Introducing Nola Crystals

Nola Crystals is the main focus for todays Join Up Dots business coaching podcast episode. This is a brand new business recently started by a listener of Join Up Dots, which is going to do very well for itself. The reason as you will hear on the show is mainly it has started, and also it is providing something that people already want and buy in numbers. This is always a great business to get into, where you can already see others having success in your field. So without further ado, lets begin with Nola Crystals and also answering a few other questions too. Question One - Nola Crystals Review Hey David! Let’s start with how quickly “Join Up Dots” can work. One very small example in my life: Last Friday I watched a film about Steve Jobs (I love him) Saturday: I simply typed in “Steve jobs” into Apple podcasts. All I wanted to listen to was inspirational information from the genius himself Saturday: I found your podcast Saturday - Monday (today): I’m eight episodes deep into your show and I’ve learned so much VALUABLE information that I didn’t know in relation to tips I could apply to my own business that I’ve started last month I typed “VALUABLE” in all caps because the common denominator I have heard from you and Steve Jobs (amongst other sources) is that value is key in relation to your customers So, over the course of a few days I’ve joined up the dots and I’m already richer in knowledge so thank you! It would mean the world to me if you would head over to my website and tell me what you think. I won’t tell you anything about the business because I’d like to see from an average consumers point of view what their first impression is and if they can navigate the website with ease and get to a “money page” in “one click.” I started the business the first week of October this year. I’ve had two sales and started SEO the beginning of October. I understand SEO is a longer process. Thanks David! Ps: I’m typing this whilst on a treadmill so if there are any spelling mistakes let’s just blame the treadmill and not me! :) Question Two - Does Confidence Make A Difference David, loving the show. I have a question for you, which i think I am picking up through your content. It seems to me that online success comes as much from your own confidence and belief than the business itself? Would this be true, as I think if it is, i have discovered potentially what might be going wrong with my ventures. I dont think that i truly believe in myself enough, so keep on pivoting to start something new? Thanks for your answer if you have the time and all the best for your future plans Paul Samuels, St George Utah Question Three - Passion or Boring Business? Hi David, i would love you to do a show on finding ideas for businesses as this is something that i struggle with. Do you think that a boring business, functional but needed is better than one that fills the passion zone that people talk about. Jim Rhapsody Question Four - Should I Start A Podcast Hi Join Up Dots...What would be your advice for starting a podcast nowadays. It seems that everyone has a podcast. Celebrities have podcasts. Celebrities have audiences. Do you think that you can start one in 2021 and still get an audience that I can monetize as successfully as you have? Melanie Ferrell, Ashton-in-Makerfield

Introducing Internet Mastery With Ian Pribyl

Ian Pribyl is the internet master is the discussion of the day with , who is todays guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He is a man who quite simply has mastered and can fully explain how to start cracking it online. The reason I know this? Well he was recently on the show and so good was he that i thought "Lets go again" and get him on the show once more. As we heard on the last show he recently published a book called From Nothing which breaks down the mystery of making a living online. It was born out of being in an industry full of scammers who were cleaning out consumers’ life savings under the promise of “getting rich quick” I created FIMP to empower online business seekers and save them from having to purchase any more “make money online” products. FIMP teaches everything a person needs to know — from absolutely zero knowledge to building a successful, profitable internet business. Now with a history that started a a bartender, and meandered through a series of sales and customer service roles he has taken what works offline and detailed it brilliantly as an online resource. Get your idea, do your market research, define the product the list goes on and on. So is it possible to start a business and get it up and running without any of the problems that people struggle with? Well let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Ian Pribyl Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Ian Pribyl such as: Why so many people struggle with the negative dialogue that runs in peoples mind keeping them stuck in their position. Ian talks about why we should be able to find data to discover the profitability of a new business idea before launching. Why it is so much easier to earn a lot of money online instead of a small amount...as long as you have the value and the belief. And lastly….. Why Sausage dogs and their welfare could be an amazing little business to enter into for any listener across the world.

Introducing Michael Nemeroff from RushOrderTees

RushOrderTees founder Michael Nemeroff is todays guest on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the CEO and co-founder of the technology-driven eCommerce custom apparel company. Founded in 2002 when Michael was only 17 with his brother and sister, RushOrderTees specializes in industry-leading turnaround times for everyone from teams to small businesses to Fortune 500 companies for a bit of merch, as the kids say. If you want a branded hoodie, t-shirt, bag, whatever, then zip over to his company, design it yourself easily, and bang its on its way to you asap Now this wasn't an easy success, as with all start-ups there is the big push to get it to where you want it to be, and this was no different with todays guest As he says "We were bringing in about $30K a month in revenue after three very hard, long, exhausting years of working 7 days a week.  The three of us were doing the selling, marketing, printing, designing, purchasing, shipping, cleaning, accounting and everything else all on our own. It had taken us a lot of energy and sacrifice to get there and we did our best to squeeze out every bit of profit — only to find at the end of every year we either lost money or were flat on the year. That kind of effort was unsustainable and there was no future in continuing to stay in this business without results. How The Dots Joined Up For RushOrderTees We were all exhausted. I was 20 at the time, and decided I was ready to move on. But my brother forced me to keep working on it. I promised him I’d stay for a few more months, and that’s when we doubled down on our marketing efforts. Within a month, we went from bringing in $30K per month to $200K per month in revenue.  Game changer. All the sudden, we were a million-dollar company. The growth was extremely challenging, but there was finally light at the end of the tunnel. The next phase wasn’t any easier to be honest, but it had a future and I’m really happy we stuck with it. Now over the past 18 years, the company has focused o he customer experience by streamlining the entire process with its innovative design studio, incredible service and the quickest delivers in the industry. They help people express themselves, feel united and connect more deeply to their communities and causes. So what were the steps that changed things, instead of simply ploughing on everyday? And where does he see most people making the mistakes that stop their own success from ever occurring? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to join up dots with the one and only Michael Nemeroff Show Highlights During todays show we discussed such weighty subjects with Michael Nemeroff: Michael shares the story of how his parents dealt with their early business struggles, and the impact it had on him.  Why so many business owners find it hard to break free from the routines they have built around themselves when growing the business. Michael talks openly about finding the niche within the business, that was the most stretching for them, but also the most valuable. and lastly....... We discuss the moment when he and his brother came to blows, and why it was perhaps the best thing to happen.

Introducing Priyanka Gupta Priyanka Gupta is todays guest on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. She is a lady from a small town in Uttar Pradesh, North India, who was once a software engineer by education, and also once an investment banker. But now she is a writer, solo traveller, and art lover and also the founder and editor-in-chief of On My Canvas — a personal growth and travel blog. Now the key to this lady is her story is about breaking boundaries in conventional India to follow her passion. As she says "I was neither a writer(blogger) nor an avid traveller until 2016. In my small hometown, education and work opportunities are limited. To make a good career, I left my home to study in Rajasthan, a desert state of India. The year was 2003, and I was just 15. How The Dots Joined Up For Priyanka In Rajasthan, I prepared to compete in a national-level exam which guarantees a merit-based course in the best engineering institute of India - The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). I studied hard for three years and scored an all-India rank of 78, out of half a million students who competed in the exam. In 2006, I joined the Computer Science and Engineering B.Tech course in IIT Delhi. I graduated in 2010. Then I worked in software and investment banking jobs and lived around India in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Bangalore. Throughout my corporate career, I never enjoyed my work. Mostly I was fixing the nuts and bolts of old software or was making the rich richer. Now I could have worked harder to develop the skills to get more innovation-centered jobs, but I didn’t like the work related to computer science. Why did I study it then? Because for a girl from a small patriarchal town, IIT and CS were the only way to opportunities. (A lot of Indians first become engineers and then figure out what they want to do.) The disappointment from my professional life bled into my personal life, too. I was mostly morose. And that is the perfect place to start todays episode. So why do few people really give their passions ago, when the story of others following their dreams are all around them? And would todays guest have moments still when she thinks "ok, this is a sticky time. Should i go back and get a job? It would be easier" Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to join up dots with the one and only Priyanka Gupta Show Highlights During todays show we discussed such weighty subjects with Priyanka Gupta: Priyanka talks openly about her belief that there was no going back once she decided that she was going to be a writer and traveller. Why you don't have to lose the skills that you have developed throughout jobs that you perhaps were eager to escape from. We discuss the path to finding the dream business, and why more often than not the dream doesn't come to you until much later. and lastly....... Priyanka reveals the steps that she took to get her first teaching position in Chile, after first taking the leap.

What Are Backlinks?

What are backlinks and why they are so important for an online business is one of the main questions that we get asked. Followed on by "How do i get backlinks to my business?" i suppose. So in this podcast episode we will focus on the key elements that make a great backlink, and why for most online businesses they should form part of your monthly strategy. Lets start with explaining in the simplest terms what a backlink is as the success of your business could depend on them. The Simplest Concept For Understanding Backlinks Imagine that you have been given a balloon by a friend to blow up for a birthday party. You take the balloon with all the enthusiasm you can muster and start to blow with all your might. No matter what you do the balloon won't inflate more than a fraction. It stays lifeless and limp in your hand, whilst you are red faced and defeated by the effort. Well when we start building an online business our fledgling enterprise is just like that balloon. It wont be getting much traffic, sales, customers, eyes whatever, as it will be bouncing along the Google ranks two inches off the floor. Now imagine you got a hundred other businesses to blow into your balloon. Suddenly you have momentum and your business will gain from the SEO boost that they have given you. You take off because those other sites have linked to you, and through that link Google says "Ok. these other sites think this business is worth talking about...lets push it up the rankings" Its the backlinks or inlinks that have made all the difference. Or said in another way, every time someone links your URL to theirs, your balloon will start to rise and reap the rewards. What Types of Backlinks are Valuable? Now back in the day this question would never have been worth answering as it was a numbers game. Get as many people linking to your business and it's game on. So business owners would ignore building quality backlinks into their strategies, and instead went to as many spammy sites as they can. Whenever you could leave a comment or review where there was a chance to add their URL, people would bash out as many as they could and do very well. However, Google started thinking about their definition of "what are backlinks" and decided that it should be all about relevance and authority. Now we are getting into the nuts and bolts building a backlink strategy and there is no getting away from the fact that Google are right. By looking at how established a website is, by scoring it from 1 - 100 you are well on your way to only having to get a few top quality backlinks to make a big difference to your success. Lets give you an example to make things easier. Trait #1: Authority Sites Are The One To Go For At the time of writing this article Join Up Dots has a domain authority of around 49 from a possible 100, which for a podcast is pretty good. The BBC has a domain authority of 95, almost a perfect score. So it would make sense that we should try to get a programme, article or radio show to do a piece on podcasting whilst mentioning us as a reputable source of information. They are saying to the world "Join Up Dots are highly recommended" and Google takes notice of the powerful backlink they have given us. So when you are sitting thinking What are backlinks, then you have to think reputable, high ranking businesses, that add to my authority. Don't go spammy and aim for quantity, instead be strategic and work on approaching other top sites for potential linking opportunities Why Are Backlinks Important? Now by this time you should have understood why understanding in links or incoming links as they are also called is very important for your success. They are a big tick in the box from other peoples businesses that they want to tell the world about your own through their businesses. But we can go deeper than this and tell you why some backlinks can actually harm your business, whilst others are amazingly important. So we already mentioned the authority sites, and why they should be aimed for whenever possible. But what if that site keeps on linking to you? Trait #2: New Links Are Better Than From The Same Site Time And Time Again Imagine when you are working on your what are backlinks to my business strategy, you try to get the BBC to keep on linking to you? That would be amazing as they are high in the rankings and have super powerful linking potential. Well you will see that this can cause the initial boost of SEO power that you gained to get less and less important for you. In fact the more you get from the same website the worse it is for you. It is better to aim for a few, more than loads of backlinks, no matter what the site is. Even if your mate works for the perfect business and is part of the editorial team....don't abuse that connection. Think what one of my pages would be great to gain a boost for and stick to that only. Trait #3: Your Target Keyword Should Be In The Anchor Text Once again, lets picture the fact that you are building content on Indoor Fireworks and you approach a company for a linking opportunity. They say yes to you, and then on their page link to your website with the words "Fireworks" instead. You are still getting the link back to your business so what would be the issue with them omitting this one word? Dependant on the amount of traffic and the winnable aspect of that traffic that mistake could well be fine. However more often than not, you will have done your keyword research and found the keyword "Fireworks" is highly competitive and needs a huge push to get to the top of the ranks. Whilst indoor fireworks, with less traffic and competition could be the winner you should be aiming for. Try to get the right keywords in your backlinks from other people as the more you get the more you will rise to the top of the Google rankings for those hard to win words. Sit down, work out where the buying customer is heading to find people like you, and analyse the search times. Grasping the power of anchor text, when you are working on your business can really take the effort away from everything I promise you. Trait #4: If The Backlink Isn't Relevant To Your Business Then What's The point? We could go on about this all day for sure, but you have to get into the head of Google and understand what Googles prime business model is to understand "What are backlinks?" Googles business model is nothing much more than bringing the greatest, most accurate information to us when we want it. They dont want us to be spending hours searching for "Dog Training" when everything we type in brings back results about Cats and Mice. They want reputable, accurate, honest, trustworthy information to appear to make us stay longer on Google (which means more money for them). Therefore, by getting you business linked to by a site that has nothing to do with your own you would be better off to have a clean up. Spend sometime going through your links and pruning them by contacting the relevant owner or webmaster and asking for changes and removals to be made to the content. Once again this is an ongoing business and should be looked at every few months to maintain the authority and relevance of your own site. Dont be let down by what other people are doing. Keep it clean, mean and make sure backlinks are doing what they should be doing for your business. Giving you a huge boost in ranking, traffic and of course sales, and isnt that you want after all?

Introducing Scaling A Business

Scaling a business is what everybody talk about across the world. You can dip into any podcast, blog, or business radio show and someone will be talking about scaling a business But in this podcast episode we start with discussing whether this is actually a requirement of every business. Is it better to sometimes stay small, and not scale your business at all? Well, we will find out as we go, and like all things we do in Join Up Dots we will leave it up to you to decide what route is best for you. Ready, then lets proceed in with the first steps you need to take when deciding if scaling a business is right for you. What Is Scaling A Business Actually? In its simplest form, scaling a business is having the right processes in place to cope with an increased level of sales, whilst maintaining the equilibrium of your business. Ok, lets make it even simpler for you to get your head around. Imagine that you are a one person business owner who has started a side hustle business that is now at the tipping point. You have built the foundations to your new business, done the work, and now you are getting a trickle of customers into your life. Do you increase that trickle of customers into a torrent of customers? A tsunami of eager to buy customers would be great for your bottom line, and that is how do you cope with that increase? Well certainly you can hire more staff, but that will of course take away some of your profits and bring a level of hassle that having staff will always bring to your business. Perhaps you dont want to be dealing with training, sickness, unexplained absentees when you actually started your business to give you a freedom type liftsyle. Well then if that is the case, you will need to build in systems and processes that can help you deal with the sales influx without it taking a toll on your personal health. That is scaling a business in a nutshell. It's allowing for more sales, more customers, more profit whilst operating lean, smart and the way that you want your business to run. Sound good, or a monster? Why Perhaps You Dont Want To Scale A Business Many business decide that they dont want to get into a scaling a business and quite happy the way things are. You might have a Personal Brand type business, whereby you are expected to be part of the process. Take the host of Join Up Dots for example, who is front and centre of everything he does throughout his business. Does he want to have hundreds of one to one clients leaving him with no time to live the life that he wants? Or does he decide that instead of personal interaction he is more than happy to create courses and content that can be sold time and time again. Well we can tell you that a blended approach works well for sure, and if the sales of the pre-recorded content exceed the one to one then its decision time. But we can also tell you that he knows that the true value is by working with people hand in hand to get them the results that they want. So once again, what are your personal values as to how your business operates and its important to keep to theses. Step One To Business Scaling - Identify Your Personal And Business Values Throughout your business you will have core values that you should without a doubt stick firm too. Some people call this a mission statement, but you have to go deeper than that to create a blueprint of what a business needs to give you, For example, do you want to have the ability of switching off the business and going on long vacations when you want them? Free from distraction and beeps and notifications every five minutes? Well if you do, then you definitely need to bring in processes or staff to help you do this without letting down potential or long standing customers. What if your business supply is selling more to existing customers than new ones? How would you operate in that regard, added to the fact that you would like to take long no interrupted vacations? Get detailed and start looking at all the possible situations that could be keeping you in your current position financially and freedom wise. Get uber detailed, and dont expect this to just come flowing out of you like magic, as more often than not this will take time. Every time you come up with an idea that hadn't occurred to you when thinking about scaling a business jot it down quickly before it disappears again. Step Two To Scaling A Business - Automate What You Can As Much As Possible Now that you have your list of situations that might derail you getting your business into six figures and beyond its re-engineering time. You need to go through your list and look at what you have written, and start working backwards to find solutions to your problems. For example, you might have thought about customers contacting you when you are in the bath, bed, or away on vacation. What do you need to do to make this no longer a problem that you need to deal with? Should you simply place a sequence of automated responses in place that will direct your customer to the right sales page or product? Perhaps your business is a high-end concierge type of operation, when scaling a business definitely needs personal help and assistance twenty four hours a day. Then the auto response may not be for you, and a team of virtual assistants scatted around with the world working at different times is the key. You need to know your business and your customers requirements inside out and start making plans to automate or delegate whenever possible, whilst maintaining the quality of your connection. Step Three - Commit To Growth Everything that we are talking about here is long term, professional business thinking and not to be done on a whim. You know the kind of things, when you hear them on a podcast and then think "Ooh i better be doing this is guess" Bad idea on all levels. You have to truly want to be focused on scaling a business as if you haven't planned to do this from the start then you will encounter pain in the transition. You will need to break a lot of things, and then rebuild stronger and that isn't easy for sure. So ask yourself and keep on asking yourself "Why do i want to grow and scale my business?" Is this an ego metric whereby you feel that you aren't a success as you only need ten clients per year, and spend most of your time walking the dog, or sitting in pubs. We refer you back to earlier in the content whereby you have to define your personal values as to what you want to get out of your business. If you are perfectly happy with where you are financially and lifestyle wise then keep thing as they are and ignore the scaling a business urge. However if that isn't you set it as your major goal and focus of the next few months and i promise you you will never look back. Step Four - Never Stop Asking Are You Doing Enough For The Customer? Many business make the mistake of getting to a certain point and then resting on their laurels. Remember Blockbusters and its massive decline when streaming came into force. Most kids nowadays cant imagine why anyone would have driven to the video stores, spent ages choosing a film, only to then watch it, rewind it and then drive it back to the store. Yeah, even for me who was well versed in the back and forth of video consumption wonders why we put up with it. But put up with it we did, until we didn't have to. The same is with your business, are you operating like you always have done and aren't interested in changing as it has always worked well for you. Well i can promise you that when it comes to businesses and organisations who are amazing at scaling a business the key element to them is their willingness to change. You need to be keeping one eye on the consumer, one eye on the market place and one eye on the changing tides of technology otherwise scaling a business wont be required anymore. You simply wont have a business to scale as that ship has sailed, and it has taken all your customers with it too. Thanks for reading or listening to the Join Up Dots podcast giving you the first four steps to scaling a business. Remember everything takes time, but having a plan in front of you is so much easier than simply trying to make things up as you go along.

Introducing Carson Tate Carson Tate is todays guest on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. She is the founder and managing partner of Working Simply, Inc., a business consulting firm that partners with organizations, business leaders and employees to enhance workplace productivity, foster employee engagement, and build personal and professional legacies. Working Simply has served leading global brands, including AbbVie, Delta Airlines, Deloitte, FedEx, Wells Fargo, Chick-fil-A, and Lowe’s.  The author of the best-selling,, Carson Tate Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style [Penguin Portfolio, 2015], her newest title, Own It. Love It. Make It Work. [McGraw-Hill] and its companion workbook of the same name, was released in October 2020.  Carson’s views have been included in top-tier media including Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, CBS Money Watch, Fast Company, Forbes, Harvard Business Review blog, The New York Times, USA Today, Working Mother and more. How The Dots Joined Up For Carson As she says "For the past 15 years, I have worked with organizations of all sizes around the world to help them improve the engagement of their employees, the productivity of their workforces, and the efficacy of their leadership. Based on everything I’ve learned from the thousands of people I’ve taught and trained, mentored and coached, I know in my heart that one thing is true: Our work is meant to be a full expression of who we are. It is meant to make us happy. Make our hearts sing. Challenge and empower us, and expand our intellectual, emotional and spiritual lives. So why is it that when jobs in essence should be who we are and what we do best, do so many people struggle to see what's right in front of them? And where does she see the office environment heading as move forward and out of the pandemic issues of 2020? Back to how they were or simply a connection of remote workers sitting behind technology? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to join up dots with the one and only Carson Tate Show Highlights During todays show we discussed such weighty subjects with Carson Tate: Why so many people are unwilling to allow the world to take over the boring though meaningful tasks every business has.  Carson talks openly about the "bumpy " ground that business endure unless you have solid processes in place. Carson shares how the quickest way to change a business is simply to master the whole inbox terror we all deal with. and lastly....... Why it is so good to work for a free at the beginning to get proof of concept but dont make it last too long.

Introducing Setting Boundaries At Work

Setting boundaries at work when you are in corporate land is hard. When you are an entrepreneur building your own business from scratch it is almost impossible. The reason being is mainly everything that comes your way could be the big opportunity that can take your ventures to the next level. The simple request to connect on Zoom from a complete stranger,  might be the golden ticket to all your dreams coming true. But as you will hear in todays podcast setting boundaries at work is one of the most, if not the most important things that you can do to get success. Don't ever think that you are missing out if you say "No" to something. This is simply your mind being 100% set on a scarcity mode. Setting boundaries at work as an entrepreneur will give you the time you need to be proactive, instead of being reactive which makes all the difference. So if you are ready let's start breaking down the Join Up Dots Top Five Tips to Setting Boundaries At Work Tip One - Understand What The Business Needs To Give You We all want a business that delivers so much money that we don't ever have to worry again. However, most businesses take time to get to this stage of amazing freedom and financial success. That is why it is so important to understand what the business needs to give you at all stages of its growth. At the very beginning if its simply a side hustle, then it may not have to give you much income support so things are easy. Moving onwards, you may need staff, property, office space as other expenses start creeping into you. This is where setting boundaries at work starts to become an issue and people say "Yes" to everything to pay for these increasing expenses. Dont say "Yes" to everything, instead give yourself breathing space to really think and understand your own business and it's current requirements. Set free time to look at your path to this point, and of course your future trajectory. You will have started making the right decisions that leads to the business that you want, instead of creating a monster. Tip Two - Setting Boundaries At Work Means Delay Are you constantly chasing to respond to all those messages and emails that come into your inboxes everyday. Communication with customers and potential customers is one of the pains (but necessary pains) of most businesses. Set boundaries and start telling your customers not to expect a response back instantly. Can you respond within 3 days instead of as soon as the message comes to you? At Join Up Dots we spend a day responding to all emails and messages every two weeks, and it has never caused us any issue at all. Can you do the same, and advise your customers that they will get a response "On Friday this week"? You will be surprised at how easily customers will buy into the way that you are setting boundaries at work, and actually respect you for it too. Delay is the key to being in control, and you advise the other party of how you are going to respond and you will never look back. Tip Three Focus In On Parkinsons Law There is an amazing law that has been a big part of the Join Up Dots success story over the last few years. This is the discovery of Parkinsons Law, which simply states "The work you do will always expand to the amount of time you allow it" A perfect example of this would be looking back at school days and the homework that you were set. It didn't matter if you had six weeks to do the homework, you would leave it till the very last minute and have it hanging over you for the full time. Everyday you would be thinking "I must get that piece of homework done or I am in big trouble" The same applies in your own work life, and especially as an entrepreneur due to the amount of tasks you need to juggle each day. Setting boundaries at work means that you have to decide to only take a fixed amount of time to get that bit of work done, and no matter what get the work done in that time. You will of course say "But what if i dont deliver the quality that I want?" You will, that focus on the task and the time focus too gets you into the zone like nothing else you will experience. Parkinsons Law is the key to having a business that you love and one that is never ending. Don't make the mistake of being in the job all the time. Tip Four - Just Say No And Stick To It It doesn't make you a bad person to say No, to people when they are asking for something. Yes, i know we are all programmed basically to try not to upset people or let them down, but you are now a business owner. No matter what you do you will let people down if you don't make one of your key elements to setting boundaries at work saying No. And worst of all, the people you let down the most will be your family and loved ones. So when someone connects with you out of the blue, think to yourself "Would I have made this happen myself ?" If the answer is No, then guess what you do, come on it's really really easy, you just say No. It's up to you direct your ship where it's heading or you wont get anywhere, if you never leave the shore because you are just reacting to things you are stuck. Say No as much as possible, unless its something that you would have sought out, and then jump all over it. Tip Five - Pushing Back Is The Easiest Way Of Setting Boundaries At Work Everyday you will be asked to do things by people across the world, and more often than not its because its part of their plan not yours. We learnt this early in the game at Join Up Dots, where just because someone asks you to meet up, connect virtually or anything else you should always ask for a Why? Why do you think that this will benefit me like you are suggesting in your message? Could you provide more information about your request? Fine, we can meet up but it has to be at the time that is convenient for me? Once again, as you will have heard throughout this episode of Join Up Dots, its not being rude, or stand offish. Its simply making sure that you are in control of your time, your energies and the direction of your business in the time you have available each day. If you lose track of the control element, you will find that the work grows and grows until you are in the job 24 7. Make sure you start setting boundaries at work as the most important thing that you can do, and we promise you you will never look back.

Start Ups is the name of the game with Mark Grimes, todays guest joining us on the Join Up Dots podcast. He is a man who over the last few months has taken more action than most people, not least himself have done over the last 18 years. You see over nearly two decades our guest today created a list of  businesses that he thought would be proven winners. Or at least those that were worth reviewing and developing to see if they bore fruit. Now since August 1, 2020, he is a man on fire. As he says "Since August 2020 I launched one new startup every day for 31 days in a row. Yep, 31 brand spanking new companies. No business plans drawn up. No money raised. No teams assembled. No website created—nothing done ahead of time. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Lean and mean. 100% transparent. 100% open. How The Start Ups Dots Joined Up For Mark Grimes One new idea was selected each day from 350+ business ideas scribbled down over the last 18 years, aka the Dunning Kruger Project. Is this for real? Yes. Am I joking? No. Am I nuts? We’ll see. Why am I doing this? Well, there are 55 million newly unemployed people in the US alone. There is continuing economic upheaval. There are tense racial, political, and personal divisions among us. There is a global pandemic. Is this the worst possible time to launch and grow a startup? Yes Could it be the best possible time? Yes. Which of course makes him a perfect guest for a show like Join Up Dots So where can people start first with so many ideas flooding around us all everyday? And of course how does he remain organised and focused on developing every single one. Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mark Grimes

What Is The Quickest Way To Make Money?

"What is the quickest way to make money" is one of the questions that we get time and time again at Join Up Dots. Back in the day, we might have said "There isn't anyway that you can or should make money fast online". We were all about building things with proper foundations that build and build and build. A proper online business that provides for you and your family for years. Nowadays however we have a very different view on what is the quickest way to make money as you will hear in todays show.

Is It The Right Time To Start A Business is part of the discussion throughout todays podcast episode. During every week we get countless emails all asking about business ideas, content and business worries. As you will hear on todays show one of the major ones that we see time and time again is the "Is It The Right Time To Start A Business" one. But actually does this question ever need to be really asked if you do the work before you launch a business? If you sit and plan the business, find the traffic sources, develop your offer and then make it easy for the customer you are ahead of everyone long before you start a business. So as you will hear on the show, in our honest opinion there is no such thing as a bad time to start your own business with the right plan.   Question One Dear David and everyone at Join Up Dots, Loving the podcast and all the different conversations you have everyday. What with everything going on at the moment with the pandemic, are you concerned about the future at all. Do you worry about what you have constructed failing? I keep on listening to shows like yours and would love to start my own venture, but i keep on thinking "Is this the right time what with everything going on?" Im not sure that you will put your mind at ease, but would at the minimum be excited to hear my name mentioned on your podcast. Gillian Salazar, Mykonos, Greece Question Two Good morning David, i have been going though your archives listening to your backdated content, and keep on hearing a theme appearing time and time again. Overwork, burnout and exhaustion. I work in corporate for a major pharmaceutical company and have never experienced anything like this, which makes me wonder wether you regret creating Join Up Dots and all it spin off? Wouldn't it be more sensible to leave it all at work each night and switch off, and from what I am hearing you struggled to do this. Best regards Conejito Sibilia, Mexico City Question Three Hello David, it would be wonderful if you got to see this email and respond, but i know how busy you are. I heard on a recent podcast episode that you have bought a shop. Why? Surely, what you wanted to create was enough for you...simply intrigued as to why you added more work when most people talk about walking on beaches, meditation and being free from life hassles. I used to own a brick and mortar business and it was nothing but trouble. John Baker, Perth Western Australia

Introducing Dalton Skach Dalton Skach is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is a 26-year-old real estate globetrotter who is on a mission to disrupt the commercial real estate investing industry by providing investors the chance to invest in commercial real estate through digital security offerings. In 2017, Dalton started Gold Gate, a Commercial Real Estate Consulting Firm that sourced over $300M in off-market transactions and had an average deal size of $25M. To make Dalton’s story even more unique, he brokered these deals while travelling to over 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Central America, and South America. How The Dots Joined Up For Dalton Now this is the part of the story that intrigued us at Join Up Dots, how do you broker deals if your are nowhere near the properties? How do you know that the real estate you are interested in is reputable and ok to invest your cash into? Now, Dalton is on to his next big project. He has developed an investment portal where accredited investors can invest in commercial real estate just like they would a stock or a bond! You can start living a life on your own terms just like our guest today has. So when did the idea come to him, and what steps were required to get it off the ground? And where have been the obstacles that could well have derailed him without the right mindset and persistence? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Dalton Skach Show Highlights During the show we touched on such weighty subjects with Dalton Skach such as: Dalton opens up about his time at Colorado University and why it gave him so much confidence to move forward into ventures unknown We share how Dalton took his idea, and then canvassed opinion to make sure it was an idea with legs. Great idea! And lastly.... Finding good people to work with you is so important to scale, and using Upwork is the gold resource for all of us. If you can find the gold.

Blake D Bauer is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the author of the international bestselling book You Were Not Born To Suffer. Each year he helps thousands of people who cannot find effective support from conventional psychology, medicine, or religion. As we see time and time again in Join Up Dots, the life that you are leading will always head you to the life that you will lead. For the dots become experiences and those can either shape you and drive you to huge success, or for many be weights around their necks. Today's guest is someone quite different. How The Dots Joined Up For Blake As he says "I was not aware of it at the time built as a young man I suffered very deeply in myself, mostly mentally and emotionally, but also physically at times. In my attempts to run from both my internal struggles and the challenging situations around me, I unintentionally created a great deal of suffering for myself. By the time i was 18 years old I had set in motion a domino effect that caused my already unstable world to crumble. I had been suspended from high school on three different occasions.  I was selling drugs and had been arrested for drug possession multiple times. Things were not in a good place for sure, but now Blake is a world-renowned teacher and speaker with an extensive background in psychology, alternative medicine, nutrition, traditional healing, and mindfulness meditation. Based on both his personal experience overcoming deep suffering, addiction, and adversity, as well as his professional success with over 100,000 people worldwide. His pioneering work integrates what he’s found to be the most effective approaches to optimal mental, emotional, and physical health. So how does someone find themselves in such a sticky point in life, but still have the courage and focus to change track so dramatically? And with all the thousands of people that he has worked with. is there a common theme that we can nip in the bud on today's show? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Blake D Bauer

How to respond when someone asks you how things are going is a problem that most entrepreneur have everyday. You see we all want to be in a position where we respond with "Yeah amazing, earning a squillion pound a second and only working an hour a day" But of course that isn't going to be the case for the majority of us. Most entrepreneurs will either be somewhere within "Things are going great, but I haven't got a clue what to do next" or "Ok, things arent going so great so how do i solve them" Our lives are one of pushing, developing and aiming for targets and goals that we have never achieved before. We have to exist in a world of confusion punctuated with moments and periods of success and fulfilment. These are the moments that put wind in our sails and allow us to recharge our batteries before the urge to go again hits us. But that of course isn't what someone wants to know when they ask "How things are going" They dont want the answer of "well actually i'm in a bit of confused state at the moment. The first quarters targets were going fine but we have now seen a 50% deduction on expected profits due to the increase in steel manufacturing costs in Iceland" Expect the blank stare and a touch of dribble to come out the side of their mouths When someone asks you anything about your business, the truth is except for one or two very special individuals they dont really care how things are going for you. They are just being polite and showing an interest in your progress as they feel that they should ask you, so it doesn't really matter what you answer. This leads onto the ego state of business, and the core message behind why we struggle to know how to respond when someone asks you how things are going. We dont want to be seen as someone who is making things up as they go along. We dont want to be seen as someone who hasn't got all the answers, so we respond with "Yeah couldn't be better, things are going amazingly well" Get over yourself. There is nothing wrong with saying to anyone "To be honest im in a bit of a funk at the moment with what i am trying to create" Or perhaps you simply say "Well, if i knew what i know now before i started then im sure i would be further ahead of the game. But hey it is what it is and i keep on moving forward" Being an entrepreneur is about being truthful with yourself, your situation, your time restraints, family commitments. It's about knowing what things you can do well and those things that you will always struggle with. Its about knowing when superman needs a break, and an afternoon watching Netflix with a pack of chocloate digestives is more important. The bottom line, is if you always come out with the stock response of "Brilliant times are being had by all. I should have done this years ago" then you will be walking a difficult path. You will be working in an environment where your expectations of progress are higher than your actual situation and attainment. You will find your mind tripping you up as the fake "present" shows it to yourself in its honest glory. Unshaven, smelly and not the groomed presentation of success you want for yourself. Now how do i know this? Well this is the life I lead everyday, through every business venture I operate. After they successful financially? Yes, no problem there. Do i have totally clarity of the next steps to be taken....no not at all. Do i wake every morning with passion flooding out of every pore of my body...definitely not. Do i sometimes feel like i should just quit and go and do something else......every now and again I do. That is the beauty of running a podcast and online business coaching platform for so many years, you learn what works and what doesnt. You understand the confusion that business owners are in everyday. And you know how to respond when someone asks you how things are going with a "Yeah great, but a ton of work still to do. But getting there little by little everyday" Go out and enjoy the process of building success and safety for you and your family, and just accept that your efforts will get you there. You just need to be honest with yourself.

Introducing Profit first Expert Rocky Lalvani Profit first expert Rocky Lalvani is todays guest joining us on the Join Up Dots podcast. He is a man who believes that the money issues that cause most businesses and people to struggle can be resolved with minimum fuss As he says "If you're wondering how any small business owner could possibly say they have leftover cash, you're not alone. Many small business owners see profit as an afterthought - it’s whatever you see on your tax return after your accountant works their magic. But what if there was a way to turn a profit without completely changing how you run your business? How The Dots Joined Up For Rocky Lalvani As a Profit First Professional, I empower business owners like you to understand and systematize your numbers so that you can spend more time doing what you love. Rather than spending loads of money to hire someone to handle the financials, I help YOU to take control of your profit and your business in a way that makes sense. No financial jargon or advanced excel functions here! Together, we’ll create processes that are simple. I’m not going to ask you to change your mission as a business or fire half of your employees – we’re going to leverage the good habits you already have and put systems in place so it’s easier for you to focus on the work that matters. So where can people start first, if they are in the pulling their hair out and screaming at the numbers phase? And of course, has he ever been in the situation that his clients are and now has seen the light? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Rocky Lalvani Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Rocky Lalvani such as: Why it is so important to look at both the pounds and the penny's when building your businesses. Dont miss the small stuff. Rocky shares why it is so important to build your financial runway before you start to launch a new business. Be careful how the world perceive you, as if you are thinking too small, you will never gain the income that your talents deserve. And lastly........... If you make a hundred dollars, then you need to look at what you are left with after your costs are taken. How To Connect With Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani Website Facebook Twitter Linkedin Return To The Top Of Rocky Lalvani If you enjoyed this episode of  Rocky Lalvani why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Nick Ruiz,  Sarah Caltieri or the amazing Living The Dream Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from. Full Transcription Of Rocky Lalvani / Profit First Interview Intro 0:00 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host, live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. David Ralph 0:25 Yes, have a good morning to you. Good morning to you. Good morning to you and welcome to Join Up Dots. Thank you so much for being here. We're gonna have a good show today. And we're gonna get straight into it. Because this is something that is fundamental to business success. And it's not just fundamental to business success, it's fundamental to life success, money and money issues and how to make sure that you've got enough of it at the end of the month, so that you're not sort of screaming around saying I can't save, I can't save, I've got never got anything left. Well, today's guest is a man who believes that the money issues that cause most businesses and people to struggle can be resolved with minimum fuss. As he says, if you're wondering how any small business owner could possibly say they had leftover cash, you're not alone. Many small business owners see profit as an afterthought. It's whatever you see on your tax return RP, your accountant works their magic. But what if there was a way to turn a profit without completely changing how you run your business. Now, as a profit first professional, he empowers business owners, like you and me to understand and systematise their numbers so that you can spend more time doing what you love. Now, rather than spending loads of money to hire someone to handle the financials, he actually helps you take control of your profit and your business in a way that makes sense. No financial jargon or advanced Excel functions here. I love that advanced Excel function. Now together, we're create processes that are simple. And I'm not going to ask you to change your mission, he says, as a business or fire half of your employees, we're going to leverage the good habits you already have, and put systems in place. So it's easier for you to focus on the work that matters. So where can people start first if they pulling their hair out and screaming at the numbers phase? And of course, has he ever been in the situation that his clients are, and now has seen the light? Well, let's find out as we bring onto the show, to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Rocky Lalvani. Good morning, Rocky, how are you? Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 2:28 I am awesome. David, thank you so much for having me join you on the show today. David Ralph 2:33 I've got to get it out. It's a brain blister. How many people show Adrian Adrian at you have it must be three times a day is it? Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 2:41 It does, it happens a lot. Not as much these days as in the past, but it still does happen. David Ralph 2:47 I'll tell you why. I'm glad you don't work with me. I'd be doing it all the time, I just would not be able to stop myself. Now I'm gonna get straight into it. Because I was blown away when I was doing the research. And I put it in the intro. And I've highlighted it. So it can be my first question. But many small businesses and owners see profit as an art default. Why need Yeah. And they you know an idiot? I don't I don't get that. Tell me what's your thinking there because I run multiple businesses, some online, some brick and mortar and profits key to me, I just don't understand that thinking, tell me about it. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 3:26 most business owners don't go into business to do the business of business. They're not accountants, and they don't want to be they have whatever it is that they love, that they want to bring into the world. And more often than not what they love to do, has nothing to do with accounting and the profit side. And so they struggle with it. On top of that. We're not taught money. I have a Bachelor of Science in economics and an MBA. We weren't taught how to build wealth. They don't, you know, you go to school for all these years for what to get a job. But do they teach you money in those years of school? I don't know what it's like in England, but in the United States, we don't teach money in school very often. And so I think that is the underlying problem. It's a taboo subject. David Ralph 4:16 But profit. It's key, isn't it? You look at your overheads you look at your expenses. You know, for example, I run a brick and mortar business, I bought it. It's been going about 40 years, and I bought it about a year and a half ago. And literally every day I look at it, and I'm paying business first. I'm taking profits out so that I can build up a nest egg. So when the taxman comes or the accountants or whatever, I know that I've got the tax return and stuff. And I look at it as a kind of a game where I think to myself like okay, I need to buy X amount of stock, can we get a different supplier so like, I can reduce the amount that I'm paying on there? can I increase that The profit margin of that 150% per item more you know it to me, it's like an amazing game of Monopoly, where you're looking at it. I've never been taught that the only business success or Money Advice I've been taught was what my mom said to me take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves. And I think that's just isn't it. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 5:24 It's true, you do have to take care of the pennies. And a lot of people don't have that attitude of being careful with the small stuff. At the same time, some people will be very good with the pennies, and they'll mess up the pounds. So you have to watch both ways that you're not making big mistakes. Because business big mistakes are what blow you up. You're a rarity. If I look at business owners, and I was shocked to learn this, when I learned this, I literally almost fell over 80% of business owners are not looking at their financials. 15% of business owners are looking at their financials, but they don't understand exactly what they're seeing. They've got some idea, but not a perfect idea. You're part of the 5% that know your numbers, look at your numbers, understand your numbers and make decisions on your numbers. And that's probably why you've had so much success. David Ralph 6:21 You know, I don't do the accountancy, I've got an accountant. And he's very good. I've had three accountants, the first one was more interested in showing me his new iPhone, that I was probably buying him. And then the second second one I just didn't trust. And then the last one is He's really good. So the accountancy side I don't get involved in he just tells me what the tax is. But the basic day to day is key. Now for somebody who's starting a business, let's take it right back to sort of basics. Somebody is thinking of starting a business and up to this point, they've been an employee, where at the end of each month, they get a wage, and it comes in, and they never query about their human resources have paid the right tax or whatever. It's just what they've got, before they even start. Is there something that I can do Aki, in your view, that can actually set out the foundations for both their personal life and their business life? But when they're sort of moving forward? What What can I actually do, which is a really good first step. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 7:21 So a first step, I think, is to make sure you're on a strong financial foundation. So if you're looking to walk out of a job and start a business, I think the first thing you need to realise is that this is a long journey. And more often than not, it's probably going to take you three years. So my question to you is, how are you going to survive for three years? How are you going to get through that period of time. And if you can't, and you don't have a plan? Well, before you leap, make sure you have a plan. I mean, you can jump out of an aeroplane anytime you want without a parachute. But you can only do it once, right? If you have a parachute, you can do it many times. So before you leap and start, make sure you've got a parachute that's going to carry you for three years. As you build your business. The second thing is put pen to paper and figure out all of the numbers, right? Nobody creates a business plan that that creates a business that's destined for bankruptcy, everyone puts together a business plan that shows success. So put together your business plan. And then really pressure test all your numbers and your costs, and go to some other business owners and show it to them that are in the same industry and say, I'm looking to start a business. Here are what my numbers look like, what am I missing? Is this realistic? And how long do you think it's going to take me to achieve that? At the bottom is the financial foundation, you go into business to make a profit? And you should be up front with that. Is this doable? And is it realistic? Too often we go in with these big wide eyes, you know, Oh, look at that guy. He's got a seven figure business. He's blowing it out. He said he only works four hours a day. Most of those people are lying. Be honest with you, right? Yeah, they're they've got a seven figure business and they're spending seven figures on it, which means at the end of the day, they're barely making any money and who wants to work hard for nothing. David Ralph 9:25 One of the things that we do in our business coaching or where we create online businesses and one of the things that probably drags my clients down a bit because I they all seem to build I get the feeling that they want to steam into building websites and the sexy stuff. And I always say to them, what should keep the lights on bigger if you take away all the luxuries of Netflix and Amazon Prime and all the things that we think that we should add in a Starbucks coffee, just pay your bills. What is that bigger and then how many clients do we need to get to pay for that? Bigger. And it's one of those things that I think is kind of common sense starting a business by thinking, what do I need to survive? And I speak to some people and they go, yeah, 12 million a month, 12 million a month. And I go, No, you don't? You don't need 12 million a month. Yeah, that's what I'm aiming for. I said, great. I am Papa, I am for 12 million a month. But what do you need to keep the lights on? And that is something that people can start working on, isn't it, where they do their personal budget, and reduce memberships and gym things and stuff that we just waste on a monthly basis to bring that bigger down, so that they got that cut and dried? I need three clients a month to pay for this? Where are those clients and start working towards them? Do you agree Rocky? Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 10:47 I do agree. But I'm going to caution people. David Ralph 10:51 You say you agree, but there was I knew you weren't agree. I could see that. I've been married for 50 years. And there was that woman's vibe in your voice? Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 11:03 Here is my caution. Okay, most business owners look at top line revenue, and think that's what they're going to take home. So when you say how many clients? Do I need to cover my basics? It's not, it's not okay, I have three clients that pay $1,000 a month, I have $3,000 coming in. Yeah. And my monthly costs that I need to cover 3000 your revenue in is not your revenue that you can actually spend, you're going to have to spend money to get those $3,000. So what is your net number that's coming out of those clients? And how many do you need to where does that net come out so that you can cover your monthly not? It's not I tell business owners if you have a 5% profit margin, for every additional dollar you spend, you need $20 in revenue. And I don't think that sinks in that top line revenue is not equal to spendable dollars. So that's my only caution on that is how much revenue? How much is your top line going to generate bottom line that's going to allow you to survive at home. And that's my my only caveat to that. Well, I agree David Ralph 12:17 with your caveat, I hate to say that Rocky, because I like to argue with every every guest I have on. But I do totally agree. So this is going to be like a tennis match, I'm now going to bounce it back like Phaedra to net Tao is coming back across to you. Now when somebody starts, you don't know the expenses. You know, I'm still blown away by what came out of the woodwork. But I just didn't know I needed to do and pay for on a monthly basis because I've never done it. So how does somebody out there come up with that bigger of yes, I do need this to pay the bills at home. But I also need this to pay the bills for the business. Because I don't know what bills I'm going to have because I've never done this business before. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 13:01 And that's why I said number one, come up with a business plan. And number two, go show your business plan to people who are doing the business you're doing. And ask them if it's realistic. And it's real, you know, in b2c, so business to consumer sales, prices are generally low. But if you go b2b, everything costs 10 times more. So be aware of that if you want somebody to build you a business website, they're probably going to charge you a lot of money. And go go shop around say how much does it cost to build a website, go look at all the software. These days, everyone is buying so much software, oh, I need an email programme, I need a CRM, I need all these different things that you can buy, all those things add up very, very quickly. And then credit card fees, you know, the credit card companies taking a cut off the top. If you've got an account on one of these selling platforms, what are their fees? So do the research in and then go ask people and you know, in today's world, we're so much more connected than ever before. There's online forums for business people, there's business coaches, sometimes it may just be worth it to go to a business coach upfront. And just pay them to review your plan to say is this realistic, but there's tonnes of information out there, you've got to you've got to put down your numbers. So don't just go to somebody and ask questions. Do your homework first. Create your plan and then go ask five people is my plan realistic and don't go ask your mother go as somebody doing the business that you want to do? Is this realistic? Now David Ralph 14:44 in classic Join Up Dots territory, we're gonna bounce back and move away from the content more tsl. So I was reading your about page. And one of the things that you mentioned on your about page and I do like about pages is the fact that The world changed and you didn't keep up with the changes of the world lesson learned you say, keep up with the world. Now. Tell us about the rocky before you started what you always you know, putting your hands in your pocket and bringing out mops and and shackles and trying to sort of barter your wife for services, you know, how did you actually operate? When did you actually get your money acumen. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 15:28 So, I grew up in a in a slightly different situation. We're immigrants to the United States. And my parents came here a long time ago when I was a little kid. And they were starting over for their second time. And so they had $25, in a lot of their friends came over from India around the same time. And as I was growing up, I watched them quickly move up the financial ladder. But the parents would get together and they would talk about money, they would talk about how much they were making, how much they were spending. And so I had financial conversations as a kid, and I just whatever reason, I wanted to be a millionaire as a kid. And that was my goal. And I would read the Wall Street Journal, I would go get jobs as a kid, I was very entrepreneurial, in that I would go into New York City buy stuff, bring it back, mark it up 100% and sell it to my schoolmates. So I was always flush with cash, went to college, and then and then I fell into the trap of the enemy of greatest good. And so I kind of wanted to start a business, but I didn't know how. And so I got a job. And the job went pretty well. And so I followed that for quite a few years. And then I In the meantime, I started building my site businesses, and they It took years of side businesses before I went full time. So it was a process and I'm a slow learner, unfortunately. David Ralph 17:01 And did you do the thing? Did you reach out to other people and say to them, you know, this is what I'm thinking of doing? Is my plan, right? Or is this something you've learned from experience? Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 17:12 So it is, yeah, I The problem was, I was slow doing all of that, you know, looking backwards, had I done it faster, I would have had much faster success. But yeah, I did go and I would constantly read like I would get on the forums and read how other people were doing things. And when we started in our real estate business, a big part of what we did was to run the numbers down to the thing and actually do the math. But on top of doing the math, we built in risk tolerance. So we would add up and say, okay, we think it's gonna cost us $20,000. To do all of this, add another 10% to the budget, because we forgot something. So we're gonna budget for 22,000. when we'd go selling costs, we go, well, the realtor is going to take six, and it's going to be another percent. But something's going to come up. So let's make that number 10%. You know, I don't think we need to replace the roof. But let's go ahead and budget for the roof anyway, just in case we have to so we would kind of we would calculate for overspending. And then we would come in below budget. So we did do a lot of that stuff. And I did go. And that's the other problem, though. Because as you as you watch some of these things, as you listen to some people, they don't know their numbers. So when they're giving you numbers, they think they're giving you the right numbers, they don't even know they're around. So be careful who you listen to always look at who that person is, are they financially successful? Or do they look financially successful? Because that's two separate things. And and I think that's where sometimes we get caught off guard. So yeah, go pressure, test your numbers. It's a big part of it, I think. And then the other problem I had, especially in the beginning was underpricing, my services. I didn't realise how much people were willing to pay for good service. So I undervalued myself, and that is something else that I think we tend to do. David Ralph 19:16 I think everyone goes through that, you know, I know I certainly went through that. And what I offer now to people, they generally will come back later and say, gee, you know, somebody else is charging x y Zed. But, you know, it's it's one of those things that you have to grow into your own personal belief that the value that you are providing is worth the money. And I just don't think that we have that at the start. I certainly didn't. You know, I look back at some of the things that I did in the early days. I was basically bending over for $50. You know, it was it was like nothing really and the amount of value that I was providing for that. And what I found Rocky and I talk about this a lot is you get the sky customers, you get the terrible ones, the ones that just argue with you all the time, and they want more of a more of a more, when somebody actually pays you value, your life becomes easier, because they do the work, they listen to you. And they turn up on time. They just become better customers don't know. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 20:20 They do. And you know, that's one of the surprising things. And I've heard speakers talk about this a lot. If you undercharge, people don't think you're good. So the price you pay signals, how good you are at something. And I've heard many times people say, you know, especially for like corporate speakers, they wouldn't get hired because they were charging too little. And the company thought, well, we want a $20,000 speaker, you're not a $20,000 speaker, because you're only charging 5000, you're not worth it. So be careful how you how the world perceives your value. And the people who are willing to pay you more are exactly what you talk about. They are better customers. And so the harder you work, the less you make, because you're in that grind, customer, you know, the less you work, the more value it's perceived, the easier life becomes. And I think that's a lesson learned. And we don't always believe that up front. But but it's very, very true, David Ralph 21:23 is true. But they don't know the answer of how to give people that personal belief. You know, I've grown into it. I've been through the journey. I've been doing this for nearly 20 years now on and off with different things. And so I understand the mechanism, I can provide the value somebody can come along, I will give them what they deserve. But I don't think I could have just done that. Unless I'd been through the struggle and learn how it all works. I don't think that you can just have that belief. right at the beginning. Do Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 21:58 you know what, again, there are certain people who do and they just go for it. And there are others who kind of have to work through the ladder. The question is, and again, I told you that I struggled with this was moving through that ladder faster. And until you break through those barriers, it's difficult. And that's why sometimes having coaches or trainers or mentors or reading books to help you break through your barriers, is the biggest thing I tell most people, the biggest obstacle you will face is the mirror. Because it's you that's holding you back. It's not no one else in the world is holding you back except yourself. You've got to overcome yourself. And when you do that, that's when greatness happens. David Ralph 22:48 That says some words that really helped me every day. We're here again, Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey 22:52 my father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don't want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love. David Ralph 23:19 Now, what interests me with view Rocky, and it interests me with so many people, but a business only has to be a simple transaction of value to somebody else. You know, I always reference there's that lady on Netflix, Marie Kondo, I think her name is my wife was obsessed with her. And all she did was teach out of throw stuff away and tidy your drawers up. And she's made millions. And I used to think it's a business, you know, do people pay for that? And then there's this other group on Netflix that my wife's interested in, but just teach you how to put your clothes in varying colour schemes. And I think myself doing all right as well, with yourself when you started your business, did you feel that you had to throw the kitchen sink at it? Did you try to provide more value and actually the customer actually requires and in many ways, confusing the customer because they didn't really totally understand what you was offering. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 24:21 That does happen, right? Because I think in the beginning, in the beginning, they'll partially you need to build raving fans. So in that sense, I think you need to deliver more value, especially up front so that you can get yourself established because your best advertising is a customer well served. They're going to go tell everyone how great their decision was to work with you or to buy from you. at the same point. The other struggle is being crystal clear on what you do in how you do it. I think too often we make our messages You too complex, you need to make your messages such that a five year old can understand what you do that grandma can understand what you do. So there's there's two nuances to that I feel between the two, by the way that Jim Carrey story, that was the driving factor behind me, from the time I was a kid, I used to read the Wall Street Journal. And I would every time we had a recession, you would see people in their 50s lose their job. They were at the height of their career. And they didn't know how to pivot, because they thought they had safety. And then they would struggle and things would go wrong for them. And I was always like, I want to be at that point, when I'm 50 years old, that I have enough financial wealth that I can tell the world go screw yourself, if you fire me, I can go do whatever I choose. And so that was actually kind of a motivating factor for me to build wealth over time, was knowing that I could get fired at the top and that I needed to make sure that I had a strong foundation under David Ralph 26:08 its I used to work with Phil Collins, the drummer from Genesis, he sister in law, Lynn, I used to work with her and I used to know his brother, remember Phil Collins in in the old days on you with me with this Rocky? Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 26:24 I am so I grew up my high school years were Phil Collins, I have all his albums, I listened to all his music. I have one of his concert CDs where it's he and Chester doing a drum duet. If David Ralph 26:40 you notice that, well, Lynne was working with me. And she was a lovely lady. She really was. And the owner of the company was really bad to a really bad. And then one day she came in and she said, Phil has given me my f off money as she called it. And she said from that moment, and she never told me how much Phil Collins gave them. But he must have given them a fair whack. Because she said from that moment, it was just liberation, I knew that no matter what happened, I could just say, screw you basically and be gone. And I always used to think about, oh, yeah, why do people not build to that, because I could never go back. If somebody offered me a job. Now I'm never going to take it Not in a million years. Because there's too much about being in control of your own destiny, which is, which is absorbing to me. It's powerful. It's It's intense, every single day. But the majority of people who are finding it out now because of the situation or we're going through, just haven't got that fpu money ever, not even a small is not even an F money. They haven't got either of it. Profit First Expert Rocky Lalvani 27:49 And and that's very true. People are not taught to build wealth. Even business owners are not taught to build wealth, they put all their eggs in that one basket. They don't they really struggle with the concept of remove money from your business, and use it to build wealth ou

When it comes to living the dream, do you ever stop and consider whether the life you are living is actually the life that you really want to be living? Do you consider that you can get bigger and bigger achievements in your life (and actually beat yourself up because your not) Well that is what's today's episode of Join Up Dots is all about as you will hear. This all came about, after I got told by a businessman that when asked "How are you doing?" and getting the reply from myself of "Yeah great living the dream" he stated. "David if you think you are living the dream it's only because you aren't dreaming big enough!" So how do you start living the dream if you are already 100% believing that you already have the dream? Is being content and happy enough or are we letting ourselves down? Well, I think that being content and happy is one of the most amazing states that you can achieve in your life. It may not seem sexy and inspirational but it is amazing. Waking up without any stresses and pressures. Knowing that you can pay all your bills with no issue at all. Feeling healthy and fit. Is that not the best way of being, or is living the dream our right to work harder and harder to gain more and more. I really don't have the right answer to this, as I suppose living the dream is so personal to each and everyone of us, we should never be told by others whether it is right or wrong. We should look deep into our hearts and know if we are being true to ourselves or not. We should look at what we have around us, and think "Is this making me happy or is it just more stuff to maintain and nurture?" Let us know by dropping us  a line, so we can see how many of our listeners are living the dream and how many of them or simply helping others to live the dream as they struggle through on their own. Thanks for reading David Ralph

Internet mastery is the discussion of the day with Ian Pribyl, who is todays guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He is a man who quite simply has mastered and can fully explain how to start cracking it online. The reason I know this? I have been reading his new book "From Nothing" how to start your online business for less than $100. This book is full of quick and useful tips and advice that take you all the way through finding your idea, to making your sales flow effortlessly. As he says "FIMP  (which stands for the Free Internet Marketing Project) is a passion project of mine. How The Dots Joined Up For Ian It was born out of an industry full of scammers who were cleaning out consumers' life savings under the promise of "getting rich quick" I created FIMP to empower online business seekers and save them from having to purchase any more "make money online" products. FIMP teaches everything a person needs to know — from absolutely zero knowledge to building a successful, profitable internet business. Now with a history that started a a bartender, and meandered through a series of sales and customer service roles he has taken what works offline and detailed it brilliantly as an online resource. Get your idea, do your market research, define the product the list goes on and on. So does he have a history of online failures and successes throughout his life, or did he hit a home run straight away. And where does he see most people go wrong? Aiming for a bar that's too high, or one too narrow with no room to expand. Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Ian Pribyl Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Ian Pribyl such as: Why it is so important to understand the core essence of what makes any business such by value. Forget about metrics and financial goals and focus on goals that you can monitor and master.  Why Ian feels the level of connection has increased online. People aren't sitting behind an automation. And lastly..... Why so many people miss the opportunities that their lives have given them which can be turned into a business opportunity. 

How to make money online without paying anything was posed to us today via a question received by email. It said "Dear David and Join Up Dots, I have been listening to your show on my commute to work everyday and have a question. Is it possible to advise how to make money online without paying anything as I would love to start my own business but i dont have anything that i can invest into it. Do you think this is possible nowadays? Should I think of something else before I think of doing this? Kind Regards James, South Africa Well in todays podcast episode we start breaking down some of the things that you can do to start making online today, whilst not using much of your own. There are literally hundreds of ideas that you can utilise online to get the cash, but most of them do take a long time to make a fulltime living. You are much better to take things seriously and start building your own online business that can change your life forever. So lets start with the top five. How To Make Money Online Without Paying Anything Idea One Get offline and start working on the oldest form of business creation BEFORE you bring it online. Relationship building and word of mouth connection have been used for thousands of years to create commerce. Whilst there isnt anyway that you can really scale a business in the long term without investing into it, you can certainly start for nothing. Think about what you have in your current armoury which can be used to provide value to someone else. Or perhaps you could borrow something from somebody and share the profits with them. Lawn mowing, painting, cleaning are all service based industries that are almost free to start. Think of all the Uber drivers in the world at the momentum being paid to use their own cars to ferry customers around. It may not be what you want to do when you ask the question how to make money online without paying anything it gets you earning cash to invest back. Make Money Online Without Your Own Cash Idea Two Google has a great tool which we have used ourselves in the past, and that is BLOGGER Using this free tool you can create a website basically for nothing, to start gaining traffic into your business for free. Once you have done this, then literally the world is your oyster when it comes to building online wealth. We started an online business this way and made around $30,000 per month, linking to Ebay to gain our traffic. The key to everything online (and I guess offline) is how can you provide value to someone who would recognise that value and pay for it. If you start simply trying to make cash then you will struggle for sure...its Value all the way that really works. Do your market research to find your ideas and then build upon them to get the traffic flowing. You can use this method to add affiliate links, whereby other companies pay you for the traffic they get from you. Adsense used to amazing for this, but this method has fallen down the pecking order over the years for many different reasons. Be Careful With This One But It Works Idea Three This is one of these ideas that have been used for ages by people around the world to make free cash online. Its not something that we recommend, without a strong caveat: You have to be sure of who you are and how you operate. The idea is based around being offered free bets by gambling companies. Within the UK, you have the ability to play around with matched bets, whereby you are betting on both outcomes win or lose. The idea is you dont care what the result is, you just want to get your hands on the free cash that is on the table afterwards. As we say when you ask the question how to make money online without paying anything this maybe not what you should be doing if you cant trust yourself to stay in control. But it would have been wrong for us not to mention it at least. There is a very good guide that walks you through this step by step here Earning Free Money Online Idea Four It might sound amazing, but it is true. Nowadays companies are willing to pay you for searching on the internet. Yes, simply go over to Google (you wont be paid for this search and type in "paid for searching the web") and see the opportunities that appear for you. The idea is the companies are splitting the profits from the products that you buy, or using the data that you leave to market to other people. You are giving them access to your history and internet traces. Now this might not be everyone's cup of tea for sure, but it made us sit up and take notice as basically it is "freecash" in the simplest terms. Similar to this is the cashback sites for using when shopping online which are very popular in the UK Making Free Money Online Idea Five Ebay arbitrage is a great little thing to get into. Basically when you think about How To Make Money Online Without Paying Anything you dont really think of Ebay, but you can do it for sure. All around the world Ebay has different market places selling the same products at different prices based on the exchange rate of currency in that country. So you can do this two ways, either find some old stuff you have hanging around and then search for the sites for where your profit will be higher. Now you maybe thinking "ooh that sounds like a lot of hard work, but there are tools around that you can use to make this simpler You can try out this one here from Aribtrageinfo.com that will also help you out with the same idea on Amazon. 

Consumer behaviour theory is one of those things that puzzle so many people working online today. What makes a customer buy from you, or order your services with the minimum of effort ? Well in todays podcast we break down consumer behaviour theory into it's simplest form. Best of all, you already are an expert on this, as we all do exactly the same things. We are all consumers and spend our days searching, buying, checking reviews and making a decision before clicking the buy button. But i guess like all things, when it's stuff that we naturally do then consumer behaviour theory is a hidden secret to us. It's too close for us to see. No more, my friends. This is a very deep subject, too deep for this first dive into the subject, so let's keep to the key elements. Just understand these will maximise your chance of making a great living online.

Tosca Reno is todays guest joining us on the Join Up Dots podcast. She is a lady who quite simply has powered her way to a level of success most people dream about. All the while, life was throwing at her personal and business tragedies that would have stopped most people in their tracks. She is the New York Times best-selling author of Your Best Body Now and the Eat-Clean Diet®series, and The Start Here Diet, selling more than two million copies globally. She is also the pioneer of the Eat-Clean Movement and one of North America’s most renowned health and wellness experts leading the pack in the battle against obesity. But what fascinated me and is perfect for a show like Join Up Dots was this wasn't an obvious journey. Until almost touching her 40's, our guest life was as far away from where she is today How The Dots Joined Up For Tosca Tosca’s passion for championing the Eat-Clean Lifestyle began when she took control of her life and transformed her body from overweight to strong and fit at age 40. Unfulfilled and down on herself, Tosca began a lifelong commitment to embracing a healthier, well-balanced life of Eating Clean and fitness. Driven by tenacity and fuelled by positive energy, Tosca gave herself permission to enjoy life and experience and accept a new version of herself. Since her spectacular transformation, Tosca has spent over a decade sharing her journey with others and helping them lose weight and get healthy. So throughout her journey, there was a strong lack of personal belief and understanding of what she could bring to the world. As she says "In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined this happening to me.   I was just an ordinary housewife living an ordinary life." So what made her late husband see something in her, that she couldn't see herself at the time? And where do people start feeling great about themselves if they think that its going to be hard and expensive to get going? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Tosca Reno Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Tosca Reno such as: Tosca shares how she had to find her "why" by tackling small challenges and overcoming the mindset issues that often stop progress. We discuss how the branding of "Eat-Clean" came about, and share the brilliance and clarity of the message she shares. Why it is so important to rest in between bouts of exercise to give yourself the greatest chance of peak fitness. And lastly........... The three easy steps that we can all take to make a difference in our fitness and mental health.

Tra Williams is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. As he says "I’m a former corporate executive and author with a passion for entrepreneurship, business strategy, and franchising.   I’ve been quoted or published in Forbes, Bloomberg, and Financial Markets Weekly along with more than fifty other online and print publications.  Now with most people that appear on the show they have to find a reason to ignites their passion and our guest has done that. He can see from the News and general world activity that things are moving away from the corporate world that we have lived with for generations. How The Dots Joined Up For Tra He goes onto say "The widening gap between entrepreneurship and employment in America is the largest in history. Each year, fewer and fewer people start their own business. Right now, 93% of Americans work for the other 7%. The US is one of the most entrepreneurial countries, yet self-employment in America ranks among the lowest in the world. Now i dont have the stats for the rest of the world, but certainly from the UK i would suggest it is similar So do people actually have the personal skills and strength to make a go of their own business, or has the world gone soft? And where should they start first, blindly ploughing into it all, or simply accepting that focused action with a plan is the key Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Tra Williams Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Tra Williams such as: Why so many people confuse the concept of being busy and being productive, which can often hold people back from personal achievement. Tra shares the phrase "you wont remember the times of mowing the lawn or working in an office, so start climbing that mountain". Powerful stuff. Tra tells us the fur most powerful pillars of entrepreneurship, they seem simple but can change lives.  And lastly….. Belief is reverse engineered....take tiny steps and see yourself change BEFORE your customers get to see you in the way you want them to see.

Things That Stop You From Achieving Your Goals? Things That Stop You From Achieving Your Goals is something that not many people talk about on a podcast. Most of the time its all about "Action taking, money making and success, success, success". But why is it that even when you want to change direction and make a difference in your life something inside stops you from getting there. Well in todays episode we try to break things down, so you can make a mental checklist of the ones that you might be struggling with. So that is the subject of todays episode of Join Up Dots and of course you can hear the full answer on todays episode. Things That Stop You From Achieving Your Goals Breakdown Goal Stopper 1: Seeing The Big Picture And Not The Dots Through Join Up Dots we speak to so many people who want to start their own businesses. You can see the fear in their eyes when they tell us about their dreams of what they want to achieve. The issue of course is we dont start at the dream. We start at the furthest part away from the dream, when everything is possible and nothing is achieved. If you find yourself frightened by what needs to be achieved, then write a list of the first five things that you need to do to get started. Dont even consider the end goal, just a few things to tick off to start building belief. Goal Stopper 2: Fear Of Failure One of the major things that stop you from achieving your goals is the fear of failure. It is so much easier to say "Things aren't possible" before you ever start, as of course you wont ever fail. The world is littered with the dreams of men who never ever started. What a shame, as nobody knows if they can make their dreams come true when they start. But they do start, and then keep on working towards their end goal. Dont be put off by the fear of failure as you will never ever know if you are right or not. Goal Stopper 3: Trying To Be Perfect Perfection never really occurs in life or in business. Even great works of art, revered by experts across the world are probably frowned upon by their makers. The Mona Lisa is probably not bang on what the painter wanted to achieve. I can promise you this, but no matter what you create it wont be finished. You will always look at it with longing eyes of "I need to do that, I wish I had done that" Dont get hung up on perfection. Do what you need to to get things out into the world and then polish as you go. Goal Stopper 4: Excuses Things That Stop You From Achieving Your Goals dont really exist. Or at least you dont know they exist until you come across them by doing the work. As you will hear on the episode, a lady friend threw up excuses before anything. She didnt even think, do, work, take action anything. The excuses kept on coming, to which David Ralph just smiled and walked away from them. Excuses are things that stop you from achieving your goals more than anything else. Goal Stopper 5: Expectations On of the truths in starting your own business, is it will always take twice as long as you expected. You also will spend more money than you expected too, before ever getting the results you expected. The key to success is simply "It is what it is" You will be exactly where your efforts have placed you, no matter what you are hoping and expecting. Get your head down, do the work, enjoy the celebrations that your achievements bring to you, but dont expect.

Dirk Van Reenen is today's guest on the Join Up Dots business coaching podcast. He is the founder an visionary of an amazing and motivational company Bergflow. Bergflow is a company that helps other businesses tackle huge obstacles, whilst finding the least resistance. As the name says "BERG" - Mountain (in Afrikaans - South African). It's a symbol of power, magnitude and vastness. A mountain represents challenges, and challenges represent opportunities. Whilst Flow - Known as "the zone", is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, involvement, and enjoyment in the process. Dirk is an award-winning entrepreneur and sought after international business consultant and speaker. Launching and selling several startup companies and was also one of the top Brokerage CEO's for Keller Williams Realty International, leading one of the fastest growing brokerages for Keller Williams worldwide in 2016. How The Dots Joined Up For Dirk But as we see time and time again in Join Up Dots, there comes a time when the path starts going in a different direction. And this happened to our guest, as back in 2016 , Dirk discovered a deeper purpose and re-evaluated everything he was doing and the path he was on. He made some huge changes including resigning from his corporate CEO position, shutting down one of his businesses, and relocating across the United States to launch BERGflow in January of 2017. Today, Dirk has been blessed to work with companies in 13 states, 4 countries, and on 3 continents, following his purpose: Empowering Entrepreneurs, CEO's, and Leaders to build powerful and productive teams and helping them grow and scale their businesses while giving them a better quality of life with more fulfilment. And it seems that Bergflow is the legacy work that his life has been building up to. So when he decided to throw it all in the air and reinvent his life was it truly scary time, or liberation from start to finish? And looking back what could he have done differently if he had the wisdom of experience at his fingertips? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Dirk van Reenen Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Dirk van Reenen such as: Dirk shares the steps he took back in 2013 to block out distractions and change his outlook to find true passion and mastery. Why if you really want to find the true passion in your career, you simply must endure the pain that comes with starting something new. We discuss the importance of knowing yourself, and then surrounding yourself with people who make you better at being yourself. And lastly…….. When you can stop looking and comparing with others how your life can feel light and free.

What is success is one of those questions that we ask ourselves more and more nowadays. Its not surprising, as from the moment we go to school we are being pushed towards success. Teachers say to us "If you don't work hard you wont get the results you need to get that great job" Parents says to us "How are you going to afford to own your house if you dont become successful" The issue is of course, most of these visions of success aren't our own. These are what others people have in their mind is success and they dont have any right to try to push it on to us. It's just wrong. So in todays episode of Join Up Dots we answer the following listener question, and of course you can hear the full answer on todays episode. The What Is Success Listener Question Dear David, I am long time listener of Join Up Dots even though I am only seventeen years old. I started listening as I was hoping for help in finding success. My parents are very driven people, and want me to get success in my life. They worked hard for what they have in life, and want to see me do the same. But what is success? This is my problem as I am willing to work hard at something, but not if its not what I want to do or achieve. Do you think that being happy and poor is as good as rich and unhappy, as i feel my life is going in that direction. So what is success to you David? I know what is success to my parents and family, but I dont think it is the same for me. Thank you Putri, Kula Lumpa, Malaysia So Have You Defined Your Own Success? If you are inspired by todays episode of Join Up Dots and are now pondering your own definition of success then we can help you. Simply head over to the Freedom Starter course on our Free Training Resource and start doing the Love Like and Hate exercise. This can really set your direction in amazing ways and give you the clarity that you need. The second thing you can do, is head over to episode 207 of Join Up Dots and listen to the amazing AJ Leon. This is an amazing episode that reveals the step that one man took to create his own rules and find his own thing in life.

Dr Eric Cole is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. World Renowned Cybersecurity Expert with more than 30 years of network security experience, Dr. Eric Cole is a distinguished cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker who helps organizations curtail the risk of cyber threats. Many of the foundational principles of cybersecurity were developed by Dr. Cole. He has worked with a variety of clients ranging from Fortune 50 companies, to top international banks, to the CIA, for which he was a professional hacker. Yes interestingly enough this is the classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper who by breaking into systems actually became the go to person to stop others from doing the same. How The Dots Joined Up For Dr Eric Cole While he started his career on the offense, he is now fully dedicated to understanding the adversary so he can provide cost effective solutions that actually work. As a pioneer in the area of cybersecurity he has been inducted into the Infosec hall of Fame, awarded the Cyber Wingman Award from the US Air Force, received multiple accommodations from the CIA and was part of the commission on cybersecurity for President Obama. He has been the featured speaker at many security events and also has been interviewed by several chief media outlets such as CNN, CBS News, FOX New and 60 Minutes. So although he was a professional hacker, how did he actually convince people that he wasn't a bank robber or terrorist and could be trusted. And is this something that only big companies need to be concerned with, or does the wannabe entrepreneur also need to pay attention. Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Dr Eric Cole

In today's episode we start discussing the big failing that most companies and business fail with. That is the Value Ladder, that takes a customer on a journey to more and more expensive products. You see so many businesses hope the best by allowing for a huge drop off in their business through visitors disappearing from their services. They land they look around and they depart forever. So what can you do to make sure they hang around and become a potential customer somewhere down the line. You build a funnel and value ladder as you will see in today's show.   The Email That We Received Hi David, i have waited for years to drop you a line. Many times I have hovered over the keyboard with fingers twitching and yet, something held me back from typing. Isn't it funny how something so easy and simple can be so difficult. Just like you mentioned the other day when you spoke about walking up to a girl or boy and asking them on a date. Your throat closes up, Your mind goes blank, and you just turn red, and turn on your toes. Anyway, today I am feeling brave and so want to ask you about something you said the other day (i apologise I forget what show it was as I listen to several a day) You mentioned something about creating a business which is very black and white. You lose potential customers without being able to do anything about it. Is this because of the business, the products, or simply the wrong customers. I guess you can see that this comment lead to a major epiphany with me. In fact i sat back in my chair at work (yes, I do listen in the cubicle longing for a escape everyday) and thought long and hard about it. I have a business that operates at the weekend. I offer nail services for ladies, and although I post my prices and what I offer (and I know that I am cheaper than most of the other companies in my town) it is limping along. Some Saturdays are good, whilst others leave me sitting on my own in the office for eight hours waiting for any drop ins. Do you think that I have done something fundamentally wrong with the business to make this occur? Thanks so much for what you do everyday to keep us mind zombies from despair. Keep em coming and ill keep on listening Jen Felder, Kenya

Amy O'Brien is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. She is a lady who has recently taken the plunge and left her secure and reliable wage check to start her own business A Life By Design Financial Services. As she says to her clients everyday "You deserve to live a life that reflects the values you cherish. We can help you develop a financial plan that allows you to pursue the quality of life you desire. Financial planning is a journey we take together. Establishing and pursuing goals is a dynamic, vibrant process that takes time to develop. As your advocate, our role is to advise, support, encourage and guide. When you succeed, we succeed. A true win - win situation But there was a time that this mission wasn't one that she was living herself. She most certainly didn't live a life that reflected her own personal values and like millions of people around the world found herself directed by the wishes of others. Early mornings, long commutes and late nights were the norm. How The Dots Joined Up For Amy  However unlike millions of others she didn't just accept that her life was always going to be this way and took big action.  Believe me, taking this kind of action is never easy, and this wasn't an easy plunge to take. Even though for many years the doubts surrounded her whether it was the right thing to do to stay where she was. Was this life that she had seen herself living as a younger woman? Was she providing the kind of advice and support to her clients that she knew she could if she hadn't had her hands tied behind her back? Well she took the plunge and launched her fledgling business and now is in the process of growing her client base, getting her name out there and building stability in hers, her families and her clients lives. So what finally pushed her over the edge and made her fix her mind on taking control of her life? And where has been the hardest parts of starting a business in such a regulatory industry? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Amy O'Brien Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Amy O'Brien such as: We discuss the energy levels that are we required to use when we play a role in our career and do things that aren't suitable for us. Why internally Amy struggled with finding her passions even though it was right under her nose her all the time. Amy shares her steps to attracting her first customer and how simplicity is always the way forward when starting a business. And lastly.... We share the biggest shift that we have to go through when starting our own businesses and that is truly believing in ourselves.

I'm in a funk is one of those things that most of us feel every now and again. You know that feeling of just being out of sorts and losing perspective of what is good in life? Well we received an email from a listener of Join Up Dots, who isn't just feeling the "I'm in a funk" vibe for a few days. This listener has been in this state of mind for a few years now. So lets start with the question and then of course you can listen to the show to hear the answer. Listener Question Dear David, i am reaching out to you to see if you can share some insight as to the steps I can take to change my current situation. I'm in a funk. Mentally and physically I am feel more and more lethargic everyday, and ill be honest I stopped listening to your show for about a year as your chirpiness and positivity started to make my skin crawl. I would think "Oh, just fuck off" and switch off the podcast, even though I admit i was in the wrong and knew that you were right. Now a year later, and through all the changes that have been forced upon us from powers outside of our control I want to take back the control in my life. I am sick of being the person who lets life happen to them, and want a piece of what you have. So two questions, if you have time to respond. Firstly, do you ever get into a head fuck place when you just cant shake yourself out of a slump? Do you ever think "Im in a funk" at all? And secondly what can I do to start making a difference in my life? Thank you, and sorry for switching off my your podcast as I know its the best one out there, I was just in a wrong place (and still in a wrong place) for your wisdom. J, Canada

What Is Branding In Business

The subject of What Is Branding In Business is discussed on todays podcast. This is a problem that so many people struggle with when designing an online business and spend a fortune on an expert to help them with. But they dont really need to with a little bit of thought and planning. So lets start with the question and then start breaking things down  Listener Question Dear David and everybody at Join Up Dots. Very quick question which i thought might be a good episode to do. What is branding in business? I keep on hearing it from yourself and other podcasts that i listen to, but nobody really explains it in terms that i understand. Would you be able to shed some light on this? Thank you so much Jennifer Anymore, Connecticut What Is Branding In Business Step One Branding is not an image, a logo a colour scheme or anything to do with a visual. Although it is all of those things too. Branding in business is what you do, say, react and demonstrate time and time again to your customers that makes them love and understand what you are about. From the URL of your business, through to buying a product there has to be a key simple message. What do you do that makes your customer trust you, understand you, and want to come back time and time again. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon  says this brilliantly when he says "Branding Is How Your Customer Talks About You When You Are Not In The Room" Could this be classed as integrity? Could this be classed as pure customer service? Once again it is all of these things and a lot more. What Branding Is Not Branding is not simply a logo or a colour scheme, but actually starts right from the URL of the business. Does your company name state clearly what you business is going to offer BEFORE the customer even lands on your website. For example, our business is called Join Up Dots which actually doesn't make too much sense when you first find us. How about if we called it "Online Business Made Easy"...would this make it more obvious? Yes of course it would, which is why URL's like these cost a fortune and so desired by so many businesses. Now, most of us can't afford one of these but we can get around the problem by adding an obvious slogan, and really focused images and content. Every interaction and content has to reconfirm the thing that you do that other people dont do. What Is Branding In Business - The Amazon Way When we think of Amazon do we simply think of all the goods that they sell, or do we think of the ease of buying those goods? Well for me, it is "ok, lets go to Amazon as I can have it tomorrow" Its their efficiency and ease of purchase that is the key to me using them. I dont even look at the prices as I dont care about that...i just care about getting the item quick and easily. And that is a massive part of their business and is the question that they answered with their branding. What is the customer really wanting and how can we be known for that thing more than anyone else out there. Once you get that running through your business then things become very easy indeed.

Welcome to the Join Up Dots Podcast with Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard

Subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below: Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed) If you like the show, we would be so grateful if would consider leaving the show a review in iTunes as well as Stitcher Radio.  A couple minutes of your time can help the show immensely!  Thank YOU!

Introducing Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard joins us on the Join Up Dots podcast is the Managing Director/CEO of the Napier Group, a $7M PR and marketing agency for B2B technology companies. He is a self-confessed geek who loves talking about technology. He believes that combining the measurement, accountability, and innovation that he learned as an engineer with a passion for communicating internationally means Napier can help clients achieve their marketing goals sooner. Napier is an agency that brings knowledge, experience, and insight to increase the speed prospects travel through our clients’ funnels, generating opportunities more quickly. Napier’s unique approach to campaign strategy designs-in speed to campaigns from the outset, building integrated campaigns that focus on the important tactics, whether clients need to increase awareness, generate leads or engage contacts to create opportunities. So why is there such difficulty in today's world, to market their products and services correctly through a sales funnel? And why do people simply forget to build their marketing strategy into everything that they do throughout their business? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Mike Maynard. Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard such as: Why a shop is such a perfect example of how a sales funnel works. Duplicate it and make your profits soar. Why you have to be aware that people rarely buy directly from a website. They need to be nurtured through to a sale. Why solving peoples problems is the key to everything in business. People buy to move themselves from pain. And lastly……… Mike shares the steps we need to take to make a sales funnel work effectively. Gold! How To Connect With Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard Website Instagram Linkedin Twitter Return To The Top Of Mike Maynard If you enjoyed this episode with Mike Maynard, why not check out other inspirational chat with Clayton Morris, Dorie Clark, and the amazing Niall Doherty You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy Interview Transcription For Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard David Ralph 0:01 Once upon a time, there was a guy with a dream, a dream to quit his job support himself online and have a kick ass life. Little did he know that dream would lead him into a world of struggle, burnout and debt, until he found the magic ingredient and no struggles became a thing of the past. I of course, was that person. And now My dream is to make things happen for you. Welcome to Join Up Dots. Intro 0:27 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be but somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling in Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. David Ralph 0:52 Yes, hello man. Good morning, everybody. Good morning and welcome to Join Up Dots. Thank you so much for being here is an absolute delight because If he wasn't, then I'd be a very lonely individual. But fortunately I've got another guy on the other end of the line. He's from the United Kingdom should have asked him where he's actually based, but he's got quite a posh voice. He's got quite a posh boys. So I imagine he's probably based in somewhere like heart the chair or Hampshire or something I'm guessing but we will find out. He is a guest who is the Managing Director and CEO of the Napier group as $7 million PR and marketing agency both b2b technology companies. He's also a self confessed geek who loves talking about technology. Now he believes that combining the measurement accountability and innovation, but he learned as an engineer with a passion for communicating internationally means his company Napier can help clients achieve their marketing goals sooner. Now Napier is an agency that brings knowledge, experience and insight to increase the speed prospects travel through our clients panels, generating opportunities more quickly now Napier's unique approach to capture Paint strategy today designs in speed to campaigns from the outset, building integrated campaigns that focus on the important tactics where the clients need to increase awareness, generate leads or engage contacts to create opportunities. So why is there such a difficulty in today's world to market their products and services correctly when there's all this out there for them? And why do people simply forget to build their marketing strategy into everything that they do throughout their business? Well, let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Mike Maynard. Morning Mike. Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard  2:40 morning David, thank you very much for that intro. That was great. I really enjoyed it and you were you were very nice particular about my accent, David Ralph 2:48 where you are quite posh on yo yo. So I said well, I went with heart for cheer or hemisphere whereabouts are you? Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 2:54 So I'm actually based in Kitchener, Chichester which is on the south coast, but my early years I actually grew up in Essex not a million miles away from where you are so David Ralph 3:05 you're an Essex boy where whereabouts were you from? Sir? Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 3:09 I'm so originally from Buckers Hill. Okay, so that's more Essex into London, isn't it? More Essex into London but I spent some time in my early years you mentioned I was an engineer. I actually worked in Chelmsford, for Marconi, who was an employer. So I know the area very well. David Ralph 3:29 I used to live in Chelmsford, when I was a young scallywag, gallivanting but then my wife came along and she rained me back in my gallivanting days are no more. Now we're with you, Mike. What I want to get straight to is this kind of Mystique. And what I want to do is obviously tap into your expertise on business to business but also bring it more relevant to my audience. Because we hear all the time about sales funnels, you got to have sales funnels, and they're not that hard, are they? I think people are creating them. Have a mystique about it. Well, actually, it's all about understanding your client, understanding your clients need, and building a relationship with them so that they trust you. Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 4:12 I think you're absolutely right there, David. I mean, the interesting thing is, is people talk about sales funnels or, more recently, they start calling them customer journeys. The reality is, is they are actually really simple and really straightforward sort of models of how customers decide to either work with you if you're a consultant or buy your product. And I think you know, that the main thing is just to think about how people approach buying what you're selling, which funnily enough, actually a lot of companies don't do even large companies don't really sit down and think about that they think, you know, one morning someone wakes up, sees an email and that's it, they gonna go buy, you know, a million dollar product, it just doesn't work like that. David Ralph 4:54 Now, I base everything on offline. I always think about everything and older I've kind of developed a coaching side to the business, which wasn't there in the early days, but it is there now. And I always think about a shop because I think a shop is perfect for a sales funnel strategy. You're walking down the high street, you're walking down the mall, you look at a very attractive window and you think, Oh, that's interesting are popping there. And you mosey around for a while. It's it's that kind of logic that has to be brought into the online world as well, isn't it? We've got to look appealing, but we've got to be appealing in a way that makes total sense to our ideal customer. We've got to have that shop window relevant for the right person, and not necessarily every single person that walks past. Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 5:43 It. You're absolutely right. And I think you know, a shop is a is a great model. I mean, people talk about you know, a simple funnel is, you know, sort of a four step process is a really common way people model it so they talk about generating awareness, interest, desire, action and if you think about a sharp, you know, you're not even going to look in the window if you don't really know anything about the shop, you don't think it's relevant you just walk past because there's so many other things on the high street to look at. But, you know, either someone might tell you about the shop or you know, if there's a large chain, you might see adverts or promotions, you know, you don't become aware. So as you walk past you look in the window, you see something in the window that's relevant to you then interested you take a you know, a bit more of a look and maybe wander into the shop, find out a bit more and then you decide you want to buy it and then of course, you know, the shop needs to make sure you actually buy from them. And don't walk out and buy on Amazon. So that's the action stage. So that's a really simple model. It works really well with your example the shop, but it actually works really well with almost every situation. David Ralph 6:48 So as we've nailed this episode already in seven minutes, we're just gonna offer a beer and now it's only was late in the morning but wearing this week we grew up in Essex. That's what we do. So Why are there so many difficulties? Where my Why is so many difficulties where we we've explained it perfectly in seven minutes? Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 7:10 Well, I think the answer is is is, sales funnels are really what I as an engineer will call a model, it's not real life. And so that there's, you know, two potential problems. One is people actually look at and go, I so much more complicated than that I'm gonna really complicate it make it really difficult. And actually know my head's now exploding, I can't really create this funnel that is a good model, because I think, you know, this customer did this and this customer, this and in other customer takes a different approach. And it's absolutely true that people you know, massively over complicate or on the other end, they actually find it you know, really hard even to think about those stages and they just go know, someone who passed up to the window and bought something and that's it and then they try and oversimplify it. So it's finding a model that fits because The truth is, with all these things, particularly in marketing, you're creating something that's kind of your perfect situation or perfect process. And the reality is is no customer actually follows that perfect process. Exactly. They all do something slightly different. So it's very hard to relate that to any individual customer, or potential customer. I think that's why people struggle with sales funnels. David Ralph 8:22 Should I tell you my sales funnel, Mike Sure, I tell you mine and I will blow your business out of the water and everyone will go Why would we go to Napier when? When David has got this? Basically what I do I podcast, that's the awareness. And then people come across to my website. And more often than not, people will email me and I say, Would you like a chat? And thats it really you know, it's not more complicated than that. And I just say, look, I can help you with this. I've got the answers. I've got the solutions. Some people buy, some people don't but I keep it as simple as that. Now about three years ago, I paid for a guy to create a sales funnel because I didn't under band. And I had v things going off the click funnel and things going off here and going off there. And it was triggering this triggering that, and I hated it because I didn't understand actually what was happening. It was like, operating in front of me. So I systematically dismantled it, to sort of find out why this PDF was going here and why these follow up emails were going there. And I thought to myself, ultimately, somebody just wants to have their mind put at rest, but you're fair. And so that's why I got rid of everything. And I always say to people, look, I'm happy to have a chat with you. Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 9:35 And I think that's, that's a great example of of a situation where someone to come in as a consultant, they felt they they had to demonstrate that, you know, they had the knowledge and expertise to help you and they clearly massively overcomplicated the process. And I think it's a great example of where, where, you know, you have a situation where, frankly, the sales funnel was was not really thought through I mean, your sales funnel is, is pretty straightforward, and particularly The moment because, you know, even though the number of people podcasting is growing, you know, incredibly fast. It's still a relatively niche industry. There's not a huge number of consultants, certainly with any credibility offering podcast training like you do, for example. David Ralph 10:14 Now let's take it to Napier. Because Napier obviously does on a much older scale than this. Now, how do you actually create the panel into your business? Because I was looking at your website this morning. And I was actually thinking, Okay, this is an awareness strategy that you've got, but where was the actual funnel built into your website itself? I couldn't really see it. Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 10:39 So the answer is is and I think this this relates very much to what you said, People don't buy PR agencies have a website. It's completely the wrong thing to imagine that you can automate the selling of our services, which you know, can be a significant amount of money just through website, but the sales funnel doesn't exist purely online for us. And I think it's very much the same for you, you talk about having a chat with people. You know, the reality is, is when we're working with a, you know, a large business trying to convince them to, you know, come and work with us. It's not just one chat, it can be several meetings over a period of time. I mean, quite often, you know, we start talking to someone we'd like to work with, and we think we can really help. And it could be a year or two before they actually start doing any business with us. So I think the answer is, again, it comes down to understanding how people buy and what they want. And the reality is is is where we work in marketing. They're buying advice and expertise. And again, very much like you I mean, I think, you know, you say we're different. I think we were very similar. And people are buying expertise. If they're buying expertise, they want to talk to the people who are going to give them that expertise. It's as simple as that. David Ralph 11:52 Right. So so what we I think most people out there, understand the awareness and you've got to get people to know about you now I'm actually at the moment having a 100% social media detox. I've never really been onto social media a lot. But I've been very aware due to sort of personal issues I've gone through, but my happiness levels wasn't at the right level. And I realised a lot of that was comparing my business remember people's businesses and seeing people show highlights and all that kind of stuff. So, so with my awareness, it's very much I podcast, and it comes through to me with your awareness. How do you do that? How is your marketing strategy getting people through other than appearing on people's podcasts? Of course. Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 12:38 Well, this is this is a new thing, the podcast, so I'm really hoping it's going to work. I mean, like everybody in marketing, you know, the real truth is, is that you need to experiment to find out what works. And so we try lots of different things. And the primary way we actually get to work with people is we go meet them, talk to them. Sometimes the Welcome if we can't reach them, because obviously we're working with clients around the world, and then try and keep that conversation going, quite often until they feel there's a need to come and work with us. So quite often, they might be working with a competitor. And to be honest, you know, if that competitor keeps doing a good job, they're not going to switch. So we kind of needs to be the first choice if the competitor makes a mistake, but it is about going out and meeting people. And we do do some other things. We've got quite a lot of content, you know, being a marketing company, I can talk about content marketing. And actually, that drives a lot of our, our new opportunity. So, you know, to take another example, a lot of people in America who are quite hard for us to reach because they're geographically a long way away. They'll go and Google things like, you know, how do I do PR in Europe? And so we've created the answers for that and it's literally answering their questions. If we can answer the question, you know, really early on at that stage. It's quite likely there. Going to come to us and ask us all the questions. And if we keep giving them good answers, then they're going to keep talking to us and eventually become clients. So I think the answer is the answer is that there's lots of different things we do. And you know, the world is changing all the time. So actually, what we're doing is continually experimenting. You know, one interesting thing I can tell you is that Google AdWords absolutely don't work for us. It doesn't matter how much we spend on Google AdWords, we get zero inquiries and get a lot of clicks to the website. I get no business from it. And I don't know why. And we run AdWords campaigns for other clients and they work fabulously well. But for some reason, our business it doesn't work. And I think it's because of this real need to establish a personal connection fairly early on. And AdWords is a little too impersonal. I don't know. I mean, I'd be interested to hear your views. David Ralph 14:50 Well, I am very much against the majority of marketing really, because it doesn't as I say, it doesn't solve the question. People have got a question. Now, one of the things that I use a lot I don't know if you've heard of this Mike is a web site, a site called answer the public.com. and answer the public comm is a free resource to a point you can do about pipe searches. But you put in, say PR marketing, and it will bring all the questions that people are asking online, okay. And so you can really tap in to longtail keywords very accurate, which can then lead people through. Now, I always say to people that I'm working with, let's focus in on the problems. Let's focus in on the solutions. And let's do it when somebody is looking for us. Now I find with Google AdWords, you know, I'm a podcast, trainer. That's part of my being. I'm a business coach as well. Now, I used to say about page two or podcast cost, sorry, and two on page one for podcast. Cool. So if you google podcast course, I'd be pretty much at the top of Google Now there's so many ads appearing, I've dropped to the second page. But because of that, the page seems less relevant somehow. It's almost because we don't click on the ads. Any ads that come along, you've literally jumped down to about three or four down below, even if you google something. And your answer is number one, you rarely ever click on number one on Google is always like three or four. So I think with Google AdWords, I think we're just becoming blinkered, we're just seeing it as you know, perhaps not the right answer. And based on questions, questions, questions, is the way to actually solve that problem. People are searching you. Does that make sense? Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 16:40 I think it's absolutely true. And I actually go back to your comment about arms to the public. were slightly different because we tend to work with large companies and they, they actually probably wouldn't appear on that particular website, but they all have questions. I mean, everyone has questions about how to do the job better. And I think solving people's problems is the Way to win business. And if I look at how we do that, that might be by some of the information we put on the website for someone. And we talked about the sales funnels at the awareness stage and the interest stage, really early on what we call top of the funnel. You know, it's solving people's problems through information, but when we talk about the bottom of the funnel, so when people are actually deciding to buy, you know, I can tell you that pretty much I can predict whether we win a pitch or not. And these pitches though, you know, big presentation, several of us going we spent, you know, days and days trying to work through it. If we can tell the potential clients something they don't know, that helps them with their business. That is the biggest indicator of whether or not we're going to win the business. Yeah. And it's all about, you know, establishing credibility. Now. I get that's different when you're selling, you know, a pure product rather than selling a service. But, you know, I suspect a lot of your listeners are actually selling a service. They're working to help people and it's really all about showing you can help people before their customers is the way to get these, you know, the people you meet to become customers. David Ralph 18:08 Now, this is only like marketplaces. You know, I talked to so many people, one of my strap lines is Jesus didn't have a Facebook account. And everyone's so online, they forget that ultimately, it's about talking to people. And if we take it back to the shop analogy, you go into a shop and if somebody comes over to you straight away and goes, can I help you? When you go no more, I'm away. That's annoying. You don't want but but if a part of that conversation, it's right. It's perfect. And I think that is where a lot of the sales funnels fail as well by jump on you. As soon as you're on the website. They don't allow you breathing space to actually make a decision. You've got to be strategic where your actual doorway to your panel occurs. And I know you know, I haven't got mine, right. I still play around with it. I'm moving on. different pages I take things off. But there's a key to when you actually enter into somebody's thought process, isn't it? Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 19:08 Definitely. And I think it's really interesting. I mean, what you do to try and help people as you do the podcast, and a lot of people who are looking to build a business, whether they using podcasting or not going to listen to Join Up Dots, they're going to get a lot of information that's going to help them from both you and your guests. We have something that that's, you know, much, much simpler, much smaller in scale, but we do I mean, literally, a monthly email newsletter that talks about what's happening to journalists and publications in particular industries, is very focused, it's very niche. If you're not working the industry, it's the most boring thing in the world. But if you're doing marketing in that industry, it's absolutely vital. And you know, I've even had some of our competitors come to me say thank you for the newsletter is great. It really helps us like, we shouldn't really be sending it but it's great. You find it helpful, it's probably a good indication. So I think, I think it's providing that information so people can get a flavour of what it's like working with you is so important to, you know, encouraging people to then start thinking about actually becoming a customer or client. David Ralph 20:15 Now, isn't that interesting that you said that because you know, the fact that you shouldn't be getting that newsletter because you're a competitor. Because ultimately, I think, when we are too insular, and we hold back our business, and we don't prove our worth, even to our competition, ultimately, we hold ourselves back. I've got a guy at the moment in America, but I'm helping him and he's a business where he brings in about a million a year and he wants to take it to 5 million. And I said to him, the only way you're going to do that is actually become the king of your industry. And that is stepping out of side and becoming more and arranging conferences, but you have actually the founder and becoming the centre pointed to it. But he can't see that he still thinks that he's got to hold close to his chest or his secrets. And I say to him, you know, a chef only sells books because he shows you he can cook. So why are we holding back those secrets? And why are we not actually sharing them with our competitors? Because it shows the world but actually, we're bigger than them. We haven't got any issues we can grow because we are willing to give our secrets away. Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 21:29 I think you're absolutely right. And, you know, having having been a both a very geeky and also a bit of a hippie when it came to, you know, online back in the 80s and 90s. And, you know, I really believe in the comment that was made about, you know, in the early days, the Internet Information wants to be free. And I think what people have misunderstood is that comment was not about the price, but it was about information wants to be shared, and today with, you know, what's happening in the world. There. Very few real secrets in business. You know, I can give an example I was working in technical support for a semiconductor company. And we sold into pretty much every single Formula One team. And I put one of our chips, because it was really good for developing engine management systems if you didn't care how much they cost, and you just wanted the best performance you could possibly get. And so anyway, Ford entered, or Cosworth into the the, the Formula One market and they started building engines for Formula One. And a guy from Cosworth phoned me up and he said, Do I have to tell you what I'm calling about? And I said, No, I know exactly which product I'll send you all the information. It's all okay. It's a bit strange. And I've worked for the one supposed to be super secret, and we got this new company who's on the block who actually knows what everyone else is using. And then two years later, BMW came into Formula One, and I got almost exactly the same So, you know, it's really interesting that people imagine what they've got is some secret sauce. It's actually not really about secrets. It's about people who are prepared to put the work in and actually do. But the secret says, whether it's something you do or a product or you know anything else, it's about really, you know, executing what you're supposed to do, rather than just having this magical knowledge that no one else knows. Because, trust me a lot more people know what you think is secret than, than you'd ever imagined. David Ralph 23:28 Yeah, I agree with that. 100%. And if you take the sales funnel, we're going to get back into the sales funnel. One of the things I say to people is, generally, people are lazy. That's the first thing you've got to realise that people want to transformation. They want to go from A to B as easily as possible. Now, but in many ways is your secret sauce. Actual ingredient. That is actually what people want. They don't want all the technical stuff and they're bored Barber, all they want to do is go How can I go from here? So here in three weeks instead of trying to do it off of YouTube videos in three years, right, that's the key to it, isn't it? So on my business I at the throne, I always say, I can't even remember what it is. Now I've gone totally blank, but some of the longer we get you success without the stress, because I totally believe a lot of what we do is easy if we know what we're aiming for. We know where those people are, and we give them what they want. Simple as that. Would you agree? Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 24:30 I think you should be interviewing you about sales funnels, you clearly have an awful lot. And I'm going to be honest, I think one of the reasons people have stopped talking so much about sales funnels, and they start referring to it as a customer journey is, to me the funnel is a it's really the wrong way to think of things because it kind of envisages that you've got this, this person, this potential customer who kind of fall through all these levels and they're doing the falling and all you've got to do is provide the right things at the right time. will magically happen. And I think again, that's one of the mistakes people make with sales funnels, the reality is, is that actually the customers have steps they need to take before they're going to spend money with you. And you need to help them along the way. And I love the idea of a journey rather than a folder, but basically the same thing. But to me, it's all about helping and guiding the customer on the journey, rather than being a bit more passive sitting back and just waiting for them to fall through the funnel. David Ralph 25:26 Now, can you have too few steps? Okay. And can you I know you can have too many steps, but can you have too few? Sales Funnel Expert Mike Maynard 25:34 Absolutely. You know, so, the one thing to say is, although the structure of the funnel is very similar, and most pe

Sarah Caltieri is today's guest joining on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast show. She is a lady who I'll be honest I am a huge fan of her work, in fact such a fan that I had to invite her to appear on the show for a second time. The first time she appeared we discovered that she is a singer, musician, songwriter, actress and has one the bubbliest characters it has been delight to come into contact with. Now if you think that this is a story of a lady with talent and the world supporting her to achieve her aims then think again. This is a story of a talent shining brighter due to the knocks and obstacles she has been required to overcome. Whilst pursuing her recording and acting career, Sarah Caltieri lost most of her vision at age 23, through type 1 Diabetes, as a result of a common diabetic eating disorder (EDMT1) from her late teens. How The Dots Joined Up For Sarah After going through laser treatment and many operations and rehabilitating herself after having lost everything (job, driving licence, independence), unstoppable and unperturbed by obstacles and negative attitudes, she continued pursuing her career. The experience simply made her more determined to follow her own path and become a success, and i have no doubt that her future is a very bright one indeed. And then when everything was going great an accident with a supermarket trolley, knocked her whole business off track, and left her with a career with one wobbly wheel that wouldn't go where she pushed it. So being a creative person, does she find the business side of everything a complete drag, or something she enjoys? And what does she do to stay positive when the world is saying "Ok, heres another little smack in the mouth for you to enjoy" Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Sarah Caltieri Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Sarah Caltieri such as: We disucss how the world has had to change due to Covid-19, and the steps that she has taken to strengthen her business. Sarah talks openly about the moment when she decided that she needed help in her business and how she found the perfect employee. and lastly…. Why Sarah always looks to push the boundaries of her comfort zone to ensure that she is growing everyday.

David Tao from Bar Bend is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is a man who is an entrepreneur and editor and voice actor based in New York City. He's also the co founder and editor of Bar Bend.com, a media brand that provides multi platform coverage of news analysis, training and opinion in strength training and sports. Now that doesn't really make sense to you, then consider this if you want to know anything about weightlifting, training routines, big sweaty meeting gyms, and the best products to buy and just all that really interesting stuff around the sport, then Bar Bend has it all. The company has become one of the largest and fastest growing fitness size on the web. And not only that, but Bar Bend is the official media partner of USA weightlifting and he's also a broadcaster for the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games. I assume that's already occurred. Now in 2019, our guest was honoured as a Forbes 30 under 30 list make up a media approved Bar Bend's numerous media partnerships, numerous media partnerships. He was asked to serve as a colour commentator for both national and international weightlifting competitions along with the Reebok CrossFit Games. Now originally from Kentucky, he's now a New York City and seems to be loving life. So what has made this platform so successful when the web is full of I would have said similar ideas that really never got off the ground. And is this his lifetime legacy? Or is he just stepping stone to what's in his heart and his mind? Well, let's find out as we bring on to the show to start joining up dots with the one and only David Tao from Bar Bend. 

Introducing Sean Castrina Sean Castrina is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is a serial entrepreneur, having started more than 20 companies over the last 20 years, and still seeks to launch a new venture annually. He is an investor, teacher and highly-sought-after speaker who communicates with humour and a bluntness that engages and captures his audience. He is the author of 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success, The Greatest Entrepreneur in the World, and World’s Greatest Business Plan.  He was born in the Bronx, New York and raised in Maryland. He was born legally blind having been a research study for John Hopkins Hospitals Wilmer Eye Institute where he has had countless eye surgeries. In middle school he was introduced to the sport of wrestling where he would go on to becoming a state champion and earning a Division 1 athletic scholarship. How The Dots Joined Up For Sean In his mid 20’s the startup adventure would begin with a simple auto detailing business “WaxMaster” that would serve as a test tube for what would distil a blueprint for what would later become a home service empire. However it would be an annual family vacation that would spark a passion for writing and teaching the secrets and formulas that he had used over the years. While sitting on the beach he would scribble 80 lessons he wished he would have known prior to becoming a startup junky. These simple lessons would be distilled in his first book 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success. So what makes him want to go through an annual startup drive, when he could sit back and chill? And where do most people go wrong nowadays when ploughing headfirst into the world of online and startups? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Sean Castrina

Ben Ivey is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is a man who from the outside view has it made. He is known as the Lifestyle Entrepreneur and spends his time bouncing across the globe to present in the USA, China for companies such as Maersk, HSBC, Coca Cola. But the truth is sometimes quite different from the obvious route to success. The view that the world sees can often be a collection of highlights that truly mask the journey that the guest has been on. How The Dots Joined Up For Ben When Ben Ivey started on this journey, he was perhaps in a similar position that many business owners face. Despite owning his own business and working with his international team, he was feeling overwhelmed, lost and unfulfilled. Feeling like his life was lacking meaning, Ben began on a destructive path of self-sabotage, burn out and damaging relationships. After this downward spiral, Ben became obsessed with the question: Is it possible to build a successful business whilst living a great lifestyle simultaneously? And it certainly appears that even after suffering personal heartache with the suicide of his father, he is out there, presenting, building connections and creating wealth and support for others. All the while showing one of the happiest grins that you could ever hope to see on someone day in day out. So has he got the lifestyle entrepreneur dream that so many people think is what its all about? Is he on a laptop in his underpants doing three minutes work a day, or hustling, driving forward and working hard to achieve? So why do so many people create success for themselves and then spiral downwards on a self sabotage route. And where does he want to go from here? What is his dream for the development of his company?  Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Ben Ivey

How To Start Overcoming Obstacles The subject of overcoming obstacles is something that has bothered people since time began. And still today people struggle with this subject, in their own personal life, business life or simply anywhere that they need to achieve something. You start creating your new business idea, everything goes as you plan and then bang, you hit trouble. No matter what you do the issue wont move out of the way and you give up. Their is no way I am overcoming obstacles life this" you think and so turn your direction onto something new. However, you should never think that way as the obstacle is the improvement that you business is looking for. I kid you not.... By having to work at overcoming obstacles in your business and life you make the successes stronger, and build foundations that you would never have made possible

In today's episode we share a few learnings from some conversations we have had with listeners across the world this week. Over the last week or so we have had conversations with 35 people talking about their dreams and inspirations.

So many of them seemed to fail to grasp that it takes a bit of work to get the dream life.

In fact you have to do the dirty stuff that makes the dream come true.

But are you willing to do the dirty stuff?

I bet you arent, no matter how much you want your life to change.

Randy Rayess is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the  co-founder of Outgrow, a new way to add interactive content on your business and website. He also has a very interesting backstory to where he is today Alongside his business partner Pratham, he started a mobile app development marketplace in 2012 called VenturePact. This was a site for entrepreneurs to connect with mobile development teams.  The challenge at that time was that mobile app development was relatively new, expensive and it was hard to assess the quality and hard to ensure you are getting a fair price. So this led them to create a marketplace to make it easy to find relevant teams but it was not easy to scale and acquire customers because of the pricing issues. Instead of them giving up and saying “This online game doesn't work” they put their heads together and came up with an idea to create a mobile app cost calculator.  How The Dots Joined Up For Randy As he says “This turned out to be a game-changer for us as we were able to quickly give people a rough estimate and show them how the price varies by feature and by geography. Not only did the calculator help us build trust with the client but it also helped us win over our mobile app teams as they knew that the person they were connecting with had a reasonable understanding of the price associated with the app. People were very impressed with the calculator and the information they received on the results page that they started sharing it on listservs and forums, so we quickly received referrals to the calculator and it turned out to perform better than any landing page or ad we had ever tested. So proof of concept time was good, and traffic was coming in, therefore so impressed with the results of the calculator were they that we built a SaaS tool called Outgrow so any marketer can build calculators and graders to improve their customer acquisition similar to what we had done.  The challenge we realized was that building a powerful calculator required dev and design work so we wanted to make this more accessible to all marketers and entrepreneurs. And that is the perfect place to start today's show. So why do so many people give up when quite often the obstacle they face could well be the business that people are wanting help with too? And where does he want to go from here, more and more apps, or simply scale outgrow? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Randy Rayess Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Randy Rayess such as: Why so many companies need to focus more on their employees body clocks and prime time to work than simply getting them to the desk. We discuss the basis of a creating a trust funnel, that helps to put the customers mind at rest long before they ever buy. Randy shares openly the story of how they overcame the issues that had stopped their first business and wasn't he glad they had those issues. And lastly….. We go behind the scenes of Outgrow and highlight the issues that all businesses have that they solve with their brilliant system.

What Makes A Great Business Idea? On today's show we discuss something that bothers so many people across the world. What makes a great business idea, that is something that people will love to work and build. You see its ok to get a list of things that seem great from the outside, but what happens after five years when you are sick of it? Not good! So we answer than one, and also we touch on a couple of others from people who also want some amazing business advice from Join Up Dots. Lets start with question one and of course you will have to listen to the show to hear the answers Question One Hi David, i have just finished your Freedom Starter Course and have to say it has really created an amazing list of potential businesses. How do i narrow down to what the best ones are?  Ramesh Gillies, USA Question Two Dear David, do you think you could have done what you have done with Join Up Dots on your own? I am looking to start my own show and I cant afford to hire people like you did. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Donna Kilbride, Ontario, Canada Question Three David, if listen to your show the other day about all the things you do to earn income (which was very impressive and inspiring) and wondered. When do you decide not to do these things anymore. I imagine that you have an exit strategy for each and everyone Clive Williams, Dorset England.

Trish Marks is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast. She is a business coach who specializes in Stopping Self Sabotage, she helps leaders identify the skills around improving performances by changing the way they approach challenges and problems. Trish founded Marks Consultancy in 2012 after leaving her job as a successful sales consultant with the vision to spread the knowledge on how mastering your emotions can positively impact your decisions, behaviour and performance, and how it play’s such an integral role in effective leadership, as well as in life. We all have emotions all the time, but how many of us actually go behind the scenes of what are actually triggering them? And of course ever think about the way that these emotions stop us making the right decisions to get past these emotions.   How The Dots Joined Up For Trish As she says "I’ve helped 100's of clients move past “stages of being stuck” in their lives. This experience has led me to discover the patterns that create resistance to positive changes in life and business. And I show people like you how to: Experience less rejection Stop making more mistakes Stop getting left behind Get out of your own way Have less conflict in your relationships Working together we will go through a step by step process that will take you on the journey to reach your true potential resulting in you leading a more impactful level of success in your life. So what made her choose this line of work, and was it as surprise when she realised that was going to start paying off? And was this the idea straight from beginning or did she needs others to give her the clarity to see the path? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Trish Marks

In todays episode of Join Up Dots we go behind the scenes and discuss the different ways that we monetize the show. This was due to a question that we recieved from a guy in India Dear David, I am an avid listener from Mumbai India. I would very much prefer to know how you create wealth for yourself through the Join Up Dots podcast. I listen to many such podcasts and many stop without notice. This is leading me to observe that podcasts are a difficult way to make money.... kripaya, Adarsh.

Kelley Thornton is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the founder of Tiege Hanley The Tiege Hanley story is simple and uncomplicated, just like our products. Founded by four “regular guys,” we created a product system and brand that makes skin care meaningful, accessible, affordable and clinically relevant—for regular guys. The brain child of Kelley Thornton, Tiege Hanley, named after one of Kelley’s prominent ancestors, was inspired by a department store skin care aisle stroll. As Kelley perused, he was struck by three simple truths: 1. Guys really don’t know much about skin care 2. Men’s skin care products are complicated and confusing 3. Man, are those products expensive! How The Dots Joined Up For Kelley Drawing on his marketing and brand management experience, Kelley got to work, enlisting his college roommate turned software industry guru, Rob Hoxie, to help mastermind a skin care solution for men that hits all three points—it has to be sensible, simple and affordable. Kelley and Rob wanted to help regular guys look and feel amazing by creating a skin care system that was easy to understand and to use. But what good is an idea without an audience? Enter Aaron Marino—men's lifestyle expert, grooming guru, YouTube sensation and serial entrepreneur. Aaron’s male-centric passion for health and lifestyle, personal brand and cult-like following made him Tiege Hanley’s ideal partner number three. So so many people have these ideas and fail to run with them, so what made him know that this was a winner? And where is he heading in the future with this runaway success? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Kelley Thornton Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Kelley Thornton such as: Why more men than women get skin cancer nowadays which is why skin care has become his passion. Kelley shared how he mastered the methods of buying, in particular what men didnt know about when it came to the shops. We discuss the steps that it takes to get a product off the ground - this is startup at its best. And lastly.......... Why doing what you love is great, but to be an entrepreneur is about taking risks first and foremost

Joe DiSanto spent his childhood riding BMX bikes, break-dancing, and memorizing 80’s movies, but the carefree days of youth wouldn’t last long. By 13 he was working as a busboy, helping his recently-divorced mom, and picking up some of his own tab. A valuable lesson was learned: If you don’t deal with your money, your money will deal with you. From that point on, he made it his mission to learn everything he could about making smart money moves. It paid off. By age 30, Joe had wiped out $70k in student loans, bought his first house, and started a post-production company in Los Angeles. How The Dots Joined Up For Joe Over the next decade, the company grew to 30+ employees with over 5 million in annual revenue, while producing two critically-acclaimed documentaries and an Emmy-winning HBO series. During this time, he and his wife also transacted on 15 residential and commercial real estate properties. But nothing had more life-changing impact than the birth of their son. After a successful 19-year run in L.A., the couple decided to slow down and invest in their new family. They cashed out of the business and bought into small-town life on the Florida coast. Having semi-retired at age 43, Joe’s efforts are now focused on his educational blog Play Louder, where he shares a lifetime of fiscal know-how to help individuals and business owners navigate their finances, increase their net worth, and plan better for their future. So why does he think the money lessons came to him at such an early age in life? And where does he want to go, now he has achieved what most people want in life, and has a foot off the gas? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Joe DiSanto Show Highlights During the show we discussed with Joe DiSanto such weighty subjects such as: Joe shares the secret message that he lives on everyday which is contra to the idea of success. Why you have to forget the ego that can take you over when building a business online. How refreshing it is step away from your life defining job and have conversations that dont involve what you do. and lastly........ Why it is so powerful to look at what you shouldn't be doing instead of what you are doing.

Cody Butler is the #1 Best Selling Author of “Got Attitude” and “The 90 Day marketing Plan”. Cody is widely accepted as one of the world's leading experts on Small Business marketing and Business Growth He’s been featured on Fox, ABC and NBC and has consulted for multinational corporations, sporting stars and marketing celebrities. Cody’s worked with over 5000 businesses to date, and his latest project, “The 90 Day Marketing Plan” is designed to help Small Business Owners create an effective marketing plan...even in these difficult times. But the reason I wanted to have him on the show was these simple statements that appeared on his website regarding his mentality to online and offline business. We’re building a business, not a fantasy, so if you currently make nothing and your question is “Can I get to $100K per month in 6 months?”. The answer is “NO”! How The Dots Joined Up For Cody If those are your type of questions, this is not for you. If your question is “If I implement like a MoFo can you get me to the next level?”. The answer is “YES” We’re going to get along just fine ???? There are no shortcuts to success, only wise paths, and there’s no such thing as “Get Rich Quick”only “Get Poor Quick”. Seriously hard work, dedication and expert guidance is the formula for success. If you can bring the first two qualities, I don’t care if you’re a complete beginner or a guru, I can work with you and it’s going to be a beautiful thing! So did he ever get seduced by shiny gadgets and GRQ schemes before realising that a plan, focus and commitment were the key. Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Cody Butler. Show Highlights Cody tells the story of when things clicked for him as a young man wanted a bicycle. Why you get paid based on the results that you provide to the market place not what you think you are worth. Why Cody writes down two hugely powerful statements every morning that he wants to achieve and sets out to do them both. Why the only way to being any good at making money is to get in-front of clients and prospects. Unless you turn up to the chat you wont close the deals. and lastly........ Why it's important to stop saying yes to everyone and just become an expert on one thing.

Introducing The Finding Your Passion Podcast Finding your passion and purpose in life is something that for many people haunts us daily. Certainly through the podcast Join Up Dots we have more people either struggling with coming up with their dream business idea or the step before which is of course of finding their passion in life. So is there a quick fix to discovery what lights us up inside or do we simply just have to go through life struggling to find our personal truth? Well we think there is as you will hear on today's show. So let's start with an email that we received from  Finding Your Purpose In Life Question Hello David! Huge new fan of the show so first of all a thank you for creating such informative and entertaining content. I listen every day on my way to and from work. My own issue is that I am struggling to find my purpose in life. I am 34, have 2 degrees and a host of short (unrelated) courses under my belt. How do you find your purpose? If you have any tips/books or can point me to any specific podcasts I would be delighted. (I am trying to make my way through the back catalogue!) Many thanks and have a great weekend. Step One: Action Helps You To Start Finding Your Passion First of all, and this might seem strange coming from a podcaster but you really need to stop reading books and listening to podcasts. Sounds strange? Well to truly start finding your passion you need to stop researching and hoping that someone will give you the answers and start doing stuff. It doesn't have to be huge, or expensive, it just has to be real life. You see reading books and listening to podcasts all the time will keep you trapped in a world of analysis paralysis. You will go round and round in circles thinking that the next podcast or book will be the one that you are looking for in life.  Big mistake! Start trying things out, saying yes to things you might have otherwise refused and keep an eye on how they make you feel. Finding your passion has to be something that makes you feel good after all. Step Two:  Go Back In Time And Look For Answers It's a truth but when we are young we are full of passions and enthusiasms. You never have to think or Google "How do I start finding your passions" We just know what they are as we spend our time doing the things we love whenever we can. As soon as we get home from school and we've finished our homework we are on them. So what were they? Do you remember like it was yesterday, or has your passion been lost in the midst of time? Well, most people cant think so go back to your parents, siblings, uncles and aunties and ask them what you were like as a child. If you can go back to your childhood home, start snooping around in the attic or your old bedroom. The close to finding your passion are all around you if you only know where to look. Step Three: Start Listing Your Love, Likes And Hates In Life Get yourself a blank piece of paper and draw two lines down the centre so that you have three columns on it. Each of these columns should have a simple title of Love, Like or Hate on it. Then simply create a list of how things mate you feel, do you see themes in the things that you love? Are the majority of the list creative? Do they show that you would like to be outside more or free from bosses and hassles? This is probably the most powerful method of finding your passion that you can ever undertake. It takes time, but the path you are seeking will start to appear in front of you. Step Four - What Are The Things That You Do That Others Give You Praise For? Have you ever noticed the times that people say nice things about you, makes you want to do more of the same stuff? Its not rocket science but we love to be liked and praised in life by other as it feeds our ego. So what can you do that make people rave about you the most? Are you great at cooking amazing deserts and puddings that friends and family beg you to make time and time again? Do you have a creative eye that works well in gardens across the world? Dont ignore peoples kind words, as even though you might think "Oh i can just do that easily" you might just have found your passion. Step Five - Create A Life Purpose Statement What would life and the world be if you could make it perfect? If you could have every person living the life that they wanted, whilst doing the things that they loved? Would you have cars, or no commute? Would you have short working hours, or longer days? Start writing down how you would create your dream world, and then try to summarise that into a clear statement of intent. "Finding Your Passion Would Be Easy As I Would Help Others Live Their Greatest Lives With No Regrets" Can you find your purpose by thinking Big Picture imagery instead of looking within? It might just be the key to start things moving in the direction that you want in life.

This week we speak to British property entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Jack Petchey. "Standing at the wrong end of a machine gun I imagined that I might be imprisoned, or worse," Sir Jack Petchey says. In a career that has spanned more than seven decades and taken him from ownership of a single taxi to the helm of a property business now worth a reported £550m, the entrepreneur says his arrest in Portugal was his lowest moment. It was 1974 and he was in the middle of building a holiday complex in the Algarve when there was a military coup. There was a lot of suspicion of foreign investors, he says, and this was evident when he found himself in court at 1am, accused of breaching rules on foreign currency. "Luckily I held my nerve, was released on bail and after two years the case was dismissed," he says. 'I knew we weren't rich' By that point he was well on his way to amassing his fortune, although he started life in much humbler circumstances. Born in 1925, Sir Jack's early years were spent in Manor Park in East London in a one-roomed flat with an outside toilet. The family's tin bath hung on the fence outside and was brought in every Friday evening for bathtime. Sir Jack's clearest memories of his childhood are of having fun. "We played out on the street, knocking on neighbours' doors and running away, or sticking coins to the pavement and watching as people tried to pick them up. "We didn't think of ourselves as poor, but I knew we weren't rich!" Despite being an advocate for education today, Sir Jack had no interest in school and left at 13, getting a job as an office boy soon after. After war broke out in 1939 he was keen to join the action and he volunteered for the Royal Navy when he turned 17. Sir Jack as a young naval cadet He was chosen for officer training, but failed to get through the selection process. What rankled was that an Eton-educated man passed, even though in Sir Jack's opinion he lacked leadership skills and had to be protected from being bullied. This experience only made Sir Jack all the more determined to succeed, a quality he says has been key to his success in life. He was transferred to the Fleet Air Arm and ended up as an aircraft engineer, servicing the planes that provided air cover during the Normandy landings of June 1944. Once he was discharged from military service, he went back to his pre-war office job, but found himself bored after the "excitement of the services". And it was another knockback that spurred him to move on. "I was ambitious, so I asked to be trained as a manager. But the personnel officer informed me I was not 'management material'." Outraged, he handed in his notice, but he knew he still had to pay his way - not least the rent and housekeeping money he owed his mother. So he put his discharge pay of £48 and his life savings together, bought a second-hand car and started a taxi service, picking up returning servicemen from the London docks. Sir Jack's first car hire office in East London Eventually he acquired another car and then an office, from which he started a car hire company in 1948. "Then I realised that selling cars was more profitable," he says. "So I bought a car showroom, and it wasn't too long before I realised that selling the car showroom was actually more profitable." Sir Jack (centre) opening the first Petchey car showroom in East Ham That was the start of a career in property, which was characterised by Sir Jack's willingness to seize opportunities even if it meant taking risks. After a close shave with bankruptcy in 1974, when property values crashed, he became a pioneer of the European timeshare movement, in which people buy stakes in holiday properties that they can only use at certain times of year. He introduced the concept to his own holiday complex in the Algarve in the 1980s and pursued timeshare projects in the UK too, where he had to defend them from some criticism. Not all of his ventures went smoothly though. He bought Watford football club from Elton John in 1990 but sold it back to the singer in 1996 amid criticism over the club's performance. Knighthood for philanthropist Petchey Petchey Holdings now manages a large portfolio of industrial and residential properties and a share of its profits - £9m a year - is ploughed back into what Sir Jack regards as his greatest achievement: the Jack Petchey Foundation. The foundation's overriding purpose is to give young people a chance to do well, and its motto - Sir Jack's own - is "if you think you can, you can". Among other things, it holds its own achievement awards, runs volunteering programmes, gives grants to schools and funds the Scouting movement, another key influence on Sir Jack's young life. Fifteen-year-old Aiden Kemp, who has mild cerebral palsy, is one of the 200,000 young people to be recognised by the foundation. He overcame his nerves to take the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge, for which he had to give a speech in front of an audience of students, teachers and parents. "I told myself, 'I'm going to do it, end of,' and I did," he says. "Afterwards I felt really confident that I can do anything and I just want to prove that everyone, no matter their backgrounds or disability, can achieve anything." In its 21 years of existence the foundation has made grants of £133m, usually with the requirement that the recipient matches or adds to the funding. A recent boys night in: Sir Jack with his son-in-law and grandsons Sir Jack has just turned 95, and even if his legs "won't do the walking" any more, he hasn't lost his appetite for work. It's taken the Covid-19 outbreak to stop him coming into the foundation's Canary Wharf office every day. His grandson Matt Rantell, a trustee of the foundation, reveals that his grandfather always carries a card around in his pocket with "Think a Smile" on one side and "Don't CCC" (criticise, condemn or complain) on the other. "Many people have said I've been lucky in business," says Sir Jack. "Well, I spell lucky with a 'p'- plucky! Because a lot of success is about having courage to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities." Even for such a determinedly "glass half-full" person, is there anything in his business life he wishes he'd done differently? "It's no good looking back, you always have to look forward," is the answer. "I can honestly say I have no regrets."

Copywriting expert Francis Nayan is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is a copywriter, and travelling entrepreneur, who has built his business without even first having an online presence. As he says "I create evergreen, automated, behaviour-driven emails, funnels, and campaigns for coaches, mentors, and e-commerce businesses who want to make more money with email. My goal is to create an email strategy that provides you a steady stream of cash flow and at least 30%+ of your total revenue by email alone. I use a blend of gold-standard copy-writing tactics, expert marketing insight, wolf-like sales psychology, and tailor-made copy written to the desires of your customers." That is of course what he does, so let's hear some more about who he is.   How The Email Writing Dots Joined Up For Francis As he says "I'm a copywriter from Memphis, Tennessee currently living in Budapest, Hungary. I started my freelance writing career as a kindergarten teacher in Budapest. I landed my first big client with a professional sports league and transitioned into full-time writer, specialising in email copy and sales pages. I've steadily risen from a struggling freelancer scrapping for 'egg and bread money' in a dirty Budapest apartment to earning well over 6-figures - all while travelling the world and writing just a few emails a day for my clients. Granted, travelling to 20+ countries may not be on people’s agendas right now during the pandemic — however he believes that all our listeners can use their own businesses to quickly adapt to the environment around you, whilst of course continually thriving in your business. So what made him choose this line of work, and was it as surprise for him that it started to pay off? And has the pandemic of 2020 made any difference to his profitability or is it just business as usual? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Francis Nayan Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Francis Nayan such as: Why so many people start an online business that are based around "new skills" instead of working within their true life experience. Why most people are unhappy due to the situation they find themselves in, NOT because of what they are actually doing in life. Francis shares how he built his business by working hard on relationships not by selling hard. And lastly….. Why the world has such an issue in putting their faces and voices out there and the reasons why it is so important to do so to build connection.

Building A Dream Job Building A Dream Job Isn't Really Possible is the discussion on today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. This has been inspired by a message that we recieved into the Join Up Dots email inbox from a great guy from Denver Colorado. Lukas has been in contact with us over the last few years, as he looks to keep building a dream job around photography - his huge passion. His question is based around the concept of do you keep building a dream job and struggle in the beginning, or do something else to make it easier to get there later? The Building A Dream Job Question Hi David, I hope life is treating you well. I’ve started an electrical business and I’ve been focusing more on that lately then my passion of being a photographer. I still do photography, but the electrical business is way more lucrative. I don’t hate electrical work, but I also don’t love it. My question is, should I build the electrical company so I can do amazing things in the future or should I struggle in the beginning and do what I love? Our Building A Dream Job Answer  I can answer this one hundred percent.......bring in the money mate. Be pragmatic about it. You see nobody ends up having a business that they truly love. I used to think that was the case, but now I see it otherwise otherwise it would be called a hobby. With Join Up Dots i would say there is seventy percent that I love and thirty percent that is a hassle. But it is as it is. What it does give me is 1: no boss, 2: no fixed timescales 3: the ability to travel when and where i want. I actually found a vision board that I created six years ago, and i forgot about it, and I had achieved everything i wanted and they were all based around being free, not being told what to do etc So i would say think this...... can YOU build the electrical company until you become the OWNER and not working in the business? If you can ( and i know you can) then you have income coming in passively which means then you can do what you want to do. For example, I now own a car parts shop and Im having to work in it three days per week UNTIL i get the issues sorted and we start making good money and then I am out of here....but the money will be coming with me Does that make sense pal??? Summary So what do you think? Is this the right way to go? Should we spend our time doing anything that we dont like in life, if it makes the majority of our time amazing? Let us know by connecting with us below and you can help others move forward to building a dream job, and of course a life. How To Connect With Join Up Dots Website LinkedIn Facebook Return To The Top Of Building A Dream Job If you enjoyed this episode with Building A Dream Job, why not check out other inspirational chat with Caroline Casey, Festival Pass, Shane Foss and the amazing Jack Canfield You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy

I have been looking forward to todays show for awhile now, as I am fascinated by what makes people push out of their comfort zones and literally go to the extreme of that point.

Why do people feel driven to drag themselves across climates that not only are very uncomfortable, but can actually kill you.

And thrive whilst doing it.

And todays guest is someone who is driven to do that kind of thing time and time again.

She is a writer, speaker and adventurer and inspiration to everyone that she meets in the world, who love to live her life through the stories she tells.

But what is also amazing to me time and time again, is to see how some of the smallest things in life can have the biggest influences on us.

Her first 'expedition' involved being bribed up an English Mountain at the age of nine by her parents with a packet of Opal Fruits.

The key words were to that statement was it all started with a bribe of sweets, but the sense of achievement on reaching the top, and standing there in the pouring rain was the first step towards where she is today.

And where she is today is being recognised as the first woman in the world to ski across Antarctica alone, awarded the MBE by British Royalty, and someone who seeks out irresistible challenges and captivating stories in the planet's wildest and most extraordinary places.

And now from her base in Iceland she is scheming for more and more experiences that she can tackle head on, much to the delight of the rest of us.

So how did she go from thinking "That was exciting" to "I can make a living out of this"?

And does she see that deep inside all of us is a desire for adventure and challenge, but for whatever reasons we hold back on it as we can quite believe that she should do it?

Well lets find out, as we bring onto the show to start joining up the dots with Felicity Aston MBE.

Georgia Bamber is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. She is a certified Life Coach and has a Masters in Psychology, and in the past, she worked as a therapist counselings refugees and asylum seekers and running women’s support groups. Her main focus now is in the area of positive psychology and helping people to find their spark. As she says "I decided long ago that the only way to make the most of this crazy, wonderful world we live in was to put myself out there and really live it. To experience, to love and to learn - every single day. I have put this mantra into practice. How The Dots Joined Up For Georgia I have lived in seven different countries on four different continents.   I have had a wide range of jobs from a financial analyst to running my own farm and now coaching others to embrace the good life. It’s all been fun. Of course, life hasn’t always been a bed of roses and I have made mistakes, plenty of them, but I have never let that stop me from showing up, putting myself out there and chasing my dreams. I have come to understand that happiness is a CHOICE. You just need to know this to be true. She is a graduate of Cornell University and, as well as the Psychology Masters, she also have an MBA from the City University Business School, London. She is certified in Plant Based Nutrition and competes in endurance running and triathlon events. She is a yogi and insight meditation practitioner So why do people think that they can find happiness by working on external things, when it all starts within? And even though she has created her dream job, does she still have days when she thinks...."blah......i am not feeling it today"? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Georgia Bamber

This week we speak to Kimberlee Perry, founder of trampoline fitness company Bounce. "You need to connect with other people, it makes you feel good," says Kimberlee Perry. Before coronavirus hit, her business had never contemplated running virtual sessions. The whole purpose of its dance classes on trampolines was to physically bring people together, especially new mothers who felt alienated in small towns. This is what inspired Kimberlee, 35, who is originally from Australia, to start up Bounce six years ago. In 2014, she was on maternity leave, and moved with her husband 30 miles out of London to the Essex town of Harlow. Suffering from postnatal depression she felt lonely. "All my life I'd really invested in sport, and used it to connect with people," she says. "It's a very sporty culture in Australia, so when I originally came to London when I was 18, I joined a netball club to make friends. "When I moved to Harlow I felt very alienated, I barely knew anyone, and the only sort of clubs I could join were mother and baby ones," she says. The company's customers are predominantly women Kimberlee found there were no fitness classes where she could take her baby, despite the positive impact exercise has on the mental and physical wellbeing of new mothers. So she decided to set up her own, investing £200 to launch Bounce later that year. "I wanted to feel good about myself - as a new mum you spend hours, most of the day and night on your own. So Bounce became a fusion of everything I needed in my life at the time - fitness, connections and fun." Fast forward to before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and the company had grown to have 47,000 monthly customers - mostly women - across the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Another factor behind her setting up the business was that she had missed out on a promotion - which she felt was rightly hers - in her previous job working as a sales manager in the events industry. Kimberlee wanted mums to be able to go to exercise classes, and be able to take their babies with them "Climbing the ladder in my job was a massive priority for me," she says looking back. "Being in the events industry is tough - you have to be working 24/7 - and I think that my pregnancy contributed to the decision not to take me on for that promotion. "I was devastated, I spent a few days in bed crying over it, trying to work out what my identity was without this job." Kimberlee already had a dance background, and started working hard at quickly getting some fitness instruction qualifications. Soon she was teaching classes at a local gym, where she came up with the specific idea for Bounce. "I came across these rebounders, which are mini trampolines, and I said to my husband, 'I'm going to take £200 out of the joint account and buy eight of them,'" she says. "I think he thought I was mad. "But they're well known for their low-impact nature, they're easy on the joints, and absorb over 80% [of impacts] - so I knew they would be perfect for new mums who wanted to work out." Kimberlee's firm has now trained more than 700 instructors To launch her first classes, Kimberlee choreographed a number of dance-based routines, and hired a local community hall in Harlow. "Mums would bring their babies and leave them in their prams while they did the class," she says. "After a few months I started to put on more classes because of demand - people loved the fun nature of the class, and the fact that they could burn around 600 calories in 45 minutes. "I put all the money back into the business - paying my hire fees for the hall, then buying more trampolines. But it got to the point where I couldn't teach all the classes myself - I was doing 12 a week and the weight was falling off me." Hiring other instructors, Kimberlee's classes started to get more and more attention - and competitors began to set up similar ones. She knew she wanted to expand the business and protect her idea, so decided to look into franchising. But Kimberlee is the first to admit that she wasn't sure how the process even worked. "I didn't have any understanding of it, but I knew I needed legal protection to support my business idea," she says. "So when a lawyer helped explain the franchise model and the possibilities of how big I could take the company, it was so enlightening." Bounce expanded to Australia, Kimberlee's homeland, in 2017 To date, Kimberlee and her team have trained more than 700 instructors, and now have 320 franchise studios in the UK and 20 abroad. Their franchisees pay an upfront fee to be part of Bounce, which gives them access to the equipment, and a protected geographic area to operate in. Franchisees then pay a percentage of their revenues as an ongoing management fee. For this fee they get their business admin managed, all the class routines and choreography, plus branding and marketing. Marc Mullen, a London-based personal trainer, believes Bounce is popular because it is fun and friendly, and offers its predominantly female customers a sense of community. "Joining a regular gym can be very intimidating for some women, as unfortunately they can be male-dominated environments," he says. "And there are high rates of gym dropouts due to the fact that people don't really have a structure to follow, lack of ideas, or motivation. "[By contrast] Bounce keeps people engaged. With the business enjoying an annual turnover of £3m last year, Kimberlee now oversees a management team of 25 at its Harlow headquarters. However, the chief executive hasn't forgotten her roots. "I still teach - five classes a week, and make up every routine," she says. "I love how it makes me feel, and knowing that I'm inspiring other women every day... that's a feeling you can't really beat." In April, in response to Covid-19, the company moved its classes online, offering eight per day, seven days a week. "Franchisees had to shut down their studios, but everyone benefited from us going virtual. We split the profit from the online classes between the franchisees, which was hugely helpful to them," Kimberlee says. But with gyms now reopening, she adds that everyone at Bounce is excited to once again meet their customers in person.

Shane Foss is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast.

With over 20 years of tenure as an executive in the medical industry, Shane Foss became frustrated with how under-served Americans
were with the current healthcare options.

He set out to make a change and in 2018 achieved this goal through launching Hooray Health, an unconventional health insurance company dedicated to providing affordable basic and urgent health care alternatives to high-deductible health plans.

Through Hooray Health, Foss and his team focus on offering peace of mind to lower-income individuals and families who face medical challenges, while also providing business owners with an affordable way to reward and retain employees.

How The Dots Joined Up For Shane

Partnering with companies like Sedera, Ameritas, and Aflac, they have be able to add critical services and supplemental plans giving immense value to employers and individuals.

Throughout his professional experience, Foss has negotiated complex, multi-million-dollar contracts, worked in device sales management, created business strategies, and optimized P&L.

He holds an MBA from Rice University’s, Jone’s School of Business, a BS from the University of the Incarnate Word, and a Surgical Technologist Certificate from the United States Air Force.

So why did Obama Care never get off the ground, when it seemed certainly from this side of the pond such a good idea.

And what should people do if they cant afford the payments each month, especially when times like Covid-19

Show Highlights

During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Shane Foss such as:

Shane shares the complexities of starting a business in the medical field and the steps he took to ensure success.

We discuss the haunting period which takes a business from idea to the real world.

Shane talks about the moment that he sat with friends and family, and the surprising support he received.

And lastly…..

Why its such an amazing idea to think about solving a problem for yourself and then see if you can scale it.

Getting Serious About Business Today show is a Free coaching session, where your host David Ralph talks about what has been going on in the world of Join Up Dots this week, and also gets to answer some of the questions that have come in from listeners across the globe Question One: Hi David, loving the show, your passion and the madness. How the hell did you come up with the Gargle Game, but I belly laugh when you are doing it. Which is what my question is all about. Although I have just found your show, it isn't like any other business type show I have heard. Could you advise why you are doing these things that go against the norm. All the best Simon Mantle, Perth, Western Australia. Question Two: Hi David, I was listening to one of your archive shows recently and you spoke about suffering with stress and the fact that your hair fell out. I am having a similar experience and would love to know what you have done to resolve these issues, as they are really bringing me down and making me unhappy - Claire Copod, Belgium Question Three: Mr Ralph, thank you for everything you are doing with Join Up Dots. Its the best podcast by far and I tell all my buddies that they have to listen to you. Can I ask this question. What is your day like? You talk about working hour after hour and then you also talk about walking around looking at things, like you are free. Whats the real story? - Hanna Maskel, Seattle Question Four: I have started a business recently selling fish tank equipment and although I have done better than expected, I'm not increasing my sales. Can you advise what I should be doing to get more sales as the more money I can earn the more I can support my family - Matheus Henrique Lopez, Paraty, Brazil

When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David, Ralph. David Ralph 0:26 Good morning, Good morning to you and welcome to Join Up Dots. Yes, thank you so much for being here. Now. Now my young padawans. How are we doing? How we doing out there? Are we getting the juices flowing? Are we getting the inspiration to go out and create our own dream life? Well, I've been talking about this for about seven years now. And I spend I spend a lot of time Yes, I do. Because that what I do, talking to people who connect with me through the show with an interest in starting their own businesses, and creating their own incomes, and having a jolly lovely life. And I've started well, I've been thinking this all the time, but I'm not really mentioned it that much on the show, but it's an important thing. So I'm going to mention it in today's episode. But most people come through to me and they say, oh, David, I really want to start my own business. Yeah, I've been really thinking about it for years. And I'm really focused on it. And I go, Okay, that's no problem. I said, you know, it's very easy to start your own business, it's very easy to get traffic. It's a lot harder to sell things if you're selling something that people don't want. So let's focus in on the want and let's not focus in on the need, and we can get something going. And they go oh, yeah, no, that sounds brilliant. That sounds brilliant. Yeah, that's really what I want. And but I never hear from them again. And then I send a message through and I say to them, you know, how are you getting on? Are you are you you know, You're moving forward, whatever you're doing. And more often than not, you get some kind of response back going, Oh, it's not a good time at the moment. It's not. It's not that which I totally understand, I totally understand. But what I've been realising and this is what this show is about is that a lot of people are looking at creating their own income and their own businesses as an escape from what they're doing. But actually, what they should be doing before that step is creating their own happiness plan inside them, creating that that motivation and inspiration to be able to go on and tackle things which are big, sometimes stretching, certainly fulfilling and can be life changing. And I think people are thinking that creating their own income is going to be the answer to all their problems, but it's not because the problems are somewhere within you that is making you want to transition from where you are. Now, I always say I was in corporate land and for about, I would say, first 25 years, or was it 25 years, maybe 20 years. I really didn't know what to do. But I was in that kind of place before the internet. Yes, there was a time there was a time before internet. So you didn't really see what other people were doing. Other than sort of pop stars and famous people on Top of the Pops in the BBC where you go, that sounds brilliant. That looks brilliant. But how the hell am I going to do that? Now, as I moved through the internet crept into our life and Google took control and then you could start seeing kind of normal people, normal people doing stuff. And I think a lot the unhappiness that people have got nowadays is about seeing what other people are doing and thinking, well, I could do that. It's not that bad. Hard is not a stretch. It's you know, it's only creating a few YouTube videos and putting it out. Now I was listening to a podcast and this emphasises this point. And there's a guy in the United Kingdom called Joe wicks. Now, I didn't really know much about Joe wicks, and I listened to a podcast episode The other day, and he was talking about his story. And he was a guy who was basically in a corporate gig company, what he was doing, he was in some kind of retail shop, and he wasn't happy with himself and he's physical look, and he's mental aspect. So he started signing up for the gym. So he'd go to the gym, and it wasn't earning that much in his salary. And so half the salary each month was going to his gym membership. And when he was at the gym, he started thinking to himself, what I'm going to do, I'm going to create my own business. Yes, that's what I'm going to do. And so he started doing boot camps, which are, you get a park, you get a field Nearby, and you get people there early morning before they go to work. And then you walk them around a bit and you get them to do but downward dog and all these other sort of episodes, episodes, what am I talking about these these positions, and then you build a business and it's easy, isn't it, you get a field and you just get a load of people turn up and you make some money. So this is what he wanted to do. And he was saying on his podcast episode, literally every time that he would get up at six o'clock in the morning or five o'clock in the morning and get to this build, nobody turned up, not one person and he used to think to himself, what should I do just go home. But if I don't know what I'm going to do while I'm up, I'm going to take some leaflets around to the railway station and hand them out. And hopefully I can sort of pull this business up by his bootstraps, and get it going. Well, now he's got his own podcast. He's had something like 100 million billion views over On his exercise lessons on YouTube, but it all started with him wanting to better himself and wanting to actually personally transition his inner spirit, his inner self. He wanted to get fit, he wanted to build better. And he wasn't actually running away from anything. He was running towards himself. And that's what I thought was so important when I was listening to him talk. And I think so many people that I speak to, they're kind of running away from a situation and running away from a job. They're running away from a business, just like I did, as I was saying, I was in corporate land and for the first 25 years, he was fine. I used to go to work, have a few beers in the evening, come home, have a holiday, there wasn't anything to sort of really reflect on where I should be doing something else. And then the internet came along and I started seeing others another way of operating, and then I got very, very unhappy and so I thought to myself, what I want to do Want to get happy, and I transitioned to into Join Up Dots Join Up Dots wasn't the business at the beginning, it was just a way of me finding the happiness and challenging myself and finding something that could spark me up. And so when people come through to me, it's all about creating something that will take them from this crappy job or this situation that they don't like, into a world of wonder and infinity pools and glory and and everything else. And then they struggled, I struggled to take that first step because they're focusing in on the task, but actually what they should be thinking about is themselves, how can they change themselves to start having that, I suppose that motivation inside them and it doesn't start with building a business. It starts with building you and transitioning, you know, at the moment I am cycling Yes, I've been talking about this improved locked down, I decided to get my old bike out and start riding and I do about eight miles a day, three times a week, so I don't do it every single day. And the first week, it absolutely killed me. It really did. And I can't do this. I can't do this and walking upstairs was absolutely a nightmare sitting down on the toilet, anything that meant that my legs had to push me up or push me down. It was just horrendous. But I knew that it was going to be a good thing. For me. It wasn't something that I was doing to just transition from something else it was it was an inward look. So I carried on and carried on. And now these hills that were like insurmountable mountains and falling up them well not flying up. I'm I'm kind of going up quicker than I used to. But certainly it's it's changing me and I'm feeling more motivation inside because I'm changing myself and not my outside. situation? Yeah, can you can you see this? Can you understand this? So it's not about finding another situation that will make you happy is about finding the happy in you is about finding the motivation of starting something. And it's not about building businesses, it's about changing your mindset. First of all, changing your physical outlook. If you're a bit of a couch potato, then it's very difficult to be that slumpy person sitting there with a bag of potato chips every single night and loads of beers to Ben being, ah, I'm going to create a online income stream. I'm going to do this during that time. So it's dawned on me time and time again, that it's not about anything other than winning it in a game, finding that happiness inside you. And it doesn't necessarily mean the big goal is just something it could just be you know, a little thing like challenging yourself, start doing something that you haven't done before, aim to read a couple of books a month but you've never read before. Go for a walk twice a week, get your bike out. Anything that will take you from your situation to actually thinking Yes, I'm improving myself. Okay. So named VA happy isn't about your outward situation is you're in good situation. And this is a big part of what Join Up Dots is all about making you more rounded. So that the success naturally comes to you. And it does, it naturally comes to you. Once you sort of rule you pull yourself out of the mud and start getting going. So what challenges are you going to aim for this week drop us a line not many people do but I'm going to say to you, this is your first challenge. Just drop me a line at the Join Up dots@gmail.com I will respond back to you and just Tell me, David, I'm going to be doing whatever, okay? And it could be I'm gonna stop taking the lift or the elevator, and I'm going to walk up the three flights of stairs every day. Or I'm going to not have that bag of crisps with my lunch. But instead I'm going to have a healthy Apple, tiny little things, but they build up drop me a line and I will share them on the show. And of course, if you have I don't share any on the show, Ben, what's the point? What am I doing people? What am I doing? You Look after yourselves be challenge, find the happy. Don't think of it as the outside situation that you've got to change is the inner situation. And believe me, magic can occur. Once you start focusing in on yourself, then the outer situation will improve as well. It's a given. It's a given. Look after yourselves. And until next time, I will see you again. See ya bye.

Creating An Avatar Creating an avatar is the subject that we are going to discuss in today's Join Up Dots episode. This is something that is vitally important when we start a business as it saves us so much time trying to discover where our marketing budget has gone wrong. Now, the how to create an avatar information has been requested by a lovely lady who  dropped us a line after starting to get an idea for a business forming in her mind.   Please Tell Me How To Create An Avatar Customer Dear David, as a long term listener who has listened to most of your shows, this is the first time i have ever dared drop you a line. I think i am starting to get an idea for a business that I could start, but I can't create the customer avatar. You and other business coaches advise that we need to create this to start knowing their problems and begin marketing. Could you advise as to how you do this, as Im not sure you have ever gone into detail on this before. Thanks for your help and your passion and enthusiasm Meeta Picante. Costa Rica

David Wood is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. Now this isn't his first appearance on the show as he recently appeared on the show back in June 2019 We discussed many things on that show as his entrepreneurial journey has led him through many different dots, and its the joining of his dots that are so remarkable. As he said on the show: “When you’re 10,000 feet ABOVE the Himalayas hanging from a piece of cloth, you see life differently”. He holds the viewpoint that life is the best game there is and asks: Are you playing for REAL? He coaches high performing entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders to play the best game they possibly can, deepening connection and living a regret-free life. How? By setting life-changing goals, laser-focused action, and increasing their levels of Truth, Daring, and Caring – in both life and work. He loves sharing his message of Playing for Real on live stages, podcast interviews, and radio shows, and has been best described as “playful and deep”. How The Dots Joined For David A former Consulting Actuary to Fortune 100 companies – including Sony Music, Proctor & Gamble, and Exxon – David left his cushy Park Avenue job 20 years ago to explore both the outer world and his own inner world. Along the way, he’s coached thousands of hours in a dozen countries around the globe and is the author of “Get Paid For Who You Are,” with foreword by Jack Canfield. He is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council, alongside such thought leaders as Don Miguel Ruiz, John Gray, Marci Shimoff, and Vishen Lakhiani. So is it simple enough to say that the children of the world who spend their time playing actually are the keys to our adult life? And after listening to his new podcast, why does he struggle with failure as much as the rest of us? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. David Wood.

In today's episode of Join Up Dots we look at a problem that faces so many people in life and in business.

This ability, or i guess the lack of ability, to control our future like we hope for.

All our successes and future dream lives that we hope with our hearts that we will get, can often bring us to our knees.

You see, and as you will hear on the show we cant really do anything about the future, as it doesn't exist.

Our future lives may be what we hope they will be, or perhaps they wont, but really we cant do anything about making them happen.

You will say of course "David, that's rubbish. We can work on making things happen in our lives by taking big sexy action"

And I will say "Yes of course you can, and you should. That is exactly what life is about. Being in the present and taking action in the present"

That, however doesn't mean that the future you want will ever actually become real.

All these desires and action that we take will ultimately lead us somewhere, but perhaps it wont be where we thought it would be.

So relax into the day, enjoy what life is giving you in the moment, and see where it all heads.

That is where our future lives can really be controlled.

Jason Cutter is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He is the founder and CEO of CCG, grew up in Fremont, California, and has a bachelor’s degree in marine biology (with a lot of time spent with sharks). From UC Santa Cruz, an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University, and a wide variety of experiences in business, from technical support at Microsoft to deploying overseas as a civilian contractor, his analytical mind is always looking for ways to solve problems or make situations better. He is all about taking action, not just talking about theoretical plans. Those who have worked with him describe him as passionate, intense, and driven. His philosophy can best be summed up in this quote from Zig Ziglar, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Which is where his consulting business came into play and founds its legs As he says"You know how most salespeople struggle to crush their sales goals consistently? Well, that’s where I come in! How The Dots Joined Up For Jason I’ve helped my clients create sales success in just about any type of environment you can think of, and I’ve heard every excuse known to man. Here’s how I do it… I teach people how to sell without it feeling like selling. I help them sell on value so that price never comes up. I build systems and processes to produce expected results. I create a sales machine that can scale" So is selling simply having what people want, and then finding the people that want it? And where do people go wrong, spending their time marketing in the wrong places, or just having no strategy at all? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Jason Cutter Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty sale subjects with Jason Cutter such as: Why children are amazing salesmen and negotiators and know the skills that make things happen right from the start. Jason shares the steps he took to build his business from the strengths, by realising his strengths and asking for help for his weaknesses Why it is such a great idea to find a business partner to get you going as its hard to build a business. and lastly........ The reasons why people have a desire to get into cages with great white sharks.

In today's episode of Join Up Dots we look at a problem that faces so many people in life and in business.

We look at why we are so tough on ourselves when living our day to day lives.

Why we run ourselves ragged to try to make a difference to the wrong people who don't deserve or times and energy.

We get into bed at the end of the day with a feeling of disappointment that we have let so many people down.

However the truth is actually very very different in so many ways.

The truth is every person on earth has this feeling of inadequacies and also has the feeling of letting people down.

Dont feel that please!!

In today's show, we look at what has been going on behind the scenes in the world of Join Up Dots

And you might be surprised to know that its not about what you think it might be.

Yes, we know that we are a top podcast with thousands of listeners everyday, but also we have many strings to our bow.

Not least we also have offline businesses scattered around the country that are flourishing due to what we go through in today's show.

Yes, todays show is all about Getting A Ton Of Traffic To A Brick And Mortar Business the easy way, and believe me it really is easy.

It all comes down to being extremely granular with the content that you are producing, and the focus you have on the laziness of customers.

Once you understand this then you are ahead of the game and can really  focus of bringing profits into your lives,

Lets get on with the show as its a good one

In todays show, we hand over the hosting duties to Ginni Saraswati from The Ginni Show, who interviewed me live in New York City back in August.

Most of the times when you record a podcast you will do it in isolation, with the guest connecting through skype or telephone connections.

This one was done on both camera and audio, which was a bit of a different experience for me to say the least. I hope you all check out the Ginni Show on iTunes and give her some ranking and review love.

It only takes you a few minutes but makes such a big difference to the growth of shows everywhere.

Faith and action is demonstrated big time in today's episode of Join Up Dots. We share a story that is the catalyst for everything that we do in Join Up Dots. One man shares how he has found the happiness in his life not by going after the money, but instead the meaning. He realised that there was no point trying to earn a great living for himself and his family if he was dead in side. David Ralph also shares his new business ventures which are spurning forth due to the understanding that online ventures work by sticking to simplicity. Also on the cards is sharing why a re-branding of a listeners business has been such an important part of the business puzzle Lets get on with the show Full Transcription Of The Faith And Action Podcast Episode Intro 0:00 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. David Ralph 0:25 Yes, hello there. Good morning to you. Good morning, one and all. And welcome to Join Up Dots. I hope you are well. I hope everybody is reaching out for the dream reaching out for those obstacles and smashing then to pieces. Because honestly, you move through the obstacles and I know obstacles are hard. That's what they are called obstacles. Well, I don't know why they called obstacles. But they they're bloody great big things that are hard to move. Sometimes they are physical. Sometimes they're mental. Sometimes they're a combination of both. But you How do you get mounted and Ben, it's sort of easier and the more obstacles you get past the the easier life becomes. And honestly, I mean, if you've listened to Join Up Dots over the last seven years or so, you know, I've been very transparent about hard times the difficult times that I've been proven. I actually went in to speak to my wife, my wife had a terrible hangover this morning. It's her own fault drinking on a school night, and I was in the shower. And I actually thought to myself, David you are looking healthy, you're looking pretty damn fine at the moment because it was a phase I went through but I spoken about where I had acute burnout. And I had big bags under my eyes, brass rings under my eyes, and I just looked kind of just drawn and grey. And it just dawned on me this morning that that the bags have kind of disappeared and that the hair is back and I'm just feeling damn good. And that is because because I have moved through the obstacles that difficulties and now I've got a life that for many people is a dream. And I suppose it's a dream for me. But you know what it's like when you when you live your life, you kind of don't think it's a dream because it's just your life. But I know, I know, looking at it from other people's points of view, but it's a dream. Now I just wanted to start off with saying a couple of words. I want to say hello again to Jackie Baker. Now, if you remember last week, I did a show about the south coast dinner society, a lovely lady who has launched her own business and I kind of dissected a few things and told her that she needed to focus in on site speed because everything's on mobile now. And she also has to focus in on making it look good and look a bit sexy, but people are landing on mobile and I spent about an hour an hour and 10 minutes or so with last night. We connected On the zoom, and I gave her some pointers. And we're going to change the name, we're going to change the name of our business, we're going to get it more focused on the branding, because once you get branding, right, once people understand instantly what you do, then all your content and all your videos and your podcasts or wherever you do kind of makes sense. You hang it on that thing. And as I always say to people, my business is online business made easy, because I totally believe that people out there doing things the wrong way, they're making it far too difficult for themselves, spending too much time twisting around on Facebook and Instagram, where you should be thinking about the audience that's already looking for, you know, their little mobile phones, they're sitting on their little tablets and keyboards, and they're typing and they're looking for your business. So instead of trying to go for people that don't really care, look for the people that are already typing away and when you will win. So Jackie Baker, thank you So much for spending time with me last night. And God she likes to talk I had to cut off numerous times, because I thought I'd be here for about four days, but she was a delight. And hopefully we will connect again. So yeah, go over to the south coast in a society and have a look at the work she's doing. Because she is a lady where the passion is following through to make things great for her. Now, actually, when I did that podcast, what was it a week ago, I realised that I'm actually a full time owner of a car spares business, so her car spares and auto parts business, and I've been a part member for about 20 years. And over the last sort of six months or so I took over it full time, because my family are too old. My mom's had a stroke and so I sort of I played around with it. And to be honest, my heart wasn't in it. I like doing Join Up Dots. I like doing this this. This is fun. You know I don't want to work in a shop. Anyway. I'm doing the I'm locked down. I had to close the shop down for eight weeks. And I started thinking about it in different way. And I thought to myself, there's an opportunity here, we've got parts, we've got service, we've got history, I need to put a bit of effort in, but I kind of didn't and, and when you're doing well, in certain regards, you'd kind of think to yourself, well, do I need to do more? Do it. But anyhow, I decided but I would challenge myself. After speaking to Jackie doing that podcast episode and saying that you've got to focus in on mobile, you got to focus in on local search and making things fast. So I started working on it and I have trebled the profits in about a month and a half. When all the other businesses around our area are struggling we are for a while. And it's all about once again, thinking about who's actually looking for me already, and how can I positioned myself in front of him. So we have now got a thriving business again, which is brilliant and it It's given me income to start a caravan rental Park. Well, you know, you've got caravans and Arby's, but you you don't know where to store over the winter or throughout the year? Well, I'm going to open one of those. So I've got a bit of land and I'm going to get that tarmacked over or at least, levelled out in a regard. And then we have maybe 100 caravans stored up on a yearly basis. And once you start to get the flow going, it's quite easy to do these things. Because once again, it's the same thing. You find a value point you look for where people are looking for you, and then you put your product in front of them. And things just become really, really easy. Once you understand online business. Now I speak to loads of people, and I say to them, that it's not about the business you want to do. Just learn about how to do online business, then you've got opportunities, and some people go Yeah, okay, that's fine that I will do it. Other people got no, I really want To do the dream business, I really want to do the thing. And I understand their point of view. But I also think to myself, just learn how it works. And then the opportunities that everywhere, okay? Don't just learn one thing, just learn how to get traffic onto a website to connect via e commerce products or your online or driving it to an offline business. And then you will be rocking and rolling. I promise you, right just before I do a story today Yes, it's gonna be a little story. I just want to say thank you to a couple of people who have dropped lines in I've got Valley Scentsy, from India, and this is from iTunes. And as I say, over the last few weeks, I'm trying to say thank you to people for doing this, because it's really beneficial to a podcast, it really makes a difference. And, and if you're spending a bit of effort, I should say thank you. So many cities from India amazing podcast hosts who brings out the essence what I love about David is his ability to bring out the essence from each person who on the podcast, joining up the dots is an art. It requires a sense of awareness and depth to be able to make this happen. So thank you very much for that. And it's from India and Kate five to 74390 this is I almost feel like I should know this person, but if I do, I can't can't place it. But the reviews is truly inspirational and motivational. David has incredible energy and a great sense of humour. He sees guests very full for questions and ask us all the sticky sort of awkward cheeky questions. But the listener is also thinking but does so in such a light hearted manner, but he never sounds offensive. I look forward to listening to David's podcast every day is a quality guy and offers real honest advice. I wish him all the happiness in the world. Thank you, Kate. And he's inspired so many people to have confidence and follow their dreams highly recommended. So thank you so much for that. Really, you know that. That's what it's all about. That's what Join Up Dots is all about. And it leads me on to a story now. Now, about six years ago, when Join Up Dots was a fledgling podcast, a guy from Alabama, United States connected with me. And I was sitting at my desk, I remember it, you know, really clearly, and a message came in. And it was from this guy who said, David, I've been listening to your podcast, I'd really like to do something I thought totally lost. And I sent a message back and I said, like, if you want to speak, you know, I connect with you. And we did. And it was on Skype, I think it was we connected. And he had a terrible sort of internet connection. So I couldn't see him. So we just did it like old school telephone. And he was sitting in his van, and he was going off to a job that he didn't want to do. And he said, I'm so lost. I'm so unhappy. I don't know. You know, where life's taking me. I seem to be following the money, but the money is not making me happy. And we had a chat and we we chatted a couple of times, maybe two or three times actually. And it turns out that he was sad. insurance for a company and he wasn't a salesman. He loved being out in the sunshine, working with his hands before that he'd worked for a medical company where he was sort of mending the beds and the equipment I seem to remember. So he was very hands driven. And then he decided he would get this job, just because it was paying the big bucks, commission wise, but he wasn't happy. So I spoke to him and I said, Look, Josh Park was his name, I said, Look, you've really got to do something with your hands. It's obvious to me just speaking to you here. You've got to get out. You've got to get out and about, you've got to build a freedom. You're not an office person. you're somebody who needs to get out you need to build out you're constructing something. And so he came up with this idea of, well, we kind of come up with it together. But he was the big push of actually creating a automobile, a car washing service, where he created a kind of filtering in the back of a band so the water would go around and then back And it would clean all the time. And he'd go to people's offices and say to the directors, I will wash all the cars out there every Tuesday if I can have a contract and he started doing best bit work, and it started going quite well, and it was called his name was just park and it was something like parking clean services. You see, it's quite good. you park your car, and he cleans it, you know. And he broke free. But he was finding that he was doing too many hours. It was all down to him all the time. And so he decided that he was going to move to Florida, leave Alabama and go to Florida. And get went down there and carried on his cleaning business. But then he franchised out the one that he left in Alabama to somebody else. So he was making a bit of profit, but he wasn't doing the work. And that was his idea he was going to do this. And anyhow, long story short, I received a message on messenger the other day, and I just want to read it out verbatim because it shows you how You can Join Up Dots and you can find the things that you like, even if it wasn't obvious at the beginning. So you got to remember, Joshua's totally lost. He was obviously wanting to work with his hands. He worked for a medical company, when he started chasing the money for insurance. He was very, very unhappy. Now, this is a message that came through and this isn't, you know, to big me up at all. This is just a nice story that I thought would be good on the show. Just say done, and this was totally out of the blue. I hadn't heard from him for about three or four years. Baby, do you want my heart tonight? I hope life is treating you well. I just wanted to thank you. I'm not a millionaire, and I don't own my own business anymore. But you helped me find what brings me joy. And because of you, I grew the CO owners and started my own business. I appreciate you for having confidence in me when I didn't have confidence in myself. You literally changed my trajectory on life. Life is good. Now. I appreciate you, David. How are you for some reason, I miss you. Even though we haven't met in person. You're still at the A friend. And so I went back to him. I said, Oh, buddy, it's really great to hear from your pal. Funnily enough, I was thinking about you just last night. And I was, I was sort of going through all the people that have come through Join Up Dots. And some of them still connect with me. And some of them were a big part of it, but moved on. And then I don't hear from him anymore. And I said to him, I was musing all the people that have come through the shows, since starting j u DS, as I call it, and how many of them didn't do anything with the help? They had that passion for a little bit, but then they just stopped. And then I thought of you and I actually meant to drop you a line and I thought maybe it's too far back in years now and he won't remember me. So how are you doing? How is Florida? We're hearing stories in the press about the virus surging again. I really hope you and your family are safe and happy. And he came back to me and this this is the real joining up the dots moment. And he came back and he said, David, life is good. Every day. I wake up is a good day. Right? Florida was fun, but after Hurricane Michael Michel, most of us were laid off. So we moved back home to Alabama. And I started working with a friend, repairing and installing hot tubs. Now you gotta remember he was somebody but, you know, had the motivation. He could do things with his hands, he'd already created a kind of water based business washing cars. So this is kind of the next step. He says, the business started booming, and we are in the season of plenty. And I can imagine my wife's always banging on about bloody hot tubs and I say to her, yeah, if you're in Florida, you'd probably use it. You wouldn't use it here, where you get three minutes of good weather a year and the thought of walking up the garden in a swim so it's never going to happen. Anyhow, she moans about it all the time. Now, our family is on the back end of the adoption process, he says and we hope to add another one to the family life is good David and I can't thank you enough for your heart. I've learned that people come and go and the seasons and reasons you held my hand through a difficult time of searching. I appreciate you when we connected I didn't know what I wanted to apply but why had Wasn't it you guided me into a different thinking about how I'm to provide for my families no money. If I'm dead inside my family has money but I work for that money is worthless. money or being rich was never my goal. It was the something more that I was after. I found that with your help and the help from others, the only way to benefit from others is learning action. And by again, I appreciate you, David, you're a friend of mine, but I'm grateful for Well, I'm grateful for him. Because he has found he's been and he's learned that he liked being in business, but he didn't like running a business himself. So he's found a friend. They're supporting each other. He's doing something that is outside, he's doing something that is manual that he enjoys. He's very, very good at it. business started booming and I can imagine hot tubs are really popular at the moment. And he joined up his dots he joined up his dots from working with his hands for a medical company to actually controlling his own Time and he's own business. And every one of you can do that, you know, I've had this car repair shop for years and years and years, never we sort of did much with it. I kind of par for our that somebody else's problem. But when I totally looked at it and thought, right, okay, let's really turn this room. I already had the skills, it was easy. I just looked at him for one, okay, we get these people to come, we get these people to come, we get it all to appear on their mobile phones, our target, mobile six and seven and Apple five, iPod five or whatever they're called, I don't know, iPhone five, iPhone six and seven. Make sure that it's all mobile responsive on their screens, give it a good online store to come through. And it was easy for me, but I couldn't have done it without the six or seven years of other stuff that didn't seem connected. And so if you're out there and you're doing stuff and you know this isn't a business. It is you're in the learning stage at the moment. Gold large Karma, whatever is giving you the skills. So when you make that decision that you really want to go for it, you'll be able to look around and go, I can do this, I can do this really well, then how do I give it to somebody who can't. Now, that's a bit of a journey you got to go on. But it's still very, very powerful to know about the journey that you're on at the moment when you're going to your crappy job or you're on the commute with a mask on, you're thinking, Oh, I don't really like this. It's actually teaching you what you need to get your dream life. You couldn't get it. Otherwise, it's really, really important to do that. So for everybody out there, hopefully you're taking inspiration from Joshua story, and also Jackie Baker from the south coast dinner society that's going to be rebranded soon. And from Kate on iTunes, and the gentleman from India, thank you so much for leaving ratings and reviews. But believe me, every single one of you, it's waiting for you. Just go Do it you just got to do it if you're willing to sit back and wait for somebody else to land it in your, in your lap, never going to happen. If you're waiting to actually make a plan, strategize and go for it, then it's waiting. You're looking after yourself. Have a great weekend. Whatever you're doing, take faith and action and I will be here waiting for you next week. If you've got any positive stories of life changing situations, drop us a line and we'll share them with the world to give them inspiration but I'm gonna be waiting for you because that's what I do. Until next time, see again, Cheers. Bye. Outro 18:34 See ya. Heard the conversation. Now it's time for you to start taking massive action. Create your life. Busy only live. We'll be back again real soon. Join Up Dots Join Up Dots. Join Up Dots. JOHN. The guy Joy, joy Unknown Speaker 19:04 odds

Introducing Greg Shepard Greg Shepard is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the CEO and founder of BOSS Capital Partners. He is a Serial Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker and Angel Venture Capital Investor with a legacy of building and running sustainable growth businesses. Driven by a transformational leadership style, Greg has spearheaded multiple company exits in the BioTech, TransitTech, AdTech and MarTech space. Two of his former companies were acquired by eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions in January 2016 as a part of a cross-brand deal totalling largely over $900M. The transaction comprised the purchase and sale of numerous companies, two of which were Greg’s. He has won: Tech Deal of the Year Over $250 million, Private Equity Deal of the Year Over $500 million to $1 billion and Cross Border Deal of the Year Over $500 million to $1 billion to name a few. Most recently, he has been authoring a book titled: ‘Meet the BOSS - The Agile Playbook for Startups’ slated to publish soon. Alongside the book will be a TEDx talk. How The Dots Joined Up For Greg But this isn't a story of a man who started with everything and just added a few awards and successes on the way. Today's guest had to overcome many obstacles as he clawed his way to the top Greg’s success story of overcoming obstacles is what drives him to support entrepreneurs around the world. From growing up with very little along with foster and adopted siblings, to a visional processing disorder and dyslexia, Greg continues to be one of the most recognizable examples of how fearless optimism and steadfast determination can guide any intelligent and determined young professional toward success. So what does he have that so many people dont have who are struggling towards paying the bills and supporting their families. And where is he heading in the future as he creates more and more dots? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Greg Shepard Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Greg such as: How his family first decided to travel across to America to start a new life  Greg shared the realisation that life was about overcoming obstacles and he could be more than what people Why setting a north pole direction when you start setting out to achieve a goal is such an amazing way to build success. And lastly.......... Why Greg lives and reaches the following beliefs that make all the difference "focus, drive, enthusiasm, discipline, optimism" How To Connect With Greg Shepard Website Linkedin Facebook Twitter Return To The Top Of  Greg Shepard If you enjoyed this episode of Greg Shepard why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Spike Ball Founder, Nick Ruiz,  Dane Maxwell or the amazing Mybodytutor Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.

Introducing Mike Young Mike Young is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He is the founder of the Makeovermaster and the author of Made Over: How To Create A Powerful Brand That Will Transform Your Business & Save Your Life", And also a man with a similar story to your beloved host of Join Up Dots, and most people who appear on the show. As he says "My life looked amazing from the outside. I had all the things... Recently married to a beautiful, funny and cool girl. A successful mortgage business, 250 employees and 10 offices. I lived in a $750,000 house. I owned another $150,000 in sports cars. Hell, on the outside I was living the dream life. But behind the curtains, my financial world was crumbling. How It All Went Wrong For Mike The market crash in 2007-2008 was destroying my business and I didn’t know how to fix it. I felt out of alignment, like a fraud, a fake. I didn't feel in alignment with who I truly was as a person. I didn't want to be doing what I was doing. I didn’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. But I did what I’ve always done. I worked harder I must have read more than 500 books. I went to all sorts of seminars and conferences. I did anything and everything to turn the ship around. But it was too late, the damage was done. I remember hiding in my basement crying, trying to make sure my family didn’t see or hear me. I had a kid to feed. a wife to make proud of me, bills to pay, and a reputation to uphold. And I was about to lose it all. Then The Dots Joined Up For Mike Young It was March 2008, and I was in my business partners’ office when it happened… I left the office early and went home… Our mortgage business was failing, I went from liquid millionaire to over $200,000 in debt in less than 6 months. And that is the perfect place to start today's episode of Join Up Dots. So why do we all think that working harder is the solution, when we look at the likes of Branson, Buffett and Musk and they barely look like they are doing anything? And what is the first thing someone in the weeds and drowning can do to free themselves and start living the dream life? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Mike Young. Show Highlight During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Mike Young such as: Mike Young openlys talk about his path to business minimalism, which is always the best way to build a business....simplicity wins everyday. We discuss the process of self development, which lead to a self addiction for improvement that could have held them back from moving forward. We share the brilliance of getting a personal brand, but also find out the failings that sometimes can destroy your chance of success.  and lastly...... Why it so important to feel big emotions, and to truly allow yourself to reveal yourself warts and all to the world and your business. Return To The Top Of Mike Young If you enjoyed this episode of Mike Young, why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Victoria Lioznyansky, Ryan Avery, Brad Yates or the amazing Jack Canfield Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.

A New Business Idea Is Born In today's episode we take a look at a new business idea created by a listener of Join Up Dots. She sent an email through to the show asking for help around her new business idea South Coast Dinner Society. The idea of this business is quite simply to take away the uncomfortable side of meeting someone new nowadays. Especially as we get older, and perhaps have seen other relationships fall to the wayside. Our listener thinks that she can fulfil this gap in the market in a way that hasn't been seen before. We agree with her 100%, This is a new business idea that will work, as long as she does the right thing. The Original Email We Received Hi, I came across your podcast when out walking my dogs the other day and I have been listening to quite a few of them and really impressed...... About me! I am a single 55 year old single lady and I work full time as a Business Development Manager for Solent University. I am originally from Northern Ireland and have mainly been in a hospitality, venue, arena hospitality management for many years. After being single for 2 years and missing the event side of hospitality I decided that there are so many people like me who do not want to internet date and meeting in bars like we used to when we were in our 20s is not an option any more and I found out also that so many, like me have become quite set in our ways and not so easy to start the whole relationship. There are many 'anorak's who have groups for walking, book clubs etc but I wanted to create something that was comfortable and liked minded, which is hard to get across over email. Please take a look at my self created web site and this is the point where I need to tell you that I have literally nothing for marketing etc, due to owning my last house literally outright, selling it when I met my partner and then him going bankrupt with my money......so I need to grow organically. I know I have a good NEW business idea...but I did hear the Australian SEO guy say if you dont have any money to start your business then start knocking doors, which is not possible in what I want to do but made me think that I haven't got a hope, so maybe cut my losses!! The Quick Fixes For All New Business Idea Quick Fix One Lets start with a quick overview of the episode. First of all, marketing is not hard with a little bit of planning. We need to know what we are offering, what is our USP, and then start finding out where the people are that want that stuff. Quick Fix Two We need to make sure that our business website is running as fast as possible to ensure that traffic gets through to us. There is no point in building a business that doesn't load on a phone or handheld device. We need to make sure that we know our site speed and assess any improvements that we can make by using the following link. https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ Quick Fix Three Once we get our new business idea operating really fast, we then need to make sure that it looks good for all devices. Most of us build our new business idea on desktop, or laptop as its easier to see. We can overcome this by using the link below that shows how our site looks on a myriad of devices. https://www.responsivedesignchecker.com/ Quick Fix Four Before we start marketing our business, we need to build up our keywords list and find the low hanging fruit. We can start this process quite simply by getting a range of words that people might use to find us. In this case we will take the word DATING and start writing other words that people might use. https://www.thesaurus.com/

When Remi Clermont was a teenager, he was embarrassed that his father liked going road cycling. By road cycling, he means riding around on the type of bike you see in the Tour de France - "drop handlebars" that sweep downwards, and thin tyres. Despite Remi being born and raised in the Alsace region of eastern France, and road biking being one of the country's most popular sports, his young self just didn't like it. "My friends and I, all the kids, were into mountain biking at the time (the early 1990s)," says the 44-year-old. "Road biking was seen as very boring. I was almost ashamed when I told friends that my dad was into it." Remi loved cycling as a child, just not on road bikes Little did teenage Remi know, he would go on to catch the Lycra and tarmac cycling bug himself in his 20s. And then, at the age of 33, launch what is today one of the fastest-growing road cycling clothing companies - Cafe du Cycliste. Founded in 2009, in Nice on the French Riviera, the firm says it now sells €4m (£3.6m; $4.5m) worth of jerseys, shorts and other clothing items per year, with 50% year-on-year growth. "You can certainly say I changed my mind," jokes Remi. Bike firms struggle to meet surge in demand during lockdown However, before we return to cycling, we need to go to the world of competitive kayaking. Remi took up kayaking when he was nine, and went on to be a member of the French national team for six years in his 20s. "My speciality was white water kayaking," he says. "Sadly the discipline is not an Olympic sport, so I never got to go to one of them, but it was great to represent France in international competitions. "And it was the reason I got into road biking. Because you couldn't kayak in the winter when it was too cold, I'd cycle to keep my fitness up." Then when he retired from the water sport at the age of 28, he kept up the cycling. Remil, left, was a member of the French team for six years As he was not paid for his kayaking, Remi had also needed to hold down a full-time job in his 20s. After getting a business degree from the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, he worked in the sporting corporate hospitality sector. This included working at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. A year later he got a job in the marketing department of the European arm of a US IT firm. "I wasn't a great fit for the role as I knew nothing about IT," says Remi. "But it had one massive thing going for it - it was based in Nice, which really is cycling paradise. The hills behind Nice [which lead up to the Alps] are just wonderful." Remi was soon spending weekends cycling with a workmate called Andre Stewart. Then Andre quit to buy and run a cafe in a small village to the north west of Nice, naming it Cafe du Cycliste. Two year later, in 2009, Remi also left the IT firm to join his friend at the cafe business. His plan was to design and launch a range of upmarket road cycling clothes that they could sell to all the riders who stopped for a drink and a bite to eat. Specifically, Remi wanted to produce the cycling jerseys that he says you couldn't buy in France at the time - plain and understated ones that wouldn't look out of place in a posh menswear store. Remi describes Nice and the surrounding area as "cycling paradise" "The only cycling jerseys you could buy at the time in France were racing ones with big logos and sponsors, that made you look as if you were competing in the Tour de France," he says. "I wanted to produce something completely different." There was a catch, however, in that Remi had no knowledge of or experience in the clothing sector. But undeterred, he says he set to work. "I started to learn everything I could," he says. "I had some friends in Paris who were working in clothing and fashion, so I got some tips and helpful mentoring from them. "And I started going to all the trade shows, and asking millions of questions, and contacting plenty of factories in Italy." A few months later, a manufacturer in Italy agreed to make Remi's first design for a cycling jersey, and the fashion side of Cafe du Cycliste was up and running. Remi still designs all the products himself Sales from the shop were stubbornly slow, however, so Remi launched a website to target online customers, especially from overseas. With little to no money for advertising, he would send free samples to cycling journalists in various countries. They would then write enthusiastic reviews, and sales quickly took off, particular in the UK and Japan. "Cyclists in the UK and Japan were really open to what we are doing," says Remi. "And that remains the case, still only 10 to 15% of our sales are in France. Many cyclists here still want to look as if they are taking part in a race all the time." British cycling journalist and commentator Rebecca Charlton says that brands like Cafe du Cycliste and the UK's Rapha, Le Col and Assos have led the way over the past decade in offering upmarket, stylish cycling clothing. This has coincided with a big increase in the number of people taking up the sport, leading to booming sales at the firms. "The trends, cuts and designs of modern cycling kit are a far cry from the extremely limited options I had as a young girl," she says. "And the psychology isn't to be underestimated either - when you've got a new cycling outfit you feel that bit more motivated to get out of the door, and you feel good. When it flatters, and fits perfectly, the ride feels more comfortable, and it definitely adds morale." Remi, says his dad is now a fan of the clothing Back at Cafe du Cycliste's head office in Nice, Remi says that recent sales have mirrored the industry-wide increase as a result of coronavirus, with more people taking up cycling either to get some exercise or avoid public transport. His dad is also a fan of the clothing, which Remi continues to design himself, and is manufactured in a number of European factories. However, his father initially wasn't impressed back in 2009. "When I first started out, he wouldn't wear it, because it was too different to the race jerseys he was used to," says Remi.

Victoria Lioznyansky is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. She is a lady with a fascinating story of pushing herself out of her comfort zone and creating success becuase of it. Her expertise is training introverted (sometimes terrified) entrepreneurs and business professionals to be confident and dynamic public speakers. As he says "As someone who is shy, introverted, and a non-native English speaker, I know first-hand how it feels to be terrified of public speaking. Over the years I’ve transformed myself from a nervous wreck to a confident, engaging speaker, and your audience will find my story inspiring. I’ve built several successful businesses, spoken in front of large audiences, appeared on television, and founded the Brilliant Speakers Academy®. How The Dots Joined Up For Victoria The innovative program that I’ve developed makes it possible for ANYONE to easily overcome their public speaking anxiety and learn to love the spotlight. Your audience might also find it interesting that my other business is a brick-and-mortar franchise, Nutty Scientists of Houston, where we inspire kids to fall in love with science. I opened it 5 years ago, and I’m so proud that it’s become the #1 Nutty Scientists franchise in the U.S. So how does someone go from being terrified and introverted to really making a difference to other peoples lives? And what are the first steps that we can all take to really shake our roots, and start marching to success? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Victoria Lioznyansky Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Victoria Lioznyansky such as: Victoria shared a terrible story of her first public speaking appearance and how it almost stopped her every speaking again. Victoria talks through the process of how she started her business by looking at the market and learning what the world needed. and lastly........ We discuss how you can create a course and a business without even completing the course before selling it

Scaling A Coaching Business

Scaling a a coaching business or any business come to that can be hard. So in today's episode of Join Up Dots we talk about the issues that a lady has with starting her business and making it a money machine. You will hear on the show, several key points that we have summarised at the bottom of the page. Some of them might be obvious, whilst some of them might be a complete surprise. Dear David, I have been following your teachings for a year or so, and awhile back took your Freedom Starter Course which really allowed me to ask the questions that I was unable to ask about myself. It was a long process of going through the videos, and then working like a mad woman for a week or so, and then allowing it to slip away and let life take over. I am now proud to say I have started my own coaching business based around the ancient energy Chi, after becoming interested in the subject and then passionate and I guess now you can say obsessed. I dont think it would have got to that point without your course and of course your amazing podcast, so thank you from the bottom of my heart/ If you dont know what this means here is an example Depending on the method, energy healing focuses on the life force that flows through all of us; that force that dictates our mood, health, energy, and ability to connect with other beings. In Chinese and Japanese culture that force is referred to as ki or qi (pronounced: chi). In India, it is known as prana the energy that spins and flows through the chakras, an intangible force that cannot be comprehended in the materialist sense. I came to this conclusion after working in a legal sweat factory for several years and hitting issues with both mental health and physical issues. I was doing poorly in every stage of my life and subsequently my relationship off fifteen years unfortunately came off the rails too. I looked for a solution, and after using every medicine and pill known to man (and a few less than legal substances I have to say) I discovered this process and a door opened in my mind. It made sense to me. And then one day i was listening to your show (im ashamed to say I can't remember what episode) and you were talking about how energy is so important, and we should remember to recharge ourselves like we do our phones and then BOOM. The idea of really deep diving into this subject and then helping others was so clear to me. To confirm this I went through your Freedom Course once more, with this idea leading the way and it was like a tick sheet,where the ticks just kept on coming. The more i realised that this was what I was waiting for, the happier i felt, and the lighter i felt too. I realised that i had found what you mention on the show. The door that was already open and not to try to make a new door. So many things that you speak about now makes total sense to me, and perhaps I should go back over the episodes and listen again. with new knowledge and understanding. Although I am doing ok financially i am finding that most of my business comes my way through referrals and word or mouth and I am looking to scale. I dont have a website yet, but do hammer away on Facebook which seems to be working. Do you have any suggestions as to what I need to do to make this happen as your advice is so important to me. Thank you for all you do, and if we ever meet the beers are on me. Jessica H New Zealand Summary Of The Show Referrals are great. In fact they are the life blood of any business You must have a website to own the traffic. Owning traffic is key to scaling a coaching business. You must realise that you need to take customers on a journey before they ever consider buying. You must have a funnel or multiple funnels You must test and tweak your website to maximise the traffic you are getting to your business. 

Michael Arterberry is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the founder of Youth Voices Center, established in 2008, which is dedicated to promoting positive youth development among adolescents through its “Power of Peace” program offered in schools, community centers, and youth groups across Westchester, Schenectady, and Columbia counties, and soon to be Connecticut and New York City.  As a teenager, Michael was fortunate to receive guidance from positive adult role models who helped him overcome adversities and set high expectations for his future. Grateful for the role these mentors played in his own development, Michael decided to dedicate his professional life to helping people navigate the difficulties of life and launch their future into motion. How The Dots Joined Up For Michael Arterberry As he says "In founding Youth Voices Center (YVC) in 2008, I drew heavily on my understanding and empathy for the pressures and difficulties of the teenage years. In addition to my own experiences growing up in poverty, I have worked with thousands of teens in a range of settings over the past 22 years as a social worker and counsellor. As a teenager, I was fortunate to receive guidance from positive adult role models who helped me overcome adversities and set high expectations for my future. Grateful for the role these mentors played in my own development, I decided to dedicate my professional life to helping teenagers navigate the difficult adolescent years. So what are the things that make such a difference to the youth of America in his opinion? And what are his dreams for the future of the Youth Voices Center spreading across America, or global domination. Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Michael Arterberry Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Michael Arterberry such as: Michael shares the story of his difficult father, and the upbringing that he had which formed the person he is today We discuss the moments in our life that shape us, the failures that become the stepping stones to success. Michael talks about how difficult it is to find funding for a non profit, although that wont stop him persisting.

Delores Hirschmann is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. She is certainly a lady when many many dots to join up throughout her life. As she says "I’m an entrepreneur, hispanic immigrant, mother of four, and business owner. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, I endured a difficult childhood. When I was 20, I was diagnosed with a pancreatic tumour and was told I might not make it. Well guess what? I made it! I went on to graduate from business school and meet my husband who was travelling in Buenos Aires. Within a year, we got married and moved to the US. How The Dots Joined For Delores Here, I became a mother of 4 and while they were young, I started 3 businesses: a women’s clothing company that supported a coop of low income women in Argentina, a language school where we taught Spanish, French, and Chinese as an after school program, and a consulting business. I later became a TEDx organizer as I am very passionate about IDEAS that can impact the world. And then in 2014, I launched my current adventure, Masters in Clarity, a coaching practice that helps clients clarify their idea worth sharing and implement business growth systems. I stand behind entrepreneurs who are committed to changing the world with their work. And how do you know that you have a great product on your hands before you ever invest your own money into the business? And looking back did she need the bad times, to truly make her focus on the life she wanted? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Delores Hirschmann  Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Delores Hirschmann such as: Delores shares her love of a world that is imperfect and really enjoys when things arent as polished as they should be. Why there is a time span between having an idea and really making a go of it - as Delores calls it "The Haunting Period" How there are times when we dont have all the answers in our life, and these are the times we should just sit back and trust. And lastly........... Why she shares the business book "What Do You Do With An Idea?" even though its actually a children's book with all her clients.

In todays episode of Join Up Dots we answer some questions from across the world.

All of them received in the Join Up Dots office, due to our listeners desire to take control of their lives, earn their own income and create a dream business.

So if you are looking for a quick burst of motivation and inspiration, and of course to gain some online business insights then this is the show for you.

In todays episode of Join Up Dots we answer some questions from across the world.

All of them received in the Join Up Dots office, due to our listeners desire to take control of their lives, earn their own income and create a dream business.

So if you are looking for a quick burst of motivation and inspiration, and of course to gain some online business insights then this is the show for you.

Introducing Erik Salzenstein

Today's guest joining us on the Join Up Dots podcast has a similar story to one or two of the guests who have appeared on the show over the years. One of a series of bad life choices that led to a determined approach to change his life forever, by changing the lives of others. He had a difficult childhood and an even more difficult start to adulthood. Moving around the country, he was borne in Maine grew up in Orlando and was naturally gifted at sports. That of course all sounds great, sporty and living near the home of the mouse. What could go wrong? Well through displaying natural athleticism, the young Erik Salzenstein was the kind of player that people wanted on their teams, and played for a number of different ones across a range of different sports. How The Dots Joined Up For Erik  Many of the other members of the travelling team were from public schools, and were almost all older. His newfound teammates introduced him to alcohol and marijuana when he was in sixth grade and the slope was very much getting slippery. Move on a few years and when Erik Salzenstein was just 23 years old, he was facing life in prison for armed robbery charges following a drug deal gone bad. Today, he’s sharing his powerful story of overcoming life in prison and how spending time behind bars was the key to changing his mindset for the better. While each of us is not necessarily living behind bars, we might still be living inside the prison of our own mind. Erik is a now a sought-after transformational coach and speaker who’s passionate about helping others break free of their own walls, and his story will inspire you to turn adversity into impact and lasting success. So where does he see the majority of his efforts truly making lasting change nowadays? And is he now a 100% different person or someone simply working day on day to stay on the path? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Erik Salzenstein Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep weighty subjects with Erik Salzenstein such as: Why we often don't get the chance to realise that we are going to deep into a situation to change that process. Erik talks about the moment when he took a phone call from his Dad in jail, and how he started his transformation to the person he wanted to be. Erik shares his belief that you have to have a blueprint and path to follow if you ever want a share of success.

Paul Maskill is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He loves nothing more than building, scaling and then selling local businesses. He is now on a mission to help other local businesses thrive in their own industries, without losing control of their hours, health and minds. As he says "In 2011, after less than 4 years in Corporate America, I knew there was more to life than just do a job that's "okay" for 40 years and then retire & enjoy life. I ventured out and started my first business in 2011. I was soon working 60-80 hours a week with a business that couldn’t survive without me. So I started systematising everything while empowering a team to run the business better than I could. How The Dots Joined Up For Paul Before I knew it my revenue doubled to almost $500k while the number of hours I worked dropped below 40. I then sold my business for 3x net profit. I have since done this same process again with another local business while also helping other business owners automate & scale their business so they can leverage their business to build a life that they love. Having been the one connected to my business 24/7 and working 80 hour weeks, I realized there were 4 issues we all face: 1. We struggle to get everything done and instead our #1 goal is to just survive the day. 2. We need systems & processes to scale but we don’t have time to implement them. 3. We can’t find good help to scale (and we don’t have time to train them)! 4. And we have no time to work ON our business So is a system purely automated or does it blend with personnel too? And where do most people go wrong in the beginning, as its hard to see what you should be doing when you dont know what you should be doing? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Paul Maskill. Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Paul such as: Paul shared why he quite simply had to get clear on his personal vision to then build the business that he wanted. Why the local business market is such a big win, and should be our first port of call when we are starting out. How so many people should be looking to build a business that supports your life, instead of working in the business. And lastly.......... Why the ability to re-engineering the hell out of of the process should be our starting point. Go from what you want to earn to who will give it to you.

Introducing Dane Maxwell

Dane Maxwell is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the Co-Founder of The Foundation along with Andy Drish, owner of a multi-million dollar SaaS business, and has started 16 businesses in his career. As he says "I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 10 years. I’m the Founder of The Foundation, a six month program designed to teach entrepreneurs how to build a profitable SaaS business, and currently own a multi-million dollar SaaS business as well as two smaller SaaS products where I do what I teach. If you dont know what that type of business is it means "Software as a service (SaaS)" Its a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. ... For example, a business can write its own software tools and use the SaaS provider's APIs to integrate those tools with the SaaS offering. Our guest goes onto say "I found building a business around a painful problem to be extremely lucrative and encouraged anyone who wants financial freedom to learn the process. I taught not to follow your passion, but to follow the pain, and become passionate about the process of problem solving.  His new book Start from Zero encourages the reader to embark on the 7 learning adventures to create a business from scratch. How The Dots Joined Up For Dane This book includes research on “who” is most likely to be successful in entrepreneurship across 26 different personality factors. Would you like to join the special few who don’t exchange time for money? The special few who have products and businesses paying for their dream life? No hype. No BS. No fluff. This is a comprehensive book full of examples to draw from.  Start From Zero gives you the repeatable path to create a meaningful and profitable business without being dependent on any person, any platform, or anything. So is the idea more important than the actual implementation of that idea? And why are so many people focused on finding the passion, when pain works time and time again. Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Dane Maxwell Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Dane Maxwell such as: Dane shares the importance of setting his values and then living his life based around these values. Dane shares how building up the expertise and authority first is not necessarily the right way of doing things.  Why its so important to not sell your product but to sell the solution to their problem time and time again. And lastly........... Mr Maxwell shares his goals based book reading, whereby he looks for the answers on something that he needs to know, even if he doesn't read the whole book. 

Mybodytutor founder Adam Gilbert is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. Back in 2014 when Join Up Dots was quite simply a baby, he was one of the first guests to appear on the show. At that time we spoke openly about his transition from corporate land to starting his own fitness business. As we see time and time again, the quickest way to starting a business is defining a problem for a specific customer and then solving it in scale. Our guest did that amazingly well, and as we also see time and time again was a text book version of his ideal customer himself. Working for Ernst and Young, back in 2007, he realised that he wasn't happy with his body, but lacked the time and energy to do something about it. And he was not alone. It seemed that Adam's work colleagues all wanted to have a fitness timetable, that fitted around their lifestyles and would ask our guest for tips. How The Dots Joined Up For Adam and MyBodyTutor And after hearing the same request for the millionth time, he realized something.  Something had to be done. He had to set out to create a program that would solve this problem in a big way. He had to follow his passions. As he says" Everyone wants to be healthy and fit, but it’s just too easy to make promises to ourselves and break them. It’s even easier to rationalize indulgent eating, especially after a long day. I realized the missing link was accountability. But weekly accountability wasn’t enough. It had to be daily. After all, a week is a long time! The same people who were motivated on Monday had given up by Wednesday, only to promise themselves they’d “start fresh on Monday!” yet again. I set out to create a program that would solve this problem. Daily and personal accountability would be the cornerstone. This way, I could help people implement the game plan we had come up with." Bang. He slammed them all together and created the online company mybodytutor So how is his life different from the first time that we spoke on the show, easier and easier or just dealing with bigger problems? And looking back to the fledgling business, was it a sprint with total clarity or a constant start and stop with a few worries in between? Well let’s bring onto the show to start joining up dots, as we discuss the words of Steve Jobs with the one and only Adam Gilbert! Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Adam Gilbert such as: Adam shares how he managed to get the accountability aspect of the business, and the break down of building customer value. We discuss the steps that he took to find the right people to support him and how they have pushed his business to greater levels. How we all have to think "All fires start small" when building a business. It ain't gonna be a blaze overnight! How he used to walk to work with a stomach ache for over two years, knowing that the job wasn't right for him, but still doing it! How he quit his job with no income coming in but just one goal: I will pay my next months rent....and he achieved it! And lastly….. How his big dot that showed him his path was way back in college, but he still went into corporate America first!

Kris Reid, is an expert on SEO tips, lessons and marketing for everyone from beginners  to multinational businesses. He joins as our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast interview.  He is a man who calls himself the coolest guy in SEO. Which isn't a surprise that he is cool as this is also the second time that he has appeared on Join Up Dots..so how cool must he be? As his team says "It isn’t a gimmick, but our own Kris Reid has become the coolest guy in SEO which is by no means a joke. SEO’s coolest guy is on a mission to get ranked to the first page of Google, to be on front page news, to get trending and to get his name boosted to the world. Being the coolest guy and being on the first page of Google is what every website wants but with obscure terms it’s easier now than ever to rank for them. The way this is done is through a series of steps that allow you naturally to be at the top of Google‘s searches which can vary from ensuring your meta data is perfect to getting someone to do it all for you. How The SEO Tips Formed The Big Business For Kris As he says " because of my love for software development, back in the day I built an online game.  As the completion day came near for the game I made, I thought that I should learn how to market if anyone else is ever going to play with it. So, I started studying how Google works and learned about Search Engine Optimisation. I quickly discovered how important back-links are – not just any back-links, but only quality back-links with relevant and compelling content on powerful industry-specific websites." And the rest is history. Not easy history, in any shape or form, but one that has seen steady growth, a move from his home country of Australia to set up in Davao city in Philippines in January 2013, and now clients flocking to his company from across the globe. Life seems good and should be good, as he has taken control of his own destiny, and worked his socks off to make things happen. So does this kind of success simply come from putting one foot in-front of the other until you start too see things happening? Or is there a blueprint for all of us to follow, as we look to leave the corporate grind, and crank out Google loving content time and time again. Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only, Mr. Cool SEO Guy Mr Kris Reid.

Todays show is a coaching based episode whereby David Ralph, the host of Join Up Dots, and founder of Dream Starters Academy Coaching answers listeners questions directly. This is a no holds bared version of the show, that will cover the following subjects sent in by listeners of Join Up Dots 1: David, I listen to a lot of shows and I find that they are always telling me their favourite business books. You don't. So my question is what books would you recommend everyone reading if they get the chance ? - Jo Barnes, London   2: What has been the biggest difficulty to you as you have grown your business. I am thinking of starting my own business and any advice you can give will be greatly accepted. - Daniel Barkinside, South Africa   3. Hi David, thanks for a simply brilliant podcast. Its amazing how you can make me laugh, cry and scribble notes all at the same time. I was listening to a few of your shows, whilst on a long journey through Europe, and I wondered. What do you do when you are not involved in your business - Katarina Eastas - Poland   4: Good afternoon David and the Join Up Dots team, thank you for an inspiring and educational show. I am thinking of starting my own show and would like to know, how you decide on which questions you are going to ask your guests. I find this very hard indeed, and struggle to write more than five. Do you have any suggestions...thank you for your time. - John Milnard, Texas   5: I think I have a problem, which might need your help. I keep on repeating the same mistakes every-time when I start what I hope will be a life changing business. I put all my efforts into website design, content production, email list building for about six months and then let it fade away. I cant keep the motivation up to build anything worthwhile. Do you have any tips on how to remain focused. I know things do not occur overnight, but I also know that I am not ever going to get anywhere if I follow the same trend. Thank you for your time, I hope this question gets answered - Connor Sparrow Cardiff Wales If you want to get your question answered on the show then simply drop us a line to: Email: joinupdots.com@gmail.com

Today's guest joining us on the Join Up Dots podcast, is Miha Matlievski, an entrepreneur who has had their fair share of knocks and set backs. In 2009, Miha had four companies go bankrupt overnight: landing him $5 million in debt. Contemplating suicide to escape the pain as he looked over the balcony, he had a life-saving AH-HA moment. He realized that failure was a normal part of life: admitting to himself that he failed and to recognize he needed to stop blaming others and circumstances. It wasn't just thinking "Why am i such a failure ?" it was one of his big dots This was the turning point when he made a choice to learn from his failures so he could do things differently in the future and to help others. Since then, he has climbed back to create a business and scaling it to 8 figures in less than a year. His life mission is to help people develop a healthy relationship with failure. Especially entrepreneurs. How The Dots Joined For Miha   But to really get a flavour of the man you have to go back to when he was just 18 years old. At just 18 years old, Miha Matlievski, a Slovenian high school dropout, dreaming of becoming a successful entrepreneur. And he pursued it with a passion, putting in 12 years of hard work the result - those four successful businesses and a personal net worth of $15M. Are you willing to put in the hard work to make things happen for you in the same way? Are you willing to persevere when things don't go the way you want them to go? Well let's start joining up dots with the only and only Miha Matlievski Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Miha Matlievski such as: Miha shared how he was always the positive true entrepreneur and lost the light in his life during . Miha shares his belief that we can all create an amazing life for themselves by truly finding the most powerful "Why" they can have. Why there will never be a position when you have all pluses you want in life no matter how hard you try. and lastly........ Miha shares how the online opportunities are abundant compared to the issues of having a brick and mortar business.

Elephant Learning founder Dr Aditya Nagrath is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast.

Dr. Aditya Nagrath is a visionary leader on a mission to change the way that the world teaches mathematics. Dr. Nagrath is the co-founder of Elephant Learning Math Academy which is a gamification of a proven curriculum.

On average, children in Elephant Learning, learn 1.5 years of mathematics in 10 weeks using the system just 30 minutes per week. Dr. Nagrath, at age 14, taught himself C++ and continued on to read books on game development and neural networks which are the basis for modern day artificial intelligence. He graduated from the University of Denver with a dual major of Mathematics and Computer Science, continuing on to graduate school while working full time as a software developer to graduate with a PhD in Mathematics & Computer Science 7 years later. How The Dots Joined Up For Elephant Learning After at decade in University, Dr. Nagrath graduated to found Elephant Head Software where he lead a team of no more than 10 engineers to bring over 35 different product lines with over 50 different applications to market between 2009 and 2016. In 2016, Dr. Nagrath co-founded Elephant Learning with Professor Alvaro Arias from the University of Denver in order to bring transformational change to America's education system. As he says "3 out of 4 students are not proficient at High School Mathematics, leading to 69% of STEM majors switching majors to a major with less mathematics. Math deficiencies happen completely amongst income lines leading to a preservation of the cycle of poverty as mathematic scores often predict high school drop out and over all scores." So how do you get a business like this up and running to such great success? And where do people go wrong when tackling an issue like this? Focusing in on the kids, more than the pain of the parents? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Dr. Aditya Nagrath Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Elephant learning founder Aditya Nagrath such as: Dr Aditya shares the reasons why the first thing you must do is to simplify the product to take away any of the confusion that could keep it from succeeding. Why its so important to get your branding right at the very beginning...you have to get one word in the customers mind. We discuss the personal loan that he made to the business, proving that he truly believed in his vision. And lastly........... Why he has built a product that appeals to the global market, instead of going tight and niche like most common advice would have encouraged. Connect With Aditya Nagrath From Elephant Learning Website Linkedin Facebook

Introducing Layne Booth

Layne Booth is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. She is the CEO and Business Growth Strategist of The Project Booth, a business consulting company that uses proven metrics and data to bring business owners to the next level in their business. By strategically planning operations and creating a visual roadmap map, business owners can reclaim their time to focus on their business, make data-driven decisions, and capitalize on sales & profits. Data is key to everything, and unfortunately where most owners spend their time in the "lets hope this makes a difference" stage of business With her passion—and over a decade of “in the trenches” experience—as a guiding light, Layne ensures successful growth-minded business owners eliminate overwhelm by bringing clarity to help with teams, capacity and profits… and get back to running a business they love. How The Dots Joined Up For Layne As she says "I've witnessed business owners have incredible energy and focus for what they do, but seem like they don't have time to stop, and may feel like they are drowning in doing "all the things." We follow a simple ABC approach to drive amazing results: A is for Analyze: Analyze the numbers to tell the story. B is for Bottom Line: What do the numbers say about your actual profits, brand reputation, and customer service? C is for CEO Decisions: The secret weapon is creating a tool that CEOs actually use to make important decisions, not just creating another report. So do you need a ton of traffic to grow a successful business, or is that actually missing the point of business altogether? And what made her take the leap from her position of Forecasting manager for the VF Corporation and go it alone? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Layne Booth Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Layne Booth such as: We delve into the distinct difference between a CEO and an entrepreneur, and why so many people get very confused.  Layne shares how she built up her referrals based business by really nurturing her already built relationships. And lastly........... Why you simply have to understand the pain point of you customer, to then make that solution as simple as possible.

Introducing Steve Kahan

Steven Mark Kahan is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. Steve is a serial entrepreneur that has had great success moving from the corporate world early in his career to the startup world. He has successfully helped to grow six start-up companies from early-stage development to going public or being sold, resulting in more than $3 billion in shareholder value. He is currently CMO at Thycotic, which will become the seventh. Steve inspires teams and their organisations to take on the impossible and succeed. How The Dots Joined Up For Steve He has just written a book published by Wiley and Audible and available on Amazon.com called “Be a Startup Superstar." The book teaches those graduating college and young professionals how to earn a great living doing what they love by igniting their career at a tech startup. He will share lessons learned in over 30 years for how young professionals or those that feel stuck in the corporate world can earn a great living doing what they love by igniting their career in a technology startup. So is it harder than ever before to launch a successful startup due to the current conditions that we find ourselves in? And looking back at his ups and downs, were there things that he could have avoided or was this all part of the success? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Steve Kahan Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Steve Kahan such as: We discuss why people have to realise that even through the dark times in life, we see opportunities burst forth at the same rate as before Steve opens up about being a startup superstar, compared to what it takes to be merely successful. Why a startup operates like its the last outpost for outlaws, inspiring the mavericks and creatives of the world. And lastly........... Steve talks about why energy and protecting your time is so vitally important - basically be your own top priority in everything you do. Steve Kahan Books How To Connect With Steve Kahan Website Linkedin Facebook Instagram Return To The Top Of Steve Kahan If you enjoyed this episode of Steve Kahan why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Spike Ball Founder, Nick Ruiz,  Sarah Caltieri or the amazing Mandy Barbee Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from. Full Transcription Of Steve Kahan Interview Intro 0:00 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph. David Ralph 0:25 Yes, good morning, welcome to Join Up. Dots. Thank you so much for being here. Wherever you are across the world. Some of you have been with us for over seven years now. Thank you so much for being here. Others have just joined in, but you've come at a good time you've come a good time because the things that are coming through Join Up Dots, a life changing for you. Well, today's guests on the show is a serial entrepreneur, but has had great success moving from the corporate world early in his career to the startup world. He has successfully helped to grow six startup companies from early stage development. going public or being sold, resulting in more than 3 billion in shareholder value. He is currently cmo at five Kotick which will become the seventh. Now he inspires teams and their organisations to take on the impossible and succeed. And he has just written a book published by wily and audible and available on Amazon called be a startup superstar. This book teaches those graduating college and young professionals how to earn a great living doing what they love by igniting their career at a tech startup, he will share lessons learned in over 30 years for how young professionals are those that feel stuck in the corporate world can earn a great living doing what they love by igniting their career in a technology startup. So is it harder than ever before to launch a successful startup due to the current conditions that we find ourselves in? And looking back at his ups and downs? Were there things that could have been avoided? Or was this all part of the success? Well, let's find out as we bring them to the show to start joining up dance with the one and only Mr. Steve Kahan. Steve Kahan 2:08 Hi. I'm doing great. David, how are you? David Ralph 2:11 I'm very well, thank you very much for being here on the show. I understand that you've got up at half past four in the morning, you're in Texas. What's happening outside your window? Is the weld getting going? Or is it still in lockdown? Steve Kahan 2:23 It is in partial lockdown, unfortunately. David Ralph 2:27 And what is the unfortunate part? Lots of people in the entrepreneurial world almost say it hasn't really made a difference to us. Steve Kahan 2:35 Well, it hasn't made a difference to a number of companies like ours or for me who's used to working remotely but there are a lot of people and businesses, particularly small businesses that are struggling. And you know, for that reason, when that occurs, and certainly there's impacts on people and on businesses as well. Well, that's, that is an impact that is negative and something that I wish that we all could could avoid. David Ralph 3:08 Now, of course, most people now are at least thinking to themselves, maybe maybe I should take some kind of control of my future with unemployment and redundancies soaring. Do you think that's a naive point of view? Or do you think that people really have got the opportunities nowadays to take control and start earning their own income? Steve Kahan 3:30 I think that you absolutely can take control and start earning your own income. And, and really, to me, I think there's never been a better time and in many respects, I mean, certainly I think I really think Winston Churchill said it perfectly. He said, a pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity and an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty and so, you know, are you going to focus On the upside or the downside, do you see the cup is half full or half empty? And I really think that that positive optimistic people are certainly the ones that I choose to surround myself with. And my and I certainly believe that there are still many, many great opportunities, particularly to start a business or to join an existing startup and and take on some bigger, perhaps better funded companies and work with a small team of crazies that are hell bent on changing the world. I David Ralph 4:37 always remember I had a guest on the show and unfortunately, I can't remember the guest but I remember what he said. And he said, no matter how bad the world seems financially, somebody is getting the money. He said, it's just like an ocean where the tide has left your side and it's going to the other side, and it's your job as an entrepreneur to roll that boat across the Ocean to where that money is flooding in. And it is true, isn't it? Even at the worst times we're seeing zoom go through the roof, we're seeing bicycle sales go up massively. We're seeing so many people finding it boom time. Steve Kahan 5:15 I think that's true. And I think the key is is to find the sector sectors, as you mentioned that that are really going and going well for you mentioned some of them, I happen to work within the cybersecurity world and, and the hackers are out there almost like never before and so many businesses are looking to to do a better job of reducing risk. And so, you know, without question, there is many opportunities. There are people that are changing the way that they're working, working remotely, and that creates significant opportunity. So I absolutely agree with that. And, and and I am beginning to see people begin to capitalise on on some of those and, and think about ways to, to change the world. To me a great example of that is there is a new startup company that actually I'm considering investing and that is trying to change the way college students interact with businesses, where typically was face to face via career fairs, and then changing that interaction building more engagement and then facilitating the hiring process. I think, to me, that's a great example of a couple of young entrepreneurs that see an amazing opportunity and, and very well may change the way the world operates in terms of the college career experience. David Ralph 6:55 So let's turn the conversation to be our top superstar. Hold tight title, what actually is a difference that makes you a superstar and not just successful or getting by Steve Kahan 7:10 I think it starts first and foremost with choosing the right organisation or building the right startup organisation. And many people sort of don't understand the criteria of how to put yourself within a startup organisation that has a great chance to be successful. And there are, for example, certain criteria that I look at when I have joined startup companies and now I'm, I've been with six all of whom successfully sold or have gone public, generating over $3 billion. And now I'm with my seven that's like a rocket ship. And so to me, it's making the right choices and it starts with that. I look for Things like quality people who share the same values that I do. So if you don't trust, respect and admire the people that you're working with move on. I look for a concept that fills a big market need. I do the research and the homework to make sure that the market is big enough. I certainly understand that. People particularly now more than ever don't spend money on nice to solve problems they spend money on must solve. And I don't get dissuaded if there's too much competition, I I get dissuaded if there's not enough, I look for things like that. There's a great product that you can believe in where you can go to work every day with a passion for what the company creates and your role in creating it. And if you can't get behind it with enthusiasm, move on. And then finally, that the startup is well funded, and so that you are making sure that you're properly capitalised, so you have the best chance for growth and stability. And I think if you use those criteria to select a startup company, you have positioned yourself to have that opportunity to have a great outcome and be the superstar that you were meant to be. David Ralph 9:17 Now one of the things you say you look for a startup and you can't go on Craigslist and find these. So how do you find a startup for somebody out there who's interested? How do they actually find something before it's even started? Steve Kahan 9:31 So typically, what I will do is, is I I have started one company. And then the other companies that I have been with I have joined very small companies. And there are two ways that people oftentimes overlooked to find great companies. So one of which in most cities throughout the globe, there's what's known as startup accelerators or seed access. Raiders. And again, they exist in every city. You could do a Google and the city that you live in, and you'll find them and they are funding companies. They're providing educational assistance, networking opportunities and the like. And those organisations, posts, the companies that are members are ones that they're funding. And oftentimes there are great jobs right from those sites, right, and they're not the type of jobs that you're going to find posted. Secondly, is I will oftentimes, Reese research and be looking for startup leaders online or what I might read, I might start to follow them and I will make connections with them oftentimes through LinkedIn messenger in a heartfelt sincere way, not a salesy way. And what I've learned is that that type of direct connection First of all, All get you right to the executive. If there's HR at all it bypasses that. And then you can start to talk about how that person is achieving what they are within their career, you can learn from them, and bridge the conversation over to you. And oftentimes, again, if it's approached in the right way, you start to make connections with that person, and there may be opportunities within their company or within their wider network. And so approaching people directly online is something that sounds fairly basic, but you'd be surprised how rare it is actually done. David Ralph 11:45 Now, I know a lot of our listeners would say, it's alright for us, Steve, you've got a track record. You've got something to offer, but I'm starting out what value can I provide these people if I do connect with them directly? Steve Kahan 11:59 Yeah, I think that, you know, that's that's always the question. But the I think the the real thing to focus in on is there are over 80,000 startups around the globe. And, and there was a recent survey of startup CEOs that asked them the number one issue keeping them up at night. And it was actually finding good people. Now think of that for a second. So finding good, talented people was rated ahead of growing revenue, acquiring customers or gaining access to more capital. And so startup executives are desperate for hiring a plus talent. And so, you know, no one has all the experience perhaps that they think that they ought to have when joining an organisation and so oftentimes You know, sort of starts out with that connection. But then also, once you're bridging that conversation to you, if you're able to show some core traits, like for example, a willingness to work hard, someone who's super accountable, an individual who is team oriented, not an eye person, but a weak person, and you start to build, for example, that connection of the type of person that you are some of the background that you have, you'd be surprised how that connection could help bridge you into an organisation and then it really, it comes down to being a sponge, and taking on your own education and learning and building deep expertise. Because that's what the world pays the most for is deep expertise in one particular area. And then from there, building out your your your knowledge base. Since so oftentimes I find within startup companies rather than being in a smaller pigeonhole role, you get the opportunity to actually build that deep expertise. Because if you don't do the work, there aren't a bunch of other resources or people who can. And so it's oftentimes the perfect environment to achieve just that. David Ralph 14:22 Now, in your book, in chapter five, there's a whole chapter is at like a leader, even if you don't have the title yet. And you list great things to fall through and follow through on and one of them is keep your goals in sight. And the baby steps Tell us about that. Steve Kahan 14:43 Well, for me, I think it's super important to first of all, have your goals written down, right and so a lot of people when they talk about their goals, they they they don't have Have them in front of them. And I like to think of goals in terms of quarterly, in in terms of monthly, weekly and even daily, right. So it's that level of sort of detail that I will get into. And a lot of times, when you're thinking about those particular objectives, you also have to realise that not everything can be a high priority. And so, oftentimes, when you are documenting those goals, you'll find that high performers certainly as I saw myself to be, often take on massive workloads, right and to some extent, hard working people, it's they have traits that I respect, but it could create significant stress and burnout lead to burnout over the long haul. So you can't be a high performer without being overwhelmed. And so oftentimes, if you break down those objectives and two, kind of baby steps to get started. If you do a good job of prioritising your goals, what you'll find is is that success isn't about how much you do. It's about performing the right actions towards the right goals that will create the biggest impact. And for me, breaking things down into baby steps, oftentimes enable me to get started to not feel that the mountain is too big to climb. And then once I get started, then it's sort of like a snowball going downhill picking up steam. David Ralph 16:42 Let's listen to Jim Carrey. And then we'll be back with Steve. Jim Carrey 16:45 My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had Do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don't want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love. David Ralph 17:11 So when you were back in corporate land, and you decided to go your own way, did you know what you loved? Or was it just a feeling inside? Steve Kahan 17:20 It absolutely was a feeling inside I had a view of of what I love. But I remember that going from college into the corporate world. I remember staring at my bank statement and the pile of claims that I was supposed to process that day. And wondering, how on earth will I ever get ahead and I was working long days, and for me, the student loans would eat my paycheck before they ever even got a chance to hit my bank account. And so I sort of felt pigeon holed I felt like I In a big bureaucracy where there was great acceptance of the status quo, it was burdened by incumbent mindsets. The barriers to advancement seemed high. And it was like working at a on a giant ship that was hard to manoeuvre slow to change course. And, and for me, I just asked myself an important question. And that was, how could I earn a great living and love the work? I do? And it was really with that question that I realised that moving into more of a startup type of organisation would be the right career move for me. David Ralph 18:43 Now, what are people around you that said, Steve, what you're doing Steve, you've only got a beer for another four years and you've got the corner office. Steve Kahan 18:51 Absolutely. And, and so and then and then they went a step farther. The step farther was look, you know, this is risky if you make a move, it's certainly got great risk and, and there's not going to be the training and career paths that you typically would would see. And so what I learned was really what a startup was right. And so when people think of startups, you know, they they, they have sort of pictures in their mind's eye. But the way that I think of a startup there is a mentor of mine is serial entrepreneur. He's chairman of venture capital company by the name of Doug Irwin. And he says a startup is a company that operates like it's the last frontier for outlaws, a place where non conformists can live, create and sell their ideas. And to me how cool I mean, who doesn't want to be involved in that? It's sort of a place where you get to be the rough riding rebel, running circles around those slower moving bureaucratic, larger organisations. So what I came to learn was really that a startup is a culture. It's a mindset. It's not necessarily defined by the number of people. It's again, that small team of crazies just believing it could change the course of the world. That to me was exciting. David Ralph 20:20 Now, I was always told that I was a maverick in corporate world, like it was a bad thing. And I look back on it now, and I think it was a bloody great thing, and it's allowed me to go off and do what I need to do. Now the Mavericks, the creative thinkers, the strategy Guys, can you get the wrong blend in a startup when you walk into a startup? Can you see quiet, obviously, but they haven't got the right outlaws in place. Steve Kahan 20:49 Absolutely. Right. And so there are many attributes where you could see that they don't have the right outlaws in place. So Typically at startups, if you walk into a startup and you are seeing, like, for example, I'll focus of the values of the company in the cafeteria on a poster on the wall. That's not who startups are, they are living the values associated with with being a startup. You know, what you are often if you walk into a startup and you see that there that it looks like it's a pretty political bureaucratic type of environment where there isn't necessarily and the focus on the the end goal or the focus on on the customer and on beating what will most assuredly be tough competitors, then it's not the right place. If you see that the focus is more on competing internally with with one another and not on the whoever that particular enemy is externally, then it's not the right place. Right. And so typically at startups, it's, it's the opposite of that. And that and that's part of the work environment that I like, where there's great work, even versatility in the role that people are willing to stand up, you know, be accountable, you'll, you'll find that, that people have great persistence and tenacity, they're not going to be sort of overwhelmed by the obstacles that get in their way because they're most assuredly will be there. And then you know, finally that you see a culture where that people are embracing accountability, they want to be accountable to get the job done. And so those are like some of the things not to look for, as well as blending with a few of the things that I actually Look for within a startup that might be indicative that it could have a chance to win. David Ralph 23:06 And when does it become boring to you and you back out Steve Kahan 23:09 for me it I wouldn't say that it's so much boring but I like I do like some aspect of, of change and growth, I think that if if there is in time that it becomes boring, it's a time where you feel that the organisation or or me personally is not growing the way that it used to. Right And so, you know, if it's, if you if you are in a particular role and you're not able to, you know, grow within that role or expand and maybe take on some other roles within the organisation, if that's something that you that you aspire to do, or to move up, move into the C suite, hopefully someday, that to me, that's when it becomes a little bit less exciting. But, you know, again, if you believe the definition, at least that I mentioned that Doug Irwin had were a startup is really a culture, it's a mentality. I don't think that is necessarily, for example, the company I'm with now we've gone from 5 million to 100 million a cybersecurity company called Kotick. We've done that in four and a half years. And so it is not boring at all, even in the great growth that we have had and continue to have. Because there's such an opportunity for all of us and an opportunity for all of us to expand our skill sets. David Ralph 24:37 Now, as she was talking, I was googling on the entrepreneur handbook. And I can see that in the United Kingdom, there's 181, business accelerators, and that's just listed on that one website. So you really have shown but you literally step out your door and you trip over them if you're willing to look Steve Kahan 24:58 absolutely right. And so like, you know, if you go back at that criteria that I mentioned of how to select a startup, let me share with some of your listeners some of the questions that they ought to ask that will help them to figure out whether they're choosing the right one if they called one of those companies, and actually tried to break in. So if I were interviewing, these are some of the questions I would ask. I would ask questions like, why is now the time for your company to exist? Or a question like, what do you love about your team? And why are you the ones to solve this problem? Or tell me about a paying customer? What was their journey to you? And what are the revenue expectations over the next year? Or how much as the company raised and what's its runway? Who are your investors? Why did you choose them? And most importantly, this one is is one that kind of helps me get there. values. If you weren't building your startup, what would you be doing? which not only gets at their values, but you often find if you have other things in common with that person that you typically wouldn't find during an interview. If you ask those questions, you will go very far down your path to figuring out whether this is the right place for you. And you will differentiate yourself significantly because I can assure you other candidates for those same roles will not be asking those questions. Unknown Speaker 26:35 We're talking to Steve Kahan, the author of being a startup superstar, and we'll be back with him after these words. Are you ready to make a full time living online? Check out the amazing Join Up Dots business coaching. Unknown Speaker 26:47 Hello, my name is Alan. And I've just completed the excellent eight week course with David Unknown Speaker 26:51 before I started working with David Unknown Speaker 26:54 Actually, I had no idea at all where to start. Unknown Speaker 26:57 I had a lot of ideas about While I probably thought was going to be good business, David was able to help me through that though, to find that Unknown Speaker 27:06 passion. Within literally minutes. Unknown Speaker 27:09 We had, we had a business idea. And for the last seven weeks, Unknown Speaker 27:12 we've been building on it and building on it and the position I'm in now, Unknown Speaker 27:16 but if you've got an ever got here Unknown Speaker 27:17 on my own, because of the amount of information that David gives the structure, he's got the full package here, and he explains it in a way that I can understand. His support is phenomenal. I feel like this is the way business is supposed to work. Unknown Speaker 27:32 David helped me understand, okay, what were the next logical steps that I should do? How can I get this up and running? So I would really recommend this as an excellent course helping you if you have an idea if you have no idea, really teasing that out and some of the practicalities and steps to take to really launch your business, whether as a full time job or a side hustle. So it was really excellent. I recommend it for anybody thinking about setting up their own business. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say To save you years Unknown Speaker 28:02 Thank you, David for all your amazing help and support which keeps on going. And we certainly couldn't be where we are today without you. So you're awesome. David Ralph 28:12 So if you would love to become my next success story and have your own life changing online business following my step by step system, being tuned over many years to take away the effort and expense that others struggle with, then come across to Join Up dots.com and book a free call with myself. Let's get you living the easy life as it's there waiting for you to get it that is Join Up dots.com business coaching. Now we're talking to a Steve, the author of be a startup superstar. And interestingly, Steve within the book, the first few chapters, I thought, yeah, okay, I can totally understand where you're going with this. Very interesting at the end, you've got things like embrace the power of kindness and take care of what matters Put your family first work out, eat right sleep more. Why did you feel that it was important to add back into the contents? Steve Kahan 29:08 I think those things are hugely important. And you typically don't hear those types of things from in particular technology startup executives. But let me give you a very specific example why it's so important. And so, for example, when you take a look at sort of, you know, having a healthy work life balance and actually heard a phrase of, I almost don't even like work life balance any more, because it suggests that there's a right answer. I heard a term called work life harmony, which I liked a lot better because it suggests that things have been flowed. And so, you know, time for example, is a it's a finite resource. As we all know, once you lose it, you can't get a back and that means you must really exercise a lot of care in managing Your time and, and highly driven people, particularly those in the startup world often struggle with this. And what I've learned in my career and I didn't start out this way is to be my top priority. And to and if you live very much through your calendar, as I do is the most important item on your calendar. You are you priority number one. And so I'd like to challenge your listeners right now. And I'd like to ask them to open up their calendar and see if their calendar reflects that they are their own top priority. And I'll bet if you're like most people, if you check and see how many appointments you've scheduled with yourself that you have too few. And so, you know, think about some of the time that that you're losing for personal priorities, you know whether that's going to happen game being home for dinner or for breakfast. Or taking time where you're going to build your own skills, learn something new or to think strategically. What I learned was that if you're able to make yourself your own top priority, block out time in your calendar for you, that actually you're able to build far better work life harmony, and it's never perfect. And sometimes things need to change. But if you actually go start blocking off time on your calendar, even if it's for working out at launch, whatever it might be, so that you can proactively manage and orchestrate to the type of work like power money that you want to have for your life, that it just makes things better on all fronts

IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov

Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below: Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed) If you like the show, we would be so grateful if would consider leaving the show a review in iTunes as well as Stitcher Radio.  A couple minutes of your time can help the show immensely!  Thank YOU! Introducing IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov Kirill Noskov is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. IAMRUNBOX was established in 2015 in Lund, Sweden, out of a love for travel and a passion for running. When our guest today Kirill Noskov started running to work in order to fit daily training into his busy schedule, he found it nearly impossible to pack his office attire without it getting wrinkled and creased on the way. Kirill set out to develop products that would promote being active every day in any weather, hold a laptop securely in place, and at the same time keep clothes wrinkle free. IAMRUNBOX was born. How The Dots Joined Up For Kirill  As he says "There are few things I am really passionate about - optimisation (we CAN always DO better), endurance sports and travelling. I like thinking positive, always looking for improvement opportunities and have been spending the last 8 years working with business development and optimisation in various shapes and forms. That is what drives me and can keeps me awake during the night. I am an endurance athlete and sport enthusiast, passionate about running and travelling. Running is my lifestyle: I run-commute to the office, take my running shoes whenever I travel, participate in occasional marathon competition or just enjoy a long run during the weekend. Travelling is my hobby what helps me to re-energise and gives a source of inspiration. My passion in running and travelling resulted in iamrunbox.com product to make travelling, training and work commuting experience just that little bit better. So it's ok ending up work without wrinkled clothes, but what about dripping with sweat and general stuff not suited for an office? And looking back was this a business that was always waiting for him to create, or was it just as hard to get it off the ground as most people find? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Kirill Noskov Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Kirill Noskov such as: Kirill shares how he came to the realisation that by creating Kirill actually became a better person. How social distancing is a natural part of the lifestyle in Sweden, unlike many parts of the world who are finding this a difficult change. We talk about the change that Kirill made in his life to both shift mentally and time-wise to create IAMRUNBOX And lastly........... Why it's not enough to build a good product, you have to get people to know about it on scale to truly grow the success you want. How To Connect With Kirill Noskov Website Linkedin Facebook Twitter Return To The Top Of IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov If you enjoyed this episode with Kirill why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Spike Ball Founder, Nick Ruiz,  Sarah Caltieri or the amazing Mandy Barbee Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from. Full Transcription Of IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov Interview David Ralph 0:01 Once upon a time, there was a guy with a dream, a dream to quit his job support himself online and have a kick house live. Little did he know that dream would lead him into a world of struggle, burnout and debt until he found the magic ingredient and no struggles became a thing of the past. All right, of course I was that person. And now My dream is to make things happen for you. Welcome to Join Up Dots. Intro 0:27 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be but somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling and Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. David Ralph 0:52 Yes, hello there. Good morning, everybody. Good morning and welcome to Join Up Dots. Thank you so much for being here with us. Now if you're listening to this show sort of live lockdown has made me look out my window and see nothing more than people running, running everywhere or jumping onto bikes and getting their fitness in some way they can, but what happens when you go back to work and suddenly you haven't got as much time to get fit? Well, today's guest joining us on the show is the founder of I am run box which was established in 2015. In Lund, Sweden, out of a love for travel and a passion for running you say there's a connection to it. When our guest today started running to work in order to fit daily training into his busy schedule, he found it nearly impossible to pack his office attire without getting wrinkled and crease on the way. So we set out to develop products that would promote being active every day in any weather, hold a laptop securely in place, and at the same time, keep clothes a wrinkle free and I am one box was born. As he says there are a few things I'm really passionate about optimism as optimal ization we can always do better. It's probably optimistic as well enjoyment, sports and travelling. I like thinking positive always looking for improvement opportunities, and have been spending the last eight years working with business development and optimization in various shapes and forms. That is what drives me and can keep me awake during the night. I'm also an endurance athlete and sports enthusiast passionate about running and travelling. Running is my lifestyle. I run the commute to the office, take my running shoes where ever I travel, participate in occasional marathon competition, or just enjoy a long run during the weak hand Travelling is my hobby, what helps me to re energise and gives a source of inspiration. Now my passion in running and travelling resulted in I am run box and to make travelling and training and work commuting experience just that little bit better. So these are the questions it's okay ending up to work without wrinkled clothes but what about dripping with sweat and Jen will start not suited for an office and looking back. Was this a business that was always waiting for him to create or was it just as hard to get it off the ground as most people find? Well, let's find out as we bring them to the show to start joining up dots with the one and only IAMRUNBOX founder Kirril Noskov IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 3:20 Morning David, thank you so much for having me here. weather is beautiful in Sweden today. I have my morning jog and swim so nothing really to complain. David Ralph 3:30 Now I always think of this right because I live in a nice town. But I have people that come on the show and they say yes, I've just been running down the beach and I've been now my run would be quite rubbish. I just be running with buses going past me and cars going past me. Are you out in the country? Have you got trees or I used to live on quite city fied as well. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 3:53 I think it's a mixture of everything. You get both city you got a lot of nature and you Got a lot of See, then I wouldn't probably call it beach as we normally think of beach because the weather, I would say average during the year is 15 degrees. And that goes both to air and the water. But yeah, it's a lot of water. It's a lot of nature. And it's a lot of good opportunities to have a good job. David Ralph 4:22 Well, of course we're going to talk about your product, but I've got that big question. Okay. I would think to myself, it's okay running to work. I don't want to sit there all sweaty and overboard for the rest of the day. Is that something that isn't an issue? Do you have shadows and everything in your office? IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 4:39 And well I first started when they worked in Netherlands, and we didn't have a shower in the office. But then I just took a membership in a gym close by so I could the dark and unlit later half of stretching. Take a shower and kick off my day. Now when you look at I am run box okay? David Ralph 5:00 Let's start with a question I normally finish with but um, what is your proudest thought about the whole process? Is it what you've created? Or was it getting it off the ground? Or is it where you can see it going? IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 5:15 I think it's all started with a passion and a change because I first design product for myself to start running to work and carry my clauses. And and then I thought, yeah, it's it's it's a nice transformation what I got through consistent running and I became a better person I became more energised or happier. So I thought why not to do this product so other people can use it. And I just did it just for fun sake, as a hobby. So I created the product. I launched it. But then we sold over 1000 products within the first year with their marketing budget. And what's interesting happened I got a lot of people like me who didn't know how to start running to work, they bought a product. And they actually did started running to work. And they had the same personal transformation. And then they just dropped me back in line saying, Wow, thanks. It's really helped me and as that's, I think something would trigger and inspired me to start the company. David Ralph 6:23 Now I'm interested in that, that you knew that you became a better person. So were you were you somebody that would go up to old ladies and punch him in the face and you don't do that anymore? So how are you a better person? IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 6:36 Now I mean, maybe when I say better person, I'm more like healthy, more energised. I have a little bit more time for myself to think to reflect. I'm more efficient. So it's a more like that type of characteristics. But then of course, you also start Yeah, doing more sports and meeting with more people. I think all together, it just changes you in acid person then, of course some people say, Well, you don't know whether it's better or worse but in my eyes I think if you become more healthier, more happier, it is what I say about a person. David Ralph 7:24 And have you ever punched no person in the face when they're in the way you're running? And they don't they're not getting out of the way of you know, I haven't if you wanted to carry on, have you have you ever wanted to IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 7:39 you know, in Sweden, social social distancing is part of the culture. And before Khurana or, you know, people would normally cross on other side of the street. If you see someone coming your way so people avoid conflict. Pay interesting jumps. You don't need to punch anyone. No, but just David Ralph 8:04 jumping in there. So you've always social distance because we're in that phase at the moment because of the Coronavirus. That's something that is sort of natural in Sweden and isn't it? IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 8:14 Exactly, because I think the difference and that what, maybe a lot of people misunderstand when when when I read the global press what people say about Sweden, I didn't see them you get very high social responsibility. sense or feeling and yeah, and people just do it. So I think in the past if someone was sick, many people probably just stay at home and done, go to work anyway. Just so they don't, in fact, other colleagues and that's just a way of life. David Ralph 8:56 Now, I am run box net. Let's give an overview. For the listeners out there, so they're thinking, right, okay, I like to get to work. I'd like to get some fitness in, what kind of products could they get from you? First of all, that would instantly make them realise I'm coming back to this company, I'm going to buy some more stuff, what would be the first thing that I should go for? IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 9:18 I think what we are known for in our DNA is ROM commuting, and we probably have the best backpack in the world for running to work. And if you're running to work or running to gym or running as a means of transportation is something anyone interested to try? I would definitely recommend one of our products, which you don't even have to buy because they have a concept of renting the back but we have such a money back guarantee. So you can just try and see whether it worked for you or not. But then having Kadena in run commuting. Yeah, we realised that a lot of our costume where they're just active people and what we wanted was to go one step further and connect sport and fashion because it's a and when you run to work, you still use the same backpack later in your during the business, going out for a meeting at the office, and you don't want to look like a backpacker. So what we did, then we started building an hour around commuting story and created other backpacks for what our active people might need. So we have active commuting range, we have active every day with waterproof backpacks, and then we develop an active travel. At the same time now with all the COVID-19 situation. We wanted to support our customers around the world and we just launched a week ago active financial skeet where We redesigned the armband for runners, we created a shopping back where we took just a classic squarey recyclable shopping bag, but did it with fashion way and added straps. So the shopping experience is more convenient. And we launched a run mask, which is basically protection mask, which can be used both for running cycling in the city flying and again did it with style. So, there is quite a big range of products these days, which we and we have a vision to create products for for active people to inspire an active life and also try to embrace that change. Because David Ralph 11:53 what I love about these is you know, I've just turned 50 Yeah, I'm a half a century old and my lifestyle doesn't really fit in exercise because I have to go off and do exercise. But I love the fact that you're actually making exercise part of your day's routine. So it's not like if you come home and think, Oh, I gotta go off to the gym or I've got to do this. You're just naturally doing this. What's that? Um, the moment when you thought to yourself, hey, I've got a business idea what because that seems to me fundamentally, what your business is about making exercise convenient. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 12:30 Yeah, exactly. Because that's, that's what's basically the same or not the same happening with me. But when I work within the corporate environment, I barely could find enough time to do trainings and then you always say yourself, alright, tomorrow, I come back home and then they go to the gym, or go for the jog. But then again, after a long working day, you get tired and you get your family, you get your friends and then you start thinking Alright, should I go out and Have a beer with a friend or should they go to the gym and say exactly, exactly. But then what happens if you stop integrating sport in your daily life? Which again, it doesn't have to be running to work like now it's an example this morning. Yeah. Before coming to my office just to get ready for for for a podcast, I just took my running backpack I went for four kilometres jog, I had to swim in the sea. And, and then I kept to the car and came to the office. So I'm sitting stealing my running clauses, but then again, I take a guard back, come home, and I'm basically done with my exercises. And the only extra time I spent was those 20 to 25 minutes for Iran, and I would anyway need to go outside to pick a car. Try not to make it a little bit more efficient. David Ralph 14:03 Yeah, brilliant. Yeah, I've just bought a bike actually, because I thought to myself, Okay, I'm gonna get a bit of energy now I can't be bothered to run. I don't think it's me walking. I could long good walk, but for bicycle riding, that's gonna be good. And of course, when you were a kid, I don't know like in Sweden when I was a kid, we all had bikes nowadays, it's not so sort of like, common place kids don't really use it. But I thought to myself, I just got a bike I could do that. Even the slightest slope has been killing my legs. Now, with your experience, how long do I have to go through this pain so that I can just whip up a hill like I used to, and not think I'm gonna have to get off and push this. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 14:42 I think it's really a matter of consistency and maybe taking it slow, but it's not what you would neither with cycling or running. Start away doing daily. With a with a high mileage is because and don't you just gonna hurt yourself. So if you never run I would suggest starting with two three kilometres run couple of times a week David Ralph 15:08 starting starting with two or three that would kill me IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 15:12 that would kill me Then do one run one walk and cycling I think that again, it's just even if I don't run for months and then I would go for the first one two kilometres I would probably feel it in my lungs. So, again, it's probably it's all depends on the pace right because you can just start running a little bit faster than then you walk and it will be much better because the difference between again like experienced athlete and maybe less experienced on a distance is pace beat us. Boss can be extremely wasted. But if you experienced, you can probably do it much faster and for you to get tired, you really need to have a high pace. But then again, boss will get similarly tired. If, if you if you do the right patient treats here, David Ralph 16:18 I'm gonna, I'm gonna try my best I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna build up, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get rid of my car, which I've already decided and I'm gonna start cycling everywhere I can, because it's just, you know, as we say, it's about bringing fitness into your lifestyle and not making it something extra to do. You're having to do it to actually get somewhere. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 16:39 Exactly. This is good stuff. David Ralph 16:41 Let's listen to Oprah. Oprah Winfrey 16:42 The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself what is the next right move? not think about, Oh, I got all of this too. But what is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move and the next Right move and not to be overwhelmed by it because you know your life is bigger than that one moment. No, you're not defined by what somebody says is a failure for you because failure is just there to point you in a different direction. Now Oprah's David Ralph 17:14 talking about the next right move, but I'm interested with your first rights move. So you get this idea and this idea is probably going around in your head for quite a while thinking I've got to do something about this. Maybe I can go to the shops and buy some clothes that don't wrinkle. You go to the shops can't find any and so it comes down to you. What was your first right move? Looking back on Im run box. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 17:41 I would say it's a first right move was actually to start and quit the day job because it's all about making a change. And the rest is doesn't really matter big Yes, we Started with wrinkle clauses and books. And right now we are full scale active lifestyle brand, and a backpack company. And so what I thought it would be at the beginning is much different from it is now. But I did David Ralph 18:18 a job instantly Did you sort of had this decision, I'm going to go for this and quit your job. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 18:24 I would say first, again, I started as a hobby project. But then when I came into realisation that I don't want to have eight to five job and continue cooperate live and want to do something different. Then I took this decision and then actually when the company started being bored, boring and not when I just launched the first product because there is a big kind of mental shift you do. Kind of When when you do switch from corporate into actually becoming 100% on your own, you don't have a way back. David Ralph 19:12 Now I went through that as well. And I just got to that point when I thought I'm not happy, I just need to do this and get away from what I was doing. But were you happy with what you were doing? Because that's quite a quite a difficult one to sort of leave something that you're quite happy with, even if you've got a passion for something else. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 19:34 Yeah, I was actually extremely happy. And I was lucky enough to work in a global company where you could basically work in any country in the world and you have so many different things you can do and I always did something, what I really loved, I think, but then what I didn't was ability to work when I work wherever Where I want and when I want, right so I don't mind working. But I also like spending commands in ops skiing during the winter and I like maybe taking a month somewhere in Southeast Asia. And that's what corporate life cannot do. Again now maybe with the COVID-19 situation, the way people work will change, but you're still talking to the company and someone telling you what to do. And that's what's what what is different. The intrapreneurship David Ralph 20:39 because I'm, I do something similar. I actually take off a month at a time and just sort of close down the business. I'm very fortunate. I've created a business that I can turn off. And then when I come back clients are waiting for me, so it's quite easy. But the amount of entrepreneurs I speak to bat, say, ah, can I speak to you and I said, I won't be back for another month. Well, can I not connect with you within that time can and they just can't understand that you can do that. But they seems to still be one leg in the corporate world that they work to the weekend, had the weekend off and then come back again. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 21:17 Yeah, I would say for me, the way we structured the work that most of the things happens online, and a lot of work done through the video conferences and stuff like that. So you're not like really connected to any location. And then I seldomly turn off completely if I feel I need to, then of course I can, and I have a team who can back me up, but then when they take like more like longer months off, again, up to now, I think I didn't have really as this luxury to completely shut down. But I don't mind to take two three hours a day to make sure our business is growing and I support my stuff. David Ralph 22:03 So So why haven't you got that ability at the moment to just switch off because I speak to so many people, but I've actually said their business multiply 10 times when they stopped coming into the office when they went totally remote and big ideas just popped into their head because they were all relaxed and they were just focusing on on the sort of strategy without being within the business. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 22:28 I think it's two things here. One is my personal ambition ambition I'm, I really want to create a global company and global business quite quick. So we are a lot into exponential growth with more or less like purple ink revenue every year and that, of course, requires everyone in the team to work hard. Yeah, but second, I would say if I would ask I know how complicated is to build a backpack company, probably do something else. There's actually a lot of work that needs to be done. And we are not there yet. David Ralph 23:12 But but that's the same with all businesses, isn't it? You know, you start off with overnight EBT in the world. And then as you proceed through, I still say to my wife, I know more about what I don't know now, after seven years of doing this, then then what I do know that there's always another level that you can go down but you just can't comprehend at the beginning. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 23:38 Yeah, I guess it's, but but it's probably exactly as sad. But then, yeah, when you already have such an experience in the business within the corporate, then you exactly think that thing's gonna be easy. And then you have a plan that again to do something like within a year or two Then of course, you know it's gonna take longer. But yeah, I think it's, it's it's a mantle again, shift which you just need to go through that because everyone tells you by you still don't believe until you really do it. So that's why maybe when it comes to like money raising in fundraising, a lot of people within the equity market they look for a second or third time founders because then they know exactly what to expect. David Ralph 24:36 Because I speak to a lot of people career that come through to me and they want to start a business and I can show them how to start an online business that will operate and I've done it so many times now. But the hardest bit I find is that the people don't know what they're good at, or they don't know what they want to do. And they they kind of come with half baked ideas. with yours. It sounds like Like wrapped its arms around you it was part of your lifestyle and you knew that you were going to love this. That makes it so much easier doesn't it? IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 25:09 Well, I I thought I knew the direction which is basically I think the purpose from the beginning of the company wants to inspire an active life and actually try to change people through the active lifestyle so but and then I thought I would do it just making a box where you carry closes wrinkle free. Reality is again, it's not that sample and then we from the box, we went into the running backpack, then we went to other backpacks and then we realised we need to start has been the saturation range that that that that and that and that led us to where we are now. So I think doesn't really matter what your original idea is, as long as you Committed to do this. And then when you start spending 200% of your time thinking about it day and night, then your idea develops and then it might develops in to something completely different. But that's, I think, the most important. It's basically the full dedication and that you actually think about it, you build a team, and then you start building something together. David Ralph 26:31 And when you started off, it was just you it was just you sort of sitting there with the idea. Did you do the classic? Sit down with your mates in a pub and say to him, I've got this idea of about a business or did you keep it secret to yourself and start developing it behind closed doors. IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 26:49 And somehow I'm an open source guy, and I believe into transparency also When it comes to fashion and lifestyle, business, I think the most difficult is execution because it's not enough just to build a good product, you somehow need to make sure other people know about it and it's a lot about marketing, it's about the sales, then you have production supply chain customer service, a lot of elements and and that's that difficult and that requires spending time so that's not something what is easier to copy. And I was quite lucky that my wife supported me from the beginning and helped with a lot of like it, kind of the core of the company was a financial, operational parts and then we had an alignment on what and how we want to do so. At least I have the backing on the on the family side, then I also decided they took my NDA money and invest it into into the business, which gave me some startup capital. I took a bank, low loan to W DARPA. And then I started, basically, from day one when I worked full time. I already hired like, couple of students to help me out. So I got a team. But But then, of course, it was like, a year before that when I still worked within the corporate. And I basically had to do two jobs in one day, which was of course, grid complicated, David Ralph 28:39 is so important, isn't it to have your partner your spouse supporting you, more often than not, they don't understand why you want to do it. They don't understand because you know, life's all right. You've got a good job. You know, we're okay. What was it about the idea that she bought into was it just the way you looked at her with the pressure When you smoke, IAMRUNBOX Founder Kirill Noskov 29:04 I would say it was basically sharing the vision and one of the values we have in the company, which is freedom. Because if you want to achieve freedom, then corporate work is not something What? What you want to do and the only way is really to start something here on the one and that was more like a bigger idea what we thought you want to do because we bought like travelling, we don't mind working hard, but it might be we work at the evening or early in the morning or during the day and do something else in between. And again, having the flexibility to travel around the world and being in different places and do what you like. I think that something was inspired was a faff, and also what's up Because David Ralph 30:01 I was reading about Sir James Dyson, who's created the Dyson products global success, and he's the, the Britain's richest man at the moment. 13.2 billion he's been recorded. And he was talking about how he tried to create an electric car, but 500 million of his own money in and decided it was a failure. He couldn't do it. And they said to him, you know, were you scared? Were you scared of putting that kind of money? And he said, No, he said, When I started, and I ended up owning the bank, a million pound and I still hadn't really sold

Virtual Edge Founder Matt Clark Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below: Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed) If you like the show, we would be so grateful if would consider leaving the show a review in iTunes as well as Stitcher Radio. A couple minutes of your time can help the show immensely! Thank YOU! Introducing Matt Clark From The Virtual Edge Virtual Edge Matt ClarkVirtual Edge founder Matt Clark is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. He is the founder of The Virtual Edge and co creator of The Rainmaker System – an online marketing system that helps coaches, advisers and consultants get 2-5 high value leads per day from Linkedin without paying for ads. Matthew and his business partner Wesley Longueira have helped over 1000 businesses in 17 countries grow exponentially. Their 3 step approach places human connection at its core, paving the way for a new wave of lead generation marketing. They are a multi million dollar company and have helped their clients grow to six and seven figures without paid advertising. Now this isn’t something that occurred overnight. As with all stories on Join Up Dots there are a lot of dots to join up and that is certainly the case of How The Dots Joined Up For Matt I began in door to door sales and quickly became highly successful earning between 80-200k per month at just aged 19. I co-founded a telecom sales company at age 23 and grew that to more than 6M in sales by year 3. Instead of enjoying this success however I ended up completely burnt out realising that the business could not function without me. I knew that I wanted a different lifestyle- to travel the world, earn multiple currencies and to have more time to enjoy my life. That’s when I switched gears and began focusing on automation and developing systems that support business growth. I started consulting with businesses working on-to-one with big names on the global stage including Samsung, Loral Langemeier and Peter Sage. I soon came to realise that I wanted to have more impact. I know the only forward was further systematisation and automation. The success of the Rainmaker System has led to Matthew becoming a sought after international speaker and has shared the stage with big names like Dr. Phill, JT Foxx, Michael Douglas and many more. Matthew is also the author of The Proven Path, The Automation Playbook and The Automated Income systems and has been featured in Wake up- How to live a Healthy Vibrant Lifestyle. So is a thriving business as much as coming up with the idea, or overcoming the obstacles that always come our way? And why do so many people love to do the clunky spammy approach on Linkedin time and time again? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Matt Clark Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Matt Clark such as: Shares how every door that he knocked on over months and months and months gave him many of the skills that he uses today. Why we should dig deep into the online world to truly see what is available to us before we ever make a quick decision as to where we want to head. Matt shares the process of getting amazing leads from Linkedin by becoming truly focused on providing value, value, value. And lastly….. Why Jim Carreys amazing character Ace Ventura might just provide the greatest business advice the world has ever seen. How To Connect With Matt Clark Website LinkedIn Return To The Top Of Virtual Edge Matt Clark If you enjoyed this episode with Matt Clark, why not check out other inspirational chat with Caroline Casey, Festival Pass, Clint Arthur and the amazing Jessica Cox You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy

Introducing Ben Krueger Ben Krueger is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He  is a man who joins a very select band of entrepreneurs and businessmen who have made more than one appearance on the show. First appearing on the show on the 17th July 2014, he spoke passionately about his love for podcasting and his deep dive into the medium. Joining up the dots, it all started when he was penned up in an office working the dreaded dead-end job, and had to find something that would help him alleviate that daily feeling of boredom and dread.  So he resorted to listening to marketing and business podcasts, and as he listened, he started researching, and learning more about podcasting as a personal interest. How The Dots Joined Up For Ben This quickly grew into voracious research trying to uncover what made certain podcasts wild successes, and others a flop. So obsessed was he that he first created Authority Engine, which helped people become legends through the power of their voice. This has now pivoted into helping people start a podcast, or get theirs edited through Cash Flow Podcasting. When we last spoke he was living in Thailand as was an entrepreneur with a passion for the outdoors, travel, adventure, business strategy and podcasting. So is he still wearing the baggy shorts, and the sunglasses or has he settled down and watched his efforts grow his business? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Ben Krueger Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Ben Krueger such as: Why a product that is too different even if its brilliant, more often than not wont get legs and gain traction. Ben shares a great story about a photography business in the UK, who niche down on every website they have online. We discuss how the clarity of a business is an evolution, and more often than not will become visible straight away. And lastly........... Why all business owners must focus on the value proposition of the perfect customer time and time again to truly find success. Ben Krueger Books How To Connect With Ben Krueger Website Linkedin Facebook Twitter Return To The Top Of Cash Flow Podcasting If you enjoyed this episode of Ben why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Spike Ball Founder, Nick Ruiz,  Sarah Caltieri or the amazing Sam Bearfoot Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from. Full Transcription Of Ben Krueger Interview Intro 0:00 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph. David Ralph 0:26 Now, good morning to you. Good morning, everybody. everywhere across the world. Do you ever sit there laying in bed or maybe in the bath and think to yourself, that guy who was on episode 88 of Join Up Dots back in 2014? I wonder what happened to him. Do you ever do that? Well, I know I do. And I'm glad I'm going to actually find out because today's guest is a man who joins a very select band of entrepreneurs and businessmen who have made more than one appearance on the show now first appearing on the show on the 17th of July 2014. As I said he spoke passionately about Lots of podcasting and he's deep dive into the medium. joining up the dots. It all started when he was penned up in an office working the dreaded dead end job and had to find something that would help him alleviate that daily feeling of boredom and dread. So he resorted to listening to marketing and business podcasts. And as he listened he started researching and learning more about podcasting just as a personal interest. Now, this quickly grew into a voracious research trying to uncover what made certain podcasts wild successes, and others a flop. And so obsessed was he that he first created authority engine, which helped people become legends through the power of their voice. This is now pivoted into helping people start a podcast or get theirs edited easily through cash flow podcasting. Now when we last spoke, he was living in Thailand and was an entrepreneur with a passion for the outdoors, travel, adventure business strategy and podcasting. So the question is, Is he still wearing the baggy shorts and the sunglasses He's always he settled down and watch these efforts grow into a fully fledged business. And why do so many people fail at podcasting when it's such an amazing medium to connect with people, and people are listening more and more every day? Well, let's find out as we bring them to the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Ben Krueger. Ben Krueger 2:25 I'm doing great. David, thank you so much for having me back. It's, it's bringing it all back bringing it all back a couple years now. David Ralph 2:32 I know I haven't changed back and I'm still doing the same old routine that I've been doing for six years. And that actually leads into a good question. I wasn't going to ask you that question. But do you think we've podcast the ones that do really well is because there's a kind of familiarity kind of people know what they're going to get. I remember hearing the producer of police academy films. Do you remember the police academy films back in the day? And oh, yeah, they got up to like police academy nine He said, the real thing to make something successful is give people what they liked about the one before, but make it different. So they come back. So that familiarity. Do you think that's what makes a podcast successful? Ben Krueger 3:14 I mean, I think that's one of one of many routes because yeah, you you as a podcaster. No. And anybody out there like all the podcast is, is recorded audio. So at the end of the day, there's so many different things you can do with the medium. But I like that, you know, if you tapped into a vein, where people are really engaged, people are really connected. And you give them more of that. Just with different stories, different people's experiences, like your show is a perfect format that doesn't need to be changed every episode because it's about people's stories. It's about the dots in their in their experience that have linked up to create who they are and who they're becoming. So it's this It's this interesting format that, you know, if somebody tried to apply the same format to something that was a little bit more different, you know, it's like an evolving news or something like that you could use the same kind of rough format so that people again, like you said, know what to expect. But there's got to be, you know, there's got to be something new going on there to bring them back and keep them interested. So I think there's definitely two sides to that coin, but I like because with these types of format of shows, there is newness, but it's in the same format. So you get, you get the same value delivered over and over and over again. You get the same type of entertainment, but it's new and it's fresh, because it's new people, new stories and new and interesting things going on. So yes and no is my gloriously refined answer there. Well, I'm David Ralph 4:55 gonna throw it to another level now because I was listening while I was watching So Scott, and I've been talking about it for over lockdown that we're in at the moment. There's some good content that's being produced. And there's some bloody awful content. And the one that I do like is some good news sGn network by john Wright and I just like that he's 1625 minutes. And I was watching it today. And he had Oprah Winfrey on any air to Steven Spielberg. And obviously, he's got a good network, but he can sprinkle the Stardust across. But it's format. It's the news. And I thought to myself, it's interesting, actually, we like the way it's happening. Because it's how we know. We know that the news, as I used to do training courses many, many years ago, and I always said, Tell them what you're going to tell him, Ben, tell him and Ben, tell them what you told him. And that was basically how you summarise the training goals. But news is exactly the same. They tell you what's in the news. And then they give you a bit more about it and then a summary at the end. And once again, that's gone off like a rocket because it reads Is that Amelie ality You know, I'm really interested in this pain. I wasn't going to speak to you about this because I hadn't thought about it. But I wonder if products and services are more likely to find legs because they're similar to something out there more than somebody trying to create something brand new. Ben Krueger 6:19 Yeah, well, it's that classic, you know, the the innovators kind of dilemma where, what what has been shown time and time again with different products with different services with different things. If something's too different from what currently is, even if it's significantly better. It's too big of a leap of faith for people to take, because there is there wasn't that like stair step in between. Whereas if it's a little bit better or a little bit different or a little bit improved, and a little bit refined, that tends to be my much more More resonant product or service or show. And so I see that all the time with shows that are trying to be too creative. Like they kind of they're, they're too out there. So they don't even, they don't really connect with people because they people can't draw a connection between what they think of as a podcast and what this thing is that they're trying to listen to. And it doesn't really doesn't really Join Up Dots as it were. So it's an interesting dilemma, where it seems to be and I think it's a little bit of a human nature thing. We want to know what we're expecting, or we want to have some idea of what we're looking at and what it is. So if it's a little bit too far out there, it's too different. It's going to be hard for us to track and hard for us to really engage fully without having that judgement piece. I think that's a big part of it. David Ralph 7:57 So if we go back in time law He was with us you were talking about your business authority engine. And what I loved about that at the time, and I remember I was very new in the game. But I remember having some kind of deep connection to the fact of biscuit. I didn't just throw it out. But he became an expert. He did the work. He did the research and a poverty engine, I thought was going to be your legacy work. It just seemed to be fulfilling a need at that time, is now pivoted to cash flow podcasting. Why Why did you change it? Ben Krueger 8:33 Yeah, good question. We we found over time working with folks that our specialty really came in as working with established businesses that were trying to use podcasting as a way to engage their audience to build you know, their authority and their network in their industries, to uplift their industry and at the end of the day, as well to generate clients and And revenue for their business. So, you know, there's a tonne of ways people can use podcasting, there's a tonne of different types of podcasts and categories of podcasts. But we really found that was our sweet spot is helping businesses, you know whether coaching online services SAS, you know, financial advising all those kinds of businesses use podcasting as a way to transform their audience over time, through trusting relationships, through results in advance in educating through their content into folks who are really great prospects and really great clients for their brand. So that's kind of where that transition came in. And a lot of the core elements are still there. It really just came down to a refinement of who we can add the most value for in terms of clients because we could work with all types of different podcasts. We have really found that's our sweet spot. We talk about that time and time again on Join Up Dots about online business is simple. And I Keep on drumming this in because I want people to understand that is simple, you've got to have something that other people value, it's got to either solve a big problem or move them into an increased level of status or pleasure point. And then focus in on that one person and just do that. And it's almost better if you've got a great idea to have like nine different customer bases, but just speak to that one customer in each of the portals. So create a website just for that customer and then another one just for that customer. And I speak to people and I say oh, no, no, no, I just want one business like oh, yeah, one business is brilliant. Let's try to get one business but let's try to get one customer that really buys big. Learn what works from that and then sort of rinse and repeat because it is easy isn't a pain once you've done it's it's the it's the classic Like be a big fish in a small pond or the air of a small town versus, you know, trying to trying to swim with the sharks. You know, I one great example of this that I really like and I've heard a couple other people bring up over time is a it's a it's a photography company out of the UK that does product photography. So they have two websites that I'm aware of and they may have other ones but one is we shoot bottles so you know it's it's product photography of anything in a bottle and we shoot cans to totally different domains they don't refer to each other at all. But it's the same company they pretty much use the exact same setup because cans and bottles are pretty similar from a photography standpoint, but I love that it's so special. Each one is so specific. So if you've got you know a product that comes in a bottle and you find out about we shoe bottles, calm boy does that sound like the right fit or not. David Ralph 12:00 And so many people out there think that they're gonna miss out open don't they think if I go for everyone they're gonna miss out and you can go as niche as you want. And I remember people used to say the riches are in the niches and they you know it doesn't work over the UK because we say niche but I like that niche and rich and I used to think really really bad is true is so true you can go too wide but you can't go too deep. Ben Krueger 12:27 Yeah, it's that classic when you've heard the same advice too many times you almost don't trust it cuz it seems a little cliche, but it's absolutely true. And we've found for for podcasts, and particularly for ones that are are trying to you know, they're they're creating a podcast community around a brand around a product or a service. We have found this this idea of niching down as if you can with your content you saw One main problem for one core group of people. So a perfect example of this is like a gal. We work with Katrina Ebell, she's got a podcast called weight loss for busy physicians. I mean, it couldn't be more specific and more directed, she solves one problem for one group of people. And so with that, her podcast really, really resonates for those folks that that fit in that space. And there's more people in that space then she can actually work with, she's been sold out for a while. So it's that classic. You know, if you try to be everything to everybody, you're gonna have a hard time getting traction, whereas if you can be the mayor of that small town, everybody in that small town knows you they share. You know, they talk about you with their neighbours like that that whole town knows who you are and what you're about and how you can help them out. Now with your David Ralph 13:54 tagline, I suppose on their podcast services, the busy thought leaders, I was looking And earlier, and I'm very much into trying to explain a business in four to five words that really say what your service is podcast services for busy thought leaders. Ben Krueger 14:14 Well, the fun part is we're in the process of a complete upgrade and how we communicate our our services. So the the new thing that we're moving towards or the new way we're describing how we do what we do, is we make podcasting easy. Yeah, that's really it, isn't it? Yeah. And that's with the caveat that you know, someone is in in kind of the verticals that we can help the most, but at the core foundation of it. That's what it's all about. Because when when we first started this whole process of helping people, create, plan, create and launch podcasts for their business We're actually working with a gentleman, who at the time, I had only been doing podcast production, I had helped out on some launches. But I had a gentleman come to me and say, you know, I want to start a podcast for my brand. I've got an online paid community. I don't have the time. I don't know what I don't know. And I want to do it right. Help me out. So what does that look like? So we work together to figure out what is this process where he can just show up as the host. And we can have a process and a team that supports him in just doing that. So really, what it comes down to over time is we make podcasting easy. And, you know, I always like to add on the little, you know, because I can't just leave it as simple as possible. We make podcasting easy and effective because at the end of the day, if it's not working for a brand or if it's not working in contributing to the goals that the host wants it to do, then what are we? What are we even doing? So I'm a big fan of start with the end in mind and make it easy and as simple as possible. effectiveness does not have to be complicated. David Ralph 16:16 Yeah, I agree with you totally. And I love the word easy. If you go over to Join Up Dots, my tagline is we make getting your own successful online business easy. And I saw one the other day, which is lawn care made easy. You know, in four words, it says everything that it does, and but that ability to have that kind of clarity in your own business. Is that something that people should get right at the beginning, or should they grow into it because I come to it from two different sides. I can do it for other people, but I wonder whether the actual evolution is part of getting that simplicity and clarity Ben Krueger 17:00 Well, I can definitely say I would have loved to be able to start with that clarity. But I can definitely say from a personal standpoint, like our message has shifted and changed and evolved and refined and gotten more and more simple over time. But I know my personal tendency is to say 10 words when three words will do yeah, so that David Ralph 17:23 I know that problem. Ben Krueger 17:25 Exactly, exactly. I think I think all of us talkers tend to have that challenge. But I think you know, it depends on where you're at. And I think what it really comes down to is the simplicity of the messaging comes from a deeper understanding of, of the space and of either the problem you're solving or you know, the the benefit that you are sharing with folks because the more you understand that space, their needs, their psychographics why it's important to them, the More you can simply communicate it. So if you are, you know, let's say you work in, in a industry for 20 years as an employee, or you know, in part of a different company, and then you strike out on your own, you've had 20 years to figure out what that industry is all about what's important to people, you know, and so you can, I think it'd be much easier to start with some super clarity. Because you know, the space you understand what's going on. Whereas if you are just getting into an arena, into a vertical into an industry, there's gonna be some time as you kind of get grips on what's going on, and what's important to people. And, you know, just because it's important to one doesn't mean it's important to others. So you got to kind of find where those sweet spots are. So I think it's a natural evolution. But it comes with an understanding of what the pain points are, what the challenges are, what the outcomes are, what the hopes and dreams are of the folks in that space, David Ralph 19:01 let's hear from Oprah. And then we'll be back with Ben, Oprah Winfrey 19:03 the way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, what is the next right move? not think about, Oh, I got all of this stuff. What is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move, and the next right move, and not to be overwhelmed by it. Because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment, you know, you're not defined by what somebody says, is a failure for you. Because failure is just there to point you in a different direction. David Ralph 19:35 Now, have you had failuress? Because from my side of the fence, and I've connected with you a couple of times, and we've known each other for years, but we hardly know each other at all. But it's always seemed like you had persistence. You were somebody that was going to follow it through. And so have you actually had babies or have they just been sort of learning learning opportunities for you? Ben Krueger 19:59 Oh, I think Yeah, any anybody that says they haven't had failures, I think I think might be sweeping some things under the rug. And not that you can't take them and see them as learning experiences and step into the other side. But I've absolutely had some some failures. So one, one particularly tasty one is for a while, you know, I got into entrepreneurship with only having worked a few jobs and marketing all for a couple of months at a time. So I think I was I was an employee through I think I bounced around to four or five different companies over the course of about three years total. And then when I and then I went into starting my own business, but no, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I had no idea how to manage a team or build a team or do it all myself or manage, you know, the finances of a company. So I think one of the one of the biggest learning opportunities for me, which at the time I definitely saw as a failure and really frustrated me was I did not know how to manage cash flow within a company, which is kind of funny seeing as we're now called cashflow podcasting, but this was also before the branding change. So essentially, we were we had a year where we just lost money because I was doing a lot of investing in growth in big ideas in shiny objects. And I was not paying attention to the bottom line I wasn't paying attention to like having stair step growth of just, you know, looking at the next piece and then the next piece as Oprah just, you know, so eloquently put it I was trying to skip steps and in doing so, Got the company into debt and not in a healthy way and I ended up having to let go of a key team member who and absolutely done an incredible job up until that point you know arguably better than me and it was it felt like a massive failing because I had I had not made decisions in the company that were intelligent around money in that I could could essentially keep employing him and so I had to essentially really tighten tighten about pulling the drawstrings relearn and understand like okay, how do I go from I'm losing money every single month to I need this to be profitable and not from some maniacal you know, laughing on top of my you know, pile of gold coins mixed, you know, Mix Scrooge type of thing. But for any venture to actually contribute and survive, it needs to be profitable. So that was a serious what felt like a huge failing at the time. And sometimes depending on how I'm feeling in the day, it can still feel like a giant failure. But it it was absolutely a learning curve and led me in a direction that now I feel like I've you know, got a really solid understanding for what needs to be in place financially for the company to do well. And I've put in systems in place so that when I'm when I start to you know, if things start to shift in a way that it's not supporting us and along in the long term financially, then I've got some early red flags and warning so I don't find myself in that position again. David Ralph 23:53 It's personally my biggest failing was obsession. I was obsessed and overwhelmed. And just I just grow, drove myself into knees and there's many different references of my journey on Join Up Dots that you can go back to. But my number one learning that I learned was it's better not to work on a business plan to work on a business. All my great ideas come up when I'm on vacation, or sitting in the garden, more than just being in front of a computer slogging away for hours on hours thinking that it's going to be genius. And a lot of stuff that I've done in the past. I look at it and I think it failed because there was a desperation in it. I there was a lack of clarity in it. I don't think I was totally believing in it. So it was just kind of a shadow of what it is now. Anybody that comes to me now, they get value. And I absolutely go to bed with you know, a clear conscience and I will sleep better than anybody. But in the early days, when I was trying to get it going. I think it was kind of half baked because I didn't have the journey, I think you've got to have the journey, which is why it's so important if somebody is starting a business to start with your current knowledge base, because then you've only got half the learning the entrepreneurial side is quite difficult to learn. But at least you start with something that you already know about. Ben Krueger 25:23 Yeah, and I think this is this reflects actually pretty accurately on on one of what I would consider my biggest failings as well as, for the longest time in business. Like I, when it comes down to it, I made it about me. I made it about what I wanted, like how I wanted the business to support my lifestyle, what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do, it was it was very, you know, kind of, if a if a, you know, five year old was having a tantrum, and you know, it's about me, they don't get to have their nap time or you know, whatever. Yeah, it's It's a little bit of that, that going on. And it's not something I'm super proud to admit, but it's absolutely true and what I've, what the primary shift has been in, it's kind of the scarcity versus abundance mindset. Like if you're in a mindset where you you are doing okay, then you have the ability to give back. Whereas, if you feel like you are just scraping along and you're, you're in that hustle and grind, and you've got to get it's very, you know, get focused. So I think the big shift for me has been trying to and transition and stay in the place of contributing as much value as I can through our products and services through you know, all the content and things that we we create and at the same time, I think that that reflects our into how I interact with our team, how I interact with clients and customers, how I interact with referral partners and that kind of thing, because, you know, I'm not showing up to get in, in kind of on the flip side of that same coin when I'm showing up to figure out how can I highlight other people's genius and and partner with people in a way that's collaboratively expansive, as opposed to how can I do it myself to save a few bucks. And obviously, there's some realities here to where you need to, you need to be have the chequebook balance at the end of the month, but there's a lot of ways to partner with people and to contribute value without it necessarily being $1 and cents expense. So I think that's a big shift that you know, and to be honest, it's something that I have to work on. So just like any of these kind of things, it's Oftentimes not a snap your fingers and you were this yesterday and now you're this today. But I see it as like that's my area of continuous development and growth is how can I come from a place of giving of love of care and abundance? And the more I do that, the more the more things just seem to get easier and easier. David Ralph 28:26 We're talking to Ben Krueger from cash flow podcasting, and we'll be back with him after these words. Unknown Speaker 28:34 You ready to make a full time living online? Check out the amazing Join Up Dots business coaching. Hello, my name is Alan. And I've just completed the excellent eight week course with David before I started working with David Actually, I had no idea at all where to start. I had a lot of ideas about while I probably thought was going to be good business, David was able to help me through that though, to find that passion. Within literally minutes, we had, we had a business idea. And for the last seven weeks, we've been building on it and building on it. And the position I'm in now, I don't think I've ever got here Unknown Speaker 29:10 on my own because of the amount of information that David gives the structure. He's got the full package here and he explains it in a way that I can understand. His support is phenomenal. I feel like this is the way business is supposed to work. David helped me understand, okay, what David Ralph 29:26 were the next logical steps that I should do? How can I get this up and running? So I would really recommend this as an excellent course helping you if you have an idea if you have no idea, really teasing that out and some of the practicalities and steps to take to really launch your business whether as a full time job or as a side hustle. So it was really excellent. I recommend it for anybody thinking about setting up their own business, or both. It's an exaggeration to say David will totally save you years. Thank you, David for all your amazing help and support which keeps on going And we certainly couldn't be where we are today without you. So you're awesome. So if you would love to become my next success s

Mandy Barbee is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. MA Economics & CCHT, founder of Palladium Mind, a transformation and healing expert who has helped hundreds of clients across the globe to overcome anxiousness and thrive in business, health, and life. By combining the power of imagery with their innate capabilities, she empowers men and women to regain a positive sense of control, transcend struggle, and enjoy everything more. Now that's what she does everyday, but at Join Up Dots we are more interested in how she got to where she has, not what she is doing. And her journey is one that can inspires so many people that struggle with the mental side of moving to where they want to be. How The Dots Joined Up For Mandy  As she says "I’m the oldest of five girls, all born inside 7 years to very young parents. Raised in north Georgia, I knew a couple things very early on: I wanted to see the world, and I wanted to support myself. Neither of my parents had completed college, so when my father told me, “Mandy, any school you can figure out how to get into, I’ll find a way to pay for,” a quiet voice inside of me said, “That isn’t what’s going to happen.” Determined, smart, polite and ambitious, at the age of 17 I was accepted into the Air Force Academy and headed to Colorado Springs for boot camp. I had poor self esteem, weak boundaries, and an insatiable need for external validation. And so while I excelled at everything I did, and was graduating at the top of my class, in the winter of my final year, all coping mechanisms were breaking down; I found myself in tears seemingly without reason and missing classes for the first time in my life. Coincidentally over Christmas my mother had bought my dad a session with a hypnotherapist to stop smoking, and for lack of us knowing what else to do, I went for a visit as well. THAT HOUR I SPENT WITH A GENTLEMAN HYPNOTHERAPIST IN NORTH GA, 2005 PUT MY LIFE ON A NEW TRAJECTORY - ALBEIT AT THE TIME I DID NOT APPRECIATE EXACTLY HOW. Fast forward ten years, 26 countries, and leadership roles in three commercial industries later, I had objectively achieved a great deal of success and every reason in the world to be happy. So why did those high marks in classes, and educational achievements force her to review where she was heading in her life? And is anxiety something that we can nip in the bid before it ever starts, or simply something we have to manage? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mandy Barbee Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Mandy Barbee such as: We discussed why we should all be very aware of the energies that we give out everyday, especially to the wrong people. Why Dunbar's law is so powerful which states that we can only maintain 150 relationships at everyone time. Social media cleanse anyone? Why when we rest our minds and our bodies we really give ourselves a chance to grow our business faster than ever And lastly........... How the world is full of traffic streams, which makes it so easy to find customers for our business. We simply have to decide where to put our rods.

Todays episode of Join Up Dots is a question and answers session which touches on motivation once again.

As you will hear on the show, one of the hardest things to conquer in your life is finding the motivation to keep moving forward. I know for sure that I struggle with this, especially when I have had a break from working on something,

Then its like a real drag to get going again, But you have to get going and do the work or it will never get done.

So what are you going to do to make it all come true for you?

Stephen King is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He is a top executive at a Fortune 500 company. Bootstrapped CEO. Venture- backed tech startup founder. Non-profit fundraiser. It’s safe to say Stephen King is not your traditional CPA. Stephen is President and CEO of GrowthForce, one of the nation’s largest providers of outsourced bookkeeping and controller services. Regarded as an industry thought leader by AICPA and CPA.com, his ability to visualise the future of accounting has lead GrowthForce to become one of the fastest-growing companies in America. How The Dots Joined Up For Stephen His experience at the forefront of technology development and accounting system design spans nearly three decades. In 1995 he founded Virtual Growth, the nation’s first cloud-based accounting service, and quickly grew it into a market leader. After being acquired by Insperity, Stephen was brought on as president of Insperity’s Financial Management Services division, serving two years before leaving to build GrowthForce. He also spent seven years working at Amnesty International USA—first overseeing 300% growth as CFO, then raising over $20M a year as Director of Development. Stephen’s time at Amnesty reinforced his life-long commitment to giving back to the community. As a result, non-profits represent 35% of GrowthForce clients. So where does his true passion lie, in the quick moving startup world, or working for major corporations often with less than movable parts? And are we now at the start of the next industrial revolution, whereby we will see more and more people start their own businesses? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Stephen King Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Stephen King such as: Stephen shares how people are changing their systems everywhere to simplify their businesses due to the pandemic. Stephen talks openly how he started the first cloud account and the steps he took to make things happen from scratch. Why our next generation of children are under such a strain to achieve the same level of success as their parents. And lastly........... We hear the story of Stevens family origins and how his Father  changed his life with just $47 and a boat ticket.

Introducing Shift Financial Founder Spencer Sheinin

Shift Financial founder Spencer Sheinin is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He  is a man who is taking the stress, pain and quite frankly annoyance out of one of the worst things about being in biz. Yeah we all know that part of the year when we start getting letters through asking for the paperwork that you can't find. And then it asks "how much did you earn last year, and you realise you have to work out the expenses to then take it away from the income"...nightmare. As he says "If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you probably hate accounting. The information your bookkeepers and accountants bring isn’t at all understandable or helpful, and you know you’re not getting the information you need to run your business. You’re stressed, fed up, and even embarrassed about the state of your books. But you don’t know how to make things better. One thing is certain: you can’t afford to spend time learning accounting—nor would you want to. How The Dots Joined Up For Spencer Sheinin As founder and CEO of Shift Financial Insights, his company provides ridiculously simple accounting and insights for businesses on the rise. Spencer loves sharing his knowledge as an instructor at the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC) and has spoken all over North America about why entrepreneurs shouldn’t fear their books. To be honest this is a man that looks like he doesn't fear anything as when he isn't knee deep in ledgers and spreadsheets, he is also an endurance sports enthusiast and has completed several ultra-marathons, IRON-MAN triathlons, and marathon swims. So when did he start to realise that instead of working for a major corporation it was time to go out on his own? And why do people struggle so much to keep things organised when running their online ventures? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Spencer Sheinin Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Spencer Sheinin such as: Why Spencer always gives the advice of outsourcing your accountancy issues as soon as possible when starting out in business. Why we should view having an accountant as going to the right Doctor for the right specialist advice. Choose the expert you need for the right task. Spencer reveals his "Why" for his business, and man has he knocked this out of the park on this one. Spine tingling stuff. And lastly........... Spence gives us a list of the big questions that we must all ask our accountants to make sure we get the gem.

Michael Cavallaro is today's guest on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast. Michael's 40 years of experience have culminated into the creating Human Cosmology™ a belief, behavioural & communication personal growth process. Human Cosmology™ is a unique and comprehensive life changing modality. This modality allows for deeper and permanent healing and life changes than traditional modalities. Human Cosmology™ allows an individual or group to access their own wisdom to move beyond their psychological and belief patterning, physical/emotional/mental limitations. This modality is life changing for anyone who has experienced stress, loss, anxiety, depression, insecurity, PTSD, ADHD abuse of any kind, struggles with communication or relationship issues. This process is superior for creating "real" teamwork environments in the work place, and creating healthy intimate relationships. How The Dots Joined Up For Michael Now of course with Join Up Dots we create content that no only speaks to the entrepreneur, but also the wannabe's. Those people who sit in a cubicle and are yearning to start their own business. So how do you start building a business that isn't just built on flippant throwaway concepts, but stuff that is rooted in scientific fact. And how has he managed to build a flourishing business when he has a large family, no doubt pulling him in so many different directions too. Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Michael Cavallaro Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Michael Cavallaro such as: We share how the world has programmed us to operate in a different way from how we might just be operating if we were allowed to think for ourselves. Why being allowed to go for the easy route might just be the perfect thing for all of us to do in our lives, if we just trust. Michael shares the early days of hustling to create his business from scratch, which wasn't easy for sure.  And lastly…….. Why it is so important to squirrel away some nuts in the winter when you are building your business. Make it easier for yourself in the lean times.

Introducing Josh Kemp

Josh Kemp is our guest today joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast.

He  is a man who quite simply has powered his way through many obstacles that would stop most in their tracks.

As he says "I love creating online courses that teach a specific side hustle and how to make money with it in the shortest amount of time possible!

I am the author of No Degree, No Problem.

Originally I was a Blacksmith / Farrier for 8 years but then had to switch careers after getting kicked by a horse.

I self taught myself how to code and landed a Junior Software Development position 9 months later making $ 70K.

I currently live in Raleigh, North Carolina with my wife, three kids, two goats and a gecko.

Now most interestingly for a show called Join Up Dots, which follows loosely the words or the late Steve Jobs, our guest did a similar thing when it came to getting a college qualification.

How The Dots Joined Up For Josh

He goes on to say "I remember when I was 16 my Mom had me take Business Law classes at the local community college.

My Mom was big on making sure ALL her kids went to college and got a degree.

After barely failing the first class, I decided college wasn't for me, it wasn't until I was 18 that I broke my parents’ hearts and told them I wouldn't be going to college.

Over the years I have had to switch careers and have had over a dozen different side hustles in my life.

My Mom no longer worries about me becoming destitute, l have used the power of side hustles all my life ( except for a 1 year period ) to provide better for myself and family, as well as learn more about what things are a good fit for me."

So does he feel he is still working towards the big thing that will define his life, or is that not important anymore?

And why do people struggle so much to make a living online, when all the clues are already there to follow the success of others?

Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Josh Kemp

Show Highlights

During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Josh Kemp such as:

How culturally we have lost the ability to get down and dirty and work for a living, even if its an online venture. A dream life doesn't come easily.

Josh shares why you should always go where the money is.  Look for who has it and then decide what you can do for them.

Always look for the problem that can be solved for as many people as possible you can then scale scale scale.

And lastly...........

Josh tells us a great story of a snow blower, inspiration and hustle that almost ended his marriage but became amazing motivation.

Introducing Spikeball Creator Chris Ruder Chris Ruder is the CEO and Founder of Spikeball Inc a new and fun sport that looks like its going to be big everywhere. The Jonas Brothers, Drake, Julianne Hough, Ryan Seacrest, 21 Pilots, Casey Neistat, and numerous pro sport teams and players have expressed their love for Spikeball. Spikeball’s appearance on Shark Tank was voted as one of the best episodes of all time. ESPN went as far as to say Spikeball is mainstream. Now our guest today started the business 2008 and ran it as a night job for 5 years while keeping his day job as an Advertising Executive. 5 years after its founding, Spike ball hit $1 million in annual sales with zero full-time employees. How The Dots Joined Up For Spike Ball At that time, Chris quit his day job and went full-time. That was one of the best days of his life and Spikeball’s mission is to the create the next great global sport, with tournaments appearing on ESPN whilst taking place all over the world. Chris lives in Chicago with his 3 great kids and fantastic wife. He is on the board of I Grow Chicago and the company has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help address gun violence, the environment and education.  So did he need to spend those five years as a side hustle business, or was it simply a leap into the unknown that scared him. And how do you know that you have a great product on your hands before you ever invest your own money into the business? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Chris Ruder Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with Chris Ruder such as: Chris shares how Spikeball wasn't his idea at first, but he took an original product that in many ways had failed and made it much better. Why it is such an amazing idea to provide free parts for life to customers as they become your marketing department for free. Chris allows us a glimpse into the starting process of getting his customers to fall in love with SpikeBall. And lastly........... The Spikeball founder talks openly about his appearance on Dragons Den, and what the show truly brings a new business.

Todays guest on the Join Up Dots business coaching podcast is Andrew Phelps. He is the Creative Director of User10, a boutique studio focused on SaaS product strategy and design. He leads design teams at small startups as well as enterprise brands. An expert in product strategy and design, he was named one of the Arizona Republic's 35 under 35. He shares his knowledge of strategy, design, and entrepreneurship at ASU, SEEDSPOT, and The CleanTech Open. But the main reason that i wanted him to be on the show today was this piece of wisdom, taken from his website. "We believe that design and technology should serve humanity and that anything worth doing is worth doing beautifully. Challenges can be big and complex, but the best solutions are elegantly simple. How The Dots Joined Up For Andrew The best part is the process is no secret. Building high quality applications and websites is as much about great communication as it is about good design and code. Isn't that what I say on Join Up Dots all the time? The first stage of business is to find something that people want, then let them see it, and open up communication to chat. So did he fall into the traps of making things more complex than they should be - but extremely pleasing on the eye? And of course when people dont know who there customers are, how do they know how to speak to them directly? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Andrew Phelps Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Andrew Phelps such as: How Apple might have just fallen from the wayside of the magic years driven through the  Andrew shares the steps that he took to where he is today....and it certainly wasn't where he thought he would end up. Andrew remembers meeting his first mentor and being amazed that a fifty year old was so happy with what he was doing. And lastly…….. Why it's so important to start saying NO in a business, so that you can service a smaller and more

Introducing Prady Tewarie

Prady Tewarie is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. Its amazing that we have got him on the show as he has never been somebody to slow down. At 28, he has founded and sold more than two dozen businesses, is the current CEO of AZOTH and the Tewarie Group, withover $100 million in real estate holdings. He founded AZOTH because while getting his JD and competing as a professional bodybuilder, he found it difficult to achieve the kind of productivity that he was looking for, and so turned to the science of nootropics, nutritional supplements that target specific areas of concern for the user. After learning first hand about their efficiency, Prady Tewarie partnered with a manufacturer in order to bring nootropics to people all over the world. To date, AZOTH has sold over 50,000+units world wide and is set to be the fastest growing nootropic company on the market. How The Dots Joined Up For Prady Currently, Prady is on a mission to teach entrepreneurs about the opportunities that exist all around them, and that it’s ok to be a small business person. Specifically, that not every business needs to collect a billion in capital before they can get started, or that they need to change the world. Instead, entrepreneurs can start small and begin by turning their own neighbourhoods around and, most importantly, that they can still be considered an inspiration and a success for doing so. So why do people not consider the opportunities that are all around them when starting their own business And if he could give one big piece of advice to himself that would make tomorrow easier what would it be? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Prady Tewarie Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weight subjects with Prady Tewarie such as: Prady shares his belief why so many people are looking for cues of what to do everyday, without considering why they should be doing it. Are you spending your days giving things away for free because you don't truly believe in themselves. Why its so important to truly look at what you should be doing in your business and get a detailed audit of what needs to be done. And lastly................. The riches are in the niches, so spend sometime looking for a market place that isn't been looked at by your competitors.

Introducing Greenpal Founder Bryan Clayton Greenpal founder Bryan Clayton joins us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. Today's guest joining us on the Join Up Dots business podcast has created huge success in a market that I simply love. As you will hear time and time again, when you can create Double Value business then more often than not you can scale massively and quickly. But of course you may be saying "David, what does that actually mean?" Well in this case, someone wants their lawn mowed, and someone wants to get a job mowing a lawn and connect the two of them together. How The Dots Joined up For Greenpal Today's guest is the founder of Your Green Pal, a lawn-care service launched back in 2014 YourGreenPal helps customers get multiple competitive free quotes from lawn care services near them for free. They can get started today and get their lawn mowed with out making a phone call. The company which now has 10 employees has attracted 1,000 contractors in seven states and now serve 20,000 customers. Your Green Pal aims to launch in a new city every two months. So where did they see the greatest growth in the business once they got the ball rolling? And why do more people not see the power of local search when starting their new business ideas? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only Bryan Clayton Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Bryan Clayton such as Bryan shares why he sold his previous business to a huge company in America, even though he hadn't quite scratched the itch of business. Why it such a great idea to recruit the supplier first to get the resource for marketing to your customers. Get ready for the influx. When you are building a market place your customers must want to come for the community first, but then stay for the tools. And lastly….. If your not gaining ground you are losing ground, is a statement that Bryan loves.

Today's podcast has been inspired after receiving a lovely email from a listener of the show.As most of you are aware unless you have been trapped in a cave somewhere, but the world is in lock-down.. Which for many people is a complete nightmare and a never ending day after day of boredom. However, for many other people it's a world of positivity where things are occurring on a daily basis which are a complete 360 for where we were before. It might be a simple case of enjoying a longer meal with your family, or a more relaxed morning routine, instead of rush, rush. So where are you finding your positivity in a world of disruption?

Introducing Rob And Kennedy

Email marketing experts Rob and Kennedy join us on today's Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. These guys arent just experts at email marketing, but they are the most unlikely entrepreneurs you'll ever meet. Sporting hairstyles that look like comic-book characters and backgrounds in psychology, hypnosis, and show-business – it's hard to believe they're serial entrepreneurs with an uncanny knack for building businesses with riotous email marketing. But that is just a bit of what they are..... They are the founders of ResponseSuite, where they show businesses across the world how to truly make email marketing a thing of beauty. They are also a mind-reader and a hypnotist too...which I i guess will come up in the show. But one thing for sure is they are the kings at making their customer emails get the results they want by doing things differently. With their business, they have created a drag and drop system which can explode your marketing by making your emails irresistible. Bringing feedback into your world, by using surveys and other "Tell me what you think of us" strategies. And now with their podcast "3 Marketers walk into a Podcast" where they chat to a marketing expert each week and take a deep dive into one specific strategy that's working for them right now they are bringing more and more to the world. As they say "There are so many ways of driving traffic, increasing conversions and running ads - so rather than guess at it and get overwhelmed, wey are asking the experts so you can duplicate them in your online marketing." If you work in digital marketing or have your own online business, you're going to love this podcast.  So why did they start a digital marketing business when they could simply hypnotise the world to crave their products. And is email marketing still a winner, or has it fallen down the ranks of everything else that is needed nowadays? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Rob and Kennedy. Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep weighty subjects with Rob and Kennedy such as: Why it is so important to embrace your own authenticity in everything you do..... Rob and Kennedy share the massive tip of gaining emailsaddresses and that is down to setting the expectation of the customer right at the very start. The guys share their email marketing advice of sending out stuff every single day. Break down your life into short content driven stories to inspire. and lastly...... The reasons why "All they do is want to be less crap than they were the day before." Great and simple advice.

Introducing Make Time Founder John Zeratsky

Make Time founder John Zeratsky is today's guest on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast. He is the author and founder of Make Time: How to Focus on what Matters Every Day a productivity company showing the way to more profit and productivity. For nearly 15 years, John was a designer for technology companies. At Google Ventures, he helped develop the Design Sprint and worked with startups like Uber, 23andMe, Flatiron Health, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Nest. Previously, John was a designer​ at YouTube, Google, and FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. John studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin and graduated from the UW School of Human Ecology, where he’s now an advisor to the Dean and faculty. However this just shows that this guy was once mega-busy. Probably running from meeting to meeting, desperate crisis chats and everything else we get sucked into whilst in the corporate world. How The Dots Joined Up For John Now things are very different...he might be just as busy, but now its busy doing the things he wants to do. For example he spent 18 months travelling in Central America aboard their sailboat Pineapple before moving to Milwaukee in 2019.  Now he is a keynote speaker, and the bestselling author of Sprint and Make Time. He helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and professional teams make better use of their time (opens in a new tab)">better use of their time at work and become happier, more engaged humans. So why do people need his help, when we all know how to do it by and large? And what is the quickest way that we can increase our happiness in our lives? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots, with the one and only John Zeratsky Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty topics with John Zeratsky such as: John shares why time is our most valuable commodity and the steps that we should take everyday to use it wisely. Why so many struggle with controlling their time due to companies restrictions placed on them everyday. John shares his fledgling steps into entrepreneurship and the reasons why he took these steps into the unknown. And lastly…….. Why we should all focus in on the present moment, as this is the time that truly makes the difference in our day. John Zeratsky Books How To Connect With John Zeratsky Website Twitter LinkedIn Return To The Top Of Make Time With John Zeratsky If you enjoyed this episode with John Zeratsky, why not check out other inspirational chat with Clayton Morris, Dorie Clark, and the amazing Niall Doherty You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy Full Transcription Of Make Time Founder Interview Outro 0:00 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. John Zeratsky 0:25 Yes, hello. Good morning, everybody. Good morning and welcome to Join Up Dots. Yes, it's that podcast again. And today is not gonna be a solo show. It's got we've got we've got a guest we got a guest on the other end of the line, who for nearly 15 years was a designer for technological companies at Google Ventures. He helped develop the design sprint and work with startups like Uber 23andme, flatiron health, Blue Bottle coffee and a nest. Now previously, he was a designer at YouTube, Google and Feedburner, which Google Of course acquired in 2007. Now before that he studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin and graduated from UW School of Human Ecology, where he's now an advisor to the dean and the faculty. However, this just shows that this guy was once mega busy, probably running from meeting to meeting desperate crisis chats and everything else we get sucked into. Whilst in the corporate world now things are very different. Now he might be just as busy, but now he's busy doing the things that he wants to do in a way he wants to do it. For example, He spent 18 months travelling in Central America aboard a sailboat pineapple with his wife. But before moving to Milwaukee in 2019. He's a keynote speaker and a best selling author of sprint and make time and he helps leaders, entrepreneurs and professional teams make better use of their time at work and become happier and more engaged humans. So So why do people actually need his help? And we all know how to do it by and large Get away from the computers, connect with real life people and try to limit what we do every day. But what is the quickest way that we can increase our happiness in our lives? If we're doing all that? Well, let's find out as we bring them to the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. John Zeratsky. Morning John, how are you? Good morning, David. How are you doing? David Ralph 2:25 I'm always doing well, john. Don't do it. All right. Yeah. As we were talking. Yeah, I've got no Corona virus. I've got nothing I've got. I've got a slight pain in my shoulder. But I think that sitting at a computer all the time, other than that job, pretty damn good. Now let's get into it and cut to the chase because we've you it's all about time and making time. Now, can you really make time or can you just make the most of your time John Zeratsky 2:52 you're on to me, it's impossible to make time and that's what makes it such an important thing to focus on. To think about because time is our only finite resource, you know, if we, we lose our money, we can make it back. Again, if we gain weight, we can we can shut it off. If we're weak, we can become strong. If we're sick, we can become well, but we can never make more time, we only get so much. And we don't know how much we get until it's gone. So it's a really important really precious resource. But like you mentioned, so many of us just kind of let it slip by we live in a crazy world with all sorts of default settings, settings in our technology products and in our cultures and workplaces and the norms and the beliefs that we accept. And we just sort of react to those defaults. Most of our time is spent by default. And so while it's not in a in a in a medic metaphysical sense, it's not possible to create more time, we can effectively Make time by resetting those defaults and choosing to spend our time on the things that really matter. Instead of just reacting to what's in front of us. David Ralph 4:10 I agree with this. I agree with this totally. And I also agree, and I'm going to point this in into the conversation, because sometimes just wasting time is perfect. It's right. I'll give you an example. I just come back from Iceland. And we had one day we had beautiful weather. It was freezing cold, but beautiful weather and one day you went out and it literally was scraping the skin off your face. It was so cold. And so me and my wife, we just sat in a bar drinking Icelandic beer, buying drinks for Americans, it was always the Americans I always rolled up and and we said what a wonderful day it was and it was such a waste of time, but it just felt good to do that. John Zeratsky 4:51 Absolutely. Well you experienced in that, in that wasted time you experienced a number of benefits that we You know, sometimes if we're lucky, or if we're intentional about it, we find ourselves enjoying, you got to spend time face to face with other humans. So that's something that we we evolved to to need and to thrive on. You experienced the relative quiet or calm of not having a million new bits of information popping into your feed or onto your phone. You experienced the feeling of generosity of giving something to those thirsty Americans David Ralph 5:36 a one time back, those Americans weren't very good at buying rounds back I promise you. And happily I mean, cleared off. John Zeratsky 5:44 Perhaps they have a few things to learn from you. But But yeah, that that it's absolutely true that that sometimes wasting time or things that that don't look very productive are actually the best uses of our time and in particular, Things like what you just mentioned, are great because they pack so many benefits together. Another one of my favourites is, is cooking dinner at home. So, you know sure if you're mister you know, ultra productive optimised, you know, outsource your life use every last second to maximise your your income or whatever. Sure, you're not going to cook your own dinner, that's nuts, you're gonna have somebody cook it for you, you're gonna have it delivered, you're gonna have pre made meals, whatever. But I love cooking dinner because it tends to be more affordable and healthier than going to a restaurant or ordering in. It forces me to get up from the computer and do something with my hands. And it creates a little bit of space very much like you just sitting in that bar disconnected from all the feeds and and sources of information in our world cooking requires you to be a bit different. connected. And I also like how it marks the end of the day. It's a natural transition between the daytime which for me is usually focused on some project that I'm excited about and the nighttime which is a time to tell our body it's, you know, it's, it's time to wind down, it's time to relax so that we can sleep well and be prepared for another great day tomorrow. David Ralph 7:22 Now let's spin it into sort of entrepreneurial venture because I'm this is gonna, you may not notice, john, but my listeners will go Oh my God, he's mentioning again, but I think it's important. I think it's important. And I don't have a mobile phone. I don't have a mobile phone or a tablet or anything. So when once I leave my office, Fassett is gone. I don't have any sort of connectivity. But in the early days of starting my business, I found myself sucked into my office a lot. Because there's always something to do and yet no matter how big businesses or how successful it is, there's still something that is sitting half and done. Now what I had to do was I actually had to say, no, that office is closed. I'm not just sneaking up there for 10 minutes. I'm not because my family kept on laughing. Yeah, we know it's gonna be 10 minutes. We'll see you in three hours. I now do that. And I say, right. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, I don't go up to my office at all. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I jam everything in to give myself that breathing space again. Is that something that I am lucky to be able to do? Or can most people do that being kind of legit mentally flexible with that time? John Zeratsky 8:39 I think probably a bit of both. I think that I think that I would be I wouldn't be completely honest. If I were to say that any bit. Anybody out there could choose to, you know to jam all their work into three days a week because Most people are not as lucky or as privileged as we are. And so they, they have normal jobs. And they don't necessarily have the same kind of control. But on the other hand, there's a lot of, there's a lot of space to work with. There's a lot of room for flexibility. And when I work with people who feel like they don't have enough time for the things that matter to them, one of the first things we do is we talk about where their time goes now. And more often than not a good chunk of that time goes into what my co author Jake and I call infinity pools. So these are apps like Facebook and Twitter and even the breaking news and games and Netflix streaming things where there's always more content there. There's always more water in the pool, you can dive back in at any time. And the data on this stuff shows that at least in the United States. The average American spends about four hours a day on their phone and four hours a day watching TV. So In a very real sense of distraction is a full time job. And so we usually start there and we say, well, let's, let's figure out which of those things really are important to you, which matter because they connect you to other people, or they allow you to do something that's helping you learn or grow or helping you build something. And which parts are just really waste of time, which parts feel, you know, don't make you feel good. They feel like you're sort of being mindlessly pulled through instead of intentionally choosing to dive in. And so we start by cutting those off and then the next thing we do is exactly what you suggested, which is we compartmentalise that time. So instead of doing, you know, basically checking email throughout the day, or having a bunch of little meetings with these little scraps of time in between them. I help people kind of structure their calendars so that when they're doing something, they're doing that one thing. They're completely focused on it. They're doing it Great job at it. And then when they're done, they move on to the next thing. And this works amazingly well, even for something as seemingly innocuous as email, it turns out, there's actually research on this, it turns out that if email, David Ralph 11:14 there's always research, there's always reasons why people doing research on these kind of things. John Zeratsky 11:19 Well, because it matters because, like we we talked about it at the intro time is our only finite resource. And so this stuff matters. These are important questions, you know, these are not just sort of trivial matters. these are these are really at the heart of what it means to be human, what it means to be alive. And so I think these are important research questions and and research on email shows that people who are in an experiment forced to check email fewer times during the course of the day, actually become measurably better at doing email so they become faster, they become more efficient at it, and they feel less stressed so they feel better about themself. And so it's the exact opposite of what you'd expect. You know, if you want to be Mr. productivity and you want to be ultra efficient, you think, Oh, well, I need to be on top of my email at all times. But it's actually, the opposite is true. And so that's I think that speaks to the power of compartmentalization, which is really just kind of a long and complicated word for doing one thing at a time. David Ralph 12:20 Well, I'm gonna throw it back at ya. I agree with you everything you're saying. But I'm going to throw I'm going to tell you how I operate. Now that there's three laws, there's two laws that are like very, very much one. One is Parkinson's Law, which I'm sure you know all about Parkinson's Law, john. Yeah. John Zeratsky 12:37 That's about work expanding. You're very good. David Ralph 12:41 Yeah, you're very good. And so if you give yourself 20 minutes to deal with all your emails you're doing in 20 minutes. If you give yourself three hours, you'll get three hours. And so I do everything based on time. So with my emails, I log on first thing in the morning, and I give myself 15 minutes to deal with them all. Anything that comes in I get a load of emails is ridiculous, but I make sure I only read them once. So I read them make a decision and deal with it, delete it, respond or whatever. Because once you leave it half done, it then builds up into some big monstrous inbox that you can't deal with. And so yeah, literally every day my inbox is totally clean. I batch everything. So like today is my podcasting day. So the only thing I do is podcasting. And I do about three Thursdays in the month and nothing else gets involved in there. And biggest thing but I think so many people miss out on and I'm going to, you know, ask your point of view and this is the 8020 looking at everything that you do and things actually what part is bringing value back into your business. If it's Facebook when brilliant if it's not get rid of it. If it's Pinterest, get rid of it. Just look at all the stuff and I realised for myself business, but nothing was making a difference in my business other than podcasting, and then personally connecting with people, listeners. So when they come through to me, and then we chat, and then sometimes they become clients, sometimes they don't. And I realised I was wasting so much time doing everything else I thought I had to do. Well, the bottom line was connection, you make the right connections. John Zeratsky 14:27 That's fantastic. Yeah. And I think that that's, that that is a really important way of looking at everything we do, not just the work that we're doing. So certainly, you know, the 8020 rule is very important in the context of your work, you want to be focused on the things that actually produce the desired results. But I think just in general, when we think about our time we we would be wise to apply that rule. It's funny people are used to being very analytical and critical about their work. You know, they're used to doing it. Post mortems and retrospectives and you know, big reports on things but, but most people don't have a habit of looking analytically at their own time. And so that's very much the approach that we take when it comes to the use of technology in particular. So like you like you mentioned, if something like Facebook works for your business, and that's an important part of your work, then by all means, use that as a tool use that for its desired purpose. But give it a time give it a space. We've actually heard from some folks who, if they need to use something like like Facebook or Twitter or a really kind of addictive infinity pool app if they need to use that for their business, they will even set up a separate device so they'll have a separate phone and this is actually really important for for Instagram because Instagram is one of the few if not the only of these, these apps were talking about that really is mobile only, like you can't really meaningfully use Instagram on a computer. And so if you know if if that's a big part of your business, then then we've actually heard from people who will set up a dedicated device so that for their 30 minutes a day, or their their one hour a day, or their two hours a week, or whatever the right allocation of time is, they can get out that device, they can power it up, they can do what they need to do, and then they can put it away. And I think it's when we, when we allow everything to just be on and be there and be in front of us by default. And we allow the notifications to be on we allow apps to check in the background. That's when we develop the sense that we're we're not in control of how we're spending our time. And that's when we develop the feeling that we're not spending our time on things that matter because we're not because we're just reacting to what what shows up in front of us instead of what we have. So So wisely and intelligently as you decided is important to us. David Ralph 17:01 One of the things that I did as well john, and I've got it in my hand at the moment was I bought a book called The disciplined pursuit of less essentialism by Greg McKeown. Yeah. Great book, brilliant book. It's a brilliant book. There's only two books, but I will always recommend and one was the four hour workweek by Tim Ferriss that really launched me into entrepreneurship, and this book, and I read it, and I read it three times back to back, because it made me realise, you know, leading on from what we're talking about, but so much of the stuff that I was spending my time wasn't really important and wasn't things that I really wanted to do anyway. You know, I, I used to sit with my wife watching TV in the evenings because she used to like to sit there watching TV with me. And then we came to a discussion I said, I don't really like your programmes anyway. You know, I don't care. It's all CSI, this CSI VAT and murders and God knows Well, you know, I'd rather not do that. I hope we like watching TV. No, you like watching TV and I sit next to you. So what we've done now we've got a point where on a Sunday evening, we watch a film together, and we sit and watch a film together. And the other time, she can just dip into that box set, she can do what she wants, and I can do what I want. And we made that conscious decision. It was essential to her but not essential to me. Now, when you look at that, that book, there's one title and I'm going to ask you about it. Not that you're going to remember this from the book, but it's very, very important. And it's the the unimportance of practically everything. John Zeratsky 18:40 Now, remember that David Ralph 18:41 that's a powerful statement, I kept on coming back to thinking to myself, you know, I always say to the kids, you can always find time to do what you want. You know, when when I say to him, oh, you ain't clean your bedroom? I haven't had time. Yeah, but you've told him to do everything else you want to do. It's always that kind of stuff. Everything else is unimportant. Really. Sure, John Zeratsky 19:01 yeah, there's there's a similar sentiment that comes from the world of personal finance, which is that you can afford anything but not everything. And there's actually a great podcast that sort of takes its title from that, that line which is called afford anything that hosted by Paula pant. And, yeah, I completely, I completely subscribe to that philosophy. But I will admit that it's something that I am not always great at applying and I, I somewhat recently have become an entrepreneur myself I, after many years of helping other people build their businesses, as a partner at a venture capital firm and as sort of an advisor and an author and things like that. I have. I have recently started my own business and I find myself overwhelmed by all the possibilities and all the opportunities. And, and well I know all the things that you're saying and I agree with them. It's a, I'm constantly reminded that, that these things are simple, but they're not easy. And that we are all struggling. We're all going through this process. We're all on this journey of trying to figure things out of trying to focus our time on what matters. And we're we're pushing up against some pretty powerful forces. And so I'm glad that you brought it up because it's yet another reminder to me that I need to perhaps use some of the some of the blank spaces in my calendar coming up in the future to re revisit those things. And the reason I mentioned blank spaces is that at the time we're recording this, a lot of events are being cancelled or postponed because of the The outbreak of the corona virus and so I'm finding myself with some unexpected free time and rather than rather than let that time just sort of be eaten up by by unimportant things or reactive things I ought to use it to, to kind of reassess and reevaluate some of the bigger decisions about how I'm spending my time. David Ralph 21:21 We're talking to john as a rat ski about time and we will be back after these words. Unknown Speaker 21:29 Are you ready to make a full time living online? Unknown Speaker 21:31 Check out the amazing Join Up Dots business coaching. Unknown Speaker 21:34 Hello, my name is Alan. And I've just completed the excellent eight week course with David before I started working with David Actually, I had no idea at all Unknown Speaker 21:42 where to start. Unknown Speaker 21:44 I had a lot of ideas about what I probably bought was going to be good business. David was able to help me through that though, to find that passion. Within literally minutes. We had we had a business idea and for the last seven weeks, we'll be Building on and building on and the position I'm in now, but I've got an Unknown Speaker 22:03 ever got here Unknown Speaker 22:04 on my own because of the amount of information that David gives the structure. He's got the full package here, and he explains it in a way that I can understand. His support is is phenomenal. I feel like this is the way business is supposed to work. David Unknown Speaker 22:19 helped me understand, okay, what were the next logical steps that I should do? How can I get this up and running? So I would really recommend this as an excellent course helping you if you have an idea if you have no idea, really teasing that out and at some of the practicalities and steps to take to really launch your business, whether as a full time job or as a side hustle. So it was really excellent. I recommend it for anybody thinking about setting up their own business. But both it's Unknown Speaker 22:45 an exaggeration to say David will totally save you years. Unknown Speaker 22:49 Thank you, David for all your amazing help and support which keeps on going and we certainly couldn't be where we are today without you. So you're awesome. David Ralph 23:00 If you would love to become my next success story and have your own life changing online business following my step by step system, fine tuned over many years to take away the effort and expense that others struggle with, and come across to Join Up dots.com and book a free call with myself. Let's get you living the easy life, as it says waiting for you to get it that is Join Up dots.com business coaching. Now, he leading on from that kind of advert, but tying into time as well. What I have found through doing Join Up Dots is the amount of people that waste time doing stuff that doesn't bring any rewards where they aren't doing Facebook, were doing some kind of marketing. And when I say to them, you know, how's it going for you by can't really justify that. Now with yourself as a fledgling entrepreneur. How did you begin to get clients to come to you, john, how did you save it as good The worst thing is, you know, I'll give you an example. We had a time management person come into our company many, many years ago. And we were there at nine o'clock. And he didn't turn up because he didn't realise it was that time and he was late. And we thought, What a stupid time management person you are. So how do you manage to look Zen like, but appeals to people without, you know, burning yourself out in the process? John Zeratsky 24:25 Sure. Well, I don't try to look Zen like I have. It's actually an important part of my philosophy and the philosophy that I write about and teach about that. That perfection and ultra regimented structure and optimised use of time is not a realistic or sustainable goal for any of us. So I try to be I try to be honest about it. I try to be very authentic about the fact that that this is a real challenge for me. One and that that includes me and that I'm struggling with it as well. But the the thing that I think is, is unique about my perspective is that I worked for nearly 15 years as a designer in the tech industry. And so, as a part of that experience, I, I gained two unique perspectives. One is sort of inside perspective on understanding how and why technology products are designed and configured in the ways that they are. And, and that allows me to help people sort of understand the role of defaults in shaping how they use their time and then help them reconfigure those technology products, or perhaps choose not to use certain technology products because of how it will affect their their time. But the other perspective is that technology companies are very eager adopters of new technology products in and I worked At Google, and Google is sort of famous or infamous, one or the other for having tonnes of internal products. So special tools for communicating or collaborating or organising projects that were developed internally, by engineers for internal use. And so Google in particular, and I'm sure you know, other companies are similar but but my experience at Google was that while there were amazingly brilliant people working on incredibly interesting opportunities, doing doing great work, we also we we were just inundated by email and meetings and, and information and tasks and administrative work that we needed to stay on top of, and the people around me, they, they all struggled to spend their time on the work that really mattered to them, not to mention the stuff that they wanted to do outside of work and so, as a as a person in that environment, I sort of You know, I wondered, what about me, you know, how can I create space and time for myself in this world and so that's the thing that has allowed me to sort of develop a unique, unique perspective on this and and to get a bit more tactical. My approach for reaching customers has really always been through telling stories, specifically writing and sharing very concrete, very practical tips and suggestions on how to do things. And hopefully, you know, wrapping those concrete suggestions in a, in a forgiving, flexible approach or framework that makes people feel like you know, it's that it's okay to, to not be perfect because there is no such thing as perfection but that if people can be empowered with sort of a process for experimenting with themselves and and and have a daily frame Work for are continuing to, to make tweaks and make things a little bit better for themselves that eventually they will get to a point where they feel like their time is their own and that they're free to focus on the things that matter to them. David Ralph 28:13 Now I've pondered many, many times recently that Join Up Dots has become so successful for me because I haven't deviated I've just kept him doing it, but seven years. But through that process, I've had burnout. I've had loads and loads of issues due to overwork. And I've often pondered whether your business is the right business for me. I have learned so much about reclaiming my personal energy and freeing myself from distractions and reconnecting with nature, and travelling and all the kinds of things th

Instagram Growth Service Founder Zach Benson

Zach Benson is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. A TEDx speaker, social-media trainer for international brands like The Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, and ViceRoy, and past participant on “So You Think You Can Dance,” He doesn't just manage his own Instagram network of millions; he's also the founder of Assistagram, where he's guiding other influencers and Fortune 500 companies into social-media success. You might be wondering why Instagram is so powerful to personal branding, well here are some stats: Instagram is the platform with the fastest growing audience. Instagram has over 1 billion users with 500 million being active users. Statics show that 75% of people will click buy on your landing page after seeing an Instagram ad on a real influencer’s page, which is why influencers across the internet are fighting for his services. But now his success is gaining momentum, we have to stop and reflect on where he has come from to start this remarkable journey. How The Dots Joined Up For Zach At only 4 months old, Benson, who was born in South Korea, was adopted by his parents in the States, where he was taken home to Des Moines, Iowa. Benson was one of the very few Asian kids in his school, and so was bullied and abused by his peers in school due to his ethnicity. As he says “I remember at soccer games, kids were using racial slurs, or at elementary school kids called me China boy,” Benson said. On top of looking different, he sounded different too. Benson was diagnosed with a speech impediment and was placed in speech therapy classes for an inability to say his "R"'s With this type of background and behaviour, many people would assume that these were the characteristics of somebody who was headed down a dark road. Many of us have never had to face daily battles against racism, learning impairments, or even the inability to talk properly, but a combination of all three seems unthinkable. Like anything, though, change is a series of small steps, starting with one foot in front of the other. So why are people scared of dipping their foot into the waters of Instagram, or make such a terrible mess of things. And does he look at the things he has endured in his life, as the obstacles he had to go through or the things that he needed to get to where he is today? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Zach Benson Show Highlights During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Zach Benson such as: Zach share the benefits of IGTV and why it is so powerful Influences shout outs are such an amazing way of growing your followers on Instagram, by getting  We discuss the darkness that overcame Zach when he found out that he was never going to be a dancer again. And lastly……… Life is full of ups and downs, and sometimes its a rollercoaster, but should never be  

Introducing Chris Meade

Chris Meade is today's guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast. He is a man who along with two of his closest friends took something we see all the time and created something new altogether He is the owner of CROSSNET, a new version of beach volleyball which is now taking the world by storm. As we say time and time again on Join Up Dots, it's all about the pivot. If you can create something new from something that is already selling more often than not you are on your way. As he says " It’s not every day that a new sport is created - but that’s exactly what happened when three friends from a small town in Connecticut combined an old game called four square and volleyball. Growing up together in the “Quiet Corner” of Connecticut, brothers Greg and Chris Meade constantly sought new sports and activities to keep them busy with their childhood friend Mike Delpapa.  How The Dots Joined Up For CROSSNET And Chris One night in May 2017, Chris, now 26, got together with his brother, Greg, 25, and Mike, 25, got to reunite. Reminiscing on recess days playing four square, the three friends struck an idea for a four-way volleyball game that merged traditional volleyball with the four square. By dividing the court into four quadrants, rather than in half, they envisioned a new game that incorporated the nostalgic feel of recess. After creating a prototype, inviting their friends to come play and not being able to turn them away they knew we were onto something! Since that moment over 2 years ago, the trio has made it their mission to spread the game of CROSSNET throughout the world.   Since then they have surpassed 2 million dollars in revenue, have a seven figure business, got their product in 25 plus mainstream offline and online retail chains, and have presence in 2500 plus schools already. So when the idea came to them, how did they speed past the "Why would anyone buy that" comments that derail many a brilliant idea? And what has been the hardest part of the journey, getting it going, or scaling to where they are today? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Chris Meade. Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects about CROSSNET with Chris Meade such as: Chris shares the steps that they took to get the whole CROSSNET concept to market. And it started by loving the idea themselves. The risk that they took to get their idea off the ground by taking all the money that they had to build their first protptypes. Chris shares how they have three strong pillars that they work within every single day as they develop their business. And lastly........... Why they had to prove to the teachers the safety aspect of all products to start tapping into a new avenue of sales.

Introducing JT Mccormick Today's guest is JT Mccormick, who serves as the President and CEO of Scribe Media, a publishing company that helps you write, publish and market your book. The company has worked with more than 1,500 authors and Entrepreneur Magazine recently ranked Scribe as having the #1 Top Company Culture in America. Previously, JT served as the President of Headspring Software, which he helped grow to a multi-million dollar, 100-plus person company that was repeatedly ranked as one of the best places to work in all of Texas.  JT is also the author of I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Achieve the American Dream. His book tells the story of how he worked his way out of poverty, starting with his career cleaning toilets and eventually becoming the President of multiple companies. In addition to his role at Scribe Media, JT has mentored at-risk youth in the juvenile justice system, as well as youth in low economic communities. JT’s work has been featured on CNBC, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc, and many others. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Megan, and their four children Ava, Jaxon, Elle and Jace. So was it purely down to mindset and commitment that got him to where he is today? And where can we start today, if we have just one chance to move to the next level and change our mindset forever? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only JT Mccormick Show Highlights During the show we discussed such deep subjects with JT Mccormick such as: Why you have to define happiness and success for yourself, and when you dont have much you can then define your own success. JT shares how he doesn't believe in work life balance but he does believe in five key pillars that he bases his life around. JT openly discusses how he has created a company culture that is life changing and that is by recognising the true workers before anyone else. And lastly........... We talk about how his father, although in an unusal job became the best at what he did, and was proud to see his son go the same way.