Growth Everywhere | Entrepreneurial Stories | Business Lessons

Today, we are going to talk about seven years of operating lessons from taking over my ad agency! This is a multi-part series that talks about the most powerful lessons learned throughout the journey. This is part 3 of the series! When I first started running the business I didn't listen to the team and employees were leaving left and right. When I finally dropped down to one employee, I decided it was time to make a change. These are the lessons that helped me turn my business around and if you put them into action they can help you too!

Most people create the product they have in mind and then try to build a brand around it, but not Mario Nawfal, the CEO of the Athena Group of Companies. What has led to Mario’s success is his business philosophy of first testing a range of products to see which ones do well, and then to begin building out a brand around a product that is already on the consumer radar and trending. For him, it is all about leveraging the momentum of a popular product or service and getting your timing right. Just take 2020 as an example. Those who have become millionaires by selling PPE and hand sanitizers would have been nowhere the year before. In this episode, Mario talks about his group of e-commerce and agency companies, sharing how the avant-garde growth hack strategies developed by the latter are used to boost the business of the former. And while service-based businesses such as agencies are not easily scalable, Mario shares how they are still getting great value out of these organizations and using them to benefit th

In the 70's the Patels from India created a method for acquiring motels and in time earned a massive fortune that could take care of their entire family. In this clip we do a book summary of one of my new favorite books, The Dhando Investor, and discover how you can mitigate risk in your investments and create massive wealth!

Today we talk to Henry Schuck, Co-Founder and CEO of ZoomInfo (formerly DiscoverOrg) about best practices for steering the ship of a startup and scaling it until it goes public. ZoomInfo provides subscription-based sales and marketing intelligence to its clients in the form of accurate B2B content and company information to accelerate the growth of their marketing teams! Henry starts by summing up his education and career, sharing the story of co-founding DiscoverOrg, wearing multiple hats while scaling it to the point of going public, and then acquiring ZoomInfo. From there, we get into some of Henry’s habits that took him from startup CEO to public company CEO. He talks about mastering the skills needed to see DiscoverOrg through its first five years, how to let go of staff who served their purpose but are now holding the company back, and how bringing on investors changed the internal dynamics of the firm for the better. Henry also gets into his ‘pebble in the shoe’ method for aligning his teams with his v

From an airplane designer to a marketing expert, today we are joined by Guy Yalif, the co-founder and CEO of Intellimize, a company that automatically optimizes websites to drive revenue and customer acquisition using machine learning. After making the unusual leap from a career in aerospace engineering, Guy accumulated considerable marketing experience by working in the startup space as well as for big brands like Twitter, Yahoo, and Microsoft. In this episode, he talks about the value that Intellimize offers its customers, including the unique ability to personalize the web experience for each user while also providing useful insight that can be leveraged to refine their messaging. Their sophisticated software gathers and interprets data to make suitable suggestions to site visitors, thereby boosting conversion rates and making a big difference in the sales department. In general, their customers are seeing a remarkable 46% improvement on the metrics they care about since Intellimize is all about focusing o

Whether you’re trying to build wealth or simply have a better idea of market fundamentals, understanding macroeconomics will give you a significant upper hand. Nobody understands this better than George Gammon, the entrepreneur, investor, and real estate expert who helps his audience increase their wealth and freedom by teaching macroeconomics through his YouTube channel. On today’s show, George shares his thoughts on the state of the market, his approach to investing, and how he built a YouTube channel that went from 200 to 40 000 views a day just four months after its launch. George begins by explaining why the economy is in more danger now than in 2008, detailing that it is a complex system which, if meddled with, will produce unpredicted results and how the current Fed stimulus exemplifies this. We talk about how George approaches his portfolio and how this fits into his goals to live a life with as much freedom as possible. Here he discusses how to separate your investments into buckets, the need to set

As the social climate continues to become increasingly tense in the US, with the pandemic, politics, and proposed tax hikes, it’s becoming more important for entrepreneurs to have a plan B. Today’s guest is Andrew Henderson, Founder of Nomad Capitalist, a boutique advisory firm that provides entrepreneurs with holistic plans to legally reduce taxes, get second passports and create wealth offshore. He joins us to provide insights both into his company and the issue of geopolitical diversification generally. We discover the services that Nomad Capitalist offers, and how Andrew, having lived and invested in numerous countries, adds his particular expertise. We hear how Andrew splits up his time throughout the year and why he encourages people to consider lesser-known countries as options. The conversation naturally goes to the pandemic, how it’s affected Nomad Capitalist’s business, and why the government’s reaction has been such an eye-opener. While many people continue to have a strong allegiance to the United

This is a special bonus episode where we take a sneak peek into our virtual event and share a portion of one of the talks from the event. In this episode, we're sharing the mic with investing legend, Roland Frasier, who goes into detail about how to buy an existing business with no money down.

We know the importance of networking, but many of us either shy away from it or take the wrong approach. Today's guest, Jordan Harbinger, does things differently, and it shows. As a Top 50 iTunes podcast host for over 12 years, Jordan deconstructs the playbooks of the most successful people on the planet, sharing their strategies and providing practical insights. In this episode, we hear about Jordan’s podcasting journey, and how building his show from scratch for a second time showed him the true power of his network and connections. We discuss the difficulties that came with starting over, including self-doubt and being unable to compensate the team fairly, and their resolutions. Jordan also shares some of his invaluable relationship development insights. Rather than calling it networking, which he feels has been tainted by sleazy salesman, Jordan’s approach is more authentic, and it recognizes the importance of making small deposits every day. Instead of ignoring most people and only reaching out to those

Although marketing has evolved a great deal over the past 100 years, the same principles still apply because human psychology has not changed. This is why is, no matter how complicated the marketing landscape gets, simple copywriting remains the most powerful. No-one knows this better than today’s guest, Craig Clemens, an exceptional copywriter, brand-builder, and positioner. As co-founder of Golden Hippo, a leader in direct-to-consumer marketing that builds innovative health, beauty, and pet care brands, Craig knows that it takes to connect with customers effectively. In this episode, we dive into Craig’s fascinating marketing journey, including some of the profound sales and life lessons he learned from his time as a telemarketer. We also gain insights into Craig’s copywriting process, where he highlights the importance of market research. He does not believe in selling products but instead offering unique solutions to people's problems. We also hear more about Golden Hippo and its distinct approach to buil

Steve Gatena, CEO of Pray.com, joins us today to talk about entrepreneurship and what it takes to run the world’s #1 app for daily prayer and biblical audio content. For Steve, being a successful entrepreneur is all about starting simple, building momentum and experience, practicing extreme ownership, and never forgetting the value of one’s networks. Our guest has an impressive background, and he starts by explaining the different companies he was a part of in media production, and how he made the transition from these service-based business models to becoming the CEO of a venture-backed tech firm. He talks about how some business models are more difficult than others to run and how fortunate he was to cut his teeth on easier ones which gave him the skills he needed to launch a software product firm, the most complex of all. We get into some of Steve’s secrets for running Pray.com so well, talking about the relationship between religion and marketing, building a global A team of investors and executives for a

Today, we are going to talk about seven years of operating lessons from taking over my ad agency! This is a multi-part series that talks about the most powerful lessons learned throughout the journey. When I first started running the business I didn't listen to the team and employees were leaving left and right. When I finally dropped down to one employee, I decided it was time to make a change. These are the lessons that helped me turn my business around and if you put them into action they can help you too!

Many great tech companies have emerged from a founder trying to solve a pain point in their own lives, and AppDirect is no different. As the only end-to-end platform that helps deliver digital services on any device and accelerate time to market, the company has raised $350 million and is not slowing down anytime soon. Dan Saks is the President and Co-CEO of AppDirect, and he is here to share various insights on working in the business. In this episode, Dan sheds light on how the closure of his family’s 100-year-old furniture business opened his eyes to the need to connect businesses with the right technology. When he was graduating from college, SaaS and cloud services were in their infancy, and Dan recognized their power to help businesses thrive and bridge unequal access to technology. We get an overview of how AppDirect connects distributors of services so businesses can consume the applications they need. We then zoom out from the product-level view to a look at AppDirect’s long-term vision. It is unusua

The more agile companies can be in the current volatile landscape, the better. Smartsheet is a collaboration software platform that helps companies optimize functionality and one of the things that makes it different is that it is not purpose-built. With 2572 documented use cases to date, Smartsheet possesses the kind of wide applicability that companies need to stay light-footed enough to keep up, and all without having to write a line of code! Today we have its CMO, Anna Griffin, join us on the show to talk more about how the software works as well as speak to the things that make her tick and how she got to be where she is today. Anna gets into her journey into the B2B space and what feeds into her out of the box approach to marketing. We turn our attention to Smartsheet next and hear from Anna about the platform’s fluidity and how they approach marketing it when the product does so many different things. She makes a case for how well the software lends itself to bottom-up adoption, and then we hear a few

Business travel may not be happening as frequently anymore due to the COVID pandemic, but that does not concern today’s guest, Avi Meir. He is CEO and Co-Founder of TravelPerk, a ground-breaking business travel platform that offers companies of any size a one-stop-shop to book all of their travel in a single space. Avi is a travel industry veteran with fifteen years of experience. In this episode, we learn more about the platform, including the pain points they look to solve, how they generate income, and the ways they are reimagining business travel. We also learn about Avi’s choice to base the business in Barcelona, an unconventional destination for a tech company. Not only does the city offer a great quality of life, but Avi also believes that it influences their ability to attract top talent. Naturally, the conversation goes to COVID and how TravelPerk has been impacted. Avi shares the remarkable decision they have made to not let anyone go, and how they have used a combination of government relief and ou

What does it take to be successful as a new CEO? Whenever you're joining a new company, it's important to avoid rocking the boat at the beginning. In this session we discuss ways to have a successful transition into any company at the executive level.

Joining us today is Gino Wickman, the founder of EOS Worldwide—a leadership team development company—and the creator of Entrepreneurial Leap, Rocket Fuel, and the bestseller Traction, which you have heard many founders rave about. Contrary to what other books on entrepreneurship want to make you believe, not everybody is cut out to be an entrepreneur—so says Gino who has established himself as an authoritative voice on the subject over the past 20 years. According to him, there are six essential traits that every true entrepreneur has, and as controversial as it seems, he believes that a person is born with these traits and cannot necessarily acquire them at will. He also distinguishes between a visionary and an integrator, the former coming up with the great ideas and then pivoting to the next and the latter who is skilled at implementing and maintaining those ideas and keeping things consistent. These are some of the reasons why his books and entrepreneurial philosophies are radically different from the man

As a B2B business, attracting an audience to your website to convert them into sales leads is not an easy process, but Madison Logic does it all for you. Madison Logic is an account-based marketing service that helps B2B companies convert their best accounts faster and today we learn more about the firm from its Co-Founder and COO, Vin Turk. Vin opens by explaining how he got the idea to streamline conversions in the B2B space before explaining exactly what it is that Madison Logic does. We move on to discuss how the firm makes its money on both the lead and display side before chatting more about their ideal customers. Vin shares some impressive metrics about growth and ROI, mentioning their unique journey without VC backed capital and how being featured on INC 5000’s list six times back to back made a difference in this respect. We get into exits, spinoffs, and the company’s long term vision next, before drilling down on their customer acquisition model which includes a brilliant strategy to become more vit

Do you need to have a big company before you start worrying about things like vision and culture? I used to think so... but the truth is, building culture and demonstrating the vision is the most important job of the CEO and can make or break whether you're successful. In this clip, we'll talk about ways you can implement culture, recruit a-players and share your vision better with your team, no matter how big or small your company is!

Today’s guest, Gary Saarenvirta, has been thinking deeply about AI long before the current hype. Having worked in the AI space for over 25 years, Gary was shocked at how little math and science was used in big business, and founded Daisy Intelligence to fill this glaring gap. Daisy is a SaaS AI-powered platform that helps retailers and insurers achieve higher profits by helping them make smarter operating decisions. In this episode, Gary sheds light on some of Daisy’s product offerings and the specific ways they increase profitability. As someone with an engineering background, Gary always focused on the technical side of things, but with the growth of the business, he has become increasingly aware of the value of people and culture. We talk about various ways that Daisy looks after their team, including flexible remote working options during COVID and mentoring programs. Gary himself has seen the value of having a coach, and he shares how this has helped him grow as a leader. Along with this, we discuss why