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Micky Deming: (00:35) Hello and welcome to the TREPX Podcast! This is Micky Deming and I’m really excited about today’s interview! I had a chance to talk with a fellow journalist. I talked to Leanna Johnson who is a journalist and who is using her journalism to build a business around it and to promote entrepreneurs to help them tell their stories. As entrepreneurs, as business owners we talked about this in the Chris Smith interview if you’ve heard that, telling your story is one of the most important things you have to figure out how to do. How to pull out those stories of who you are, of why you do what you do, and sometimes we can’t pull it out of ourselves. We need to be interviewed, we need to talk to someone else, and a journalist can really help with that. So Leanna is doing that for others and she is really documenting everything that she’s doing, everything that others are doing, on her website. It’s some really cool stuff. So if you are at all curious about how to do some better storytelling, some

Micky Deming: (00:35) Hello entrepreneurs!  This is Micky Deming and this is the TREPX Podcast.  The podcast where we talk about entrepreneurship and how to grow a business, how to build something that is bigger than yourself, and there is a variety of ways to do that.  In this podcast we cover so many different topics and in this episode is one that is I think we covered some of the most important pieces.  They have to do with really how you approach entrepreneurship and how you approach building team and building something bigger than yourself.  It was so cool to get to meet and talk to the guest of this episode who is Emad Rahim and Emad has quite a background that you will hear in this episode.  A crazy story of where he’s come from and he has been through a lot and turned it into an incredible story.  He has impacted so many people.  He is doing amazing things.  In this we talk really about education, entrepreneurship, and really the future of entrepreneurship and what the younger generation of entrepren

Today’s episode features Matt Gottesman from TREP Media Group. Matt is an expert when it comes to creating media and engaged communities. Matt talks about how you can stand out when you’re specializing in media and content. “If you focus too hard on the end result, you are not as flexible for pivoting in the process. All you need to have is a vision of the end. The rest of the details are revealed to you while you are building.”  You can find Matt on Instagram and Twitter at HDF Magazine or you can reach him at info@hdfmagazine.com. If you enjoyed this interview, please leave us a review on ITunes and let us know what you learned. Enjoy this episode with Matt Gottesman.   Micky Deming: (00:44) Hello! Welcome to the TREPX Podcast. This is Micky Deming and I have another interview to share with you today that is going to blow your mind! I had a chance to chat with my friend Matt Gottesman of Trep Media Group, so no relation, but another Trep out there. Matt is an expert in creating media, creating engagement, c

Stories are how we learn about history, people, and even businesses. Poorly told stories are forgettable and hard to connect with, but we rarely think about investing in the stories we tell as entrepreneurs. When we don’t clearly communicate our company’s brand and message, we miss huge opportunities. Even a simple networking introduction can turn into thousands of dollars of business and long-lasting business relationships.   In TREPX Podcast Episode 66, host Micky Deming talks to The Campfire Effect Founder Chris Smith. “We teach entrepreneurs and their teams how to tell their story in a really powerful way so they can do three things,” says Chris. According to Chris, those three things are:   Get More Clients   Build a Stronger Culture   Make More of an Impact   Could something as simple as a story really bring in more clients, help internally with culture, and assist the business in making a bigger impact? Absolutely, but it doesn’t come to each of us naturally. “Very rarely do entrepreneurs invest

Kim Ades, the Founder and President of Frame of Mind Coaching, joined TREPX Podcast host Micky Deming to talk about mindset, journaling and getting ahead in business. Kim coaches executives and leading entrepreneurs to become emotionally resilient. ”Coaching, up until recently, has been highly focused on helping people take actions in order to reach their goals.  It wasn’t really focused on emotional resilience,” says Ades. Ades described emotional resilience as “the ability to bounce back from adversity with speed and agility to leverage the adversity.” During our entrepreneurial journey, and discovering how to grow a business that’s bigger than just ourselves, we often try to forget adversity rather than utilizing it to move forward at a greater pace. Ades talked about the false concept of “balance,” and posed the question “do we really want balance?” She says that balance isn’t what we actually want. “What we are after is engagement. We are after passion. We are after being turned on. We are after being fu

Alex Charfen has dedicated his life to answering the question, how do you make your business grow? As a personal consultant to billionaires, the Fortune 500 and some of the most successful individuals in the world, Alex’s pursuit evolved into a larger calling to understandHow do you help people grow? For the past two decades, Alex has created and curated proven business philosophies, models and strategies geared specifically to entrepreneurs. Alex was labeled as developmentally disabled back when he was in school and didn’t feel like he belonged anywhere. In his adult life he went on the journey to find success and ended up finding where he belonged. Alex, and many others belong to the most important group of all, the group of entrepreneurs. “We learn nothing standing still and we accomplish nothing standing alone.” Alex encourages entrepreneurs to work together as a team. “Learn the secret that every great entrepreneur in history has learned. Build a team or join a team, and do it fast.” He is an expert when

Jim Palmer is a marketing and business building expert and host of Newsletter Guru TV and Stick Like Glue Radio. He is known internationally as ‘The Newsletter Guru’- the go-to resource for maximizing the profitability of customer relationships. “Every entrepreneur needs to be working with a coach and be in a mastermind group. When you think you have all the answers or you think you know the plan is when you either are not doing well or your growth is being stunted because you don’t know what you don’t know. When you work with a master mind or a coach they can point out something obvious that you can’t see because you are far too close to your business.” Jim is an expert when it comes to newsletters and entrepreneurship. His home page is http://www.getjimpalmer.com/ the website for his newsletter is http://www.nohasslenewsletters.com/ if you are interested in coaching a mastermind group, visit http://www.dreambizcoaching.com/index.html

Lee Caraher is a CEO and acclaimed communication strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. She started Double Forte as a new kind of communications firm designed to work with good people, doing good work for good companies by providing the best results and service in the business. So far so good. This is not her first rodeo, and she’s learned a lot along the way that she shares with others in the hopes that everyone can reduce drama and conflict in the workplace and create careers that matter. “Growing a team starts with knowing who you are, what your strengths are, and knowing where to spend your time. The first person we paid was our accountant because my time wasn’t best used in accounting and that was the best investment I have ever made.” –Lee Caraher After the crash of 2008, Lee realized that when an economic shift happens, you have to look at your business model and make sure that it will still be relevant on the other side of recovery. This led her to hiring millennials and eventua

Michelle has one bottom line for all of her clients. Measurable results. She does not teach the “one size fits all” approach to marketing. Michelle L Evans walked away from her global marketing strategy role at Microsoft in 2012 after a successful 16-year corporate career spanning many industries. Now she shows business owners how to stop being the best-kept secret around and instead become a sold-out success. Combining her proven business-building skill set with her ninja marketing skills, Michelle shows entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and small business owners how to build a steady stream of clients and profits for their business. “Getting to the point where you don’t have to work with bad clients will almost always require you to work with bad clients as a learning experience. You have to be able to focus on what is right for right now because the clients you have now might not be what you want to have in 5 years.” This is a great episode with the marketing expert Michelle Evans. To see more of Michelle, visit

Jessica is the founder and CEO of her business Interview Connections which connects entrepreneurs and those who want to be interviewed to podcast hosts. Most entrepreneurs will hire a virtual assistant to book a guest spot on other podcasts. That is now an unnecessary step because Jessica has made great system that will find podcasts in your niche for you to be featured on. “Podcasts are one of the best ways to learn. My number one recommendation for knowing what podcast to listen to is to find a podcast that you thing has a great interviewer.” Jessica is an absolute expert in everything in the realm of podcasting. To find out more you can visit her website http://www.interviewconnections.com/ or find out what she has to offer at http://www.jessicarhodes.biz/micky/

Another great episode with Russ Perry from Design Pickle. In this episode, we talk about the misconceptions in priority, growing pains in a company, and content creation. “I believed that everything that came into my head should be captured and put into action, and that led to a path of a lot of nonsensical projects that really didn’t matter.” This is one of many quotes from this episode that really stuck with me. In one year Russ grew his company to have $80,000 in monthly revenue, and a lot of awesome new content will be added to his website soon. http://designpickle.com/ I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did and took away some of Russ’s wisdom. You can follow Russ on twitter and Instagram @russperry

Micky interviews two time entrepreneur Gray Mackenzie. They discuss entrepreneurial growing pains and the importance of building a game plan for your business. “I would recommend to start by defining who your target audience is. People often target the person writing the check but that is not the person that usually finds you.” This is an excellent interview for everyone who wants to know more about inbound marketing and the mindset of running two businesses at the same time. To find out more about Gray and what he is doing, look for him on twitter @sgraymackenzie or on his website http://www.guavabox.com/

For his entire life Dr. Herman SJR soaked up every bit of knowledge that came his way, and now he is on a mission to inform entrepreneurs on how to reprogram their minds. “The first thing you have to do is see that you have a problem. Without realizing your problem you will not improve no matter what you do.” Herman informs us on how destructive fear can be to an entrepreneur, how knowing your mind can translate into success, and what keeps us from following through on ventures we were previously ecstatic about starting. This episode is excellent for an entrepreneur who is stuck in a rut or for someone who simply needs a new outlook on what they do.

Ilan Nass came from an entrepreneurial family and has made it in the world of digital marketing. He tried his hand in finance but that all ended in the crash of 2008. “People who do not know their own data will have a very difficult time growing in any meaningful way because they will not know where their holes are. Once you know your data you can grow. And there is nothing better for growth than having a good competitor because that will force you to either be better or fall off.” Ilan reminds us that we should put a lot of thought into who you are and what you stand for as a company. Because no matter how good your product is you will not be able to sell it if you do not market your product or market your company. Ilan’s weekly growth hacks: http://ilansweekly.com/ http://taktical.co/ @IlanNass

After building and selling a digital agency in 12 years, Jason finds his niche market and is now looking to be the #1 resource in the world for agency owners. “I am putting together all the information I wish someone had told me. There are so many landmines you could fall into and my goal is to try to show people how to avoid them.” Jason gives great advice on how to find your price, what it tells you about your product, and where people go wrong when adding clients. This episode offers a lot of helpful content for agency owners, entrepreneurs, and anybody in need of clarity. Learn about how Jason Swenk can help you at http://jasonswenk.com/ or follow him on twitter @jswenk

After enduring the most boring presentation of his life, Kenny Nguyen got the idea to start The Big Fish Experience. The goal of The Big Fish Experience is to end all boring, dull, and slow presentations. Whether you are a maid of honor about to give a speech or a business man giving the most important pitch of his life, Kenny is set out to help people like you deliver an excellent presentation. “I view speaking as an investment, and the best investment is yourself. There is always tomorrow to make money, but meeting the right people can change your life.” Kenny is a firm believer in the idea that if you help yourself, your business will likely improve as a result. This is a great episode and I hope it starts you on your path to improving your presentations.

As a business owner, there is nothing better than people spreading the word in a positive way about what you do.   The good news according to Peter Shankman is, to achieve this all you need to do is “be one step above crap.”   Shankman is an expert in providing a valuable, helpful customer experience as a business. This is exactly what he did to grow Help a Reporter Out into an email list of hundreds of thousands of people with a 79 percent open rate.   His secret has always been to be a good, helpful human to the people he interacts with. He believes businesses can do the same by being honest, genuine and truly caring about the people they serve.   And when you do that, your business can stand out and skyrocket to the next level.

This month, Frank Lunn celebrated his 20th year in business. His long journey has taken him through almost everything, which includes founding Kahuna Accounting in 2012. But Frank is not an accountant. He’s not even what you’d call a “numbers person.” He is an entrepreneur, and in his entrepreneurial journey he realized how incredibly important it is to have an understanding of your finances. In this interview Frank talks about what he learned along the way and how a business can scale when they know how to keep score. We also talk about leadership and the power in embracing ignorance. If you are not a numbers person yourself, and feel weak in the area of accounting and finance, you’ll find a lot of value in this interview. And if you want to learn more about how to streamline your accounting, you can head to Kahunaaccounting.com

The stress of entrepreneurship can be heavy. You grind, work hard and at times you feel completely overwhelmed.   Suresh Thakoor knows the feeling. But he also knows we have the ability to control our thoughts, and be intentional enough to work on what matters.   Too often we end up drifting into lives that take us to a place where we end up miserable.   Suresh is the founder of Blisshacker and Ananda. Both of those companies strive to help others find clarity. Clarity is when you know what you want and create a path to get there.   Clarity allows you to make the most of your time and effort.   Clarity allows you to work on what you care about.   Clarity allows you to effectively lead a team.   And clarity allows your marketing message to connect because you know what it is and who it is for.   This interview is all about clarity and how Suresh found it in his own life and how other entrepreneurs can find it in theirs.   And once you are clear about who you are and what you want, you can create a path to Blis

This episode dives into the topic of public speaking but is applicable for anyone. We are all performers, Port says, because we have to deliver when we are on display.   This interview covers the topic of fear and anxiety surrounding public speaking and what the root of it really is.   Port says the reason we find speaking publicly difficult is because we are too self-absorbed. The more you focus on your audience and what you are saying, the more your anxiety goes down.   The other reason for fear is about criticism. What will people think?   Port says to deal with this by understanding first of all that if you are doing anything worth doing you will have critics.   He also urges people to allow their idea to be bigger than their need for approval.   He also gives practical tips on how to dominate when the spotlight is on you. You’ll definitely want to stick around til the end because Port shares with Luchies some specifics on exactly what to do as he prepares for the Ted X talk.   This interview has a lot to