Working Without Pants - Creative Entrepreneurship

On this week's episode I sit down with John Logar, founder of ConsultingUnleashed.com. John isn't just a coach, he has tons of experience building and scaling a variety of different businesses, and also runs a huge successful agency. He is a great example of someone who practices what he preaches, while he's learning at the same time. Through Consulting Unleashed, John is known for building companies quickly using a consistent methodology (Attract, Convert, Leverage) that teaches people to scale successfully. He helps to get his clients their first 6 figures and has a wealth of ideas on both scaling and developing your offer. John believes 'If you offer often, people are going to buy'. Don't miss out on this episode, John gives away a lot of his expert ideas for free, including advice on things you can do today to go out and start making new sales.

In this episode, I sit down with Dvorah Graeser, founder of KISSpatent, a productized patent service. Dvorah took what used to be an expensive, oft lengthy legal service mostly used by corporations and turned the model on its head by offering it as a fixed-price product that puts the power of patents in the hands of innovators. This is a great episode for anyone wondering how they might able to apply a patent to their business. Tune in to us discuss a number of different forms of idea protection for innovators and startups. Access to idea protection is on the rise, thanks to great endeavors like this one.

This week I speak with Geoff Atkinson of Huckabuy. Geoff was previously employed in the corporate world at Overstock.com as the Senior VP of Marketing and successfully transitioned to running his own business at Huckabuy, which is now generating over 1M MRR. Geoff's first entrepreneurial endeavor started as a B2C affiliate website and eventually pivoted to a performance-based SEO software company. It took at least 2-3 years to find their footing, but they eventually found a way to respond to market needs. Don't miss out on this episode, Geoff has great advice for first-time entrepreneurs trying to build a strong revenue-driven business. Whatever your brilliant idea is, be open to the fact that it might not be what the market wants and you may need to take the time to create change so you can pivot and respond to what the market wants.

Listen to this week's episode if you're feeling stressed, overworked, or battling with finding a balance between your entrepreneurial life and your personal life. Sherry Walling has a PhD in clinical psychology and specializes in entrepreneurial health. Sherry also owns ZenFounder along with her podcast and is the author of "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together: How to Run Your Business Without Letting it Run You". Now, while this particular interview actually took place before the current health events happening around the world, this couldn't be better timing for someone that needs to hear this message. Some of us are forced to either step back and break from business or ride the waves and put added effort into our companies. Sherry dives into lots of practical tips regarding burnout, family life, depression, and the loneliness that entrepreneurship can entail. Learn here why it's important to our brain health, the livelihood of our businesses, and our personal lives to 'unplug' sometimes. You may be struggling with your sense of value and identity intertwining with your business. But where do you draw the line between your time freedom, money, and weighing what you value most out of life? Sherry will share some insightful advice that will hit home with all of us, both literally and figuratively. And don't forget to check her out on her websites at SherryWalling.com or ZenFounder.com. Also, Sherry mentions her Guide to Founder Retreats that you can check out here.

This week, I speak with Tyler Gillespie, the "Thinking Time Chief" of Applause Lab, a company that creates great customer video testimonials and other social proof. Before Applause Lab, Tyler sold his content writing service company, and here we discuss details on what his journey of building Applause Lab was like after selling. This is super informative and a great place to be to learn about the process of starting your own company. Tyler describes his experience with the content writing business, which remains nameless during our interview, and how he was able to continually help clients get value from his service. Sometimes, it takes a simple prompt idea or two to be proactive when preventing client churn. That was all before Tyler went through the process of acquisition. Then, as we shift into a conversation about Applause Lab, his current business venture, we'll walk you through his experience with how the launching and execution went rather quickly. This episode is so worth checking out! Get some advice on how you can decipher what business you may want to get into and what questions to ask when doing so. Find out more information on Applause Lab by visiting ApplauseLab.com or join the Facebook group called Productized Startups to follow Tyler on his journey with his company.

Matthew Kimberley pours out some amazing insights in this week's episode that you won't want to miss! With a background in sales and as an author himself, Matthew has also taken over the entire program called Book Yourself Solid, which was originally created and written by Michael Port. With Book Yourself Solid, Matthew helps business owners figure out what path is right for them. The book offers frameworks for you to think through this and what fundamental principles and mindset you can apply to reach your business goals. If you need to convert or generate leads, Michael can help you, so long as you are actively doing these things somehow. It's about strategies verse the tactics- this is truly an interesting outlook on how you should question your motives. If people pay you for your time and your expertise, this book and this episode are for you! There are so many great pieces of advice that Matthew dives into here that are both exciting and thoughtful. I realized there are different ways to think about growth for your business… and it's not always about more money.

For those that have been reading my blog posts, you know by now that I've successfully handed off my sales role to a friend-turned-team member. That team member is Isaac Marsh. Isaac is not only head of sales with Lead Cookie, but he helps test new offer strategies we put on the table as well. With a passion for writing, his natural ability to talk with others, and starting his own agency with his business partner, it was a no-brainer to reach out for him to take on this position. The stars aligned when I approached Isaac and his business partner and asked if they could come on board with Lead Cookie a while back. That was the beginning of handing off my sales role successfully. I made mistakes trying to hand this off before, which did not work out, so I took Isaac through a different and more specific process when he came on board. Give this episode a listen if you're looking to get the sales role off your plate. We share what worked and what mistakes were made as well. Isaac has some great insights into what helped him take on sales and how he adjusted the frameworks to feel more natural to him for the sales calls. Isaac is essentially our "gatekeeper" at Lead Cookie and you, as an owner, can learn why relinquishing that control will allow your business to have one as well.

Why is it so important to start thinking about what acquisition looks like for your business? You'll want to find out here in this episode with John Warrillow. John is the Founder and President of The Value Builder System and author of the books "The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business In Any Industry" and "Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You." Knowing what your intentions are for your business is of the utmost importance. If you want your company to be valuable, or transferable, it has to be able to run without you. Even if you are not planning to sell, this may trigger some lightbulbs for your business and help steer you on the right path for long-term mentality. I've received a ton of value from reading John's books that caused a huge mindset shift for me, and so I was honored to have the chance of interviewing him. This episode is recommended for anyone going down a productized service path and, I promise, this will change your perspective on your business. We discuss what "Deal Momentum" is and you'll want to hear this! And don't forget to check out ValueBuilder.com to learn more.

Wherever "Ledge" goes, sales go up! Join this week's episode to hear what I mean by this and get some great insight into taking leads and rocking a sales execution to help grow your revenue. David Ledgerwood, Managing Partner at Add1Zero, is someone I've known for years and I refer to as "Ledge" here. He and his team use a proven process for a 6 to 7-digit annual growth by providing sales strategy, execution, and ops to their clients. Learn about the "secret sauce" Ledge speaks of here! It's great. In fact, I just took a lot of notes while interviewing him and have action items I am excited to try. I have already quadrupled my own sales by working with Ledge before. This is truly insightful and I think you will get tons from this episode, so hurry now and give it a listen.

Listen in on this week's episode to hear about a softer, yet super powerful skill to learn for your business: Storytelling. Kyle Gray joins us from TheStoryEngine.co and walks us through how he went from working for WP Curve to becoming a bestselling author who helps startups and small businesses grow with content marketing. Kyle specializes in helping clients of all different levels tell better stories to not only earn their audience's trust but for the audience to trust themselves with investing in his clients' businesses. There are specific tactics you can use to get better at storytelling and that is where Kyle came up with 3 simple steps for combining information into an outline for a great story or speech. If you're an expert in your field but have difficulty in expressing your value and how you're different, this episode is for you. You can learn the simple framework here that will help you get your message across without sounding too "salesy." Or if you want to jump right in and read Kyle's book, you can find it at SellingWithStory.co or on Amazon.