studying Brian and his articles for months, I began implementing what he teaches. During the past three months, I've published just three articles, and traffic has gone up a staggering 181% as of this recording. I want you to have access to this process too.

In this episode, we are going to hear Brian walkthrough his exact process for publishing content and getting it to rank number one in Google. Seriously, from Brian's process for getting topic ideas, straight through to publishing and beyond.

In addition to this episode, head over to the blog and check out the complementary article called How to Get on the First Page of Google. You can find it at https://HacktheEntrepreneur.com/google

All right, now let's get into the interview with Brian Dean of Backlinko.

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After nearly 500 interviews, it's great to have a guest on the show with a business unlike any other guest I've had.

My guest today, Stephen Solomon, and a partner got started in business when they bought the now famous Tampa Bay Comic Convention for just $5,000.

Today, he is the co-founder of Imaginarium, the company behind the Tampa Bay Indiana, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Michigan Comic Conventions.

This conversation took place the week after their inaugural Indiana Comic Convention where they saw an attendance of 55,000 people over the weekend.

During this conversation, we discuss:

• The drive and hustle required to succeed in the cut-throat comic convention industry
• Early expansion: its pitfalls and growth strategies
• The true value of learning as you go

Now, let's hack...

Stephen Solomon.

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: Every day, over 500 million professionals engage with content on LinkedIn, and chances are, your future customers are among them!

To redeem a free $100 LinkedIn ad credit, go to LinkedIn.com/HACK.

Today's guest began his career as a partner at The Collective Management Group, where he helped grow the business into one of the world's largest music management firms.

Then in 2011, he moved into the YouTube space as the co-founder of Studio71. As global CEO of Studio71, he leads the most engaged digital network on YouTube with 1,300 channels driving 7 billion views a month.

Studio71 works with top creators including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Lilly Singh, Rhett & Link, Hannah Hart and Roman Atwood.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Holding opinions firmly (until something changes your mind)
• Where the rubber meets the road for a global media company
• How to create great videos

Now, let's hack...

Reza Izad.