The Foolish Adventure Show | Internet Business Radio

Special guest, James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness.com, shares his story of needing to replace his wife’s income when their first child came along and how he eventually built a million dollar business.

This is a story of drive and ambition that took James from an administrative job to salesman to manager of a $50 million Mercedes dealership to eventually building his current business. James shows how putting true caring for your customers together with salesmanship can skyrocket your income and your personal network.

Don’t miss the business lessons in this episode. 

There was so much I wanted to pry out of James, but since he was on vacation in Europe I let him go after an hour. The great news is that James will be coming back on the show a few more times over the next couple of months to cover everything from hiring and managing a team to creating profitable service businesses and even how he runs membership sites.

Tim “Got Ups” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
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New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

I’m not talking about real estate. I’m talking about websites. 

There is a huge opportunity for people to buy existing, under-performing websites and turn them into real businesses that throw off excess cash. 

My guest, Dave Rodenbaugh of Skyline Consulting, came on to share how he has bought, renovated and sold websites. He also points out what you should be looking for and how to do your “due diligence” so you don’t get ripped off.

Buying existing websites that are generating revenue is a great way to build your online business. It saves you time in the creation of a site and a product and allows you to focus on revenue generating activities and to optimize the sales funnel.

Dive into this episode if you’re looking to build your online business faster.

Tim “This Old Website” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
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New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Today’s special guest is John Turner of SeedProd.com, shares with us how he found a profitable niche within the WordPress ecosystem and how you can do so too.

In this episode, we talk about: 

• overcoming the inevitable setbacks and frustrations that come with becoming an entrepreneur,
• how going to a mentor can accelerate your success,
• where the opportunities lie within WordPress for you to build a successful company,
• and much more.

Join us in this discussion and see if creating a niche business in the WordPress ecosystem is right for you, because if it is you too might be able to make $10,000 a month.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim “Hand Pressed” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
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New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Then this episode will teach you how to quickly discover your prospective customers’ desires and pains so you can validate your business idea.

I want to bring Lean Startup Methods to the Niche Site world so that niche site owners can become full-fledged business owners. I’ve had the pleasure of working directly with nearly a hundred niche site owners now and I discovered that their businesses were small because of limiting beliefs about their market and not because their market was tiny.

I don’t say that as a slam. It’s an opportunity. Once a person realizes the only thing holding themselves back is themselves they can change their circumstances. That’s what I do best — I help people gain the skills AND the mindset to take control of their circumstances to build the business and the life they want.

When I found out about today’s guest, Robert Graham, I knew I had to get him on the Show to share with you a business skill that can accelerate your company rapidly. That business skill is called Customer Development.

Customer Development is a Lean Startup methodology used to discover what a market truly needs and will buy before you build a product. This saves you from wasting time and money on solutions your market doesn’t want. It may also move you to a different market if you discover that some other group needs your idea.

Robert Graham has focused on one aspect of Customer Development — Cold Calling.

Yep, that’s what we talk about in this episode. Hey, wait right there. I know that topic is either freaking you out or boring you to tears, but this is a skill every entrepreneur (even online ones) need in their toolbox. As my friend Dan Andrews might say, “Ballers cold call.”

Picking up the phone and speaking to real, live human beings is the fastest way to learn if your idea is valid. And you may even get a customer before you have a business. I’m not joking. This does happen. When you discover a serious pain point in someone’s life he or she is going to want it fixed immediately. You can take their order for your solution right then.

Listen in and learn how to use Cold Calling to validate your business or product idea and then go dial for dollars.

Enjoy your Foolish Calling,

Tim “Ricky Roma” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

That’s basically the question posed to me by my guest co-host Lain Ehmann of LayoutADay.com.

She wanted to have a conversation around discount pricing and whether it was good for business. If it was good for business, how could it be used profitably? 

One major downfall of discounting is that it can cheapen your brand to the point no one will pay prices you need to remain in business.

In this episode, Lain and I give you: 

• types of discounting you can do,
• when to use discounting,
• how to build a list of buyers using sales,
• reward your loyal customers,
• and how to make all of it profitable.

This is a practical guide to having sales on your products while still building a valuable brand. Listen in and start using discounting properly.

Tim “Scratch-n-Dent” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

I set out to interview Andrew Warner of Mixergy fame about the insights he’s gained from interviewing over 700 entrepreneurs. He gets such personal information from them and gets them to reveal as much about themselves as they reveal about their business.

There’s that old cliche’ that “It’s Not Personal, It’s Just Business,” but what we all know instinctively (and try to hide) is that our business is very personal. Our interactions with our customers has a personal effect on us (wait till you get hate mail for the first time, then you’ll truly feel how personal business is).

So what happened in this episode is Andrew and I talked about the personal side of being an entrepreneur — the insecurities, the ambition, feeling like an outsider and the feeling of success. We want to accomplish big things, but feel we have to hide them from the world for fear of being called foolish and being ostracized by not just society, but by our family and friends.

This isn’t my normal style interview and it definitely was far from normal for Andrew, but I really believe that message in this episode is critical for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs alike.

Dive in and discover your vision.

Enjoy Your Personal Adventure,

Tim “Reginald Bradford III” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

What can a former rock band rapper teach you about becoming a successful info-product entrepreneur? 

Greg Rollett of the Product Pros shares how he started making money online by teaching other bands how to book gigs. From that beginning he started building a brand around his knowledge of marketing and booking bands and became the go-to guy for bands wanting to make more money selling their music.

Now Greg makes info-products for others. His company helps create a “celebrity” brand for professionals (even lawyers! JK). Personal branding has transitioned into celebrity branding because our culture has defined celebrity as equal to subject authority. That means if people recognize you in your industry they will automatically see you as the most trusted authority in your industry.

Think Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Rachel Ray, Dr. Phil or Dr. Oz, but for plumbers, lawyers, and cake decorators.

Celebrity branding is a very powerful strategy for building a successful company so listen in to find out how to do it.

Enjoy your Foolish Branding,

Tim “Snookie” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

This Just In…

Today’s guest, Rob Walling of Software By Rob, Startups For The Rest Of Us, Hittail.com and much more, joins us to talk about building and selling software.

The surprising part is his belief that there is a lot of opportunity still in information products. Most software developers only talk software and believe that information wants to be free. 

In this episode, we learn about buying software. I’m not talking about software for your computer, but software as your flagship product in your business. Rob has done this multiple times and has two successful software products he talks about in depth.

I even share some troubles I’m having with getting some programming done and why. I don’t share this story to show just how dumb I can be, but to help you avoid making the same mistakes as me.

Then I hit him with a question I get all the time, “Can anyone succeed in creating and selling software?”

His answer might surprise you.

Listen in and see if the software business is right for you. 

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim “Plugin” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Focusing on a few key areas in your writing will dramatically improve your skill and help you engage on a deeper level with your readers.

I’ve brought my friend and fancy-pants writer, Elisa Doucette, on to The Foolish Adventure Show to talk about un-sucking your writing. I felt she was better qualified than me to talk about becoming a better writer since she changed careers from insurance to professional writer.

Elisa writes for Forbes.com and Forbes Women and has had her work published by Huffington Post, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more. She also writes for clients. If you need great content written then get in touch with Elisa.

Inside this episode, Elisa helps us conquer getting ideas, writing with clarity, handling grammar and engaging with our readers. 

If you’re a blogger, or really anyone who has to communicate through writing, then you should listen in to this episode, take some notes and then put what you learn into action as soon as possible. Practicing your writing will make you a better writer. 

On Being A Filipina Business Woman And Having It All

Enjoy your Foolish Writing,

Tim “Hemingway” Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Okay, so even the amazing LKR couldn’t make me social media smart (might have something to do with the ‘smart’ part), but Laura Roeder does share some great tactics on using social media to engage with your market (you know, like real people).

I really enjoyed this episode and took lots of notes to make my social media strategy better. I’ve already started implementing some of the Twitter suggestions Laura made and will be improving my Facebook strategy very soon.

Follow along as Laura schools me on using Twitter and Facebook to connect with people and then implement these tactics in your social media strategy.

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/