Working Without Pants - Creative Entrepreneurship

In this "best selling" episode, Kevin Anderson joins us from Kevin Anderson & Associates. With offices in New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles, Kevin's firm is made up of a team of New York Times bestselling writers, editors, and publishing consultants- offering all three of these top-notch services and producing high-quality content for their clients. Kevin Anderson & Associates buckle down with dedication to each client to help formulate the content to ghostwrite their books-- whether it is starting from scratch from a few ideas or helping someone edit and rewrite a book they've already written. Kevin's firm is also well connected to some of the industry's best literary agents, marketers, publicists, and more to help make a book successful once it's written. Many clients come to Kevin's team specifically because of connections Kevin has to a variety of people in the industry and the marketing strategies they use. If you are thinking about writing your own book but not sure where to start, or if you are looking into hiring ghostwriters, be sure and join us here for some great insights with Kevin!

If you are charging hourly and have a hit ceiling, this episode is definitely for you! This week, Jonathan Stark joins me once again as we dive into his "mission to rid the world of hourly billing." He's a former software developer and is now the author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts, the host of a podcast called Ditching Hourly, cohost of Business of Authority, and writes a daily newsletter about pricing for independent professionals. Join us here to learn some awesome techniques and avenues to become an authority figure, broaden your network, connect more intimately with your audience, and command higher rates. This includes something as simple, yet huge, with daily emailing. Jonathan is determined to help consultants become authorities in their field so they can break out of that rut of trading time for money. This interview was truly relevant to me and has sparked some ideas for my own business. I know you'll want to take notes on this one. Dive in here and then go check out Jonathan's website at ValuePricingBootCamp.com.

Philip Morgan is a good friend of mine and joins us this week for the second time on here because he's got some great insights to share! For good reason, his LinkedIn description says, "I'm a pusherman. I get paid to push people beyond their comfort zone so they can become the self-made experts they aspire to be."

Philip helps small business owners build a point of view and to take a stance for what they believe in, which helps set them apart from others and propels their business forward just by creating this. He challenges people to do things that take their current level of expertise and amplify it in order to monetize their expertise.

Find out here what Philip means when he says that you need to pick a group of people you "feel love" for. Philip goes into detail on how you can specialize and narrow your focus to be in better control with your marketing and how you can build your credibility after declaring your specialty on your website. Don't miss out on Philip's great advice and opinions that will have you chuckling!

In this week's episode, learn how to release the vicious cycle of selling that only leaves you feeling frustrated and fake. Join us as Reuben Swartz, head of the Sales for Nerds podcast and Founder of Mimiran- a CRM for people who hate "selling," talks through all of the failed approaches he's attempted at sales and what has finally brought him to his success with customers.

Reuben is not a "natural-born" salesperson, but he thought he was prepared for what would make him successful at sales. He quickly learned this was not the case and, for a long time, felt like he was insecure and pretending with his clients. In fact, it took him years to figure out that proposals to his clients were not about him… it was about the client. Fast forward to today, he has created Mimiran and now on a mission to help others avoid what he went through when approaching sales.

Join us here to get some value you will appreciate and take the pressure off yourself by being authentic and honest with your customers. Reuben created a mad lib that he wants to share with you that will benefit you and your clients when it comes to creating a proposal. His headline on LinkedIn is Get more clients by "teaching," not "marketing" and "helping," not "selling." Find out all the details here!

Peter Levitan joins us in this week's episode to discuss how he went about selling his agency and some words of advice for those who are thinking about selling theirs. Currently living in Mexico, Peter is a Business Development Consultant for advertising agencies around the world. Before that, he bought, and then eventually sold, his advertising agency in Oregon by managing the process himself. Ask yourself the critical question, "Would you buy your agency?" If it's not a solid "yes," you may want to rethink selling. Also, very few agencies have a solid business plan, and this is key. If you don't have a business plan in place, you need one. How else will you stand out? We use the term "un-ignorable" many times in this episode while focusing on what that means for your business. Listen in to Peter's story and what you should be thinking about if selling your agency is crossing your mind. Find out why some businesses are not ready to be sold, what others look for when seeking to buy an agency, and dive into some business tactics to set your agency up to be "un-ignorable." You can find out more by visiting PeterLevitan.com as well.

In this week's episode, Steve Gordan joins us who also happens to host podcasts of his own. In fact, we dive specifically into how podcasts can be a great tool to use to help grow your business. Steve is the Founder of Unstoppable CEO and specializes in helping agencies get great clients who are ready to hire you. With all the noise out there between marketing strategies, business funnels, and complex sales training programs, you need a unique way to develop trust with people. You need to strategically build relationships with other people and approach them in a different way. In fact, one of the things we touch on in this episode is how you can simplify your business just simply by aligning with human behavior. This episode should have you asking yourself how you think of using podcasts for your business. An audience is great, but the relationships that you build from the podcast interviews are the ones that you can nurture and expand on to grow your business. Listen in and get some great tips on why committing to your podcast long-term is the way to go. When you're done, visit UnstoppableCEO.net/nopants to get a copy of the last book Steve wrote called "The Exponential Network Strategy."

If you've been thinking about speaking as an avenue to grow your business, join me In this week's episode with Carol Cox, Founder and CEO of Speaking Your Brand. Carol is an expert at coaching entrepreneurs and executives on how to launch and build their speaking career for short-term, and long-term, results. Carol reminds us just how valuable speaking engagements and being around people truly are these days. With all of the social media, content creation, and all the "followers" people obtain, we all forget just how impactful it can be when you meet and learn from someone in person. We discuss in detail how narrowing down your focus of topic to a very specific niche can really make you stand out from everyone else. Carol dives into some great tips on how to market yourself as a speaker and how people can inquire about you so that you can get premium and paid engagements. Listen in to find out how you can get a free guide if you'd like more information on how speaking can help grow your business. You can also listen in to Carol's podcast where she talks about all things related to speaking- from content to lead generation, and from sales to monetizing your speeches. Enjoy!

In this week's episode, join me in hearing tons of advice from Alan Weiss, author of a phenomenal book called "Million Dollar Consulting," or as I like to call it, The "Bible" of Consulting, which is one of numerous books and articles he's written. Alan is also the owner of Summit Consulting Group that provides management consulting services to clients across the globe. During Alan's professional journey, he quickly learned he could charge for the value of his consulting services, to which he's pioneered value-based fees. Alan is also all about simplifying everything to place more speed on doing business and getting results. Overcomplicating processes won't grow your business. Alan hones in on his core values of focusing on what's important and why you should "carve away everything that doesn't look like a career." The "Million Dollar Consulting" book is at the heart of everything I learned to start my businesses- my mindset, the tactics, the concepts behind charging for value, and more. Listen here to get more insight and tons of value out of this. And don't forget to check out Alan Weiss.com, where you can find his blog and free articles, videos, audios, and locations for his next attendance.

What is the future of LinkedIn? This question comes up a lot in conversations with friends, podcast hosts, prospects, and peers. LinkedIn, as a platform, is becoming the epicenter of business communication. B2B marketers and sales teams are flocking to the platform, and in a post-GDPR world, it has become one of the most reliable and powerful sales channels. But what is to come? As the founder of one of the top LinkedIn lead generation companies, I am very close to the platform. Our team has seen the platform evolve and grow. I have spoken to individuals on LinkedIn's advisory board and I have heard many rumors of discussions from others in the industry. What I am predicting here is not fact or am I 100% certain of this. But I have a decent level of confidence in these predictions and so I am sharing them in hopes they bring you value. Join me in today's solo episode as I dive into my 8 predictions for the future of LinkedIn!

Catch this week's episode with John Jantsch, President at Duct Tape Marketing and author of his newest book I'm already loving called "The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur."

John has appeared on here before, and with his years and expertise in small business marketing, it's a no-brainer to bring him back on the podcast now that he has published his sixth book. This book is a bit different than his first five that are all about how-to-do marketing. But "The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur" is structured more as a daily-read with a new meditational message for each day you turn a new page. Each entry shares a message or excerpt that comes from entrepreneurial writings from the 19th Century time period when "thinking for yourself" became more prominent during a time of political and cultural differences in the U.S. John gets his reader to take a bit of a more philosophical look at themselves, adds his own thoughts, and then follows that up with a question to challenge someone for that day.

The "Self-Reliant Entrepreneur" was just released this week, and I highly recommend everyone take a read. I am already applying this to my life and my business and can see I'll be getting value from this for years to come as well. I know you will too. You can find your copy online or in any of your local bookstores. But first, listen here for some insight from John himself and get a sneak peek into the Jan 1st entry as John narrates straight out of the book. You're going to like this one!