Starting Advantage - Practical tips on how to start a business for the new entrepreneur

Public relations, or PR, is a helpful tool that founders can use as a force multiplier to build credibility and increase their reach.

What does it mean to have a force multiplier for your business? Find out in this podcast episode. You will hear from, you will hear from a public relations expert, Jonathon Narvey, about his entrepreneurial journey and how to grow your business faster through PR strategies, whether you have the budget to hire a PR firm or want to find DIY inspiration.

Jonathon Narvey is the Founder & CEO of Mind Meld PR Inc. As a reporter covering the tech scene, he learned the craft of storytelling. Now in PR, Jonathon and his team use those skills to earn media coverage for innovative tech companies.

Mind Meld PR is a Public Relations Agency in Vancouver, B.C., serving clients in the USA and Canada. They work with innovative startups and scale-ups in SaaS, AI, EdTech, HealthTech, CleanTech, FinTech, and more.

We discuss in this episode with Jonathon:

• Why Jonathon believes there are two reasons why people become entrepreneurs and why he chose entrepreneurship. (4:31) 
• How Jonathon started his entrepreneurial journey by relying on key relationships and people in his life. (6:28)
• How a touch technique from Star Trek became a metaphor for Jonathon's business. (8:36)
• Why it’s important to go after a niche and how Jonathon found his for Mind Meld PR. (10:29)
• What public relations involve. (12:25)
• The business benefits of PR. (14:24)
• The difference between marketing, advertising, and PR. (15:03)
• How social media fits into a PR strategy. (16:46)
• How to choose stories about your business if you want DIY PR. (18:26)
• Jonathan’s advice on what you can do right now to make your business stand out. (21:11)
• Why PR remains an effective strategy despite a growing trend to mistrust the media. (24:53)
• How a shift from the big players in the media to alternative media opens up more opportunities for founders. (27:12)
• What Jonathon predicts for the future of PR post-pandemic. (28:07)
• Jonathan’s tips on having conversations and managing expectations with clients. (30:34)
• The communication habits Jonathon and his team use to connect, plan and improve. (33:11)
• What Jonathon has observed after years of interviewing successful tech entrepreneurs. (35:13)

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What do you do as a new entrepreneur with self-critical thoughts that make achieving success hard and keep you feeling stuck?

Terry Boyle McDougall is an Executive & Career Coach and CEO of Terry B. McDougall Coaching. She helps high-achieving professionals remove obstacles that keep them stuck so they can enjoy more success and satisfaction in their lives and careers. Before becoming a coach, Terry was a long-time corporate marketing executive where she led teams, developed strategies, and advised senior leaders to drive business results. 

"I think that all of us have that voice in our head that says, 'Oh, you need to do this or you need to do that and if you don't something bad is going to happen. I call it a gremlin, that voice in the head. A lot of times the gremlin is very harsh with us, right. It's critical. It's perfectionistic. It sometimes catastrophizes about, 'Oh, if you don't do this, you're going to get fired or you're gonna lose your house', or whatever. And it's very important, number one, to recognize that the gremlin is there to try to keep us safe, but the gremlin has no nuances." - Terry McDougall

• Why Terry decided to become an entrepreneur in 2017 after 30 years of corporate business experience. (3:23) 
• Why Terry made the decision to go from being a marketing consultant to an executive coach. (5:31)
• Why Terry believes coaching and helping others succeed is her higher calling. (8:40)
• How Terry’s family members responded when she shared her entrepreneurial plans. (10:34)
• Advice on how to have conversations about your business or plans with loved ones so that they can understand your vision and be more likely to be supportive. (12:58)
• Why you should think of your inner critic as a gremlin that is trying to protect you. (15:48)
• Why you should think that success doesn’t have to be hard and how to cultivate this mindset. (18:28)
• Why the first step to doing anything new is believing that it’s possible. (22:28)
• How Terry is using skills from her past to build and enhance her current business. (24:47)
• Why it is smart to hire people to help with your business instead of trying to do everything yourself. (26:24)
• The top skills that you should focus on putting time into developing as an entrepreneur. (28:40)
• Something that most high-achievers struggle with that can support you in staying realistic about your progress. (30:05)
• How Terry celebrates her wins as a habit. (32:28)
• How Terry supports people in identifying if they should work towards career goals in their current position or if they should rather start their own business. (33:00)
• How a mastermind group supported Terry in reaching for entrepreneurial success. (36:19)
• The mindset Terry believes gives her the advantage to manage her inner talk and inner critic. (37:13)
• Common fears and challenges entrepreneurs have based on her coaching experience and the research she did for her best-selling book. (39:11)
• Why you shouldn't compare yourself to very successful entrepreneurs you see in the media (and should always take care to manage your taxes). (40:42)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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Every business has a company culture. Culture impacts everything from employee performance and engagement to how your company is perceived by your customers.

Johanna Lyman is the Principal Consultant and Practice Leader for Culture and Inclusion at Kadabra. She helps small companies get to their next level of success, build a culture that supports sustainable profitability, and develop their teams to their highest potential. She has helped thousands of people all over the world build the business of their dreams and step into being the leader they’ve been called to be. She is a certified coach and business development expert with more than fifteen years of experience helping executives, consultants, and business owners build and develop successful businesses.

Prior to starting her own business in January 2005, Johanna was a CFP(R) at Merrill Lynch, a Divisional Vice President of Sales at Warnaco during the peak of their success, and she had a 10-year career working up the corporate ladder at Filene’s Department Stores, a division of May Co. She’s a Certified Change Management Specialist and Six Sigma Lean Professional (Green Belt).

• How Johanna's story of belonging is what drives her to help leaders build inclusive cultures for companies. (3:45) 
• Why Johanna decided to become an entrepreneur. (9:17)
• A different view on Maslow's hierarchy of needs with belonging at the bottom of the needs pyramid. (10:36)
• Advice on how entrepreneurs can find a like-minded community for support using values alignment. (15:03)
• What conscious capitalism means and what it looks like for business owners. (16:30)
• Why culture happens in an organization whether you plan for it or not. (17:58)
• Why knowing your purpose, or why, matters. (19:00)
• The role of self-awareness when building culture and how to measure if you're actually being self-aware as a leader. (21:51)
• How self-awareness grows with self-reflection. (23:08)
• What it means for a business to have a brave culture and why it's a must for a purpose-driven company. (24:29)
• Tips on how you can start to be more inclusive as a business owner. (25:57)
• The most challenging part for entrepreneurs during this process is to become more conscious. (27:54)
• How to connect your core values with specific action steps in your company. (29:02)
• How to measure the effectiveness of your company culture and its values with a scorecard. (30:28)
• How COVID-19 is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to make collaborative decisions with team members and employees. (31:47)
• The mindsets Johanna believes give her the advantage to do meaningful work that creates a positive impact. (35:10)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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Finding opportunities to help your business grow can be strongly influenced by your chosen mindset.

Founder, Arjun Rai, has successfully used mindset and equity crowdfunding to grow his business quickly. He is an NYC-based entrepreneur who is on a mission to support small businesses with the power of visualized data science and artificial intelligence for digital marketing at HelloWoofy.com. A firm believer that every SMB should have an unfair advantage to compete against unlimited marketing budgets. He has raised from professional investors and personally invested nearly $500,000 in pre-seed VC funding as well as obtained corporate partners (including Fortune 500 companies, such as Microsoft and Google) resulting in over $135,000 in strategic resources.

HelloWoofy is an AI-enabled digital marketing tool that helps you save time and optimize your social media strategy using visual data science.

• When Arjun first decided to make it his mission to make data-driven technology affordable. (5:57) 
• How Arjun had entrepreneurial goals from a young age. (8:25)
• Why you should double down and let everyone else around you know if you believe your calling is to be an entrepreneur. (9:51)
• How your mindset can help you to build a company for your customer with your customer & why Arjun recommends that every founder looks into equity crowdfunding. (12:10)
• How to think about building your confidence as a new entrepreneur. (14:28)
• What Arjun believes is the key to HelloWoofy’s success. (15:07)
• How to build a strong company culture if you’ve got a global team. (16:03)
• How listening and being obsessed with your customers' needs and wants can lead to building a successful MVP. (16:50)
• How HelloWoofy was able to build the world's first smart speaker scheduler. (18:24)
• How to avoid scope creep when building your MVP. (19:10)
• Find out if there’s a real dog on which the brand name HelloWoofy is based. (19:49)
• Arjun’s prediction for the future of digital and content marketing and how to have a competitive advantage. (20:55)
• Why you should include emojis in your social media marketing. 😀👌🔥 (22:47)
• How to communicate with authenticity with your customers. (26:46)
• Why Arjun includes himself as a real person within his business’ brand online. (28:17)
• What it means to have values-driven marketing. (29:14)
• How Arjun creates a work-life balance. (31:55)
• The mindset Arjun believes everyone should have. (34:26)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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Starting your own business can feel like a daunting task. There are many things to consider, and you may feel at times like you don't have the skills or knowledge necessary to succeed.

A success strategy that most successful entrepreneurs have in common is to start taking action before you feel ready.

• - A question you can ask yourself to measure your ability to take action consistently. (2:50)
• - 4 reasons why you should challenge yourself to start before you feel ready. (5:40)
• - What Tania's coach said that helps her move into taking action again when there's a dip in her consistency. (12:48)
• - Encouraging quotes on taking imperfect action by a work reinvention strategist. (14:00)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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This week's bonus episode has an exciting update for you: Startup Advantage has had a slight name upgrade to Starting Advantage. While the podcast looks (and might feel) a bit different, you can continue to join Tania for episodes as you usually do.

You'll continue to hear conversations on success strategies, habits, and mindsets for first-time entrepreneurs.

Tania shares more on this in this quick update.

• Hint: It's to include you and support you even better.

Please share your thoughts by completing a short survey at startingadvantage.com/p/survey.

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Being intentional about taking imperfect action can support you in gaining the clarity you need to become a successful entrepreneur. 

Founder, Lydia Lee, learned to take intentional imperfect action into entrepreneurship and now guides others to do the same. She is the Work Reinvention Coach and Freedom Instigator at Screw The Cubicle. Since 2013, she's helped hundreds of people transition out of the golden corporate handcuffs and build meaningful businesses that support them in living the life they want. She believes in intentionally creating purposeful work with our strengths, values, and personality in mind, so that we’re building a business we love, and want to keep for years to come.

• Why Lydia started her first entrepreneurial project part-time while working full-time for an employer. (5:11)
• How Lydia realized that starting her own business instead of changing jobs or industries was the right decision for her. (9:02)
• What the sweet spot for creating meaningful work is and how to start to find yours. (10:57)
• Why you shouldn’t ever undervalue your current network and how to think about social equity in an empowering way. (14:45)
• A simple mindset shift to overcome the fear of taking action. (20:12)
• Lydia’s thoughtful advice for first-time entrepreneurs on how to approach loved ones that might have concerns about your decision to be an entrepreneur. (23:21)
• How to find the thing to build a business around if you’re unsure of what type of business to start. (28:24)
• How to know the difference between experiencing challenges or whether your business type is not a good fit for you. (32:31)
• How taking calculated risks can create a sense of safety and lead to meaningful work. (36:58)
• What aligned action looks like versus hustle action. (41:30)
• How to access Lydia’s free workshop on how to launch a business designed from your strengths, values, and personality. (43:12)
• How to connect with Lydia. (47:23)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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Most entrepreneurs have to pivot their dreams in order to achieve business success.

Entrepreneur, Joshua Littlejohn, learned to pivot his dreams to achieve business success. You'll hear advice on his success strategies, habits, and mindsets, including insights on networking, being deliberate when it comes to skill development and the benefits of running your business so that it looks like a large corporation.

Joshua Littlejohn is a Canadian entrepreneur, marketer, and author. In January of 2017, he launched Norgress, an Edmonton- based technology company where he currently serves as the chief executive officer. He is also the author of "The Marketing Fallacy: How Any Small Business Can Look Like A Large Corporation, Without The Large Costs". Joshua believes any small business can look like a large corporation without the large costs to experience the benefits that go along with it.

• Joshua's passion for social upliftment and progressive ideals and values. (4:20)
• Benefits Joshua has experienced by running his company so that it looks like a large corporation. (7:16)
• Why there are businesses that will see their best milestones during COVID-19. (8:41)
• What inspired Joshua's work ethic and passion for community upliftment. (10:19)
• Joshua's advice on how to know if you should focus on building the brand of your business or your personal brand. (12:06)
• What Joshua found challenging in becoming an entrepreneur. (14:07)
• How Joshua managed to grow his company Norgress into the success that it is today. (15:43)
• How Joshua started to pivot for his dreams. (18:14)
• How to approach networking to build relationships like Joshua does. (20:27)
• How Joshua was deliberate from a young age to challenge himself to step outside his comfort zone. (23:15)
• The habits Joshua has to manage his health and energy. (25:37)
• A mindset Joshua recommends for whatever habits you choose to have. (26:44)
• How Joshua uses his values in his hiring strategy and to select partners or team members. (27:53)
• How to get a free copy of Joshua's book, The Marketing Fallacy' - the ebook and the audiobook. (30:00)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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When you start your own business it can feel challenging to manage your time or to create a daily schedule and routine that is optimal for both your productivity and your mental health.

In this podcast episode, you will hear about how you can use pre-planning of your day as a time management strategy so that you can both optimize your productivity and avoid burnout.

• What time management means and why you should have a daily schedule. (6:08)
• The benefits for entrepreneurs of making the scheduling of your day a daily habit. (8:09)
• 3 tips for pre-planning your day for optimum efficiency. (11:19)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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There’s more to being a frugal entrepreneur than how you spend your money.

In this podcast episode, you will hear about what it means to have a frugal entrepreneurial mindset from an entrepreneur who shows others how to launch and manage an online business on a budget.

Sarah St John has created several startups throughout her entrepreneurial career of over a decade. She is an entrepreneur, podcaster, and author and describes herself as an animal lover and world traveller. Sarah currently owns a podcast production agency called PodSeam and she is also the podcast host of “Frugalpreneur: Building a Business on a Bootstrapped Budget”.

• How Sarah (with the benefit of hindsight) knows that she has always been an entrepreneur at heart. (5:03)
• The internal struggle of finding an entrepreneurial identity. (8:09)
• The main reason why Sarah believes some of her earlier businesses failed. (10:46)
• How Sarah found financial peace and inspiration for her brand Frugalpreneur. (13:46)
• How to get started with an online business affordably on a budget. (14:40)
• The most common mistake entrepreneurs make when it comes to their financial mindset. (18:20)
• How much time you'll likely need to spend on your online business per week when starting out. (19:20)
• Why Sarah predicts that most businesses will soon have a podcast. (21:05)
• About Sarah's Preneur Series ebooks for online entrepreneurs and how you can get access to it for free. (24:02)
• How to be frugal with your time. (25:02)
• How to build relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs online. (26:20)

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. 

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