The Solopreneur Hour Podcast with Michael O'Neal

As a solopreneur we all start somewhere. Sometimes we start with a topic we know a lot about, sometimes we see an opening and we go for it, learning along the way. Our guest for today saw an opening to serve his audience in a simpler, more effective way than email: a membership site.

Chris Farrell of Help My Business joins us for episode 383 of The Solopreneur Hour, live from Traffic and Conversion in San Diego.

On this show we chat about why he chose to build a membership site, how he got into online marketing in the first place and whether or not he’s always been unemployable.

More About Chris Farrell

As you’ll hear on this episode Chris is a Londoner. He was born and raised in East London – hence the cockney accent! Until his early 30s he worked in radio and wasn’t the least bit entrepreneurial. He had always had a good job and was working for “the man”. By 32 he was the mid-morning DJ on the #1 radio station in London.

But there was always something he couldn’t wrap his mind around: how did people make money online, travel the world and run successful businesses? Was it actually legitimate or was it smoke and mirrors?

So in 2008 he got started in the online marketing world to see for himself. He knew nothing about that world, and knew no one! So initially he tried to do it all himself, and learned everything he could.

You’ll Also Hear:

* Was Chris always unemployable?

* Why it’s important to say yes.

* The power of gratitude in shifting your mindset.

* How do you know if you truly understand something?

* What is his take on the level of professionalism in podcasting today?

* And so much more!

Since then of course he’s realized people can and do make good money online through legitimate businesses, his being one of them. Even though it is fairly simple to do so, it isn’t easy. His advice to get started making money online boils down to three simple steps:

1. Find a profitable niche.

Figure out where people are already spending money and then choose one area to focus on.

2. Build a list of people interested in that area.

Simple: find people who are interested in what you are selling, and get them on your email list.

3. Market to them with products related to their interests.

Contact them with offers and opportunities about products they are interested in, or related to their interests.

Those are the steps Chris took to get started. He created his own products because he couldn’t find many products he was passionate about. While doing so he built his list, and then marketed to them with offers on those products.

But he also realized it would be more valuable to people if he built a membership site where he could continue to create products and add content, rather than emailing them constantly. So that’s what he did. He built a membership site all about internet marketing. He shared with his members what he was learning firsthand, what he loved and what he was passionate about. His success has continued to grow from there.

On today’s episode we cover many other topics from men’s fashion to music to podcasting. In particular Chris shares his view on the state of professionalism in podcasting today. He explains more on the show, including why just having the equipment doesn’t make you a professional podcaster any more than having a bicycle makes you an Olympic cyclist.

He is a definitive source on what it takes to succeed behind the mic and in the online world. Listen in to hear his wit and wisdom on the 383rd edition of The Solopreneur Hour!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What could you build a membership site about? Let us know in the comments below!

Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, could you please 

Great chat today with the founder of StreamAlive, Lux Narayan (luxnarayan on twitter)

Name Place Animal Thing on Amazon

About Lux Narayan

Lux Narayan believes that “So, what do you do?” is a tough question to answer and should certainly not be answered with the current title on your LinkedIn profile. In 2021, he published “Name, Place, Animal, Thing”, an Amazon bestseller- to help people answer this dreaded question. He enjoys mining the intersections of various spheres of life and work, speaking of which… He is the CEO and a co-founder at StreamAlive, a category-defining, fun and engaging web application that helps livestreams and live events on Zoom, YouTube Live, in-person, and everything in between literally come alive. With the ability to plan, track, increase, and analyze engagement simply through the live chat, StreamAlive’s goal is to help presenters and creators move their audiences from bored-away to blown-away. Prior to founding StreamAlive, and prior to a creative and personal break, Lux was a co-founder and the CEO at Unmetric right up to their acquisition by Cision, the world’s largest “earned media platform” that’s now a part of Platinum Equity, a $20bn+ private equity group. He is a perpetual learner of “stuff’ — from origami and molecular gastronomy to stand-up and improv comedy. He enjoys reading obituaries and has given a talk on the TED main stage – on lessons from 2000 obituaries. This talk has been viewed over 2 million times and translated into every majorly spoken language.

This is one of my favorite episodes of all time.  You’ll learn more in this one episode from multiple courses and months of training.  If not, I’ll refund your money.  🙂

Today we have Blitz Metrics (https://blitzmetrics.com) founder and CEO, Dennis Yu on the show. We were also joined by Jordan Paris, who wrote Growth Mindset University, and hosts the Growth Mindset University Podcast.  Dennis shared with us something he’s never shared on a show before, which is his “9 triangles” concept. (I added “of destiny”…because it’s awesome)  I have to say, in 783 episodes, I’ve never heard business success summarized this well. This is an episode that will instantly go in the “best of” category. Below are the nine triangles. Tune into the show for descriptions on each.

The 9 Triangles

Learn Do Teach

Do Delegate Delete

Content Checklist Software

Communicate Iterate Delegate

Marketing Operation Finance

Goals Content Targeting

Awareness Consideration Conversion

Metrics Analysis Action

Specialist Business Partner

Relevant Links:

https://teamblitznation.com

Featured ads on this episode:

QOTD: Have you ever learned marketing advice from a Sultan?  Today you will.  Jeff Buehner is the author of The Sultan’s Seven Secrets a game changing book on building your dream, managing your feelings and seizing control of your life.

Jeff is the world expert on the writings of the richest man to ever walk the earth, Sultan Musa of Mali.

Over the past 25 years, Jeff has successfully mentored and coached countless others to speak this all-important language. When you learn to speak the language of the Gods, you can drastically improve your sales, success, fitness, relationships and anything else you desire.

Twenty-eight years ago, Jeff came across the writings of the richest man to ever walk the earth, Sultan Musa of Mali. No one’s ever come close to this guy, not Jeff Bezos and not Elon Musk.

The Sultan could not talk openly about how he learned these secrets, so he embedded the principles of his success in a fairytale so compelling that centuries later nearly everyone in the world is familiar with it.

At the age of 12, Musa had a near-death experience in which he met a man made of light who taught him how the world works, how creation works. Contained in his writings is something called the Language of the Gods. When you speak this language the world obeys your commands!

As Jeff just dabbled in speaking this language, some very strange coincidences occurred. So, he got serious about speaking it… and his whole world changed! He went from a $60,000 a year concrete guy to making hundreds of thousands a month in a new business that just dropped into his lap.

Over the past 28years, Jeff has successfully mentored and coached countless others to speak this all-important language that changes everything. When you learn to speak the Language of the Gods, you can drastically improve your sales, success, fitness, relationships and anything else you desire. It’s all contained within Jeff’s book, “The Sultan’s Seven Secrets.”

Individuals can download the book as a digital version, or a video/audio version, that includes follow up bonuses. It’s also available in a paperback format on Amazon.

For more information, visit: https://sultans7secrets.com/

About Jeff D. Buehner

Jeff D. Buehner is the world expert on the writings of Sultan Musa of Mali. Over the past 25 years, he’s successfully mentored and coached countless others to on how to build on their dreams, manage their feelings, and seizing control of their life. When you learn to speak the language of the gods, you can drastically improve your sales, success, fitness, relationship and anything else you desire.

Today my pal Mark Bologna stops by, with his new book “Beyond Bourbon St.: An Insider’s Guide to New Orleans”

Mark was one of the original Sololab members, and has grown his brand and his podcast (Available on all platforms) remarkably over the last few years.

Check him out at beyondbourbonst.com

Well, this is a treat.  We get to hear from a rock legend on today’s show. In this one-on-one conversation with sax player Scott Page (Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Toto) who has not only played music for millions…but is arguably more successful as a solopreneur after his main music career.

This was so much fun to record. I could have gone another couple hours just talking music.  I couldn’t wait to put it out to the world, and into your earballs.  Please enjoy one of my favorite episodes of all time.

In the meantime, here’s Scott’s Wikipedia.

You can reach him on the Twitter at https://twitter.com/iamscottpage

Scott Page is an American musician, technologist, and entrepreneur. He currently serves as CEO of Ignited Network, “a start up music accelerator based in Los Angeles.”[1][2]

As a performer he is widely recognized[according to whom?] as the saxophonist and rhythm guitarist for Pink Floyd, Supertramp, and Toto.[3]

As an entrepreneur, Page formed Walt Tucker Productions, an audio video post production company (1987) that produced projects for The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Janet Jackson, Garth Brooks, Scorpions and others.[4][5][6] He also co-founded 7th Level, Inc., an award-winning[specify] CD-ROM game and educational software company.[7][8] At 7th Level he co-produced Tuneland, the world’s first interactive musical cartoon starring Howie Mandel, the globally lauded Monty Python interactive series, and was part of the development of QD7, an interactive multimedia joint venture with Quincy Jones and David Salzman (1992) that resulted from Jones’ partnering with 7th Level.[9]

Today’s show is with the founder of Tiege Hanley, (https://www.tiege.com/) a men’s skincare line.  Kelley Thornton has the unique challenge of first convincing us stubborn men that we NEED skincare, and then thinking outside the box to sell it to us.  (I can attest, the products are GREAT)

https://www.tiege.com/

25% Off coupon Tiege Hanley Skincare using the promo code: SOLOHOUR

About Kelley: 

Kelley Thornton was born and raised in Towson, MD. He moved to Brookfield, CT to finish up high school and start his first entrepreneurial pursuit, house painting. With the money he earned from the business he financed his college tuition at the University of Connecticut, where he would meet his future business partner and co-founder of Tiege Hanley, Rob Hoxie. After college, Kelley entered the Metropolitan New York area workforce as a sales representative in the point-of-purchase display and packaging industry. A few years into his career he was tasked with developing a Chicago presence for his company, Phoenix Display & Packaging, which later became part of International Paper. He relocated to Chicago, IL in 1993 and continued his trajectory to National Accounts Manager and ultimately Regional Sales Manager. After a successful 20-year-career in the throes of Corporate America, he left the industry to found his second company, Purchase Point LLC. Purchase Point helped CPG companies think differently about their in-store merchandising platforms. Growing quickly with global customers such as Unilever, Mars Wrigley, Bayer, and Pfizer, Kelley brought a creative approach to captivating consumers during the last seven seconds along their Path to Purchase. Through his experience at Purchase Point, Kelley found the rapidly growing men’s care industry inspiring. In 2016 he stepped away to found his next company, Tiege Hanley, a 6-year-old e-commerce company with the mission of helping men look and feel amazing. The business has evolved from selling three distinct Skin Care Systems to boasting a wide variety of products, including deodorant, bar soap, body wash, and a detoxifying clay mask. Tiege shipped its 1.5 millionth box in July 2022 and has over 350,000 customers worldwide. Kelley is focused on enriching the experience for all customers and guiding men to healthier lifestyles founded on self-confidence.

We started Tiege Hanley in 2016 to help men understand the importance of taking care of their skin. The idea of self-care, especially among men, was just gaining traction back then. Our goal is the same now as it was then: Help as many men as we can LOOK AND FEEL AMAZING. Tiege Hanley just shipped its 1.5 millionth box of men’s skin care products last week. I could not be more inspired by our customers or proud of the work we’ve done and the company we’ve created.

The FCF reboot is here everyone!  So excited to be back in your earballs.  Enjoy this show about how to charge for your services, great books to read, my mentors, and much more.

This is the first of my Wednesday “Best Of” Series.  Every Wednesday, I’m hand selecting my favorite episodes from the 9 years of podcasting.  You know this show is going to be completely baller…that’s the long and short of it.

The Solopreneur Hour is an audio podcast hosted by The Kickass Life Producer Michael O’Neal that will interview (and co-host with) the best and brightest solopreneurs from all walks of life, including network marketing, internet marketing, music, fitness, actors, comedians, and more.  These people are not only standouts in their industries, but they’ve put an entrepreneurial spin and “zagged” while everyone else zigged.  Our mission is to take you through their journey, give you actionable steps and actions to help you with your ventures, and inspire you to take massive action.   Hopefully we’ll have a few laughs along the way.

We share practical steps and tools, including books, smartphone apps, websites, training courses, strategies and stories that will support you every step of the way.

Instead of giving the same interview you’ve heard 100 times, we invite our guests to be co-hosts, and have a casual but insightful conversation about success, just like you would at a restaurant or a bar.  It’s that down-to-earth, practical conversation that lets our listeners know that we are all the same…just at different stages of our journey.

Our first guest is none other than the podcast juggernaut himself, Mr. John Lee Dumas.  Many of you have heard his story. (If not, catch up with him at https://eofire.com/about)  His podcast is not even a year old yet, and his downloads per month are over 300,000! He’s taken a brand-new-to-him medium and turned it into a six figure income in a few short months.

Since this is show #1, during our chat we talked a bit about how this podcast came to be, and the journey I’ve been through myself.  I’m going to go deeper into it in episode #2, but it’s been an amazing ride for the last 4 years…starting from only $14 left in my bank account, to this.

We talked about how John got his start, leveraging his experience with the military, combined with some great lessons from The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, to “batch” the tasks he needs to do every day to be a successful entrepreneur.

We also talked about a game changer of a book (for both of us), called “The e-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber.  We both had a profound career change because of that book.

John explained the concept of Parkinson’s Law:  work expands to fill the time available for its completion – means that if you give yourself a week to complete a two hour task, then (psychologically speaking) the task will increase in complexity and become more daunting so as to fill that week.

We then got into a great conversation about creating and leveraging relationships.  How important building relationships to the right people in your niche are.  In fact, if there’s any nugget to take from this show, it’s this:

Surround yourself with success.  If you want to be successful at “xyz”, then work to establish relationships with people that are successful at “xyz”. 

John mentioned how instrumental Jaime Tardy (https://eventualmillionaire.com/) and Cliff Ravenscraft (https://podcastanswerman.com) were in helping him develop a winning strategy to start his show.

And it’s worth nothing…he had his naysayers.  Have a listen to find out how he handled being told “There’s no way you can do a show 7 days a week!”.

Finally, we talked about his killer program “Fire Nation Elite”.  Talk about a killer deal! If you want to surround yourself with success, have a look at 

Today’s episode is about “striking gold” with an idea and doubling down on it when it’s successful.  Katie from http://womensmeditationnetwork.com is here!

To win a gift basket:

1. LIsten and sub to one of the shows:  (Search “Meditation for women”.)

2. Give a rating ad review on apple podcasts

3. Share on social and tag @womensmeditationnetwork

About Katie:

Katie Krimitsos is the creator of the Women’s Meditation Network – guided meditation podcasts and resources created for those who identify as women so they can use the tool of meditation to know themselves and consciously create lives they love.  She has 8 podcasts in her network: Meditation for Women, Sleep Meditation for Women, Morning Meditation for Women, Sleep Sounds, Water & Nature Sounds, Ambient Sounds, Daily Affirmations Meditation for Women and Sleep Meditation for Women 3 Hours. She’s a writer at heart, has a soft spot for animals and Mother Nature, adores her Greek hubby, loves a good margarita, and treasures the job of raising her two girls.