Run With It

Tell us what you think at [email protected]! If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

Nuggets:

• It’s easier to pivot after starting than to get started, so just start.
• Management tip: to avoid over or under managing, work with your direct report to get started and then let them drive their own ship.
• Move fast and don’t look back: things that you think are important early on will seem trivial later so don’t sweat.
• Being a great curator of content can be just as valuable as creating content, especially in an increasingly noisy information space.

Action Steps:

1. Start with a very minimal module (1 week) of management training
2. Incorporate this into blog or newsletter as content for readers to apply
3. Consult a lawyer to check whether it’s ok to share curated ideas in a paid newsletter
4. Target middle-level companies of 50 employees or less to begin

Links:

• Laudable
• The Long-Term Effects of Management and Technology Transfer: Evidence from the US Productivity Program
• Google re:Work
• Lesson Plans as a Product with Rob Fitzpatrick
• Looking For Syllabus 2.0
• We Need a New Science of Progress

Angela Ferrante is the founder and CEO of Laudable, a startup making it easier (and more affordable) to create video content by doing it all remotely. Laudable is out to kill the boring B2B marketing archetype (cough, the PDF case study) and bring human stories to life through video. Angela was previously the founding CMO at Sparkfund, a venture-backed energy technology company. Before Sparkfund, she started the alternative energy group at a Boston-based insurance company.

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• Don’t ask friends and family whether they like your idea. If they’re good friends, they’ll lie to you. Instead, ask them about their personal experiences.
• Listen with an open mind when hearing things you think you already know. Oftentimes, there’s much more depth to the idea than you’ve internalized.

Action Steps:

1. Answer Joe’s guiding questions to understand what you really want from a business
2. Choose your niche based on your interest and connections
3. Talk with 30 members of that niche to understand their pain points
4. Brainstorm solutions and ask prospects to pre-pay for them

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• Ajax Union
• Joe’s LinkedIn profile (mention Run With It and he will accept your connection)
• Evyrgreen (LinkedIn lead generation)
• Lesson Plans as a Product with Rob Fitzpatrick
• Getting Things Done
• Think and Grow Rich

Joe Apfelbaum is the CEO of digital marketing agency Ajax Union. He is a public speaker, certified Google Trainer, and published business author. Joe enjoys speaking and writing about a broad range of business topics in his seminars, webinars and articles. Joe is the host of the popular podcast CEO Mojo and the producer of GrowTime.tv. In 2016 Joe was named the King of Kings County Brooklyn for his contribution to the business community in Brooklyn. Joe is proud of all his accomplishments, but most of all he is proud of his beautiful amazing kids.

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• The most important asset an entrepreneur has is her persistence; don’t start until you’re ready to “sleep like a baby” (stay up all night crying)

Action Steps:

1. Identify the problem
   1. read US Department of Justice Study on Identity Theft
   2. understand where the $25 billion per year losses are going (i.e who is getting hit the most)
   3. speak with these organizations to learn more about the challenges they are facing
2. Develop the solution
   1. create a business plan of how one would solve this problem
   2. close the gaps needed to achieve this solution
3. Persist

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• Avail
• U.S. Department of Justice Study on Identity Theft
• Black Mirror episode White Christmas
• Credit Karma
• Stripe

Ryan Coon is the co-founder & CEO of Avail, an all-in-one software solution designed for do-it-yourself (DIY) landlords that is used by more than 600,000 landlords and tenants across the United States.

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• If you desire power, you shouldn’t pursue it (paraphrased from Plato’s Republic)

Action Steps:

1. Create a marketing plan for growing Roscioli Wine Club and community.wine

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• Roscioli Wine Club
• Wine Tasting Rome
• community.wine
• The Flywheel Effect
• Gregg Popovich is a wine connoisseur

Lindsay came to Italy 5 years ago when she was studying wine in the US, came to Rimessa Roscioli to do Alessandro's wine tasting, left in awe, fell in love in every sense did a U turn to get back.  She now is a partner in the business and manages the Roscioli wine club along with partners Alessandro and Mattia.  

Alessandro Pepe has done it all - documentaries, theater, opened multiple wine bars in Dublin then returned back to Rome and ultimately was the mastermind behind Rimessa Roscioli, a wine bar and restaurant in Rome, and the created the Roscioli Wine Club and Community.wine.

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

Links:
Principles by Ray Dalio
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Accadium - Digital apprenticeships
Cal Newport
David Goggins
Tim Ferriss Podcast Episode
Erin Hooley's Run With It Episode for E-commerce Growth

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Nuggets:

• Pick a business that you can grit through
• Sometimes grit is less intense and more zen. A reserved but committed approach can help you maintain energy on your project for the long haul.

Action Steps:

1. Create a simplified Process Flow Diagram (PFD) for how recycling is done today
2. Research values of each stream in the PFD
3. Target the points at which you can amplify the most value.
4. Incorporate some hard numbers in your research. Who pays for raw recyclable material, how much do they pay, and why?
5. Research companies that incorporate recycled materials in their products or packaging. Find out the price points they pay. How do they make it profitable?
6. Start a small local project where committed recyclers can contribute to special recycling containers and be tracked and get credit for their contributions.
7. Raise some funding on the merit of the idea to test feasibilities. “Do good” projects like this may attract funders who strive to make a difference and care less about short term profitability.

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• JustReachOut (Dmitry’s PR connection company)
• Criminally Prolific (Dmitry’s personal website)
• Terry Gross interview with Kate O’Neill
• Allbirds (more sustainable shoes)
• Pela (eco-friendly phone cases)
• Method (eco-friendly soap)
• Recycle More E-Waste with Anders Ankarlid
• A Good Company

Dmitry Dragilev is the founder of JustReachOut- a platform which has helped 5000+ brands and small businesses pitch journalists and get featured in press all on their own without the help of PR firms.

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

Nuggets:

• A Software as a Service (SaaS) needs to be so easy your grandma could use it
• If you’re in a fear mindset, make a plan. No matter how great the plan is it will help you get into action, which is a much better state.
• If you want your business to grow, expect your marketing budget to expand ahead of growth. A stable marketing budget reflects a stagnant business.

Action Steps:

1. Start with a plan. Understand the basics of why and how this business would work before moving forward.
2. Create a mock up by getting bids from UI designers.
3. Invest in creating a product that you can launch to a small group of enthusiastic clients.
4. Aim to use your first clients as evangelists that can spread the word to others on the benefits of the product. Create compelling case studies and document customer stories.
5. Once you’ve dialed the product in and garnered effusive praise from your evangelists, start selling to other business owners.

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• JB Kellogg’s Website
• Marketing360 (Madwire’s marketing platform for small businesses)
• Paul Graham’s Do Things That Don’t Scale
• Ray Dalio’s Principles

JB Kellogg is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Madwire® which he started when he was 28 years old and, with the help of a championship team, grew the company to over 100MM+ in revenue and 500+ employees in under 10 years.

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

Nuggets:

• The first step is often to build your self belief and overcome your fears
• U.S. business travel is a massive market ($1.6 trillion); business travelers took 462 million trips in 2013

Action Steps:

1. Find a similar product and try to sell it to one of your appropriate connections—a frequent traveler—using the marketing and branding you intend to ultimately use.
2. Get feedback via forums that business travelers use; ask what they think about the shower experience.
3. Connect with an engineer on Upwork and hire them to design a prototype
4. Utilize a Kickstarter or landing page to fundraise and test out your marketing ideas. Try mimicking a humorous & successful brand like Dollar Shave Club.
5. After proving and tweaking the concept, build a larger market through giveaways, social media and influencer marketing (e.g. trade a tool for reviews or photos of influencers using it).
6. Settle on a price point at which it will be “impossible to say no.”
7. Develop more extensive distribution channels and make your way to airport gift shops and luggage retailers.

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• The Creator Mindset
• nirbashan.com

Nir Bashan is a world-renowned creativity expert. He has taught thousands of leaders and individuals around the globe how to harness the power of creativity to improve profitability, increase sales, improve customer service and ultimately create more meaning in their work.   Nir has spent the last two decades working on a formula to codify creativity.  

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

Nuggets:

• This idea is so exciting because it’s a platform that expands both sides of a marketplace; it makes it easier for fitness instructors to get their content out, and easier for people to work out remotely
• Don’t forget about the incredible power of puns in branding and marketing.

Action Steps:

1. Create a business overview/plan including the product, points of differentiation, value proposition, etc...
2. Create a financial model with some basic assumptions to ensure that the idea will be profitable
3. Validate product/market fit (before spending serious money or seeking investment dollars)
4. Create a basic landing page with the value proposition and run Facebook ads to it
5. Use the data collected from ads to inform and iterate on the financial model

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• Sheets & Giggles
• Startup Financial Modeling via Startup Rocket
• ATHLEAN-X
• Six Pack Promise
• Nike Run Club App

Colin McIntosh is Founder & CEO of Sheets & Giggles, a pun-based, eco-friendly bedding brand that launched in May 2018 on Indiegogo with their first product: lyocell bed sheets made from eucalyptus trees. In their first 6 months in business, they received over 6,000 orders and nearly half a million dollars in revenue. They won first place at Denver Startup Week 2018, have since gone on to make and raise millions of dollars in revenue and venture capital.

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run

Nuggets:

• James Dyson approached incumbent vacuum manufacturers with his idea for a bagless vacuum cleaner. They shot him down because “they sell bags”
• Even if your business is starting small, imagine the pitfalls you may encounter if it must rapidly scale.
• Be obsessed with your customers. It will arise from natural curiosity and even a bit of natural insecurity.

Action Steps:

1. Find co-founders who complement your skill set; can save a ton of money over hiring everything out in the beginning
2. Talk with home printer users to learn what matters most to them and how you can service them better than incumbents; build a list of potential customers from these conversations
3. Create a Kickstarter campaign to presell the idea to your list
4. Get a better printer designed and prototyped
5. Find a manufacturer who will make your product
6. Raise money as needed to fund manufacturing (that will likely be the expensive part of this idea)

Follow through on these action steps and email us your results at [email protected]. You'll get exclusive access to a private Facebook group of action takers and one listener will earn a free mentorship call with our guest, and potentially, a business partnership.

Links:

• Built to Sell
• The Automatic Customer
• Everyone’s favorite Office Space printer scene
• RV Snap Pad
• Kent’s LinkedIn

Kent Wilson is the co-founder and CMO of RV Snap Pad  He is in charge of all key growth marketing strategies and tactics, such as conversion rate optimization, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and brand messaging. 

🎙️ Podcast hosting provided by Transistor. Want to start your own podcast? Get 15% off your first year by going to transistor.fm/run