That Will Never Work

How do you get your creative team on board with using data to help drive their decisions?  That’s the question facing Katie, co-owner of Studio 882, an interior design and furniture showroom out of Glen Mills, PA. 

Katie believes she has found the secret sauce that will grow the business to the next level and enable her to expand around the US.  She’s reapplying airport software, including air traffic control monitoring and facial recognition, to enhance the customer experience and mine valuable information about why one sofa sits and one sofa fits.  It's a potential treasure trove of information… if her team would put it to use.

In this episode Marc shares the secrets to layering creativity, intuition and data to help your business take flight.

Want to be a guest on That Will Never Work? 

Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form and record the question you’d like Marc’s help with right there on the site. And while you’re there sign up for Marc’s newsletter https://marcrandolph.com/newsletter/

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Tw: @mbrandolph

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Jordan DeCicco created Super Coffee in his dorm room when he was only 19 years old. He dropped out of college to go full-time on his side-hustle and now, together with his two brothers runs the bottled beverage brand out of Austin, Texas.

With an impressive $125m in annual revenue, the DeCiccos have attracted big name investors including J. Lo and Alex Rodriguez. Their next step is tackling how to scale - not just domestically but also internationally.

But how do you maintain the company culture you created from the ground up when you’re growing at this pace? And how do you lead as Chief People Person when your leadership team is made up of your older brothers?

Listen in for actionable tips on how to scale culture "all the way to the bottom” as you grow around the world.

Want to be a guest on That Will Never Work? 

Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form and record the question you’d like Marc’s help with right there on the site. And while you’re there sign up for Marc’s newsletter https://marcrandolph.com/newsletter/

Feeling social? Marc would love to hear from you here:

Twitter: @mbrandolph

Instagram: @ThatWillNeverWork 

LinkedIn: Marcrandolph   

Tiktok:  @marc_randolph

Education major Erin has developed a fun new STEM product for kids with her Boeing engineer business partner – a quad drone kit for kids to build and fly. She knows the palm-sized toy drone market is a crowded space, which is why her company Finger Flyer differentiates itself as an educational tool. But why is her strategy of marketing direct to school districts suffering from failure to launch? 

In this episode Marc explores what pivots she can make to help the company take flight. Can an education product start up ever become profitable or is a business to consumer strategy just a better bet?

This episode is part of a two-episode special drop to celebrate International Women’s day, featuring two young female entrepreneurs from High Point University, North Carolina. Be sure to check out our previous episode with grad student Ivana Korankyi who's trying to figure out how much cash she really has to drop to bring her revolutionary lab product Flasky to market.

Want to be a guest on That Will Never Work? 

Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form and record the question you’d like Marc’s help with right there on the site. And while you’re there sign up for Marc’s newsletter https://marcrandolph.com/newsletter/

Feeling social? Marc would love to hear from you here:

Twitter: @mbrandolph

Instagram: @ThatWillNeverWork 

LinkedIn: Marcrandolph   

Tiktok: @marc_randolph  

Grad student Ivana needs Marc’s help to figure out a big decision – should she spend $10,000 on a mold for her time saving lab tool Flasky?  Or is there a better way? 

Her uniquely shaped flask-cleaning tool could save labs everywhere hours in cleaning time and thousands of dollars in drug wastage, benefitting the development of everything from painkillers to cancer drugs.   But how does she convince a sector that has become accustomed to ignoring the problem she’s seeking to solve, to buy in without breaking the bank in the process?

Listen in as Marc shares his strategies on how to become a successful entrepreneurially minded product inventor.

 This episode is part of a two-episode special drop to celebrate International Women’s day, featuring student entrepreneurs from High Point University, North Carolina.  Be sure to check out our second episode with education major Erin Morrow where Marc explores how to get her drone company Finger Flyer onto the flight path to success.  

Want to be a guest on That Will Never Work? 

Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form and record the question you’d like Marc’s help with right there on the site. And while you’re there sign up for Marc’s newsletter https://marcrandolph.com/newsletter/

Feeling social? Marc would love to hear from you here:

Twitter: @mbrandolph

Instagram: @ThatWillNeverWork 

LinkedIn: Marcrandolph   

Tiktok: @marc_randolph         

As entrepreneurs, engineers have an enviable advantage - they can easily build prototypes of the products and services they want to bring to market. But they still need the more fundamental skill that all entrepreneurs require: deciphering what the market wants. And the process to figure that out can take all of us out of our comfort zones. On today’s show, Marc offers Michael, an engineer with a great idea, suggestions on how to put himself in the shoes and mindset of his potential customers before he brings his innovative solution for medicine distribution to the masses. 

Want to be a guest on "That Will Never Work" and get help with your business issues? Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form, and leave a voice message right there on the site. While there, you can also sign up for Marc’s newsletter – or else connect with him on Twitter (@mbrandolph) or on Instagram (@ThatWillNeverWork).

Ahhh the ‘idea stage’: when you’ve identified the problem your business is solving, and you’re ready to bring your vision to life. And what better way to do that than building an app, right? Wrong. On today’s show, Marc takes aspiring entrepreneur Kristen back to the ‘idea stage,’ and asks the key questions she - and anyone - needs to answer before calling dial-a-geek and commissioning a costly app. Tune in and save yourself a world of hurt…and expense.

Want to be a guest on "That Will Never Work" and get help with your business issues? Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form, and leave a voice message right there on the site. While there, you can also sign up for Marc’s newsletter – or else connect with him on Twitter (@mbrandolph) or on Instagram (@ThatWillNeverWork).

As we settle into life in a (hopefully) post-pandemic world, there are a ton of newly launched businesses that are facing a pivot point. These are the entrepreneurs for whom ‘going remote’ was a boon - and now it’s time to figure out if that was a blip or the start of something bigger. In the case of today’s guest, Dustin, a professional drummer with the indie pop band St. Lucia, his drum lesson studio expanded its purview and looks to be poised for success. Marc has some great thoughts on how Dustin should approach his next step in the exploding music education segment, and it's a primer for anyone who’s ready to turn the volume up on their own company.

Want to be a guest on "That Will Never Work" and get help with your business issues? Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form, and leave a voice message right there on the site. While there, you can also sign up for Marc’s newsletter – or else connect with him on Twitter (@mbrandolph) or on Instagram (@ThatWillNeverWork).

Today it’s a crash course in getting your business out of the garage and into the showroom, so to speak. Laurie and PJ, partners in business and life, have already demonstrated the validity of their Van modification business, and attracted a lot of interest through a crowdfunding campaign. Now, it’s time to take it to the big boys, the venture folks. Or is it? Marc walks them through the different scenarios and considerations that come with raising serious funding - and it’s an episode that anyone approaching this stage of their business needs to hear.

Want to be a guest on "That Will Never Work" and get help with your business issues? Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form, and leave a voice message right there on the site. While there, you can also sign up for Marc’s newsletter – or else connect with him on Twitter (@mbrandolph) or on Instagram (@ThatWillNeverWork).

What do you do when the world’s biggest tech players think they’ve already solved a problem - but you think you can solve it better? That’s what today’s conversation is all about. In order to disrupt, you need to pick your spot - it could be a unique feature, an overlooked customer segment, or just better overall functionality, but if you don’t come with something to outshine the industry titans, your slingshot will be shooting blanks.

Want to be a guest on "That Will Never Work" and get help with your business issues? Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form, and leave a voice message right there on the site. While there, you can also sign up for Marc’s newsletter – or else connect with him on Twitter (@mbrandolph) or on Instagram (@ThatWillNeverWork).

It sounds like a great problem to have, really. You’ve stood up your dream business, creating a sustainable and profitable entity that’s delivered on your initial goals. Now, you can take a step back from the day to day as an able staff runs the show. But what’s the best approach for a Founder-turned-Board Member to take? And…what’s next? Marc, who has found himself in this role more than once, has some good insights for today’s guest.

Want to be a guest on "That Will Never Work" and get help with your business issues? Head to https://marcrandolph.com/guest (https://marcrandolph.com/guest), fill out the form, and leave a voice message right there on the site. While there, you can also sign up for Marc’s newsletter – or else connect with him on Twitter (@mbrandolph) or on Instagram (@ThatWillNeverWork).