WP Elevation WordPress Business Podcast

Having just turned 80, Michael E Gerber is more motivated than ever to transform the state of small business around the world.

In this very special episode of the WP Elevation podcast, I had the good fortune to speak with the godfather of small business systems and growth about his new mission.

Michael wrote his first book "The E-Myth" in 1986, however it was "The E-Myth Revisited" released in 1995 that went on to become one of the top selling small-business books of all time. In fact, Tim Ferriss includes it as one of only four books in his required reading list.

Michael Gerber's work has had a profound impact on my business and my life over the last 10 years, so I was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to interview him on the podcast.

I was curious as to what makes Michael tick and why he is so passionate about helping small business. Throughout the course of the 45 minutes we spent together, I discovered that he believes small business is the vehicle through which the individual can take responsibility for their own financial future and in fact if more small businesses were successful the economy might be in better shape.

In his words (and I'm paraphrasing) "expecting the government to improve things from the top down is asking stupid to get smart and that ain't gonna happen regardless of who wins the election tomorrow."

If you are familiar with Michael's work, he describes most small businesses as being "a technician suffering an entrepreneurial seizure." What he means is that most small businesses are started by people working in the business who think they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, but unfortunately they never stop working in the business and give themselves an opportunity to work on the business.

Michael explains that this is because they stay in their comfort zone and the traditional education has failed to teach us the five things we need to truly progress:

• inspiration
• education
• application
• implementation, and
• continuous improvement

I asked Michael why growth is important and he said (and I'm paraphrasing again) "because if you're not growing you're dying, if your business is not growing it is stagnant."

Michael's new book is due for release December 7, 2016 and is called "Beyond the E-Myth. The Evolution of an Enterprise: From a Company of One To a Company of 1000." In his new book, Michael outlines the eight stages to turn a business into a successful enterprise. The eight stages are:

1. The Dream
2. The Vision
3. The Purpose
4. The Mission
5. The Job
6. The Practice
7. The Business
8. The Enterprise

You can click the image at the end of this post to download this checklist and keep it nearby.

You can get preview copies of the book and get notified about its release by visiting the Beyond E-Myth website.

My favourite quote from this entire interview is this:

How we can live in the world and look out into space understanding that in our galaxy alone there are a billion suns, a billion freaking sons in our galaxy alone, and they tell us our galaxy is only one of 1 billion galaxies, how one can live not in awe of the impossibility of this is beyond me, you just have to be sucking wind big-time, and I'm saying "wake-up Jerry!"

Michael references Walt Disney quite a bit in this interview, particularly how he built the Disney empire based on processes and systems that people could be trained to drive to produce repeatable and predictable outcomes. On a side note, if you've never read about Walt Disney's creative process before, you should check it out.

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Our guest for Episode #107 of the WP Elevation Podcast is none other than our very own Mike Killen! Mike, along with being one of our three WP Elevation coaches, is a UK-based lead generation expert with years of marketing funnel expertise to share with us.

He offered us valuable advice on the importance of quality web content, what qualifies as good promotion, and why marketing isn’t more important than generating solid leads.

Mike had a very interesting past before getting into lead generation. At 10-years-old, his stepfather bought home a PC. It enthralled Mike. After learning about Flash, he began to get deep into coding and networking–so deep that he became a de-facto security risk at his secondary school!

Mike had a childhood love for dinosaurs and was close to studying paleontology at University before someone told him how low-paying the field was.

After taking a year off to figure it out, he dived into the marketing field. Mike was made redundant at an agency he was working for and went to Vegas to blow off some steam—and the bulk of his savings.

Upon returning to London, taking matters into his own hands was his primary concern. Figuring that crafting his own sites made more sense than paying vendors, he walked into his local chamber of commerce and offered to build websites for small businesses. This was on top of the social media, SEO and e-mail marketing services he already offered.

In 2012, more life changing advice came when Mike Mertens, a man who Mike worked with to host websites, told him that WordPress was easier than building sites from scratch.

Mike was immediately impressed with the relative simplicity of WordPress’ interface and began to use it exclusively for the sites he created. Mike eventually built his Devon Digital Design service into the UK’s number one WordPress marketing automation agency. Competing services weren’t yet dealing with WordPress, which helped him get a step ahead on the field.

During that time, he strengthened his expertise in lead generation and building strong marketing funnels. He carried that knowledge into SellYourService.co.uk, another WordPress lead generation service he runs. We have so much respect for Mike’s skillset that he became one of WP Elevation’s three coaches, sharing his knowledge with clients around the world.

Today, he talks to us about lead generation, creating shareable content, and the three things you need to ask yourself about building your marketing funnels.

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In this very special episode of the WP Elevation podcast, I sat down in the flesh with my good friend David Jenyns and talked about the fact that he's written a bloody book! This is no e-book kids, it's a real, paperback book with thud factor. We also hugged on the couch to prove that we're actually doing this interview in real life.

We discuss the process of writing a book, the marketing strategy for a book, how to become an Amazon bestseller, and of course, we touch on the subject matter of the book too - how to produce "Authority Content" - and how to do it fast.

Plus, find out how you can get the kindle version of the book absolutely free!!!

Visit the WP Elevation website for more details.

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Part 5 of Troy’s 5-Series Podcast- How He Went From Unemployable University Dropout to Building a Successful Online Business With Recurring Revenue

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Part 4 of Troy’s 5-Series Podcast Detailing How He Went From Unemployable University Dropout to Building a Successful Online Business With Recurring Revenue

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You can't be half pregnant. That is one important lesson I learned. I was essentially half pregnant with two business partners during this time. Let me show you in this episode how I roll the dice and focus 100% on one business.

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In Part 1, I told you a little about my upbringing and how I ended up in business for myself. I shared with you the moment I hit rock bottom and my chance meeting that became a turning point for me.

Now let me explain why I really need to drive the bus.

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In this series of 5 Podcasts, I’m going to show you how I went from unemployable university dropout to building a successful online business with recurring revenue. And I promise, no horse shit.

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Welcome to the WP Elevation Podcast! In honor of our 100th episode we’re doing something unique: I am the interviewee. The tables have been turned and I am being interviewed by our friend and former guest of the show, Jason Resnik of Rezzz.com.

When Jason joined us for his episode, episode #83, he gave my name as his suggested guest. I told him if I were to be interviewed for the WP Elevation Podcast, I’d need him to come back and do the hosting job, and he agreed.

So kick back and tune in to hear Jason and I talk about how WP Elevation came to be, what I do in my free time and much more!

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For our 99th episode, we’re covering a very important topic: recurring revenue. If you’re like a lot of other business owners and freelancers the only time you get paid is when you’re on a project – you don’t have an ongoing source of income.

Here to share a better business models are John Warrillow and Seamus Anthony. They’re discussing real world experiences on implementing recurring revenue in your business, how to do it and why it’s so important. Listen in for all of that and more on today’s 99th episode of The WP Elevation Podcast!

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