324: How Vital Proteins’ Kurt Seidensticker Generated Insane Consumer Demand For Collagen

“Writer. Traveler. Fighter of the status-quo.” This is how Chris Guillebeau describes himself on his website. Besides that, he is also a practical and logical guy. He couldn’t have otherwise accomplished his dream of traveling to every country in the world, 193 in total, by the time he turned 35. Mind you, he didn’t wander aimlessly. Fascinated by discovery and exploration, the travel hacker had thoroughly planned his adventure step by step to make it feasible.  He analyzed the challenges of traveling to certain countries, costs, visa issues and such. Speaking of costs, one would think he was filthy rich to be able to afford his trips, but he only spent an achievable amount of money - $30,000. When asked to define his “job” Guillebeau recalls: “I discovered when I was about 19-20 years old that I was unemployable.” For 10 years he started different entrepreneurial ventures to support and allow himself to do what he loved doing. That included travelling, playing music, and volunteering. He spent four years in West Africa as an aid worker having no specialized skills. But he was in his element: “I felt like I was tangibly making a difference, carrying medical supplies into a village in Sierra Leone that’s emerged from a civil war. If I didn’t bring those medical supplies, they wouldn’t have any at the clinic. It was a very direct relation as opposed to writing a check and hoping something good will happen with it.” That experience changed him. In 2008 Guillebeau started his writing career and launched his blog The Art of Non-Conformity (TAON) so he could document his travel adventures, sharing information that would help others. That blog turned into a business and a community of its own, and became the driver of writing his first book. That led further to his $100 Startup NYT bestseller and founding the World Domination Summit (WDS).   In this interview with Chris we cover:   - How to start a business with $100 - How to build a high traffic blog - Tactics he uses to push his comfort zone - What he believes it takes to become a successful entrepreneur - How find purpose and meaning with your life   I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!  Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

1 Dec 201433min

“My company fell apart. My relationships fell apart. My health fell apart,” Kamal Ravikant says. It was one of the darkest times in his life. “I was just locked in my bedroom, miserable out of my mind.” As a tech entrepreneur, Ravikant had his share of success. He also failed. In fact, the failure of his last company struck him down. But he got up. His embrace of one simple concept — loving himself — ended up saving him emotionally and then financially, as his writing on the subject allowed him to bounce back and become a venture capital investor. He's eager to share his experience through two books he wrote about his own epiphanies: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It and Live Your Truth.   In this interview we go through with Kamal:   -How to find an investor -How to find purpose in life and your startup -Why persistence doesn't always pay off -His best selling books (Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on it, and Live Your Truth) - & much more! “If you come from a place where you're just giving, and you are worthy, and the world responds, that's amazing. That is success,” he says, “because if you still have the self-worth issues, no matter how much you make, it'll never be enough.” If you define your own goals, allowing success to stem from inside, then outside troubles can never shackle you.   I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

30 Nov 201442min

Ever wondered how you ended up working the job you’re doing? Ever felt like you sort of just, fell in to it? Ever wondered how to escape ‘the corporate cage’? Finding out what you are good at, what drives you as a person, and then finding suitable work based upon that should be a keystone of our society, but unfortunately, it is not.   Entrepreneur Marianne Cantwell aims to change all that.   Marianne Cantwell works in helping people find their driving passion, breaking free from the corporate cage and creating “free-range” careers. She runs a successful business called free-range-humans and explains that your interests should be a key driver behind your actions, not the blind pursuit of riches.   Marianne Cantwell explains that living a dream is simple, it’s possible, and takes guts. As a woman who has thrown away the security of the 9 to 5 quite early in her career to chase down projects she loves, she is an authority on the subject. Put simply, she broke away from the corporate life and has succeeded doing what the rest of us dream about, which is running her online business from anywhere on the planet.    I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people! Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

22 Nov 201454min

Let’s say that through some miscarriage of justice, you find yourself locked in prison tomorrow. Browsing through the prison library, you find there is one book that is constantly requested, but hard to get your hands on. What would you think that book was? Legal case studies? Lock-picking manuals? The Bible perhaps? Close, but no cigar. It’s none other than Robert Greene’s bestselling The 48 Laws of Power, which has sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide. Greene’s books are famously the most requested in correctional facilities across the United States, an achievement he bears with pride. (The author has a folder dedicated to the fan mail he receives from inmates). However, it’s not just convicts who have taken to Greene’s works. His books are a favourite of Wall Street executives, movie moguls and hip hop superstars. Some of his more notable fans include rappers Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, Jay Z, and Kanye West.    With five international bestsellers on strategy power and seduction, Greene is the hero of schemers, manipulators and the power hungry; from the Hollywood elite to the lowliest criminal. If the subject matter of his books is anything to go by, you’d think he would present like a character from Game of Thrones, cold and conniving. Yet for all his accolades, Greene seems astonishingly normal. A native of Los Angeles, Robert Greene currently lives a quiet life in a Spanish-style villa in the suburb of Los Feliz.    I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!  Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

22 Nov 201456min

How to Disrupt an Industry - The Age of working Differently.  The Elance Story with Fabio Rosati    It’s not every day you change the way the world works. But with Elance, Fabio Rosati did just this, altering the way global labor markets operate for the foreseeable future. It’s no small task, but by providing an easy and secure way for businesses to find, hire, manage and pay freelancers, Elance’s online staffing platform has revolutionized the freelancing economy. And it’s one of the fastest growing companies in the industry, expanding at a rate of 50% per year. As of 2013, Elance has over 3 million users, with 800,000 businesses hiring from a pool of 2.8 million registered freelancers, earning over $300 million yearly.    Today's Guest - Fabio Rosati   Hailing from Florence, Italy, Elance CEO Fabio Rosati is polite and softly-spoken. Conversing with him, you wouldn’t pick that in the last five years he had become one of the most influential individuals in the entrepreneurial space globally. A thought leader on work, the freelance economy and online staffing, Rosati’s views on the burgeoning online labor market have appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., and The New York Times. It’s no small wonder then that in 2013, Rosati was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist.   I Need Your Help! If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!  Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!

9 Nov 201443min