The Agile Entrepreneurship Podcast

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Brian Meert https://youtu.be/yp0GkOS8Wus Episode Transcript 00:09 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneurial video cast and podcast. And today I'm really excited to introduce a gentleman who is a CEO and founder of www. AdvertiseMint.com and it's a clever play of the word advertisement. So he took the E out and they put an AdvertiseMint. So the cleverness and then the creativity is, as you can see, it's coming right with starting with the name itself. And his name is Brian Meert and I happen to run into him in Los Angeles. And this gentleman, so Brian, welcome. So I'll introduce you in a much more personal way in a second. 00:48 Brian: Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to talk about business and marketing today. 00:56 Ramesh: Great. So Brian is the founder of AdvertiseMint. and AdvertiseMint. is an advertising agency for digital media, right? So they focus extensively on Facebook, but of course they also have other platforms and Amazon tik tok you know, Pinterest and all of them of course, which is really, really hot right now. So, and then secondly, I found out that Brian comes from the same town that where I live in Sacramento. Fantastic. Yes. Yes. Okay, so tell us a little bit about your company AdvertiseMint., 01:28 Brian: Man. So, I mean, we're an advertising agency. We specialize in digital. We worked a lot with Facebook advertising is what we're really known for. A lot of people come to approach us because of that. And we're very robust. But we work with other platforms like tik tok, which is really hot right now. YouTube ads, Google ads, Facebook ads, or Amazon ads. So there's a lot of other platforms that we work within. Basically, you know, companies that need help either they're growing and they're like, we need someone to help us in this area. Or we've worked with big teams like Viacom that have 20 people in their marketing department, and they're like, we need an expert to handle this one aspect for certain events or shows. So we need you guys to take care of it. So, you know, we work with a range of different clients, but basically, we're helping businesses grow every single day. 02:20 Ramesh: Okay. So is it fair to say that your focus is much more on the paid advertisement space or do you also in the broad social media presence, you look at the entire picture for the companies, Hey, you know, what do you need to do from a social media presence and then advertisement is one piece of it. 02:38 Brian: Oh, it's great. It's a great question. We work a lot on the paid side. So, you know, companies come, goes with ad dollars and they're like, we need to have this objective met, you know, a certain number of people come to an event, certain number of sales and we work with them and say, here are the best platforms and outlets to be a...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Becky Beach https://youtu.be/XPXcXJe6uWw Episode Transcript 00:03 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. Today we'll be talking to an entrepreneur who has weathered through tough times before she made a very successful business by herself. Her name is Becky Beach, and by the way, I love the name Becky Beach, Becky Beach is a mompreneur who was in debt up to $150,000 before she started her online boutique. She was actually living from month to month and was barely making ends meet before her business. After the online boutique though she was debt free. So Becky nowadays helps other moms start their own businesses, save money, and live from home through her blog www.mombeach.com That's another interesting name there. So Becky, welcome. 00:59 Becky: Oh, thank you. I'm really excited to be here. 01:03 Ramesh: Fantastic. So Becky, so let's get straight to it. What were you, what was the work that you were doing when you were in that much of a debt around $150,000 if you could explain how you, not necessarily how you got into it, but essentially what were you doing? And what was the transformation? 01:23 Becky: Well, I was working for a small pain and injury clinic as a web developer. Like that's what I was doing, and they weren't paying very much. Like I was probably making like $20 an hour or less, you know, those weren't paying that much, you know, so I was like scraping by and I'll work like 60-hour week. Sometimes it was just a lot of stress. Then I got pregnant with my little child, you know, when I just couldn't, it just was really so much stress, you know, and hard to deal with, you know. They just weren't paying very much at all, you know. 01:51 Ramesh: So then what happens? You are in debt and then the work, you're not enjoying it. It's stressful. Then how did that switch come on that Hey, no, I need to start something else. I need to do something else. 02:04 Becky: Well, I got pregnant with like, we had a child, my husband, and I just said, I just can't go back to work. I don't think I could work 60-hour days you know in this condition, you know, when I was, I had a little child that I was taking a daycare. It was after three months he has already gone to daycare, you know, that's just too short, you know, and I was just worried about him all day. I couldn't focus on my work, you know, because I just had a little baby that I wanted to be with. So I said, cause I got to do something. So like one day I went in, I was watching YouTube and I was like saying, oh gosh, I heard this, trying to unwind. And then this video came on for how to drop ship. And it was really interesting. So then I started watching it and I was like, you know what, I could do that, you know, there's no money up front, because I had no money, you know. Yeah.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Erin Shea https://youtu.be/41RN0ehSwPU Episode Transcript 00:00 Ramesh: Excited about you know, talking to Vistaprinting and of course you. 00:04 Erin: You too, I think it'll be great. 00:06 Ramesh: Yeah. So I think Adam and Erin, I would like to introduce Vistaprint as a leading online provider of marketing products and services to small businesses. Is that fine or is there anything else you want me to do? 00:20 Erin: No, I think that's appropriate. 00:22 Ramesh: And then Erin, I think you as a marketing director for North America for Vistaprint. 00:28 Erin: Correct. 00:29 Ramesh: Okay. So good. All right, so we'll get started and then pretty much we will get into you know, the areas that you know, you really drive, which is the marketing for small businesses. And then we'll get into some of the study findings as well. And we want to take, you're welcome too. And [00:50 inaudible] you want to mention, okay. Thank you. Alright. 00:59 Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneur video cast and podcast. And this is your host Ramesh Dontha. Today, I am especially excited to talk to Erin Shea, who is the North America marketing director for Vistaprint. For I think almost all of you know about Vistaprint. Vistaprint is the leading online provider of marketing products and services to small businesses. And in full disclosure, I am a customer of Vistaprint. Every time I do my business cards routinely, I go there and then, so without thinking, so they gave me so much flexibility. So that's what I do. And then that's where I start as a customer and then I go into some other areas as well. Erin, welcome. 01:42 Erin: Thank you. Thank you for having me. 01:44 Ramesh: I know I introduced Vistaprint, but in your own words what is Vistaprint do and then especially what you do for Vistaprint? 01:53 Erin: Sure. Vistaprint is a company that's been around for over 20 years now and we are so proud to say that we've helped over 17 million small businesses really live their small business dreams. We started out as a startup, a small business of our own, and then have kind of grown to an international company. But small businesses have always and will always be our full passion. And it's why we kind of come into workday in and day out. We did start with sort of business cards as our core product. And then as small businesses have evolved, and the customers' needs have evolved we have expanded our assortment into a number of different printed marketing materials. So everything from so, your flyers and your brochures, your signage, and then of course, into digital. So websites, search engine marketing, and then of course design services. 02:50 Ramesh: Oh, excellent Erin. So how long have you been with Vistaprint? 02:54 Erin: I have been with Vistaprint for a wonderful 10 years. And I find that you know, I'm so passionate about partnering with small businesses day in and day out. 03:08 Ramesh: So in the 10 years, I mean, I can't imagine, but you must have talked to so many small businesses.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us on SoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: William Roberts & John Holmes https://youtu.be/TNCO58o7wJI Episode Transcript 00:04 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneur video cast and podcast. And this is your host, Ramesh Dontha. Today, with the very first time I'm going to talk to two co-founders, John Holmes and Will Roberts. Both of them are co-founders and executive partners at www.weworked.com. It's an online timesheet software company. They have bootstrapped it built into a company that serves customers in what, 120 countries. That is phenomenal. All right guys, John and Will welcome. 00:41 Will: Thank you. 00:41 Ramesh: So, John, can you introduce the company please? 00:46 John: Sure. I'm a little bit about weworked, we started, weworked about nine years ago. My time may be off a year or so. It goes back pretty fast, but not years ago. When I started, weworked we both worked for small companies and weworked basically as a time sheet invoicing payroll/ leave tracking software that we developed with the focus of small business clients. And it's kind of morphed into something much bigger. But from the beginning, that was the initial focus. 01:27 Ramesh: Okay, great. So Will how about you, if you could introduce yourself and then the side of the business that you focus on as well? 01:35 Will: I am Will Roberts; I am a cofounder here at www.weworked.com. I've primarily focused on the technical support team, database architecture, database management and some marketing. 01:53 Ramesh: Fantastic. So all right guys, so welcome. And so let's talk about the nine years ago before, right. So that's when you guys started. And how did you decide to start a company? What were you guys doing before that? So let me start with Will. So what were you doing before you guys started www.weworked.com? 02:14 Will: I actually was, I had started my own consulting firm, I think back in maybe 2005. And I was, you know, pretty much serving as a contractor to the federal government. 02:32 Ramesh: I see. So John, how about you? What were you doing before that? 02:36 John: I was a software programmer for small businesses. And I did some government contracting work as well. 02:47 Ramesh: Okay. So then how did you guys meet up and then how did the thought of starting a company come, who started and then who followed up? 02:57 Will: Well, firstly we met on the job. 03:02 John: Yes, we both met probably back in 2000, 2001 we were both working for a smaller tech company that created software for the government on the department of transportation. And Will and I kicked it off right away from beginning. So years later after Will started his business and I was probably two jobs moved from where we met. I had reached out to Will regarding weworked. So its kind of, I kind of had the initial brainchild of it. I was out of work for a few months and sat around thinking about what I could do to kind of change the projection of you know, my future with respect to jobs and businesses. So having worked for small businesses most of the time, one thing that I noticed was none of the small businesses had in house Time sheet software. And it was a struggle for a lot of them back in the early two thousands, because a lot of the software was developed for large enterprises. So started working on it, developed a good starting point. And then realized I needed a lot of help to pull this thing off and went through my mental Rolodex who I could call upon and Will was the first guy. And that's how, that was in short. That's how it kicked off. 04:50 Ramesh: Fantastic. Okay. So let me ask you this guys. Whenever a software company like this gets formed and you have an idea for a product, the challenge is always you know,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Lori Cheek https://youtu.be/JjGPQkGOm1A Episode Transcript 00:15 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneur podcast and video cast. And this is your host Ramesh Dontha. Today I have an exciting guest. Her name is Lori Cheek. She's a New York city based architect turned entrepreneur and she's the CEO and founder of Cheeked. It's a hyper speed Bluetooth enabled mobile dating app. I know what you guys are thinking and I'm also very, very curious to know more about Cheekd and Lori Cheek. Lori, welcome. 00:50 Lori: Hi. 00:52 Ramesh: All right, so now you picked our curiosity. So what is Cheekd hyper speed Bluetooth enabled mobile dating app. Can you please go over what Cheekd is? 01:05 Lori: Well, yes, we are an app that helps people connect in the real world. So we are leveraging technology to try to get people off their phones. So if you walk into a crowded bar, a gym, a cafe, and anyone else with the Cheekd app and their Bluetooth turned on, you'll get an immediate notification that that person is single and potentially ready to mingle in that moment. So you can either walk up to them and say hello, which is what people used to do back in the olden days and it seemed to work. Instead of swiping through strangers from the comfort of your home online, so you can spark a conversation face to face and hopefully take it from there. 01:50 Ramesh: I see. And do these people need, both of them need to be on the Cheekd app for them to. 01:56 Lori: Yes. I mean, I'd love if there was a way to connect with people that weren't on the app, but that starts to get a tiny bit creepy. 02:06 Ramesh: Let's see how we could you know not get creepy, so and then people registered on Cheekd and then you'll find, it seems pretty, pretty exciting. So, Lori, let's say go through how could you, I mean, when did you think about this app? And so let's talk about the journey. 02:27 Lori: I mean, it's been a pretty long journey and Cheekd has been through several different iterations, but I was an architect in New York for 16 years. Just walking around thinking, how do you find love in a city of 8 million people? I mean, everybody in New York is like crossing each other's paths, but no one really speaks to each other. Like it was just so difficult for me to understand what was missing here. And one night I was out to dinner with a colleague and he slipped his business card to a woman and he'd written on the back of it, want to have dinner and he left with a date and I left with this idea of sort of handing notes to people. So I started this business soon after called Cheekd and it was dating cards and they had a code on them. And a funny pickup line and the recipient of that card could go to our website and type in the code and find that person's profile. So we called it online dating and reverse.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Vartika Manasvi https://youtu.be/o5ZwU1UDrjU Episode Transcript 00:04 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneur podcast and of course the video cast. And this is your host Ramesh Dontha. So today we will talk about career. We're going to talk to a women entrepreneur with a fantastic background and her name is Vartika Manasvi and Vartika is the second time founder of a company called stack raft as a career hub company. And she's the first woman entrepreneur from the South Asia to be granted a startup visa in Canada and right. So she took a one-way ticket to Canada and to start a company in Canada. So let's find more about Vartikas' journey. So Vartika welcome. 00:44 Vartika: Thank you. Thank you, Ramesh, for having me. 00:47 Ramesh: Vartika let's start with your company stack raft. So what is it? 00:52 Vartika: So Stack Raft is you know, a shorter version of that is like LinkedIn for engineers and, but we're not LinkedIn where people spamming each other. We are what recruiters and stuff like that. So it's like a career accelerator for software engineers around the globe. Who are looking for meaningful jobs and better opportunities? So the problem that we found was that the talent is everywhere. There are so many talented people around the world. But getting that job you know, it takes on which country you are in, what time zone are you in. How do you look, how do you speak? So these are the things that comes in between of your skills and talents and that is a problem that we are solving. 01:36 Ramesh: So how do you solve? Is it a marketplace where the software engineers put their resumes up and the skills something like a guru or up work kind of stuff? Or is it different? 01:45 Vartika: No, it's not like a Upwork or a career guru kind of a thing. Yes, it's a marketplace where software engineers create a profile. They put their skills, their personality indicators, like what's important to them and who they are like, what's their career intent. What as for them they want to be and what kind of stuff they want to build. Now based on that deeply challenges on our platform. And these are skill-based challenges and they get connected to senior mentors and senior developers, we call them as talent coaches, who give them concrete feedback on these challenges so that these engineers can be better engineers. I mean, even if they do not get a job or they do not get selected, they're getting concrete feedback. Now imagine for one job, like 250 people apply for that particular job. For one seat, right? And 20 people get a call, 10 get invited, and then finally one person is hired and rest of them get a standard emails. Sorry, we couldn't select your profile. That's a standard email. But it doesn't give a reason why. I mean, okay, do not select, but tell me why. So that I can at least improve myself.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Nathan Miller https://youtu.be/T5I9PK3nE3Y Episode Transcript 00:08 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneur podcast and video cast. So today I'm going to talk to a gentleman who is in the real estate industry. Both from a technology side as well as the investor in developer side. So Nathan Miller is the president and CEO of Rentec direct, a popular property management software that helps property managers and landlords with their day to day tasks. Nathan is also a real estate investor and developer and proud husband and father. So I'm very eager to meet Nate. Hey Nathan, do you go by Nate or Nathan? 00:53 Nathan: Nathan is great. Thank you. 00:55 Ramesh: Fantastic. Nathan, welcome to the agile entrepreneurial podcast. 00:59 Nathan: Thanks for having me. 01:01 Ramesh: Great. So I introduce you and Nathan, but if you could tell in your own words what is when tech direct and what do you do with that? 01:10 Nathan: Yeah, well Rentec direct is a, it's a project that I started as a more or less a hobby because I was a and still am a landlord and needed technology to help me be more efficient. As I started gaining properties and managing properties on my own, I realized there's a, there's a lot of stuff that goes into it. You have a lot of things to keep track of. Not just, you know, accounting records or taxes, but you got maintenance and you got, you know, who's late and you have tenant communication and all this stuff. Once I had five or six rentals, I was managing became a little, a little excessive, but it took a lot of brain power and the time to think about and to maintain. And I also had a full-time job. So part of my background is I'm a software developer and I'm self-taught and I understand how technology can help people be more efficient. So I went out on a journey to make my landlord activities more efficient through software and created an application to help me with all those tasks, anything that could be automated, I automate it. And that was the beginning of Rentec direct. It was not necessarily intended to be a business or what it turned into today, but what that ended up morphing into is a software application that now helps about 15,000 property managers and landlords. And we've added a lot of stuff in the last 10 years to make the life of property managers easy and kind of cool. Because you know, being a property manager isn't sound a that glamorous but we can provide them tools that make things better for their tenants and so your tenants can pay online so they can select the best tenants. So anyways, in a nutshell we provide software to property managers. It's you can kind of think of it like a we are the QuickBooks for the property management industry, but we add in all the various special stuff that property managers need in order to Excel in their market. 03:28 Ramesh: Excellent.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Kunal Jain https://vimeo.com/450499038 Episode Transcript 00:06 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneur podcast and video cast. And this is your host Ramesh Dontha. And today I'm very, very excited to introduce a guest who I've been meaning to talk for quite some time. His name is Kunal Jain. Kunal is the founder and CEO of Analytics Vidhya. Analytics Vidhya is one of the largest data science community across the globe and Analytics Vidhya helps millions of people every month in the data science learning and helps its community members find the dream jobs, focuses on education and training and then jobs. And before starting Analytics Vidhya Kunal graduated from the India's prestigious Indian Institute of technology in Bombay studying aerospace engineering and joined capital one as a business analyst in UK in 2006 and later on he decided to start Analytics Vidhya. So let's talk to Kunal on his journey, why he did what he did. Kunal Welcome. 01:11 Kunal: Thanks. Thanks, Ramesh, for that lovely introduction and really excited and happy to be here on the show. I've been wanting to talk for a long time. But thanks for inviting me and looking forward to the session. 01:30 Ramesh: Definitely no worries at all. So Kunal let's take it from the beginning. So right now you are the CEO of Analytics Vidhya. So tell the audience and tell me about what is Analytics Vidhya and even though I introduced it in your own words, what does it do? 01:49 Kunal: Sure. The vision behind Analytics Vidhya is to create a platform where every data science professional can come and get their knowledge and career needs addressed in form of the platform in the community, which is there on the platform. So you know, if you think about the career needs data scientists, there are broadly for different needs which they have. So that is learning on a day to day basis. So that happens through various blogs, which we publish a lot of education material along with some free courses and paid courses. Recently we also started a boot camp, so maybe I'll explain that a bit more, but this is like a physical nine-month program with people in there. Engagement happens through a whole lot of community activities starting from meetups, webinars, podcasts and you know, the biggest run which we do is a conference in India called Data hacks Ramesh. That happens in November every year. Then there is competition. So we organize you know, very short duration competitions or two-day competitions to 15-day competitions where companies give their data sets and problems to our community and the community solves them. So from a community perspective, you get the best data scientists to compete on the problem you want to solve. From a data scientist perspective, you get a whole variety of problems to work upon instead of just being siloed on the industry you are work...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​Scott Swedberg https://vimeo.com/450499054 Episode Transcript 00:05  Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast and video cast. And this is your host, Ramesh Dontha and today we are going to talk about jobs. The next person I'm going to talk to, will get you a job. His name is Scott Swedberg. Scott is the founder and CEO of job sauce, a career services company focused on the individual. He founded the company while working at LinkedIn and the job sauce has helped 10,000 professionals since 2014. Scott, welcome.  00:39  Scott: Thanks for having me Ramesh.  00:41  Ramesh: so right off the bat, I know I introduced you as the founder of the company that focuses on the individual and I think that particular word is very important for you. So can you talk about, you know, what job's sauce is about and why the word individual means so much to you?  00:57  Scott: Yeah, so something that we recognize at job sauce and I founded it because I experienced personally is so much of your life is tied to the work that you do. It's how a lot of people express their fulfillment in life. That's how most people make money. So it's really important for an individual to feel fulfilled in their career. And I noticed that most career services type companies, it was either, you know, an individual resume writers say helping people, which is great, but you kind of have to trade your time for money. You can only help so many people or you've got these bigger outplacement companies that focus more on a B2B level. Certain company has to lay off employees and they contract this company to ease the landing, provide them with resume services or what have you. What the job sauce does is we focus on the individual, like individual resume writers career coaches do, except we can do it at scale. And we bring in a lot more resume writers and career coaches to help the individuals who are coming to us, so we can actually impact 10,000 people in the last five or six years as opposed to if I were doing this just myself and didn't have any support, you know, maybe I could have eclipsed a thousand by now if that's all I did. But we're able to reach a lot more people because we're focused on this niche, helping individuals grow in their career as opposed to, and I'm just helping a company ease the landing of their weight off employees. 02:26  Ramesh: Great. Okay. So just for my own clarification is job sauce a market place where you're connecting people like resume writers and career coaches with the people who are looking for a job or you as a business owner, you will manage all that who to bring in as a resume writer and career coach, but you are the front of the company. How does it work? 02:49  Scott: And so it's not a marketplace. When someone comes to us, if they're going to work with us, all of our resume writers and career coaches have ...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Will Hankinson https://vimeo.com/450499063 Episode Transcript 00:07  Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host, Ramesh Dontha. Again, this is both a podcast as well as a video cast. That's what we are trying in 2020. So let's give it a try. And then today I'm very, very excited to introduce you to founder or owner of a company. So his name is Will Hankinson. So Will Hankinson is the owner of www.introcave.com. He is a YouTube intro maker he purchased in 2018. And the Will has a very interesting and diverse background. He's been building websites and video games since 2007. That's 13 years. His expedience ranges from 2% startups to running large Facebook games to working at a digital agency. He has participated in game jams, hackathons, shipped multiple flash and mobiles games, built websites. And believe it or not, he taught as an adjunct professor at Savannah college of arts and design. It's a very popular, a famous college in Georgia and of course in the country as well. And also, he has some investment stake in real estate as well. So as you can see, a very diverse background that it's going to be very interested in conversation. And so Will welcome. 01:28  Will: Thank you. Thank you, Ramesh. 01:31  Ramesh: So you're a big-time gamer. 01:31  Will: Yeah. I mean you can tell from giant gaming headset; apex legends is my current mega league vice. 01:42  Ramesh: Will what's your pop current game. 01:42  Will: Apex legends. It's a competitive Fortnite which you've probably heard of. 01:45  Ramesh: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So fantastic. So that's good. All right, so I have a gamer friend. I keep [01:50 inaudible] him like, man, what are doing? Just killing people in the game. So what fun you get out of it. But anyway, I don't know much about it, so I will not get into it. So let's talk about Intro Cave So you are the owner of www.introcave.com, so Will, why don't you introduce yourself in your own words and then about the business that you're running. 02:08  Will: Sure. So I sort of bounced back and forth my whole career from video games and web development. That's kind of where I got started. At the time I was in 2018 when I bought it. I was working at a mobile game studio here in Atlanta and I would sort of work on video games all day and then come home and keep working on either the same game or different games, smaller games. I felt like I needed a little bit more variety. I'm a big reader of like hacker news, in any hackers' places like that. I'd read a couple of stories of people buying businesses. And that actually kind of just struck a nerve with me. And so I started Effie international is the one that I sort of basically just analyzing deals. So probably for like a, let's say like six months or a year. I was on their newsletter sort of just analyzing deals tha...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Kyle Isaacson https://vimeo.com/450499046 Episode Transcript 00:07  Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host, Ramesh Dontha. Again, this is both a podcast as well as a video cast. That's what we are trying in 2020. So let's give it a try. And then today I'm very, very excited to introduce you to founder or owner of a company. So his name is Will Hankinson. So Will Hankinson is the owner of www.introcave.com. He is a YouTube intro maker he purchased in 2018. And the Will has a very interesting and diverse background. He's been building websites and video games since 2007. That's 13 years. His expedience ranges from 2% startups to running large Facebook games to working at a digital agency. He has participated in game jams, hackathons, shipped multiple flash and mobiles games, built websites. And believe it or not, he taught as an adjunct professor at Savannah college of arts and design. It's a very popular, a famous college in Georgia and of course in the country as well. And also, he has some investment stake in real estate as well. So as you can see, a very diverse background that it's going to be very interested in conversation. And so Will welcome. 01:28  Will: Thank you. Thank you, Ramesh. 01:31  Ramesh: So you're a big-time gamer. 01:31  Will: Yeah. I mean you can tell from giant gaming headset; apex legends is my current mega league vice. 01:42  Ramesh: Will what's your pop current game. 01:42  Will: Apex legends. It's a competitive Fortnite which you've probably heard of. 01:45  Ramesh: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So fantastic. So that's good. All right, so I have a gamer friend. I keep [01:50 inaudible] him like, man, what are doing? Just killing people in the game. So what fun you get out of it. But anyway, I don't know much about it, so I will not get into it. So let's talk about Intro Cave So you are the owner of www.introcave.com, so Will, why don't you introduce yourself in your own words and then about the business that you're running. 02:08  Will: Sure. So I sort of bounced back and forth my whole career from video games and web development. That's kind of where I got started. At the time I was in 2018 when I bought it. I was working at a mobile game studio here in Atlanta and I would sort of work on video games all day and then come home and keep working on either the same game or different games, smaller games. I felt like I needed a little bit more variety. I'm a big reader of like hacker news, in any hackers' places like that. I'd read a couple of stories of people buying businesses. And that actually kind of just struck a nerve with me. And so I started Effie international is the one that I sort of basically just analyzing deals. So probably for like a, let's say like six months or a year. I was on their newsletter sort of just analyzing deals that...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Sukhi Jutla https://vimeo.com/450499059 Episode Transcript 00:07 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to one more episode of the agile entrepreneurial podcast. And this is your host Ramesh Dontha. Today I'm very excited to bring an entrepreneur from United Kingdom. She's the founder of www.marketorders.net. She's a very sought-after international speaker, leader and qualified IBM blockchain developer winning numerous awards including Asian women of achievement, female entrepreneur of the year, and top 100 European digital pioneer by the financial times, no less and of course Google. In 2018 Sukhi made global headlines becoming the world's first number one bestselling blockchain app. Sukhi, I am so glad to have you on my podcast. Welcome. 00:53 Sukhi: Hello Ramesh and it's really, really great to be here and thank you for that wonderful warm introduction. 01:01 Ramesh: All right, Sukhi, so please, let's go ahead, please introduce yourself and then let's talk about your business. What is it? 01:07 Sukhi: Yeah, sure. So you know, you introduced me in a great way, but in my own words, I usually say I'm a bit of an accidental entrepreneur. I actually started my life as; I usually say a corporate cog. I sort of fell into that rabbit hole of doing a 9 to 5 job working for a very prestigious bank. And I was in banking for a number of years, but it was just something in my soul I think that always was quite creative and just very entrepreneurial. And over the course of the last 10 to 12 years, I've actually started a number of different businesses. Some didn't work how it, some had some you know some promise. But at the end of the day I think I was just trying to figure out what it is I wanted to do with my life. And today I'm the cofounder of market orders. And so I feel like I find what it is I'm supposed to be doing. I really enjoy being an entrepreneur and being a technology entrepreneur and marketing order today is a tech marketplace where we connect suppliers and retailers who want to buy and source gold and diamond jewelry products. And what we're doing is very disruptive, because it's a very traditional industry whereby most of the transactions when it comes to high value products like gold and diamond jewelry is still very much done in person because of that trusted element. But what we are doing is, I usually say it's like the Uber for gold and diamonds. We just, we are just a better way to help suppliers and the retailers to access the products that they need in a much more efficient manner. 02:56 Ramesh: Wow. So it's a high value business and you're using latest technology like a blockchain to disrupt the gateway. So when did you start market orders? 03:05 Sukhi: So market orders were started in the summer of 2016. So we are speaking in January 2020. So it's coming up to four years. And over the course of four years we have really iterated ...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Cory Minton https://vimeo.com/450499028/1191ecdc9c Episode Transcript 00:07 Ramesh: Okay. Hey, hello everybody. This is Ramesh Dontha, the podcast host for the agile entrepreneur podcast. And this year 2020, this is my first podcast and also, we are also doing the video cast as well. So I'm very, very excited to introduce today our guests, Corey Minton, who is the editor in chief of Big Data Beard. So Corey, welcome. 00:30 Corey: Hey, thank you very much Ramesh. Glad to be on another podcast. It's pretty fun. 00:35 Ramesh: Yeah, this is going to be a video cast as well. So I came across your Big Data Beard and I met you in Las Vegas for the BrightTalk interview. Impressed with what you guys are doing and you talked a lot about Big Data Beard and then switching the direction. So why don't we take it from the beginning? So what is Big Data Beard and then how you got involved with it? 00:57 Corey: Absolutely. So Big Data Beard is a creative media company that's really focused on talking about the trends, technologies and the talented people that are really making big data a big deal. And big data is certainly evolved over the last few years, has becoming an in-vogue term that people didn't really understand completely. And it was exciting to now it's almost, it gets polarizing, right? But it really, what we try to focus on is finding those nuggets of wisdom with smart people and smart companies that are leveraging AI, Big data, machine learning, deep learning, IOT, this modern emerging technology landscape to really do something transformative. So whether that's, you know, talking with the founders and the CTOs at cool, interesting startup companies to talking with industry executives who are actually using these technologies to impact the quality of human life or their business. And so really, it's really a great way for myself and our other contributors and members of the podcast team to really get to talk to the best and the brightest in the industry. And we really, that's how we started. We really just wanted an excuse to talk to the best and the brightest so that we would constantly stay as educated as possible on these emerging trends. So that we can continue to be great technologists in a variety of ways. 02:38 Ramesh: Okay, fantastic. So that is fine, actually you're doing a very interesting thing Corey, one is that you're fully employed, but started Big Data Beard on the side as a side hustle I would say. So talk a little bit about the Corey not the big beard guy. What do you do? 02:57 Corey: Yeah, so not Big Data Beard, my job is, I'm a strategist for Splunk, which is a big data software company, a publicly traded company. Very interesting, cool software used really to help make machine generated data usable, accessible, and valuable to everyone. And so my job as a strategist is very much to help understand where is the industry goin...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Dr. Darian Parker ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​Kadavy, Inc. Dr. Darian Parker, Co-Owner of Epic Leisure Management. Darian has almost 20 years experience in the exercise industry as a corporate executive, personal trainer and education provider. Episode Transcript 00:08 Ramesh: Hello everybody. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host, Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is for people who want to start and build their own businesses with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today I have a guest in an industry where somehow, we end up in whether we like it or not. So I would like to introduce you to Dr Darian Parker. Dr Darian Parker is a co-owner of Epic leisure management. He has almost 20 years' experience in the exercise industry as a corporate executive, personal trainer and an education provider. So Darian, welcome. 00:55 Darian: Thank you so much Ramesh. I appreciate you having me on. I'm looking forward to speaking with you. 00:59 Ramesh: Excellent. Excellent. So Dr Darien Parker. So what's your doctorate in Darian? 01:05 Darian: It is in sports education leadership. I got it from the university of Nevada, Las Vegas. And the emphasis of it is in behavior modification and sports and exercise settings. 01:18 Ramesh: Excellent. So it's interesting when I looked at your company's name, Epic leisure management, so that did not ring a balance. That's okay. So they are in the leisure management. Then I went and started reading more into it. You're in the exercise industry, you provide consultation to entities about health and wellness. So what's the leisure about it? 01:42 Darian: Well, most of the people we work with, they're in the leisure industry. Leisure, meaning that they're basically in the amenity business. So they have health and wellness amenities either in hotels like hotel gyms, spas, private residential communities where there's a private gym or a combination spa fitness facility or in kind of your corporate campus setting. And we're even working in kind of your high-end boutique fitness facilities as well. 02:15 Ramesh: So essentially, you're working with entities who don't have expertise in building these kinds of facilities, but you have the expertise, so you provide your expertise in terms of conservation. Is that how it works? 02:28 Darian: Yes. Yes, definitely. What's interesting is we're always kind of, you have to explain a lot about what you do when we're doing it because people go, well, you have a gym or you have a spa, you know, we just hire some people to run it. But generally what happens is these spas, these fitness facilities, boutique facilities, but primarily let's say your hotels, private residential facilities are owned by developers and the developer, their business is not health and wellness amenities. They just know that they need that in that facility. So often what happens is they just hire somebody that they think would fit that and they say, Hey, run this spa, run this fitness facility. And then generally what happens is they recognize that they weren't really understanding how to actually hire somebody to increase the revenue, provide really great customer service,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: David Kadavy ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​Kadavy, Inc. David Kadavy is a creative entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, and creative productivity expert. David believes that one of the biggest challenges we face in the age of AI is the ability for humans to tap into their innate creativity.Books/ Tools/ resources Book: The Heart To Start: Stop Procrastinating & Start Creating Book: Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty Episode Transcript Complete Transcript 00:08 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This podcast is for people who are interested in starting a business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. And this is your host, Ramesh Dontha. Today I'm very excited to introduce a guest who I came across while I was writing and reading in medium. And then later on was referenced by many people about his work. His name is David Kadavy. So David is a creative entrepreneur, is a podcast host himself and a very accomplished writer and a bestselling author. And then we'll go more about his work you know, very soon. So David, welcome. 00:59 David: Thank you so much for having me Ramesh it's great to be here. 01:02 Ramesh: So David, I know I introduced you and I probably short changed many things, but why don't you tell us what you do. 01:11 David: Yeah, well, I guess primarily I'm a writer and podcaster. I made the decision about four years ago to really double down on that. I was already had written a book and I just wanted to take the time to follow my curiosity and read what interested me, talk to the people who interested me and to share what I learned along the way. And so that's what I do in the form of books and a podcast and some courses and occasionally speaking as well. 01:47 Ramesh: So one thing David that I was struck by introduction on your blog, right, so you start off with I'm a creative entrepreneur, so that's what I really wanted to dig into a little bit. What creative entrepreneurship things have you been doing? 02:04 David: Yeah, so it's an interesting term, creative entrepreneur because, I guess when I first started on my own, my main mission was just to follow what I was curious about. And that was 12 years ago or so. And along the way I didn't really think of it like as a business so much, as much as I thought of it as an artistic journey of let's find what's interesting to me, let's create things and let's figure out some way along the way to make some money. And you know, I eventually learned that people who are the traditional entrepreneurs think a little bit more structured about running a business is that there's a product, here's some customers, here's the market that's addressable and here's your marketing. And there's a system to all of that. And in a way you're not that concerned with your own creative expression or your own personality. It is what does the market want and how can I get that and how can I make money doing it? And so it's a complex balance to be struck there because I've also learned that,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Manuj Aggarwal ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​TetraNoodle Technologies David Kadavy is a creative entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, and creative productivity expert. David believes that one of the biggest challenges we face in the age of AI is the ability for humans to tap into their innate creativity.Books/ Tools/ resources Book: The Heart To Start: Stop Procrastinating & Start Creating Book: Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty Episode Transcript Complete Transcript 00:08 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This podcast is for people who are interested in starting a business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. And this is your host, Ramesh Dontha. Today I'm very excited to introduce a guest who I came across while I was writing and reading in medium. And then later on was referenced by many people about his work. His name is David Kadavy. So David is a creative entrepreneur, is a podcast host himself and a very accomplished writer and a bestselling author. And then we'll go more about his work you know, very soon. So David, welcome. 00:59 David: Thank you so much for having me Ramesh it's great to be here. 01:02 Ramesh: So David, I know I introduced you and I probably short changed many things, but why don't you tell us what you do. 01:11 David: Yeah, well, I guess primarily I'm a writer and podcaster. I made the decision about four years ago to really double down on that. I was already had written a book and I just wanted to take the time to follow my curiosity and read what interested me, talk to the people who interested me and to share what I learned along the way. And so that's what I do in the form of books and a podcast and some courses and occasionally speaking as well. 01:47 Ramesh: So one thing David that I was struck by introduction on your blog, right, so you start off with I'm a creative entrepreneur, so that's what I really wanted to dig into a little bit. What creative entrepreneurship things have you been doing? 02:04 David: Yeah, so it's an interesting term, creative entrepreneur because, I guess when I first started on my own, my main mission was just to follow what I was curious about. And that was 12 years ago or so. And along the way I didn't really think of it like as a business so much, as much as I thought of it as an artistic journey of let's find what's interesting to me, let's create things and let's figure out some way along the way to make some money. And you know, I eventually learned that people who are the traditional entrepreneurs think a little bit more structured about running a business is that there's a product, here's some customers, here's the market that's addressable and here's your marketing. And there's a system to all of that. And in a way you're not that concerned with your own creative expression or your own personalit...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Steve Folland Company / Business name: ​​​​Being Freelance Steve Folland is a video and audio producer from the UK - building his business to work around looking after his kids. He's also behind long running 'Being Freelance' - the podcast, vlog and community, where freelancers from around the world share experiences, support, laughs and cookies. More recently he's launched the Doing It For The Kids podcast for freelancing parents.Tools / Books / Resources mentionedTools: ​FreeAgent, Rev, MailChimp, Facebook, Ecamm Live, ZencastrShow NotesSteve shared his story of starting a side-hustle video & audio production while working at a radio station. Steve shared his definition of ‘being free while freelancing' is about having the freedom to choose what one can work on and being in control.Steve then started his ‘being freelance' podcast to learn from other freelancers, teach others about freelancing, and also not to feel isolated while working as a freelancer. Steve interviewed about 200 other freelancers since he started his podcast and feels connected to them.Steve explains the freelancer journey as one where success comes from being good at whatever you do first, then finding a way to productize their services to switch from being a freelancer to an entrepreneur. Long term success is to be able to find multiple revenue streams.Steve also gives tips about getting first paying customers and the first stop is to tell friends and family about your freelancing. And connecting with people in multiple social media forums (but pick one or two that are most applicable for you), and building an email list.Few of the lessons Steve learned over the years are: (1) Push yourself forward so people can notice you as opposed to waiting for them to find you (2) Stay close to your finances and keep your overhead low (3) be clear about what lifestyle you are after so you can manage the growth. Episode Transcript 00:02 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today we have an exciting guest who has been at freelancing for quite some time. So, I'm very happy to introduce Steve Folland. Steve is a video on audio producer from the UK building his business to work around looking after his kids. He's also behind long running, being freelancer, the podcast we log and community where freelancers from around the world share experiences, support, laughs and cookies. Most recently he's launched the doing it for the kids podcast for freelancing parents. Hi Steve. Welcome. 01:00 Steve: Ramesh, thank you so much for having me.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​Bob Burg Company / Business name: ​​​Burg Communications Inc Bob Burg is a sought-after speaker at company leadership and sales conferences sharing the platform with everyone from today's business leaders and broadcast personalities to even a former U.S. President.Bob's Favorite Books (Click on the links below to buy) Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins, Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar E-Myth by Michael Gerber Bob is the author of a number of books on sales, marketing and influence, with total book sales of well over a million copies. His book, The Go-Giver, coauthored with John David Mann, itself has sold over 850,000 copies and it has been translated into 28 languages. His and John's newest parable in the Go-Giver Series is The Go-Giver Influencer.Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve. He is also an unapologetic animal fanatic, and is a past member of the Board of Directors of Furry Friends Adoption, Clinic & Ranch in his town of Jupiter, Florida. ​Tools / Resources mentionedGmail, Xero for accounting, and Intercom as a CRMShow NotesBob started his journey as a news anchor but switched to Sales and later into speaking. His first realization to be a successful entrepreneur is to grow from inside which manifests in success outside.Bob's entrepreneurial journey started with a side hustle of selling someone else's audio cassette program and later his own cassette program. After his speaking engagements became paid engagements, Bob started venturing into writing books to establish himself as an expert.Bob then talked about his book ‘The Go-Giver Influencer' which is about influencing people through pull as opposed to push. This type of influencing makes everybody a winner and longer-lasting.Bob talked about his philosophy of being ‘an advocate, supporter, and defender of the free enterprise' and the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to the number of people they serve. Being entrepreneurial makes the capitalism work and capitalism serves the people far better than any other ‘ism.Bob's advice to startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs is to place the interests of others first, build relationships, and follow through with human touch. Bob, based on his own experience, advises entrepreneurs to embrace change as change is inevitable whether you like it or not. Tells entrepreneurs that they don't think they need to go alone and rely on mentors and having a system. Episode Transcript

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Paul Benson Company / Business name: ​Financial Autonomy ​Podcast Paul is a financial planner and owner of guidance financial services. He helps Australians plan and invest so they can gain the choices in life that they deserve. In addition to that, Paul also hosts a very successful podcast. His podcast is called financial autonomy podcast.Books/Tools/resourcesBook: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Tools: Gmail, Xero for accounting, and Intercom as a CRMShow NotesFinancial Autonomy podcast has been going 2 years, however Paul has been a Financial Planner for 20 years, running his own practice since 2006. Started the Financial Autonomy podcast following the realization that the traditional work/life plan is far too narrow, but most people don't get the choice to do anything else.2008-2009 period was very challenging with share markets diving – Paul reduced his staffing, his wife came in to assist so that we could retain cash flow within the household, focused in on a particular retirement strategy that held some appeal during this period - just didn't quit!Paul's advice to entrepreneurs? You don't have to go all in from day one - build and plan - real life is not like the movies. Work out your marketing plan at the outset. You likely know your stuff, but unless you have a way to let the world know about it, you wont succeed. Monitor your cash flow - it's no good making a profit at the end of the year if you cant pay your rent in month 3.Don't fall for the prescribed life of having to work until you're in your 60's and then having to retire - life can be far more varied than that. Episode Transcript 00:02 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneurial podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today I have a guest from across the world, the very first time from Australia. His name is Paul Benson. Paul is a financial planner and owner of guidance financial services. He helps Australians plan and invest so they can gain the choices in life that they deserve. In addition to that, Paul also hosts a very successful podcast. His podcast is called financial autonomy podcast. Hi Paul. Welcome. 00:50 Paul: Hello. Ramesh. Thanks for having me on. All right, so let's start with your podcast itself. You are a financial planner. Instead of just a having a financial services business, you wanted to start a podcast, why? 01:08 Paul: Well, initially the train of thought was a random marketing strategy. I guess the little bit of backstory there is, I've been a passionate podcast consumer for a long time now. You know, I had on runs and walks and that sort of stuff. I've have been enjoying listening to podcasts for a long time. And I guess, I know for your listeners it's about entrepreneurship and building up business. And I've been running my own business for a while and something that I've discovered that at least for myself and I think others too, is easy to underestimate,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​Gene Caballero Company / Business name: ​​​Greenpal Inc. Gene Caballero is the Co founder of GreenPal Inc. GreenPal has been described as Uber for lawn care. Saw a need for this type of service due to my background in landscaping. We started by going door-to-door to see if homeowners would use a product like this and once we had that positive reinforcement, we decided to move forward with a company to start building it.Books/Tools/resourcesBook: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Tools: Gmail, Xero for accounting, and Intercom as a CRMShow NotesGreenpal is ‘Uber' for lawncare connecting lawncare providers and landscaping professionals with consumers. Greenpal handles demand creation, scheduling, route optimization and payment processing. In return, Greenpal takes 5% commission.Gene and his co-founder Zach Hendrix started Greenpal in 2012. Gene has been taking care of lawncare since high school and when he saw Uber & Lyft take off, he saw a similar model for lawncare as well.Gene and Zach spent $125,000 for someone else to initially build a platform but after that company went broke, Gene decided to bring the development in-house and have a technical co-founder to take on this task. After 2 years or so, starting in 2014, Greenpal started accepting customers and have been profitable since 2016.Gene and Zach cashed out their 401K money to start the initial investment and took the risk. The initial risk started paying off in 2016 but initially it was like rolling the dice.Greenpal used Facebook creatively to start local FB groups to recruit homeowners and also used creative ways such as pet owners to grow affinity towards Greenpal. Greenpal is currently in 40 states in the US. Greenpak assesses the target markets based on local weather, landscaping habits etc. to decide if they should go after a market.Gene gives the following advice. There is never enough money and enough time. Best thing is to get started now. Be passionate about your ideas. And talk to strangers about your ideas and not your family or friends to get an unbiased opinion. Episode Transcript 00:02 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today we have a very exciting guest working in a very interesting business. His name is Gene Caballero. Gene is the co-founder of Green Pal Inc. And then the founders of Green Pal described the business Green Pal as the Uber for lawn care. I think now you get the picture hey Gene welcome. 00:45 Gene: Hey Ramesh, how are you? Glad to be on your podcast. Thank you so much. 00:49 Ramesh: So yeah, Green Pal just by the name, the way you guys described it, I think I clearly understand, but in your own words, we would like to know what Green Pal business all is about. 01:01 Gene: Yeah, so Green Pal has been described as Uber for lawn care and it's the easiest way for homeowners to find, schedule and pay their lawn guy. Also,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Nishant Pant Company / Business name: ​​NEO Local Agent Nishant Pant is a serial entrepreneur and his latest venture is NEO local agent, an application that connects real estate agents with customers using platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Prior to NEO local agent, Nishant built Trip Karma, a ‘uber' like app for local carpools and vans. Nishant is an eternal optimist and passionate about technology.Show NotesNishant introduces his startup ‘Neo Local Agent' which puts the real estate agents a voice command away from their clients by establishing a communication channel via Amazon's Alexa. With approximately 4,000 real estate agents already on the network, the NEO Local agent is gaining popularity.Nishant is a serial entrepreneur with his first startup built a knowledge base around local restaurants, parks etc. on iphones early on while the iphone platform was catching on. Even though that startup had 84,000 users and was catching on, Nishant couldn't monetize it for various reasons. One reason was that competition caught on very quickly.Even though Nishant has been doing all his ventures as side hustles, he said time was never an issue as he was very passionate about all his ventures. Even though not all of his ventures did not take off, Nishant believes that his optimistic attitude carries him through. Secondly, he believes that success is nothing but a series of failures.Nishant talked about ideation and vetting initial ideas through some sort of customer adoption filter and secondly working to make sure that there is decent adoption by users. Even if there is no monetary exit, Nishant felt satisfied with user adoption like his app called trip karma which was a uber for local carppols and vans.Nishant worked extensively with media to get recognition for NEO local agent. He selected relevant real estate media and sent very customized messages to get his app recognized. After one breakthrough, 200 agents signed up for his app and that lifted his platform.Nishant gives few pieces of advice. (1) Entrepreneurship is hard so be very passionate about it (2) Always tell your story. Don't think people will discover (3) Episode Transcript 00:02 Ramesh: Hi Nishant welcome to the podcast. 00:06 Nishant: Hi Ramesh. Thank you for having me. 00:09 Ramesh: So Nishant, tell us what this agent Neo voice technology is all about. 00:16 Nishant: Sure. Yeah. So, you might be familiar with Amazon Alexa and Google assistant, right? 00:23 Ramesh: Correct, yes. 00:25 Nishant: Yeah. So, there are like hundred million Amazon echoes in US households right now. And although the capability right now is still evolving, like you can use it for reminders and you know, finding recipes and stuff like that. But more and more companies are getting creative about how you can use these virtual assistants, which are sitting in people's home waiting for the next command. So, what we have done with agent Neo is, if you are a real estate agent, you can sign up with us and then you get your own Alexa app,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: David Shriner-Cahn Company / Business name: ​Smashing The Plateau David Shriner-Cahn is a recognized authority on entrepreneurship, leadership development, and the host of the business podcast Smashing the Plateau. After 28 years as a highly skilled employee, David Shriner-Cahn was told that his job was over. In spite of the immediate trauma and fear, he knew that as his next step, he'd rather work for himself and have more control over his destiny. That was in 2006.Today, David is a thriving entrepreneur, podcaster and speaker. He is guiding highly skilled professionals who are recovering from a late career job loss and who yearn to impact the world with their knowledge and creativity by becoming successful entrepreneurs.Tools / Books / Resources mentionedBooks: Mark Gerstein's ‘Flirting with Disaster' Books: Gary Keller's ‘The One Thing'.Show NotesDavid Shriner-Cahn opens up about the time when he was let go after a long stint as a successful engineer and how that incident transformed him to start his solo consulting business. After seeing the trauma that other people went through, David wanted to focus on helping people transition into businesses after being let go.David accidentally stumbled into podcasting after starting a blog where he interviewed other business owners. Gradually, this transformed into ‘Smashing The Plateau' podcast.With strengths in finance and operations, David started learning about marketing & promotions to grow his business. As a coach guiding people transition into business owners, David himself learnt about letting go of the fear of uncertainty and started embracing content marketing etc. to expand his reach.David emphasizes the importance of relationships and mentors. He had John Lee Dumas as a guest on his podcast and of course is a big name in podcasting with Entrepreneurs On Fire podcast. David talks about inspiring books such as Gary Keller's 80-20 rule and Mark Gerstein's Flirting with disaster.Finally, David gives advice to entrepreneurs to network and find mentors. BNI organization helped David a lot for networking. His advice is to have a cushion for first 6 months to one year of transition, choose a particular lane, and keep pursuing in that lane. One way to overcome adversity is to write down the answer to ‘What's the worst thing that can happen' and ask yourself what would you do if that worst thing were to happen. Episode Transcript 00:02 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance and possibilities. Today I have a guest who has been in business for quite some time and he's been advising other people who want to start their own business. A very interesting background, so his name is David Schreiner Khan, David,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Rio Rocket Company / Business name: RioRocket.Com ​ Rio Rocket is a multi-disciplined performer, voice-actor with exceptional vocal malleability, actor, presenter, motivational speaker and commercial model. Rio is also Official Speaker, Announcer, and VOG (Voice of God) for John Jay College's Annual Commencement ceremony at Arthur Ashe Stadium. First and only motivational speaker ever hired for a production by Lowe's Home Improvement. He is also a former competitive athlete, and highly-accomplished graphic artist, illustrator, designer, web developer, online marketer, and entrepreneur.Show Notes:Rio starts off with the story how he evolved into a voice-actor and actor and then expanded into other areas like Voice-Of-God etc.Rio's entrepreneurial journey started off with a graphic design and Rio talks about how he used elance.com to snag the first paying customers. Rio talks about the importance of price, pitch, portfolio to get first customers.Rio's evolution into so many disciplines is gradual and it happened over a period of 20 years. He kept learning all the adjacent areas like SEO, video marketing, and branding.Rio then goes into the mechanics of coordinating so many different things and how time-slicing is very important. As Rio is involved in many disparate things like acting and graphic design, he needs to make sure that that time management is critical.As a person, Rio says he can't stand still. He needs to keep learning, doing many different things. But having clear priorities like making sure that basic necessities are taken care of is key.Rio's advice is to learn as much as possible about a topic, absorb everything, ask questions, and find mentors. Episode Transcript 00:03Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today I'm excited to introduce a guest who transcends multiple disciplines. His name is Rio Rocket. Rio Rocket is a full service commercial graphic designer, web developer and branding expert. And needing a bigger mountain to climb Rio entered acting arena as a voice artist and has evolved to become a film and television actor. Hi Rio, welcome.00:49Rio: Hi Ramesh, thank you for having me.00:52Ramesh: Hey Rio, I have not come across a person yet on my podcast who has evolved so many domains. So, Rio in your own words tell me what you do now and, or where you're putting your focus on.01:05Rio: Well, currently I still am a full-service graphic artist, branding expert web developer. I still have you know, my business with digital marketing and online marketing. However, it also had, enables me and gives me the freedom and the time to branch out into becoming a more visual artists, using myself as the tool. So, film and television commercials, I've been able to successfully transition into that space without losing a step in my previous business.01:44Ramesh: Okay, that's great. So just to give us a glimpse of the breadth of the v...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Tanya Fox Company / Business name: ​Cast Global Media Speaker, Collaborator, Podcaster and Serial Entrepreneur, Tanya Fox has owned businesses from retail to service to franchise. She now spends her days helping others to discover the fun in business and how to retrain how they think about failures.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: NoneShow Notes:Tanya's entrepreneurial journey started at a young age of 11 with a lemonade stand and apart from a 2.5 year stint in the corporate world, it restarted with an accounting firm after college.Tanya talks about her specialization which is to look beyond the numbers. As an example, her keynote speeches focus on ‘firing  a bookkeeper who doesn't ask business questions.”.Tanya expands on her journey with stints in a bread making company (along with her husband), a Taekwondo studio etc. At one point, they had 5 simultaneous businesses but they made sure that they never start 2 businesses at the same time.Tanya talks about one of her popular keynote speeches ‘I am Tanya, and I am a failure'. The genesis for this was her conversations with other business owners who focused on failure a lot and not enough on the learnings from these failures.Tanya talks about people who inspired her starting with her mom who started her own business in her sixties. Her social media coach for 10+ years, Ashley inspires her as well. Tanya also talked about the 5:00 AM club.Tanya talks about 3 major attributes of successful people she has seen over the years coaching. (1) They embrace their fears (2) They are willing to reach out to others with expertise (3) They have inner confidence in themselves.Tanya's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to collaborate (and look at that as competition) a lot and reach out for people with expertise that you don't have. Episode Transcript 00:02Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. So today I have a guest who has a broad spectrum of experience. Her name is Tanya Fox. She is aSpeaker, collaborator, podcaster and serial entrepreneur, a lot of things. Tanya Fox has owned businesses from retail to service to franchise. She now spends her days helping others to discover the fun in business and how to retrain, how they think about failures. Tanya, welcome.00:51Tanya: Thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor to be on your show.00:56Ramesh: Thank you.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Millette Jones Company / Business name: Fox Talks Business  Millette Jones is a podcaster, speaker, contributor at major publications, frequent podcast guest and the founder and CEO of Cast Global Media. Cast Global is a podcast consultancy helping organizations reduce customer acquisition costs and increase employee retention rates through strategic podcast marketing. Cast helps corporations utilize podcasting to support firm initiatives, transform employee downtime, build executive and corporate thought leadership and drive brand loyalty through podcast advertising, interview marketing, internal podcasting, and custom podcasts.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: NoneShow Notes:Millette starts off by talking about the need for corporations, the brick and mortar type, to understand the importance of podcasts for their business and how Cast Global Media fills this need.Millette talks about how she got into this specialty business after starting as a career coach. As her partnership with another coach fell through, Millette got the opportunity to explore podcasting and selling it to entrepreneur and businesses.Millette got her first paying customers by working with entrepreneurs she had in her coaching business and she explains how she is trying to engage with large corporations and businesses as well.Millette's focus is on helping businesses connect with their customer via podcasting, connect with their own employees as well, and connect with their stakeholders.Millette traces her personal journey where she started in route sales where she travelled extensively, started entrepreneurship with affiliate marketing, then extended into coaching.  She now extended her business into podcast marketing connecting her online expertise with brick and mortar businesses.Millette talks about one thing she could have done is instead of starting her entrepreneurship as a full blown affair, she should have started it as a side gig while still having a job.Her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to figure out what you are good at, where your talents lie, and exploit them. Whether you like writing or speaking or just hustling, just find them and start with those talents. Episode Transcript 00:03Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Agile Entrepreneur podcast. This is your host, Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance on possibilities. Today I have a guest who he's also in the same business that we are doing right here, which is the podcasting, so Millette Jones. Millette Jones is the founder and CEO of cast global media. She's a podcaster, a speaker and contributor at major publications and she's been a frequent podcast guest, the cast global media, it's a podcast consultancy helping organizations reduce customer acquisition costs and increase employee retention rates through strategic podcast marketing. Hi Millette, welcome.00:57Millette: Hello. Thank you so much for having me.00:59Ramesh: Wow, so case global media seems to be a very interesting space as ...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Rin Gamache Company / Business name: Bare and Beards – Skincare services & products for Men Rin Gamache, a licensed Skincare Hacker (Esthetician), is the founder of Bare and Beards. Rin chose to concentrate on the male demographic, and create a clinic and products specifically targeting men. The beauty industry is associated with femininity since everything is geared towards women. Rin believes men don't have the skincare conversation because they aren't included enough; therefore, the conversation isn't happening. Rin's desire is to help change the industry standards, and jump start that conversation among men, because men want nice skin too!Rin has lived in Brooklyn, New York and Teaneck, New Jersey for a total of six years. She also lived abroad in Barcelona, Spain and Tianshui, China for a combined three years teaching English as a foreign language. Her interests include playing basketball, running, watching the Seattle Seahawks play, learning about different cultures, practicing her Spanish, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: NoneShow Notes:Rin talks about why she chose to focus on male skincare and how she got motivated.Rin talks about the operations of her business and how she has a multipronged approach of her own clinic, barber schools education, and direct reach.Rin talks about her i=unique approach to get first paid customers by approaching men at malls to try out her product for free and tracking their progress over multiple weeks over social media.How to price your products and service? Rin goes into specific details on bundling products, free education to help increase customers' revenues, and determining the profit margins.Rin talks about her own personal journey from journalism to media marketing to entrepreneurship. She goes into details on finding niches and defining customer personas.Rin's advice to business owners: 1. Talk to other owners and signup mentors 2. Learn by trial and error 3. Be consistent and persistent 4. Keep building credibility. Episode Transcript 00:02Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today we have a guest and her business definitely interests me. So I would like to know a little bit more about, her name is Rin Gamache. Rin Gamache is the founder, an esthetician of Baden beards, men's skin and wellness clinic located in San Diego. Hi, Rin, welcome.00:41Rin: Hi Ramesh. Thank you for having me.00:45Ramesh: All right. My very first question, what is aesthetician?00:49Rin: So an esthetician is a skin care specialist. So yes. So we provide preventative treatments to people who are trying to correct or maintain their skin. So I'm like dermatologist who prescribe.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Vivek Kumar Company / Business name: Qlicket Vivek is the founder of Qlicket, an application platform that diagnoses the drivers of avoidable employee turnover and gets employees bought in to the best solutions to reduce the turnover. Vivek Kumar completed his MBA from University Of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and worked for couple of years in Management Consulting and couple more years in private equity. After 4 years in NY, Vivek had a calling that he has to make an impact in this world and decided that high tech industry is where he is going to make an impact. He moved to silicon valley and worked with a company that sold advertisements for free wireless in public places before his current venture.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: NoneShow Notes:Why talent retention is a big problem and employee turnover is expensive for businesses and how Qlicket is helping solve that problem.Qlicket captures first-line feedback from employees about their concerns and addresses them as soon as possible to resolve issues.Vivek goes into details on how Qlicket pivoted and iterated many times before it found its current growth model. Key finding was that you don't need a fully developed product but need working prototypes to drive customer discovery conversations.Vivek talks about the importance of resilience and how being resilient helped him from keeping the company afloat since 2011 before actually driving the growth they looked for in 2018.Vivek talks about his own journey from a business school to investment banking to consulting to silicon valley to India and back to the US. His key findings through all these churns are to fail fast, learn from stumbles in a non-emotional way, and relying on supporters & collaborators.Vivek goes into details on how he got first paying customers by targeting conference attendees, sending cold emails, following up with face-to-face meetings in a very targeted way. A combination of multiple strategies but in a targeted way.Vivek's advice to entrepreneurs is to focus on customers want and not what you find interesting, assess failures objectively and learn, and keep focusing on growth. Episode Transcript 00:02Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today I have the CEO of Qlicket Vivek Kumar. So the Qlicket is an enterprise software service company that caters to companies that are experiencing high worker turnover environment. And Vivek himself has gone through many pivots in his life as a career and for his own company that he will talk about a very interesting background. And he has an MBA from the Wharton school as well. Vivek welcome.00:52Vivek: Thank you Ramesh.00:54Ramesh: Alright,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Robyn Mancell Company / Business name: Girls Gone ForEx Robyn Mancell is the Co-Founder and Mindset Coach for Girls Gone Forex, an online trading academy that teaches women across the globe how to trade in the foreign exchange (Forex) market. Before the Forex business and the nonprofit, Robyn was self-employed for over twenty-five years in almost that many industries. After her divorce in 1990, she left corporate America, going from stable, salaried nine-to-five employee to a commission-only entrepreneur. All while raising her children as a single mom.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: NoneShow Notes:What is ForEx business? Why is it interesting?How Robyn got into Foreign Exchange investing and how she met her co-founder.Details on how Robyn and her co-founder used Facebook to start a contest to recruit first 15 or so women out of hundreds of applications for their first course and used social media to track their progress.Robyn shares details on how started multiple businesses over a period of 25 years spanning from restaurant business to insurance sales to ladies fitness center.Robyn's motivation of ‘being afraid of not doing new things' as opposed to ‘being afraid of doing new things'.Robyn's observations on characteristics of people who do well in her classes as well as life. #1 is mindset. People who can focus, persevering, and not quitting. People with a drive and purpose and not looking at failures as failures.Robyn's reflections of things that she could have differently. 1. Connect with mentors early on 2. Be willing to listen to people with more experience.Final advice to aspiring entrepreneurs; 1. Just go for it. 2. Have a network of mentors, supporters, and collaborators. 3. Don't look at failures as failures but as learning lessons. Episode Transcript 00:02Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today we have a guest dabbling in a business or build a business that we don't come across that often. So I'm a very honored to have you know, a person from investing and trading side. Her name is Robyn Mancell. Robyn, welcome to the podcast.00:38Robyn: Thank you so much, Ramesh. I'm happy to be here.00:41Ramesh: Excellent. Let me first introduce your business and then we'll get into the discussion. Okay. Robyn Mancell is the Co-founder of a business called girls gone forex. Okay, we'll get into that business in a second. And she's also a mindset coach. So Robyn, very first I know you know, the name itself is pretty interesting. Just let's go over what your business is about.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Desiree Crowley Company / Business name: TimeJump Media Desiree Crowley is a transformational coach, visibility strategist and speaker for women coaches ready to expand their exposure and scale to six figures in their online coaching business. She helps women create a stand out presence online so that they can bust their visibility fears, stand out as the premium expert in their field, and create six figures and beyond!Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: NoneShow Notes:Desiree Crowley starts off by explaining what a transformational coach does which is coaching entrepreneurs to transform their mindset to be more confident and be more visible. She also talks about certification programs in this space.Desiree's entrepreneurial journey is a typical journey where she took the opportunity of being laid off to learn all about digital marketing , blogging etc. She finally believed in a coach and her program to invest $5,000 and spent all her spare time on her business.Desiree started a facebook group and ran a challenge ‘level up your beauty' to encourage women to go on video. She built her mailing list to 500 but didn't get any paying clients. She invested in another coach which finally resulted in $12K or so in few weeks.Even though Desiree's entrepreneurial journey had ups and downs, she believes that every step that she took (even where she failed) was necessary for her to get to where she is now. She learned from each one of those steps.Desiree believes that being consistent is key to grow your personal brand. Even though her first lead magnet was a bust, Desiree learnt and improvided and continued to grow the list. Her business is about putting people in front of the camera with video.Desiree believes that being imperfect is OK. Success is all about the habits and rituals you do every day. Episode Transcript 00:05Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host, Ramesh Dantha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance and possibilities. Today we have an exciting guest. Her name is Desiree Crowley. Hi Desiree, welcome.00:30Desiree: Hello. Thanks for having me.00:33Ramesh: So let me introduce Desiree to you. Desiree is a transformational coach, visibility strategist and speaker for women coaches ready to expand their exposure and scale to six figures in their online coaching business. She helps women create a standout presence online so that they can bust their visibility of fears, stand out as a premium expert in their field and create six figures and beyond. So Desiree the way I look at you, you are a coach for coaches.01:06Desiree: Yes, I'm mostly specialize in coaches, but I've definitely worked with a lot of different business owners. But of course, you know, the mixing is important.01:16Ramesh: Excellent. So my very first question, well,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Dr. Nanette Miner Company / Business name: The Training Doctor, LLC Dr. Nanette Miner is a leadership development and workplace learning strategy consultant. She's the founder of and managing consultant for The Training Doctor, a South Carolina based consulting firm that helps its clients to prepare today for the organizational leadership they will need tomorrow.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: NoneDr. Nanette Miner starts the talk by talking about the leadership vacuum that will be there because of the bay boomers staying long in their leadership positions leaving millennials and Gen-Xers out of the loop. Dr. Miner believes that every employee should be trained as a leader from day 1.Nanette talks about starting her business 28 years ago as a customer service training in the hospitality industry. The initial challenges with that industry made her pivot her business to re-use material designed by other established training organizations and customize them for each company.Dr. Miner candidly talks about the current struggles about building a steady customer pipeline because of her recent shift to leadership training. As she is not known in the industry for leadership training, Nanette is focusing on establishing herself as a leadership trainer.Nanette talks about the downtimes in her journey and how she coped with them to continue to be self-employed. Even though she was on the verge of bankruptcy, Dr. Miner never thought of quitting. To some extent, she was inspired by her father who was self-employed.Nanette detailed her current strategies of acquiring customers by offering online workshops followed by in-person training. She also talks about the pros-cons of investing in leadership training and people leaving versus not investing. Episode Transcript 00:02Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Agile Entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today we have a guest from an industry where every business needs somebody to help them. That is a leadership development. Dr Nanette Miner. Dr Nanette Miner is a leadership development and workplace learning strategy consultant. She's the founder of and managing consultant for the training doctor, its South Carolina based consulting firm that helps its clients to prepare today for the organizational leadership they will need tomorrow. Hello, Dr Nanette.00:52Nanette: Hi Ramesh. Thanks for having me.00:56Ramesh: Thank you. Thank you. So finally, we are able to get together after some scheduling issues. Thank you.01:00Nanette: Yes, thank you as well.01:03Ramesh: All right, so let's get started with the leadership development company that you have. If you could just to tell us on the listeners what your organization is about.01:12Nanette: Okay. Well, I'll give you a little back story first. So if you're familiar with training and HR publications there's a precipice coming I say. There's a 2030 precipice for business and that precipice is that a...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​Larissa Lowthorp ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​TimeJump Media Larissa Lowthorp is the founder, president of time jump media, which is a full-service agency that works in the entertainment industry. She's a designer, technologist, a screenwriter, emerging director and producer.Tools / Books / Resources mentionedTools: Freelancer (Mac), Quickbooks, Canva, Pixabay, Pexels.Com Show NotesLarissa Lowthorp started out as a consultant and freelancer offering her services to the entertainment industry in various roles as a screenwriter, designer, and technology and worked for 12+ years before she started a full-fledged business. Larissa talked about how she is building her current business by using referrals from her past life as a consultant. Larissa also talked about the challenges of switching from being a freelancer to a full fledged business with having to take decisions on type of corporation and number of sites needed.Larissa talks about the importance of mentors and in her case the huge role played by her mentor. Larissa also talked about the significance of life events which were up and down and how they motivated her to pursue her entrepreneurial path. Larissa also talked about her mother and sister being great supporters of her work.Larissa advises aspiring entrepreneurs to not have fear hold them back. Even though the overall entrepreneurial journey is overwhelming, takes it in bits and pieces.Larissa talks about some important tools: Freelance on Mac is a good project management tool. Quickbooks is great for accounting. Larissa also mentioned stock photo sites like pixabay and pexels.com that she uses.Larissa talks about some areas she'd have worked sooner. Being assertive and believing in herself much earlier than she did. Larissa is careful about screening the customers and being firm when needed. Episode Transcript 00:03 Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneurial podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dantha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today we have a very exciting guest works in an exciting industry, that's entertainment industry. So her name is Larissa Lowthorp. Larissa is the founder, president of time jump media, which is a full-service agency that works in the entertainment industry. Larissa is very, very talented. She's a designer, technologist, a screenwriter, emerging director and producer. Larissa welcome. 00:49 Larissa: Hi Ramesh, thank you so much for having me. 00:51 Ramesh: So what is it that you cannot do? It looks like I talked about everything that you can do. Are there any things that you cannot do? 01:00 Larissa: Oh gosh, you are hitting it right away. I just come out and say it. I am dyslexic at math, so don't talk to me about math. 01:12 Ramesh: So let's talk about your business then now.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​Michael Rogers ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​Chandler Properties, Sell Michael Your House Michael Rogers is the owner of Chandler Properties, a real estate investment portfolio that focuses on self storage and residential rentals in Cleveland, Tennessee market. Tools / Books / Resources mentioned: Resources: Dan Barrett Facebook Ads course Show Notes: Michael shares his entrepreneurial journey from an accountant to real estate over a span of 20 years. He saw at least 2 real estate cycles of ups and downs. When he started with real estate, he used to buy to full price and do all the work himself and make some money when he sold for higher price. But Michael realized that he had to buy at value prices and possibly pay others to do services to really scale his business. We talked about financing and how relationship with local banks is key. Michael said his analytical background helped in this business. But Michael also talks about how real estate transactions are different because of all the emotional attachments above and beyond just financial transactions. Michael explained how digital marketing was a huge game changer and how he learned digital marketing (Dan Barrett classes) and did Facebook ads, retargeting all by himself. Michael talks about some of his learnings namely importance of value investing, knowing your circle of competence, and the importance of patience. His advice is to start with a side hustle, follow value investing principles, and the importance of value investing. He is a huge fan of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (who is not). Episode Transcript 00:04Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneurial podcast. This is your host, Ramesh Dantha. This podcast is about starting on building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance on possibilities. Today we have a guest who has branched out into an area we all somehow will participate in our lives. Michael Rogers. Michael Rogers is the owner of Chandler properties, a real estate investment portfolio that focuses on self storage and residential rentals in Cleveland, Tennessee Market. Hi Michael. Welcome.00:45Michael: Hey, Ramesh. It's good to be here. Thank you.00:50Ramesh: All right. So I have to admit, I have seen your ads on Facebook and where ever I go the ads seems to be following me. So you are a prolific advertiser.00:59Michael: Yeah, yeah. So you've been on my website somewhere and I've cookied you and that's why you're, that's why you keep seeing me.01:07Ramesh: Very good. Very good. So that whenever I see that it's following me, that tells me that they're doing well, so that they are able to spend at advertising. Okay, excellent. So, Michael, so in your own words, what is your business about?01:20Michael: Well for the, I've kind of got two main things to do. One Chandler properties, like you mentioned there we've got self-storage. I got started in doing selling short probably eight or nine years ago. And then we also got some residential rental properties. And then I've got a website that I use also where you're...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​Alwi Suleiman ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​Content Market King Alwi Suleiman is the founder of contentmarketing.com. He specializes in content marketing for small businesses and has helped many small businesses become relevant to their audiences since 2009.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned: Tools: Google Analytics, SEMRushShow Notes:01:00 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Differentiation is key especially in competitive industries.Alwi introduces his company ContentMarketKing.Com and how it differentiates from other content agencies by making sure that his clients are relevant for their audiences.06:05 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Getting the first customer is key. Try unique ways to snag that initial one.Alwi explains how he got his first customers in a unique way when he started his business. Alwi searched through job boards for available jobs and applied for a few. When the first company rejected him, he proposed to them that he could work as a freelancer. And the company accepted the proposal as they were growing very fast.11:14 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep chasing your dreams. They will come true.Alwi goes over his very unique background. Born in Mombasa, Kenya, Alwi worked as a cement mixer when he was 15, got that job full time at 21, bought a second hand car, bought a mud house and rented for extra cash. After a brief stopover in Dubai, Alwi ended up in Netherlands, went to college, and got a job to get started again.16:10 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Extend your reach by networking.Alwi talks about how he runs a global company by networking with other freelancers across the globe. He also gives a glimpse of some tools he uses. Google Analytics and SEMRush. But more importantly Alwi teaches his clients how to be smart about the content and its objective.21:22 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Pricing is an art. Keep iterating to find the right price for your business.Alwi explains how he prices his services. He starts by comparing to competition. Based on the additional value he is delivering, Alwi prices his services 10 to 15% higher and makes sure that exceptional value is delivered.24:52 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start your business by doing adequate research.Alwi gives 3 pieces of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. 1. Do your research. 2. Make sure that your vision and mission are aligned to your operations. 3. Learn operations like bookkeeping. Episode Transcript 00:03Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Agile Entrepreneur podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance, and possibilities. Today we have a guest who has traveled across the continent currently based in Netherlands, Alwi Suleiman. Alwi is the founder and CEO of content market king. Content market king is a company that focuses on content and content marketing and helps small businesses. So Alwi has been running this company for the last 10 years. Hey, Alwi welcome.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​Dan Salganik ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​VisualFizz and Commoot  Dan Salganik has been a serial entrepreneur since his sophomore year in college. He is currently the co-founder at VisualFizz, a digital marketing agency, and Commoot, a new billboard, and data company. He has managed hundreds of team members and run over 8 figures in marketing campaigns. Some notable campaigns include stakeholders such as former President Obama, Yoko Ono, and the Emperor of Japan. Dan has worked on a diverse set of projects/clients ranging from half million dollar web builds to helping mentor start-up founders that need a voice.Show Notes:01:30 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Differentiation is key especially in competitive industries.Dan introduces his company Visual Fizz, a digital marketing agency, and how it differentiates from other companies by establishing a relationship business from get go and conveys emotions in their campaigns. 06:30 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: With right network, getting first paying customers may not be that difficult.Dan talks about how he started VisualFizz after getting laid off from his previous company and he decided to chart his own path. He met his co-founder at a coffee shop and decided to work together. They started the company in less than $50, had first paying customer in 2 weeks and profitable in less than a month.10:02 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Balance cash flow with internal operations for initial survival.Dan explains how they built their company by hiring people who wanted the flexibility but also challenging work and how they operated by paying the employees with their initial clients payments. Secondly, Dan also talked about his second company Commut which is a truck advertising platform based on data analytics.14:50 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Marquee projects will help get eyeballs and name recognition.Dan goes into details on his favorite project where his work involved President Obama, Yoko Ono, and emperor of Japan. This involved New Age Phoenix Pavilion in Chicago which was meant to embody the US- Japan partnership. Dan's work involved creating extensive video campaigns to be used for fundraising etc.22:35 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: When you have co-founders, focus on complimentary roles to grow the business.Dan talks about his co-founder and how they work together. With complimentary skills, Dan and Marissa focus on different areas of the business with Dan on Program management and strategy and Marissa on operations.25:46 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start slowly and do your home work before starting a business.Dan gives advice to other would be entrepreneurs. Do your home work. Don't quit your job right away. Be authentic. Enjoy what you plan to do. Take time off regularly to rebalance your life. Episode Transcript 00:03Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Agile Entrepreneur Podcast. This is your host Ramesh Dontha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance and possibilities. Today I'm excited to introduce a guest with a very fascinating background. His name is Dan Salganik.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​Ali Saif ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​HighClickz Ali Saif is a lifestyle entrepreneurial and digital nomad. He runs a digital marketing agency called Highclicks.com and helps businesses struggling with online sales and growth to reach their full potential by optimizing their conversions and revenue.Tools: Google Analytics, Click Funnels, Thrive Themes, Mailchimp, QucikbooksBooks: The 4 hour work-week by Tim FerrisShow Notes:01:30 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Have a dream. Keep working on that dream.Ali explains digital nomad life that he is after and talks about how his business High Clickz, started in 2008 with a focus on getting traffic via paid advertising, is results and conversion focused. With Google's help, his company also flourished.04:58 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be passionate. Your passion will open the doors to a desired life.Ali discusses his journey prior to his latest venture. His interest in computers and programming at a very early age led him into a freelancing career at the age of 17 taking care of billing and SW. Later on he branched out into gaming and supporting online gamers. 09:59 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Freelance sites like Freelancer.com, Upwork.com can be excellent to get started.Ali explains how he got his first paying customer for HighClikz. On freelancer.com, Ali saw a job posting for a sales page for a customer in customer who developed an e-book on how to talk to dogs. He thought it was interesting and worked with the customer to design the sales page and work with Clickbank to get him sales. And the first customer led him to more sales.17:20 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be Keep defining your ideal customer and become an expert on their needs.Ali talks about building a customer pipeline and his focus is on authors and coaches who want to establish personal brand and be an authority. Most of his business is through referrals from his existing customers.19:43 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Expand your horizons to either technologist or business depending on where you started from.Ali talks about his growth from a pure technologist into a businessman. Initially, it started with knowing how much money he needs to survive and sustain his business.  Later, he was influenced by people like Tim Ferris (and the 4 hour work week book) and began outsourcing more to grow his business without sacrificing his lifestyle.22:00 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Pricing is an important element of the business. Be on top of it.Ali discusses his pricing strategies. Ali also has a product side of the business where he sells some products on Amazon. For products, his strategy is cost-plus pricing where he adds margin to his costs. For services, he prices based on the value he is delivering. The value is defined by customers.23:47 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Focus on the most important tools for your business and not go overboard with them.Ali goes over some of the tools used in his business. Google Analytics to analyze traffic,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​Melisa Celikel ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Make SHT Happen LLC Melisa Celikel is the founder and CEO of a business and a business organization consultant of Let's get you organized. She has helped over 250 clients create amazing transformations in their homes, lives and businesses.Show Notes:01:42 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start somewhere but the most important thing is to start a business. You can evolve later.Melisa shares her background and how she worked with Fortune 100/200/500 companies in Bio-pharma industry for HR/Sales/Recruiting. She decided to start her own business journey and started with home organization which evolved into online courses and later expanded into business organization.03:33 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Focus on your strengths. What may be a disorder may actually be a talent.Melisa stalks about focusing on one's strengths and not their weaknesses to find out what they should do. In Melisa's case, she was diagnosed to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and decided to monetize that talent and started a home organization company.05:04 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: You don't need a fancy website to get your first customer. Start somewhere and expand.Melisa talks about how she had put together a web site over a weekend, launched her social media profiles and was in business in few days. She advertised on Craigslist and got her first customer within a month. She used Yelp, Craigslist, Instagram, and Facebook to build her customer pipeline. 11:22 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Action trumps fear So Act.Melisa shares her experience of working with various entrepreneurs and individuals and the key characteristics that she believes are important for success. (1) Avoid analysis paralysis. (2) Action trumps fear so act (3) Perfectionism leads to paralysis so don't try to be perfect.13:53 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Productized service is the holy grail. Find ways to productize your services.Melisa talks about how she adjusted her business model to make it a more productized service business. She hired organizers and trained them to manage the home organization business. Instead she focused on training and coaching to make it a productized service business. This way she can work from anywhere and enjoy the passive income stream.18:16 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Focus on yourself and the path you believe is the right for you.Melisa talks about how she had to work hard to break the expectations that her parents had for her and she had to work hard to quiet the doubters and prove to them that the path she has taken with home organization and later the business organization is the right path for her. She also talks about hiring outside help sooner in her journey.22:19 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start somewhere but the most important thing is to start a business. You can evolve later.Melisa advises would be entrepreneurs to get off the fence. Start taking action. Don't worry if it's perfect. Be organized and prioritize your actions.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​Michelle Miller ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​MM FITNESS LLC Michelle Miller is the founder and CEO of MyFirstWorkout.Com (MM Fitness LLC) and has been a personal trainer and group exercise instructor in Tallahassee Florida for 20 years working with people of all different ages and fitness levels. She is a wife and mother of two boys ages 6 and 20 and my passion is children's fitness.Show Notes:01:19 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: The gaps that you see in your own life could be the springboard for your own business.Michelle talks about her business which is about connecting children with their parents and caregivers with fitness via MyFrstWorkout.Com. She got the idea for her business while she was spending time with her fiver year old and when she checkout out competition, she couldn't find any fitness products for children which are meaningful.04:49 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Your passion can show you different ways to build your business quickly.Michelle talks about how she was able to design, procure, and brand her business from concept to launch in 6 months. Given that her business is about physical products, it has taken little longer but she was still able to do in a relatively short timeframe. Her launch and promotion went very well. 07:52 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Expand your business into adjacent markets as opposed to finding totally new markets.Michelle explains how she expanded her business to be mobile where she takes the fitness (equipment and all) to her clients workplaces, homes 9if needed), and how that expanded her business. She also caters to special population, pregnant women, and people with surgeries etc.12:52 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: If you believe in your idea, give your 100% so you don't regret later.Michelle talks about how she used equity from their home to build her business. She also explains how she found her vendors in China. Michelle was serious about her business and invested $3,000 in getting the right domain and researched extensively on getting the right vendors.17:39 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep learning from your mistakes and make it a deliberate habit to journal so you can look back.Michelle talks about some of the challenges she faced. First is the additional cost she incurred in warehousing her products much earlier than needed. Second is that there is some stigma associated with kids and weight training and Michelle needed to help overcome some of that resistance by educating.21:29 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Pricing is a very important aspect of the business. Keep iterating.Michelle talks about the challenge of pricing her products right. She explains how she came up with a price based on how much competition is charging and how much more value her products are delivering over competition. She is still tweaking her pricing.23:18 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep learning from people who have gone ahead of you.Michelle gives advice based on her entrepreneurial experience.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​Jennifer McGinley ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Business name: ​​​​​​​JLM Strategic Communications Jennifer McGinley is the CEO of JLM Strategic Communications, founded in October 2017 and based in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Her company specializes in Media Relations, Community Outreach and Reputation Management. As a public relations professional for 25 years, Jennifer has built a reputation based on integrity, professionalism, attention to details and consistency. Prior to founding her company, Jennifer worked in the healthcare industry in the Philadelphia area before moving to Baltimore where she worked at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy in public affairs, development and alumni relations.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Books: Giver by Bob BergTools: LinkedIn LocalShow Notes:01:10 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Find your passion and you'll be surprised with the energy that brings in.Jennifer talks about how helping out a friend who has a startup with PR energized her and made her look into having a side hustle working with startups and small/medium businesses.05:03 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Pricing your services is key to a sustainable business.Jennifer discusses some of the challenges she faced while building her business of which pricing has been the most important one. As she was hesitant to talk about money, she gave lot of free services early on but she realized her mistake and hired a business coach to help her.06:30 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Knowing your strengths is key to success in businessJennifer talks about her strengths (listening, detail oriented), and her focus on healthcare industry that she loves. With her focus on individuals and small companies, Jennifer is much more focused on serving rather than selling.09:38 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep an open mind so you can pivot when necessary.Jennifer talks about how she accidentally got started with PR as her original love was broadcasting like Jane Pauley and Katie Curic. A stint with Montgomery hospital opened up PR opportunity and her mentors encouraged her to run with it.16:30 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: : LinkedIn can be a great B2B tool.Jennifer talks about how LinkedIn Local really helped her identify clients and build the pipeline. She walks the process of building your credibility and building relationships.18:08 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be cautious in starting a business and believe in yourself.Jennifer gives the following tips based on her experience. (1) Start with a side hustle (2) Have faith in yourself (3) Hire a business coach if you can (4) Network as much as you can.21:24 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Know your strengths but also know your weaknesses and complement them where necessary.Jennifer talks about her love for media relations,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​Shirag Shemmassian ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Shemmassian Academic Consulting Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting. He and his team help high-achieving students get into America's top colleges, medical schools, and other graduate programs.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Books: Calendly, Skype; Mentors: Ramit SethiShow Notes:01:14 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep doing what you love to do and money will follow. Shirag starts off by explaining how a Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology got into starting an academic consulting business. It's primarily started off with Shirag helping friends and family for free which generated enough interest to become a profitable business.03:04 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: All you need are paying customers to validate your business and the rest will fall in place.Shirag talks about how he started making money even before he formally organized or even had a web site. It all started as a side hustle and word of mouth. Then the referrals kept coming and Shirag could really sense that there is a viable business.05:59 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Don't wait for that magical perfect price or perfect channels. Keep iterating.Shirag talks about the trial and error involved in finding the fair price for his services. He started off with a price that he thought was fair but as he kept realizing that the value delivered by him to help students to get into top colleges like Harvard and Stanford was much higher, he increased his prices. In the process, he also learnt about other aspects of the business like marketing and promotion.11:10 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be realistic about business challenges especially time management and growth management.Shirag talks about challenges of time management and quality control. Given that the academic consulting is still a side business (even though a very health one), time management has been a challenge but he has gotten better at it. Second challenge is maintaining quality with other coaches he has hired to support the growing business.17:36 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Outsource where necessary. Don't try to be a superhero.Shirag talks about the operational aspects of his business. Shirag outsourced accounting and payroll. He uses Calendly for appointment scheduling, Skype and phone for coaching.19:06 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be a constant learner. Be curious. You never know where that will lead you.Shirag talks about his evolution from someone who wanted to become a physician and how his interest in mental health led him into clinical psychology. He also talks about his immigrant background and how that motivated him into keep driving himself. His natural curiosity led him into starting his business and he is now hooked.22:01 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep yourself surrounded by a positive group of people.Shirag talks about his drive which is to take care of his family for a comfortable life and also people like Ramit Sethi who inspired him.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Craig Hewitt ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Podcast Motor Craig Hewitt is the Founder of PodcastMotor, a productized service which offers done-for-you podcast editing and production. Podcast Motor has a team of 15 remote members spread across 4 continents and are responsible for around 40 podcasts on a regular basis. Craig is also the founder of Castos podcast hosting and analytics with a to enable everyone to create their own podcast and share their voice with the world. Castos just celebrated it's 2nd birthday and more than 1,000 customers are on the platform. Tools / Books / Resources mentioned: Books: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, Traction by Gino Wickman. Show Notes: 01:32 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: If there is no solution for a problem you are facing, most likely other people are struggling too. Solve that problem and you have a business.  Craig starts off by talking about how he stumbled his way into starting podcast motor when he actually started his own podcast but found it cumbersome to get it edited and published. He calls it ‘scratch your own itch' way of starting a business where you solve your own problem and in the process build a business to start similar problems. 04:52 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Figure out your calling in life and focus on what you can accomplish.  Craig calls himself a hopeless entrepreneur who is practically unemployable in a corporate world. Instead of spinning wheels in a corporate world, Craig really wanted to accomplish meaningful things by being on his own. Even though he started by selling capital equipment to hospitals, Craig is now in a 3rd iteration of his entrepreneurial journey. 06:47 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be agile and nimble in starting your business. Craig is a big believer in productized service business and a prime example of get started quickly. He went from an idea to a paying customer in 3 weeks and a monthly revenue of $5,000 in 2 months. Start with a problem you can solve for customers and find a way to do it soup-to-nuts for them. Then you can keep pivoting from there. 08:30 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: If there is no solution for a problem you are facing, most likely other people are struggling too. Solve that problem and you have a business.  Craig gives examples of where his friend Justin McGill started a challenge to start a business in 24 hours and his SAS business lead fuse did exactly that. In this segment, Craig also talks about building a customer pipeline with a combination of organic traffic (70%) and paid traffic (30%). 15:04 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: There are always multiple sources of motivation: personal and professional. Find yours. Craig talks about the motivation needed to build his business. (1) He wanted to quit his full-time job and the side business he started seemed like the path (2) And the pipeline of customers who needed him provided him the additional motivation. 17:37 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Read the following books if you can: The Profit First and Traction. Craig mentions two books that were instrumental in shaping him and his business. The first is ‘Profit First' by Mike Michalowicz which talks about paying yourself first from the profits. The second book is ‘Traction' by Gino Wickman which is kind of a blueprint for running a business. Craig also mentions Dave Ramsey's thinking on how you need to tell the mon...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Phil Strazzulla ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Select Software Reviews Phil is the founder of SelectSoftware Reviews where businesses can learn about the best software for their organization. Phil started his career working in venture capital before getting his MBA at Harvard Business School.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned: Tools: Zoom, MixMax, Mailchimp, Google AnalyticsShow Notes:00:56 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be a trusted advisor for your customers. Phil starts off by explaining about his business which is to provide consumable information for businesses to make informed decisions on buying the right business software from the myriad options that are available for them. Phil's company makes money by partnering with some of the vendors and with paid advertising on the web site.04:28 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Always start by identifying an ideal customer. Delight that customer first. Phil talks about the ideal customer for his business and that is the HR manager of any business with employees between 100 and 1,000. Phil's aspiration is that the beachhead of the HR customer will gradually lead to other functions in the org.08:31 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Business will evolve. Don't sweat over trying to get it right the very first time. Phil talks about the origins of his business. His desire to start a company originated in college when he interned at a one-man company and realized the impact he could have. Phil talks about how his business evolved 7 or 8 times since inception and how each iteration made the company a better business.11:40 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: As an entrepreneur, be prepared to go though lean times. Find strength within. Phil talks about the exhilaration of signing up marquee customers in the beginning but how that excitement was worn off when they didn't renew afterwards. He talks about the learnings such as the tracking the customer interest to get an idea of what is working and what is not. He talks about the pain of going through lean times and watching his classmates shutter their own businesses within 9 to 18 months of starting their businesses. He found strength within to keep going by staying lean.19:43 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: It's always a better business model to do something that is already being done in the market faster, cheaper, and better. Phil talks about 2 key challenges he faced in running his business. (1) Time management (2) Prioritization. Phil reminisces about few things he could have done better. (1) Not trying to change the behavior of the customer (2) Instead focusing on helping something that is already being done better, faster, cheaper etc.23:07 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start with something you know and keep learning and building from there. Phil continues talking about the need to start a business in an area that you are familiar with and understanding the customer behavior. Phil learnt the the hard way about HR and how HR managers make buying decisions. Phile also gives inside scoop on few tools he uses: Zo...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Shel Horowitz ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Going Beyond Sustainability DOT COM. For over a decade, Shel Horowitz, “The Transformpreneur,” has shown businesses how to thrive by doing the right thing. Shel shows how not just to go green AND market green affordably and effectively--but how business can thrive by transforming society: turning hunger and poverty into sufficiency, war into peace, and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance. Shel is a consultant, international speaker and TEDx Talker, transformational business consultant, and the multiple-award-winning, bestselling author of ten books, most recently Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (his second Guerrilla book with Guerrilla Marketing founder Jay Conrad Levinson).Show Notes:01:43 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Your passion leads the way to your business. Be passionate. Shel talks about the beginnings where he and his wife started a movement in their local rural community to stop a private developer from building a large development against environmentalists' concerns. He used business principles and marketing to make the movement effective.06:00 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Environmentally sustainable business and a profitable business don't have to be separate things.Shel talks about how he coaches business owners to make money and save money while transforming their business into a sustainable business. He mentions some great examples like Patagonia, Ben & Jerrys, Rocky Mountain Institute which have been very successful in being a sustainable business while making profits.10:00 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep growing your business by finding new growth areas. Always think of possibilities. Shel talks about how he started as a freelance magazine writer and started a term paper typing service which grew into resume prep service business. That business evolved into Press Releases and Marketing copy writing business.14:39 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Use variety of techniques to build your customer pipeline: Networking, blogging, speaking.Shel talks about the customer pipeline building process. He uses a combination of techniques such as a gratitude journal on Facebook, blog posts, speaking engagements etc. Many of his clients are either referrals or people who found him through organic google searches. Sometimes, he prospects by going to networking events.21:50 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be proactive about having a social impact with your business. Shel talks about being proactive to have a social impact with their business. He says it is just a matter of time that customers will ask about your business impact on the society, so be prepared. Shel also advises that it is not difficult to be profitable while having a wider social impact.27:56 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Focus on costs while building a business. Prioritize customer engagement and interactions.Shel gives advice to would be entrepreneurs that they should have a razor focus on cost savings in startup mode. Also,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: Mark Viniello ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​OverActive Imaginations, Inc. Mark Viniello, professional Hollywood make-up effects artist turned Entrepreneur and author. Mark has worked on such films as: The Lord of the Rings, Avengers: Infinity War, Stranger Things and the upcoming Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.Show Notes:01:06 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Many times, a business idea starts with your passionate interests. Be passionate. Mark talks about his love of making monsters and how his work on Adam Sandler's bedtime stories of making a mermaid tale started the whole thing. Initially, he made some mermaid tails for his four daughters and as the word spread around, Mark started making the mermaid kits for others.4:55 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Deliver a complete immersive experience to differentiate your offering.Mark expands on how he grew that one mermaid sleeping bag idea into an entire kit where the customers get a complete experience with inspirational and educational books, a tote, and complete background on the mermaids.07:37 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep learning from people who have done similar things before. Your network can also be a huge help. Mark talks about how he learned from the likes of Jennifer Kepler, Sara Blakley, and Rowland who successfully navigated the journey from artists to becoming successful business people. Mark then relied on friends and family who are into various aspects of a business like licensing merchandise, tradeshows, and packaging to pick their brains. 13:38 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Ensure that price, promotion, and quality are in sync.Mark then talks about pricing and how iterated on coming up with pricing. Once he decided on a price, Mark relied on referrals and testimonials to build his business. Mark also made sure that the product quality is high and the customers could experience the quality of his offering so they feel that the price matches the quality.20:12 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Test different strategies like unbundling a product and customer segmentation. Mark further talks about different strategies like unbundling the product (sleeping bag, book etc.) so the overall price can be lowered without compromising the quality. He also mentioned segmenting the customers so he can provide younger adults with a different product as well.22:48 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep you passion going. Most successful businesspeople kept investing initial profits into the business.Mark continues to invest the profit back into the business as he has been expanding his product line. He is not keen on overnight success and believes that the ‘overnight success' comes from multiple year...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​Drew Stevens ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Stevens Performance Group and Stevens Capital Drew Stevens is a world-renowned business turnaround and revenue expert. Drew works with business owners who struggle with revenue and transforms them into wealthy professionals.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: Dragon Fly Software, Dropbox, Google SuiteShow Notes:00:52 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start with focus on your skills, expertise, and personal attributes to identify business focus areas.Drew talks about the way started his company by assessing his strengths in sales and marketing and deciding to focus on companies always struggling in some way shape or form like they are either bankrupt, about to go through bankruptcy, just coming out of bankruptcy.2:51 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Develop a multi-dimensional approach to building your brandDrew expands on his brand building journey where he started speaking professionally, writing articles, and books. Additionally, Drew also started providing capital in private equity placements for a 3 pronged approach to building his personal brand.06:54 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Focus on fit, fun, and financial customers and learn to say no.Drew talks about the importance of saying no because entrepreneurship can be all consuming if you don't. He also talks about the importance of selecting clients who are fit, fun, financial which means the ‘right fit' for you, fun to work with, and financially strong to work with.11:23 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Tough times are a reality in any business. Weather them with mentors, support network, and being astute.Drew talks about the challenging times and how he overcame them. He did 3 things (1) Relied on a small circle of mentors (2) have smart people around him to guide him (3) be shrewd about the work he selects and the operations of his company.15:12 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Focus on building customer pipeline with multiple avenues (speaking, writing, networking etc.)Drew talks about customer pipeline and deal flow. Drew's typical customer engagement is for 90 days or so and he has learned to manage deal flow so he is never overwhelmed or without customers. With a combination of writing, speaking, podcasting, networking, and referrals, Drew has managed to fill the customer pipeline steadily.21:58 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start with your goal, amount of time you can put in, and the amount of money you can put in to get started with your business.Drew gives advice to would-be entrepreneurs along these lines. Expand on your dreams, vision, and goals. No need for extensive business plans. Ask yourself how many hours you can put in without complaining. Lastly, how much money you can put in without going broke. The answers to these questions will help you get started with a sound foundation.26:34 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start with focus on your skills, expertise, and personal attributes to identify business focus areas.Drew gives advice based on his journey.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​​Kristie Jones ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Sales Acceleration Group Kristie Jones the founder of Sales Acceleration Group. Sales Acceleration Group helps tech start-up companies with sales strategy, process, hiring and coaching and training. Kristie has been a solopreneur since 2016 and grateful each day for the ability to do what she loves and help others at the same time!Show Notes:2:06 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Adversities could be the mother of opportunities. Grab them.Kristie talks about she started her company in 2016 when the venture-backed she was working for decided to put sales group under marketing and disbanded her team. Luckily, a prospective client asked her to train/consult with their sales team giving Kristie an opportunity to start on her own. 5:49 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Grow your network in a very disciplined manner to grow your businessKristie talks about the importance of networking and how she realized after some initial LinkedIn network analysis that she needed more local contacts and consciously grew that network. Her first customer as well as initial set of customers who funded her first year with consulting gigs were a direct result of her network.8:18 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Pricing can be very challenging but agree on value delivered first before pricingKristie talks about the initial challenges especially regarding pricing her services. Her coach Mike Weinberg advised her to stay away from hourly pricing and instead focus on pricing for services and products. She gives us a step by step process of writing SOW, pricing the services at a later point of time and ensuring lining up mutual objectives.12:41 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Have a razor focus on the customer segments you want to serviceKristie talks about her focus on privately funded companies, venture capital companies, and tech / SAS companies instead of spreading all over. She also talks about her process for handling multiple clients simultaneously. Her secret is being super organized.14:51 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep on prospecting for new set of customers to fill the pipelineKristie gives advice on power prospecting to fill the top of her sales funnel by engaging in volunteer activities, speaking engagements, CRM system, email marketing.20:49 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Always have a mix of services and products to grow your businessKristie talks about packaging her services into some kind of a product (like training session, book etc.) to max her reach. She is working with a network of other entrepreneurs who have done this successfully. Still, Kristie says she enjoys the one-on-one engagements and the need to balance both.22:32 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Network, join meetups, rely on mentorsKristie gives advice to would be entrepreneurs to (1) first focus on building your network (2) join local meetups/entrepreneurial groups (3) find right mentors.24:57 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be organized in all aspects of your business like prospecting, operations, and staying in touch with your networkKristie emphasizes the need to stay engaged socially like volunteering,

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​​Joellyn Sargent ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Claravon Group LLC Joellyn Sargent spent years as a marketing executive, building the life everyone said she “should” have. In spite of her success, it felt like something was missing. So in 2010 she left the rat race and followed her heart, helping passionate entrepreneurs succeed in business and in life. Joellyn is the author of Beyond the Launch: The Practical Guide to Building a Business that Thrives. Her latest adventure was a 7 months sabbatical in 2018, which she spent hiking 1800 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Show Notes: 2:46 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Never give up. Keep looking for the right opportunities. Joellyn talks about her entrepreneurial journey where she is now on her 3rd business having started her first business when she was 26. She has applied all her learnings from her first ventures along with her corporate experience in marketing. The mortgage industry meltdown few years ago provided her the needed motivation to start her 3rd venture. 5:45 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep investing into the business during its formative years. Joellyn explains the experience of getting her first customer from outside her network and how it gave her enough confidence to jump right in. She talks about the need to invest into the business and how she kept investing in mentors so she could expand her consulting business instead of just doing projects like website design etc. 9:06 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Strategically quit projects when they are not working out to keep reinventing yourself Joellyn talks about the first two years of roller coaster ride with her business and how she has weathered them. She talks about what she called ‘strategic quitting' where one should entertain strategically quitting few projects or engagements if they are not working out. 12:52 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Don't be afraid to fire bad clients Joellyn etalks about the need to find right customers and not any customer as bad clients ‘breed bad clients'. It is important to ensure that you are happy working with the right clients so the entrepreneurial journey is worthwhile. 14:17 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Entrepreneurial journey is about personal growth and self-discovery and not just about freedom and income. Joellyn explains the characteristics of business owners who succeed. They are (1) introspective (2) open minded (3) desire to grow (4) indulge in self-reflection. 17:29 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep refining your target customers to find your ideal set of customers Joellyn talks about the sweet spot customers who are business owners who either are starting out or on their second or third journey. She also wants to consult with business owners whose business may have been going well for some time but now has slowed down. 22:59 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Reflect on what you want to do that customers will pay for Joellyn wants would-be entrepreneurs to think about 3 things on their way to a successful journey (1) Is this what you want to do? (2) Would customers pay for what you want to do? (3) Are you in this for the long term? The scariest part of your journey is when you quit your day job so you should be ready for that with these answers. 24:58 minute mark: Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Reflect on what you want to do that customers will pay for Joellyn reflects on her experience and gives advice to balance between brand building and revenue. As an example, her focus on speaking engagements (where she was not paid...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​​Verdick Case ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Peony Lane Designs Stacy Verdick Case is owner of Peony Lane Designs where she sells vintage home decor online and also in a brick and mortar shop. She also takes viewers vintage hunting with her on her YouTube channel.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: Mailchimp, Wordpress, CanvaBooks: Why We Buy by Paco Underhill; From Poop to Gold by Chris Jones; She Means Business by Carrie GreenShow Notes:2:05 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Build a business based on your interests and passionStacy explains about vintage home décor business and how she got started with the business which essentially grew from her personal interest in vintage furniture and her errands to thrift stores etc.5:58 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be realistic about transition from salaried job to a business owner especially during the first yearStacy talks about her transition from an accountant to a business owner and how she has been learning from her husband's own business as well as reading books, listening to podcasts etc. She also talks about her difficult first year in business and how she was the most stressed and also most happy at the same time.9:53 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Know where your customers buy and emphasize those channelsStacy talks about how she got her paying customers on Etsy and using social media platforms like Pinterest, twitter, and Facebook. She also talks about how these platforms complemented her personality as she is a shy person and wasn't comfortable being in front of customers.12:07 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Identify your ideal customer base and keep learning more about their buying habitsStacy explains her ideal customers of millennials and also women between 35 and 45 years. She also talks about how she blends her own interests of colorful furniture in a vintage décor and how her clients have accepted her style.15:33 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Outsource where you can and keep the rest for better time managementStacy gives us more details about her first year where cash flow was a much bigger issue than time management. She also talks about how she involved her family in the business, so it didn't affect work-life issues as much. She also was able to outsource areas where she was not good at but kept areas like web design that she is interested in.18:42 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Identify some key ways to validate your business: peer or customer validationStacy brings up peer validation as an important motivator in addition to customer validation. She talks about the importance of peer validation in her business much more than market or customer validation to keep her going...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​​Nicole Landau ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Landau Consulting Solutions Nicole Landau, owner of Landau Consulting Solutions, specializes in helping construction business owners gain control over their finances by increasing profit margins and streamlining their accounting function. She also provides financial coaching to small businesses who want to gain clarity on their financial situation.Show Notes:2:09 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Rely on your network to find your first paying customersNicole talks about starting her business as a side hustle while working a full-time job and as the mother of a newborn to have a flexible life. She talks about relying on her network (a colleague) to find her first client and specializing in construction industry (which she has personal experience of having built couple of houses) to differentiate herself. 5:38 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Rely on your network to find your first paying customersNicole takes us on a step-by-step journey of her registering her company, getting her license etc. which took a very short time. She talks about defining her offering, figuring out marketing, marketing messages took little bit of extra time.7:59 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Extend your traditional offering to grow your business into new areas.Nicole details about the specialization of services in her business like complete payroll/accounting outsourcing for construction businesses and consulting / coaching for new businesses in financing & accounting to help them grow.10:59 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Find ways to connect to your customers on a personal level to earn their trust.Nicole has an interesting angle about establishing herself as a trusted advisor in what is typically a male-owned businesses. She says many of the wives handle the finances & accounting in these businesses and Nicole could relate to them and become a trusted adviser.14:03 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Tap into your local chamber of commerce network and/or create your own network to grow your business.Nicole talks about her motivation (which is her daughter and her family), her support network (coach identified by local chamber of commerce), and a specialist coach in her own accounting industry that helped her scale her business. She also talks about the network she built with other business-woman-moms.18:01 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Don't procrastinate and start investing in networking.Nicole gives 3 tips to would be entrepreneurs (1) Just start doing it (2) Networking is huge (3) Take time to invest in sales and building a customer pipeline21:17 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Keep learning to grow your business and be an empathetic leader.Nicole talks about some key personality characteristics of successful business owners she works with. (1) They invest in themselves to learn from experts (2) Takes care of his employees (3) Repeat customers because they love working with him22:41 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Specialize in profitable areas and select good customers to work with.Nicole talks about some challenges such as specializing in profitable services and focusing on ideal customers as opposed to any customers.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​​Kenzi Wood ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Kenzi Writes Kenzi Wood is a former marketer turned blogger and she writes content for marketing agencies, SEO agencies, Fortune 200 enterprises, as well as small mom-and pop shops. Her focus is on vanquishing the demons of content marketing—one blog at a time. Her mission is to stamp out flimsy copy and increase your reader engagement, boost website conversions, audience retention, and, best of all, the business bottom line, with content designed to win.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: Asana (task management), Google-Suite, Timeular (time management), Slack, Doodle, zoomBooks: ‘BadAssYourBrand' by Pia SilvaShow Notes:1:08 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Start doing what you enjoy and keep exploring possibilities to start a business.Kenzi starts off by talking about how she started to blog for fun in the personal finance space, realized that she can make money by writing as a side gig, and finally took the plunge to quit her corporate job and never looked back.2:52 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Support network is key to continued successKenzi talks about how her husband saw the potential with her blog to start her own business and encouraged her start on her own. She also found moral support in her parents. Finally, she attended a personal finance bloggers conference and found her first customer.5:33 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Build customer pipeline by soliciting testimonials and building a portfolio.Kenzi gives tips on building a customer pipeline by (1) always requesting customer testimonials after each project (2) keeping a portfolio of your projects on your website. She also talks about weathering lean times by keeping personal finances in order and being financially secure.9:10 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Be proactive about managing different aspects of business by outsourcing where necessary.Kenzi talks about dealing with the waves of solopreneur work by outsourcing work that someone else can do better (in her case it is customer outreach) and negotiating with customers on deadlines and as a last resort to refer other trustworthy freelancers.11:05 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Identifying key customer segments and their specific needs is essential to grow your business.Kenzi identified her sweet spot of customers as small and medium businesses where she can translate her large company experience and provide a white glove service for her clients. This focus helped her to get lot of customer referrals.15:25 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Enhance your productivity by selecting proven tools.Kenzi talks about the tools that enhance her productivity. Asana for task management, G-suite for email & docs, Timeular for time management, slack/google chat for customer communication, doodle for schedules, and zoom for video communication.18:48 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Pricing right is key as well as tracking time and expenses.Kenzi talks about few things that she could have done better. (1) Pricing right for her services. She thinks she underpriced her services initially. (2) having an accounting software to automate tracking and expenses.22:14 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: It...

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Janet Elie ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​Launch4Life LLC Launch4Life, started by two sisters Janet Elie and Gillian Whitney, helps small businesses learn to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for themselves. Janet has over 30 years in the Financial Services Industry in marketing and management, coupled with 5 years of intensive dedication to online marketing and social media applications. Janet has coached and trained small business owners on how to adapt to the social media world.Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:Tools: Camtasia, Mailchimp, Acuity (bookkeeping), Paypal, SEMrush, Asana (project management), zoomShow Notes:1:03 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Don't be afraid to go against the tide to define your business.Janet introduces her business which trains small businesses to do search engine optimization (SEO) for themselves. It is an interesting concept because most other SEO businesses actually do the SEO.4:02 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: First start your business and then iterate the business to find the right direction.Janet talks about the transition from corporate life to entrepreneurship. She wasn't happy with her corporate life, attended a Tony Robbins conference, and decided to take control of her life. Even though she started with helping insurance agents find better prospects, she evolved her business to train business owners to do SEO for themselves.7:55 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Define your customer ‘Avatars' with specific details on their pain points, dreams, and aspirations.Janet talks about her target customers who are little bit tech savvy, in their 40, 50 and may be 60s. Janet found that customers who are not tech savvy turned out to be nightmare clients.9:05 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Building a customer pipeline is key for a sustainable business.Janet talks about building customer pipeline by going to conferences, building an email list, and relying on referrals. The large conferences can be intimidating but help in building email list.10:29 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: It takes at least a year to get going so don't expect overnight wonders.Janet talks about the first three years of her entrepreneurial journey where the first 6 months were about tweaking her web site. It took one year to stand on their feet and a good amount of 3 years to find a solid ground. During these 3 years, they kept tweaking business model and website design.13:16 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Finding a reason to stay motivated is very important.Janet talks about her motivation and drive to keep going. She thinks about the alternative of either being a couch potato or go back to work neither one is appealing.16:45 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Use tools sparingly and wisely to build and grow your business.Janet lists all the tools that they use in their business.

Subscribe & Download Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Google Play Follow us onSoundCloud Listen on Spotify Guest: ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Alina Trigub ​Company / Business name: ​​​​​​ ​​​SAMO Financial Alina is the founder and the Managing Partner of SAMO Financial. It's a boutique private equity firm specializing in helping a select group of people passively invest in the commercial real estate. Alina's business motto has been articulated well by Warren Buffett's indicating that, "Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago". Alina is the founder of two Meetup groups named, “The Power of Passive Investing through Real Estate”, which gather in NY and NJ.Alina has helped her clients to acquire and invest in:over 1200 apartment doorsover 500 storage units over 5MM of funds focused on mobile home parks and storageRecommended Books & Tools:Tools: Pipedrive CRM, Mailchimp for email marketingShow Notes:2:37 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Your own needs can give you an idea for starting a business.Alina talks about syndication in commercial real estate and how that can give passive income to investors. Alina also talks about her desire to get her investments diversified led her to learn more about syndicates and private placements in real estate business. 4:59 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Identifying key success factors in each business will reap rewards.Alina educates us about the syndication business where experienced partners identify viable real estate properties and then bring the audience into the deals. Credibility of experience and due diligence are absolutely important in the business.7:26 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Don't be afraid of challenges. Treat them as opportunities.Alina talks about starting a side business like she is doing now, Even though she is full employed, her desire to diversify led her into becoming an accidental entrepreneur. Alina talks about the support she gets from her family to get her going.11:05 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Focus on areas that can open doors instead of harping on issues that limit growth.Alina brings an interesting aspect of close-knit groups in real estate industry and a gender bias. But she says if one can ignore that it opens up plenty of opportunities. She talks about how it allowed her to move forward once she ignored the cliques.14:47 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Understanding your business model and tweaking where necessary is important.Alina talks about her business model where she makes her money by working on the investor relations side. She also talks about how she plans to grow her business by expanding the investor pool as well as expanding the portfolio of asset classes.17:37 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Get the necessary first steps of starting a business out of the way quickly.Alina gives advice to would be entrepreneurs with the first tip to get an accountant and a lawyer in the same room to align on a corporate structure. Then she talks about getting a website and building a leadership platform to build credibility.19:00 minute mark:Agile entrepreneur takeaway: Get the necessary first steps of starting a business out of the way quickly.Alina talks why it's important to start early in life to build a business and how other obligations may come in the way later in life. Alina talks about the need to address ‘WHY', why you are starting a business as it'll help you get through tough times. Episode Transcript