Growth Everywhere | Entrepreneurial Stories | Business Lessons

Joining us on the show today is multifaceted, entrepreneur's entrepreneur, Jim Mckelvey! Jim is currently developing his project, Invisibly, which aims to revolutionize the ways that consumers interact with advertising on media platforms. He is also the co-founder of Square and has started seven companies in total! His recent book, The Innovation Stack is compiled through his experience and research into what has allowed the most successful companies to create their own lane, and in it, he notes the common factors of the most innovative business in history. Jim explains how he learned the important skill of surrounding himself with more experienced and intelligent people and complimenting this with the ability to support and strengthen their work. We also get into the opportunity of calamity before discussing the need for humor and bravery in the life of an entrepreneur. For all this and a bunch more thought-provoking conversation, listen in with us today! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:21] Before we jump in

If you hustle hard enough, is it worth it? Only to a point. Tune in to this episode as we discuss how you can out perform almost anyone with leverage, not hustle.  What is leverage in the first place, and how does running a smart business give you more leverage? In this episode we'll find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are joined on Leveling Up today by Aaron Hirschhorn, the founder and CEO of Gallant, a new company specializing in regenerative medicine for pets! They aim to help pets have a better and longer, high-quality life and they are providing this through stem cell banking and therapy. Aaron explains how this is an untapped section of the market and how he has applied the ongoing research into stem cells to help pets and their owners! He gives us some examples of how their service works, which begins with the procurement of stem cells during a regular vet visit at a young age. From there a veterinary professional can treat future age-related health issues using that sample as the means. Our guest does a great job of simplifying how stem cells relate to aging and the potential advancements we will likely see in the field in the near future. He breaks down some of the components of the new business and how they have approached marketing and customer acquisition. For all this and a whole lot more from an exciting co

Yesware is an all-in-one sales software that provides users with everything necessary to prospect, schedule meetings and follow up, all from the comfort of the inbox! Here to talk about the company and his role as CEO is Joel Stevenson! Yesware has raised $47 million as well as acquiring a host of companies along the way and we wanted to bring you the lowdown on how they have done it all. We hear from Joel about his journey from SVP of Sales to COO of Marketing and finally to CEO of the company! Joel explains his relationship with Matt Bellows, the co-founder and former CEO, and a lot of our conversation is spent unpacking the transitions the company has gone through and how they have grown and evolved. Joel started in sales and tech and he is kind enough to look back at his early career and the common motifs that have run through all of his work. We also talk about leadership techniques, Yesware's belief in executive mentorship, and how they go about communicating in the company. So, for all of that and a wh

What does it take to build wealth? In this episode, Eric shares his insight on the many stages of wealth and how to climb the ladder to the next stage. Discover why products and software can be more lucrative than services, and why the harder the level is, the bigger the reward will be! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Leveling Up we welcome Andrew Fischer from Choozle. Andrew is the co-founder and CEO of the company and he shares some of their story and what makes the business tick. Choozle is a digital advertising software platform that leverages detailed consumer data to power programmatic advertising campaigns across multiple platforms. They do this through one, intuitive interface and this model has proved very successful for Andrew and his team, having raised over $14 million since they began work in 2012! In our conversation, we chat about the service they provide to their clients and what sets them apart from other advertising services in the space. Andrew gives us a few interesting statistics and breaks down some hiring numbers before we talk about customer acquisition and adapting to the new world in a post-COVID landscape. We chat about the future of media and the increasing trends away from cable television, so to hear it all, make sure to tune in! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:21] Before we jump into

we discuss four underrated SEO strategies that will help you boost your organic traffic. Updating your content and keywords, removing old dates from your URLs, and using power and pillar pages effectively will all contribute to reviving your organic traffic. Tune in to hear about the tools that will get you to your traffic goals.    TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:   [00:25] Today’s topic: 4 Underrated SEO Plays That Will Double Your Organic Traffic.  [00:39] Upgrade your content regularly.  [01:01] Consider your top performers and explore new keywords to update them.  [01:30] Boost your traffic by removing dates from your URLs.   [01:45] Write long-form pieces of content and consolidate different pieces together.  [02:04] Consider what Animalz does with their power and pillar pages.   [02:24] Turn your content into videos and put them on YouTube.   [03:01] That’s it for today! [03:02] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information.  

Zapier CEO and co-founder, Wade Foster, joins on us on Leveling Up today to discuss his business, remote work and the vital importance of building a company culture! It became apparent to Wade quite early on in the journey of Zapier that if they were going to grow in the right way and continue to scale what they were doing, a well-suited company culture was necessary. This led to the development of their ethos and core values and these steps have served the company immensely in recent years! We get to hear from Wade about some of the financial aspects of the company, including their freemium model and the way they lay out their pricing plan. He also comments on leadership, with particular reference to the challenges posed by a crisis. The global pandemic has provided many challenges for us all and Wade weighs in on his approach to these and making the most of the connected opportunities. The conversation also covers the utility of podcast appearances, hiring practices at Zapier, and profit-sharing! Tune in an

You don't need a college degree to make 6 figures, even during this year's uncertain times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Offering a SaaS product that services agriculture presents unique challenges for growth and today we chat with Allison Kopf, CEO of Artemis, about what this process looks like. Artemis is a cultivation management platform that enables growers to manage people, processes, and compliance all in one place while creating a virtually risk-free operation. Allison starts by telling us about her background in energy and what drew her obsession towards enterprise-level management and infrastructure in the agricultural industry, weighing in about how software can optimize farming and supply chains to streamline operations, bring growers closer to distributors, and more. We turn our attention to why Artemis services high-risk specialty crop farmers, and how the company makes money while encouraging compliance by using a subscription model that charges by acreage and complexity. From there, Allison talks metrics for growth rates before speaking to Artemis’ customer acquisition strategies and how direct to farmer lead gen

In episode #1432, we are going to be giving you seven game-changing tools for marketers on a budget. This great session covers Eric and Neil’s famous self-made tools for optimizing traffic and SEO, getting more views on YouTube, tightening up your copy, and so much more! Tune in and find some tools that should accelerate your growth and which you can either get for super cheap or better yet, absolutely free!   TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today’s topic: 7 Game-Changing Growth Tools for Marketers on a Budget. [00:30] How good and cheap Ubersuggest and Neil’s offerings are for SEO. [01:00] Using Content Decay to identify and maintain parts of your site that are losing traffic. [01:38] Making the most of your content by streaming it to multiple sources. [02:18] Getting way more traffic from YouTube using vidIQ! [02:36] How much more effective you become as a writer using Grammarly. [03:18] Connecting all marketing sources in one place using Google Data Studio. [03:53] Using fast-growing Zapier to

With the explosive proliferation of SaaS products, it can be difficult to keep up to speed with developments such as pricing trends. While there are review sites for products, these have largely become an extension of marketing and sales rather than objective information for customers. Capiche is looking to turn this model on its head, and CEO, Austin Petersmith, joins us to share insights into the exciting platform. Capiche is a secret society for SaaS products, showing pricing data for a variety of companies. We kick off the episode by learning more about Austin and the company. With a background in journalism and experience in tech startups, Austin saw the flawed software development review ecosystem that comes from a pay to play model. He realized the need for elevated conversations, which set the wheels in motion for the creation of Capiche. We then move to discuss the pricing data the site has available. With pricing asymmetry and opacity as the biggest problems, by making data available, Capiche puts u

Today, we are going to talk about seven Jeff Bezos frameworks that will supercharge your growth. These are frameworks that not a lot of people talk about, but when you think about business growth, when you think about longterm business, Amazon is the perfect example of that. No matter how much crap people talk about Amazon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How many CEOs are running a million dollars a month, ad to webinar? Tanner Chidester is one of them and he joins us today to talk about qualifying calls and what it’s like grossing $12 million annually at 28 years old. Tanner is CEO of Elite CEOs and Fit Warrior, two high ticket coaching businesses that offer one on one mentorship in the fitness and entrepreneurship spaces. We hear from Tanner about how he went from playing D-I football to dropping out of college to pursue entrepreneurship following the advice of a mentor. Tanner weighs in on how he built Fit Warrior’s high ticket coaching service and used that business as a platform to start Elite CEOs. He talks about how his businesses make money, shares metrics about his staff count and monthly revenue, and also speaks to the resilience of the high ticket coaching model in this time of the worldwide pandemic. We hear more about Tanner’s business model which stresses many touchpoints between coaches and clients, and he talks about their subscription lengths

Today we share the ultimate checklist for selling high-ticket products and services. Some of the benefits of higher price points are that you have more flexibility and margin for making mistakes, and you should use this to your benefit. Tune in to hear the array of benefits to hosting a webinar and where to learn how to structure them for maximum benefit!    TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today’s topic: The Ultimate Checklist for Selling High-Ticket Products and Services.  [00:35] Don’t think that having your offer on your website is enough—get on the phone.  [01:05] A higher price means more flexibility and more margin for mistakes. [01:25] Retarget people who have hit your page or have shown interest.  [02:02] Get tips from Sam Ovens and Russell Brunson on structuring webinars.   [02:17] The benefits of hosting a webinar and the best platforms to use.  [02:30] Think about building an ascension funnel and learn how from Dotcom Secrets.  [03:05] Ensure that your price points are above $1000. [0

2020 is full of unpredictability. This is a long term strategy that is almost guaranteed to build growth, if you can implement it.  Product Led Growth has worked extremely well for companies like HubSpot. How can you apply it in your own business? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not enough people in the SaaS world are customer-obsessed, but Derek O’Carroll, CEO of Brightpearl is changing that, and he joins us today to dive into how. Brightpearl is a scalable retail operations platform designed specifically for high growth multi-channel retailers wishing to automate and integrate their e-commerce and accounting operations. Derek got into startups in the 90s and while Senior Vice President of Global Field Sales and Marketing for Norton under Symantec he was responsible for $1.7 billion in global revenue. Today, Derek talks about leaving Symantec to join Brightpearl after looking for an area in the market that was undergoing disruption with a good product but challenges on product/market fit. He gets into what exactly Brightpearl does, how they make money, their deal client types, and their amazing growth metrics since he joined the team. After that, we turn our attention to how Derek manages teams with a focus on communication and the benefits of this approach, before zooming further i

Everbowl is a superfood brand, headed up by their inspiring founder and CEO, Jeff Fenster. Jeff joins us on Leveling Up today to talk about his amazing business and the impressive growth it is experienced in its young life. Jeff unpacks the idea of relationship capital, a concept that has made a huge impact on his success and how he goes about his work. We hear from him about his formative years and how his original plan to be a sports agent did not pan out in the way he initially imagined. Now Jeff aims to help everyone be their best selves through eating and moving the way that we are meant to. This means better, healthier practices throughout the day and that is where his amazing acai bowls come into the picture. They are packed with superfoods and all the stuff your diet might be missing to get you to your peak performance. Jeff generously shares some inside information about the company, his eight minute trick to making the most of his time and why he aims to be the dumbest guy in the room! We also touch

We speak about how your mental health affects your marketing and how to keep it healthy. Having the right mindset is so important for being effective and jumping on opportunities when they arrive, especially at a time like this. Tune in and hear some great hacks for optimizing your well-being, from setting a cap on daily calls to meditating, journaling, and a whole lot more!   TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:   [00:25] Today’s topic: How Your Mental Health Affects Your Marketing and How to Keep It Healthy. [00:30] Mental health doesn’t just affect marketing, but your overall effectiveness! [00:45] To be able to recognize a good opportunity, one has to be in the right mind frame! [01:25] Actions and habits that affect your life all start with your mental health. [01:55] The stress of the pandemic and how it encourages getting depressed or overworking. [02:56] Setting boundaries about how many calls to do per day. [03:50] Trying to only fill your calendar with things that produce ROI. [04:07] A tip for comp

We have spoken before about the ways in which writing and publishing a book can help you grow your business and authority. It sits alongside other tactics such as hosting a podcast, starting a blog, or creating a YouTube channel. Our guest today is a great example of the power of publishing! We are so happy to have the best-selling author of six books and CEO of Self-Publishing School, Chandler Bolt join us to talk about how you can put your thoughts and experiences into the form of a book and how this can lead to massive growth and revenue for you and your business! Chandler and his company have helped countless people publish their books and he walks us through exactly what his company does. They do not actually publish works, they help authors through the process, making it that much easier for anyone to become an author! Chandler explains why now is a better time than any for you to be writing and self-publishing that book you have been thinking about and we get into the differences between a traditional