The OpenWorld Podcast: Live Without Limits

Welcome to Episode #52 of the OpenWorld Podcast! In this interview I’m joined by Dan Norris, the two time bestselling author of “The 7 Day Startup” and “Content Machine” and founder of WP Curve, which recently posted revenues of $74,000 / month, after just two years in existence.

Dan and his businesses have been featured in Forbes, Inc, Mashable, and others. Dan was voted Australia’s top small business blogger by Australia’s largest business magazine, Smarter Business Ideas.

…But that only tells part of the story. Before launching WP Curve, he founded called Informly which was generating less than $500 per month - while he was losing $2,000 per month.

He was ready to throw in the towel, and crawl back to Corporate Australia, thinking "maybe entrepreneurship isn't right for me." On top of that, he had a wife and children to support.

He came up with the idea for WP Curve on a Saturday, launched it by Tuesday, and immediately began enlisting clients within the first week. And the rest is history.

Dan has gotten where he is from a whole of lot of hard work and hustle, as well as a keen sense of business acumen developed over nearly a decade of experience and experimentation.

Dan dropped a lot of knowledge bombs during the interview, such as:

How to validate and sell ideas quickly

What it means to create a business that's new and unique

The premise that "all businesses grow through conversations" - what that means and how to cultivate it

A simple equation to price your product

The paradox underlying Dan's second unsuccessful business - and his third, successful one, and the lesson learned

Content marketing strategies and hacks

And a lot more!

Become a friend of the show, please share this episode and leave us a review on iTunes! Each one helps so we can continue the show and bring you more great interviews and guests.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the OpenWorld Podcast! As always, we try to inspire you with real stories of people taking action and doing extraordinary things around the world.

I’m joined today by Grady Hicks, he’s the author of “The Amazing Journey,” the true story of his travels with his young son Austin.

Since a young age, Grady has marched to the beat of his own drum. He has been curious about the world since a young age, and started his own business in 1999 which is one of the largest family-owned businesses in Texas.

Inspired by “The Amazing Race” he and his family decided to recreate a real life version. When each of his three children graduate high school, they go an epic adventures criss-crossing the world, and delving into dramatically different cultures and beliefs.

Grady believes that international travel is the ultimate form of education. "When my kids turn eighteen, it's not the end of their education. It's just the beginning," he says.

"The Amazing Journey" is the story of his first RTW trip with son Austin, crossing over 24,000 miles, visiting 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 12 countries.

It's perhaps the greatest graduation present ever, the one we all wish we could have had! In this very interesting interview, Grady and I talk about the adventures he and his children have had around the world, high and low points, and lessons learned.

Hope you enjoy Episode #51 and please consider becoming a friend of the show: subscribe and write us a review on iTunes!

In this episode I’m joined by Kavit Haria from London. Kavit is a specialist at helping people set up automated businesses on the web that hit $100,000 by the end of their 1st year.

Like others that we've interviewed, such as Jesse Krieger of Lifestyle Entrepreneur and Sean D'Souza of Psychotactics, Kavit started out as an entrepreneur following his passion, then quickly realized he needed to master marketing if he wanted to get anywhere.

He became a very consultant to other musicians, showing indie musicians how to promote their music and get more gigs. From that, he became a business consultant through his brand Insider Internet Success, with a stated mission to help new entrepreneurs reach $100,000 in revenue in the first year. In the last three years, they have over 147 success stories. So I invited Kavit onto the show to talk about his recipe for success.

There was a ton of valuable content packed in to this interview. Kavit breaks down the three-step process that he uses when he works with clients to help them see serious growth. We also talk about:

Characteristics that separate successful entrepreneurs from ones who struggle

Case studies of entrepreneurs Kavit has worked with

Inside the marketing "big wins" to establish a client base, to scaling up, and growing a six figure business

The "Oprah effect" to hack marketing

Entrepreneurial failures and lessons learned

And a lot more!

Hope you enjoy this episode. Please become a friend of the show, and leave us a review on iTunes. It's good karma too! :-)

In this interview, we have my friend and fellow digital nomad Taylor Pearson on the show. Taylor and I first met in Chiang Mai back in 2012, early on in both of our lives as digital nomads.

At the time, Taylor was working as an apprentice for Tropical MBA. Now, he’s the #1 best-selling author of “The End of Jobs” - a bold new business book.

In his words: "it’s a book that’s not meant to scare, but to make you aware." In the book, Taylor makes a strong case for entrepreneurship, and argues that it is vital to our future. "Money is made on the buy," he says, and we have the opportunity before us to invest in entrepreneurship like never before. The costs to entry have never been lower, nor have the rewards available to the many ever been greater.

There is no security in employment or investing in credentials, he asserts.

I really enjoyed Taylor's book, which gave me a new perspective on world events, the nature of work, and the reshuffling of the global economy as a result of outsourcing and technological innovation. I enjoyed this discussion with Taylor, in which we discuss topics such as:

The job responsibilities of today's and tomorrow's entrepreneurs

The philosophy behind solopreneurs who succeed

An early failure in Taylor's career - where over six months of labor were wasted - and what he learned from the experience

Taylor's best advice for the new generation of entrepreneurs

How to remove the barriers - and risks - to getting started

Plus a lot more!

Download Taylor's free bonuses for listeners here.

Today’s guest is a successful serial entrepreneur, Ryan Buckley. He’s the co-founder of Scripted.com which connects web businesses with content writers.

But we actually became acquainted through his side project, of which I’m a raving fan - Toofr. Toofr is one of the apps that I talk about in my book, “Hack Email” (which is available for a great price right now on Amazon).

It’s a tool Ryan built himself where you input a person’s name and website, and it returns e-mail addresses with amazing accuracy, saving a ton of time in case you want to find people’s contact information very quickly.

This side project has helped pay off his grad student loans of more than $100,000 and provided a nice extra income boost. I love the tool, and feel very privileged to have Ryan with us today as an entrepreneur and a “chief sales hacker” for startups.

In the interview, Ryan and I discuss growth hacking and marketing strategies for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Ryan is an authority on e-mail outreach strategies and scaling strategies for startups, and shared his wealth of knowledge on the podcast.

How to engage influencers and sell your services via e-mail, with high response rates

How to create or find targeted lists to pitch, and what to look for

"Your first e-mail is just an excuse to send the second," -how to build out a successful drip send campaign

The content of a great e-mail pitch

The mindset of the most successful marketers

Software and apps used to gain leverage

Plus much more!

If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe or become a friend of the show with a review? Please visit our page on iTunes.

In this episode we're joined by Justin Cooke, co-founder of Empire Flippers, a marketplace for buying and selling websites. Justin has been leveraging geo-arbitrage and running a remote business long before most of us had ever heard of the term "digital nomad."

Several years ago, Justin left behind an unfulfilling career selling real estate mortgages in Southern California. He wanted to join the internet business revolution, and identified outsourcing as a promising emerging market. Together with his partner, they relocated to the Philippines, where they started a highly profitable outsourcing firm.

While things were going well financially, Justin sought work that he could be more passionate about. He tasked his team in the Philippines to begin creating hundreds of niche websites, each of which began to bring in trickles of passive income through Adsense. He became REALLY interested in buying and selling websites, started the "Empire Flippers podcast," and began brokering website sales through his blog.

Today it's grown into a full-blown online website marketplace, with more than $556,000 in sales brokered in the month of June, and nearly $90,000 in revenue.

As Justin is an expert at vetting online businesses (through his website he’s seen a ton of different business types and models), I was really excited to pick his brain on the show. Justin's an experienced online entrepreneur with a lot of knowledge to share about the hustle.

Enjoy this conversation with Justin, and become a friend of the show - subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes!

They're young, they're in love, and they're traveling around the world in a sailboat. In this episode meet Riley and Elayna, the traveling Aussie couple from "Sailing La Vagabonde," as we talk about their epic journey circumnavigating the globe in their sailboat.

After a freak accident where he broke his neck bodyboarding in South America, Riley recovered and then decided on a whim to buy a yacht in Italy. He divided his time between native Australia and the Mediterranean, sailing around Europe and island-hopping, when he met his girlfriend Elayna, and together they began to travel the world in "La Vagabonde."

Elayna, a social media pro, brought her skills to the duo and they began to record video blogs of their journey. Their adventure has started to gain attention and, in her words, their publicity is "exploding" on the web of late.

With more than 30,000 subscribers on YouTube, the couple has set up a crowdfunding page on Patreon.com where people can offer donations for each video they produce. These donations are nothing to sneeze at: at the moment they earning over $2,300 for each new video from 250 backers!

Riley and Elayna's story is an inspiring example of what can happen when you just pursue your dream with full abandon, and allow the universe to help support you in the journey. In this podcast interview I pick their brains to hear about the ups and downs, the hows, whats, and whys.

Hope you enjoy this exciting new episode, and please leave us a review on iTunes!

Welcome to another episode of the OpenWorld podcast! We're recording from a tower in Penang, Malaysia today where Jesse Krieger's book "Lifestyle Entrepreneur," became a Malaysia best-seller before hitting the international circuit.

It was a fitting setting to record this episode with Jesse, who has quite the colorful background.

Jesse has been passionate about leading a life outside of the norm from a very early age. He grew up around music and travel, and at a ripe young age booked a ticket to Europe and skipped out on the return, making a living as a musician in Vienna for over a year.

Since then, he's started a record label, worked as an entrepreneurial consultant, traveling dating coach, and even started a product business in China - where he also learned Chinese.

There's no doubt Jesse's lived a bunch of different and exciting lives, so he's the perfect person to share what he's learned and shake people up from their paradigms to seize the new lifestyle awaiting them.

Topics we discuss:

How to change your reality by finding the right mentors, and the peers to help you elevate your game

How to find entrepreneurial opportunities and carve out your niche within the market

The biggest mistake that most new entrepreneurs make

The most important distinction of successful entrepreneurs - and the trap that many of us all fall in to

How to gain entrepreneurial confidence - and get what you are worth

Inner game and self-talk

What success and failure really mean

Ways to zoom out and collect perspective and direction for your life

Plus a whole lot of other goodies during this interview…

Check out Jesse's online publishing brand, Lifestyle Entrepreneur's Press, and also please consider leaving a review for the OpenWorld podcast on iTunes!

It's a real treat to feature Mark Messick in this episode. Mark is a 16 year-old Amazon author who has self-published nine books, including several Amazon best-sellers.

Last month he just received a check from Amazon for $4,000 from his book sales. On top of that, he dropped out of traditional school at age 11. A few short years later and he is already earning more money passively than most Americans do working at full-time jobs.

Mark discovered his love of writing at 13, and devoted himself to his newfound passion. He would write for 6 hours at a time, and after a couple of months had finished his first 75,000 word manuscript. One short upload to Amazon and he was officially an "author."

That was 3 years ago. Now Mark is a veteran of the Kindle publishing game, has networked with top-earning authors, and learnt the ins and outs of what it takes to earn serious money publishing on the platform.

Mark shared a TON of valuable Kindle publishing and productivity hacks during this episode, one after the other. Some of the gems shared include:

The 5 keys to earning serious money on Amazon

What the process of going from earning $200 from Amazon to $800… then $1,500… all the way up to $4,000, was like, laid out in detail

Everything you need to know about book covers, descriptions (including Mark's format for sales copy), titles, and reviews

The #1 target authors must hit to reach Amazon's promotion list (and earn the real money)

The motivational mindset "hack" that is the secret to his 2,500 words / hour productivity

Mark is an inspiring example that anyone can succeed if you follow your passions, no matter their age, background, or education level. As long as you do what you love, keep practicing, and keep learning, you can become a master and "cash in your passions."

I was super inspired by this interview, and took a TON of notes. For more with Mark, check out his new venture, Ninja Productivity.

Enjoy this episode with Mark Messick, and please consider writing a review for the podcast on iTunes. Each review helps us to continue and book more great guests.

In this exciting episode, we sit down with Andrew Michael, co-founder and CEO of Funifi, a startup which builds applications to help parents in the household.

Andrew and I connected after I read about the results of a recent growth hacking experiment he did, where they ran a personality test for parents on social media. The personality test prompted parents to answer a set of questions to determine "what type of parent are you?" and share their results across social media.

The result?

Spending just $150, they collected nearly 3,000 new e-mail subscribers and almost 7,000 pageviews within just a few days.

Not bad for a small test!

I was intrigued as I find out about the culture of testing and experimentation that Andrew has implemented, so I wanted to pick his brain about what Funifi has tried, what's been working and what hasn't for growing the business.

According to Funifi's website, the four qualities that define the company are:

1. Speed - we experiment and fail fast

2. Quality - we build high quality products

3. Feedback - we listen to our users

4. Learn - We never stop learning

I think the story of Funifi's growth is a solid example that can help a lot of people and something a lot of people can be inspired by. Even better, the marketing test that they ran can be duplicated and applied to other business types and niche markets.

In this informative interview between two entrepreneurs, we pick apart key aspects of entrepreneurship from branding, creative focus, employee loyalty, the future of content marketing, and much more!

Become a friend of the show - leave us a review on iTunes! It will help us to make the show even better, bring on even more great guests, plus it's good karma too :-)