Business Growth Podcast

In our interview Matt talks about using stories to grow a business, meet new people, develop stronger relationships, and be more interesting. Most people just rattle off facts, but normal people forget the details and only remember the stories… even if you’re one of the weirdos who remembers obscure stats you’ll get something out of this interview too. Matthew aka Turndog talks about the 3 parts to the storytelling experience. He breaks it down to 1) Discover 2) Create and 3) Share Listen to this episode to get the full scoop on becoming a better storyteller to grow your business. Visit Matthew’s website and get his free course on becoming a better storyteller. His site is www.turndogmillionaire.com He’s also publishing a book shortly called The Successful Mistake and it’s guaranteed to have some interesting stories to make you laugh, cry, and think.

Gary Zaydman talks about having sales conversations with your prospects and customers that are fun and grow your business. He shares why changing the context of the sales conversation can make you stick out and break through the inbox clutter. One specific thing Gary does is use text messaging at the start of business relationships. This works best for referrals and he created a template showing you exactly how he does it. Go to his website GaryZaydman.com to get all the details.jjj

Conrad Egusa the founder of Publicize.co shares how to get press for your startup and how to get noticed by journalists. He’s been featured in TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and Huffington Post. Say thanks to Conrad and ask him your questions at Publicize.co To get your questions on the show message me on Twitter @spencershaw

Primoz Bozic talks about creating systems and success habits. He also shares the process for surrounding yourself with top performers. He wrote a 22 page guide on creating bulletproof habits that you can access on his website www.skyrocketyourproductivity.com/habits it’s definetly worth reading. He also wrote one of the most EPIC posts about how to surround yourself with successful people www.skyrocketyourproductivity.com/the-quick-guide-to-surrounding-yourself-with-successful-people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KnhpG9LoGc&feature=youtu.be Show Notes 3:45 – His turning point was when he went to Google and typed in “how to be more social” and found Scott H Young www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ 5:58 – Primoz emailed Scott and asked what he should do with his extra money. Scott referred him to Ramit Sethi at www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com 12:35 – How he developed the habit of taking massive action 19:01 – The system he created for creating habits 23:58 – Overcoming overwhelm 32:17 – His process for connecting w

Shane Snow and I talk about accelerating business growth and use examples from his recent book Smartcuts. In this episode we talk about how he raised $11M in funding for his business Contently. Shane explains why it was easier to raise $11M in funding than raising $100k for his startup. We also talk about how you can 10X your business growth by applying lateral thinking. We take a listener question about scaling a service based business. He does a case study of how he would grow their business and applies examples of how he grew Contently. If you liked the 4 Hour Work Week and you’re into rapidly growing a business you’ll love his new book Smartcuts. Get a copy on Amazon or any major bookstore. To get your questions answered on the show tweet me @spencershaw

After running the Business Growth Podcast for over a year it was hard to choose the top lessons. Overall these 5 conversations had the greatest impact on me, so they made the cut. I want to thank all the guests who have been on the show. They are all innovative, inspiring and have helped so many other business owners. Thank you. Today’s Show: In this special episode you’ll learn from Davis Smith of Cotopaxi.com, Scott Paul of Instafluence, and Naveen Dittakavi of HowToBuildRecurringRevenue.com You’ll learn a new way to think of 100 million dollar ideas, why you should suck at everything except 1 key area, and which business model will work best for you, Lesson 1 comes from Davis Smith. Why think of 100 million dollar ideas. Lesson 2 comes from Scott Paul. The importance of building a team. Lesson 3 also comes from Scott. Why you should suck at everything thing except this… Lesson 4 comes from Naveen Dittakavi. What it really means to scale. Lesson 5 also comes from Naveen. Understanding what you want. To get

Joel Widmer talks about productivity hacks for entrepreneurs. We speak about the boring things you can do to become more productive as a business owner. He recently put out a course with raving reviews. Check it out here https://www.udemy.com/productivity-hacks/?couponCode=DoBoringWork 0:12 Introduction 1:32 Finding the sweet spot” for productivity 3:06 The myth of naturally productive people 4:55 Making the transition from being lazy to a hard worker 7:24 How to trick yourself into being more productive 10:50 What to do to be more productive with email 11:53 Being productive as a solopreneur 14:04 Josh Kaufman’s 99 Best Business Book article http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ 19:25 Srini Roa 1,000 words a day example of hard work http://unmistakablecreative.com/ 25:31 Is social media productive or a trap? 29:35 Joel’s guilty pleasure for wasting time 31:13 Ask the question “what am I avoiding?” 33:10 80/20 rule and the extra bit of work 34:16 Article from James Clear http://jamesclear.com/stay-focus

Davis Smith, the founder of Cotopaxi.com talks about raising millions from VC’s to start his businesses, while maintaining a pledge for good to the world 0:29 – Introduction 1:12 – His first startup Pooltables.com 4:13 – Growing up in Latin America and world traveling 5:30 – Talking about taking risks and stepping into the business full-time 7:28 – His first business exit 9:00 – After selling his company he went to Wharton School of Business 12:55 – Raising venture money on Sandhill Road and starting baby.com.br 15:20 – Obstacles and surprises he faced with baby.com.br 20:19 – Meeting Edgar, the pivotal life changing moment while living in Peru 26:22 – Non profit vs profits for good 28:48 – Creating the Cotopaxi business model at 2am “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul” Dieter Uchtdorf 30:42 – How to find and apply your inner creations and business models “It takes the same amount of time to build a hundred million dollar business as it does to build a one million dollar bu

Stephen Key, best-selling author of One Simple Idea shares how to build your idea muscle and get your ideas to market the fastest and easiest way possible. 0:00 – Introduction 0:47 – Licensing, renting ideas to new partners 2:35 – Stephens story of “Hot Picks” guitar picks with Taylor Swift 4:46 – “Love your customers and they will love you back” 6:05 – Don’t reinvent the wheel with licensing ideas 7:54 – The Michael Jordan basketball idea 11:08 – Building your idea muscle 14:33 – Minimum Viable Product for licensing ideas 17:00 – Speed to market is the best way to protect your ideas 19:38 – From gag gifts to evergreen products 21:40 – What he would do different if he started over again 24:08 – The ultimate art is business 26:02 – How you can apply licensing to grow your business Get your copy of his book One Simple Idea http://www.amazon.com/One-Simple-Idea-Licensing-Goldmine-ebook/dp/B004H4XL8S 28:24 – The 48 hour challenge Check out his thoughts and ideas at www.inventrite.com

“The 7 Day Startup,” a must-have book for startups by Dan Norris. We talk about building a business with growth in it’s DNA. In 10 months from $0 to $16,000 a month in recurring revenue. Free copy at www.wpcurve.com/7daystartup 0:00 – Introducing Dan Norris and his fantastic beard 2:06 – You Don’t Learn Until You Launch 3:35 – “Who’s paying me?” – In 10 months from $0 to $16,000 a month in recurring revenue 5:07 – What he did different on this new startup 6:28 – Is what you’re doing profitable? How much profit margin is there? 10:20 – His “NO LIST” 15:05 – How solving your customers problem automatically grows your business 17:42 – Brining new employees into the business Message from our sponsors LeadPages www.businessgrowthpodcast.com/leadpages and Office Auto Pilot www.businessgrowthpodcast.com/OAP 23:30 – Growing with more customers not enterprise 29:20 – Dan laughs at a half million dollar investment/valuation 32:57 – What we would do with a $75,000 investment 35:45 – Getting distracted 37:45 – Naveen Dit

Nancy Tedeschi is the inventor of Snap It Screw. We talk about inventing physical products, getting on the shelves of Wal-Mart, and creating a global brand. Her invention http://snapitscrew.com has revolutionized the eye glass industry and made millions of dollars. 0:00 – Introducing Nancy and her inventions 1:14 – Her biggest breakthrough “Snap It Screw” 3:10 – Inventions… “if you can do something simpler than what’s out there now, then that’s how you test whether you have a good product or not” 3:41 – There are 2 kinds of inventors 4:24 – She talks about the many challenges while growing up 7:37 – How she found her confidence 10:25 – Why she QUIT 12:11 – Getting her patents 16:34 – Stephen Key told Nancy she was nuts for taking Snap It Screw to retail 17:53 – How it took over a year to get her product into Wal-Mart 24:56 – Why fear almost paralyzed her 28:35 – “It’s all about the money, until it’s not about the money” 31:00 – Bootstrapping vs. taking Venture Capital 32:22 – Advice for creating physical prod

James Altucher challenged Joe Choi to write a book. Within 11 days he completed “Happy Foods”. He talks about turning ideas into reality. Joe’s latest experiment and project is 1,000 Monthly Blog Visitors http://fescuefairways.com/introducing-reach-1000-monthly-blog-visitors/ You’ll discover how to overcome the roadblocks that come your way with new ideas. 0:00 – Introduction with Joe Choi 0:46 – How he got the idea and created his book “Happy Foods” 5:14 – Why outside insight can overcome your roadblocks 7:20 – REMEDY for FEAR Talking about Tim Fite www.timfite.com the interview http://youtu.be/jifnc93r5s4 11:26 – When to finish and idea or cut and run 14:08 – Joe’s current project 1,000 Monthly Blog Visitors http://fescuefairways.com/introducing-reach-1000-monthly-blog-visitors/ 21:30 – Writing and Selling your passion 22:52 – How consistency and execution effects relationships 24:45 – What mentorship really looks like Say thanks to Joe https://twitter.com/jchoi007 and check out his website http://fescuefai

Kevin Davis of PaidTraffic.co talks about how businesses can leverage pay per click advertising on Facebook to grow their business. In this interview you’ll see exactly what a 7 figure ad manager does for Facebook pay per click Ad campaigns. httpvh://youtu.be/5oynLKdl0Vo 0:30 Kevin talks about vanity metrics vs business critical metrics The metrics he focus on: How many leads came in? How much money did we spend? How much did those leads cost? 3:00 How tell which type of lead to acquire and how much to pay “An email lead has no value unless it converts to a sale” 4:46 Why eliminating low cost campaigns can make sense 8:35 Cash-flowing campaigns is the stopping point for many business owners. He shares how to solve that problem 10:17 Obstacles you may face when running Facebook Ads 12:15 Why focusing on “LIKES” and “SHARES” will KILL your business 14:11 The “silent sales force” …retargeting 18:29 Why he uses multiple retargeting platforms 21:56 Case Study with http://www.wpcurve.com 26:00 Why he suggests start

www.eyeballdivision.com/businessgrowthpodcast talks about the 3 Pillars to Entrepreneurship and how the “critical thinking process” is vital to your success as a business owner. 1:05 The 3 Pillars of Entrepreneurship 1. You 2. Your People 3. Your Business Model 4:21 How your team plays a vital role in the businesses success 7:05 Do you knowing your CAC? 8:57 Andrew explains the cause of his failures in the past 11:16 Finding the value between margin and value 14:55 Why most businesses don’t know their numbers 18:45 Fear and Laziness 19:20 One of the most critical habits to develop 21:42 The “thinking process” of brainstorming: “What’s the constraint?” 25:31 Going LEAN through the 5 Why’s 34:34 His biggest piece of advice for you http://www.eyeballdivision.com/businessgrowthpodcast

Naveen Dittakavi www.HowToBuildRecurringRevenue.com talks about how to build recurring revenue in your business. He also shares how he moved upmarket to increase prices and what he does to avoid churn. 0:48 80% of the work is done BEFORE you meet somebody. He prepared for over 30 hours to meet his mentor Ramit Sethi 2:38 After meeting Ramit he changed focus to work on simple key pieces 5:10 Why recurring revenue has giving him real freedom in his business 7:15 How saying “NO” is so difficult and what he did to overcome that problem 9:22 The reasons why to validate ideas very quickly and how invisible future fears cause roadblocks 13:23 AUTOMATION is the paralyzing word for software developers and entrepreneurs 16:13 Marketing wasn’t necessarily the cause of sales but rather gave him clarity to acquire more valuable clients 18:15 Modeling Others: “We don’t want to model people where they are now. We want to model people and understand what they did to get there” “What can I do for my client to help him or her

Jordan Harbinger from www.TheArtofCharm.com talks about how he creates valuable relationships that have helped him build a multi-million dollar company. 1:54 Explains what it means to be trapped with the “Golden Handcuffs” 4:35 His focus is 1. Good Customer Service 2. Killer Products 3. Delivering Valuable Free Content 5:02 Relationships are so critical to his multi-million dollar business, he explains why 9:00 How introductions open the doors to investors and key players 12:05 If you’re looking to get value, give value first 13:38 Why people don’t provide value to other, and how to overcome that 15:58 How he created the habit of helping others 20:30 He mentions the #1 thing that is responsible for his business success 21:57 The 4 Hour Work Week vs Paul Graham “do things that aren’t scaleable” 25:05 What to do to provide value to team members, and how to get them to follow the example 28:03 The signals of a “top performer” 33:04 How they grew from $100,000 to $1,000,000+ in sales and what they focused on 36:3

Turner Barr of www.aroundtheworldin80jobs.com explains how he was fired from the job he invented. He travels to exotic places working strange jobs and shares insight to vagabond entrepreneurs. 3:14 Where he searched to find international jobs… and why they always came up short 9:41 Why he setup a charity event for the Philippines disaster 12:20 How a multi-billion dollar company stole his brand and used it in a global marketing campaign His story went viral and was Featured in Inc and Entrepreneur also gaining massive support from the Reddit Community. 14:15 Why he turned to social media to expose the truth, and what it did for him Turner’s blog post went viral “How I Got Fired from the Job I Invented” Social Media = Social Justice 19:30 One of his craziest jobs was working with Tigers at a Buddhist temple in Thailand 22:30 His advice if you want to live and work overseas

This episode we interview Miguel Hernandez of www.GrumoMedia.com they help startups and businesses build their brand through demo videos. Their videos are short, funny, and unforgettable. You’ll learn his formula for creating a memorable brand and videos. 2:34 How he validated his idea of doing demo videos 6:25 Why he focuses on good content vs spending money on ads 9:40 Create multiple sources of income in your business to grow synergistically 10:17 How validating and pre-selling his training course helped him save time and money “before you spend a lot of time doing something try and validate… and if it’s good people will buy” 15:50 He is a top Udemy author making over $90k selling his video training “if you have a good product and you know how to market it, and you’re strategic about it, people are willing to pay for it” 16:53 The reasons why people pay for information they could get for free 18:45 What you have to do to create a memorable video “the whole idea of the video is to take action at the end” 20

Interview with Alex McClafferty and Dan Norris http://www.wpcurve.com They generate customers solely through content marketing and will put out 365 pieces of content this year. Within 6 months they went from $476 to a recurring revenue of $10,500 month. 1:47 How they went from $476/mo in revenue to $10,500/mo of recurring revenue in 6 months 3:12 Why they are focusing on content marketing to grow their business 4:37 What they do to build trust with their customers 5:48 When they started out they focused on the wrong customer only making $49 in 4 months. Alex explains how they pivoted to the right customer. 7:27 How they prepare content for their marketing and achieve the goal of 365 pieces of content in 2014 Their current content formula: 1-2 Podcast interview a week 2-3 Blog articles a week 1 Guest post a week 1 Weekly podcast on http://www.startupchat.co 11:53 What they do to manage their projects, tasks, and content 13:07 Balancing the working “on” the business and not “in” the business 15:52 Avoiding a hi

Dave Crenshaw shares his formula for creating a focused business. He also talks about using systems and simplicity to grow your business. Learn more about Dave at http://www.chaosquiz.com 0:54 He was diagnosed with off the charts ADD… and what he did to overcome that challenge 3:55 How an entrepreneur can overcome noise and chaos around them “Chaos is the haphazard allocation of resources towards things of variable value” 5:50 Why simplifying things are critical for growing your business 8:15 What the jack of all trades is and how it shackles you to your business 10:57 He shares his process for creating a system and outsourcing the system 1. Improve your personal systems 2. Improve the business systems 3. Use the best technology 4. Utilize outsourcing 5. Make the hire 13:13 Problems business owners face when outsourcing 14:57 What you can do to uncover your personal strengths 16:16 He explains his early on struggles and failures… and how he overcame them 19:20 When to say “no” to your customers 22:30 Dave’s s