By Dewald Pelser: Business Analyst, Business Strategist and Coach, Serial Entrepreneur want to be the top Podcaster in Africa the same as - Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Tim Ferris, Gary Vaynerchuck, Andrew Warner
The podcast currently has 63 episodes available.
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Website: Flexy
The founder of Flexy, an online platform for on-demand workers and one of Forbes Magazine’s top female entrepreneurs in the tech space in 2014.
MBA 062: ANNETTE MULLER, Paving the Way for Women in Tech.
Annette would describe herself as an entrepreneur. She is the founder of Flexy, an online platform for on-demand workers. Forbes Magazine named Annette one of the top female entrepreneurs in the tech space in 2014. She is experimenting with flexi-living – really trying to feel what it is like to be a digital nomad.
Annette feels she was born with entrepreneurial spirit, starting her first business at the age of ten. At boarding school she ran her own little tuck shop. She studied in Spain and at UCT, but was highly disappointed when she didn’t immediately find a job after university. This made her realise that no-one else will make your dream happen for you, you have to do it yourself.
Whenever Annette felt that she had learnt all she could from a company she would move to another with the potential for personal growth. She likes to invest in herself and keep her knowledge current. Annette also mentions that travelling is one of the best investments in yourself that there is.
In her final year at university Annette started a company called StyleSpotted. Essentially it was an app that allowed you to identify items of clothing, similar to what Shazam does with music. Their aim was to build a trend database to eventually sell to a retailer. It was difficult to convince investors of the concept.
Her latest venture, Flexy, was born out of her previous business, DOTNXT, and had been in development for the last four years. She came up with the idea of a network of digital agents in answer of a real problem they faced at DOTNXT. They couldn’t afford to pay someone a full-time salary, but still needed an on-demand workforce. The administration got too much for such a small company to manage. They then started this network of top innovators in South Africa and kept track of their employment on rudimentary spreadsheets.
Flexy has a network-based approach as opposed to other job marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. These marketplaces are primarily centred around a specific job or project where Flexy is not a job board. Flexy is an on-demand workforce management tool. It works like a booking tool for your on-demand workforce team. This solves what is a very inefficient process at the moment.
It’s especially difficult in the beginning to work with a partnering company. Annette can now identify the pros and cons of doing so. It is to your advantage to be forced to develop very detailed specs. She realised there would be risks involved when working with a company, so they opted for in-house team of developers instead. Annette initially made use of freelancers to get a prototype out.
They carefully had to consider their business model for longevity as most companies see their fee as a grudge purchase after a while. This prompted them to relook the fee structure. Other similar platforms tend to look after the specialists and look past any problems the hiring companies might encounter. Because Flexy was born out of a company, they could approach this differently. The freelancers do not pay any fees for services rendered.
Annette wants to emphasize that it’s about the mindset rather than the tools when it comes to being a digital nomad. You will need to change some of your deeply set beliefs that some things can only be resolved a certain way. Many things that we hold as truths we very well need to unlearn. They make use of Slack, a cloud-based set of team collaboration tools and services.
Annette would have loved to go into medicine, she especially values the technology behind it and the data we have at our disposal. She thinks that deep down she really wanted to be a doctor.
Just do it! What’s the worst that can happen?
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Website: Legwear Safari
Founder of the online hosiery store, Legwear Safari.
Tracy created an online hosiery store called Legwear Safari.
Tracy worked as a hairdresser for 10 years before she opened her own salon at her home. After that she also did freelance copywriting in-between hairdressing which she eventually stopped completely. She learnt a lot about SEO and content creation for websites whilst working as a freelancer. This led her to start her first e-commerce store in an attempt to present crafters with a global market. Her husband then suggested that she opens an online legwear shop. Legwear Safari was founded in 2013. They started with a Facebook page for the brand and were blown away by the response and requests they received. It was a challenge to develop a functioning online shop while another hurdle was to find local suppliers. They eventually found suppliers abroad who were extremely helpful and knowledgeable.
From Tracy’s copywriting days she knew to search for suppliers through the images on Google. They came across Falke Hosiery in Cape Town who was willing to supply them in small, manageable quantities. Finding a local supplier allowed them to slowly phase out some of the more expensive international brands. Legwear Safari currently has suppliers locally and in the UK.
Right in the beginning Tracy stocked those items that she would like to wear until they received enough feedback from customers. It surprised them to see that hosiery sells throughout the year.
Tracy feels as if she severely underestimated the amount of advertising one needs to do for an e-commerce store. They started out with only a Facebook page. Tracy now manages all of the digital marketing and advertisement campaigns as well as e-mail marketing. Legwear Safari also makes use of Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to reach their customers. She uses Google Analytics to track their reach. She urges entrepreneurs to find out exactly where their traffic comes from before investing in an avenue.
Do research on the various platforms and find the one most suitable for your site. They use WordPress and Woocommorce – it’s easy enough for Tracy to upkeep herself. When starting out it’s not the best idea to try and do this yourself. Find a reputable company or individual developer to build your site in such a way that you are able to learn to manage it yourself. Also look at the after-sales support that they offer. If you are not technologically inclined you may want to look into keeping them on some kind of retainer, so remember to budget for that.
Any external supplier that you make use of as part of what you offer immediately becomes an extension of your business and contributes to your brand image. Examples of these are the courier company you choose to use and where you decide to host your website.
Legwear Safari makes use of Sage Pay as payment gateway. After interviewing all of the major local payment gateway companies, Tracy decided on Sage Pay. Firstly because of the way they deal with fraud and secondly for the confidentiality of the customer’s information. She also chose it for ease of use, not forgetting that Sage is a reputable international company.
Couriers remain Tracy’s largest nuisance. Because of how remotely they are located in Tulbach, transport costs get quite expensive. If the courier fails to deliver the package on time, it reflects badly on your company, not that of the courier. Most courier companies provide a free plugin for your online store where customers can track their parcel. The couriers require all parcels to be sealed, but each package from Legwear Safari is individually wrapped to look special.
Customers love the fact that they offer a live chat facility on their site. It’s the quick alternative to sending an email and having to wait for a response. A small business owner can even link the live chat to his or her mobile phone to answer queries when not in the office. At Legwear Safari they find that more customers make use of the live chat than calling them on the phone.
Tracy would prefer to keep as much of their business in South Africa, but unfortunately even local suppliers import their yarn. Customs take a big chunk when you import textiles. At the moment it is cost-effective for Tracy to import some of the products from the UK. When they first started out, Legwear Safari’s customers comprised of about 40% from abroad, but that’s dwindled since.
Legwear Safari comprises of a team of four people who work in a virtual office. Tracy does not expect her employees to move to Tulbach. Find people with strengths in their industry that complement yours to join your team. She suggests you find someone to do your bookkeeping and another person to manage the technical side of things. The third person you need is someone who is good with customer service. When starting out you should be prepared to roll up your sleeves and take up any one of those roles in your business.
Do not underestimate the costs of advertising for an online store. According to Tracy you won’t be able to run an e-commerce store part-time. The first few years will require a tremendous amount of work and time. To have an online store built will cost you anywhere between R5 000 and R50 000 today. You can start off with something very basic. The advertising will cost you about R3 000 to R5 000 per month.
Tracy would start another e-commerce venture. She enjoys all the possibilities it brings. Small, non-perishable items that don’t weigh a lot would sell well.
You don’t need all of the skills required to run a business. Bookkeeping, digital marketing and web development are all things that can be outsourced. Reach out to a colleague or someone in a similar direction to bounce ideas off of each other. You will need to reinvent your brand each day. Keep changing all the time to stay relevant.
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Website: FreeeUp
Nathan Hirsh, 28-year old serial entrepreneur. Apart from being involved in an e-commerce business, Nathan co-founded FreeeUp, where they connect businesses with skilled freelancers.
Nathan refers to himself as a serial entrepreneur. As a way to make extra money as a student, he started an Amazon business 8 years ago. He had a dropshipping business long before the term was even coined. This resulted in a multi-million dollar business being run from his fraternity house. He needed to hire more and more employees to help him. He saw a need for an online hiring marketplace.
Nathan typically focuses on the sales and marketing of his online hiring platform as well as coordinating the internal processes of the business. The first part of his day is spent liaising with his employees whilst the rest of the day is usually set aside for meeting with potential customers.
There are no in-house employees in Nathan’s businesses. He did have a more traditional setup based in an office when he was a young entrepreneur. Nowadays they only hire candidates who have made it into the FreeeUp network.
Diversification. Nathan learned a valuable lesson when he went on holiday, leaving his company in the hands of his manager. On the first day of the holiday he was told that the supplier had dropped him and that his manager had quit. This taught him that your business should have more than one supplier.
This is their marketplace for freelancers and contractors. Only the top 1% of applicants are added to the network, so their clients know that they’re getting the best person for the job. Applicants apply online and they follow by an interview and a test. They need to constantly be aware of what skills are in demand.
Their clients and contractors are scattered all over the globe. Roughly 40% of the freelancers are based in the US, about 40% in the Philippines and the remaining 20% are spread over the world. The skills they offer on their network include everything from bookkeeping and graphic design to writing and Amazon experts.
FreeeUp takes a percentage of the freelancer’s hourly rate. From their side they do their best to source excellent contractors and continually add new customers. You are paid an ongoing referral fee if you refer a new candidate or client.
Skype, Trello and Jira are the tools that Nathan uses every day. Skype remains the quickest way to communicate with people all over the globe and it’s free. Trello is used to organise his short- and long-term projects with his team. It’s simple and easy to understand.
Nathan suggests that entrepreneurs who want to grow their business make a list of everything they do on a day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month basis. Then rank the tasks from easiest to hardest. Hire a virtual assistant to take some of those tasks off your plate. You should also make a list of your strengths and weaknesses then you can hire somebody in those areas where you are less strong. The onus rests on the employer to ask for feedback to continually try and improve the culture so that the employee is happy to work there.
Communication is key, according to Nathan. If the client leaves too many grey areas, it can be confusing for the contractor to interpret. Spend some time to figure out what you want and then clearly communicate that. Acknowledgement and appreciation are just as important.
Nathan has always enjoyed selling things online and doesn’t foresee himself opening up a burger joint any time soon. If he had to do something else it would probably also be moving product or selling a service online.
Keep the mentality of “work hard, play hard”. When you’re at work, give it your all, and when you have fun, give it 100%.
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Website: Vuyos
Owner of Vuyos, a restaurant that offers modern African cuisine.
Miles likes to test people’s reaction by telling them he sells boerewors rolls for a living. Often they automatically assume he is a sidewalk hawker when he answers their question like that. He feels that for some reason people tend to look down on boerewors rolls, something that is inherently South African.
Upon finishing his studies, Miles worked for Microsoft. It afforded him to see the world and he learned many things, but he knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. He left Microsoft to start a boutique software company. Before long his company was approached by Microsoft for a huge investment. In the end Miles had to leave because of some friction within the company.
Miles saw an advertisement on the television. In the ad a character called Vuyo has big dreams for his sidewalk boerewors roll business. He grows his business into a billion dollar business and it was Vuyo’s tenacity that appealed to Miles. He didn’t want the idea to go to waste. Miles took the fictitious brand from the advertisement and trademarked it.
Entering a new industry is always daunting and risky. In the restaurant industry you need to ensure that your location works for breakfast, lunch and dinner, says Miles. His first restaurant’s location was suited to the lunch trade, but not so much the rest of the day. His income was effectively reduced by two-thirds.
Establish why exactly the prospective site is empty. Ask the previous tenant how much their rent was and compare that with what the landlord expects you to pay. Now that he’s been in the industry a while he knows that there are expert site selectors, people who are trained in that. The site should be on street level as people are reluctant to use stairs and ramps to enter a restaurant. Keep in mind the direction in which your store is facing. This is important for climate control and natural light in your store. The corporate identity you decide on should be the glue that connects your customer with your product.
Miles calls their offering “modern African cuisine”. They are not competing with your ability to cook, but would rather provide you with convenience and an experience that you won’t find at home. Indigenous cuisines have often been overlooked in the restaurant industry.
Miles is not convinced that social media is the right platform to utilise to draw customers to your restaurant. Customers are much more likely to complain about your restaurant on social media than compliment it. The complaint hardly ever reaches the owner or the manager in order for them to rectify the mistake.
Ultimately you are still selling a product. You might find the profit margins on coffee to be quite good. If you make 800% profit on a cappuccino, for instance, it makes up for other items you need on your menu that aren’t that profitable.
If Miles could choose any other profession, he would want to build cars. He values the fact that there’s a template to it. South Africa’s minibus taxis are manufactured abroad and imported. Miles feels this is unnecessary as we manufacture premium vehicles in this country.
He feels the right guy for the job doesn’t look for motivation externally, but already possesses it. True entrepreneurs are self-motivated. Failure often pivots you in the right direction. Instead of quitting, one should learn to pivot your approach.
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A Solo Session with Dewald on the topic of Learning
Dewald believes that you should try to learn from people that are closer to the level you are as opposed to the books we get in the bookstore that just features the Richard Branson’s and Elon Musk.
We tend to have a fear of missing out or in short, “FOMO” which translates to many areas of our lives, this also applies to what you are learning. What I have found over the last year is that I have spent lots of time on the latest trends in terms of social media marketing, email marketing and lots of other things that I was learning for the sake of not being left behind but not implementing it in my businesses. It is better to understand your business barometer and what is the function or skill that would make the most difference, then spend time on that and implement ASAP.
The interview has been structured in such a way to get a broad learning experience with the focus on the following:
1.The journey of the entrepreneur which is primarily for the sake of inspiration and getting an idea of it not being overnight.
2.Mistakes are the learning experiences we can take away to try and avoid them in our own business journey.
3.How the business work and income streams
4.Reset scenario is to get an idea with what is currently trending and some strategies on how they would approach starting over.
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Website: Boss Mom
A Boss-Mom with a passion to help other mothers balance their business and family life.
Dana helps mom entrepreneurs start businesses so that they can change the world. By doing this she wants to show children that following your passion can actually be a sound decision.
She has always worked for small startup companies and enjoys the challenge they bring. The last job she had she worked with a consultant who saw potential in her and suggested that she starts her own business, specifically as a consultant. Having a mentor to guide her through the process really put her at ease. Immediately after starting her own business she fell pregnant. Dana jokes about her becoming an entrepreneur and parent at the same time. It was never her intention to be a stay-at-home mom; she wanted to run her own business. She wondered whether that made her a bad mom or a bad entrepreneur. She wanted to be good at both. During that time they also moved to be closer to Dana’s family. Coincidentally California was also more conducive to her business. She found it easier to connect with other entrepreneurs. Dana approached a book coach in her mastermind group. She wanted to write a book about the guilt she felt for wanting to run a business instead of raising her son at home. The book Boss Mom was born. She despised the fact that society tried to make her feel bad for wanting to excel at both.
In Dana’s first business she worked as a content strategist, but the business was slow to grow. When you run a business that’s based around services and products it’s a slow growth. However, if you decide that your brand is to be more than the services and products offered, according to Dana that’s when the magic starts to happen. When Boss Mom was released many people could relate to Dana’s situation. After that she started a podcast and group coaching programme to help those in similar circumstances. Boss Mom evolved from a book to a business, seeing rapid growth. It helped her to hire great people to brainstorm with her. They challenged her to think past the obvious and to come up with excellent ideas. Dana really sees the value in surrounding yourself with an amazing team. Only around two years into her own business Dana started to make good money.
Dana offered business coaching where she helped moms run their businesses better. From the coaching she gained the knowledge that she would eventually combine in a course, Raising Your Business.
When she first started working for herself and things were moving at a slow pace Dana attended a conference. During the course of the conference she learned that you should establish what it is that you do best and leverage that. She identified that she had a particular gift for content strategy and helping all the pieces of a business fit into place. Dana outsourced the parts of the business that didn’t align with her gift and could subsequently start to scale the business.
Dana finds that routine simplifies her business. She has dedicated days for interviews and other days where she sees colleagues. Fridays always involve people, usually in a networking sense. Weekends are spent with her family. She also teaches her clients to batch tasks together.
Even if you have a mentor you’re still going to make mistakes. The hardest part is being decisive and a good coach helps you to overcome that obstacle. Your objective shouldn’t be to not fail but to recover as quickly as is humanly possible after failure.
Initially Dana made her money from one-on-one executive facilitations. In her second year she built some coursework on Udemy and Skillshare to generate more revenue. Dana mentions that for every additional direction your business expands into, your expenses go up, so you could be making more money, but not taking more money home. As soon as she started employing people her expenses went up, but she saw it as a challenge to generate more income. Between increasing her passive income and increasing her prices slightly Dana’s income currently sits just below $30k per month.
They utilise various methods to increase their visibility – Dana hosts talks, she’s feature on podcasts, they use Facebook ads – because they feel visibility is the scaling factor. As soon as people sign up to the email list they enter their sales funnel. From there they are introduced to products that would be meaningful to them, but financially beneficial to Dana – it’s a win-win situation!
Dana and her team use Trello, a free project management and workflow system. They also use Zapier to integrate different apps and tools. This allows for consistency in the process. Voxer, a “walkie-talkie” tool for their phones keeps the team in touch with each other. It allows for rapid-fire questions and answers. Acuity is the scheduling system that they use. Google Calendar integrates well with everything else. They also make use of Ontraport to create sales funnels.
Dana is a firm believer that your team should consist of your ideal client. She sources them from her community so she knows they are already familiar with and fond of her brand. Only her videographer and audio technician are men who don’t have children, but she either met and had a really good connection with them, or they were referred to her by someone whom she really trusts.
Is she had to start over, Dana would prefer to do exactly what she does now, but go straight into consulting with companies. She would help them brainstorm to develop their products and services. She doesn’t regret going the route that she has, but she now sees how she could’ve make a lot more money much quicker.
Dana is a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. You’ll find that 80% of the time things won’t work, it won’t be fun and it may be challenging. There’s nothing wrong with that. You need to recognise the 20% that is working and pool your resources into leveraging that. Secondly, Dana stresses the importance of an excellent team, because she feels that you cannot scale the business by yourself.
The post MBA 057: Raising a Business with DANA MALSTAFF appeared first on MisterBA - Your Business Analyst.
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Website: Income School, Improve Photography, KnifeUp, Camper Report.
Blogger and super-successful online entrepreneur with a passion for photography.
Jim prefers to introduce himself as a blogger instead of a photographer. He finds that people don’t tend to see blogging as a serious profession. It baffles them that you can earn an income from your blog and being a YouTube personality.
Upon finishing his Bachelors degree, Jim made the decision to study law. In the interim he worked at the Dollar Store in the evenings and listened to podcasts to fight his boredom with his job. These podcasts were mainly about online businesses. Simultaneously he started to learn about photography and enjoyed it greatly. When his classes at law school started, he decided to teach evening photography classes at the local high school. For this he created a blog to communicate with his students. To his surprise the traffic to those blog posts grew to hundreds of thousands and eventually it’s in the millions today.
Jim did finish his law degree, but was never a practising attorney. In his final year at Law school, Jim realised that he would earn much more from his online business than he could ever earn as an attorney.
Jim doesn’t follow a set regime and he tends to work in sprints, as he calls it. He found that he doesn’t like working set hours. When he feels like working, he puts all his effort into it, but when he takes a break, he focuses all his attention on his family. Jim is able to work so hard in business because he loves what he does. If there’s a specific part of his job that is not particularly enjoyable to him, he will outsource the task. Jim feels his efforts are best utilised in content creation.
The very first thing that Jim outsourced was the finances for the business, a task his wife took off his hands. It’s the type of thing you can’t entrust just anybody with, so he was glad she offered. Shortly after he outsourced their customer support as he feels that this is not one of his strengths. He handed this task over to a virtual assistant (VA). The independent contractors he uses are based all over the globe, most have another day job and he only employs them for one small task. Jim finds it to be much more cost-effective. When a position needs filling, he has in the past made use of platforms such as Fiver and the like. These days he turns to his existing audience, with great results.
Jim started his business 8 years ago, a time to which he refers as the heyday of social media. He had a greater reach when he posted on his social media page. Social media has undergone many changes since then. It is just much more difficult to get your message noticed in the noise that is Facebook these days. Contrary to popular belief, Jim will spend as little time as possible using social media as a marketing platform. He recommends only focusing on those channels you can control. In his case this is his podcast, his blog and his email list. With any new websites he starts he doesn’t even bother building a social media following for them. Jim’s advice is to build a stellar blog right from the beginning.
If not with social media, then how? Jim identified a niche and created a website with a blog to answer questions. He suggests you write long, decent articles on the topic. For a specific blog on boating he wrote 33 long articles on the subject. Jim published the articles on his blog and left them there for Google to rank. It can take up to 12 months for you to see any real increase in the traffic to your posts. He doesn’t attribute the traffic to SEO or link-building or social media.
The income from Jim’s blog was 100% from Amazon affiliates. Once you reach around 80 000 views per month the revenue from advertisement space also becomes much bigger. He only earns about $7 per 1000 views, so he suggests that you get your traffic up first.
Since Jim started teaching photography he’s been building a community. He estimates that he bans about 100 people from the community per month, mostly because of negative or downright mean comments. The result is a super positive and supportive community. Jim hosts global photography meetups for free, just to build his community and increase the quality thereof.
Jim started the monetisation of his blogs by selling e-books. These days there’s so much more competition for e-books. Next he incorporated Amazon affiliates, which has been a constant income for many years. Thirdly he started online photography classes, but not long after that YouTube somewhat saturated the market. These days his income comes mainly from his conference, Amazon affiliates, a membership site for photographers, Lightroom presets and advertisements on the website as well as the podcast. Jim suggests you diversify your online income because of the volatile nature of the field. At the moment Jim is working on an app to connect photographers with the best locations for photo shoots in the world.
The two social media sites that Jim still sees value in are YouTube and Pinterest. Unfortunately YouTube tends to bury your links in the description. He realises the downside to a podcast is that it rarely directs listeners to your website. If he wants to make a sale, he utilises his email list as those people are on their computer when they receive the email.
Like he’s done in the past, Jim will create a niche site and write great articles for blog posts. When coming up with ideas for these niche websites, he looks towards his hobbies. He also looks for a hobby with products that cost between $150 and $250 and create Amazon affiliate links and add advertisements to the site. Nobody spends $7000 on a product online, but they are inclined to spend in the vicinity of $200. It’s enough money to generate a decent commission, but not so large an amount that people need to consider the purchase for a long time. Jim prefers products to businesses that sell advice or a service. He also tries to limit the need for customer service. You want to focus on a topic that will be relevant for at least five to seven years.
Quite early on Jim decided that he would not rot in some office and spend 40% of his waking hours away from home. If you have a family you need to provide for, you should carefully plan that leap. You don’t want to sit without income for a period. He urges people to think what that flexibility in terms of time could mean for their family.
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Website: Official Website
Award-winning technology entrepreneur, international speaker and author of 16 best-selling books. Owner of multi-million dollar business at the mere age of 25.
Dale runs his own business in the education space. He loves helping other people to access quality information to improve their life. Lately he focuses on helping people around Australia and New Zealand improve their businesses. More recently he developed an app called BRiN that uses artificial intelligence to provide business education.
When Dale was a child his mother decided to channel his excessive energy into gymnastics. By the age of 9 he was training for the Olympic Games. He spent up to 36 hours a week in the gym in preparation. He looks back and sees that this is where his entrepreneurial discipline comes from. There he learned about hard work, time management, how to motivate himself and how to be resourceful and relentless. He finished his career as a gymnast at the age of 19 and entered the corporate world. After 6 months he felt frustrated by the slow pace at which everything was happening. The fact that he was not in charge of his own destiny also dismayed him. Starting his own business would put him in control of his own future.
He attended a few personal development coaching courses. Once there, he noticed that he was by far the youngest attendee. This made him realise that there was a gap in the market for developmental courses aimed at younger people. He founded his first company, Tomorrow’s Youth, where he taught teenagers the life skills they didn’t learn in school.
When he was 24, Dale put together a series of books called The Secrets Exposed. He interviewed highly successful people in different fields and put their best ideas into a book. The sales of these 16 books provided him with a solid financial foundation. He wants to emphasise that it didn’t happen overnight and that it required much hard work.
Dale equated success with owning many businesses, so by the age of 27 he juggled 5 businesses. He learned that he couldn’t give each business the attention that it needed to thrive. In the end he had to sell the businesses and focus on only one for a couple of years.
Business Blueprint, a business education company, is Dale’s main focus these days. Around 2007 he noticed a shift in business. As the Yellow Pages got increasingly smaller, other channels started to emerge – Google, YouTube, Facebook and the like. Business owners realised that this was the technology of the future, but they weren’t entirely sure how to embrace it. Dale started to facilitate workshops to help these established businesses to embrace new technology. They started with 10 clients and that grew to over 500 today.
The programme comprises of 4 live events, 24 webinars, access to their library of over a thousand training videos, a coach to help them when they get stuck as well as a support community and email access to Dale and his team. His programme makes use of what Dale calls “blended learning” – a combination of online learning, live events, phone calls and personal coaching.
Dale likes to use both online and offline marketing methods. With the 1,8 billion users on Facebook you can target very specifically and control who you want to reach with your message. They make use of Google AdWords to run advertisements on YouTube and have seen great results. A few times a year they do cross-promotions with other companies. They find the publicity generated by media exposure to be useful and also make use of direct email marketing. Technology has enabled them to market their business much faster and smarter.
Business Blueprint has become a 5 million dollar business and it’s by far the largest chunk of Dale’s income. He does still generate some revenue from book sales. Dale gets dividends from companies he has invested in and he also generates passive income from his property portfolio.
Dale wanted to give everyone access to a business advisor right at their fingertips. The app uses artificial intelligence to provide the user with guidance. While most business advisors are generalists, this app is able to provide specialist advice. By using the app you won’t need to consult with ten or twenty different specialists. To monetise this technology they can either manage the app as a subscription service or partner with sponsors who want to reach their audience.
In order to spend more time with his family, they made a joint decision to work for two consecutive months and take the third month off to travel. Over the past seven years they’ve seen close to 75 countries. Dale suggests you take great effort in the beginning to build the right processes. They use Google Sites to store all of the intellectual property of the company. He suggests finding some good project management software, they use one called Teamwork. Dale also makes use of a CRM programme. Employ a great team of people around you is his advice.
Dale partially believes in “hire for attitude, train for skill”, but experience and competency in their specific role is also important. He values efficiency and resourcefulness. Look for people who are realistic about their time management, who would say no if they won’t be able to deliver something. Work ethic is another important thing to look at as well as confidence in their role.
The technology space is something Dale would seriously consider, especially artificial intelligence. Technology allows us to scale businesses, a thing that wasn’t possible before. He also recognises the potential in owning property.
BRiN is a vast resource, containing a thousand videos to help you with everything from time management and leadership to marketing and building system. Dale suggests watching a training video once a week or so to continually educate and better yourself.
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Website: Steve Olsher, Reinvention Radio
Entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, online marketer and speaker.
Steve Olsher is an entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, online marketer and speaker. He’s known as a “reinvention expert”. He believes that there’s one thing that keeps us from living a life of happiness – not knowing your “what”, that one thing you were born to do.
You can choose your “why”, the driving force behind what you do. That is external. Your “what” is written in your DNA, in a way it has chosen you and not the other way around. It is internal and needs to be uncovered. Your “what” is comprised of three elements – your core gift, the vehicle you use to share that gift and the people you’re most compelled to serve.
Steve helped a man by the name of Johnny Imerman. Johnny was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer at the age of 26. After treating the cancer Johnny went into remission only for the cancer to return, this time on his spine. What stood out to Johnny during his process of recovery was that he was surrounded by people who really loved him and that it was their support that pulled him through this experience. While walking through the cancer ward he saw other patients suffering alone. He promised to do everything in his power to ensure that those inflicted with cancer never had to endure it alone. After he beat cancer for the second time he started an NPO called Imerman Angels and they focus on matching cancer sufferers with cancer survivors. This is an example of a person who found their “what” and how his life is changed for the better by it.
Steve mentions that some people are born with the clarity of what their purpose in life is. He calls them “birthers” and says that we’re often jealous of them because there’s never been any doubt in their mind as to who they are and what they do. But the vast majority of the world isn’t that lucky. More often than not it takes some sort of life trigger to lead them to ask these types of questions, it could be a divorce, a death or just being fed-up with your job. Some people just wake up one morning to the realisation that they’re not happy with where they are in life.
Steve suggests not quitting your day job just yet – rather use the outside hours to pursue your “what”. Use the hours after work, on your way to work or on the weekend. That way you let someone else fund that transition. At the moment 100% of your income could be derived from something that you don’t want to be doing. Once you start utilising your outside hours to generate income from what it is that you really want to do, your income could now change to 95% from your job and 5% from you “what”. Over time that ratio will change and at some point you will be able to do away with the job to fully pursue your “what”. The timeline on this can vary greatly.
85% of those who graduate with a four year degree do not work their field of study within five years of graduation. That is why Steve believes that tertiary education isn’t the best investment for a parent to make. It’s only when they enter the “real world” after college that adolescents discover what it is they want to do. More often than not their degree is not related to their purpose at all and could very well be seen as a waste of money. If the onus rests on them to pay their own education and they are held accountable in that way they’ll get a lot more out of it.
Taking advantage of the technology that is available to you, here are some ideas for you to get paid for doing what you love: having a social media following, building an email list, having a podcast and driving traffic through that show, creating online courses, writing ebooks, selling services, etc. Once you’re clear on the third piece of the puzzle – finding the people you’re most compelled to serve – you’ll gain more clarity as to what their needs are and be able to create products, programmes or services to meet those needs. Steve feels that instead of just showing people what to do, many people would actually prefer that you do the job for them. They will pay a premium if you’re able to do something faster and save them time.
Marketing and promotion is about sharing who you are and what you do in a way that’s most comfortable for you. You get to choose the platform. If you like to talk, podcasting could be the right platform for you. If you’re more inclined to write try starting a blog. If you love videos then shoot videos. Ultimately the way you market yourself should be in a way that you love and that you’re most comfortable with.
Put something forth for the world to consume as soon as possible. Whether it’s a product, programme or service, create an offer and offer it! Market it, get it out there! You may not find many takers initially, but the first buyer is guaranteed to inspire you to reach more. Before you throw in the towel or change your strategy, you need to give it your best effort. For everything to really fall into place, you may only need to subtly adjust your approach.
If Steve had to start from scratch today, he would probably look for a corporate job. He envies those who work from 9-5, especially since he has two children. He says he would be pickier about what he does with his time and focus more on those things that bring him joy – in his case this is speaking, teaching and being with people as opposed to sitting behind a computer.
If people are still wondering about their purpose, Steve suggests they get their hands on a free copy of his book, a New York Times best-seller. The sooner you come to realise that you are the solution to someone’s problem, the sooner you can start to discover and ultimately monetise your “what”. Be willing to take the first step and set the example for other to follow.
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Website: MWF Motivation
Founder and host of a motivational podcast that is focused on helping you find your purpose in life.
Rob Dial is a motivational speaker, although he doesn’t care much for the term. He runs a short, to the point motivational podcast and does coaching as well.
As opposed to most entrepreneurs, Rob chose to go the entrepreneurial route before he went into corporate. At the age of 19, while at college he worked as a door-to-door knives salesman and earned commission on his sales. He worked for that company for 5 years and trained over 2000 sales reps. When he eventually entered the corporate world, he hated it. Rob worked for a few different companies where he did sales and training of sales staff. He left shortly thereafter to start his own business. He agrees that the safety net of a steady income is appealing to most people but he was at his most unhappy when he was working in corporate and had the highest base salary and commission. He didn’t want to come to a point, look back on his life and see unfulfilled potential. Rob mentions a quote that states that you can fail at what you don’t want to do, so you might as well take a chance on something that you love.
With the way technology is constantly evolving, many professions will become obsolete within the next five to ten years. It is our responsibility to consider that and think of an exit strategy. Think of a way to incorporate that technology today, sooner rather than later. The easiest way to become an entrepreneur is to figure out what everybody’s problem is and how to solve it.
In retrospect, Rob can identify problems with his initial authenticity. He used to spend a lot of time planning the podcasts, reading scripted lines and editing the podcast to perfection. Perfection came at a cost to his authenticity – he sounded like he had no personality. Much time also went into editing in such detail. Eventually he decided that it wasn’t sustainable and stopped editing the podcasts completely. This was when he really started to gain traction with the audience. People started to respond to the authenticity. More than anything else, Rob feels it’s important to just be yourself. This will help with job satisfaction and building a loyal fan base. Rob says if he always strives for perfection, he won’t complete anything and that’s true for many an entrepreneur. Don’t use perfection as an excuse for not getting things done.
In Rob’s industry it all boils down to your personality. Some people will find your unique style appealing and others won’t. When he first started his podcast he was nervous to compete with the likes of Tony Robbins when he wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable. He then heard an interview that made him realise that many people know much less than him and could relate to his message better. This helped him get over the impostor syndrome. Rob also continues to use himself as a guinea pig to improve.
Rob doesn’t advocate getting up at a certain time, because he knows that everybody needs a different amount of sleep to function optimally. You need to figure out how many hours of sleep you need per night. If you work for somebody else, wake up earlier and start your morning routine on your own terms. You can’t control the rest of the day, but you can control what you do before you start work. Rob’s morning routine checklist looks like this: breathe, meditate, read, cold shower and yoga. When he wakes up, he starts the day with a breathing exercise called the Wim Hof Method. This essentially floods your body with oxygen. That is followed by his own recorded meditation. After that he reads for a bit, takes an extremely cold shower and does yoga. Now that he works for himself at home, he sees the value in adding structure to his routine.
If you’re thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, Rob suggests only leaving your current job if you have at least six months to a year’s worth of savings to cover their expenses. Gary Vaynerchuk talks about your steak and sides. The steak is your salary. When you have your steak, you start building on your sides by adding other income streams. The advice Rob gives is to stay at the company you work for, but stay later, stay up later, work on weekends on your other revenue streams. People also need to realise that they can live off much less than they think, that they’ve inflated their standards of living over the years. His income comes from coaching.
Many people get stuck on this question. Rob quotes Elizabeth Gilbert: “The world is divided into two kinds of people: there are the jackhammers and there are the hummingbirds.” She continues about the difference between following your passion and following your curiosity in life. Rob associates with the jackhammer – he knows what his purpose is and he is happy to fully pursue it. But most people aren’t that lucky, they still search for that purpose. This puts them under a lot of pressure. Hummingbirds move from one flower to the next. This is an analogy for those people who shift from one profession to the next, searching for that right fit. It’s not the end of the world. Find something that you can focus on for the next three years and commit to that.
That’s a lot of work! There are two reasons why a person would want to build the next Uber – they’re searching for significance or they want the money. Rob feels he gets enough significance from his job as well as other perks such as a lot of free time. If you’re attempting to build the next Uber, you won’t have that freedom. Figure out what’s important to you – do you want to build a massive company to impact the world or do you want to build a massive company because you’re searching for some sort of significance? Or are you doing it for the money? Or do you want to make a decent living and have freedom in your time?
Rob’s advice is to start right away. Start today. Figure out how your business can make money today. From there you can start making different plans and adjustments. Rob uses the phrase “Ready, fire, aim!”, not “Ready, aim, fire!”. Get a business idea and execute it as soon as possible. Only then you can spend time on making it better. Don’t try to make it perfect first. People tend to slow themselves down and hold themselves back.
Rob is certain that it would be in technology. He recognises the massive amount of technology changes over the last few years. Rob says he would probably approach a tech-savvy friend to handle the technical side, while he would be in charge of sales. He predicts that in the next ten years technology will encompass everything. It would have to be something that he is completely passionate about as well.
While Rob was transitioning from the corporate world to owning his own company, he went to every single networking event after hours. He worked at building his following. He followed each person of significant value in his field and observed their social media habits. He didn’t copy them directly, but picked up priceless tips.
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The podcast currently has 63 episodes available.