36: How to Find Mentors and Overcome Adversity with Sean Stephenson

No one ever "gives" an entrepreneur a job, they make one for themselves. Entrepreneurs don't ask for permission, they just do. And no one exemplifies this better than Ryan Holiday who has made an entire career out of refusing to play by the rules. As a writer he started off by dropping out of college to apprentice under Robert Greene as a research assistant. To date he's published 5 bestselling books, his first book now being taught in colleges around the world. As a marketer he got his first job as the Director of Marketing at American Apparel by starting off as a marketing consultant and catching the eye of founder Dov Charney. Today, he works as a world-renowned media strategist he can count among his list of clients the likes of Tim Ferriss, Tucker Max and Linkin Park just to name a few. So how did he manage to achieve so much all before turning 30? For Holiday it's a mastery of two things: the media and your own self-development. "I found that the more that I go out and learn stuff on my own, the more opportunities I create through me, then the better I am at my job," he said. We speak with Ryan as where we talk everything from his process to media strategy to his advice on how to always keep learning in order to be successful. In this episode you will learn: The secret to getting driving attention to your business with social proof How to pitch journalists, bloggers and reports from major media channels The importance of self-reflection and humility in order to succeed What works and doesn't work when it comes to successful PR Where to go and what to do when you need a mentor & much more!

31 Aug 201651min

In 2012 James Beshara and his co-founder officially launched Tilt, a platform that aimed to make crowdfunding not only more personal but to make the process as easy as possible. But if you ask the Y-Combinator alum himself, he'll say that Tilt was created years before it even launched. Originally starting off as an offshoot of an earlier startup that he was working on, he soon found himself working on Tilt more and more. It was then he realised he was onto something. "For every young entrepreneur out there, starting, or building, or founding something. It always sounds like it just starts one day in February or starts one afternoon when you get hit with inspiration. When in truth I think it is the amalgamation of just always starting things, doing things, trying out ideas and one of them just starts to get pulled from you, and you start to spend more time on it." Ever since it's inception Tilt has been on a tear. In just four short years Tilt is now valued at $500 million and has crowdfunded some of the world's most memorable campaigns in recent memory. Like sending the Jamaican bobsled team to the Sochi Olympics to raising over $180 thousand for several campaigns providing relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Along the way though James has learnt some very valuable lessons on what it means to be the CEO and co-founder of a fast-growing startup. We chat with James today and he reveals his personal methods and strategies on how to build a startup that not only scales, but scales quick.   In this episode you will learn: The importance of waiting for the right co-founder How to get out of your own head and move fast, all while developing the best product possible Why the smartest people in the room might not necessarily give you the best advice How to design and build a product to grow as fast as possible The two key things every entrepreneurs needs to focus on if they want to succeed & much more!

25 Aug 201638min

Something that most entrepreneurs struggle with the most is coming up with an idea for a startup. They'll study business forecasts and look at unique trends trying to find the next big thing. What most entrepreneurs forget though is that the most disruptive startups in the world were created to solve a single problem. Which is what exactly Polina Raygorodskaya was looking to do when she founded Wanderu, a platform that allows you to find, compare and book bus and train tickets anywhere within the United States. In just 4 years Wanderu have grown their database to over 5 million users. It turns out there were other people that were facing the same problem as Polina. A long time entrepreneur Polina came across the idea for WanderU while constantly commuting back and forth in New York. Often having to travel by bus or train she quickly found out, to her surprise, that there was no single database to allow commuters to easily find and book bus and train tickets. Sensing a startup opportunity she closed down her PR firm and began to build Wanderu. Despite having little experience in the travel industry Polina was undeterred and together with her co-founder they built North America's leading ground travel search platform. Today, Wanderu is now partnered and works together with the leaders of their industry like Greyhound, Megabus, and Peter Pan Bus just to name a few. In this interview you will learn: Tips on how to get started in the travel industry, even if you don't have any experience Importance of finding the right team that shares your vision How to find and connect with the best advisers and influencers to help you build your startup When to sacrifice profit for growth Secrets to creating a valuable network that'll sustain your business in the long run & much more!

18 Aug 201631min

There are no shortcuts when it comes to good online marketing, something that Dave Hobson knows all too well. As the resident expert on all things marketing at Foundr we give you a very special episode today about Dave from how he came to be at Foundr to his thoughts on successful online marketing. Funnily enough, it is entirely possible that Foundr would not be around if Dave had not cold-called Nathan nearly four years ago. At the time Nathan had only just started Foundr and Dave was at a job where he had to cold-call people and try to make a sale over the phone. Instead of making the sale the founder of Foundr and Dave got to chatting and they eventually became friends. In order to understand why Foundr may have never existed without Dave Hobson you first must understand his role at Foundr. Essentially he's Nathan right-hand man, the go-to guy whenever a discussion needs to be had about marketing, strategy or the future of Foundr. Even before he started officially working at Foundr, Dave has always been in the background helping Foundr out with his advice. Today we're very lucky to count him as one of our own and as Foundr's Business Development and Product manager. In today's episode we show you a little of what's going on behind-the-scenes at Foundr, but more importantly we have Dave divulge the tactics and strategies behind one of our best sale channels: webinars. Webinars are an amazing tool and they've become a staple in the online marketing world and no one knows that better than Dave Hobson, who knows all the ins and out behind what makes a successful webinar. In this episode you will learn: Dave's story and how he came to work at Foundr Why webinars are so powerful and why almost every business in the world can use them All the tools you'll need to start doing a successful webinar The structure every great webinar needs if you want to make sales How to choose the right webinar topic for you and your audience & much more! If you want to learn more about webinars, then check out our FREE guide on webinars at https://foundrmag.com/webinarguide!!

10 Aug 201657min

The term "unicorn company" describes a startup valued at over $1 billion that managed to get there in a relatively short period of time. Usually when we talk about unicorn companies, we're dealing with Silicon Valley and the cutting edge of the tech scene. Companies that are disruptive in the sense that they've created something totally new. Rarely, however, do we find a unicorn company that started out in an overcrowded and declining market. Yet somehow, despite the odds, Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of Quest Nutrition, turned a fledgling startup into a powerhouse in just six years. When Quest Nutrition first hit the scene with their protein bars, they were told by almost every expert in the space that it was insane and that it was guaranteed to fail. Yet Bilyeu and his co-founders persevered and tackled the problem in a way that no one else had thought of before. First they focused on their customers, to empower them and actually help them make healthy and positive changes in their lives. In short, they treated their customers differently than their competitors. The result was explosive, growing by 57,000% in their first three years and cracking the $1 billion mark three years later. We were lucky to sit down with Bilyeu and have him give us the breakdown and strategy behind Quest Nutrition and how they became the unicorn company they are today. In this interview you will learn: The challenges of managing a hyper-growth company and how to overcome them How to navigate the classic entrepreneurial debate of profit vs. growth Why you need to evangelize to your customer whenever you can How to build brand loyalty and have your audience believe in your vision How to crack the notoriously difficult and crowded health and nutrition market & much more!

3 Aug 201644min

When Hal Elrod was 19 he was involved in a car accident with a drunk driver that left him with brain damage, 11 broken bones, and doctors telling him that he'd never walk again. While many people would understandably give into grief or anger or any other whirlwind of emotions that come after such a traumatic event, Elrod instead made the conscious choice to be at peace with himself. He knew there was nothing he could control about his situation, but he could control how the situation affected him. While he accepted the fact that he might never be able to use his legs again and was at peace with it, he was also determined to find a way to walk again. “I’m going accept the worst-case scenario, while I focus on the best case scenario.” Three weeks later, defying all odds and expectations, he began to walk again. Since then, he's called upon his life story and lessons he's learned along the way to become a highly sought-after motivational speaker and bestselling author of the book The Miracle Morning. Through his book, Elrod has touched the lives of millions of people with his simple philosophy and has guided them to become more productive, happier, less stressed, and at peace with themselves. In this interview you will learn: How you too can start becoming a better entrepreneur, and a better person overall, every single morning Why the most successful people in the world take their mornings very seriously When to accept the worst and how to turn that into a weapon What your potential is and how to reach it What it truly means to put mind over matter and how to do it & much more!

27 Juli 20161h

Brian Scudamore of O2E brands knew all along that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. Relying on that sense of determination, he's built up a sprawling multimillion-dollar business empire, with franchises all over the world. But it all began with junk. To be specific, it all started in a McDonalds drive-thru, with Scudamore sitting in his car trying to figure out how he would pay for college. What he saw was an old pick-up truck filled to the brim with junk, and he immediately knew that this would be his ticket to chase his entrepreneurial dream. "A week later, I had a business hauling away junk, and that was the way into my job and a career path that's now been 27 years of pure entrepreneurial passion," he says. The first business he founded was 1-800-Got-Junk, which has since turned into multiple franchises all around the world and spun off into three more business in the home services niche. Altogether they generate a revenue of $250 million per year! But it hasn't been smooth sailing over the past 27 years, with many ups and downs along the way and some valuable lessons learned. We're very lucky to learn those lessons directly from Brian today through this week's podcast episode. In this interview you will learn: How to get your first round of customers within your first day of business The secrets to building a successful international franchise What the franchise business model looks like and how you can make it work for you Why you need to always hire for culture and fit rather than skill Traps and pitfalls to look out for when running such a large international conglomerate & much more!

20 Juli 201644min

On November 9, 2013, I released the first episode of the Foundr Podcast. It was with Fabio Rosati, then-CEO of Elance. To be completely honest, I wasn't quite sure what I was trying to achieve by releasing a podcast. At the time, it was just another way for us to give to our community, by releasing the audio of our interviews for free. Fast-forward to today and I can't believe we're at our 100th episode! It's flown by and so much has changed since. But the entire time I've kept in mind this piece of advice from my friend Daniel DiPiazza: "Keep producing content on a consistent basis every single week, keep getting next-level epic interviews, and people will come.” He was totally right. In the years since that first episode, we've managed to become one of the top 10 podcasts for business, we have over 70,000 downloads a month, and it's done wonders for our business. So to mark this occasion, we decided to do something a little different in this episode. Instead of me asking all the questions, I'll be the one getting interviewed for a change! My good friend Dan Norris of WP Curve took over as host, and we took a look back at how Foundr started three years ago and how far we've come since then. I'm going to share with you the story behind Foundr, how it all started, and the strategies I used to start the company on the path it's on today. I also took a crack at some predictions about where we'll be by our 200th episode. In this interview you will learn: The story behind Foundr and how it all started Who my biggest sources of inspiration are and how they shaped Foundr's vision My strategy for pitching and landing interviews with the best entrepreneurs in the world Why you need to focus on design if you want to be successful What's going on behind-the-scenes at Foundr and what's coming next! & much more!

13 Juli 201656min