Smallbiz America

Our guest on this segment thinks very differently about LEADERSHIP - describing it as “tangible energy” He says everyone leads. Author and Executive Coach Brian Braudis has been referred to as a “momentum changer” for his ability to refocus people’s energy on their best days and their best self. He integrates what you already know about leadership with an intimate and energized shift in thinking that creates an electrified upward spiral. Show talking points: Let’s talk about the fact that we are half awake… The great philosopher William James said, compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. That was in 1907. I’m not exactly sure how “awake” we are today but discontentment is wide-awake! We need to pivot, shift and create an upward spiral. What is America’s Employee Engagement Problem? For example, America has an employee engagement problem. With everything we know, that issue should be long behind us. It’s up to leaders to get engaged and create engagement. Engagement begets engagement.

My Guests are: Tom Schmidt www.onboardtours.com Joining us on this segment is attorney and entrepreneur, Tom Schmidt. Over the past several years, he’s been building an enterprise called OnBoard Tours - the company is committed to creating remarkable travel experiences for its customers and travelers across the USA. Jeff Williams www.bizstarters.com For many years, Jeff Williams has helped people start business. His company, BizStarters.com, was created to consult, coach, assist and provide the tools for professionals looking to start businesses succeed. Ron Sukenick www.ronsukenick.com He’s the co-author (with Ken Williams) of a new book entitled, “21 Days to Success With LinkedIn”, Business Advisor / Relationship Strategist / Author / Connector Ron Sukenick joins us from his offices near Indianapolis, Indiana. The Brain with Gabe Arnold - www.copywritertoday.net

Entrepreneur Mahesh Rajagopalan joins me on this segment to talk about how he approaches growing and scaling his companies. He's the founder of Resolvity, a leading provider of cloud-based speech recognition and authentication technology that automates customer service calls for Fortune 500 companies, and also of PicPal, which has grown to become one of the most popular photo messaging apps among teens. www.getpicpal.com

Chris Rush is Division Vice President Strategy for ADP’s Small Business Services (SBS) Division. In this role, he leads strategic planning, competitive intelligence and market research across payroll, HR, insurance and retirement services. Since joining ADP in 2010, Chris has worked in strategy and business process improvement. Prior to joining ADP, Chris spent several years with McKinsey & Company where he led a variety of projects in strategy, marketing and operations across multiple industries. Chris received a BS in Physics from Michigan State University, a MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Evan Singer, the President of SmartBiz Loans, he is an expert at small business financing and helping small business owners get funding for their business. His Company's software solution helps match businesses to a database of banks to their loan requirements. https://www.smartbizloans.com WHAT STEPS? Singer discussed steps small business owners should take when applying for a small business loan…such as: BUILDING SEPARATE CREDIT PROFILES (BIZ and PERSONA) why small business owners should keep their personal and business credit scores separate, and how to get a loan if you’ve been turned down by the banks. Singer has held leadership positions as Chief Revenue Officer at: Milton’s Baking, President at Purity Organic, and General Manager at Align Technology. Highlights about why business owners should keep personal and business credit scores separate: 1) With a business lender, you’re contractually required to pay the loan back. The clear rules and deadlines force you to use the money wisely.

Our guest on this segment is PR, marketing and branding veteran Bill Corbett Jr. - his firm specializes in helping entrepreneurs and companies grow their businesses and personal brands by positioning them as leaders and experts in the media, and through through video presentation training. His clients have been featured in or on Fox Business News, Fox News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, Daily News, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Crain’s New York Business, Long Island Business News, Long Island Pulse and Long Island Press. http://www.corbettpr.com/ 516-775-0435

Our guest on this segment is changing the way business thinks about MOBILE. Thu Truong, WW VP, at SETA International http://seta-international.com/ has helped hundreds of small businesses to succeed. - Why it's important - The role of Millennials - How Google is effecting mobile for small business - Examples of cost effective ways to grow via mobile - How to ensure payments are secure and the secret behind forming a relationship with a premium service provider SETA-Internation is also an AVUMO TECHNOLOGY PARTNER which translates to solutions that provide responsive design - adaptive (to the device you are on) AMP - action related, mobile optimized content.

Wes Higbee helps organizations make the leap from Today to Tomorrow. He says - “there are many needs beyond the software itself that nobody is taking care of. Those are the needs he addresses today, whether or not technology is involved.” He’s the author of book Commitment To Value: How to make technical projects worthwhile. and has created multiple online courses with Pluralsight and O’Reilly. He actively blogs; His articles have been featured on VeraSage, MSDN Magazine, and InfoQ. He’s been interviewed on “The Businessology Show”, “Art of Value”, and Agile.FM.- • Learning isn't about knowing, it's about influencing your future behavior • Behavior is guided by beliefs • Changing beliefs is key to learning • Pernicious beliefs in business • How to believe anything Company site: www.fullcitytechnology.com blog: www.weshigbee.com email: wes@fullcitytechnology.com

Joining us on this segment is Dr. Chandra Bhansali - co-founder of Accountants World. Dr. Bhansali is with us to talk about the the challenges and opportunities facing family-owned and operated businesses. We also cover some ways business owners can work with their accounts to manage their cash flow and optimize profitability. For more information: http://www.accountantsworld.com/ AccountantsWorld's Co-founder and CEO, Dr. Chandra Bhansali, has been consistently named one of the "100 Most Influential People in Accounting" by Accounting Today 10 years running. And in 2013, Sharada Bhansali was named one of the "25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting" by CPA Practice Advisor. AccountantsWorld is the recognized pioneer in cloud computing solutions for accountants. According to Accounting Today magazine: "With his vision of the 'accountant-centric' model and his history as a pioneer of the cloud (before it was even 'the cloud'), Bhansali and his company are natural lead

"Joshua Liberman joins me on this edition to talk about data backup and how he approaches it for both enterpise and cloud-based business clients. SHOW TALKING POINTS: Backup is not an element, but has many different components. These include “flat” data such as documents, complex data (databases, including Exchange) and configuration data. The fastest way to capture all of this is by doing image-based or “snapshot” backups that capture all at once. These types of backups provide “business continuity” or the ability to keep working after server(s) failure. You also need to off-site this data in order to protect against both employee error and true site disasters. There is a way to do all of this, in an automated, hourly fashion that provides recovery within minutes! ABOUT JOSHUA LIBERMAN Joshua Liberman wasn’t exactly born into business. With a background in languages and linguistics, a degree in Philosophy, travel throughout the world, and a history of rock and ice climbing and the martial ar

"Peter Ireland is a seasoned intermediary and business broker who has engineered buy and sell transactions for business owners with successful results. Peter created the Guerrilla Startups Guide to help entrepreneurs navigate the arc of idea to proof of concept to raising capital to taking a business to market…. Peter shares his insights with me - his recommendations as how to fund a startup. Peter's book: The Guerrilla Startups Guide www.antiventurecapital.com is was created to help entrepeneurs navigate the earliest stages of business development - and the most difficult. We explored many questions such as: What is the Guerrilla Startups Guide about? Why should first-time entrepreneurs be interested in the Guerrilla Startups Guide approach? What is the Financing Valley of Death? What is the payoff from reading the Guerrilla Startups Guide? How do you launch a startup then without a lot of money? (LEAN STARTUP) How does a deal-maker put together a startup so that it succeeds? What is busi

"Our guest is Capital Formation expert Brian Dineen. Though his business, Trinity Express Lending, Brian facilitates capital for businesses who local banks simply cannot help. Since the crash of 2008, capital has been difficult to access for small and even mid0sized companies. Unless they qualify under government-backed lending guidelines, the banks won't make the loan. For businesses seeking capital alternative sources of money have emerged. Private capital is often the source of funding for Trinity Express Lending. In this interview, Brian shares his approach, the structures he tends to fund, and the process for underwriting. http://www.trinityexpresslending.com/home.html" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Daryl Urbanski joins me on this segment to talk about the world of marketing through his eyes. So many themes and insights here as Daryl shares his experience. His company provides a full spectrum of ""direct marketing"". It's all about the method of TRACKING which grew from the tradition of direct mail, snail style. He says, [paraphrased here] ""while online is most efficient place to collect information , it tends to be the least effective place, due to the noise and distractions there. So, collect online, then take it to other adventures."" Depending on how they engage, that determine how best to deliver to them. Daryl loves POSTCARD follow ups! He says it will change the nature of the relationship. This creates a sticky customer for life. So elegant, so simple. And it turns out that postcards are very easy to automate. In the end, the best marketing you can do is to your existing clients, with an incentive."

"Jeremy Reeves, CEO of Kaizen Marketing, Inc. joins me to talk about the work he does designing marketing and sales funnels for his clients. He shares many insights about the critical considerations for both online AND offline campaigns and message sequencing. Often missed by entrepreneurs, we covered audience segmentation which is paramount to designing successful communication sequences that resonate. Jeremy shares the tools in his toolkit including the changing world of email marketing. He says that newsletters are too general. Each follower that you have has different marketing objectives and are with you for a different reasons. He likes to choose relevant stories that truly resonate with his audience. Jeremy shares some of the latest software tools he recommends - many many great tips and ideas here!"

"Our guest on this segment is a seasoned consultant and nationally recognized speaker. Over the last 25 years, Mike Goldman has helped mid-size companies achieve dramatic growth by working with their leadership teams to ensure that they have the right people, strategies and execution habits for development. He has experience with organizations of all sizes and missions from working at Deloitte and Accenture to founding his own firm, Performance Breakthrough. He’s the author of a new book entitled: Performance Breakthrough: The 4 Secrets of Passionate Organizations (Highpoint Executive Publishing, June 2015), in which he reveals the reasons he’s seen companies have succeeded in creating more passionate, productive and profitable cultures. In this segment, we focus on the work Mike does to help companies with all aspects of their people development processes and strategies. For more information: http://www.performance-breakthrough.com/" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"My visit with author Jeff B. Cohen, who recently authored a book to help us negotiate great deals, manage our time more effectively, and manage crisis situations without losing our soul. Jeff co-founded Cohen Gardner LLP in 2002 and focuses on transactional representation for clients in the entertainment, media and technology verticals. He has been named by Variety to both its Dealmakers Impact List and Legal Impact List. He has been profiled by The Hollywood Reporter, The ABA Journal, Chambers Associate, Law Crossing and others. His first book, The Dealmaker's Ten Commandments: Ten Essential Tools for Business Forged in the Trenches of Hollywood was published by the American Bar Association's imprint Ankerwycke in 2015. An active writer, he has authored numerous articles discussing business and legal matters for CNBC, The Huffington Post, Backstage, Lawyerist and others. He is proud to serve on corporate boards in both the non-profit and for-profit arenas. Jeff received his Juris Doctor fro

"Jeff Stoller, JD, MBA, MBT, wrote “You Want To Be An Entrepreneur”: Success Requires More Than Just A Good Idea, to help people who have a great concept but don’t know all the vital business areas they need to think about in order to start a successful endeavor. With his professional background as an attorney, accountant and business consultant, Stoller’s book offers great advice and practical insight to the budding entrepreneur. This valuable book offers a primer on marketing, finance, law, production, accounting and everything that is the foundation of any solid business. Whether your dream is to open a new restaurant or to sell a new product or app, you will have to address contracts, licensing, labor and a whole range of topics you may never have thought of before. “If you are confronted with an issue and remember that you read something about that in this book – and because of that you ask the right questions that help you avoid a big problem – the book will have achieved its purpose,” says Stolle

Gabe Arnold, founder of Copywriter Today joins me with entrepreneurial insights.

"Content is much like SEO. And, content driven specific business models are proven to work well on the web. Eric Debelak is a graduate of St. Olaf College. He is a polyglot and has studied Russian, ancient Greek, and German. After living in Russia from 2006-2011, Eric moved to Albuquerque. Having done part-time webwork since 2004, Eric switched to full-time development in 2014 after meeting Josh Garcia and attending Deep Dive Coders. Eric has a background in new product marketing, which informs all of his development and design work, and also teaches web development and design at Central New Mexico Community College. Joshua T. Garcia is a graduate of Gonzaga University where he studied entrepreneurship, finance, and philosophy. After an enriching college career that included cheerleading, traveling abroad, and even meeting Warren Buffet, Joshua moved back to his hometown of Albuquerque to marry his college sweetheart. Joshua has been involved in coding since 2010, and he began full-time development upon

Irv Weinberg shares insights about Content Marketing Strategies