The Bulletproof Entrepreneur™

Jim Palmer is a business & marketing expert and an in-demand business coach and consultant. Though he started from humble beginnings and spent many years in corporate, he turned his prior experiences into valuable assets which have helped him build many highly profitable & lucrative businesses including “The Dream Business Coach,” No Hassle Newsletters, Stick Like Glue Radio and lots more.

However, things were not always so good. At one point Jim was unemployed for over a year and spent at least 14 months fighting for his life as a result of a cancer diagnosis. Rather than give up and feel sorry for himself, Jim dug deep and applied his faith and prayed for healing, guidance & direction on what his next move would be.

While recovering from cancer, he launched a newsletter writing business. He noted that the company generated no revenues for over a year. To make ends meet and provide food, clothing, and shelter for his young family, he worked the late night and early morning shifts stocking shelves at Target while spending his afternoons building his fledgling business. It was a humbling experience but necessary because he believed that men and women should do whatever it takes to provide for their families regardless of their situation.

These days Jim spends his time working on his numerous business ventures and helping budding entrepreneurs launch their dream business. He runs the Stick Like Glue Radio podcast where he interviews many experts on various topics and has authored several books including Decide: The Ultimate Success Trigger and Just Say Yes: Create Your Dream Business and Live Your Dream Lifestyle all of which are listed on Amazon.com.

Jim shared a lot of valuable information and insights in this episode. I hope you listen, learn and take lots of notes. For more details on Jim visit www.getjimpalmer.com.

You can also find him on Facebook @facebook.com/newsletterguru

In today's episode of The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, we chat with Pia Silva of Worstofall Design. Pia shares the story of how she and her partner went from $40,000 in debt to building a 6-figure business in under six months. Pia notes that when she and her partner started the business, they did everything “the right way.” They charged similarly to their competitors, approached business development and lead generation just like their peers and even hired personnel to achieve the look and feel of a “Big” firm.

Sadly, these tactics hurt their business. They were still losing money and lacked specificity in their actions because they catered to any client willing to sign a check. As a result, they were not nearly as successful they would have liked. It wasn't until she and her partner sat down to thoroughly analyze their business and make tough decisions before they started to make progress and get traction.

After narrowing their focus and only specializing in working with a particular type of customer and offering a limited range of services, Pia and her partner were able to turn around their business from the brink of bankruptcy to profitability within six months. They not only became profitable but were able to create the more free time and generate more money while working less. 

 Pia notes that though the journey has had many ups and downs there's nothing she enjoys more that working on her business and helping her clients succeed. She shared her personal and professional struggles, dealing with the impostor syndrome and advice for young entrepreneurs coming to grips with the challenges of building a new business.

In her new book “Badass Your Brand - The Impatient Entrepreneur’s Guide to Turning Expertise into Profit” she narrates the story of how she and her partner Steve were able to hit upon a winning formula for creating lasting business success and how they were able to apply these lessons to the benefit of their clients. We discuss a few of the strategies she relies on to help customers become Badass Brands and how any small business can tap into their inner Badassery. You will want to listen attentively and take notes because there’s a lot of subtle wisdom shared in this episode. Pia is a featured contributor on Forbes.com and a participant in the Entrepreneurs Organization accelerator.

• Worstofall Design

• forbes.com/sites/piasilva
  

In today’s episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast, we chat with Richard Chapo aka The Socal Internet Lawyer. Richard started his entrepreneurial journey around the turn of the century when the Dotcom boom was just hitting its stride. He and a partner worked on several projects helping entrepreneurs navigate the new and exciting challenges that arose as a result of the opportunities created by the internet. Coming from a wrongful death/ healthcare law background, Richard realized that his true calling lay in helping people building things that have lasting impact and value to the society.

These days Richard spends his time working with entrepreneurs and solopreneurs as a trusted advisor and counselor. He consults on issues ranging from business entity formation and incorporation, copyright infringement, DMCA compliance and implementation, legal matters concerning ownership content created by third party providers and lots more.

In this discussion we talked about what led him down the path of entrepreneurship, the five top challenges startups face from a legal perspective, use of equity as payment for service providers like lawyers and consultants, etc.

Richard has come a long way from his early days as a young lawyer trying to climb the corporate ladder and has acquired some battle scars of entrepreneurship that have given him a unique perspective on work, life and finding happiness in your vocation. He’s also experienced some pretty hilarious and scary situations like the time he and a friend went on a road trip in Siberia, Russia and their driver turned out to be a crusty one-eyed man. I had a lot of fun in this episode, and I believe there are many nuggets of wisdom you can learn from Richard. So listen, learn and execute.

Damion Lupo could be considered a true renaissance man in every sense of the word. The Alaska-born, Austin, Texas-based entrepreneur has shown time and again that the human spirit is only limited by the scale of one’s imagination.

From overcoming bankruptcy and debt to building Total Control Financial, an innovative Fintech startup, Damion has seen it all and done it all. However, he maintains that without having a strong “Why” success in business can be meaningless if it is not channeled towards serving a higher purpose.

Damion’s entrepreneurial journey started when he was barely 11 years old. Like many other entrepreneurs, he started a business trying to solve his problem. He didn’t have access to video games, and so he decided to start buying, selling and trading them with his friends. The venture proved to be quite successful, and pretty soon he was hooked on entrepreneurship.

He parlayed his early success into another profitable venture, selling books from his dorm room in college. His sheer tenacity and instinct for making deals almost put the University’s bookstore out of business. He received an ultimatum from the Dean to either shut down his business or leave the school. But when you’re a bulletproof entrepreneur, and your business generates your entire tuition money in just four days, the decision is pretty much a no-brainer.

After leaving college, he launched a string of businesses and other small enterprises, but his big break didn’t come until around the turn of the millennium. Damion got inspired to go into real estate by watching a late night infomercial. He financed his first investment property purchase with confidence and credit cards. In his words, the situation at the time was just simply “I didn’t know that I couldn’t buy a house with a credit card.”

Mr. Lupo eventually built a real estate portfolio of over 150 homes and was living the jet-setting millionaire lifestyle. But the party didn’t last forever. As a result of the financial crisis in 2008, the music stopped, and our hero found himself in a tight position losing close to twenty million dollars in a few months. A lot of his real estate purchases were financed with debt that was backed and guaranteed by his personal assets. As the cash flow from the rentals failed to cover his debt payments, the banks called in the loans, and he was left with little choice except to file for bankruptcy.

This period was particularly challenging because he lost the money entrusted to him by his friends and family. Amidst the personal and financial crises, Damion decided to go on an introspective quest. He examined his life and his past decisions and realized that despite being successful in material terms, he was unsuccessful regarding his emotional and spiritual well-being. It was this realization that made him decide to make a lasting change concerning his perspective to life.

Today, Damion has translated the wisdom he’s learned over the years into lessons that can be easily applied in any situation. He’s the author of over five books including the Reinvented Life, which details his experiences in the trenches of entrepreneurship. He’s also a noted speaker & teacher and the founder of a unique form of martial arts called Yokido, which blends the teachings of Yoga & Aikido.

His new business Total Control Financial helps people take control of their financial lives to that can have the freedom to create a life of their dreams. And while he doesn’t believe he’s completely mastered the art of the comeback, he’s definitely learned a thing or two about helping you flip that switch that will take you from broke to millions. So listen, learn and take action.

In today's episode, we’re talking to Paul Oberschneider the author of the new book "Why Sell Tacos In Africa" and the Founder of the Ober-Haus Group. Paul turned a little three-week allowance of $400 into a business empire valued at over $200 million over a period of 18 years in Central and Eastern Europe.

His life story is a testament to the spirit of entrepreneurship and capitalism. Using the skills and resources he had available and thanks to a bit of serendipity, Paul met a young Russian named Sergei at the famous square in Tallin, Estonia who made an unusual request. Sergei asked Paul if he could put together a business plan for the purpose of obtaining a bank loan. Paul wrote the business plan, and to their mutual surprise, Sergei got the loan. Word quickly spread, and pretty soon Paul had made over $100,000 over a three month period writing business plans for various people and organizations.

Riding on the back of the success of his business plan writing service, Paul parlayed his capital into other ventures ranging from Real Estate development, Hospitality, Financial Services and Retail and Consumer products. Along the way, he met several interesting characters and had many hair-raising experiences including being held up at gunpoint by a pair of Russian gangsters asking for a piece of his business.

Ever the creative problem solver, Paul was able to resolve many issues simply by applying his creativity and intuition to problems as they arose. Though he’s a firm believer in having a strategic and tactical approach to doing business, he credits a large part of his success to being at the right place at the right time.

After selling his businesses in a presciently shrewd maneuver at the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008, Paul admits to taking his eyes off the ball and not focusing on the important things. He then decided to get back in the game of business by becoming a private investor and mentor to startups founders in the Oxford area of the United Kingdom. He has also written a new book “Why to Sell Tacos In Africa” which chronicles his adventures over the past 25 years and serves as a metaphor for how young entrepreneurs should think about doing business in blue sky markets.

I hope you listen, learn and take lots of notes. If you would like to know more about Paul and keep up with his current work you can reach him at Paul Oberschneider/. Feel free to connect with him on social media and LinkedIN.

In this episode i talk about the 3 money mindsets you need to internalize to be a successful online entrepreneur.

These are the 7 main reasons why you need to create a portfolio of digital products/assets that can generate passive income for you.

      Ever wondered what it would be like to create a Superhero? Well, wonder no more. Today’s guest had the same questions while growing up as a teenager in Nigeria and finally decided to do something about it. Roye Okupe is the creator of one of the first Africa-centric superheroes “EXO | The Legend Of Wale Williams”. We had a brief chat with him to learn about his story, which has been featured in several international publications including CNN, Ventures Africa, Forbes, BBC Tech Crunch and lots more. He shared how he discovered his passion for comics, animation and fiction, the steps he took to acquire the skills required to bring his creation to life and his collaborative process with the team of creatives that work with him to bring his vision to life. "E.X.O: The Legend of Wale Williams" is an action-packed graphic novel that tells the tale of a reluctant superhero (Wale Williams) in dystopian futuristic African city (Lagoon city ). In the first volume, we meet a young man from a typical African family who suddenly finds himself saddled with the responsibility of protecting his city from nefarious underworld elements. It’s the type of story Roye grew up watching on cable television in Nigeria, but this time told from an African perspective in an African environment. It encompasses a rich narrative backstory, fast paced dialogues and action sequences and familiar themes, morals and motivations that resonate with every lover graphic novels. Although the idea took a long time to come to life, Roye and his team ( Ayodele Elegba the editorial wizard, artist supreme Sunkanmi Akinboye, Godwin Akpan (the cover art design don) and color master Raphael Kazeem ) worked painstakingly to ensure that their story could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any Superhero produced by the fabled Marvel & D.C. publishing houses. And their efforts paid off tremendously; they were able to raise over $10,000 from their Kickstarter campaign which beat their initial target by 185% and helped finance the publishing of the first installment of the series. Like with any heroic story, success did not come quickly for Roye. There were many failures & setbacks along the way, but Roye was relentless in his quest and risked a fair bit of his life savings, and gave up his lucrative full-time job to pursue his passion. Today, Roye’s Youneek Studios is set to release the second volume of the Wale Williams adventure series and is currently developing another graphic novel set for release at the end of 2016 (Malaika The Warrior Queen). So pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea and listen to the fantastic tales of Roye Okupe.

In this episode of the Chi Odogwu show i talk about why you need to love everything that happens to you. The trajectory of your life and the course of history can be affected by the seemingly mundane and pedestrian events that occur in daily life.

The 3 Ways To Grow Your Business. 1)Increase the number of clients 2)Increase the transaction size 3)Increase the frequency of the transaction.