• Starting a podcast network from scratch
• Moving across the country with no plan of income
• Spending money you don’t have on training you think you need

Jeff Ullrich runs the Earwolf Media podcasting network with a story to tell about massive growth. He quit his job in the financial world and moved to California to reunite with his girlfriend. I join Aaron McHugh for the interview.

Over the next six months, Jeff read and thought about what he wanted to do next in his life.

After a period of thinking, he launched a business management company to help comedians. Random, right?

Turns out he didn’t end up liking it much so he started making plans to launch his current podcast network.

This is Jeff’s story about turning dreams into a business and how he did it.

In 2012 Jeff’s network has had over 4.5 million downloads per month with revenues of over $1,000,000. Pretty good for starting about two years ago.

Breakdown of how Earwolf Media makes money:

• 68% advertising
• 6% Donations
• Selling live shows as premiums
• Merchandise
• Licensing fee to another company

“It’s your job to find products for your customers,
not customers for your products.” – Jeff Ullrich

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I found myself taking notes on some of the things these guys are doing to grow their young businesses. If you’d like to join their Board of Director’s group, email me (feedback@coachradio.tv) to see if there’s still a spot open.

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• Finding your writing voice
• Getting your first book published
• What to focus on if you want to become a writer

Jeff Goins is my guest as Aaron McHugh and I interview him about his success as a writer and how he made it. To date, he has over 25,000 members of his tribe and shows no signs of slowing down.

Aaron and I ask Jeff some hard questions about making it as a writer and building a community who will go to bat for you.

Would you put in 10,000 hours knowing people may not take you seriously?

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• Successful funding on Kiskstarter
• Working with a team
• Taking care of backers
• Creating a great Kiskstarter video
• Putting personality behind a brand

Stefan Loble is my guest as Aaron McHugh and I interview him about his success on Kickstarter. Stefan set a goal to raise $13,500 and ended his crowd funding project at $128,722 to launch Bluffworks.

Bluffworks is launching a line of men’s pants that work great on the trail and look good in the office. Stefan touts them as being able to go a week without washing or ironing, perfect for jumping out of a trout stream and in to a client meeting.

A number of great insights are shared in this show, but my favorite is how Stefan believe so heavily in his product that he hired a branding and consulting firm months before putting the project together.

Here’s the video Stefan mentioned where Barbara Corcoran pushed the video to launch his campaign for him.

Stefan mentioned hiring a design firm to help him figure out the identity of his brand.

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• Self-employed, but fed up with the job
• Selling 20,000+ eBooks
• Leveraging book deal to become a speaker

A few years ago Kimanzi Constable hated his job. It made him miserable and he didn’t know how to get out.

Kimanzi was an independent contractor as a delivery person. He says it’s awesome to be self-employed, but it grew to having five guys below him and $300,000 in revenue. He didn’t have a mentor so it was frustrating to figure out taxes and everything that comes with a business.

Kimanzi got fed up in 2011 and decided too take action, so he followed his passion and self-published an ebook. Tales of the Everyday Working Man and Woman has sold over 20,000 copies to date! This year Kimanazi landed a four book deal.

“People have to have a reason to buy your book. You need to connect with them.”
- Kimanzi Constable

In 2012, Kimanzi started speaking, which scares him. He’s pursued the engagements by leveraging his publishing deal.

Connect with Kimanzi Constable on twitter and facebook.

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• Growing a company from $300k to $2.5 million
• Launching from a basement with no team
• When to bring investors onto your team

Zak Normandin started an organic baby food company a few years back and grew to $300,000 in revenue in 2011. Little Duck Organics is now on track for $2,500,000 in sales for 2012.

In 2009, Zak started with an idea and launched the business in 2010. He pursued funding and received an investment in June, 2011. shortly after he hired an amazing team to take the company to where it is now.

Zak’s background is in the Coast Guard. When he got out, he worked for an avionics company while also honing his design skills. He started a design consulting firm which lead him to design food packaging.

Little Duck Organics is sold in 3,000 stores nation wide. They have a personal relationship with every farmer that supplies them.

You’ll be amazed to hear how Zak and his team have grown Little Duck Organics so quickly in a short amount of time.

Connect with Zak Normandin on twitter and facebook.

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• Saving lives by washing hands (and doing business)
• Partnering to create a global business

5,000 children die every day by diseases that can be prevented by washing their hands. Bridget Hilton and Ben Richardson are out to change that with their company, Jack’s Soap.

Their soap is organic certified and PETA approved. When you buy a bar, they also buy a bar in a foreign country (to help the local economy) and donate the soap. They also partner to teach disease prevention instead of just donating soap and walking away.

Ben and Bridget started small just a few months ago with a big idea. They went to 99designs for packaging ideas, then went to work to partner with small retail shops, along with selling on their website.

Ben and Bridget have a goal of donating 10,000 bars during their first trip overseas.

Connect with the team at Jack’s Soap on twitter and facebook.

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• Worldwide business business from North Dakota
• Partnering to make a business stronger
• Content marketing for a web design firm

Garrett Moon and Justin Walsh have partnered together to build a web design firm in…Bismarck, ND.

Garrett is a designer and Justin is a developer so they compliment each other well. They met in the old school world of advertising and decided to start a business.

They began working together on a side project before jumping head first into a business.

Content marketing is a big draw for clients around the world. From their blog to a great podcast, they put out content that people find helpful, which also keeps them coming back from more.

Connect with Garrett Moon and Justin Walsh on twitter and facebook.

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• Building a community that shares
• Quitting a job to build a business that hasn’t made any money
• Creating a list of epic quests

Steve Kamb created a community for nerds, desk jockeys, and weekend warriors to level up their lives.

Out of college, Steve got a corporate job that was unfulfilling. He connected with the 4 Hour Workweek, which blew his mind with possibilities.

Steve didn’t know where to start, so he just wrote. After 20 articles a month for five months, he had 90 subscribers to his blog.

Even though Steve enjoyed his job, he quit after 18 months. Amazingly, he still hadn’t made a single dollar in his business.

As Steve expands on his concepts, check out his list of epic quests.

His income stream now includes eBooks, clothing, and affiliate sales. A big thing he’s expanding on is his speaking business. He’s spoken at Google and has an engagement coming up at Facebook.

Connect with Steve Kamb on twitter and facebook.

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• Turning abandoned shipping containers into medial offices
• Creating a global company while still in college
• Finding people and resources to launch and grow a company

G3Box team members Gabby Palmero, Susanna Young, and Clay Tyler join me to talk about their new business: turning abandoned shipping containers into medical offices.

The team began working together at Arizona State University and the project was kicked off in the Spring of 2012. They’ve had many ups and downs since then, but have surrounded themselves with many people who have helped them launch their ideas into the world.

They’re all still college students and their backgrounds are in engineering, though Billy Walters is getting his minor in business. Susanna is the CEO, Gabby is the COO, and Clay is the technical officer. Billy will handles finances and administration.

They’re started a for-profit LLC and a non-profit. Initially their market will be hospitals in the US, disaster response units, FEMA, the Red Cross, mining, oil and gas companies, and then focusing on improving maternal mortality rates in developing countries.

“Doing it ourselves wasted a lot of time, so we hired local companies who knew what they were doing to build them out.” – Gabby Palermo

Connect with the crew at G3Box on twitter and facebook.

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• A challenge to do impossible things
• How to stop living a normal life
• The importance of professional photos for your website

Joel Runyon is challenging you to do impossible things, and join him as he travels and does the same.

Joel was tired of living the “normal life” so he decided to do something about it. He create the impossible list, then set out to do it.

Joel graduated, couldn’t find a job, then settled for working at UPS. Fast forward to today, he recently quit his job and has no idea what he’s going to do next. Sound fun?

A few links from this show:

• Spyr Media – the web firm that Joel recommends
• Six4Eleven – the team who provided the great photographs you see on Joel’s website – be sure to check out the promo video they put together

Connect with Joel Runyon on twitter and facebook.

Photo copyright joelrunyon

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• Adding humor and yourself to a professional website
• Putting it on the line and hosting a big conference
• Creating a membership site for revenue
• Creating a business while continuing to work full time

Bryan Allain is a blog coach who ads a splash of humor. Not afraid to add a bit of his true self into his work, he does it all from from his home in Lancaster county, PA.

Bryan starting blogging in 2001, when it was much harder to update a site like today’s current blogs. His blog started with personal, family stuff, and has grown into a side business.

I first ran into Bryan when he released a book called 31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo at the end of 2011. Since then, he’s been working on building and launching things like Killer Tribes, a site for his 1-on-1 and group coaching, and My Killer Tribe, a community of people learning how to blog and relying on each other for help.

Getting paralyzed by fear isn’t something Bryan allows to happen. He’s hosting a big conference in March with a big lineup and a great price.

Listen to the interview to hear how he’s doing it all on the side while continuing to work a full time job.

Connect with Bryan Allain on twitter.

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• Idea to funding
• Teams in different cities (and other parts of the world)
• Designing and manufacturing a new clothing line
• Kickstarter success

Kristin Glen (Denver, CO) and Shannon Whitehead (Austin, TX) created Revolution Apparel a few years ago in Sydney, Australia. They wanted to create a business that combined adventure, passion, and purpose. The outcome was a women’s clothing line that’s eco-friendly.

Kristin and Shannon went through a process of designing a new piece of clothing called The Versalette.

Instead of raising capital through venture capitalists or traditional loans, (Kristin and Shannon both hate debt) they decided to raise capital and test the market by using Kickstarter. Their initial goal was to raise $20,000, but they’ve long since surpassed that mark.

Connect with Kristin, Shannon, and Revolution Apparel on Facebook and twitter.

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• From lawyer to world traveling foodie
• Traveling the world on savings and freelancing
• Following through on dreams

Jodi Ettenberg is a former lawyer from Montreal and New York, now traveling and eating her way around the world.

After becoming a lawyer Jodi worked in New York, all the while paying off her college debt and preparing to travel. She started a blog with a friend, then took it on as her own.

Everyone has a dream, but I asked Jodi if she could pinpoint what lead her to follow through with hers. First two years she lived on savings. Now she freelances as a writer to fund her travel. Listen to hear why she doesn’t directly monetize her website.

Connect with Jodi Ettenberg on Facebook and twitter.

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• Traveling the world as a photographer
• Documentaries through photos
• Freelancing and not settling

Suzette Munson created Love 41 as an online retail business with a mission to give 100% of profits to orphans, widows, and street kids in Africa.

After traveling to Rwanda about one year ago, Suzette couldn’t sleep at night thinking about the people she met. It was so overwhelming that she had to do something abou it.

Instead of creating another non-profit, Suzette created a business that would give not 1% or 10%, but a full 100% of profits back to people who could benefit from the money.

Love 41 sources and sells apparel and jewelry from around the world. Suzette spends her day working with designers and creating her own unique lines.

Africa New Life Ministries is their partner in Africa. They’re a great organization that is changing the world in a big way. Suzette’s intention is not to keep it in Africa, but to expand beyond to other parts world that need help.

Connect with Suzette Munson on Facebook and twitter.

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• Traveling the world as a photographer
• Documentaries through photos
• Freelancing and not settling

Charlie Grosso is a world-traveling photographer and has been a commercial photographer for over 10 years. She grew up in Taipei which inspired a current project called Wok the Dog. It’s lead her to 22 countries and she has 19 left before she finishes the project.

Charlie used to be advertising focused and now focuses more on documentaries.

At 18 years old, Charlie got herself into photography and hasn’t settled for doing anything she doesn’t love.

“Freelancing is not the thing for you if you’re not ok with uncertainty.” – Charlie Grosso

To make it as a photographer you need to be fascinated with business, Charlie told me. She’s educated herself on marketing, sales, and growing her business, which has lead to much of her success.

Believe it or not, Charlie travels the world with old-fashioned film. Listen to hear why, and how she gets it all through security without being x-rayed.

Among other things, Charlie’s future hold a few books: Wok the Dog will be a book, another book (Catch me if You Can – travel stories mixed with travel tips); an art gallery with a business partner (just wrapped up Fall season and looking at next); and working with non-profits, NGO’s, and UN for advocacy relationships.

Connect with Charlie Grosso on Facebook and twitter.

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• Creating a podcast network with 2 million page views per month
• Landing promo on Oprah, CNN, and more
• Partnering to grow a business

Mignon Fogarty created the Quick and Dirty Tips network and hosts an online show called Grammar Girl since starting in 2006. It was early in the podcasting world but Mignon still thought she missed her golden window of opportunity.

Mignon started the Grammar Girl podcast because it was her hobby. It was so popular that she expanded the network and brought on other experts to create their own quick and dirty tips shows.

Macmillan became a partner to help provide money, resources, and people to manage the Quick and Dirty Tips network. The monetize through advertising, an add-free app, paid speaking, books, audiobooks, and more.

Mignon’s show hosts script every show. I asked her how they do it and manage to still sound normal.

You may have seen Mignon on on Oprah, CNN, and more, all based around the topic of grammar. That’s turned into 2,000,000 page views per month across the network and 1,000,000 million downloads of Grammar Girl every month. Again, all based on grammar.

If you’re stuck giving your idea legs, this show will help motivate you to take some action.

Connect with Mignon Fogarty on Facebook and twitter.

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• Walking 3,400 miles across America
• Following a dream
• Name your own price for Nate’s book

Nate Damm seems like a normal guy, until you learn he just walked 3,400 miles across the United States. The Atlantic to the Pacific. Delaware to California.

Why?  Well, Nate wanted to see America and do it in a slow way. He also wanted to inspire people to pursue big dreams of their own.

Before the trip, Nate had a girlfriend, a job, pets, and an apartment. Listen to hear how how he planned his trip and just went for it.

Nate went through three pairs of shoes in his seven and a half month walk and met some interesting folks along the way. The biggest frustration in his walk may have come after returning home to Maine. He was pulled over by police for walking in his own neighborhood.

Nate plans to write a book about his travels. He won’t be naming a price, but instead, allow buyers to name their own.

Connect with Nate Damm on Facebook and twitter.

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• Selling wool clothing in the summer
• Overcoming marketing challenges
• Getting out of the commodity market

John Fernsell is founder of Ibex Outdoor Clothing, a company he launched with a co-founder in 1997 in White River, Vermont. Ibex makes natural, wool clothing for year-round use. I’ve been a fan for the past decade and routinely wear their clothes in harsh mountain environments around the world.

John worked as a stock broker for 12 years before getting serious about his own thing. He felt more comfortable in wool in the 70′s even though it was more scratchy.

Wool is still known to be scratchy and uncomfortable, so I asked John how Ibex overcomes those marketing challenges. They also do a great job competing with high-tech man-made polyesters.

At $100 for a light-weight hooded sweater, Ibex clothing certainly isn’t a commodity. I asked John what story he’s telling through Ibex in order to build an engaged community.

“We make the best product we can make for the price.” – John Fernsell

Connect with John Fernsell and Ibex on Facebook and twitter.

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• One picture every day of America’s mountain
• A project so good people spread it without his help
• Marketing a five pound book which retails for $99
• Working with traditional media

The Pikes Peak Guy stops by my studio for an entertaining and very informative behind-the-scenes look at a project that started with taking hundreds of pictures every day of America’s mountain: Pikes Peak.

His real name is Shaun, but he explains why he didn’t bring his real name into the project. He knew that, if the project was a good one, it would stand on its own. People would spread the word based on the merit of what he was doing and not because of who he is.

You’ll find the Pikes Peak guy to be just like you and I. In his words, he’s “an ordinary guy trying to do something extraordinary.”

Shaun works for a company but is a business guy by heart. He has the flexibility to do projects like this on the side, but you’ll come to find out, he’s really working two full time jobs.

At the end of the project, The Pikes Peak Guy fans were begging him to put together a book. More like a souvenir than a book, Shaun did nearly all the work on the book himself and even had it self-published.

His initial order of 1,000 books arrived, and at five pounds per book, was no easy task to unload. Amazon sold out of the book on the first day of sales and they’ve been moving fast every since then.

In this interview you’ll hear how he got media outlets to pick up on the story and even follow him along. Shaun explains why he didn’t watermark his photos and allowed many outlets to run the photos for free.

“Go out there and do something extraordinary and people will pay attention to you.”
- The Pikes Peak Guy

Connect with The Pikes Peak Guy on Facebook and twitter.

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• Gang member to multimillionaire entrepreneur
• How to become CEO when you start from the bottom (and do it by the time you’re 32)
• How to find something to invest over 10,000 in (you have to love it)

Ryan Blair went from gang member to multimillionaire entrepreneur and is currently the CEO of ViSalus Sciences. At twenty-one years old he established his first company and has since created and invested in multiple start-ups.

In just over a year, Ryan took ViSalus from $600,000 to $10 million per month. Just two years after doing $600,000 per month, the company is now doing $40 million per month!

You have a love for entrepreneurship. Is that why you wrote Nothing to Lose? How do you keep going when things don’t go well?

Someone sent me a tweet and said combing what you love to do, what you’re good at, and what the world needs, is impossible. Ryan and I discussed how to find that one thing if you truly set your mind on it long enough.

“You are who your network is.” – Ryan Blair

Oh, if you’re lost on twitter, I ask Ryan how he’s able to keep up with nearly 13,000 people there. Great tips

We’re giving away five copies of Nothing to Lose. Through the end of October, leave a comment here and tell me why you’d like a copy. I’ll randomly pick five winners and announce the results on November 1.

Connect with Ryan Blair on Facebook and twitter.

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• Working with a team in other parts of the world
• Making business more human
• A system for generating ideas

Rob Hatch has been working with humans for over 20 years. He’s the COO of Human Business works which serves businesses around the world. It’s awfully easy to become lonely when you’re running your own business, especially if you don’t have employees. Rob’s team is helping combat that feeling.

Ten years ago, Rob was building childcare centers in fitness clubs when he reconnected with a childhood friend, Chris Brogan. Chris persuaded Rob to join his team and help run a few of his companies.

Kitchen Table Companies is an online small business advisory board.

501 Mission Place is where nonprofits can get together and help each other.

Rob and his team come up with ideas through reading books and observing other people’s ideas. He turned the tables on me and asked about my process for generating and filtering ideas. You’ll love the last part of this show and I can see how he and the people around him have become so successful.

Connect with Rob Hatch on twitter.

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• $150 guitar straps in a $30 world
• Learning the hard way
• Paying for help when no money is coming in

Brian Griffith got an idea about three years ago to design and manufacture instrument straps and gear bags. It took him nine months to get his ideas off the ground and launch his business.

While the economy is suffering and people are out of work, Brian is selling $150+ guitar straps in a world where the average strap sells for just $20 – $30. You need to listen to Brian’s insight on how he’s making this work.

Brian is a former musician with a bachelor’s degree in film. He also studied design and got a job in the advertising world.

Content is king, so they say, so Brian is in the beginning stages of creating film with musicians and other artists. It’s a marketing strategy that has Brian telling stories and highlighting musicians, without actually talking about or selling he gear.

“You’re going to learn one way or the other, and it’s usually going to be the hard way.” – Brian Griffith

I asked Brian what he did during the nine months it took to get his business off the ground. He didn’t have money coming in, but he took a chance and hired people to help him build his business.

Brian’s a creative guy with a perfectionist problem (I suffer from the same one) and we discussed how to let go and give work to other people.

Here’s an example of Brian’s work. What guitar player wouldn’t want one of these?

Connect with Brian Griffith on Facebook and twitter.

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• Accidental success
• Message vs. design to capture readers
• Becoming a magazine columnist
• How to generate revenue from a blog

J.D. Roth is an accidental personal finance expert, and a successful one at that. In the fall of 2004, J.D. and his wife had $35,000 in consumer debt. He’d been blogging personally since 1997 and, since he had an interest in comic books, thought of creating a website around them; then he realized he couldn’t compete with the bigger websites.

J.D. started Get Rich Slowly in April, 2006 and was named best blog of 2011 by Time magazine and most inspiring money blog byMoney magazine. The website currently gets over 1,000,000 visits per day with nearly 100,000 subscribers.

J.D. started on this path somewhat by accident. I asked him how he competes with big website and other financial bloggers. He told me, ”We’re all on the same team.”

J.D.’s thoughts on how to monetize a blog:

• Advertising (google adsense, display ads)
• Affiliate programs (products related to your category)
• Products
• Services

I asked J.D. to share his story of becoming Entrepreneur Magazine’s personal finance column. You’ll lear a lot from his answer.

J.D. referred often to his friend Chris Guillebeau, who is also an influential blogger in his own right.

Curious, I asked J.D. to share his tips for new bloggers. I think you’ll love them.

Connect with J.D. Roth on twitter.

Photo by J.D. Roth

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• Moving around the world on a whim
• Stepping up, with no experience
• Doing what’s right, regardless of money
• Speaking to elementary and middle school students

Matt Langdon is an Australian living in Michigan and constructing heroes. He began a computer science degree in Australia and detested it.

Matt stumbled on an article about a guy who just came back from a summer camp in America and he thought it sounded fun. During the first summer, Matt was a general counselor and did many things, none of which he had experience with; including kids.

Matt created the Hero Construction Company to help turn kids into heroes; real heroes, not the kind you see in the movies with capes. Real people who step up

“The opposite of a hero isn’t a villain; it’s a bystander.” – Matt Langdon

Matt specializes in working with grades four through eight and, as you can tell from the interview, is obviously passionate about what he does. He doesn’t do assemblies because it’s too easy for kids to zone out, rather, he impacts one classroom at a time.

Matt also discussed some exciting developments in his business along the way and some products he’s desgined to help kids and schools who are tight budgets and may not be able to bring him in to speak.

Connect with Matt Langdon on twitter and Facebook and thank him for the work he’s doing to impact the world.

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• Changing fields of study midstream
• Finding partners to launch businesses
• Self-learning and launching a business

Stephen Denton is a local web designer and has become a great friend. He has a great story about studying music, then seminary, and finally transitioning into web design.

Stephen works for Moolala, a daily deals website. He partners with another designer to design websites for online tee times for private clubs. To say he has his hands in many things is an understatement.

Stephen’s dad encouraged him to study math but he wanted to do music. Music won out, but he didn’t stick with it for long. He became interested in web design and taught himself how to do it though online tutorials; a big undertaking since this was the days before google.

Stephen started out charging $25 / hour in his web business and has come a long way since.

It takes a while to get connected with like-minded people. Stephen has been in web design for 10 years. He only started making really good connections in the past 2-3 years.

You’ll hear his trick for finding great freelance work in Craigslist.

Connect with Stephen Denton on twitter.

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• Become a full-time blogger
• Where to find partners for projects
• Giving away great stuff is good for business
• Schedules vs. boundaries

John Saddington started blogging in 2001 and, a decade later, has since turned pro. By pro, I mean that he gets paid to blog. Pretty cool, huh?

John’s coming up on his one-year anniversary of his semi-personal website project, TentBlogger. This is the guy you want to talk to if you want to learn how to be successful as a blogger.

When I asked John what sets him a part from other bloggers, those who fall by the wayside, he told me those who give away as much as they can for free, seem to do very well.

 “The most valuable things you have in front of you are the problems you’ve already solved.” – John Saddington

One of the areas John makes his money is in building out wonderfully designed WordPress themes. John’s team puts great care into very few projects so they’re the best they can be. Coach Radio runs on his Standard theme (affiliate link) and I’ve been in love with it for nearly a full year; so much so that I’ve installed it on two more websites with more in the works.

“I want to make ever encounter with my blog a premium one, regardless of whether or not it’s paid.” – John Saddington

John makes some first time announcements in this show, along with explaining this income streams:

• 8bit.io is a holding organization for WordPress themes
• Venture backed startup for Ruby on Rails (22 minutes)
• Tentblogger – passion-based projects

John and I talked about how to find the right people for projects.

“The online space isn’t just a hotbed for customers, it’s also a hotbed for partners.” – John Saddington

John isn’t a schedule guy, but he is a boundaries guy. Oh, and check out his thoughts on dogfooding. You’ll be glad you did.

Connect with John Saddington on Facebook and twitter.

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• Study one thing, do another
• Standing out in a crowded market
• Spend $0 on marketing
• Work with clients around the world

Charlie Pabst is a designer in Seattle, Washington and is the creative genius behind the reworked Six Figure Coaching Model.

One look at the Charfish Design about page reveals how unique Charlie is within a very crowded design market.

Charlie was stuck in engineering and architecture after college. To get starting in art (web design, logos, and eBooks), he created a portfolio of fake clients and posted it online.

Charlie’s been drawing since he could hold a pencil but has never thought he’s been great at it. We talked about how he stays creative and delivers what his clients want without using cookie-cutter templates.

In a crowded design market, Charlie has worked with clients around the world. I asked him why people choose him instead of outsourcing overseas.

100% of Charfish Design work comes from referrals. Here’s a snapshot of client’s who have hired Charlie’s firm.

Connect with Charlie Pabst on Facebook and twitter.

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• Switching business focus from raw foods to tech
• Getting featured by prominent people
• Marketing to clients in other countries
• Multiple streams of income

Nathalie Lussier calls herself an online business triple threat. She has a bachelor’s degree in programming and has been designing websites since 12 years old.

Nathalie started the Raw Foods Witch in February 2009 and later in 2011, began showing people the tech side of her business. It didn’t take long for Nathalie to take the hint and offer her tech skills as a revenue stream.

For anyone who has ever been nervous or horrified at themselves on video, Nathalie shares her best tips and techniques to make your debut successful.

I asked Nathalie how being featured in one of Chris Guillebeau’s products has boosted her business and how other people can do the same. She quoted Naomi Dumford as saying, “If you only have $100 to market your business, you should spend it on attending events and meeting people.”

Nathalie’s clients are around the world in Canada and the U.S., along with Australia, Italy and more. I asked her how she’s marketing and getting the word out to reach them.

We wrapped up the interview talking about multiple streams of income. Nathalie shared a few streams, such as private clients, web design, launch strategies, webinars, products, and many more.

Connect with Nathalie Lussier on Facebook and twitter.

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• Behind the scenes of a book tour
• Selling a business
• Working from home and setting boundaries
• The unexplored market of being a dad

C.C. Chapman has worked with some of the world’s most well known brands, including American Eagle Outfitters, Coca-Cola, HBO and Warner Bros. His speciality is marketing and is sought after world wide as a consultant and speaker.

C.C. founded a marketing agency in 2007 and grew it rapidly until it was acquired only two years later. Now he’s a speaker, author, consultant, photographer and work-at-home dad.

In 2010, C.C. wrote Content Rules with Ann Handley. He’s been creating content since he was a kid so it came naturally to me. He shares a few tips from the book to help anyone market their business.

C.C. is very selective in the clients he works with now and spends a lot of time traveling and speaking. Lately he’s been getting opportunities to speak around the world.

We talked about the emerging market of dads and his Digital Dads website. He hopes to one day monetize it and ultimately to influence brands. Very few are paying attention to the growing market of dads who are very involved in running a household.

C.C. and I spent time talking about encouraging kids in their dreams, especially when it comes to entrepreneurship. Check out his daughter’s video blog; she’s going strong at it.

Connect with C.C. Chapman on Facebook and twitter.

Photo credit C.C. Chapman

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• Starting a blog even when you’re not sure what one is
• Growing it to 1 million page views per month three months later
• Operating a world-wide business from the Alaskan Interior
• How to become influential when no one knows you

Ana White is a contributor to HGTV.com, has been interviewed on NPR, and speaks at national blogging conferences. Ana is also regularly featured on media sites including Apartment Therapy.

Ana’s story began a few years ago when she and her husband were expecting a baby. With no money for a house she started sketching plans and began building with her husband whom she calls RAM (Real Alaskan Man).

With a mattress on the floor she wondered how she could make a farmhouse bed cheaply and easily. With $80 and some recycled lumbar, she made the bed they still sleep on to this day.

Ana found herself on a friend’s blog in October, 2009. Not sure what a blog even was at the time she clicked a button that said, “Get Your Own Free Blog.” Reaching hundreds of thousands of homemakers each month (most of whom are women), Ana has turned her online influence into income.

I asked Ana if she ever imagined she’d have the following she has now. She shared great tips on starting and growing an online community.

“Content is King, but community is Family.” – Ana White

Ana says to always start with what you’re passionate about. That’s not a new message around here but I enjoy seeing it come up frequently from new guests.

With 500,000 unique visitors each month and 2 – 3 million impressions, it hasn’t been difficult to monetize through advertising. Ana doesn’t charge anything for her plans and sees free as the way of the internet.

Ana received a cease and desist letter from Pottery Barn; apparently they didn’t want to be associated with her even though they’re well known for ripping off designs from popular bloggers. Ironic?

Connect with Ana on Facebook and twitter.

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• Having the guts to leave a secure job
• What to do when only half of you shows up at your job
• 5 years traveling the world
• Handling the fear of the unknown

Dan and Audrey left secure jobs and a comfortable lifestyle in 2006 to travel and they haven’t stopped. They were living in Prague, Czech Republic at the time and they began taking photography classes while there.

“I felt like only half of me was going to work everyday.” – Dan Noll

Financially, they’ve been able to make traveling work for a number of reasons. They take public transportation, sleep in low-cost places, eat street food and do things many tourists don’t do.

Before they took off they saved money so they didn’t have to worry as much. Right off the bat they had a large freelance opportunity fall into their laps. It’s harder to find work like that nowadays, but they still do a lot of freelance writing and photography.

Dan says to split your life into segments. Continue going to work but give yourself time everyday to develop things you’re truly interested in. An hour at least is required.

Starting out wasn’t easy and they say handing in their two week notices was one of the hardest things they’ve ever done.

About 50% of their business comes from them reaching out and the other 50% comes from people finding and contact them. They’re restructuring their website now to provide more content and answer questions people are asking.

Audrey says you need to get out there and let people know you exist and that you offer quality content. Figure out what differentiates you and market it.

Their favorite place so far:

• Republic of Georgia (They have a saying that visitors are a gift from God and they mean it.)
• Nepal
• Experiences more than countries

Dan and Audrey just made a long term commitment, meaning they signed a three month lease on a place in Berlin. They need the downtime to recoup and work on projects like their website.

Audrey sent a few resources I know you’ll find useful.

1) Story of the humbling feast in Zugdidi, Georgia. The story doesn’t end there. About a year after our visit, Russia invades Georgia and Russian tanks roll into Zugdidi. We hear on NPR that Zugdidi has been evacuated and we immediately start thinking of the women in this market (especially Lela, the organizer). We do a quick post about this and on how news becomes more personal when you’ve been to a place. A young Georgian woman from Zugdidi finds our post from googling her home town and lets us know that she’s Lela’s neighbor and that Lela did evacuate but is back at the market again. She passed on our regards and photos to Lela – another example of the world becoming smaller and more human through experiences like this.

2) Personal Growth through Travel Series with special call out to The Joy of Living Deliberately\

3) As a person who experiences mountains and trekking, you might enjoy this Kilimanjaro Life Lessons post.

Connect with Dan and Audrey on twitter and facebook.

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• Launching a business on $4,000
• Not making any money until seven months in
• Growing a following as an unknown

Michael Stelzner launched Social Media Examiner with $4,000. Within two weeks of its launch, Social Media Examiner joined the ranks of Technorati’s Top 100 Small Business Blogs and remains in the Top 10. Michael has since turned that $4,000 investment into $3 million.

Michael recently wrote Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition and I did a thorough review.

Social Media Examiner  launched October, 2009 but didn’t make a single dollar until the first event in May, 2010. The last even had over 3,000 attendees which quickly adds up when charging between $300 and $600 per person.

Michael says, “You have to build a loyal audience in order to build a successful business.”

Today they send out over 90,000 emails every day with a stellar open rate of 25-30%.

Figure out how to create shareable content that will spread.” – Michael Stelzner

I asked Michael where he spent $4,000 as he launched his business and if he’d do anything different the second time around. His answer? No.

Prepare to be inspired during this interview. I certainly was.

Connect with Michael on twitter and facebook.

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• Living life on your terms instead of other’s
• Working vacations
• Traveling with kids
• Living on $2,000 per month

Josh Gordon joins me from polar bear country in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. They live close to Toronto, Canada but are on a working vacation right now. Piper is two and Vienna is five months old and they’re living life on their own terms.

The Gordon’s decided they wanted to raise their kids near family and they gave up a $60,000 salary in the process. Josh and his wife Sarah became physically sick with where they were in life. Had they made the right decision to move back?

Josh and Sarah are experiencing great things on only $2,092 per month. Think they’re crazy? They don’t care.

Josh is discovering that he’s really passionate about a few different things:

• Helping people (coach or how-to’s)
• Working families who have kids (you don’t have to live a template life)

“Security is a myth. Trust in yourself and not an employer.” – Josh Gordon

Connect with Josh on twitter and facebook.

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• Getting products into local and regional stores
• Launching new products
• How to grow a blog

Walter Harrill and his wife, Wendy, were lab techs before farming caught their eye. I asked Walter if he felt scared in making a transition into a business where farmers seem to be losing their farms left and right. He told me he was terrified!

The Harrill’s are  running a farm which their great grandparents started in the late 1700s. It used to be a subsistence farm where the family grew their own food; that’s just the way things worked back then.

It took them four to five years to transition from lab techs in hospitals to become full time farmers. Wendy quickly figured out hospital work wasn’t the best fit for them and made sure to inform Walter.

A few things worked in their favor during that transition, the biggest being they had full time jobs which allowed them to build slowly on the side.

Walter told me many of his ideas flop. In fact, his plans for the future involved finding more ideas that won’t pan out. If you don’t take risks you can’t reap the rewards. I asked him how they keep going when so many ideas flop. Walter told me a good sense of humor is necessary and they never bet the farm on any one idea.

Streams of income:

• Jams (85% of their business)
• Rabbit meat
• Ice cream
• Fruit Leathers

Walter’s advice to break into local stores: “Start small where you can talk to the owner. Get an introduction from someone you know. You an cold call, but it’s not as effective. Owner’s of stores are open and willing to talk, but get to know their business first.”

When you buy jam from Walter, you’re buying a story. He’s not competing with Smuckers and has no idea how much their jelly is priced.

Future: making beer with jams. Partnering with other local artisans to grow each other’s businesses.

You have much to learn from Walter’s story so make sure you don’t pass it by. This is one I’ll be listening to again to grab some ideas for myself.

Connect with Walter on facebook.

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• A therapist with 8,000 online subscribers
• Multiple streams of income
• How to grow a blog

Corey Allan is a marriage and family therapist who is building his business in a non-traditional way. He joins me from Dallas, Texas and you’ll love his story.

Corey started writing articles for a newspaper and also started posting his articles online. He found it much more fun to interact with people in near real-time and he hasn’t looked back.

Corey’s business model:

• Traditional counseling
• Marital classes
• Ebooks

Corey wanted to grow a following online in order to get a book deal but then changed his mind. I don’t think having more than 8,000 subscribers has hurt him.

Guest posting has allowed Corey to spread the word and market his blog. He shares some great tips on how to land big guest posts.

Simple Marriage had about 4,000 subscribers before Corey created his first product. He read that he should have more before selling on his site but he realized if he didn’t do it then, he never would.

“Being short, to the point and honest is the best way to go.” – Corey Allan

Plans for the future: speaking, products, growing the blog a bit, but little desire to be a huge blog.

Connect with Corey on twitter.

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• Turning barefoot running into a business
• Competing with large companies from a garage
• Manufacturing in the U.S.

Ted McDonald turned a passion for running barefoot into a business. Crazy, right? This interview will reaffirm that, if you’re passionate and fired up enough, you can turn any idea into income.

Ted explains how normal running shoes cause injury to many parts of the body, including feet, knees, back and neck. Striking heels first is not how we were designed to run.

So Ted took off his shoes and forever became known as Barefoot Ted.

Ted was an early adopter of Vibram’s Five Fingers. Those are the crazy shoes you may have seen that look like socks. Over the years he learned how to make sandals and continues to perfect them through his company, Luna Sandals.

His business is about telling stories. See why I had him on? There’s no way he could compete in the crowded shoe industry without a story.

At one point Ted was a one-man show, creating sandals in a garage. He got to the point of being so busy, he was hesitant to even tell other people about it. During that time he had (and still does) other streams of income like coaching. It wouldn’t have been realistic to count on a new business for 100% of his income.

Ted wants to debunk the myth that companies need to go overseas for manufacturing. Ted’s team creates everything in a warehouse (he calls it a glorified garage) in Seattle, WA. He also wants Luna to be a world-wide brand so he’s been traveling the world telling the story.

“You’ve got to be ready for the opportunity when it comes.” – Barefoot Ted

Connect with Dan on facebook.

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• Dan Andrews joins me from Bali, Indonesia to talk lifestyle independence
• Why you should like your job before you work for yourself
• The business of cat furniture
• The Tropical MBA

Dan Andrews used to work the 9 to 5 and had a two hour commute. He used to load his iPod with podcasts and fill his mind with helpful things. Internet Business Mastery was one of the big ones he used to listen to, and he ended up in a mastermind group around the same time.

Dan was a project manager and assistant to an entrepreneur in San Diego before branching out on his own. His former boss became an investor in his current company. Most people today hate their job and can’t wait to tell their boss to shove it, but Dan explains why this thinking could be all wrong.

More important than making money to Dan, is traveling. He told me he could be making more money than he is, but it’s not what’s driving him.

Now, Dan’s cat furniture company is making $7,000 – $8,000 per month. Dan thought it’d be much more by now, but he’s doing well and it’s continuing to grow. He and his partner started a business that was in his wheelhouse. They didn’t jump into affiliate marketing or anything else they had no clue about right off the bat.

Dan started The Tropical MBA program to help other people travel the world and learn the skills they need to create their own lifestyle businesses.

First step: find a job you love and learn from it.

“Following scripts is what employees do.” – Dan Andrews

Dan’s advice to overcoming cultural objections is not to let negative people, or even some people close to you, in on your plans. Find someone ahead of you and emulate them.

Connect with Dan on Twitter and facebook.

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• Creating a business on the side
• The best frequency for blogging
• Not giving up after the initial launch
• Overcoming the look of a family blog

Joshua Becker lives in Essex, VT with his wife and two kids. They decided to become rational minimilists in 2008 and eventually created a side business around it. He first launched his website as a personal place to talk about family life as he worked as a full time pastor.

Joshua had a slow start in blogging, doing it just for his family who lived in the midwest while they lived in Vermont. Along the way he had the realization that, if he were going to grow his blog, he should be writing for other people rather than himself. He’s been blogging for three years now, but 97% of his subscribers have come in the past 16 months.

Along with the way Joshua has written two successul ebooks (affiliate link) on minimilism: Simplify and Inside-Out Simplicity. He been asked to talk about the minimilists lifestyle and has grown a successful side income stream from it.

I asked Joshua about his blogging frequency over the years and how he’s grown to over 9,000 subscribers. When things were taking a lot of time with very small results, you’ll hear how he didn’t give up.

Networking, guest posting and interviewing have all allowed Joshua to grow his blog. If you’re trying to do it on your own, you won’t be very successful. In a crowded niche, I asked him how he stands out. You’ll like what he has to say.

“We ought to compete less and encourage more.” – Joshua Becker

Connect with Joshua on Twitter and facebook.

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• Creating a business on the side
• Blogging full time
• Matt’s multiple sources of income

Matt Jabs lives in Lansing, MI and is a successful personal finance blogger. He started his blog on January 1, 2009 while working 40 hours a week as an IT manager.

Matt and his wife, Betsy, were motivated to get out of debt and started a website as a personal journal to track their progress.

Matt became a full time blogger in November, 2009 after facing a layoff.

“Making the emotional commitment to go full time in a business is hard, but until you do, you won’t be successful.” – Matt Jabs

People are finding Matt’s site through google searches, guest posts, facebook, twitter, and everything else. No stone is left unturned because Matt says it’s his job.

“The man who does things makes mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all; doing nothing.” – Benjamin Franklin

Matt’s sources of income:

• affiliate marketing
• amazon affiliate
• advertising (working with media companies)
• google adsense
• writing eBooks soon
• perhaps videos soon as well

Connect with Matt on Twitter and Facebook.

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• Kevin Gainey launches ideas as a stay-at-home dad
• How to launch when you’re unsure of success
• Finding your best ideas

Kevin Gainey joins me to talk about the business of being a stay-at-home dad. He’s been at home raising his two kids for the past few years while also working on self-employment ideas.

“Quit finding ways to fix how I’m made and find ways to use them instead.” - Kevin Gainey

Kevin’s first foray back into business was creating Vekkin Solutions to fulfill technology needs.

He created the Sane Dad Podcast as an outlet for the resources and questions he had as a stay-at-home dad.

Christine and I went on a cruise with Kevin and his wife Nikki. Out of that week came Constant Change Coaching, a place where he could work with people one-on-one.

Connect with Kevin on Twitter and Facebook.

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• Jason Jaggard created an idea that spread like wildfire
• What do you want to do that you’re afraid of?
• Working with students, universities, businesses and churches

Jason Jaggard is the creator of  Sparks, a 5-week social experience that enhances initiative and creativity for friends, non-profits, churches, schools and businesses. Jason explains the concept behind Sparks, but it starts with the question, “What is one risk I can take this week to make myself a better person or make the world a better place?”.

Along with a great team, Jason has worked around the world with students, universities, businesses and churches.

Sparks came about from Jason’s work with Mosaic, a global NGO.

“You don’t discover your passions by listening to someone else talk about discovering your passions.” – Jason Jaggard

As a result of Sparks, people have started non-profits, rekindled relationships and begun volunteering for the first time. It’s about creating a platform to become a certain kind of person.

Jason found and hired coaches and experts to help him build Sparks into a business. He says he didn’t do well in college, so having experts to help guide him was a huge part of his success.

Connect with Jason on Twitter and Facebook.

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• Michael Juiliano is rockin’ a hot dog stand in Little Rock, AR
• A list of jobs: DJ Mickey J, hotel hospitality, hot dog stand owner
• Becoming an entrepreneur and dealing with risk
• Wicked varieties of hot dogs

Michael Juiliano, or Hot Dog Mike as he’s called, never finished college. He studied advertising for a while, then decided to chase his dreams.

He’s been through New York, New Jersey, and Maryland as DJ Mickey J. When he realized he was one of the oldest DJs he decided to make a change. Mike sold his equipment, packed his car, and moved to Asheville, NC where he got his start in hotel hospitality. His work in Asheville culminated with the opening of the Biltmore Inn on the grounds of the Biltmore Estate.

Mike left the hotel industry after 9/11 and opened his hot dog cart, traveling the streets of Little Rock, Arkansas.

I asked Mike how he got the entrepreneurial bug. He told me he’s always had it and that he doesn’t mind risk. Things have always worked out for him, even the weird flavors like the THANKSdog. That was a special salute to Thanksgiving, complete with a turkey dog, cranberry relish and stuffing, on a sourdough bun.

Mike has found incredible success through social media, especially on sites like twitter and facebook. Most of his social media traffic is local to Little Rock.

Throughout the interview, Mike stressed his love for people. Not just a another hot dog vendor, Mike gives back in a big way. From helping in the disaster relief of the Southern storms in the spring of 2011, to charity events every month, it’s never been only about selling hot dogs.

Connect with mike on facebook and twitter.

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• Rob Orracle
• Transition from sales to web design
• Moving for a job and then leaving
• Transitioning from employee to contractor

Rob Orr is a designer and much more. He manages many of my websites and has a great story about working for himself. Rob lives in Tallahassee, FL with his family and has an interesting story about how he ended up there.

OrracleMedia started as a design company and Rob moved more heavily into web as he listened to his customers. Rob started his business on the side around 2006, just as a place to help people.

Rob worked for the department of corrections, then an ecommerce company, before accepting a job and a move to Orlando, FL.

Rob’s wife loved her job in Tallahassee and it was tough to move to Orlando. They really wanted to move back to Tallahassee but couldn’t figure out how to get back with Rob’s new job. Quickly, Rob became self-employed.

Staying up to date on new technologies.

Finding new clients happens frequently through social media. It’s much more about attracting people than doing outbound advertising.

Rob’s newest project is Mywebsiteworkshop.com. He blogs and podcasts regularly there, which is another great way to answer questions and find clients.

Connect with Rob on twitter @roborracle and facebook.

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• Sean Ogle hated working for someone else so he quit
• Traveling the world and still getting paid
• The #1 key to successful self-employment
• Being location independent with a business
• Creating a bucket list

Sean Ogle graduated college and spent a little over two years crunching numbers as an analyst for an investment firm. It was there he realized he didn’t want to spend his entire life chained to a desk working for someone else. He left his job in October, 2009 and hasn’t looked back.

Sean has his hands in a number of things. He manages a large affiliate program, creates products, and manages a team of developers and designers in the Philippines.

A trip to Brazil in February, 2009 opened Sean’s eyes to the freedom he wanted to have in his life.

Sean stumbled on Chris Guillebeau and connected with him in Portland. Chris then featured him in his book The Art of Non-conformity.

Sean submitted a remote working agreement to his boss and was denied. So he did what any person would do; he quit his job, sold his car and moved to Thailand.

Sean had two goals when he started his blog: to refine his ideas and figure out what he wants to do, and for accountability. Making money was secondary. He grew his blog by building relationships. He’s also had some successful guest posts at places like Get Rich Slowly.

If you want to create any info product, Sean says to start by building a blog. “One of the best things you can do to change your life is to start a blog.” – Sean Ogle

Sean’s revenue doesn’t come from a single place. He didn’t want to lose it for reasons beyond his control. He just released a photography ebook to add to his current online products and says that 1,000 subscribers is the perfect time to launch your first product.

Sean created a bucket list and is held accountable by his community. Accountability from other people is one thing that’s really kept him going and successful. I do that in my business through the Free Agent Academy.

Connect with Sean on twitter: @seanogle.

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• Jamie Wright calls her blog The Very Worst Missionary
• How a missionary gets away with swearing
• How to be yourself and not care what people think

Jamie Wright gave her blog the title of The Very Worst Missionary. She lived a happy life with her husband and three kids in Sacramento, CA before becoming a missionary.

I brought Jamie on the show because of how she connects with people through her blog. You can tell from her writing that she doesn’t much care what other people think about how she chooses to live life. She makes the best decisions and never apologizes for them.

A few of her recent blog titles:

• Missionaries probably shouldn’t be jealous of strippers. But sometimes they are.
• Does this verse make me look fat?
• Pimpin’ ain’t easy.

Jamie shares some great advice about how to get people to connect with you. The right people. If you’re worried about offending people, who cares. They’re not going to be your friends and wouldn’t hire you anyway.

The realness of Jamie shines through. We talked about relating to people when their backgrounds are so varied. From people who live in a third world country to their financial backers, Jamie relates to them all.

Jamie told me they felt very comfortable pursuing missionary work because they never thought it would happen. One step lead to another another and before they knew it there were living in Costa Rica.

They’ve lost one financial supporter because of the blog. Jamie felt horrible about it and talks about how she got over it.

I rounded out the call by asking her why she stopped homeschooling even though it seems like the “Christian” thing to do.

Connect with Jamie: @jamiethevwm.

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• Chuck Bowen – CEO of Saddleback Leather
• Creating a business from scratch with no experience
• Starting a radio show
• How he manages so many projects

Chuck is the CEO of Saddleback Leather. He’s also a leader at the Free Agent Academy, a partner in True Blue Production, partner in Anthology Gear Wear, partner in Scott Stearman productions, and a world class coach. Chuck is also in the middle of launching a new venture to coach business owners called B!G.

You’ll learn why Chuck became self-employed in 2002 and how and why he branched out into so many things. He was leading and growing companies around the world but got fed up pretty quickly with the travel and time spent away from his family.

Chuck started a business as a Financial Coach because it’s what he knew. He wanted to work with businesses, but he only knew large businesses and didn’t feel confident to help small businesses yet.

We shared some great advice for starting a traditional radio show with no experience. Chuck was actually making money hosting a radio show, which also grew his business.

“You need to have a service worth selling, a product they’re interested in, keep them interested in it, and then be able to sell them.” – Chuck Bowen

Chuck shares great ideas for managing multiple projects by building alliances of people who do excellent work in other areas.

Chuck’s best advice for starting a business today. Follow a structure like we have in place at the Free Agent Academy. Figure out what you’re best at and begin there. Don’t try to do everything or anything that doesn’t fit you.

Connect with Chuck on twitter: @chuckbowen.

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• Mary DeMuth, Texas
• How she became a speaker and writer
• Sticking with over when you don’t find success
• Overnight success
• Tips for new writers

Mary DeMuth is the author of 13 books. She got her start in the publishing world writing about parenting. Mary majored in English and became a teacher where she had a short stint teaching eighth graders.

Mary firmly believe in Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule to master a craft. She kept at it for a long time even while it wasn’t profitable or successful for her.

Along the way Mary took a published author out to lunch to find out the secrets of the publishing world. The author wouldn’t answer her questions, though and Mary vowed never to be that way to upcoming writers. She launched The Writing Spa to help new writers become successful, but still believes in following the 10,000 hour rule.

Writing both fiction and non-fiction, Mary prefer the stories that come our of her fiction writing. We talk about crafting personal, inspiring stories about our lives and then living them.

“Be persistent and create awesome products.” – Mary DeMuth

40% of Mary’s income is from online sales. That’s a powerful number that stems from the amount of time she spends online connecting with people.

“The best way to sell books to get to know people.” - Mary DeMuth

Connect with Mary on twitter and facebook.

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• Liz Strauss creates offline events
• Getting paid to write on a blog
• How to take relationships offline and why
• How to get big sponsors for an event

Liz Strauss wrote her first blog post in 2005. She has over 43,000 comments on successful-blog.com. She got started blogging as research for a company then decided it’d be a good idea to continue writing daily thoughts. It was somewhat by accident for her.

Liz grew a blog with a large influence and then launched things like SOBCon from it. She was initially paid for her writing on the site before the owner gave it to her.

SOBCon – Successful online business, 150 people in the room and a workshop model.

We talked about how to create an event, how to fill it and get big sponsors. It’s somewhat the chicken and the egg. How do you fill an event and attract speakers and sponsors? Liz has a formula for making it work, but not overnight of course.

Liz’s advice is that you need to decide who you’re building an event for before doing anything. Just like in marketing, you need to know specifically who your market is before you do anything.

“It’s critically important that you build your network before you need it.” – Liz Strauss

Connect with Liz on twitter and facebook.

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• Erin Casey, writer, editor, photographer
• From journalism school to editor at Success Magazine
• Structuring your work to live anywhere in the world

Erin lives in College Station, TX, but doesn’t like to sit still. She’s lived in six cities within the past ten years and has intentionally designed her work around her life.

She majored in journalism with a focus in advertising and photography and then immediately put it to work as a photographer at Walmart. She had a stint in advertising at Verizon then worked her way into management in direct selling.

Erin began working at the company who owned Success Media in advertising and then transitioned in to journalism. She says she wasn’t very good at the advertising side of things.

Zany Zia is a new kid’s series that Erin is working on. It’s for 8-12 year olds and is an adventure reading series. The cover art was designed by a high school senior.

Imagine Yourself There is another project where Erin provides inspiration and education for home-based business owners (direct sellers, writers, coaches, etc.).

Erin and a friend wanted a tax deductible cruise, so she created My Writer’s Connection where they just completed their first creative vacation.

The print world is in trouble with magazines and newspapers folding all around us. I asked Erin if she’s worried.

Some of Erin’s most fun interviews: Suze Orman, Maria Shriver (multiple times).

Connect with Erin: @erinkcasey and facebook.

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• Bob Baker – making it in the music business
• Self-publishing and giving away knowledge
• Marketing any business with guerrilla techniques
• Advice for starting and marketing a business today

Bob Baker writes about speaking and music from St. Louis, MO where he makes his living as an author, teacher, and speaker. Music marketing is his niche and he’s best known for Guerrilla Music Marketing.

He’s been writing and speaking for the past 20 years but his business has changed quite a bit, even in the past few years.

Bob discovered an interst in music and writing as far back as 11 years old. He’s self-employed now but wasn’t always. He’s had to take some day jobs along the way but he doesn’t ever plan on going back.

Bob’s advice is to figure out what you enjoy doing and then how you can serve people with it. Marketing is simply a strategic plan of sharing great stuff with people.

Think about how you can touch the most amount of people today? Through your art: music, writing, etc. That will help you prioritize your marketing. You don’t need 101 ideas; you just need two or three you can become great at doing.

You don’t need a roadmap. You’d be much better off with a compass. Many of us are looking for a roadmap, but just because someone else had success, doesn’t mean you will too.

“As you take action and interact with the world, doors open.”
- Bob Baker

Connect with Bob: @mrbuzzfactor and facebook.

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• Tammy Strobel’s story of simple living in Portland, OR
• Figuring out what makes you happy and doing it
• How to get featured in major news outlets
• What’s the best form of content to produce?

Tammy Strobel and he husband, Logan, sold many of their belongings, including two cars, and downsized into a small place near public transportation. Tammy started a business and their lives have never been better.

I ask Tammy how she’s been able to be featured in The New York Times, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, AOL, The Today Show, and USA Today.

Tammy was very depressed from being in debt and hating her job. She medicated it with shopping and wine and saw the downward spiral coming.

Tammy and Logan began downsizing, which made them much happier. They moved to Portland, OR from California and Tammy started a business that she loves running.

Tammy just finished a book proposal and her agent is shopping it around. She monetizes through ebook sales, affiliate sales, consulting, and more.

“Writing helpful content is very important.” – Tammy Strobel

Just started a paid newsletter subscription at letter.ly at only $5 per month.

Write good content. You have many options for monetizing, including advertising, affiliate sales, a membership program, ebooks, and consulting. Find your skill sets and what you’re interested in.

Connect with Tammy: @rowdykittens and facebook.

Photo credit Seattle Times

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• Chris Guillebeau’s story of challenging authority and traveling the world
• Chris’s goal is to visit all 192 countries by the time he’s 35
• High school dropout but then received a Masters in International Studies
• Creating info products and membership websites

Chris Guillebeau’s mission at the The Art of Non-Conformity is to help people live unconventional lives, make their own choices, and change the world.

He set a goal to visit all 192 countries by the time he’s 35 and he’s nearly complete.

Chris dropped out of high school (said it wasn’t working for him) but then went to community college. He finished most of it before they found out he never graduated from high school. He earned his college degree at 19 years old and ultimately a Masters degree in International Studies.

Chris found out he wasn’t a very good employee. His last job was lifting boxes at FedEx. He got into eBay, then search engine optimization and a few other things getting the travel bug.

His turning point was September 11, 2001. He and his wife, Jolie, moved to West Africa to serve on a Mercy Ship. Chris read about a surgeon who has been serving for many years and was inspired by him.

Chris wrote a best selling book called The Art of Non-Conformity and monetizes a few different ways, including Unconventional Guides (affiliate link) and the new Travel Hacking Cartel.

Chris’s suggestions to break free and do your own thing: “Start with a dream and vision then reverse engineer it.”

To build your own empire, Chris suggests to start by building an audience. Engage with your community and ask what they want. Survey. You’re asking your community questions, right?

Create the most powerful guarantee you can.

Read Wishcraft, set goals and relate them to timelines,

“I try to do 80% of my writing for free.” – Chris Guillebeau

Connect with Chris: @chrisguillebeau and facebook.

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• Rande Bruhn co-owns a video game and mobile app company
• Making a partnership work (when many partnerships fail)
• Dividing the work in a partnership
• How to be a Christian company and make games for everyone
• How to generate ideas: ideation
• Make money by selling games for $.99

Rande Bruhn owns a video game and mobile application company called Soma Games.

Their focus is on developing video games and mobile technology. Not just any games though, but games that have great video and audio. Stories are also very important.

Rande’s background is as a CPA and entrepreneur, which is a great skill set to have in the startup phase of a business.

From the description on Soma’s website: “While Soma Games is a group of Christians making video games, we’re not what you might call a “Christian Video Game company” and it’s important for us to be very clear about this to avoid inaccurate expectations. We’re making games that will be founded upon, and informed by Christian thought and the Christian understanding of reality - however,we don’t plan on making games that teach Christian theology.”

On purpose they get out of “normal” to generate ideas. Rande has invested in the Microsoft Connect game to help generate ideas.

Connect with Rande: @somagames and facebook.

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• Patrick Carter was laid off from his job as a Cessna test pilot
• Is starting a business the right thing to do right before leaving a job?
• How was he sure he’d be able to support his family with a new business?
• Promoting his product by flying around the Americas

Patrick had a great job as a test pilot for Cessna until he found out he was being let go.  He was on vacation when he got a phone call with the news.  They told him he was selected for a layoff on Friday and to clean out his desk on Monday.

Not one to sit around, Patrick decided to start a company doing something he loved to see if he could turn it into enough income to support his family.  The Nflightcam was born out of that idea and the rest is history.

Patrick had actually started his business a few months before getting laid off.

He designed a light weight HD camera for use in aviation.  The technology was already on the market and was designed to be used for snow skiing.

Grass roots marketing has been a big strategy for Patrick. He didn’t have any money to advertise in the big magazines.

A product needs to be worthy of credibility (21 min)

Patrick just got back from a trip around Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean. He and his team blogged about his adventure and generated a fair amount of marketing and interest. Instead of buying expensive advertising he spent money on taking an adventure and encouraging pilots to follow it online.

He’s found a lot of markets besides flight instruction: firefighters, EMS, military, and guys that just like to share their adventures.

Now, it’s been 2.5 months since he’s been laid off and sales have slowly been climbing.

Patrick’s future plans are for his wife to leave her job and travel with him. Right now they’re trying to figure out where to live since his business is set up to go anywhere. He doesn’t even ship the product or ever see it. He pays his brother to manage the entire process in his free time.

Connect with Patrick: @nflightcam and facebook.

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• Brett McKay has attracted 83,000+ subscribers to his site
• How he’s grown to over 2,000,000 monthly impressions
• Wrote a book and working on completing his second book deal
• He quit his job just this week to focus full time on his website

Brett McKay launched Art of Manliness in January, 2008. One day he found himself in a magazine aisle and realized none of the men’s magazines were geared towards him, so he had an idea to start a men’s magazine that he wanted to read.

Brett and his wife, Kate, are both from Oklahoma. They didn’t stray far from home in school and both ended up pursuing higher degrees. Brett initially launched a blog for law school students before his current success. He used his initial pursuits to launch into his new publishing idea.

Initially, Brett didn’t monetize his website. His plan to monetize it over time was very intentional, however. He launched the first site on his own, totally bootstrapping. It wasn’t until later that he began hiring designers.

Law school graduation came in 2009. He realized he didn’t want to practice law after getting into it though. Brett did end up using his law degree and working in publishing eventually.

His first book deal was completely by accident. They got big really, really fast on accident and in early 2008 they landed on the front pages of digg, delicious, and reddit. He had over 150,000 visits in one day the first time it happened, which completely crashed his website. After that they would hit the front page at least one or two times per month. In April of 2008 several publishers reached out to Brett. His first book has really opened some doors for him, but it’s not a money maker.

Initially he leveraged his first blog to get the word out about the Art of Manliness. He also told his friends and family about it.

“Don’t be pushy and annoying, but tell people who would be interested. Use your network but don’t be annoying. Take advantage of social media. Make sharing easy. Grow by word of mouth and don’t pay for advertising. Write really useful content. Learn about search engine optimization (SEO).”

Now they’re in talks to develop a television show. They’re also thinking of developing meetup groups across the country. Do they stick to what they’re good at, or do they expand to a line of products like clothing?

Connect with Brett: @artofmanliness and facebook.

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I’d love to help you turn your ideas into a business that changes the world (and your bank account).  Here’s how.

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• Caitlin Boyle started a world wide movement
• Getting a book deal
• Dealing with negative press in a big magazine
• Getting over self-doubt

Operational Beautiful is about posting notes with positive messages in them around the world in public places. Caitlin recently launched the site out of an idea she had and it’s now a world-wide movement.

Caitlin mentioned she’s received videos, pictures, and postcards from every continent in the world, except for Antarctica so I took it upon myself to get one for her.

“If you don’t give opportunities space to grow, they’ll always stay small.”
- Caitlin’s mom

Healthy Tipping Point was started only 2.5 years ago. Caitlin blogs three times per day.  She’s supported by the BlogHer network and now makes a full time income from her website.

“There really is no such thing as bad press.” - Caitlin Boyle

Caitlin was mentioned in Marie Claire magazine, but not in a good way. You’ll hear how she overcame that and what she did to move past it.

Even if you don’t think the critics are right, they have a point.

Caitlin’s now working on a tweens book.

Connect with Caitlin: @caitlinhtp and facebook.

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I’d love to help you turn your ideas into a business that changes the world (and your bank account).  Here’s how.

Right-click to download the show | Leave a review on iTunes | Submit a question or call (919) 355-8275.

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• Why Matt Garland has the audacious goal of chronicling 10,000 acts of greatness
• Why he’s not planning to monetize the site and how he is making money
• How Matt is using his weird college studies to change the world

Matt Gartland calls himself an anti-hero. He’s on a personal crusade to chronicle 10,000 random acts of greatness. Matt has no plans to monetize the site. The important thing is that he’s doing big things and monetizing in other ways.

I did the math during the show and if there is only one blog posted each day, it will take over 27 years to chronicle 10,000 random acts of greatness.

Matt studied at Penn State University. He had no idea how he was going to use some of the weird classes he took and neither did his friends.

He created his very first blog in January, 2010. Since then he’s not slowed down any and has launched multiple ideas online.

Matt loves comic books and characters. He earns income through his business by copywriting and helping other businesses tell stories. It’s a unique way to make money in a crowded niche.

While many other copywriters have stock, boring websites, Matt has partnered with some talented people to stand out.

Connect with Matt on twitter: @mattgartland

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• Karol Gajda is ridiculously extraordinary
• He lives full time from his blog
• Traveling the world comes second nature to him
• Find out where he’ll be in the next few months
• How an eBook sale made $185,755 in 72 hours

The ultimate goal with RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com and Karol’s life is to help 100 people achieve Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom.

I asked Karol what this Ridiculousy Extraordinary Freedom is.  He says it’s different for everyone and he can’t define. Some people want to travel. Others want a high income. Some define it by experiences.

Karol is 29 and has been self-employed since he was 19 years old. His first business was designing websites, then transitioned to selling on eBay, selling info-products, pay-per-click, and SEO. Karol is now a full time blogger, fully living from his website.

He was fed up with life so he sold everything and hit the road.  I asked him how hard it was to make that decision and do it. He’s never been comfortable staying in one place, so it was easier than deciding what to have for dinner.

He started a blog just to highlight his ideas. For the first few months he only grew to about 70 readers. He had a guest post on zenhabits in October, 2009. He shares that anyone can get a guest post. Remember to write specifically for that blog’s audience.

He released a product called how to live anywhere after receiving many questions on how to do it.

On money: “You need to know what your enough point is.” – Karol Gajda

If he had to start over he would have networked with bloggers earlier. His only goal was to write in the very beginning.

Instead of selling a $10 eBook, he went big and paired up with Adam Baker.  They chased down a bunch of eBooks and pooled them together for a big 72 hour sale (affiliate link only when a sale is open).  They sold 1,950 copies at $97 each. That’s $185,755 in three days!

The thought of finding a job sickens him more than the fear of failure.

Connect with Karol on twitter: @karolgajda

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• Steve and Jody Berkey started 90 Revolutions in their dining room
• How they’ve built a business while being very cheap
• How they’re monetizing when they live in the country, away from athletes

Steve is a physical therapist who works with high endurance athletes in Virginia.  He has plans for a membership site and much more.

Steve and his wife Jody incorporated 90 Revolutions in 2006.  He learned everything including computer languages and how to build graphics.  A big key to his success has been to bring in people from the outside to help in areas he wasn’t as gifted in.

Years of graduate school had culminated in a doctoral degree in physical therapy for Steve and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Study for Jody. Yeah, these guys were big time!  Years of traditional work in their fields left them yearning to break free and transform their passions into a company that would support endurance athletes through injury prevention and performance enhancement.

Most physical therapists work with middle age and older people with arthritic conditions but that’s not where Steve’s heart was.  He wanted to focus on helping athletes get better at what they already do.

Initially, Steve had issues killing good with great.  That’s when he realized he needed outside help to get ideas launched.

Do you edit your own videos?

It’s not about the gear, but Steve told me he uses a lot of software from Adobe.

Monetization: Steve is working two days per week with athletes now until they transition out.  They’re also monetizing through membership sites which will be a big focus for them this year.

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I’d love to help you turn your ideas into a business that changes the world (and your bank account).  Here’s how.

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