Growth Everywhere | Entrepreneurial Stories | Business Lessons

What Is The Creator Economy? Today’s episode is all about the creator economy and what this means for you. Listening in, you’ll hear about the recent success of platforms such as Cameo, Substack, and Clubhouse and how more and more money is going to the creators themselves. We talk about how being a creator and being an entrepreneur are increasingly becoming the same thing and discuss our fundamental desires to create, the many existing channels through which we can create, and how, by making a small investment of time every day, you can become a successful creator. Be sure to tune in today! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:16] An introduction to the creator economy. [00:23] The recent success of platforms such as Cameo, Substack, and Clubhouse. [01:03] How more and more money is going towards the creators themselves.  [01:20] How the creator is becoming an entrepreneur, and the entrepreneur a creator. [02:20] What “creator economy” actually means. [02:55] How the system is reversing: Now you build up an

Why Clubhouse Is NOT The Next Big Thing Despite us investing a significant amount of time on Clubhouse this year, there are good reasons to believe that the new platform will not, in fact, be the next big thing. The chief reasons for this come down to the amount of hours that are necessary to gain any sort of traction, and the competitors that are rising up to challenge Clubhouse in the drop-in audio game. Tune in to hear all about why you can still use Clubhouse, but should avoid going all-in on it. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:15] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast! [00:22] The amount of time Eric has spent on Clubhouse early in 2021. [00:46] Drops in engagement with the platform and the spike in Clubhouse's competitors. [01:27] The difficulty of establishing a user base and how this counts against Clubhouse. [02:29] How copying occurs across these social and business platforms. [02:37] The drop-in audio revolution; no going back fro

How to Use AI to Generate Copy for Ads, Social and More with Paul Yacoubian Welcome to the first episode of Leveling Up which is being hosted on Clubhouse! Today’s guest is Paul Yacoubian, Co-Founder, and CEO of Copy.ai. Generating quality content is a huge part of any marketing endeavor, which is why it can be so time-consuming. This problem is slowly fading away though thanks to Copy.ai, which leverages OpenAI’s GPT-3 language-generating library to generate all your content for you! Our conversation with Paul is all about the applications for Copy.ai, his philosophy of building in public, and what libraries like GPT-3 mean for the future of education and business. Paul talks about some of the use cases of Copy.ai, highlighting how it can help users run different copywriting tests very quickly and is a great way of building an audience organically for smaller businesses who can’t afford paid ads yet. Paul also does a great job of explaining the evolution of OpenAI’s GPT libraries and just how high-quality t

How to 10x Your Performance with Better Sleep with Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti There are three pillars of health: Nutrition, exercise, and sleep. Arguably, sleep is the most foundational of the three because eating well and moving your body can only be effective when you are well-rested. Leading the sleep-tech charge is Eight Sleep, a company specializing in smart mattresses. CEO Matteo Franceschetti joins us to shed light on the business and the importance of sleep more generally. We hear about Matteo’s background in cleantech and the pride he takes in running companies that aim to improve the world. Eight Sleep has a dual vision: To compress sleep so that customers get better sleep in fewer hours and to save lives through heart-rate monitoring and embedded sensors. We gain insights into some of the company’s product offerings and the specific ways they help clients. Matteo also shares his sleep and health routine and offers details about his thermal shock, fasting, and keto practices. We also touc

Today, we're going to talk about what's actually more important than Link Building. We learn that two of the most important things are Content and Links. But when you look at big and successful websites, they did not beg for links, the just created REALLY GOOD content, and went beyond just links. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] - Two Important Things [01:16] - Social Media As a Seed To Build A Relationship [01:40] - Eric's Experience On Clubhouse Connecting With Other People [03:19] - Foster The Relationship You’re Building [03:39] - Link is on the bottom of the list [05:09] - Should you focus on the smaller things? [05:42] - Think about the long term goals [06:27] - Relationships over links [06:37] - Outro   Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed   Connec

Why Communities Are The Future of Business and Marketing with Greg Isenberg Community is the cornerstone of any successful business. This special group of people serve many purposes: they’re your megaphone, humble servants, and most loyal customers. Today we talk to a community-building expert to find out the many whats, whys, hows, and whens of community building. Greg Isenberg is the Founder of Late Checkout, a product studio, agency, and fund, and he kicks off the episode by telling listeners more about Late Checkout. Following this short but concise introduction to his business, we find out why you should value your community. After discovering the not-so-straightforward method of tapping into your community, Greg boils community down to two simple pillars: retention and word of mouth. Later, Greg shares a few examples how community leads to business success. As our conversation draws to a close, Greg shares why he loves Miami, what his best business tools are, and what content has been most influential

How To Create Relevant Touchpoints with Magazines & More for Cheap with ReminderMedia ($50M+ Revenue!) A combination of strong approaches to marketing and sales is something that is rarer than you might think. Joining us on Leveling Up today to talk about ReminderMedia's fast rise and no-brainer offers are the company's founders Luke Acree and Josh Stike. ReminderMedia specializes in customizable marketing solutions for business professionals to stay top of mind with their clients, something that cannot be underestimated. In our conversation we cover some serious ground, talking about nurturing a database, how ReminderMedia's automation can make all the difference with this, the importance of being remembered, and how to approach strategic showcasing. Josh and Luke also unpack their 'FIT' framework of 'frequency, 'impact', and 'trust', showing how these three elements can really move the needle for your business. We do the usual round-up of useful information from our guests too, talking about their business

Are Magazines Back As A Marketing Channel? Steve Olsher From Podcast Magazine Thinks So Today we talk with Steve Osher, founder, and Editor-in-chief at Podcast Magazine. In this episode, Steve shares his career journey with us; one that has been filled with many highs and lows. He details how it affected his psyche, as well as the important lessons that came with failure. Expanding on this, Steve sheds light on the struggles he had with the dot-com crash, his battle to create success from liuor.com, and the important realizations that came with it. Later, we ask Steve about his book. Listeners will find out why he wrote the book, who it’s geared toward and why he hopes it’ll become his legacy piece. Steve’s book, What Is Your What? is filled with three main tenets: clarity on your core strength, understanding the primary vehicle that you will use to share your gift, and who you are most compelled to serve. In the second half of the show, Steve talks about Podcast Magazine, sharing information about its targe

This Co-Founder Doesn’t Read Books And Has A Mega Awesome SaaS Business ($50M+ Raised) With Multiple Revenue Streams Today’s guest is Cory Capoccia, Co-Founder, Chief Business Development Officer, and President of Womply, a local commerce platform that provides apps, APIs, and marketing and financial tools for over 500 000 American businesses. Cory starts by giving us some background information about how he fell into the fintech space and joined part of the founding team of a bootstrapped company called Verify. From there, we talk about the mission at Womply and take a deep dive into the three tiers of services they offer as well as how they make money from each of these. Womply has raised over 50M in venture capital, and we chat to Cory about the choice to raise money coming from a bootstrapping background. The conversation turns to customer acquisition and Cory sketches out the mixture of inbound and outbound strategies used at Womply, also highlighting the company’s recent achievements in the area of org

Creating the Almanak of Naval Ravikant with Eric Jorgenson Eric Jorgenson is a founding team member at Zaarly and is the brains behind The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. In today’s episode, we talk in great depth about Eric’s book, as well as the business and personal growth that came with writing it. We kick off the show by hearing about Eric’s background and discovering his business mindset and knack for creating opportunities. Eric tells us more about his early years and why he has to try every idea that comes into his mind. Turning our scope toward Eric’s book, we ask him about what he aimed to get out of it. Following this, we uncover Eric’s methods for cherry-picking the best, most useful content about Naval Ravikant, and the long process behind sieving through information and creating drafts. Eric’s book is nothing short of a huge success, and he goes on to tell us how he managed to collaborate with big names like Tim Ferriss and Jack Butcher. We also talk about the substance of his publication and why E

Reed Duchscher Reveals Creator Secrets Learned From Managing MrBeast, Dude Perfect, Typical Gamer & More (Over 1.7B Views!) Today’s guest is Reed Duchscher of Night Media, a multimedia talent management company and creative outpost for the largest creators on the internet. Reed’s company has worked with people such as MrBeast, Typical Gamer, and other voices from the most influential of the influential. In today’s episode we talk about how Reed founded Night Media and the role he is playing in shaping the future of the content creator business model. Our conversation begins with Reed’s journey from working as an NFL sports agent to founding Night Media in 2015. From there, we talk about the dynamic between content creators and managers, what informs Night Media’s choice for who to work with, and the services managers can offer to creators on the back end. Reed gets into the value he is adding to the creator community through the Creator Economics podcast, the work he did with MrBeast in launching the MrBeast

How To Design A Book The Right Way In today's video, Eric Siu talks about how to design your book the right way. Even if you are not a designer, you have to know what you want your book cover to look like because you do not want to outsource that vision. When designing the cover of your book, it also helps to look at other books and see what works and what isn't. Watch the video for the full guide on how to design your book the right way! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:00]- Introduction [00:10] - About the Leveling Up book cover [00:17] - Process of designing a book cover [00:47] - Importance of color [01:00] - Character design story [01:19] - You have to know what you want [01:29] - Different version of the book cover [01:32] - Things to consider for the book cover [02:40] - What Goes on Inside of a Book [03:16] - Badges throughout the book [03:49] - Under the dust jacket [04:05] - Pick who you want to work with [04:36]- Know When to Step Away [04:52] - Final Thoughts   Leave Some Feedback:

Today my book Leveling Up is officially released. In this video I'm sharing some of my favorite moments from interviews I've done on other shows talking about the concepts in the book. In the Rebel Capitalist show with George Gammon I talk about the red pill moment that got me focused on being prepared. On the Pomp show I talk about the concept of creating your own luck with the right habits. Be sure to check out all the original interviews, and of course, go support the book! Book available now! https://www.levelingup.com TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:00] - Why You Should Care for Politics [00:33] - Constantly Improve and Add Value [01:18] - Resilience as a Top Trait in Life [02:45] - The Best Investment You Can Make [03:37] - How To Level Up [04:51] - Equal Opportunities for Everyone [05:13] - How We are Programmed [06:32 ]- Four Forms of Leverage [07:19 ]- Final Thoughts Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comment

The #1 Mindset to Overcome Life Challenges Try this one, simple mindset shift and overcome any challenge life throws at you. If you approach life as a game, it's much easier to face your challenges and overcome them. These clips are highlights from interviews I've recently done promoting the upcoming book, Leveling Up!  TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:00] Life is a game [00:14] How to have fun every day of your life [00:40] Jordan Belfort's show [00:51]  How to use pain as fuel [01:31]  Chris Do's show [01:45] Why I wrote Leveling Up [02:51] The importance of mindset [03:30] ClickFunnels Radio [03:45] How to build a strong culture Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed Connect with Eric Siu:  Growth Everywhere Single Grain Eric Siu on Twitter     Learn

From Hooters Waitress and No Degree To Running Billion Dollar Brands with Kat Cole Today’s guest is Kat Cole and she joins us to share some of the frameworks she has developed to become the business mogul and empathetic leader she is today. Kat was a Hooters waitress before she transitioned to becoming the President and COO of Focus Brands, as well as an investor, advisor, thought leader, and board member for multiple companies. Our conversation starts with the story of how Kat was making over $40,000 as a waitress at age 19 when she transitioned into the corporate world for half the salary. From there, we talk about how Kat was able to rise so quickly in this new environment for a number of reasons, where she highlights being placed in leadership positions in unfamiliar situations, and the understanding of human nature she developed as a youth. Kat shares some of the frameworks for success that she has come up with over the years, such as the four characteristics of good leaders, ‘mentorship moments’, and m

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In this video, Eric Siu will talk about the difference between self publishing and traditional publishing. We will talk about the benefits of self publishing versus traditional publishing and how your choice can affect your revenue, freedom, sales, and more. With the Leveling Up Book, Eric Siu did a special type of publishing called the Hybrid Publishing, where you get the best of both worlds.   [0:00] - Our topic for today: Self publishing vs Traditional publishing  [0:25] - The beauty with traditional publishing is you can have the validity with big publishing company  [0:44] - In self publishing you have more control [1:13] - leveling up book as a hybrid type of publishing  [1:45] - In hybrid publishing you can get the best of both worlds [3:36] - At the end of the day I can collect more revenue from the book [4:17] - Visit levelingup.com to learn more about the book Leave Some Feedback:   What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments

How Saleswhale Can Help You Reach Out To Leads On Autopilot with Gabriel Lim A large portion of the leads in a sales funnel never get touched by SDRs, and thus don’t end up converting. Saleswhale changes this by leveraging AI to convert middle of the funnel leads into sales-ready opportunities! Our guest for today is their Co-Founder and CEO, Gabriel Lim. Our conversation begins with an overview of the Saleswhale offering where Gabriel shares a story about how they helped a client generate 144 new sales meetings from 2000 stale leads. From there, we get into the funding Saleswhale has received, its ideal customer profile, and how it makes money using a tiered subscription service. After that, we chat about how Saleswhale is achieving its long-term vision of helping innovative sales and marketing teams become more productive by automating mundane and repetitive work. We also get into Gabriel’s experiences with YCombinator in 2016, the challenges of collaborating remotely between Singapore and the U.S., and th

Today's guest is entertainer, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, television personality, author, and philanthropist Spectacular Smith! Spec is the Chairman and CEO of Adwizar and founder of the record label Mula Music Group, but the list of his accomplishments does not stop there. When Spec was still a youth, he experienced early fame and fortune along with his brothers as part of the rap group Pretty Ricky. On today's show our guest starts by telling the story of how, under poor management from his father, the family lost all the money they had made from performing. At that point, Spec was learning about growing and monetizing audiences on social media and he talks about how he made his first million in a year in this way after getting kicked out of his house. This was when Spec started offering traffic acquisition and monetization services for celebrities through Adwizar and we spend the next parts of our conversation hearing about how Spec built further businesses from this point on, including Power Circle and

How To Sell $1M Enterprise Software Contracts The Right Way with Crayon Data CEO Suresh Shankar Today we sit with Suresh Shankar, Founder and CEO of Crayon Data. We ask Suresh about Crayon, hear his journey, and find out how to build unshakable enterprises. The show kicks off with Suresh telling us more details about Crayon, and the services they provide. Suresh explains that data is everywhere in our lives, and many big businesses have access to it, but they have trouble understanding how to best serve their customers and target more of them. That’s where Crayon Data comes in. Digging deeper, we ask Suresh to tell us about how his company charges, with the enterprise mogul sharing the three important ways it achieves revenue. On the topic of Crayon, Suresh fills us in on his company’s growth and tells us why their client’s customer number is the best metric for his Crayon’s size. In the latter half of the show, Suresh walks us through his career in sales and explains why he refers to it as “backward progres