The Startup Sessions with Michael Knouse

“If you’re not feeling great, you cannot be creative, innovative, and inspired in your own businesses.”

You started your business because you are passionate about your work, but then you realize you also have to sell stuff in order to be profitable. So what do you do when you hate the idea of selling?

I’m talking with Farnoosh Brock, author of The Serving Mindset, about how to stop selling in order to grow your business. It sounds counterintuitive, but Farnoosh brings an effective and proven strategy to growing her business and the businesses of her clients. As you serve and effectively communicate your value, you will naturally establish trust, connect with new clients, and grow your business.

• The unexpected journey to entrepreneurship (9:23)
• Overcoming hurdles and getting started (11:26)
• Stop selling and grow your business (19:11)
• Why selling is selfish (30:49)
• Buying into the lie of selling (35:10)
• Knowing your value and pricing right (40:04)
• Transforming your mindset (46:04)
• Advice for the weary entrepreneur (51:08)

• Any Steven Pressfield book

• Adaptability

• Having crucial, awkward conversations.

• That you should stop selling to grow your business.

• You want to be stubborn about your goals, dreams and ambitions, but flexible or adaptable about your methods for reaching them.

• Go out in the world and do your part by serving and growing your business.

• Learn more about Farnoosh here
• Purchase The Serving Mindset
• Listen to Episode 52 with Farnoosh on How to Quit a Six-Figure Cushy Job and Start Your Own Business
• Connect with Farnoosh on LinkedIn

Farnoosh Brock went from an electrical engineer and a project manager at a Fortune 100 company to business coach, entrepreneur, and speaker in 2011 when she started her company, Prolific Living Inc. Today, she helps business owners, professionals, and leaders to choose their mindset, then to transform their world one powerful conversation at a time. She’s also the author of The Healthy Juicer’s Bible (2013) and The Healthy Smoothie Bible (2014), as well as The Serving Mindset (2018). Find out more here.

“Entrepreneurs get into business because they are problem solvers.” 

How many of us wish we had a community of entrepreneurs to grow with and learn from? In this episode I’m talking with Tara McMullin, CEO of CoCommercial. Tara is a community-based business advocate and is on a mission to turn today’s small business owners into tomorrow’s economic powerhouses. She’ll share her recent experience of retiring a business model that made over $1M in order to shift to a community-based business model.

Tara McMullin is on a mission to turn today’s small business owners into tomorrow’s economic powerhouses. She’s the founder of CoCommercial, a platform for helping small business owners work together to overcome daily challenges, solve big problems, and achieve even bigger goals. She’s also the host of What Works, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of successful small businesses and shows you what’s working in marketing, operations, time management, product development, and more. Entrepreneur named it one of 24 top women-hosted podcasts for business owners.

“You didn’t do anything wrong just because you end up feeling stuck!” 

Do you want to be a thought leader?  I’m talking with Jason Van Orden to get his ninja level expertise on the subject of thought leadership.  He’ll also share what to do when you outgrow your business model, how to get beyond the hustle, and the difference between business leader activities and thought leader activities.

Jason helps thought leaders to reach a larger audience with their ideas, create new income streams from their expertise, and build business models that align with their values and goals. As a consultant, trainer, and strategist, he draws from more than fourteen years of researching top Internet influencers and experimenting with his own personal experience. His experience includes creating multiple successful brands, launching over 60 online courses, teaching more than 10,000 entrepreneurs, generating 6 million dollars in online course sales, and 8 million downloads of his podcast. His mission is to help visionaries with impactful ideas to connect with the people they serve best and the problems they can most uniquely solve.

“How do I scale what I know and not just what I do?”  Today’s guest is Douglas Bertram, CEO and owner of Structural Elements®, an orthopedic wellness clinic that provides the highest standard of care using his proprietary treatment approach. He has been practicing orthopedic wellness for over 20 years and has scaled his clinical success and proprietary framework into […]

“There are two problems within every problem. There’s the actual problem, and there’s how you deal with the problem. Unhappy couples and happy couples have these same problems; the difference between those relationships is how they deal with the problem.” Today I’m talking with Kyle Benson, an expert at applying research methods to repair relationships, heal wounds, and strengthen bonds […]

“It’s been said to death, but it couldn’t be more true. The combination of the group of people you serve and the result you give to them has got to be crystal clear and very, very specific.”

Meet Matthew Kimberley… the Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon. He helps entrepreneurs all over the world to sell with more sophistication and he’s an expert on strategic business direction. The bottom line: Matthew will help you land more clients and increase your sales. On this episode, Matthew is sharing advice on increasing your organic outbound marketing, revolutionizing your business, and effortlessly selling to your clients.

Listen up for a new spin on how to stand out and sell with ease!

Matthew Kimberley is known as the Entrepreneurs Secret Weapon! He helps small businesses sell more and sell with sophistication. He also spends a lot of time providing strategic counsel to business owners around the what, when and how of running their companies.

Matthew is the founder of the Single Malt Mastermind, School for Selling and the creator of the Principles of Professional Persuasion.

His bestselling book How To Get A Grip has changed the lives of tens of thousands of people the world over. His advisory work with small business owners has changed hundreds of international businesses. Operating from the island of Malta, he works with owner-operated businesses and their salespeople to give them remarkably better results.

“As you increase the profitability of your services, you free up your time and you free up your life.”

What if you could work fewer hours while making more money? Pia Silva will describe how to do just that! Pia is a partner and brand strategist at Badass Your Brand and Worst of All Design. She is also a Forbes Contributor and author. Pia is all about finding the value in how you spend your time so that you can increase profitability, live the way you choose, and spend time doing what makes you feel like a badass.

In this episode, you’ll learn how Pia went from being $40,000 in debt to bringing in $500,000 in sales within a 12-month span.

Entrepreneur, speaker and writer Pia Silva is a partner and brand strategist at Worstofall Design, where they build “Badass Brands without theBS” for 1-3 person service businesses in 1-3 day intensives.

Pia is a Forbes contributor and has spoken at a host of entrepreneurial organizations including Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Businesses, Million Dollar Women’s Summit, Squarespace, and We Work. Her company was named “Top 10 Design Firms Lead By Young People That Are Changing the Way We Look at the World” by Complex.

Her book Badass Your Brand: Impatient Entrepreneur’s Guide to Turning Expertise into Profit launched March 16th, 2017.

“I think being a married, working mom raising children, what I didn’t realize was that as good as I was at what I did and getting lots of things done, what I was lacking and didn’t know I was lacking for many years was connecting and being really present.”

Erin Koss is the CEO and Founder of Syte Consulting Group, where she helps companies go from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. While Syte focuses on helping manufacturing companies to scale their growth, it’s Erin’s personal growth and self-awareness that brought her company to the next level.

How did Erin grow her business revenue by 5x in eleven months – and have more time at the end of the day? Listen in for her surprising answer.

As the CEO and Founder of Syte Consulting Group, Erin drives the firm’s strategic initiatives, maintains excellence in execution and cares for her staff. Her passion to serve, collaborate with and elevate others began with her family’s business, the Caddis Fly Shop; while still in college, circumstances required her to take over the back office.

With over 25 years of experience partnering with companies to optimize people, processes and technology, Erin is uniquely qualified to help her clients reduce costs as they scale their growth.

In addition to being an active member of her local Chamber of Commerce, Erin can be found presenting at a variety of speaking engagements throughout the year. A native of Eugene, Oregon, she and her husband Mark, who is an engineer for the Eugene Fire Department, returned to the area in 1999 to put down roots and raise their two children. Erin is an avid runner and enjoys spending time outdoors with family and friends.

“Thoughtful givers are very smart about thinking through what is going to be useful, and giving based on the information as opposed to just giving for the sake of giving.”

Michael Roderick is an expert connector with a passion for helping thoughtful givers become thought leaders. His practical advice on connection, collaboration, and investing in relationships will help you learn how to create lasting impact and value with every connection you make.

Michael Roderick is the founder of Small Pond Enterprises, a company that works at the intersection of relationship building and thought leadership. Michael helps thoughtful givers become thought leaders using the same methodology he used to go from being a high school English teacher to a Broadway producer in under two years.

Michael helps innovative entrepreneurs and visionaries move from the middle to the mainstream by developing a referable brand that people remember and quote. Michael is also an expert at how to build authentic relationships that lead to real business opportunities. His concepts have been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and numerous podcasts. He also is the host of the Access to Anyone Podcast and the founder of ConnectorCon, a conference for connectors in New York City.

“Anybody can be a connector. It is a mindset and a framework for life, not a series of undefinable traits.”

Networking is a word that many of us hate; it brings to mind slimy interactions that don’t feel genuine, and looking at people as a means to an end. Scott Gerber is passionate about overhauling our ideas ABOUT networking, and instead focusing on being a Superconnector and community builder.

In this episode we discuss how to become a Superconnector, the steps for curating a dedicated community, and treating your community as family.

Scott Gerber is Founder and CEO of CommunityCo. He is an industry leader in building and managing personalized, invitation-only communities for world-class executives, entrepreneurs and professionals. CommunityCo is the team behind professional communities such as YEC, an invitation-only organization comprised of over 1,500 of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs founded by Scott, and Forbes Councils, a collective of invitation-organizations for chief executives.

Scott is a sought-after public speaker, internationally syndicated business columnist, television commentator, author of the book ”Superconnector” and a special advisor to Forbes Media.