#526 If you listened to this Wednesday's episode, 525, we spoke with Derrick Reimer from SavvyCal, which is a tool that competes with Calendly, a very popular calendar/scheduler. In that episode, Derrick and I talked about competition. We talked about standing out. We talked about how to get started and grow your business in a crowded space. Now, Derrick's in the software business. But there are strategies and principles to help you stand out that apply no matter what type of business you're in. Whether you're an app developer, or a content creator, or serving an audience in some other way, you need to find ways to set yourself apart from everyone else out there. That's why today I want to give you four ideas to help you frame how you can stand out from the competition. Those four things actually have an acronym: P-A-S-T. Why P-A-S-T? Well, that's what you'll find out when you listen in to this follow-up Friday episode. Let's do this! Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session526.

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#525 How do you compete in a space where there are already established players? Whether it's software, or information products, or physical products, it's not always possible to create something entirely original. There are likely others who have already built something and started cultivating an audience or customer base in your space. Today we're talking with Derrick Reimer, who created SavvyCal, a competing tool to popular schedulers like Calendly. As a competitor to an established option, Derrick had to go about things thoughtfully to make sure there would be a market for what he wanted to create. We talk a little bit about SavvyCal itself (and it's a really cool scheduler!). But the big focus of our conversation is how to get started in a crowded space and create something better than what exists. Because it is definitely possible—you just have to go about things smartly. You're going to learn a lot—because I learned a lot—and I hope you'll take what you learn and apply it to the market and niche you're in. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session525.

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#524 In Wednesday's episode with Los Silva from eCom Powerhouse, we talked about some of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make. That conversation is a great one, so check it out if you haven't already. And it got me thinking about the mistakes I've made along the way. And I've made a ton of them. In fact, we could talk for seven to eight hours about all the mistakes I've made in my business. But this is a follow-up Friday episode, so I want to talk about just the five biggest mistakes I've made since embarking on my entrepreneurial career in 2008. I'm not going to talk about the little stumbling blocks, like using the wrong software tool. No, today is about the big, juicy mistakes. The ones that can create forks in the road, and really teach you something valuable. So if you're the kind of entrepreneur who's afraid of making mistakes as you build your business, this might be the perfect episode for you! Here's to the mistakes we all make, and what we can learn from them. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session524.

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#523 We all make mistakes in business. I have made several, and this topic is one of the centerpieces of my conversation today with Los Silva of EcomPowerhouse. Los is somebody I recently met and have become fascinated by. Why? Because in getting to know Los, I've begun to realize that his secret to success goes against the grain of what a lot of people talk about. Because sometimes the best way to grow is to actually slow down and go smaller. It's to try lots of different things at the start until you find what clicks. And it's even—yes—to fail, because failure is an opportunity to learn. You'll hear about Los's origin story in the eBay world, and the failures he went through, until landing on something he could lean into. He shares a ton of insights he's learned along the way, including how to hire and delegate the right way, and why he doesn't like to compete or compare himself or his business to anyone else's. He even shares a little thought experiment for those of you out there who are thinking about how to start positioning and selling your very first product. This episode was a good kick in the butt for me, and I think it might be for you, too! Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session523.

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#522 I'm going to let you in on a little secret. It's something I've learned over time that I know I even have to embrace even more now, and it's something that we should all embrace and do more of. Have you ever had trouble selling a thing you made, perhaps because you're just afraid of failing, or you don't want to feel icky about it, or you don't want to let people down or sell out? Perhaps you're afraid of selling because just you don't even know how to? Beyond those questions, there's a chicken-and-egg dilemma that many creators face: how do you sell something with confidence if people haven't actually tried it yet and found great results? Well, what I'm about to share with you in today's episode will help you solve these problems. I'm going to tell you how to find the people who can help you test and sell your next product or service, and who can help tell the story of the transformation they experienced as a result of what you've created for them. Because selling shouldn't be scary—and, as I like to say often, you most definitely can sell and serve at the same time. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session522.

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#521 It's one thing to create an online course. But it's a whole other thing to figure out how to get people interested in it. How do you get people to find your course? How do you launch it? Do you do a fireworks launch, or a fireplace launch? What do those two terms even mean? Well, we're going to talk about all of that and more today with one of my favorite people in the world: Jess Catorc. Jess was actually on the podcast before, over five and a half years ago, in session 229. Back then, she was a blogger, writer, and brand strategist who helped people with their websites. Now she's become one of the top people over at Teachable, where she co-leads creator launch initiatives. She was head of partnerships for a while, and she's one of the smartest people I know. Jess and I talk about all things online courses, like how the landscape has changed in the past five years, how to launch a course successfully today, how to know if your course content is actually working, and why community is such an important element of the online course experience. We have so many tips, strategies, and resources to share with you in this episode, including a very special project called the Creators Guild. I'm so excited to share this conversation with Jess, because she's just amazing. So, sit back, buckle up, and enjoy. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session521.

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#520 This past Wednesday I interviewed Mike Pacchione, who is an amazing speaker and coach. Mike once worked with Nancy Duarte, whose organization helped people like Steve Jobs create presentations. And we all know how wonderful Steve Jobs's presentations were. And so Mike is super high caliber when it comes to helping people with their speaking. He even helped me with some of my first presentations back in 2012 and 2013, and he's completely influenced my entire speaking career. Mike and I had a great chat earlier this week about storytelling, so make sure to check out that episode if you haven't already. Because storytelling is absolutely key. It's one of the most valuable skills you can learn as a content creator. Great content, one that relates to people, one that people resonate with, one that people share, always has some sort of story at its core. That's why today I want to tell you a story. A few stories, in fact. Stories about the power of storytelling. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session520.

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#519 When I think back on my 13-year entrepreneurial career, I think about some of the skills I've learned to get here, and one of the most important skills is storytelling. But storytelling is not something I've always been good at. In fact, at one point I wasn't great at it at all. But it's a skill that can be learned. When I started sharing lots of content, I realized I needed to learn how to better engage people through stories, to keep them on the page, or screen, or on a podcast like this one. Then, when I started speaking live, I really started to hone my storytelling skills. And there's no other person I can thank more for this than Mike Pacchione, who was my speaking coach back in 2012. I started speaking in 2011, got really hooked on it, and like everything I do, I went and found an expert to help me get better faster and minimize the mistakes. We're going to tell lots of stories today, and break down how stories should be told. Because story is, like I said, what engages an audience. It's what brings emotion to the points you're making. It is what helps transport a person from, "Hmm, I wonder if this is something I should keep paying attention to?" To, "Whoa, what happens next?" This is what brings connection, and storytelling is the key to connection. That's what we're going to talk about today with my former speaking coach, Mike Pacchione. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session519.

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#518 “Audience driven.” It's a term that has become a part of our vocabulary here at Team SPI, and it's why we put on the Audience Driven Summit earlier this month. An audience-driven approach is the way we've always believed a business should be built, and it's the stance we're doubling down on today. It's how we believe all businesses should be created. And if you joined us in this Wednesday's episode, you heard how Arvid Kahl built his own business in the exact same way, where you spent some time to build an audience first, and then you understand, well, what does that audience need help with? What are the biggest struggles that they might be having? And then you figure out, well, how can I get a few of these people some results? What works best for them? When you take this approach, you're not going to know all the answers. But you'll find them out as you go along. It takes out the guesswork, because your path toward a sustainable business is driven by your audience. Now, this is a very opposite approach to how many people think about creating a business. But it's how we need to be thinking about building businesses today. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session518.

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#517 Many of the guests on this show are people I know personally. Today's guest, however, comes to me by way of crowdsourcing. Arvid Kahl is someone who was recommended by several of the members of Team SPI, and I couldn't be happier that they did. Arvid is one of the most fascinating people I've met in a long time. He's a software engineer and entrepreneur who's been building businesses the right way. What do I mean by that? Well, everything that I've talked about in terms of finding an audience you can serve and figuring out what they need? Arvid is doing it about as well as anybody out there, and he's going to tell us all about it today. This is going to be a really great episode because we're going to be going, almost from start to finish, from building an audience, to learning about that audience, and building something for that audience. You're going to learn a number of powerful principles and strategies that'll help you get started building a following, a community, and a business today. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session517.

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