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Mastermind.fm episodes
- Episode 44 – Services, Agencies, & Exits with Karim Marucchi
Karim Marucchi (of Crowd Favorite) joins Jean to guest host, as they touch on a myriad of topics, from exits, to mergers, acquisitions, and much more.
Karim exudes charisma; being a service focused individual, he provides a unique perspective away from the usual product focused interviews Mastermind.FM has had in the past.
Topics Include:- How Karim’s upbringing, heritage, and travels played a role in shaping his business philosophies.
- His history with architecture and studies in Rome.
- How a curious phone call, while working for an ISP, lead Karim into helping build a website for Nissan.
- Selling METNET to USWeb.
- How USWeb turned Karim’s life upside-down.
- Website Production vs Strategy
- Bridging the gap between American, European, and Asian culture.
- How Karim’s architecture roots fortified his need to build things that last.
- His small business experience.
- “If you are going to fail, fail fast.” – Karim
- Testing the waters of agency work.
- Services: Cultural vs Institutional
- Cultivating a small agency.
- How running a lifestyle business allowed Karim to step away from his company for the year leading up to his father’s death.
- Mourning and moving on.
- The dynamics of exiting & acquisition.
- Adapting/transitioning client culture.
- On closing Veloware.
- Which lead to Karim finding his business partner.
- “Finding the right companies that aren’t exiting for the wrong reasons.”
- The value of partnering with a company you have no intention of acquiring.
- Structure & having the right team.
- Be an icebreaker; striking up a conversation with those you don’t know, be it in your business or personal life.
- A philosophy that lead to Karim having a pleasant random conversation with the lead guitarist of Los Lobos.
- Attending conferences outside of the WordPress community.
- “Have fun!” & “Partner and hire for your weaknesses.” – Karim
- Looking forward, and the intent to return for a round 2 interview with Mastermind.FM!
Featured on the Show:- Karim’s website
- Crowd Favorite
- The Bureau of Digital
53 min - Episode 43 – Styles of Entrepreneurship
Jean and James dialogue about styles of entrepreneurship as they skim their year end review.
Topics Include:- Analysis of Malta’s digital community.
- Jean’s goals for the New Year and his love of the sport, Padel.
- Lifestyle Business vs “Business-Business”
- Defining Priorities & Pursuits
- Building a Team
- Becoming a hands-off owner for the benefit of the team.
- Growing the individual.
- The continued exploration into the key differences of a local & remote team.
- Conclusion: Established Team Culture.
- “Be willing to take the bullet and always pass the praise.” – James
- How WordPress has “opened the door” to entrepreneurial diversity.
- Acknowledging the average developer turnover.
- Experiment, take risks, seize opportunities.
- What is success for You?
- How defining your own success does a wonderful job of laying your path before you.
- Should age affect perception of success?
- Regret is natural, but don’t let it consume you.
- How status and anxiety are tied, and why you should work to mentally separate them.
Featured on the Show:- The Malta Digital Nomads Facebook Group
- Status Anxiety by Alain De Bottom
38 min - Episode 42 – Is that THE Chris Wallace!?
With Jean absent this Episode, James has Chris Wallace on to guest host.
(Nope, not THAT Chris Wallace.)
This is the Chris of Lift UX, Faithmade, ChurchThemes, Remote Jobs, etc…who is just as good, if not better than THAT Chris Wallace.
(No offense to the Fox News anchor.)
Topics Include:- James inquires about Andy Wilkerson’s recent acquisition of UpThemes and Chris’s branding.
- Chris talks faith, in correlation to his businesses.
- Chris talks about working with AMC and developing their second screen experiences.
- Pioneering a new way to watch and interact with TV.
- What’s next in line for Chris and team.
- James talks plans for his own team at WP Ninjas come 2017.
- Working with a small team
- Team Culture
- Personal Challenges
- “I’m not building a business. I’m building a team, and THEY’RE building a business.” – James
- Chris on functioning as a remote team.
- James on having local office oriented team.
- What is culture?
- “What you allow, what you disallow, what you celebrate, what you discipline.”
- “You can’t over communicate.” – Chris
Featured on the Show:- UpThemes
- Lift UX
- Faithmade
- Remote Jobs
- ChurchThemes
- Pagely
- You can follow Chris on his Twitter @chriswallace
- …or at his personal blog, here!
56 min - Episode 41 – Chris Lema Hath Cometh!
Guest hosting this episode, we have none other than WordPress giant, Chris Lema!
Blogger, consultant, motivational speaker, etc., Chris brings his experience and perspective to Mastermind.fm for your listening pleasure.
No matter your business, you’d be hard pressed to walk away from a talk with Chris and not learn something of value.
Topics Include:- Chris’s take on CaboPress.
- Motivations
- Intention
- Fruits of the Conference
- Takeaways
- Pricing
- Geographic Pricing
- Segmentation
- SAAS (Software as a Service)
- Chris teases an upcoming solution.
Featured on the Show:- CaboPress
- Chris’s Professional Website
59 min - Episode 40 – The Press Conference Boogaloo!
Our hosts are back after a busy time indeed.
Jean attended Web Summit in Portugal, James went to Cabo for CaboPress!
So, for your listening pleasure, the two of them sit down and jive about what they learned, big takeaways, and critiques of the conferences themselves.
Topics Include:- Thorough CaboPress Overview
- The unique approach to the session-less vacation conference.
- Very Exclusive, with around 50 attendees.
- Takeaways are applicable to any business.
- Discussions on:
- Branding
- Hiring
- Founder issues
- Running/Building a SAAS (Software as a Service)
- Acquisitions
- Pricing
- Brief Web Summit Overview
- Multi-conference approach
- 1 ticket = access to 21 conferences
- Over 50, 000 attendees!
- Forward looking, all inclusive conference.
- Featured something for virtually everyone, be it entrepreneur, big business, the tech savvy, analysts, etc.
Featured on the Show:CaboPress
Web Summit
LifterLMS
PressNomics
Other Impressions on CaboPress:Robby McCullough
Steph Wells
David Payette
40 min - Episode 39 – Back to Basics: The Vision, the Mission, the Values
You read that right, back to basics it is!
James and Jean are back at it dialogue style, as you, the listener, are treated to pro-tips that are simple, often overlooked, and immensely beneficial.
In this episode, Mastermind.FM asks and elaborates on, “What’s your vision?”
“What’s the purpose of your company, and you as a business owner?”Topics Include:- The difference between a vision and a mission.
- Defining both.
- What you should be doing to promote each.
- Finding values in the mission, or mission statement.
- Uniting your team by demonstrating your values.
- “It’s good to be good.” Live it.
- Helping others be successful
- Proving the best products, resources, and services available.
- How all of the above is ultimately cyclical.
- Tips on how to proceed in finding your mission and vision.
- Determine what’s important.
- What do you want to accomplish?
- “Don’t be boring.”
- “Be a cheerleader.”
- If you have a good team, you will be surrounded by good ideas.
- Correlating values and accountability.
- Just because a mission statement may sound generic, doesn’t mean it lacks heart.
- Personalize your mission.
- Positivity, optimism, James’ essential core & how that drives him.
- Being organic.
- The Decision Matrix & why it’s awesome.
Switching things up in closing, both our hosts let loose some candid humor, letting their hair down, humbly requesting your continued feedback and input.
You, the listeners, have made this possible.So too it is indeed, that you all continue to be the true drive behind Mastermind.FM.Featured on the Show:Apply Filters Podcast
Decision Matrix (further iteration)
48 min - Episode 38 – Persistence & Success with Security Consultant Robert Abela
This episode James and Jean are joined by Robert Abela, an EU based freelance IT consultant and WordPress Security Professional with WP White Security.
Robert is a major player in advocacy for WordPress security, and owns the No. 1 WordPress Monitoring & Audit Trail Plugin. Additionally, aside from his own security blog, Robert is also a guest blogger on many web-security blogs and websites.
Topics Include:- Robert’s journey with WordPress.
- It all started as a hobby.
- Robert developed on the side, but never considered himself a developer.
- At the same time he had a WordPress security consultancy business.
- He began working with a friend, but development was sporadic.
- After searching on a shoestring budget, Robert started working with a part-time dev.
- Started his premium add-on model.
- A multitude of competitor plugins were launched.
- His developer saw this as a sign of defeat and jumped ship.
- To make things worse, competitors knew popular people in the community and received a lot of coverage.
- Down but not out, Robert considered pulling the plug.
- Unstable sales resulted in a personal lost of $8,000 in the first year.
- Obligated to increase the sales – Robert sought to expose the add-ons without “in your face” advertising.
- His execution resulted in increased revenue, sales, and popularity. $30+k revenue this year.
- WP Security Audit Log is now the Number 1 plugin amongst its competitors (in terms of active downloads).
- Lessons learned:
- Never give up, but be realistic!
- Numbers/statistics are a good indication of how successful your product will be.
- Keep an eye on the competition, though don’t let that hold back a good idea or plan.
- It’s important to be first on the market, but it’s not the end of the world if you’re not.
- Success is not easy! If it were easy, everyone would be successful.
- The Plugin/Security:
- Hardening
- Blocking (firewalls, etc.)
- Control (privileges/permissions)
- Logging
- Keeping a watchful eye.
- Easing the process of troubleshooting.
- Detecting possible attack attempts.
- Doing forensics work in the unfortunate case of a hack cleanup.
Featured on the Show:- WP WhiteSecurity
- WP Security Audit Log
- Ninja Demo
45 min - Episode 37 – Stocks, Reinvesting & Diversifying with Marco Schwartz
James couldn’t make it for this episode due to illness, but fear not, Jean is joined by online entrepreneur, engineer, and author, Marco Schwartz.
With Marco at hand, they discuss stock, dividends, and profits from a business, as they answer tough questions, like, “Should you reinvest, buy other WordPress businesses, or diversify?”
Topics Include:- Marco’s story, his travels, his studies, how he found success.
- How Marco maintains revenue with his books & video courses, which all started with self-publishing.
- Environment matters; using your destination to aid your business and productivity.
- Lifestyle Design, and how it fosters a simplistic & positive philosophy.
- Defining what you want out of life.
- Try biting off more than you can chew, when making a life plan, pushing yourself to work harder.
- Why you should invest money as an entrepreneur.
- The difference between investing on a shorter term, versus long term.
- Marco’s style of investing: defining The Online Empire model.
- Explaining and simplifying stocks.
- Why diversifying your stock options is one of the best things you can do.
- The reason Marco only invests in dividend paying stocks.
- Weighing higher risk against higher returns.
- The best Peer-to-Peer lending sites in Europe.
- Bit Coin, and what it has in common with Peer-to-Peer lending.
- High risk, yet higher yields.
- Marco’s recommended platforms.
- Jean inquires about Marco’s negative experiences with investing.
- Real Estate, and why it really is the best and most basic investment.
- Real Estate crowd funding in Europe.
- On selling your investment.
- The most recent addition to Marco’s investment portfolio: Profitable Websites.
- Marco elaborates and explains all of his sources of revenue, his lifestyle.
- Why he keeps 3 months in physical currency.
- Marco’s wisdom regarding Hong Kong.
- Abiding by CFC (Controlled Foreign Corporation) Rules.
- Lastly, the benefits of having a podcast, why Marco started his own.
Featured on the Show:- Marco’s Portfolio & Revenue
- Marco’s Video Courses & Books
- Digital Empire Podcast
- The Lending Club
- Prosper
- Bondora
- Saving Stream
- Mintos
- The House Crowd
- Property Moose
- Flippa
- Empire Flippers
- FE International
- Quiet Light Brokerage
1 hr 13 min - Episode 36 – Interview with Curtis McHale
“Is your business taking all your evenings and weekends? Even with all that work are you just making ends meet because your clients are always trying to drive down your pricing?”…
“Stop running a hobby START running a business.”, Curtis McHale.That’s right everyone, in this episode of Mastermind.fm, James and Jean interview professional consultant, Curtis McHale.
Curtis is a man of many mottos, but one that undoubtedly personifies is, “Help people run the business they want, so they can live the life they want to live.”
Specializing in ecommerce and membership sites, the crew dives into what this gentleman knows best:- The one-to-many business model.
- The importance of personal mission statements to achieve success.
- Measure your opportunities and business potential based off what you want for yourself.
- Just because you aren’t online, doesn’t mean you can’t be productive.
- Software Curtis uses for running his consulting business.
- Addressing and weighing whether you are the right “fit” for your client, and vice versa.
- Taking the extra time to develop a interpersonal dialogue with your clients can go a long way.
- Managing work and hobbies.
- Why taking care of yourself mentally, by optimizing “wind down” time, is vital.
- On Curtis’ books and generating income in the info space.
- Trust: quantifying the “trust scale”, and how to rise on it.
- How trust guarantees clients.
- Jean has Curtis detail some of the offline work he does with his clients.
- A creative use for text expander.
- Curtis’ philosophy of “write it down, or it didn’t happen”.
- How “personal and awesome” reaching out to someone in the physical realm can be.
- Taking advantage of opportunities to commune with peers and other professionals.
End of show giveaway! Mastermind.fm is giving away one copy of each of Curtis’ books. To participate in your chance to win, just send us an email [email protected] (it can be a question, comment, what-have-you), and we will choose lucky individuals randomly.
Featured on the Show:- Curtis McHale’s website
- Contactually
- Calendly
- WP-Tonic
- WP Site Care
- Philip Morgan Consulting
- Text Expander
- Affiliate WP
- Easy Digital Downloads
- Starting a Mastermind
- BeachPress
- Big Snow Tiny Conf
46 min - Episode 35 – A Look Inside the WP Ninjas with the Whole TeamOn this week’s show, Jean is willfully “trapped” in Cleveland, Tennessee, after the hurricane evacuation in Florida rendered LoopConf cancelled.
Since Jean’s conference was cut short, the WP Ninjas crew shows Jean and his wife their Southern hospitality, and their lovably cheesy sense of humor.
So be sure and join the whole team in this very special episode, as they “let their hair down”, have some fun, and even bare their souls.
Topics Include:- WP Ninjas team introduction.
- James has Jean describe his perception of what the WP Ninjas “day-to-day” is like.
- Table tennis, LOTS of table tennis.
- Jean wonders how the office layout was determined or assigned.
- The benefits and challenges of working as a team in one large room.
- How the team combats distractions and/or interruptions.
- Plans for their setup as the team continues to grow.
- On considering a hybrid model of distributed and in-office team members.
- WordCamps and deciding who attends.
- Why attending and speaking at WordCamps is important.
- The origin of the official/unofficial WordCamp Atlanta 2016 mascot: The Kenatee.
- How the team accomplishes 8 hours of support work in 1 hour every morning.
- On keeping consistency in writing across documentation written by the whole team.
- The benefits of having the development team work support and write documentation.
- How working for WP Ninjas has changed each members’ life and perspective.
Featured on the Show:- WP Ninjas
- Ninja Forms
- Ping Pong/Table Tennis!
- LoopConf
- WordCamp Atlanta 2016
- The Kenatee
- 30 Rock
47 min
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