Permission with Dr. Sherry Walling

In this episode of the Founder Origin Series, Sherry interviews Andrew Warner of Mixergy about his childhood. He talks about some specific memories from his school years and his thoughts on life.

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In this episode of the Founder Origin Stories, Sherry interviews Chris Lema. Chris has worked with many companies helping them build better software products and development teams. Sherry talks with Chris about his early life struggles with his home life, survival skills he had developed, and how professional counseling played a role in who he […]

In this episode of the Founder Origin Stories, Sherry interviews Chris Lema. Chris has worked with many companies helping them build better software products and development teams. Sherry talks with Chris about his early life struggles with his home life, survival skills he had developed, and how professional counseling played a role in who he is today.

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Chris Lema

Today we bring you another in the Founder Origin Stories. Sherry interviews Brian Clark, of Copyblogger and Rainmaker Digital, about adoption, abandonment, being a misfit, and walking away from law. He also talks as his motivations for creating successful businesses and the power of being early (alone) in a new space. Love this episode and want more? Check out Brian’s […]

Today we bring you another in the Founder Origin Stories. Sherry interviews Brian Clark, of Copyblogger and Rainmaker Digital, about adoption, abandonment, being a misfit, and walking away from law. He also talks as his motivations for creating successful businesses and the power of being early (alone) in a new space.

Love this episode and want more? Check out Brian’s interview with Sherry on Unemployable.

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Episode Transcript

Rob Walling:

This week on ZenFounder, we continue our founder origin series with Brian Clark. Sherry interviews Brian from Copyblogger and Rainmaker Media. Brian was an early blogger. I remember him coming to prominence in the maybe 2005 to 2007 range. Has always had a unique voice, but also, a voice that kind of straddled two communities; the startup community and the Internet marketing community.

 

Brian and his crew kind of came up with this idea of the third tribe, and it was a tribe that wanted to do startups, but actually wanted to make money. It was much more in line with the type of bootstrapping ethic, and I’ve always respected Brian and thought of him as someone with a bootstrapper’s ethic; an ethic of launching a company in order to make money, not just going out and building slide decks and trying to raise funds. So I hope you enjoy this interview as it delves into Brian Clark’s origin story.

 

I’d also encourage you to head over to ZenFounder.com and get on our mailing list. We are planning an in-person event in the fall. It’s going to be very small. It’s going to be exclusive. If you’re at all interested, head over to ZenFounder.com.

Sherry Walling:

So for anybody who’s been living under a rock and doesn’t know about Copyblogger or the tremendous work that you’ve done to really push forward the content marketing space, before that was even a thing; what are you most proud of, in terms of your professional accomplishments?

Brian Clark:

That’s a good question. I’m obviously proud to have kind of been at the forefront of what’s such a big thing now. Of course, I didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, there are some people who are much more determined. Joe Pelusi was very key from an early stage at … He came up with the term content marketing and really advocated for it, even to me, to get to adopt it.

 

But I was doing in the late 90s; I just didn’t know what to call it. That eventually led to starting Copyblogger, which was the first blog to talk about what we now call content marketing. It’s still the largest. So, yeah, I’m very proud of that. Like anyone else, I think some days I get tired of talking about it and just enjoy doing it, and yet that’s kind of like looking a gift horse in the mouth. You know, you take the territory that you’ve kind of charted in that regard.

In this episode of the Founder Origin Series, Sherry interviews Rebecca Gill, founder of Web Savvy Marketing and an SEO consultant, about her early life in Michigan as a child. And some of the pivotal moments that helped shape her success. Support ZenFounder Rebecca Gill Episode Transcript Rob Walling: On this week’s ZenFounder, we continue […]

In this episode of the Founder Origin Series, Sherry interviews Rebecca Gill, founder of Web Savvy Marketing and an SEO consultant, about her early life in Michigan as a child. And some of the pivotal moments that helped shape her success.

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Rebecca Gill

Episode Transcript

Rob Walling:

On this week’s ZenFounder, we continue our Founder Origin Series with Sherry interviewing Rebecca Gill. Rebecca is a Michigan based WordPress SEO consultant. She’s an educator and an author, as well as the owner of a digital agency for website design and development. In this episode, Sherry and Rebecca walk through Rebecca’s Founder Origin story and look at how it has shaped her both personally and professionally.

 

In a couple of months, Sherry’s going to be launching another Zen Tribe’s coaching group. The first one sold out so quickly that she and Cory from iThemes are already talking about gearing up for the next one. If you have any interest in being in a small online group full of other entrepreneurs who are trying to push their business forward, head over to zenfounder.com, sign up for the mailing list, and we’ll be in touch the next time a group has an opening.

Sherry Walling:

Let’s just begin by you introducing yourself and letting people know a little bit about what your business is.

Rebecca Gill:

My name is Rebecca Gill, I run a Michigan agency that does custom word press design and development. I spend a lot of time working on SEO and educating people on search engine optimization.

Sherry Walling:

In my head, at least, you’re the queen of word press. You spend a lot of time at conferences, you spend a lot time talking with people about how to run their businesses well.

Rebecca Gill:

I do, yes. I like to empower people.

Sherry Walling:

You’re also kind of a teacher and a leader in the WordPress community?

Rebecca Gill:

I am told that, although that’s not how I would self describe myself, but yes. I’ve definitely been told that I’m one of the well known people and the one that is constantly being seen.

Sherry Walling:

Yeah. I think it needs to have a variety of different voices that are leading different communities and even if that’s not a title you would give yourself. It’s one that you have come into, because people are interested in what you’re doing and seem to trust you.

Rebecca Gill:

Yeah. I tend to stand out because I don’t code, and I don’t design. I don’t have graphic design skills or coding skills and it’s more business ownership and internet marketing and SEO. So, I bring something different to the table than a lot of the other speakers or people in word press. The fact that I’m a woman helps me stand out a little bit too, because it is a sea of men. There are some women, but there’s definitely a larger population of men, without question. You tend to stand out.

Sherry Walling:

Yeah, absolutely. I was at a co

In this episode of the Founder Origin Series, Sherry interviews Jason Cohen of WP Engine, about his early days in college and starting companies. And how being a son to two teachers shaped his success.

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Episode Transcript

Rob Walling:

Welcome back and thanks for joining us on this week’s continuation of our Founder Origin Series. This week, Sherry interviews Jason Cohen of WP Engine and A Smart Bear. You might know Jason for having spoken at MicroConf several times. He has one of the, in my opinion, one of the best talks about bootstrapping a start up that I’ve ever heard. And he’s been known to frequently drop tons of start up knowledge on his blog, asmartbear.com.

 

If you get value out of ZenFounder or out of just this series of founder origin stories, I encourage you to head over to supportzenfounder.com, where we have a patron running, and even a couple dollars a month helps us keep the show going, pay for the editor, and helps us keep the quality of the show as high as possible. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode.

Sherry Walling:

What’s your total company count at these days? How many have you founded?

Jason Cohen:

Oh, four.

Sherry Walling:

Four. Okay. And what was your first entrepreneurial endeavor, before the formal companies. When you were a kid, did you have a lemonade stand? Were there things that you were concocting to practice your entrepreneurial skills?

Jason Cohen:

Yeah, I had a quote on quote, general store in elementary school with paper and pencils for people who forgot it, and they could buy them for a quarter. But of course, nobody has even a quarter. So it didn’t work.

Sherry Walling:

Did you work on credit? Or trade for jelly beans? How’d you work that out?

Jason Cohen:

It just didn’t work. I think … I don’t know if I’ve always thought I wanted to start a company. But, I definitely have always had projects. That’s absolutely a thread from even very little when I would either write a book, whatever that means in second grade. Or then with the computer, writing very simple programs. There was always projects. And so, I think it’s more like being obsessed with projects and that turning into something, rather than I want a business with a P&L and a balance sheet and employees and how am I going to build that. That sort of came secondarily.

Sherry Walling:

Like you wanted to make something first.

Jason Cohen:

Yeah.

Sherry Walling:

And foremost. What kind of kid were you? How would you describe your personality as a kid?

Jason Cohen:

Well, I was a class clown, but mostly in the disruptive way as opposed to the witty way. So, definitely never liked being told what to do. I mean, not that everyone likes being told what to do, but almost needing to not do whatever it is that we’re supposed to do. Oh, we have homework. Great. I’m going to try to get it done in a quarter of the time and then do something else, even if that’s as

To kick off this summer’s Founder Origin Stories, Sherry interviews Dan Martell, founder of Clarity.  They talk about his early years as a troubled teen and the experiences and people along the way that helped give him the skills to be a better person and successful entrepreneur.

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Episode Transcript

Rob Walling:

This episode of ZenFounder kicks off our seven-part Founder Origin Series that’s going to run here for the next seven weeks. Very excited to do this again. This has been one of our most popular series of episodes that we’ve ever recorded. We’re going to kick this one off with Sherry speaking to Dan Martell. And I first ran into Dan when he and I spoke at a [inaudible 00:00:23] startup conference a few years back, I think it was in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And he had already had one exit from his consulting firm and I saw Dan hustling and I knew that he was going to have success with his next one. He sold the next one, then he started Clarity and since then he’s had another exit. So he’s had three exits. He’s done very well for himself and he’s a really impressive founder. He’s one of the founders that thinks at a different level than a lot of people around you. He would never call himself a growth hacker but he knows how to hack growth and some of the ideas he’s come up with are ingenious.

But what’s perhaps even more interesting, especially related to this podcast, is Dan’s origin story. It’s fascinating. Grew up in a group home, was involved with the drug scene. And you’re going to hear a lot of interesting twists and turns in his origin story. And if you’ve only seen Dan online talking about his successes and you haven’t heard kind of a comprehensive look at his background and what he came and what he fought against and what he overcame to become a founder, you’re really going to enjoy this episode.

Before we dive in, I want to encourage you to head over to ZenFounder.com, even on your mobile phone, we’re mobile responsive, and sign up for our mailing list because we are planning an in person event in the Fall. It’s going to be small, it’s going to be hand picked, hand crafted. It’s going to sell out quickly because of the idea of how small we want to keep it. That’ll be sometime in the Fall but if you’re at all interested in hearing about things that are coming up on our radar. Sherry actually already sold out her ZenTribes course that she’s doing. It’s kind of a mastermind group of about 10 people over the course of eight weeks with Cory Miller. And that sold out within a couple days of opening it up. So things are getting exciting over here at ZenFounder and I’d encourage you to keep us with us via the mailing list. So let’s dive in.

Sherry Walling:

For people who don’t know you or aren’t familiar with your work, what are you most proud of that you’ve acco

Sherry introduces the new Founder Origin Stories series that will be starting this summer, in which she interviews 7 successful entrepreneurs about their beginnings.

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