The Foolish Adventure Show | Internet Business Radio

HOW TO BUILD AN APP IF YOU’RE NOT A PROGRAMMER: LESSONS FROM A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER I invited my friend and mastermind member, Jesse Lawler of Evil Genius Technologies, to come on the Show to answer a question I get frequently in my inbox, “How do I make an app if I’m not a programmer?” Jesse is in the business of making apps for other companies and for himself so I reckoned he would be able to tell us what process we should take to get our ideas turned into apps. Listen in as we cover some pitfalls of hiring developers and what you should do to have a successful outcome when working with a developer. I’m probably going to bring Jesse back for a part two since there was so much more for us to cover. Enjoy your Foolish Adventure, Tim “Kiss My App” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

AKA: CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT FOR THE REST OF US Customer Development is a lean startup methodology that is transforming how tech companies create their products. It turns traditional product development on its head by focusing on identifying the core problems a market has before creating solutions. Said that way it seems logical — why would anyone make a solution and then try to find a problem for it to solve?  Most entrepreneurs take the solution first approach to starting a business — it’s better known as Building a Better Mousetrap. Lots of businesses start with, “Wouldn’t this be cool?” or “I can do X better than those companies.”  Well, the process of starting up has evolved and Johan and I decided to introduce you to Customer Development. We want to take non-tech companies into the process that is revolutionizing tech startups.   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

EFFECTIVELY MARKET PLUGINS, DOWNLOADABLES & SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE Rob Walling of Startups For The Rest Of Us joins the show again to talk about marketing software. This is one of my favorite topics to discuss and having someone as smart and successful as Rob to talk to made me forget about the time so this one last just over an hour, but is well worth it if you sell software or are thinking about getting into the software industry. Rob illustrates how to market software by using his own experiences, which I think is really useful since he used software to get control of his Time, Income and Mobility. Each advance he made in marketing software better allowed him to first go part time at his job and then to finally quit and dedicate his time to building his software business. I think Rob is a good model for anyone wanting to shift from full time employment to full time entrepreneur. In this episode you’ll also learn about: the 3 main categories of software and which one newbie software entrepreneurs should focus on first how to “get the word out” when you’re just getting started and have a limited budget use strategic alliances and joint ventures to grow your business and much more. Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

A PAY NOW PODCASTING TALE This week my friend and mastermind member, Terry Lin of BuildMyOnlineStore.com, joins us to talk about Pay Now Podcasting, building your online store, podcasting about ecommerce, and ecommercing about podcasts. Okay, that last one doesn’t make any sense. Terry started a podcast about ecommerce by interviewing online store owners. He brings out their ups and downs and successes and failures in their ecommerce adventure. These entrepreneurship stories are inspiring, but also very informative. His show fits a need in the market which is getting an ecommerce education from insiders.  Another lesson, which I really should have spent more time on in the interview, is the connections Terry has been able to make in a very short time. Execs at Shopify have reached out to him. He has been able to interview top-notch entrepreneurs and has built up a ton of credibility and is fast becoming known as a leader in the ecommerce field. This is one of the top reasons to focus on Pay Now Podcasting.  It’s strange, for a medium that was considered dead just a few years ago, it is catapulting a lot of careers right now. Not many people can get a guest appearance on their blog, but nearly anyone can get top people in their market to do an interview on their podcast. Oh, and you did read that right — I did write “careers.” You can launch your entrepreneurship career with a podcast and you can get yourself hired by a great company from doing a podcast. Anytime you’re considered to be leader in a field it opens a ton of opportunities. It’s up to you which direction you go. So, listen in to this episode and learn about podcasting, ecommerce and building your online store. Enjoy your Foolish Ecommercing, Tim “Get Paid” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

DO YOU HAVE A VALUABLE MESSAGE TO SHARE? My guest, Mark Manson of Postmasculine.com (and member of my mastermind), started with dating advice and found that he had a deeper, more valuable message to share with the world. This message now affords him a great lifestyle — one with the opportunity to be his own boss, live and travel to anywhere he desires and make a good income. In this episode, Mark and I talk about how he was able to become a successful blogger. We talk about the work he did to get there. Hint: success is a process, not an event. Mark has a glamorous life and we both believe that if you are dedicated to working the process you could have a life similar to his, or even better, a fulfilling life of your own making. Listen in to hear the process Mark went through to get where he is now. But you’ll also hear that the process hasn’t ended. He has a grander vision of his life and the message he shares with the world to stop at this “success.” We also talk about the three interns he hired and brought to Columbia. This should have been a tale unto itself. There are some great lessons to learn from his hiring experience especially what he learned about his business. Have a listen and… Enjoy your Foolish Adventure, Tim “Premasculine” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

STOP THINKING OFFLINE VS ONLINE: USE ALL TOOLS AVAILABLE TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS In this episode another one of my mastermind members, Ed Stapleton Jr, visits the show to talk direct marketing and specifically direct mail.  Ed has been using some real old school sales letters to get leads for his marketing consulting company. He’s driving tens of thousands in sales for his company by sending out a 3-letter sequence that gets people on a free consultation call. We share some examples on how you could use direct mail for your online business — from lead generation to customer follow-up.  You know that phrase, “the money is in the list?” It comes from direct mail. If you have a bad list you won’t make any money. If you have a great list you could make a fortune. Ed compiles his list from businesses that advertise in his region and then mails to them. You may need to build a “house list” to be able to succeed with direct mail. (A house list is names and addresses of prospects and customers that have come through your lead generation activities.) Or you can rent a list from a list broker to mail to your ideal prospect. This episode won’t answer all your questions since it is an introduction to a very big topic. Feel free to ask questions in the comments and Ed and I will have a go at answering them. Enjoy your Foolish Mail, Tim “Not So Old, Old Skool” Conley Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

USE EDUCATION-BASED MARKETING TO GET MORE LEADS THEN SIFT, SORT & SCREEN THEM TO FIND YOUR “A” CUSTOMERS In this episode, guest co-host, Johan Woods, hit me with a question: How do I get more customers without spending the rest of my life constantly creating content? I’ve been mentoring Johan for about a year now and two concepts that I shared with him were education-based marketing and sift, sort and screen. I learned these strategies from my mentor, Joe Polish. Inside I’ll teach you what these strategies are and how to use them to attract the right people in your market, get them to enter your sales funnel and weed out the people who would be a bad fit for your company (done by educating them on how you’re company wouldn’t work for them). There is a ton of training in this episode so you might want to take some notes. Then hit me up with questions in the comments on how to use these strategies in your business. Enjoy your Foolish Educating, Tim “49er” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

LEARN TO HIRE, TRAIN AND MANAGE EMPLOYEES ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD Guest co-host, James Schramko, shares how he manages a remote team of 80+ people to double his business (with a stated goal to hit $10 million in annual sales). During this discussion James pinpoints the key areas as to when you should first hire someone, what kind of person to hire and how to turn each hire into a successful team. You’ll learn what simple tools you need to manage your team. You don’t need fancy project management software. Everything you need is available for free and you’re probably already using them. Also covered in this episode is “Single Point of Failure,” “The Three Ts,” and how to develop a company culture. This is a jam-packed show.  Enjoy your Foolish Management, Tim “Soft Eyes” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

IS PODCASTING DEAD? The Internet world claimed podcasting died in 2009. But, my guest co-host, Dan Andrews of LifestyleBusinessPodcast.com and I know it didn’t die. Hell…  CAN YOU MAKE MONEY FROM PODCASTING? If anything it got more effective as a marketing medium. This episode is about developing a podcast that will attract a buying audience. People who have big problems or strong desires that they want addressed and they have the money to buy a solution. Dan and I are true believers in podcasting as one of the most effective ways to:  network in your market to become a leading authority develop a strong relationship with your audience and get people to pull out their wallet for your products and services. You’ll have to forgive us, we got a little goofy in this episode. Totally Dan’s fault. Tim “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO GIVE UP WHAT YOU ENJOY TO LIVE WHAT YOU LOVE? Keith and Chemda, the duo behind the successful show Keith And The Girl Comedy Talk Show, took a big risk — they stopped doing something they enjoyed (and was paying their bills) to start a podcast.  This episode is a story of that journey with lots of jokes thrown in. I think this is the craziest episode of The Foolish Adventure Show ever. What could I have expected when bringing on people who make their living by making fun? Oh, and you’ll get some insights on why or why not to create your own podcast. I had to toss some business talk into this episode. Have a laugh while learning some business. Enjoy your Foolish Adventure, Tim “Morning Madness” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR? Special guest, James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness.com, shares his story of needing to replace his wife’s income when their first child came along and how he eventually built a million dollar business. This is a story of drive and ambition that took James from an administrative job to salesman to manager of a $50 million Mercedes dealership to eventually building his current business. James shows how putting true caring for your customers together with salesmanship can skyrocket your income and your personal network. Don’t miss the business lessons in this episode.  There was so much I wanted to pry out of James, but since he was on vacation in Europe I let him go after an hour. The great news is that James will be coming back on the show a few more times over the next couple of months to cover everything from hiring and managing a team to creating profitable service businesses and even how he runs membership sites. Tim “Got Ups” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

BUYING, RENOVATING, SELLING & PROFITING I’m not talking about real estate. I’m talking about websites.  There is a huge opportunity for people to buy existing, under-performing websites and turn them into real businesses that throw off excess cash.  My guest, Dave Rodenbaugh of Skyline Consulting, came on to share how he has bought, renovated and sold websites. He also points out what you should be looking for and how to do your “due diligence” so you don’t get ripped off. Buying existing websites that are generating revenue is a great way to build your online business. It saves you time in the creation of a site and a product and allows you to focus on revenue generating activities and to optimize the sales funnel. Dive into this episode if you’re looking to build your online business faster. Tim “This Old Website” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

THE WORDPRESS ECOSYSTEM IS FILLED WITH OPPORTUNITY… GRAB YOURS: THEMES, PLUGINS, SERVICES, HOSTING & MORE Today’s special guest is John Turner of SeedProd.com, shares with us how he found a profitable niche within the WordPress ecosystem and how you can do so too. In this episode, we talk about:  overcoming the inevitable setbacks and frustrations that come with becoming an entrepreneur, how going to a mentor can accelerate your success, where the opportunities lie within WordPress for you to build a successful company, and much more. Join us in this discussion and see if creating a niche business in the WordPress ecosystem is right for you, because if it is you too might be able to make $10,000 a month. Enjoy your Foolish Adventure, Tim “Hand Pressed” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

ARE YOU CREATING A NEW PRODUCT OR STARTING A BUSINESS? Then this episode will teach you how to quickly discover your prospective customers’ desires and pains so you can validate your business idea. I want to bring Lean Startup Methods to the Niche Site world so that niche site owners can become full-fledged business owners. I’ve had the pleasure of working directly with nearly a hundred niche site owners now and I discovered that their businesses were small because of limiting beliefs about their market and not because their market was tiny. I don’t say that as a slam. It’s an opportunity. Once a person realizes the only thing holding themselves back is themselves they can change their circumstances. That’s what I do best — I help people gain the skills AND the mindset to take control of their circumstances to build the business and the life they want. When I found out about today’s guest, Robert Graham, I knew I had to get him on the Show to share with you a business skill that can accelerate your company rapidly. That business skill is called Customer Development. Customer Development is a Lean Startup methodology used to discover what a market truly needs and will buy before you build a product. This saves you from wasting time and money on solutions your market doesn’t want. It may also move you to a different market if you discover that some other group needs your idea. Robert Graham has focused on one aspect of Customer Development — Cold Calling. Yep, that’s what we talk about in this episode. Hey, wait right there. I know that topic is either freaking you out or boring you to tears, but this is a skill every entrepreneur (even online ones) need in their toolbox. As my friend Dan Andrews might say, “Ballers cold call.” Picking up the phone and speaking to real, live human beings is the fastest way to learn if your idea is valid. And you may even get a customer before you have a business. I’m not joking. This does happen. When you discover a serious pain point in someone’s life he or she is going to want it fixed immediately. You can take their order for your solution right then. Listen in and learn how to use Cold Calling to validate your business or product idea and then go dial for dollars. Enjoy your Foolish Calling, Tim “Ricky Roma” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

CAN YOU PUT YOUR PRODUCTS ON SALE AND STILL BE A PROFITABLE COMPANY? That’s basically the question posed to me by my guest co-host Lain Ehmann of LayoutADay.com. She wanted to have a conversation around discount pricing and whether it was good for business. If it was good for business, how could it be used profitably?  One major downfall of discounting is that it can cheapen your brand to the point no one will pay prices you need to remain in business. In this episode, Lain and I give you:  types of discounting you can do, when to use discounting, how to build a list of buyers using sales, reward your loyal customers, and how to make all of it profitable. This is a practical guide to having sales on your products while still building a valuable brand. Listen in and start using discounting properly. Tim “Scratch-n-Dent” Conley   Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business bit.ly/entertheforge New Training: How To Scale Your Business If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/