Mike Michalowicz is the author of several influential books on entrepreneurship. In this episode, he shares some behind the scenes stories about his rise to fame as an author and entrepreneur, and some of the things that did and didn’t work along the way.

Evelyn Powers founded Design Powers 25 years ago, and her business has evolved from being a graphic design firm serving mid-sized companies and nonprofits with print work, to a web design firm for professional small businesses and entrepreneurs. Today, Design Powers is in the midst of a complete rebrand. In this episode, we talk about the need to evolve, the challenges that come up, and how getting comfortable with evolving and adapting is critical if you want success.

Today, I’m chatting with a badass business owner and entrepreneur whose approach is almost exactly the opposite of mine.

Justin Esgar has more ideas than he has time to implement them but he does it anyway, whether it’s parking a domain for later or putting T-shirt designs on Threadless and being delighted by every single $6 sale.

I’m delighted to share this conversation with Tara McMullin where we go deep on topics around being overworked business owners, what it really takes to find that freedom and flexibility, and how simplicity is usually the answer to business challenges.

On today’s episode, I’ve got serial entrepreneur and badass business owner, David Mamanno.

Whether it’s stand-up comedy, a networking and speakers group for local businesses, or starting a podcast, even the paths and opportunities that didn’t end up being your calling are experiences and skills you can use. And David has done all of those things and more.

Kia and I talk about the challenges of selling creative services in a market that sees the tangible output but doesn’t understand the value of the creative process. And we’ll discuss how the perception and expectation of “cheap” labor in the Philippines have created additional challenges for her business when selling premium services to an international market.

Matt and I talk about the importance of iteration and of taking the opportunity with every client, every project, to take what you’ve learned and do it better next time, so you can raise the value–and the price–of your services. And how you’ll never get it perfect on the first try, but if you take each experience and learn from it, you can build a REALLY BOSS business pretty quickly.

Jenni and I had an eye-opening conversation about the power of a book to transform the reader, how to think about writing your book, book proposals, and agents, and just everything you didn’t know you needed to know about writing a killer book and proposal.

Aga is an incredible example of what’s possible when you do the work and show up for your business.

Her clients don't have time to get quickie degrees in marketing, but they do wanna reach rockstar status in their field, so they bring in Aga’s rockstar team to do it.

These days it seems like everyone and their mother is a business coac but Carl is going to put us all to shame.

First: he built 3 (!) multi-million dollar businesses by the age of 40. Then, he started and launched the super successful business and coaching advisory company, 7 Stage Advisors, where, since 2002, Carl has mentored the launch of over 5,000 businesses and has trained, certified, and accredited over 7,000 business coaches and mentors.

And that’s just the beginning.

In college, it was clear that Cynthia was always going to be a doctor. She loved acting and performing but becoming a doctor always came first. It was exciting to talk with her about how these two loves came together.

For the last episode in this series of replays, we are revisiting my interview my dear friend Jesse Sommer.

I originally invited Jesse onto the show right after he came back from a seven-month stint in Afghanistan which happened to coincide with COVID happening so he came back to the States to a very different world and that was pretty fascinating.

Lately, we’ve been revisiting past episodes and highlighting short clips that really stood out.

And today I am bringing back my dear friend and speaking coach, Brett Lavender.

Lately, we’ve been revisiting past episodes and highlighting short clips that really stood out.

Today I am bringing back Episode 10 with my dear friend Jean Tang

I was recently visiting some old podcast episodes and I found a few gem moments in our conversations that I want to replay for you now and elaborate on a little bit.

The first one that really stood out to me was a conversation I had back in June with Amie Sheridan.

Lee Rowley is The Emperor of Words. He’s also an odd duck. On one hand, he's one of the most sycophantically adored copywriters in the English-speaking world, revered for creating copy that subtly lingers in a buyer's mindspace until they HAVE to take action.

You’re gonna love Nicole, and I think you’ll get a lot out of her discussion about how to find the right people to hire, and how you should look at hiring and building a team. Even if you don’t want employees, which you know I have been against for years, hiring great contractors to outsource to is critical to freeing up your time, so I know this will be valuable for you to start thinking about things differently.

Michael Roderick is an expert in creating referable brands. This is simple but not easy stuff and I’m so grateful to have my old friend from my networking days on the podcast today to share some simple ways that will make a WORLD of difference in your business.

Michael is not only the KING of networking and connecting but he’s also the CEO of Small Pond Enterprises which helps thoughtful givers become thought leaders by making their brands referable, their messaging memorable, and their ideas unforgettable.

I've found that breaking so-called rules is where the differentiation often lies.

But if you're trying so hard to do everything "right" you might be missing the opportunities that are right in front of you.

Ben Potts is another living example of how you can alter your business to meet your needs and your clients *right now—*and be a badass business owner all at the same time.

Interestingly, Ben was able to seamlessly open a consulting company because he was already a true expert—spending decades learning every inch of the business and meeting so many people.