286: How Annex Products Co-Founder Rob Ward Used the Power of Prediction to Build a Multimillion-Dollar Company

A couple of months ago we sent an invitation to all the readers of our weekly newsletter. We asked if there was anyone who would like to have a one-on-one with tried and true entrepreneurial professionals. Out of the hundreds of responses we received we picked out Derric Haynie former professional poker player and today the founder and CEO of Splash. An online marketing consultancy based in San Diego. He sat down with Foundr’s own CEO, Nathan Chan, and Mathew Michalewicz, author of Life in Half a Second and entrepreneurial genius to talk strategy. You might remember our previous interview with Matthew where we talked about the science of success, and his journey in building 4 incredibly successful businesses. What happened was a full breakdown of Derric Haynie’s business, his goals, what he wanted to achieve, and the steps he needed to take in order to get there. There has never been an episode before where we’ve given away so much actionable advice and strategy, invaluable guidance, and lessons in entrepreneurship. We’ve also included a special deal for the first 50 listeners of this episode! If you wish to access it go to - www.foundrmag.com/mattm This is an episode you definitely don’t want to miss. In this interview you will learn: Invaluable insight on how to exponentially scale your business with the goals pyramid The best way to pitch potential clients and investors How to generate the right leads The steps you can take today to become a successful entrepreneur Multiple marketing strategies for online, cold calls and emails, referrals & much more!

2 Sep 20151h 43min

In the 1990s, the FUBU brand was everywhere, including on the backs of A-List celebrities like Will Smith, Janet Jackson, and LL Cool J. Like most trends, it seemed to come out of nowhere. But in the case of FUBU, it sort of did. When Daymond John started the company with his longtime friends, they only had about 10 shirts. They’d sneak into a hip hop video set, put a shirt on one rapper, then take the shirt back and go do the same at another video set. “Before you knew it people started to think of us as a huge clothing company, when we literally still had 10 shirts in a basement,” says John, now a celebrity investor on the hit reality show Shark Tank.  Daymond John’s talent for building hype didn’t hurt, but that was only the beginning. While today John can regularly be seen on TV in flawless suits, closing six-figure deals, the rise of his game-changing streetwear company was a tumultuous one. The branding icon gained his financial chops the hard way, with lots of stumbles, and a constant learning process that continues today.   In this episode you will learn: Marketing hacks to grow your business The key components of what makes a successful business How to bring confidence to the table when negotiating The importance of education and mentorship How to build an unwavering drive to succeed & much more!

25 Aug 201526min

In this weeks episode, Nathan goes through in detail the steps he took to interview Sir Richard Branson for a Foundr Magazine front cover story and what he learnt from the whole process.   If you would like to check this interview out, you can download Foundr Magazine on any Tablet or Mobile device on the iTunes and Android stores.   iTunes - www.foundrmag.com/itunes Android - www.foundrmag.com/android   In this episode you will learn:   - The key things Nathan took away from Interviewing Richard Branson - How to get in touch with hard to reach people - The secret strategy to convince influencers to be interviewed for your magazine / show - Why this interview was game changing for Foundr Magazine - & So Much More!

16 Aug 201517min

The trials of starting a business—even if you forget, for a moment, the typical travails of day-to-day living—often overwhelm entrepreneurs. Late nights, endless work, big choices, and extreme uncertainty can swirl together to form a raging twister that ravages the landscape of life, shredding business hopes and ideas along the way. But the forecast is much better for some, including Andy Puddicombe. Puddicombe is one of the minds behind Headspace, a guided meditation app that’s reaching new users every day. He can also say something that few entrepreneurs can: he’s rarely overwhelmed. In this episode you will learn: What is Mindful Meditation and how to use it effectively The importance of when, and when not, to listen to customer feedback How to improve your product by living in the present How Andy inspires and leads a worldwide movement for meditation and peace Key tips on how to avoid burnout & So much more!

5 Aug 201544min

Two years ago, the owner of a local coffee shop, Steve Rowley, was asked by a regular customer for coffee grounds to be used as an exfoliate. This simple act was the catalyst for a brand that has experienced amazing growth driven heavily by Instagram. Frank Body creates coffee scrubs formulated with minerals and essential oils and is set to bring in more than $20 million this year. The Frank Body founding team included Bree Johnson, Erika Geraerts and Jess Hatzis of Willow & Blake.   In this episode you will learn: How to find your voice and personify your brand How to turn influencers into brand ambassadors Key tips on speaking to your target market The best ways to generate content for Instagram Hacks to scale your business to epic proportions & much more!

3 Aug 201554min

He was told it couldn’t be done. Social good was meant for nonprofits. Businesses were for making money. But Tom Dawkins always felt like there was a puzzle to be solved, that he could put the pieces together and run a profitable business that created change in the world.   A serial entrepreneur from a young age, Dawkins worked in both nonprofits and tech startups before finally solving it. The result was StartSomeGood, a crowd-funding platform for anyone—nonprofit, for profit, or individual—with an idea to make positive change in the world.   In this episode you will learn:   - How to start your own social enterprise - How to measure your impact and why - The true definition of social entrepreneurship - How find a problem that needs solving - Budgeting 101 with a for profit social enterprise - & So much more!

11 Juli 201550min

In this episode we go behind the curtain and shine the spotlight on someone part of the Foundr Magazine team that is an absolute superstar designer, entrepreneur and ruckas maker.   Enter Karan Jain.   You wouldn't probably know this, but Foundr Magazine wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for Karan. Karan taught me the power of design and branding. This bold move that we've made with the level of Foundr's design has allowed to build great reputation in the entrepreneurial space. Not just as brand itself, but also as an influencer in the entrepreneurial space.   In this interview you will learn:   - What it takes to have epic design and branding in your startup - The untold foundr story you wouldn't know - Behind the scenes on the creation process of Foundr Magazine - Key lessons from Karan on how to choose a design agency - & So much more!

10 Juli 20151h 11min

Dan Tocchini wants to change how we use the web. His website design startup The Grid have had almost 50,000 founding members and they might just pull it off. For all of the advances in how we use the Internet in recent years, the options for the average person who needs to make a website can still be simultaneously dizzying and uninspiring. It usually comes down to either paying someone a bunch of money, learning to do it yourself, or buying a template.   Dan Tocchini wants to change that. His startup The Grid poses the questions: What if having your own unique website was as easy as posting to Facebook? What if you could just supply the content, and a program just did the rest for you?   The answer he and his team came up with is an automated alternative to services like Wordpress or Squarespace. And if Tocchini’s right, it might just change how people view the web. While the company hasn’t gone live yet, the team has racked up two hit Kickstarters, two rounds of funding, more than 31,000 preorders, and an offer from Facebook (they turned it down). So what’s all the fuss about? Well, the corners of the Internet that are thriving these days have developed fancy algorithms and design features that make it as simple as possible to connect and share information (think of the curated Facebook feed or Twitter’s 140 characters). They take the flurry of anxiety-inducing decisions away from the average person (see Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice). But website creation has been sort of left behind, Tocchini says, and relatively few Internet users have their own sites. For those who do, it’s kind of a pain. “Websites are like the atomic building block of the web, and they’ve been completely ignored by the big tech companies,” Tocchini says. He thinks the web can do better. His team has spent the past few years creating a platform that starts with content and uses software to automatically turn it into a website. Think of it as having your own web designer that makes all of the decisions for you, except that web designer is artificial intelligence.   If you would like to becoming a founding member of the grid, make sure you go to https://thegrid.io/ to sign up now :)   In this interview you will learn:   - Why you would turn down a buyout offer from facebook - Leadership 101 - How to come up with an epic idea - How Dan's vision is going to revolutionize the web - The problem with websites right now and how the Grid plans to solve this massive problem - What it truly takes to become a successful entrepreneur - & So much more

9 Juli 201549min