Go For Launch Rocket Fuel For Entrepreneurs

Want to know how to write a best-selling book? Believe it or not, there’s a service for that now. It’s called Book In A Box, and it is a game changer for professionals who want to write a book but don’t know how—or who can’t commit the time that is typical involved. I had the pleasure of speaking with Tucker Max, the co-founder and CEO of Book In A Box, that has turned book writing and publishing into a service. Tucker himself has written three #1 New York Times Best Sellers, which have sold over three million copies worldwide. He is only the third writer (after Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis) to have three books on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller List at one time. Tucker admittedly has a colorful past, which is well documented. He says he tends to “slow play that” when he meets new people. “Not because I’m embarrassed or ashamed of anything, but it actually works the other way around for me,” he says. “Most people try and tell you how great they are. If you don’t do that but someone finds out o

Some of the most promising startups happen when their founders discover how to disrupt an industry. They see opportunities to radically change or improve “business as usual.” That is what Mike Devlin and his cofounders are doing with LureBoats, an online marketplace that enables customers to book boat charters across the country right from their computer or mobile device—it’s like an OpenTable or Airbnb for fishing charters.  Mike is cofounder and CBO of LureBoats. He graduated in 2014 from the University of South Carolina, Darla Moore School of Business. Prior to LureBoats, he worked for a boutique consultancy in Boston specializing in working with medical device startups.  Mike's passion for the outdoors and creating user friendly services drove him to start LureBoats and seek to disrupt the charter boat industry. Learn how Mike and his team are navigating the sometimes murky and deep waters of the fishing charter industry to make it easier for customers to find and book their trips. They are also expandi

Many people have this idea that they can start a business by helping others. But few act on their instincts. Kathryn Jones is one of those who decided to turn her passion for improving others' lives into a business that is helping children who are facing medical treatment get the emotional support they need. Kathryn is co-founder and head of product development for SuperHealos, a company dedicated to helping children facing medical treatment feel like superheroes. Before living life as an entrepreneur, Kathryn was in fashion and event coordination, organizing events all over Manhattan including the famed Mercedes Benz fashion shows. Although the fast paced environment was exciting, her love of helping others prompted her to start a second career as an Occupational Therapist. Through physical rehab, she helps people of all ages live their lives as independently and meaningfully as possible. Working at the hospital bedsides of children and families, Kathryn realized that fear of the unknown was the worst thing

How would you like to make money with affiliate marketing? There’s no better person to learn from than Matt McWilliams. Matt is the president of Matt McWilliams Consulting, where he helps online business owners and brands, small and large, leverage the power of partners to grow their businesses. Specifically, he teaches people how to make money as an affiliate and how to work better with affiliates. Matt has worked with companies and entrepreneurs like Shutterfly, Ray Edwards, Brian Tracy, Lewis Howes, Jeff Goins and more. Affiliate marketing is a lot more challenging than most people realize—whether you are simply trying to make extra money marketing products from others, or seeking others to promote your products and services. “There is an art to knowing what you should promote as an affiliate,” Matt says. He offers a free checklist and scoring system to determine if something you want to sell is worthy of promoting. If you are just starting out and have a small list, Matt offers some great advice on how to

I recently talked to two experts about what entrepreneurs need to know about HR (human resources). Shannon Cook is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional with over 17 years’ experience in Human Resources. She received her Professional Certification in Human Resources Management from UCLA, and is the proud wife of a business owner. She works with Insperity, a trusted advisor to America's best businesses for more than 30 years that provides an array of human resources and business solutions designed to help improve business performance. Shannon has served her clients as an HR Specialist and as a Client Liaison. Shannon also developed national level trainings and resources for her colleagues in the field to support client satisfaction and efficiencies for the service teams. Earlier this year, she transitioned to a Business Performance Advisor role within Insperity and support’s Insperity’s mission to Help Businesses Succeed So Communities Prosper. Having the unique combination of business owner perspective and a H

How does a high school kid who speaks no English immigrate to America, overcome racial tensions, graduate from college and go on to earn millions with WordPress (among other things)? That is just part of the amazing story of Syed Balkhi. I had the honor of meeting Syed two different times in 2015. He joins me on today's podcast to talk about his impressive entrepreneurial journey. Syed is a 25- year-old, award-winning entrepreneur with several 7-figure online businesses. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by the United Nations. Today, Syed is a partner in numerous companies, including WPBeginner, OptinMonster, ThemeLab, SoliloquyWP, Envira Gallery and WPForms.

Dan Waldschmidt helps billion-dollar companies and high performers develop a winning edge. His bestselling book, EDGY Conversations: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Outrageous Success, is a blueprint that goes beyond typical self-help advice. Dan is a popular speaker, business strategist and an ultra-runner who since birth has been refusing to accept business as usual. Like many kids, he had a lawn mowing business, but he turned his into a money-making machine (though he opted not to tell his mom about his increased profits). He ran track like plenty of other kids, but he pushed himself to break his high school’s mile record. He got the usual entry-level job right of college, but then he changed the sales process, earned millions of dollars for the company, and became CEO by the time he was 25. These days, Dan is a people strategist and a conversation changer, serving as president and chief antagonist at Waldschmidt Partners International. Dan and his team help people arrive at business-changing breakthrough

Are you just running a business merely for the sake of making money—or have you discovered how to work on purpose, with a clear mission? Scott Beebe has many missions in life, among them helping small business owners and organizational leaders uncover what they cannot see. As the founder and head coach of , a business coaching, training, and strategy group, he does this in three primary ways: Through the development and implementation of organizational Vision, Mission and Values By systematizing and automating business systems so owners can work ON their business and less time IN their business By leading virtual Business On Purpose Mastermind groups Scott is also the host of The Business On Purpose podcast, a weekly podcast where Scott interviews small business owners to get their insights on how they are living out their business on purpose.

When it comes to starting and running your own business, Joshua Latimer has a great saying: "Everybody sees the wine, but no one sees crushing of the grapes." Josh knows firsthand how challenging it is to start your own venture—and how much grape-crushing is needed. He left his job as a banker for JP Morgan Chase to start a cleaning business in Michigan that he eventually grew and sold to a California based cleaning conglomerate in 2015. Now, he is living and working from Costa Rica with his wife and their four kids, where he helps small business owners all over the world understand the power of business systems and automation, and the freedom they can bring. Josh is the founder of Automate Grow Sell, an online training platform for small local service businesses as well as Send Jim, a follow up automation tool for busy professionals. Josh's story of overcoming many difficulties as an entrepreneur will inspire you to get going and keep going!

Learn how to invent products and bring them to market in this interview with Louis Foreman. Louis is founder and Chief Executive of Enventys, an integrated product design and engineering firm. He is also CEO of Edison Nation, and Edison Nation Medical.

Discover how to monetize your expertise and work anywhere with Caitlin Pyle. Caitlin is a 29-year-old former desk zombie turned business transformation consultant. She’s the creator of ProofreadAnywhere.com, home of the online course Transcript Proofreading: Theory and Practice™, the first-ever online course on how to work from anywhere by proofreading transcripts for court reporters. She teamed up with a colleague to expand the brand by launching Transcribe Anywhere in January 2016. An authentic and effective content marketer, Caitlin turned ProofreadAnywhere into a six-figure+ blog and business within three months, and total business revenue reached $1 million within 15 months. To teach others her unique method of building platforms, carving out authority in a niche, and monetizing digital products, Caitlin developed TheWorkAnywhereLife.com blog and the Monetize Your Genius™ course.

Most people and companies have a goal to "drive more traffic" to their website. But a more crucial goal is to increase your website conversions, or the number of visitors you capture into your sales funnel. You want to make every website click count. My guest on today's podcast is an expert on the subject of turning browsers into buyers. Justin Christianson is a 14-year digital marketing veteran and #1 Bestselling author of Conversion Fanatic: How to double your customers, sales and profits with A/B testing. He is also the co-founder and president of Conversion Fanatics, a full service conversion rate optimization company that helps companies get more out of their digital traffic efforts. Justin talks about why conversions are so important and what some of the most effective tactics are for attracting and converting website traffic, including Ebooks, coupon codes, training programs, videos, free products and discounts.

Get ready to learn about the power of direct response copywriting from one of the masters of the craft, Scott Martin, founder of Scott Martin Copywriting. He joins me on today's Go For Launch podcast. Scott has been a professional copywriter for his entire career. He was born in America, spent his formative years in England, then moved back to America where he lived in Charlotte, North Carolina for 27 years. He now lives in Aspen, Colorado. He has taken detours into corporate communications, magazine publishing, and writing books but he has always written copy. Today, he’s a direct response copywriter. His clients include direct marketing giants like Agora, The Motley Fool, and Ryan Deiss’s Digital Marketer. But he also writes for much smaller businesses including a local pub. He has helped this small establishment build an opt-in email database of 2,500 people. Scott is a member of the Titans marketing group run by former boardroom executive Brian Kurtz. He conservatively estimates that his copy has generate

Learn to tell your business story with infographics, one of the most powerful and effective digital communications tools. Brian Wallace of NowSourcing joins me in this episode of the Go For Launch podcast. Brian is the president of NowSourcing, an industry leading infographic design agency based in Louisville, KY. The agency works with companies that range from small businesses to Fortune 500 firms. Brian also runs a local event to make Louisville a more competitive city (#ThinkBig) and he has been named a 2016 Google Small Business Advisor. Brian began his career in technology, and at one point became chief technology officer at a firm outside New York City. But he wanted more flexibility. He was fortunate to convince the company to allow him to leave and retain them as his first client. While he was good at the IT work, he found he liked marketing more than tech support. So in 2005, he switched his agency's focus and got into social media consulting early. However, the space started getting crowded and in 2

Have you been thinking about starting your own business for awhile? Progress from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur with advice from Brian Lofrumento, my guest on this week's Go For Launch podcast. Brian is the creator of The Ultimate Profit Model and author of the book Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur. Brian’s businesses have reached over 3.5 million people in over 200 countries. Brian built a six-figure SEO agency at the age of 24 and has helped over 50 clients from around the US and over 3,000 students from around the world grow and automate their businesses by implementing high-converting sales and marketing funnels. Brian started early as an entrepreneur. While many of his college classmates were playing video games in their spare time, he was starting a website in 2009 about soccer that he grew to a profitable audience of over 3.5 million worldwide. Soon, people started asking him how he built the webiste traffic so effectively--which led him and a friend to start an SEO agency in 2012. What started as a side

Have you ever encountered a problem and said to yourself, "There should be a solution for this!" That is what happened to Anne Brewer, who decided to turn frustration into business inspiration. Anne is the inventor and owner of Pocket Palz® and Potti Pocket®. As the product names imply, these products literally started with a lightbulb moment in a bathroom. Picture this: you are enjoying an outdoor concert and go to use a portable toilet, only to have your cell phone fall in! That is almost what happened to Anne in the summer of 2014 when she used a portable toilet at a concert and her smartphone fell out of her back pocket and onto the floor. She was lucky it didn’t fall in! But she thought there has to be a better way, and she immediately began researching smartphone holders in concert venues, stadiums, ballparks, restaurants and movie theaters… and there were none! So she invented Pocket Palz®, the safe, secure, sanitary and convenient place to put your smartphone so you can be hands free. I recently had t

Are you a trainer or a coach? How would you like to make the leap from physical to virtual training? Jeff McMahon is doing that, with about one third of his personal training business now being conducted virtually with some marquee clients in the online business/marketing space,  including Pat Flynn Chris Ducker, Jeff Wenberg and Lindsey Anderson. Jeff is owner and founder of Total Body Construction, and he has been a personal trainer for almost a decade now.  He has degrees in Pre-Med/Pre-Pharm and is dual certified in exercise science and sports medicine. Jeff’s training style is different than most due to his diverse background and expertise.  With a blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do, a certification in lifestyle and wellness, and experience doing massage therapy for three years, he has helped everyone with issues ranging from: Weight loss to weight gain Cancer to diabetes Injury rehab to celiac disease Back issues to sports specific training With over 6,000 different exercises in his playbook, we says you will n

What happens when jobs are we know them are gone? Are you ready for the coming end of the 9-5? Taylor Pearson is on a quest to delve into the current and future trends behind tremendous shifts taking place in traditional global workforces. Taylor is an entrepreneur and author of The End of Jobs: Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9-to-5. Inc.com rated The End of Jobs one of the Top Three ‘Start Your Own Business’ Books and a Top 25 Business Book of 2015. He joins me on today’s podcast. Taylor’s book is full of anecdotes about the sweeping changes in what constitutes “work” for most people. For example, he talks about a child being born in 1870, when 80 percent of the population worked in agricultural jobs. Yet over the next hundred years, that figure would flip to 80% of people working in offices vs. just four percent in agriculture. He asserts that what used to be “safe” (having a 9-5 type of job) is now risky…whereas the opposite is true for entrepreneurship, with fewer barriers to entry and a bigger po

Do you have a business that is largely dependent on your providing services? How would you like to transition to sell products instead. That is what my guest today has done, transitioning from services provider to custom software developer. Greg Forehand is the founder and CEO of Ekos. Since starting the company in 2002, Greg has designed and developed software for some of the largest companies in the world. More recently, he has moved the business away from custom software development and is now focused on writing software used by craft beverage manufacturers such as breweries and distilleries. Since launching Ekos Brewmaster in the summer of 2014, the Ekos team has seen a very positive response from the craft beverage industry. With more than 500 craft brewery customers, Ekos Brewmaster has quickly become the most widely used brewery management software in the world. Greg lives in the thriving craft brewery community of Charlotte, NC, with his wife Kate, and daughters Maddi and Lilly. In our interview, Greg

What’s ailing you? What if you could solve your pain and start a business at the same time? That is what my guest on today’s podcast did with a revolutionary new health product. Jerry Collins is CEO and cofounder of Treadwell Corporation based in Wilmington, NC. After graduating from the University of Maine with a degree in finance and and an MBA, he spent 10 years as a commercial bank manager and lender. This was followed by three successful entrepreneurial ventures in the retail grocery business, financial consulting and a medical services organization. Jerry also served for 20 years as executive in the C-Suite (CEO & CFO) for Rural Health Clinic and Federally Qualified Health Center organizations. In 2009, he joined Treadwell after the system they invented helped him personally treat symptoms of Restless Leg Syndrome (cramping of feet and legs at night) that had been previously unsuccessfully treated for the prior five years. In our discussion, Jerry shares a very cautionary tale about how he bought hi