The Business Method: Interviewing Billionaires, Billion Dollar Founders & the World’s Most Successful People 🎧🔥

“Entrepreneurship can be very lonely.” Stephan Jacob

Have you ever thought about mixing your passion, charity, and business together?  As this is a dream for many, I would say there aren’t a lot of entrepreneurs that successfully blend these three characteristics together.  Today’s guest is Stephan Jacob who is the co-founder of Cotopaxi.com. Cotopaxi is an outdoor adventure apparel company that has built its brand through outdoor adventure races while consistently giving a portion of their revenue to help eliminate poverty.

Starting just three years ago, Stephan and his partner launched this idea and with some genius strategy and marketing. It has propelled them to have rapid growth and rapid success. Today, we will talk about how Cotopaxi started with just one adventure race in 2014 on a college campus, and it has grown to where they hold sixty adventure races around the U.S. and Canada this year in 2017.   

“It (marketing through adventure races) is a much more subtle approach and a much more scrappy approach, then hitting them over the head with performance marketing.” Stephan Jacob

02:19: Who is Stephan Jacob?

07:06: Using Non-Traditional Marketing Events for Growth

12:32: Paternity Leave and Cotopaxi’s Progressive Policy

16:11: Building a Non-Profit Adventure Race as a Legitimate Form of Marketing

22:35: Indiegogo vs Kickstarter

25:02: Strategies for Crowdfunding Launches

27:32: Choosing Charities to Work With

30:13: Tips to Create a 7-Figure Location-Independent Business

Honorable Mentions:

Cotopaxi's Questival Adventure Race

https://www.cotopaxi.com/pages/events-questival-home

Ambassador Program with Cotopaxi

https://www.cotopaxi.com/pages/product-donation-policy

Contact Info:

https://www.cotopaxi.com/

Subscribe to our podcast on iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2

“But by far Facebook Ads account for about 90% of the pledges that came from outside of Kickstarter” Mark Zhang

Last fall in Bangkok, I was attending a conference full of entrepreneurs from around the globe. There were around 250 attendees and out of all of them just a few stood out.  There were a few guys running around in yellow t-shirts that said: "Improve Your Sleep at the DCBKK Conference." They were handing out free sleep masks to the attendees. 

Mark Zhang was one of those guys and he was using an excellent marketing technique to beta test Manta Sleep Masks. Fast forward to today, Mark and his team launched a Kickstarter for the sleep mask attracting 16,000 backers and raising over $475,000. Today, you will learn exactly how he did this!

Mark’s Kickstarting History:

Ran 3 Kickstarter campaigns in the past 5 years.

1st Kickstarter 2012: Slip Stopper - Raised $5,173

2nd Kickstarter 2014: Purggo - Raised $40,219

3rd Kickstarter 2017: Manta Sleep Mask - Raised $475,193

“We can come in here (Taipei) as a U.S. based business, pay the people better than they would be getting at most of the larger corporations here in Taiwan, and then still be saving in terms of cost from the labor perspective compared to the states.” Mark Zhang

01:33: Taipei, Taiwan - Finding Cheap Labor and Paying Them Well

03:41: Who is Mark Zhang?

06:50: Having Multiple Businesses Under One Holding Name

08:47: What is Mantis Sleep?

11:13: The 80/20 Process and Steps for a Successful Kickstarter

Pre-launch email list

Facebook ads

Cross promotions

Kickstarter momentum

15:52: Turnaround Time on Facebook Ads for Mark’s Kickstarter

17:27: What Mark Would do Differently Next Kickstarter

20:54: Profit from Kickstarter

Honorable Mentions:

Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/

DCBKK

http://www.tropicalmba.com/dcbkk-in-25-photos/

Dynamite Circle

http://www.tropicalmba.com/dc/

Contact Info:

https://mantasleep.com/

http://markzhang.me/

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2

On today’s episode, Bobby Casey the managing director of Global Wealth Protection, is our guest. Bobby calls in from Latvia where he has been based for the past six years and we get into a great chat about why he chose that part of the world. There are some really great benefits about living in Latvia, and Bobby shares why he loves it.  

Global Wealth Protection helps people with their residencies, offshore banking and incorporation abroad.  Bobby shares how important it is to manage your taxes, corporations, and business abroad to avoid unnecessary taxes and costs while living overseas.

01:35: Digital Nomads Today and Who They Are

03:25: Latvia and Why You Might Want to Consider It

07:56: How Affordable is Europe?

08:46: Comparing Living Expenses Inside the U.S. vs Outside the U.S.

10:52: Global Wealth Protection

14:53: Time Outside the U.S. Needed to Incorporate and Avoid Taxes

20:55: Countries with Great Tax Advantages for Digital Nomads and Location Independent-Entrepreneurs

22:54: What is a Global IRA and Why You Should Consider One

28:50: What it Takes to Build a 7-Figure Location Independent Business

Honorable Mentions:

IRS Form 2555

Physical Presence Test

Bona Fide Residency Test

Numbio.com

Jet Blue

Contact Info:

https://globalwealthprotection.com/

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2

“I think a strong entrepreneur can get to 7-figures with a  ‘B-team’. But in order to break past 7-figures, you need a strong entrepreneur and a lot of ‘A-players’.” Michael Erickson

Today gang, we welcome PPC and retargeting expert Michael Erickson to the show. Michael is the founder of Search Scientists. Search Scientists is a company that manages AdWords for businesses providing the best service possible to boost your their on investment. The company has been so successful that they were rated the top 5% of Google AdWords performance and the company actually manages over $1,000,000/month in PPC spending.

On this episode we chat in depth with Michael about his process of building Search Scientists into a 7-figure company. Michael shares about his team building tactics that are needed to build a company like this. Later in the show Michael shares his philosophy on what is working with PPC and paid advertising in the market today. Then we will wrap up discussing retargeting and how your business could be missing out on a ton of money by ignoring this tactic.

On Marketing “The same thing works all the time, it is the right message, to the right person at the right time.” Michael Erickson

00:10: Austin, Texas USA

00:49: Who is Michael Erickson?

05:33: What Helped Search Scientist Take Off?

07:41: Creating the Apple Store Feel for an Online Business

09:48: Things to Look for When Building the Right Team

11:18: What is Working Best for PPC and Paid Advertising in the Market Today?

16:34: Michael on Retargeting

23:54: What’s the Difference Between the 5,6 & 7-Figure Mentality?

“As soon as you cross over 7-figures, I really do believe that you need to become the best leader you can possibly be with the people that you work with.” Michael Erickson

Honorable Mentions:

‘Traction’ by Gino Wickman

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8549192-traction?from_search=true

‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76865.Good_to_Great?from_search=true

‘Built to Last’ by Jim Collins

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4122.Built_to_Last?from_search=true

Contact Info:

https://www.searchscientists.com/

Twitter: searchscimike

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2

“Hiring employees based on their personality is much more important than hiring based on their resume.” Nitin Chhoda

Imagine immigrating to a new country with no family, no friends, only $500 in your pocket and a dream. You get a job delivering pizzas for extra money and are forced to sleep in your car. Then over the next fifteen years, you build multiple 7-figure businesses.

Today’s guest is Nitin Chhoda and he is the man that did just that. Nitin is the founder of TherapyNewsletter.com, an automated newsletter, and marketing software, InTouchEMR.com, a medical records software, Clinical Contact, a software for the medical industry, and Total Activation, which is a skincare and nutritional products business.

Nitin shares with us what it took to build these businesses starting from absolutely nothing. He dives into some suggestions about how to increase your brand and image awareness while growing a successful business. He will also share about the importance of our relationship with money and how money has not morality.

02:42: Who is Nitin Chhoda?

07:12: Businesses that Nitin Built Into $1,000,000+ Businesses

11:02: After Building Multiple $1,000,000 Businesses What Would Nitin Do Differently?

11:59: Nitin On Building Many Remote Teams

15:32: The Morality of Money

19:11: The Importance of Popularity and Making Money

23:37: Tips For Established Entrepreneurs to Increase Their Image and Increase Profit

“The people with (a) wealth conscious simply focus on creating the circumstances that cause money to attract to them.” Nitin Chhoda

“Money moves to those who ask for it without any feeling of awkwardness, or weirdness or guilt.” Nitin Chhoda

Honorable Mentions:

Therapy Newsletter

therapynewsletter.com/

In Touch EMR

intouchemr.com/

Clinical Contact

clinicalcontact.com

Total Activation

www.totalactivation.com/

Young Entrepreneurs Council

yec.co/

Contact Info:

www.totalactivation.com/

nitin360.com/about/

intouchemr.com/

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes:

itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entre…d1069958541?mt=2

“I’m the first one to say follow your passion, but sometimes you just can’t monetize your passion. You got to realize that!” Joe Pulizzi

Thank you for joining us once again listeners and are we excited today to let you know about our guest. Today, we have the man who is known as the Godfather of Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi on our show!  Joe started Content Marketing Institute back in 2007 and later started Cheif Content Officer Magazine and Content Marketing World. These have become the leading education and training organizations for content marketing as well as the largest in-person content marketing event in the world. There are few people in the content marketing world that haven’t heard about Joe and today we got to pick his mind for almost an hour.

Joe will share with us what it is like after selling his business that he built for nine years. We talk about why it might be a bad idea to fall in love with your products and services. Joe shares about how he would build a community in today's world, and some practical tips about building a seven-figure location independent entrepreneur.

02:00: Joe’s Taking His First Vacation Completely Offline

02:41: Joe On Balancing His Life Never Taking Time Offline for 10 Years

06:47: How Joe Became the Godfather of Content Marketing

15:56: Should You Fall in Love With Your Products/Services?

20:54: Building a Community in Today’s World

23:58: The Future of Content Marketing

33:22: Changing From the Idea of an Office Space Business to a Location-Independent Business

35:53: 6-Figure Mentality vs. 7-Figure Mentality

38:06: Joe on Hitting Monetary Goals

41:40: Life After Selling a 9-Year Business

“Media companies have been doing this for 200 years. They focus on building one property on one content platform they do it really well. They build an audience, and then they diversify.” Joe Pulizzi

Honorable Mentions:

Content Marketing Institute

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/

Cheif Content Officer Magazine

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/chief-content-officer/

Content Marketing World

http://www.contentmarketingworld.com/

UBM Events Company in London

http://www.ubm.com/

‘Killing Marketing’ by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose

https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Marketing-Joe-Pulizzi/dp/1260026426

‘Content Inc.’ by Joe Pulizzi

https://www.amazon.es/Content-Inc-Entrepreneurs-Successful-Businesses/dp/125958965X

Contact Info:

http://www.joepulizzi.com/

Twitter: @joepulizzi

https://twitter.com/JoePulizzi

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2

“Go where you’re not comfortable.” Steven van der Peijl

Today listeners, we are so incredibly happy to announce that we are recording podcast 100 of our 100 podcasts with 100 entrepreneurs that have earned $100,000+ in their annual revenue.  It has been quite the hustle, but totally worth it. We hope you guys are enjoying the content. For those of you that don’t know, our previous 99 episodes have featured entrepreneurs with $100,000 and more in annual revenue. During this time, we have picked their brains and learned the science of what it takes to build 6 & 7-figure businesses.  Now, this is episode #100 but we aren’t finished.  Starting next week, we will start to interview another 100 entrepreneurs, but specifically, 100 entrepreneurs that have built 7-figure location independent businesses. These are the people that have complete freedom, traveling where they want, when they want, and how they want. They all have at least $1,000,000 in annual revenue in their business and many of them have large remote team members and others have none at all. It is going to be an exciting run of interviews and if you want to build a 7-figure location independent business, you guys will have 100 people that have done it, right here on The Entrepreneur House podcast. 

Joining us today is one of my best pals, super hacker, SaaS developer, SIM unlocker, remote team developer, and super entrepreneur Steven van der Peijl.  Steven built a Samsung SIM unlocking service and grew it to the largest in the world. He has been an entrepreneur since he was fourteen years old and is joining us on the show today to talk about his recent webinar launch that generated $190,000 in six days. We get the opportunity to pick his brain about how he and his partners put this together.  We will also chat a little about The Entrepreneur House as Steven has attended more of our events than anyone else staying about five months in total with us, and even serving as an advisor at the last event in Thailand.

If you’re interested in putting together an excellent webinar or want to know what it is like to be inside The Entrepreneur House, this is the episode for you.

Highlights of the Show:

04:42: Who is Steven van der Peijl?

15:06: Creating a $190,000 Webinar Launch

16:22: Non-Public Launch with a 2-Webinar Series for Each Promotion

22:34: Amount of People on Steven’s Webinar

29:36: When Taking Off Work and Business Increases

32:16: Random Stories and Conversation with Steven and Chris

35:30: Auto-Webinars

48:30: More Random Unedited Chat with Steven and Chris

Honorable Mentions:

Neil Napier on The Entrepreneur House Podcast

http://theentrepreneurhouse.com/ep-137-teams-that-get-measured-get-built-neil-napier/

DCBKK

http://www.tropicalmba.com/dcbkk-in-25-photos/

Local Supremacy

http://www.localsupremacy.com/

Amar Ghose on The Entrepreneur House Podcast

http://theentrepreneurhouse.com/amar-ghose/

Cindy Vranken on The Entrepreneur House Podcast

http://theentrepreneurhouse.com/ep-126-three-6-figure-launches-in-15-months/

Stan Leloup

http://stanleloup.com/

Contact Info:

https://kvsocial.com/

https://jobrack.eu/

http://www.flechamobile.com/

“Always leave the door open, but never push someone through.” Taylor Pearson

Are the people you are surrounding yourself with, the people you should be surrounding yourself with?  You might have some friends, that really don’t deserve your friendship.

Today on the show, we welcome Taylor Pearson. Taylor is the author of the #1 Business Best-Seller ‘The End of Jobs’ a book that talks about what many location entrepreneurs can relate to, redefining life, mixed with travel and remote work.  Our world is changing rapidly, and so is business and the way we see life.  A forty-year career with one company is pretty much dead, and the idea of a regular nine-to-five job is decaying as well.

Taylor and I jump into the specifics of ‘The End of Jobs’ and why he decided to write it. We then accidentally jump into a conversation about analyzing friends. Taylor and I discuss how we measure our friends, and the importance if doing it.  If you are curious if you are really surrounding yourself with the right people, you might want to listen to this episode. 

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” Taylor quoting Steve Jobs

01:41: Who is Taylor Pearson?

04;49: The End of Jobs - The Internet Entrepreneur Life Script

09:06: Process of Writing The End of Jobs

13:33: Taylor and Chris Chat Goals and The Entrepreneur ‘Happy Place

17:52: Analyzing and Maintaining 150 Friendships

21:11: Questions to Ask About Your Friends

Who would die for you?

Who would you die for?

Who would loan you money, no questions asked?

Who would you loan money, no questions asked?

Who would fly to another country for you, in case of an emergency?

Who would you fly to another country for, in case of an emergency?

Who would I follow?

Who would follow me?

Who would I invest money in?

Who would invest money in me?

Who would babysit your cat?

Who’s cat would you babysit?

Who would donate a kidney to you?

Who would you donate your kidney to?

26:27: Taylor’s Recommendations for Personality Tests

29:24: Books Taylor is Reading

Honorable Mentions:

‘The 4-Hour Work Week’ by Tim Ferriss

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368593.The_4_Hour_Workweek

Dan Andrews and Ian Schoen

http://theentrepreneurhouse.com/dan-andrews/

The End of Jobs

https://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Pearson/e/B010MJISIO

Taylor’s Article on ‘The Entrepreneur Happy Place’

https://taylorpearson.me/planning/

‘The 7-Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Steven Covey

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36072.The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People?ac=1&from_search=true

Robin Dunbar

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/mar/14/my-bright-idea-robin-dunbar

Malcolm Gladwell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Gladwell

‘The Way of Men’ by Jack Donavan

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13572289-the-way-of-men?from_search=true

Meyers-Briggs Personality Tests

http://www.myersbriggs.org/home.htm?bhcp=1

Strengths Finder

http://strengths.gallup.com/default.aspx

Kolbe A Index

http://kolbe.com/

‘The Lessons of History’ by Will and Ariel Durant

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/174713.The_Lessons_of_History?ac=1&from_search=true

‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15823480-anna-karenina?from_search=true

‘The Black Swan’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242472.The_Black_Swan?from_search=true

Contact Info:

https://taylorpearson.me/

Twitter: @taylorpearsonme

http://twitter.com/taylorpearsonme

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2

On this episode, we are joined by the CEO and founder of the legendary and so incredibly viral poop stool Squatty Potty. His name is Bobby Edwards and back in 2012, Bobby’s mother was having some troubles pooping. So, Bobby did what any good hearted son would do, he got creative and designed a stool that would help her poop, and it worked! His Mom (Judy) deemed the magic stool to be called Squatty Potty and now they are running a corporation that had $30 million in sales in 2016.

Bobby is an incredibly warm-hearted guy and you will be able to tell from the show that he is humbled and flattered from the success. Squatty Potty has literally changed the way people poop. The family receives ‘thank you’ messages all the time, and Squatty Potty has been featured on Oprah, CNBC, Shark Tank, Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur Magazine, Dr. Oz, Howard Stern, The View, and has a YouTube video that cleared over 150 million views complete with a unicorn pooping rainbow ice cream…we’ll put the video in the show notes.

Today we will get behind this ingenious entrepreneurial mind and chat with Bobby about the growth of Squatty Potty. He shares some ups and downs, some essential elements to the businesses growth, and some tips for fellow entrepreneurs out there about the difference between the 7-figure and 8-figure mentalities in business.

03:55: How Squatty Potty Started

11:30: Getting Traffic in Year 1

14:33: Mistakes from Year 1

17:01: The Turning Point of Squatty Potty’s Messaging

20:14: Inspiring Stories About Squatty Potty

23:03: What’s Life Like for Bobby Edwards These Days?

23:30: A Team of 17 Running a Company that Produced $30 Million in Revenue Last Year

24:51: The Squatty Potty Video That Went Viral

27:12: Growth and Sales From a Viral Video

32:43: The Future of Squatty Potty

33:49: Bobby Edwards on The Difference Between the 7 & 8-Figure Mentalities

“The first full year in business we did about $600,000 in business just on our website.” Bobby

Edwards

“In the first few months, I started sending out Squatty Pottys free of charge….to influencers…with a not from myself and a picture of my mom.” Bobby Edwards

“People responded to toilet posture….and that’s when we started getting response.” Bobby Edwards

“(At first) we didn’t know how to message our product, people weren’t ready for it, and it was pretty foul and gross and disgusting.” Bobby Edwards

“It’s not a big team, it’s not a small team, but for $30 million in business, I think 17 people is pretty lean!” Bobby Edwards

Honorable Mentions:

Squatty Potty YouTube Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbYWhdLO43Q

The Harmon Brothers

http://harmonbrothers.com/

Oprah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfreyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

Dr. Oz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Oz

Howard Stern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Stern

SharkTank

http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank

The View

http://abc.go.com/shows/the-view

What Women Want Trade Shows

http://www.whatwomenwantevent.com/

‘Billions’ on Showtime

http://www.sho.com/billions

Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Inc

https://www.inc.com/

Entrepreneur Magazine

https://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine

Forbes Magazine

https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://forbes.com/&refURL=&referrer=

Contact Info:

https://www.squattypotty.com/

Subscribe on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2

“I’d say Facebook now, is probably at least 5-10 times more important for us than YouTube is. Where as, for the first 5-years of my business YouTube brought in 50% of all of our traffic.” Nev Lapwood

Could you imagine mixing your favorite hobby and building into a multi-million dollar business? Our guest today did just that and his name is Nev Lapwood.

Nev is the founder of Snowboard Addiction. He started out making YouTube videos to help people learn how to snowboard.  Fast forward to today and Snowboard Addiction is one of the most popular snowboard YouTube channels and they are selling products to help you acquire more snowboard skills any time of the year.

Today on the show, Nev and I chat about the early days of Snowboard Addiction and his process of moving into the physical products space.  Nev shares about why he prefers a Shopify platform, and we compare his YouTube videos to Facebook videos. Lastly, New dives into his ROI from Facebook Ads, and the future of Snowboard Addiction.

“If your expenses are higher than the money you’re bringing in, you’re going to die very, very quickly.” Nev Lapwood

01:43: Who is Nev Lapwood?

04:12: The Early Days of Snowboard Addiction

07:45: Changing to Physical Products

10:28: YouTube Videos vs Facebook Videos

12:45: Nev on Facebook Ads

14:10: Snowboard Addiction ROI on FB Ads

17:34: Converting from FB Video to Email Subscribers

21:26: The Future of Snowboard Addiction

22:56: The Value of Moving a Shopify Website

25:33: Nev’s Work-Life Balance Today

“Stop thinking and execute!” Nev Lapwood

Honorable Mentions:

Sumo.Me

http://www.appsumo.com/sumome/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/snowboardaddiction

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/snowboardaddiction/?ref=br_rs

Contact Info:

http://snowboardaddiction.com/

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-house-live-in/id1069958541?mt=2