The Riff Raff Podcast

Do you write a ton of great ideas down and then losing money by not acting on them? Me too! So let's chat about how your brain creates great ideas and how your lack of process to use it, just sucks and makes you less banana bread.

Are you one of those entrepreneurs who writes things down like I do? Does the creative demon take hold of your hand and force you to record all those crazy, amazing ideas? And then you just leave that shit there. On the page or in the audio file. All that creativity going to rot like a stinky banana at the bottom of your lunch bag. Yuck. So let's chat about that. How do you keep your banana from going stinky and using those ideas to make you money?

If you are in a competitive market, you need to take chances on marketing yourself. For example - if there are five other coffee shops within swinging a cat you need to step it up. And if one of those shops happens to rhyme with Cartucks? You REALLY need to step it up. Product alone isn't going to get people in the door my friend.

So - take a chance. Start with small weird things and build up to bigger weird things but for goodness sake try some weird things. Or the state of your business my friend are going to rhyme with ducked ...

Are you tired of the BS? In this case BS stands for back stabbing or behind the scenes sabotage. I love working with other people, sharing ideas and building up success. For EVERYBODY! I play in the sandbox with the firm belief that if you like my shovel better you'll play with me but if that guys bucket is more to your liking, well, he'll be your buddy today. Same thing in business. So if you need help growing your business or solving a business problem, who do you share your angst with???

Do you work from home? Does that suck sometimes? I agree. I feel like I've just graduated college and am back to living in my parents basement except it's my damn basement, which I guess is a step up. And since I have a strong dislike for conducting business in coffee shops, I thought my options were limited until a friend gave me a GREAT suggestion to solve my basement dwelling predicament.

Guest Teresa Baerg is a recent success story out of the Corporate Communications program at Sheridan College. We met in 2012 and connected over the life of the mature student and how to handle term papers while getting dinner ready. Fast forward 3 years and now Teresa is using her education and passion for being involved in the local Burlington community, to carve out a career as a freelance journalist, editor for two local community platforms and promoter of local businesses. How's that for kicking ass and taking names?

You chose to be an entrepreneur. You chose this life. Did you know it was going to suck sometimes? I thought I did until this past week. Then the level of craptastic hit full steam and I realized I had no freaking clue about how much of the sucking would happen. Are there highs? Absofreakinglutely. It's coming out the other side that matters.

Meet Karen Bradbury, a 15 year volunteer with the Christopher Leadership Course. A self-confessed once upon a time wallflower, Karen was encouraged to participate in the program offered by CLC to improve her public speaking skills. She was so impressed by the experience with CLC that she became an instructor and hasn't looked back since. Having worked with over 200 students, she's seen first hand how taking the time to invest in yourself can lead to opportunities you never imagined possible!

I sat down with Rob Duvall last week and learned a surprising fact about this well-spoken, friendly, outgoing guy: In highschool and college, Rob was a self-professed geek. Now I could continue to say was, but quite frankly something tells me that a bit of that geek from college who built an award winning fuel efficient car, still holds a place of honor in Rob's heart. Why? Because the enthusiasm he showed for tech in the 80's still shines through today.

Entrepreneurs are famous for falling in love. With stars in their eyes and wishes on their lips, they know that their idea is the best thing EVER and how could anyone argue? After all, it's their idea and they LOVE it! Now this is said with all due respect as a fellow entrepreneur because I love my ideas too. But if you can't see past the stars to the nitty gritty of getting the job done and executing the plan, well maybe you need to call Doug Osborne.