Screw the Naysayers

In this weeks Tim Talks, we look at the key reasons why people stay in bad situations, and discuss the choices we have and the consequences of the decisions we make. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and stories, or just make a connection.

Somebody pinch me. In the last two months I’ve gone deep into the world of brand marketing with Seth Godin, Philip Stutts and now David Brier.

As the recipient of over 300 industry awards, David Brier is the Creative Director of DBD International, and to use his words, his job is to help brands defy gravity and rise above the noise. A branding veteran for over three decades, David has provided branding strategies, brand identities and package design for startups, retail, technology, and tourism brands. His work has been featured in ADWEEK, Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, New York Times magazine, INC., Communication Arts and numerous other publications.

You can reach David at:

Website: https://www.risingabovethenoise.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbrier/  

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and stories, or just make a connection.

Christopher Plowman is the CEO of Insight Timer, an online meditation app that is shaking up an industry that some would say is more driven by money than it is by consciousness. Easy to grab free trials that quickly convert to paid subscriptions with stealth auto renewal options is the industry norm. Christopher and his team at Insight Timer have taken a different path. Their free app gives the user access to 15,000 free meditation sessions. The paid version provides access to an online community. The optin free trial for the paid version includes two reminders to ensure that people are making a conscious choice. These differences explain why Insight Timer, with 7 million global users (tiny when compared to the industry giants in this space) account for 63% of the time spent listening to online meditation in North America! Think about that. Put simply, people that download this free app use it and use it a lot.

Full disclosure. After my interview with Christopher I cancelled my paid subscription with a competitor and started using Insight Timer. I love it!

I also love Christophers vision. The challenge for Insight Timer is simple. How do you build a profitable company when you’re committed to a free product which costs millions of dollars a year to run? The company is competing against big players with large marketing budgets. Insight Timer splits their revenues with 3,000 teachers who contribute online meditation sessions. The rest is used for administration. And the truth is, that is still not enough. To make this work Insight Timer needs to grow from 7 million meditators to 50 million.

This episode provides a fascinating insight into the development of a tech based business that seeks to be commercially viable while ensuring that online meditation is available to everyone in the world, regardless of their ability to pay. Christopher is a rare human being and this is a special interview.

You can reach Christopher at:

Website: https://insighttimer.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoplowman/

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and stories, or just make a connection.

In this episode Tim explains that when it comes to quitting a corporate job to start a business, most people are not framing the discussion properly. All this talk about freedom isn't reality. And even if it was, it would be a pretty unpleasant reality. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and stories, or just make a connection.

Vice Optimization as a life strategy. I confess that I never imagined I’d be using that phrase of a way of introducing a guest on my show. Benny Wallington is the founder and creator of a company called 101 tokens, that teaches people how to retrain their booze brains.

The business started with a New Years Resolution. Benny was sick of how drinking was cutting into his life, but he didn't want to give it up. In his words, abstinence throws people into panic and adds stress. So Benny decided to give himself 101 tokens he could use in the next 12 months. A token could be used for one drink or a night of binge drinking. The next day he would ask himself a simple question. Was it worth it? And he would write his answer down.

This simple idea has grown into a global movement of people who use 101 tokens to address any number of potentially harmful habits.

This concept is going gangbusters globally, he’s been on several major TV and radio stations promoting the community and the concepts. It’s even supported by health professionals because of the way he’s teaching people how to hack their drinking habits and providing support and powerful information during the process!

Even if you don’t feel the need to retrain your booze brain, you will get a lot of value from this episode as we dive into the business startup world, community perspectives, why Benny wears party shirts even on national television and he turns the questions on me at the end which is a bit of fun.

You can reach Benny at:

Website: https://www.101tokens.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennywallington/

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and stories, or just make a connection.