Expert Interviews

Google, Apple, Amazon and Google: How Businesses Become Platforms (Interview with @PhilSimon, author of Age of the Platform)

Posted on May 3, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

What’s the secret of the success of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook?

Platforms.

They took a single business model and evolved it in dozens of different directions. Rather than fighting for market *share*, they all did a fantastic job of *exploding* their market *size*.

And you don’t have to be a 50 billion dollar company to do the same.

I caught up with Phil Simon, author of Age of the Platform, to learn from him what the most important lessons are for *you* to learn from these four giants.

Over the course of 45 minutes, he shared his insights into their success. Enjoy!

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Marketing Risk: How @Freshbooks Grew to 4.5 Million Users (Interview with Saul Colt, Freshbooks Head of Magic)

Posted on April 26, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

After their first year of operation, Freshbooks had a grand total of 6 customers.

Less than a decade later, they’re servicing over 4.5 million happy customers.

Want to know how they did it?

So did I. That’s why I reached out to Saul Colt, their -Head of Magic- (that’s his real title!).

Over the course of 25 minutes, Saul explained to me how the Freshbooks team created a game of -Marketing Risk- that they’ve used to take over the globe.

Want to learn how to play the game? And use it to grow your own market share?

Then listen to the interview… ;-)

Interview with Saul Colt, Head of Magic at Freshbooks (25 minutes)

Here are the highlights of the interview (and a transcript):

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How Brian built @Copyblogger with only $1,000 for Design and Hosting (@Entreproducer)

Posted on April 19, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

If anyone knows how to launch a superstar blog on the cheap, it’s Brian Clark.

He never took venture capital, or raised any kind of funds.

In fact, the entire Copyblogger empire was started as a one-man-show with about a thousand bucks of design and hosting fees.

He grew the audience, he listened to what they said, and when he launched his very first product, he went from “just a blog” to “six figures in revenue”, pretty much overnight.

All to say that if you want to know how to lower your costs the smart way (i.e. the way that gets you even better results), Brian Clark is the guy to teach you how to do it.

Which is why I was thrilled when he agreed to jump on the phone and share his thoughts on the matter.

And of course, we recorded the whole thing… ;-)

Interview with Brian Clark from Copyblogger and Entreproducer (37 minutes)

Here are the highlights of the interview (and a transcript):

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The Strategy of Raising Prices (Interview with Phil Telio from Embrase)

Posted on April 12, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

Are you priced right?

Are you charging the right amount? Is it as high as it should be?

That’s a tricky question for a business to ask, and even trickier to answer.

That’s why I got Phil Telio on the phone.

Phil runs a consultancy called Embrase that advises major corporations around the world on their go-to-market strategy.

And yes, pricing is part of it. ;-)

Interview with Phil Telio from Embrase (33 minutes)

Here are the highlights of the interview (and a transcript):

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Productivity Interview: Erin Blaskie of BSETC.com and ErinBlaskieInc.com

Posted on April 3, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

A few years ago, when I started doing my entrepreneurial thing, I received a Facebook invitation to “like” this girl, Erin Blaskie, the owner of what seemed to be a VA (virutal assistance) firm. Her Facebook profile was interesting, her business was interesting, her website was well done — and she was kinda cute, so I did.

Fast-forward many years and I’ve watch this VA firm owner become an monster-implementer and dynamo. Every time I blinked she was launcing a new webinar, a new training program, a new community,or entering into a new JV. She was absoluutely fearless — she tried it all. Looking at her go made you wonder what the hell is stopping anyone, really?

Besides owning her VA firm Business Services Etc. and now an online presence consulting firm that serves everyone from solo-entrepreneurs to big name firms like Travelocity, Crystal Light, and Tassimo — just watching her is lesson in promotion. I’ve seen her speak at WordPress camps, she’s done  interviews everywhere, and she also guest blogs on some pretty big blogs like Lawyerist and MSN’s Business on the Main.

Come listen and we talk about how she manages to do it all, being a new Mom, and the ajustments she’s made to her business and her life, as well as her solution to make it work…

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Productivity Interview: Joshua Fields Millburn from The Minimalists

Posted on March 28, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

One year ago, Joshua Fields Millburn and his friend of 20 years, Ryan Nicodemus, got to talking about happiness.

They realized that now that they have “made it” and got what society told them would make them happy – they weren’t. So, they embarked upon a journey of shedding excess, living more meaningfully and in the process found themselves, their health and their passion.

To chronicle this transition, they start the website The Minimalists, where they share how to live more meaningful lives with less stuff. In this short time frame, they established an audience of more than 100,000 monthly readers, which allowed them to leave our corporate jobs. They’ve been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, their essays have been featured on Zen Habits (one of TIME Magazine’s Top 25 Blogs in the World), and many other popular sites. They’ve written three books, all three of which have climbed onto Amazon’s Top 10 Bestsellers lists in their respective categories. Their latest, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life is available for download for the Kindle or your PC from their website.

It was truly a pleasure to chat with Joshua about his journey, how minimalism scares the shit out of most of us, how to get started if you wanted to shed some of life’s excess, Inbox minimalism, and the five most important dimensions of life.

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Productivity Interview: Danny Iny from Firepole Marketing

Posted on March 20, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

Danny Iny has had a monumental year.

He took Firepole Marketing to over 10,000 readers per month, guest blogged himself into notoriety, wrote and published two books, ran a marathon, got married and is the CEO of his own startup.

I look at Danny with some bewilderment as to how he does it all.

If you were wondering the same thing then check out this video as part of our Productive Marketing Month, where I ask Danny so spill the beans on how he gets it all done.

We’ve got ten tips, some uncommon wisdom and a blunt two-tip formula for success…

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Productivity Interview: Michael Sliwinski from Nozbe.com

Posted on March 13, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

Michael Sliwinski is the founder of one of the best online productivity tools, Nozbe.com.

Written to fit with the principles of “Getting Things Done”, Michael, a productivity junkie and trainer, and a bit of a software geek, wrote up a bare-bones version of Nozbe.com in an evening.

Five years later, he and his staff of twelve have rolled out Nozbe 2.0, mobile apps and in just a few days, a “desktop” version of Nozbe.

So how does an super-busy entrepreneur – who happens to also be a productivity expert, who also (literally) wrote the tool for it – get it all done?

Watch this video of my interview with Michael as we discuss being focused, the number one trick for doing unpleasant tasks (it involves a tomato) and the one common theme he noticed from interviewing productivity heavyweights like David Allen, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and others…

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Productivity Interview: Gini Dietrich from SpinSucks.com and Arment Dietrich

Posted on March 7, 2012 | In Expert Interviews

It’s really hard to express how simultaneously cool and nice Gini Dietrich is as a person.

We all know her as the founder and CEO of Arment-Dietrich, Inc., a digital marketing and PR firm, and as the author of the really awesome “I’ve cornered every blogging award out there” blog Spin Sucks.

But did you know she makes a mean hamburger bun, is a nutter for the sport of cycling while somehow managing to run her companies, speaks everywhere, and writes books, most recently “Marketing in the Round” with Dr. Geoff Livingston?

How does this superwoman do it? We’ll find out.

Check out this video as part of our Productive Marketing Month, where I ask Gini about ideas, outsourcing, and lots more…

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700 pages in 7 weeks?! An interview with Sean Platt

Posted on November 3, 2011 | In Expert Interviews

That’s right – 700 pages in 7 weeks. And yeah, I’m talking about writing, not reading. The man who did it is my friend Sean Platt. Oh, and did I mention that he did it while writing blog posts as usual, doing ghostwriting projects as usual, and co-authoring six other books that are about to [...]

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David Garfinkel and Brian McLeod on Fast, Effective Copy

Posted on October 20, 2011 | In Expert Interviews

Do you want copywriting advice from a guy who charges his mentoring clients $25,000? (Without paying $25,000?) Well, today is your lucky day. David Garfinkel is known as “the world’s greatest copywriting coach”, and is the co-author (with Jay Conrad Levinson) of Guerrilla Copywriting and Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich (and lots of other [...]

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Better Marketing = More Profits: Interview with Chris Keller from ProfitWorks.ca

Posted on October 6, 2011 | In Expert Interviews

Do you want better marketing? Sure – that’s why you’re here, right? Well, good marketing isn’t just about flashy tactics – it’s about smart strategy that creates the most possible profits. The best marketers understand that, and occasionally we find one good enough to seek out and interview. That’s exactly what happened with Chris Keller. [...]

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