Leaving the corporate world because a young and blended family was created is what motivated Amy to start thinking of how and what she wanted to do. She did not just jump right into anything that she thought of but yet did some good preliminary searching of how she could best support her family and her desire to be an entrepreneur. Listen to the journey of how she takes her skills from the corporate world and transpires them into helping others really find the best fit for their needs and flow of their business by guiding them through the process.

Amy takes her skills and helps business owners create systems that allow for more productivity with in your business.  By allowing her to look at your day-to-day activity and streamline practices along with either hiring or determining what you need to hire for the present and future.

Tell us a little bit about yourself? Amy started out as a corporate minion, like most people, trying to figure out what she didn’t want and what...

Claudia Harvey has an incredible story.  This is a true entrepreneur's journey going from wanting something more out of her corporate life to starting a business based on an idea with a friend over drinks.  Then she soon found herself on Dragon's Den, Canada's version of Shark Tank, and landing Mr. Wonderful, (aka Kevin O'Leary) as a partner.  She talks about how she got started, what has made them so successful, and how she's found more in her life by taking a pretty big chance!

Tell us how you went from corporate America to creating a product. With a strong corporate career for 20 years she was in the corporate arena in the sales, marketing and operations. At the pinnacle of her career she was the Vice President of Citibank, she loved her job and she was traveling at least fifteen days a month but with it came a lot of stress. Due to the amount of travel she was away from her family quite frequently and she felt that she was not doing anything very well. Not only...

When you are looking to step into the world of creating and owning your own business it takes a special person to be an entrepreneur. You truly have to have the heart for your business and the passion to drive it where you want it to go. Creating the idea is simple but bringing what you want and why you want it is the part that takes work. Without confidence in what you have, want, and will have, you tend to fall into a downward spiral of the idea and you lose sight of direction. The most meaningful ideas and biggest accomplishments is when you celebrate the little things in your business. Take the steps to make it happen and over time it will.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a confidence coach and business mentor? Jenn started out about two years ago and really was just a regular life coach. She was not really sure what niche she wanted to be in so she was trying to figure out what was the best fit. What she realized is that she was really good at helping...

Tim's story began at the ripe old age of nine years old back in 1975, where he watched his father come home one night after getting laid off from another job. He remembers it like it was yesterday at that moment thinking that no company is going to determine when his family would go on vacation, what types of clothes his kids can wear, what type of house he would live in or what kind of food my family will eat. It was that day that he decided it and it stuck. But also at that moment he realized that the system did not work and he checked himself out. One of the greatest negative things in life that clicked around him was when his parents had him tested in school and the school administrator told his parents that he just needed to pick up a trade because he was not going to do that well in life. That in and of itself is a huge put down for any kid at any moment but in perspective he looks back on it now and that is the driving point that he needed to say, ‘oh yeah...

Instead of show notes this week, Mason was kind enough to write-up what he discussed, along with images!

Facebook offers a lot of powerful tools for market research. You have audience insights that rival nearly any tool in the industry for consumer analytics, and can use graph search to spy on competitors. But, if you get creative, the Facebook Ads Manager can up your competitor analysis to James Bond levels.

I’m going to walk you over a fictitious example. Let’s say I have an idea for a new company that will offer hot air balloon rides over DFW airport. (I didn’t say my idea was good.) So, naturally, before I look into those pesky FAA guidelines and Federal Laws with those men in suits who don’t like people hovering over airports, I start my analysis of prospective customers. I’m a startup. I have to move fast and break things.

Make Some Lists

I like to use a Google spreadsheet to keep a list of companies, interests and events that are similar to my...

When it comes to being an entrepreneur I know a lot of you are wondering if you have it in you and do I know how to do this. I am here to tell you that it is not that hard you just have to have a few important qualities and willingness and you can seriously do whatever you set your mind to.

The first one is a really strong WHY and mission. This is one of the things that I learned in my third business, because entrepreneurship is hard. I wish I could tell you that it is super easy; that you get this idea and move with it and everything falls into place and you never have to worry another day in your life. There are some great days and there are some hard days. And setting a WHY is going to get you through those hard days. The WHY is something bigger than you it’s a passion. It is a combination of a passion and what makes you tick, what makes you come alive and what is really important to you in life. How are you going to measure your life? And the WHY is driven around the...

From the repetitive day-to-day job with a comfortable salary to turning her degree into a company of her own. The love that Lindsay shows about her passion of information systems and the World Wide Web to her company and her clients is like no other.  The steps are for the ease of the client and the rewards are for the benefits of the clients company. Although it is an income driven business she works very hard to provide as much information and resources for her clients so that they can get the most out of the services that Web Impakt offers.

Tell us how you side hustled to build your business and how you started Web Impact? She started working for the government in Idaho on very remote site out in the middle of nowhere with very limited access and not much around. It was a mind numbing, boring job that with any change followed with the need for numerous signatures to even get a part of the project done. From the very beginning she had the mindset of an entrepreneur, where...

Sometimes our paths come to be by total accident but in the end they are worthwhile and come to be very useful. The journey that Brittany has taken with e-mail marketing and becoming a certified partner with Infusionsoft has proven to be just that. Learning the ins and outs of a software that can present itself as being difficult to use and understand.  She will share ways that she has found to make it work for her and her clients that will allow you to make a very educated decision about what your next steps will be within your business and e-mail marketing strategies. Even if you are not an Infusionsoft user Brittany’s story, tips and advice can lead you in a direction for your business and how to market your business with e-mail marketing.

Tell us about becoming an Infusionsoft parter and all things e-mail marketing. The path to using Infusionsoft happened a bit on accident. She started working for a small business that basically handed her the login information to...

Starting out a career in the engineering field is where Joanie's life and journey started.  However, she used her knowledge talents and passion to figure out what the journey became. Passion has driven  Joanie to all that she has accomplished in the last ten years of being a consultant but loving what she does is who she really is.

Can you share with us a little bit about yourself and what made you decide once you got the PhD in Psychology to start your own business. The path did not start out with the intention of being an entrepreneur in fact Joanie started her career as an electrical engineer and was much more interested in the people interaction than the electrical ones. She went back to graduate school to make a huge shift in her career and getting the education was the way to not make herself an engineer anymore. During graduate school she incorporated her two interests of her past interest in engineering and her present interest in psychology. One of the things...

I was so excited about this one, as you hear advice from entrepreneur experts all the time, like 'hire before you're ready', or 'just build it, and they will come.'  However, after promising her husband that she wouldn't go into debt, building her business, over 10 years later, Shannon Cherry has kept that promise.  Now she teaches others how to do the same thing.  Shannon gives some great advice on how you can remain debt free, tips and tricks for getting creative in growing your business, and how she's managed to stay out of the red all of these years.

When starting a business should you take out an initial investment?  It's really going to depend on the business, but it's really about sitting down and figuring out what you really need to get started.  Also Shannon suggests making sure you're never spending outside of your means.  She's proud to say she doesn't have any kind of debt for her business.

When it comes to marketing, how do you...