Overview
On this episode of Business Insanity Talk Radio, we first talk about what it takes to be a founder and launch a successful startup. Then, my next guest says that 99% of marketing messages don’t work. We talk about how to create a marketing message that cuts through the noise and brings you qualified leads. Also, many of us would agree that there are a lot of leaders out there that have some pretty big egos, but we’ll show you that it takes more than ego to be a successful leader. Plus, about 8 years ago, this radio show started as a podcast. We now are coming up on our 500th radio show and we discuss how you can start a podcast for your audience. Finally, we discuss the findings of Square’s new Small Business Report.
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Segment 1: Will Herman is the coauthor of “THE STARTUP PLAYBOOK: Founder-to-Founder Advice from Two Startup Veterans”. He founded his first successful company, Viewlogic Systems, a few years after his first failed attempt. He has started and managed a total of five companies, resulting in two IPOs and two corporate sales.
1:15 – A characteristic that successful founders have in common.
2:30 – Is it true that a business has to start with a really great idea?
4:00 – Is everyone cut out to be a founder of a startup business?
5:30 – Does the amount of money a startup has correlate with success?
8:30 – What is the key to finding the leverage to grow your business into a multimillion dollar company?
Segment 2: Tom Poland started his first business at age 24 and has gone on to start and sell four others, taking two of them international. In that time he’s managed teams of over 100 people and annual revenue of more than 20 million. He’s the best-selling author of “Leadsology©: The Science of Being In Demand”.
15:30 – Why 99% of marketing messages don’t work.
16:30 – How do you make sure you have a message that will generate leads for your business?
18:15 – How to figure out the core benefit of your product that is going to connect with consumers.
19:45 – Which companies express their core benefit to consumers especially well?
21:45 – How do you know if your marketing messages is working, or if you’re part of the 99% of marketing messages that aren’t.
Segment 3: John Knights is Co-founder and Chairman of LeaderShape Global. A former senior business leader, he is an author, coach, lecturer, and thought leader in leadership development. He is also the lead author and editor of “LEADING BEYOND THE EGO: How To Become A Transpersonal Leader”, the manual on Transpersonal Leadership.
31:15 – Is having a big ego as a leader a good thing or a bad thing?
32:30 – How do leaders know when they’re ego is getting in the way of a good business decision?
34:00 – What is transpersonal leadership?
35:15 – How can leaders start to identify their inhibitive leadership behaviors?
Segment 4: Harry Morton is the founder of Lower Street Media, a podcast production agency that works with brands to create original podcast content that engages, inspires and converts. Harry has been working in audio post production for 10 years, and in 2016 decided to turn his love of audio story telling into a business solely focused on podcasting.
41:00 – What you should be talking about if you want to start a podcast for your small business.
43:00 – What systems and processes do you need to have in place for podcasting?
44:45 – How to grow your podcast audience.
Segment 5: Erin Archuleta leads awareness initiatives at Square, collaborating with community and educational partners across the United States to provide small business owners with access to educational and tech tools that help their businesses thrive. As a small business owner herself, Erin brings a passion for making it easy to start, run and grow your business—and also understands the pressures of holding two (or more) full-time jobs. She owns Michelin-recommended, Zagat-rated ICHI Sushi, and is a recipient of a San Francisco Small Business Week Award (2014).
49:30 – Findings from Square’s Small Business Report:
- 49% of small business owners say that cash flow problems keep them up at night.
- 58% of small business owners say that increased competition forced them to adapt.
- 2/3 of small business owners feel confident they are going to meet their 5 year goals.
51:15 – How Square makes accepting electronic payments easy for small businesses.
52:00 – 64% of small business owners feel that it’s their personal responsibility to contribute to their community, and more findings from Square’s Small Business Report!
