Travis Ketchum is the founder & CEO of the contest-optimizing service Contest Domination. Since 2012, Travis’s software has helped businesses grow their email lists and create new customers through online contests and giveaways.
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Yaro Starak is a self-made millionaire who started his first internet business in 1998. Yaro has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and HuffPost where he is known for his deep insights into the entrepreneurial journey.
I brought Yaro onto In The Trenches to talk about his most recent business Inbox Done. He shares his personal experience with his email inbox, why he created the business, and how it is helping others. On the business side, he delves into how to scale a services business, why systems and processes are key, and how he is able to create several different businesses from one model.
DISCLAIMER: I ended up investing in Inbox Done after I recorded this episode and have been using it for about 6 months (I know, huge delay on getting this out there, but better late than never!). I love the service and can't believe I waited so long to let someone competent help me with inbox management. Anyway, I highly recommend Inbox Done for anyone with a solid, cash flowing business and who wants to reduce stress and take back more of their time. If you end up checking out Inbox Done make sure to let Yaro know you heard about it on "In The Trenches" (that way I can get the mad props I deserve ;D).
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David Burkus is a best-selling author, sought after speaker and associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University. David’s innovative views on leadership have earned him invitations to speak to leaders from a variety of organizations. His TED talk has been viewed over 1.9 million times, and he is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review.
I brought David on In The Trenches to discuss his latest book, Friend of a Friend, which offers readers a new perspective on how to grow your network and build key connections, based on the science of human behavior. The book offers a strategic way to approach this idea of relationship building in the context of business.
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Antonio Centeno, originally a US marine, worked for Google writing over 100 men’s style and fashion articles that have over 800,000 views. Today, with over 11 years of experience in men’s style, Antonio is CEO of Real Men Real Style where he creates videos, podcasts, and articles on Men’s Style. With a focus on dressing men to impact others and make more money, Antonio has turned his content platform into a million dollar business.
Today, I sit down with Antonio to better understand what it takes to monetize content (to the tune of 7-figures), reframe failure, and create meaningful relationships.
https://www.realmenrealstyle.com
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Today, I sit down with the founder and creator of Live your Message, Marisa Murgatroyd. According to Marisa, At 4’11 and a quarter, she’s called the shortest woman in marketing, but that doesn’t stop her from having huge ideas. She’s the “go to” brand builder for industry luminaries and heavyweights such as Justin Livingston, Callan Rush, and Danny Iny.
Marisa helps entrepreneurs create a business that is authentic and aligned with who they are, to empower them to turn up the dial on their “inner superhero,” so they can be the superhero to their tribe, as well as in their own lives.
In today's conversation, Marisa shares how she pivoted her career from documentary film-making to creating and selling digital products. She reveals how to engage a community successfully and create content that makes a difference.
And much more...
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
In today's broadcast of In The Trenches, I sit down with author, content creator, brand strategist, and copywriter, Kayla Hollatz. Kayla shares her journey from day job to self-employed. She shares the unavoidable struggles and enthralling successes that make her business what it is today.
And much more...
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Cary Richards is the founder of infostack.io. Infostack is a company that curates collections of premium tools and resources, and makes them available for limited periods of time at extreme discounts. Cary produces these "stacks" in a number of niches and industries, from self-publishing to entrepreneurship to software development to health, fitness, and beyond.
Cary had a rocky start when it came to entrepreneurship. For years, he hustled to make an extra income on the side - something that would let him quit his job and work full time on his creative and entrepreneurial pursuits - but with limited success. He stumbled into self-publishing as a potential avenue for this type of career, but after years of struggling to get noticed, he realized his breakthrough wasn't going to be from writing. That's when he came across the idea of selling other peoples products instead of his own. And not just as a basic affiliate, but as someone who curates high quality, premium resources and tools, and then sells them together as a collection.
Not long after this epiphany, Cary found my blog, and soon thereafter purchased my course "Influencer Marketing Method," which is all about how to find, connect with, and turn influencers into promotional partners. Cary needed contributors and affiliates for his new business, so he knew instantly this was the solution to his problem.
By following the step-by-step video tutorials inside the course, Cary built up a contributor list of over 30 influencers (authors, course creators, software developers, experts, and more), and another dozen or more affiliates.
In spite of his success in recruiting affiliates and contributors, Cary still felt stuck on the business side of things. How should he pay affiliates? How should he structure the launch window? How should he deliver the digital products? And a dozen more questions...
That's when Cary decided to join $100k Academy, my premiere training program for online entrepreneurs growing 6 and 7-figure businesses. For the next 3 months, we worked together (along with 9 other top class entrepreneurs) to launch his business effectively from scratch.
What ensued blew all of Cary's expectations out of the water:
In the first day, he did about $25,000 in sales. By the end of the week, he had generated just shy of $80,000 in sales. In the end, he did, on average, more than $10,000 in sales per day for his one week launch. Shortly thereafter, Cary quit his job and is now growing Infostack.io full-time.
It took years for Cary to become an overnight success, and I'm excited to share his story with you today.
And much more...
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Roosh Valizadeh (aka Roosh V) is a controversial men's dating advice writer. Recently, Amazon has banned and removed nine of his books from their bookstore. Immediately after Amazon banned his books, many other platforms (though much, much smaller than Amazon) like Kobo did the same. Amazon did not give Roosh a reason for the removal of his books, including his new release (and Amazon bestseller before it was banned and removed) "Game."
It's important to note that many of these books have been selling for years, with thousands of sales and dozens of reviews, and that Roosh was never given a chance to change, edit, or modify his content. He was simply banned.
For years, I've been telling my readers and listeners to start their own business or creative pursuit on their own platform, and not to 'rent' the space of a platform like Facebook, or Amazon, or Google - because they can decide on a whim how they operate, which could crush your business. Now, the threat is greater because it's not just a change in the algorithm of a platform that could tank your business. Instead, it's what this small group of private companies decide is acceptable to view or buy - and you as a consumer or content creator have effectively no recourse.
Roosh was banned from Amazon, and de-platformed across several channels. And that's why I wanted to speak with him - because I believe other creators can learn from his experience, including how to avoid having your business completely wiped out if you get banned, de-platformed, or if these companies simply change their algorithms that you rely on for traffic and sales.
This interview is in no way an endorsement of Roosh's dating advice, books, ideas, etc. It's a conversation about censorship - online censorship in particular - and how you can protect yourself as an independent creator. And even if you think you're the most lukewarm writer, with no ideas that could ever rock the boat - you still want to listen to this interview, because you, in fact, could be next.
And much more...
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Last week, my computer crashed.
Have you ever had one of those "Oh ****!" moments?
Well this was it for me.
I run my entire business from my computer, so this was like finding my office space burned to the ground. To make matters worse, I am in the Philippines and the internet here is basically nonexistent.
Not a good feeling.
While this could have been one of those freak-out moments, I took a breath and evaluated the situation: What exactly was broken and what wasn't?
Sure, I had to do a hard reboot of my computer and I lost all my files...but I had everything backed up on an external hard drive (and a second backup to the cloud), so I was able to get back up and running in a few days. At the same time, I received thousands of hits to my website and hundreds of new subscribers to The Resistance Broadcast. I simultaneously sold several hundred dollars worth of books from my online book store.
Basically, everything I had built these past three years had continued to operate without me.
This is not something I take for granted, but I'm also not lucky - I put a lot of time and energy into making sure everything I build can operate without me. A big part of this was researching the right tools for the job...
That's why today I want to share over a dozen business apps that allow me to not only automate the majority of my business (so it can work even if I'm not there), but apps that allow me to work from anywhere in the world.
(more…)
On Monday, November 11th, I’m launching a new book about collaboration.
I’ll be using a platform known as Publishizer.com to crowdfund the book.
Publishizer is a lot like Kickstarter, but for books.
If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a crowdfunding platform that allows artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and creators of all types to pre-sell their idea before they build it.
Crowdfunding is powerful because it allows creators to put an idea out into the world, and if our happy readers like it, they can choose to support us and help us bring our ideas to life.
The benefit to the creator is obvious: no more spending months or years working on a project just to find out nobody cares.
With crowdfunding, we know immediately if this is a project worth pursuing.
But crowdfunding on a platform like Publishizer doesn’t just benefit the creator. (more…)
