I invited my friend and mastermind member, Jesse Lawler of Evil Genius Technologies, to come on the Show to answer a question I get frequently in my inbox, "How do I make an app if I'm not a programmer?"

Jesse is in the business of making apps for other companies and for himself so I reckoned he would be able to tell us what process we should take to get our ideas turned into apps.

Listen in as we cover some pitfalls of hiring developers and what you should do to have a successful outcome when working with a developer. I'm probably going to bring Jesse back for a part two since there was so much more for us to cover.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Kiss My App" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Customer Development is a lean startup methodology that is transforming how tech companies create their products. It turns traditional product development on its head by focusing on identifying the core problems a market has before creating solutions. Said that way it seems logical — why would anyone make a solution and then try to find a problem for it to solve? 

Most entrepreneurs take the solution first approach to starting a business — it's better known as Building a Better Mousetrap. Lots of businesses start with, "Wouldn't this be cool?" or "I can do X better than those companies." 

Well, the process of starting up has evolved and Johan and I decided to introduce you to Customer Development. We want to take non-tech companies into the process that is revolutionizing tech startups.

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Rob Walling of Startups For The Rest Of Us joins the show again to talk about marketing software. This is one of my favorite topics to discuss and having someone as smart and successful as Rob to talk to made me forget about the time so this one last just over an hour, but is well worth it if you sell software or are thinking about getting into the software industry.

Rob illustrates how to market software by using his own experiences, which I think is really useful since he used software to get control of his Time, Income and Mobility. Each advance he made in marketing software better allowed him to first go part time at his job and then to finally quit and dedicate his time to building his software business. I think Rob is a good model for anyone wanting to shift from full time employment to full time entrepreneur.

In this episode you'll also learn about:

• the 3 main categories of software and which one newbie software entrepreneurs should focus on first
• how to "get the word out" when you're just getting started and have a limited budget
• use strategic alliances and joint ventures to grow your business
• and much more.
  
  

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

This week my friend and mastermind member, Terry Lin of BuildMyOnlineStore.com, joins us to talk about Pay Now Podcasting, building your online store, podcasting about ecommerce, and ecommercing about podcasts. Okay, that last one doesn't make any sense.

Terry started a podcast about ecommerce by interviewing online store owners. He brings out their ups and downs and successes and failures in their ecommerce adventure. These entrepreneurship stories are inspiring, but also very informative. His show fits a need in the market which is getting an ecommerce education from insiders. 

Another lesson, which I really should have spent more time on in the interview, is the connections Terry has been able to make in a very short time. Execs at Shopify have reached out to him. He has been able to interview top-notch entrepreneurs and has built up a ton of credibility and is fast becoming known as a leader in the ecommerce field. This is one of the top reasons to focus on Pay Now Podcasting. 

It's strange, for a medium that was considered dead just a few years ago, it is catapulting a lot of careers right now. Not many people can get a guest appearance on their blog, but nearly anyone can get top people in their market to do an interview on their podcast. Oh, and you did read that right — I did write "careers." You can launch your entrepreneurship career with a podcast and you can get yourself hired by a great company from doing a podcast. Anytime you're considered to be leader in a field it opens a ton of opportunities. It's up to you which direction you go.

So, listen in to this episode and learn about podcasting, ecommerce and building your online store.

Enjoy your Foolish Ecommercing,

Tim "Get Paid" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

My guest, Mark Manson of Postmasculine.com (and member of my mastermind), started with dating advice and found that he had a deeper, more valuable message to share with the world.

This message now affords him a great lifestyle — one with the opportunity to be his own boss, live and travel to anywhere he desires and make a good income. In this episode, Mark and I talk about how he was able to become a successful blogger. We talk about the work he did to get there. Hint: success is a process, not an event.

Mark has a glamorous life and we both believe that if you are dedicated to working the process you could have a life similar to his, or even better, a fulfilling life of your own making.

Listen in to hear the process Mark went through to get where he is now. But you'll also hear that the process hasn't ended. He has a grander vision of his life and the message he shares with the world to stop at this "success."

We also talk about the three interns he hired and brought to Columbia. This should have been a tale unto itself. There are some great lessons to learn from his hiring experience especially what he learned about his business.

Have a listen and…

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Premasculine" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

In this episode another one of my mastermind members, Ed Stapleton Jr, visits the show to talk direct marketing and specifically direct mail. 

Ed has been using some real old school sales letters to get leads for his marketing consulting company. He's driving tens of thousands in sales for his company by sending out a 3-letter sequence that gets people on a free consultation call.

We share some examples on how you could use direct mail for your online business — from lead generation to customer follow-up. 

You know that phrase, "the money is in the list?" It comes from direct mail. If you have a bad list you won't make any money. If you have a great list you could make a fortune. Ed compiles his list from businesses that advertise in his region and then mails to them. You may need to build a "house list" to be able to succeed with direct mail. (A house list is names and addresses of prospects and customers that have come through your lead generation activities.) Or you can rent a list from a list broker to mail to your ideal prospect.

This episode won't answer all your questions since it is an introduction to a very big topic. Feel free to ask questions in the comments and Ed and I will have a go at answering them.

Enjoy your Foolish Mail,

Tim "Not So Old, Old Skool" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

USE EDUCATION-BASED MARKETING TO GET MORE LEADS
THEN SIFT, SORT & SCREEN THEM TO FIND YOUR "A" CUSTOMERS

In this episode, guest co-host, Johan Woods, hit me with a question: How do I get more customers without spending the rest of my life constantly creating content?

I've been mentoring Johan for about a year now and two concepts that I shared with him were education-based marketing and sift, sort and screen. I learned these strategies from my mentor, Joe Polish. Inside I'll teach you what these strategies are and how to use them to attract the right people in your market, get them to enter your sales funnel and weed out the people who would be a bad fit for your company (done by educating them on how you're company wouldn't work for them).

There is a ton of training in this episode so you might want to take some notes. Then hit me up with questions in the comments on how to use these strategies in your business.

Enjoy your Foolish Educating,

Tim "49er" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Guest co-host, James Schramko, shares how he manages a remote team of 80+ people to double his business (with a stated goal to hit $10 million in annual sales). During this discussion James pinpoints the key areas as to when you should first hire someone, what kind of person to hire and how to turn each hire into a successful team.

You'll learn what simple tools you need to manage your team. You don't need fancy project management software. Everything you need is available for free and you're probably already using them.

Also covered in this episode is "Single Point of Failure," "The Three Ts," and how to develop a company culture.

This is a jam-packed show. 

Enjoy your Foolish Management,

Tim "Soft Eyes" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

The Internet world claimed podcasting died in 2009. But, my guest co-host, Dan Andrews of LifestyleBusinessPodcast.com and I know it didn't die. Hell… 

CAN YOU MAKE MONEY FROM PODCASTING?

If anything it got more effective as a marketing medium.

This episode is about developing a podcast that will attract a buying audience. People who have big problems or strong desires that they want addressed and they have the money to buy a solution.

Dan and I are true believers in podcasting as one of the most effective ways to: 

• network in your market to become a leading authority
• develop a strong relationship with your audience
• and get people to pull out their wallet for your products and services.

You'll have to forgive us, we got a little goofy in this episode. Totally Dan's fault.

Tim "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Keith and Chemda, the duo behind the successful show Keith And The Girl Comedy Talk Show, took a big risk — they stopped doing something they enjoyed (and was paying their bills) to start a podcast. 

This episode is a story of that journey with lots of jokes thrown in. I think this is the craziest episode of The Foolish Adventure Show ever. What could I have expected when bringing on people who make their living by making fun?

Oh, and you'll get some insights on why or why not to create your own podcast. I had to toss some business talk into this episode.

Have a laugh while learning some business.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Morning Madness" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Special guest, James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness.com, shares his story of needing to replace his wife's income when their first child came along and how he eventually built a million dollar business.

This is a story of drive and ambition that took James from an administrative job to salesman to manager of a $50 million Mercedes dealership to eventually building his current business. James shows how putting true caring for your customers together with salesmanship can skyrocket your income and your personal network.

Don't miss the business lessons in this episode. 

There was so much I wanted to pry out of James, but since he was on vacation in Europe I let him go after an hour. The great news is that James will be coming back on the show a few more times over the next couple of months to cover everything from hiring and managing a team to creating profitable service businesses and even how he runs membership sites.

Tim "Got Ups" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

I'm not talking about real estate. I'm talking about websites. 

There is a huge opportunity for people to buy existing, under-performing websites and turn them into real businesses that throw off excess cash. 

My guest, Dave Rodenbaugh of Skyline Consulting, came on to share how he has bought, renovated and sold websites. He also points out what you should be looking for and how to do your "due diligence" so you don't get ripped off.

Buying existing websites that are generating revenue is a great way to build your online business. It saves you time in the creation of a site and a product and allows you to focus on revenue generating activities and to optimize the sales funnel.

Dive into this episode if you're looking to build your online business faster.

Tim "This Old Website" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Today's special guest is John Turner of SeedProd.com, shares with us how he found a profitable niche within the WordPress ecosystem and how you can do so too.

In this episode, we talk about: 

• overcoming the inevitable setbacks and frustrations that come with becoming an entrepreneur,
• how going to a mentor can accelerate your success,
• where the opportunities lie within WordPress for you to build a successful company,
• and much more.

Join us in this discussion and see if creating a niche business in the WordPress ecosystem is right for you, because if it is you too might be able to make $10,000 a month.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Hand Pressed" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Then this episode will teach you how to quickly discover your prospective customers' desires and pains so you can validate your business idea.

I want to bring Lean Startup Methods to the Niche Site world so that niche site owners can become full-fledged business owners. I've had the pleasure of working directly with nearly a hundred niche site owners now and I discovered that their businesses were small because of limiting beliefs about their market and not because their market was tiny.

I don't say that as a slam. It's an opportunity. Once a person realizes the only thing holding themselves back is themselves they can change their circumstances. That's what I do best — I help people gain the skills AND the mindset to take control of their circumstances to build the business and the life they want.

When I found out about today's guest, Robert Graham, I knew I had to get him on the Show to share with you a business skill that can accelerate your company rapidly. That business skill is called Customer Development.

Customer Development is a Lean Startup methodology used to discover what a market truly needs and will buy before you build a product. This saves you from wasting time and money on solutions your market doesn't want. It may also move you to a different market if you discover that some other group needs your idea.

Robert Graham has focused on one aspect of Customer Development — Cold Calling.

Yep, that's what we talk about in this episode. Hey, wait right there. I know that topic is either freaking you out or boring you to tears, but this is a skill every entrepreneur (even online ones) need in their toolbox. As my friend Dan Andrews might say, "Ballers cold call."

Picking up the phone and speaking to real, live human beings is the fastest way to learn if your idea is valid. And you may even get a customer before you have a business. I'm not joking. This does happen. When you discover a serious pain point in someone's life he or she is going to want it fixed immediately. You can take their order for your solution right then.

Listen in and learn how to use Cold Calling to validate your business or product idea and then go dial for dollars.

Enjoy your Foolish Calling,

Tim "Ricky Roma" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

That's basically the question posed to me by my guest co-host Lain Ehmann of LayoutADay.com.

She wanted to have a conversation around discount pricing and whether it was good for business. If it was good for business, how could it be used profitably? 

One major downfall of discounting is that it can cheapen your brand to the point no one will pay prices you need to remain in business.

In this episode, Lain and I give you: 

• types of discounting you can do,
• when to use discounting,
• how to build a list of buyers using sales,
• reward your loyal customers,
• and how to make all of it profitable.

This is a practical guide to having sales on your products while still building a valuable brand. Listen in and start using discounting properly.

Tim "Scratch-n-Dent" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

I set out to interview Andrew Warner of Mixergy fame about the insights he's gained from interviewing over 700 entrepreneurs. He gets such personal information from them and gets them to reveal as much about themselves as they reveal about their business.

There's that old cliche' that "It's Not Personal, It's Just Business," but what we all know instinctively (and try to hide) is that our business is very personal. Our interactions with our customers has a personal effect on us (wait till you get hate mail for the first time, then you'll truly feel how personal business is).

So what happened in this episode is Andrew and I talked about the personal side of being an entrepreneur — the insecurities, the ambition, feeling like an outsider and the feeling of success. We want to accomplish big things, but feel we have to hide them from the world for fear of being called foolish and being ostracized by not just society, but by our family and friends.

This isn't my normal style interview and it definitely was far from normal for Andrew, but I really believe that message in this episode is critical for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs alike.

Dive in and discover your vision.

Enjoy Your Personal Adventure,

Tim "Reginald Bradford III" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

What can a former rock band rapper teach you about becoming a successful info-product entrepreneur? 

Greg Rollett of the Product Pros shares how he started making money online by teaching other bands how to book gigs. From that beginning he started building a brand around his knowledge of marketing and booking bands and became the go-to guy for bands wanting to make more money selling their music.

Now Greg makes info-products for others. His company helps create a "celebrity" brand for professionals (even lawyers! JK). Personal branding has transitioned into celebrity branding because our culture has defined celebrity as equal to subject authority. That means if people recognize you in your industry they will automatically see you as the most trusted authority in your industry.

Think Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Rachel Ray, Dr. Phil or Dr. Oz, but for plumbers, lawyers, and cake decorators.

Celebrity branding is a very powerful strategy for building a successful company so listen in to find out how to do it.

Enjoy your Foolish Branding,

Tim "Snookie" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

HUGE OPPORTUNITIES IN SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION!

Today's guest, Rob Walling of Software By Rob, Startups For The Rest Of Us, Hittail.com and much more, joins us to talk about building and selling software.

The surprising part is his belief that there is a lot of opportunity still in information products. Most software developers only talk software and believe that information wants to be free. 

In this episode, we learn about buying software. I'm not talking about software for your computer, but software as your flagship product in your business. Rob has done this multiple times and has two successful software products he talks about in depth.

I even share some troubles I'm having with getting some programming done and why. I don't share this story to show just how dumb I can be, but to help you avoid making the same mistakes as me.

Then I hit him with a question I get all the time, "Can anyone succeed in creating and selling software?"

His answer might surprise you.

Listen in and see if the software business is right for you. 

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Plugin" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Focusing on a few key areas in your writing will dramatically improve your skill and help you engage on a deeper level with your readers.

I've brought my friend and fancy-pants writer, Elisa Doucette, on to The Foolish Adventure Show to talk about un-sucking your writing. I felt she was better qualified than me to talk about becoming a better writer since she changed careers from insurance to professional writer.

Elisa writes for Forbes.com and Forbes Women and has had her work published by Huffington Post, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more. She also writes for clients. If you need great content written then get in touch with Elisa.

Inside this episode, Elisa helps us conquer getting ideas, writing with clarity, handling grammar and engaging with our readers. 

If you're a blogger, or really anyone who has to communicate through writing, then you should listen in to this episode, take some notes and then put what you learn into action as soon as possible. Practicing your writing will make you a better writer. 

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW

On Being A Filipina Business Woman And Having It All

Enjoy your Foolish Writing,

Tim "Hemingway" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Okay, so even the amazing LKR couldn't make me social media smart (might have something to do with the 'smart' part), but Laura Roeder does share some great tactics on using social media to engage with your market (you know, like real people).

I really enjoyed this episode and took lots of notes to make my social media strategy better. I've already started implementing some of the Twitter suggestions Laura made and will be improving my Facebook strategy very soon.

Follow along as Laura schools me on using Twitter and Facebook to connect with people and then implement these tactics in your social media strategy.

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

GET HOT TIPS FOR SUPER-FAST INFOPRODUCT CREATION FROM…
JEREMY AND JASON OF INTERNET BUSINESS MASTERY,
PAT FLYNN OF SMART PASSIVE INCOME AND ME,
TIM CONLEY OF THE FOOLISH ADVENTURE SHOW.

In this product creation episode, we share our best tips and tactics for rapidly making infoproducts for our audience. 

Before I go further, I have to say we missed having Dan and Ian Of The Lifestyle Business Podcast on this Summer Marketing Mashup episode. They were caught in a typhoon in the Philippines without access to the Interwebs. They made it out safely and crossed the channel to their destination without capsizing.

Back to the Mashup…

• You'll learn how to repurpose free content to create a successful product.
• How to use other experts to create your product.
• Turn content into recurring income.
• How to get paid before you make your product.
• How to know what your audience wants to buy.
• and so much more.

Jump in right now to and learn to create your product today.

Enjoy your Foolish Product Creation,

Tim "Speedy" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Pageview competition is driving news sites (legitimate and not-quite-so legit) to "out outrageous" each other.

I don't watch the news because it's full of negativity that ruins my mental health. Why all the negativity in the news? It gets people to watch, to read a paper, to visit a blog. Humans are innately attracted to bad events. 

NEWS MEDIA KNOW YOU'RE A RUBBERNECKER

Since we can't help ourselves, we look, we click — we are entertained by tragedies that befall other humans. We might feel empathy for the people we see in the news. Some might even send some money to charities helping those people. 

But in the end, the news is entertainment. Entertainment that must fight for your attention.

I only pay attention to tech/software/business news because 1) I'm a geek and love the stuff and 2) it keeps me informed on innovations in business.

But… business news, tech news, software news isn't immune to the economics of Pageview Profits. They must get my attention so I don't go to their competitor's site for the same news. These sites may even trick me with misleading headlines (which pisses me off and sometimes I don't go back). They also have to fill the Internet with dozens of posts a day — most of which are just filler with a catchy headline and a few sentences.

MY SITE'S TOTALLY EPIC, DUDE!

What does this rant have to do with you and today's episode? Everything.

We are seeing the misleading headlines filtering down to just regular blogs. Bloggers are trying to "Out Epic" each other and then fall into a trap of needing to "Out Epic" themselves.

When battling for clicks to your site, you may end up on a treadmill of churning out stuff designed to just get people to visit your site.

BECOME NEWSWORTHY WITHOUT SELLING YOUR SOUL

In this episode, Ryan Holiday, author of Trust Me I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, shows us the inner workings of a click-based economy and the hyper-competition that comes with it. 

He shows us the holes in the system that allows people like him to manipulate what becomes deemed as real news.

There is good news for us ethical business owners.

We don't have to manipulate, but we can influence our market so we break through the noise and grow a great business. 

USE PR TO PROPEL YOUR BUSINESS

I've talked to a lot of business owners who have gotten hung up on the shady tactics Ryan shares in his book, but you'll hear in this episode how to take the shade off the tactics and ethically become a newsworthy business.

I specifically ask Ryan to teach us how people in a small niche can move up to national (even international) prominence if they have that level of ambition without selling their soul in the process.

Trust Me I'm Lying is an excellent business book (even for honest people) if you pay attention to the leverage points that are highlighted and find a way to honestly get your story onto content sites in your industry.

Enjoy your Foolish PR Adventure,

Tim "Honest Abe" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

You might want to blow everyone out of the water with your innovations or dazzle with cutting-edge advanced methods.

But if you don't have the right fundamentals in place, you will only blow out and frazzle yourself to pieces from burnout.

But don't worry, Tim and I won't let that happen to you! 

Fundamentals may not be that exciting, but if knowing and using them helps you achieve freedom and success, then I'm thrilled to practice them.

What's the shortcut to more Time, Income, and Mobility? Fundamentals.

But, how often are these talked about and implemented? I'm not sure. I just know that a lot of people don't teach them, especially Bloggers Who Blog About Business Blogging. 

And I'm sure the multitude who follow the Hope & Pray Blogging Model could save time, energy, and heartbreak by at least having an understanding of these 3 fundamentals. 

But it's a lot more exciting to sell high-level tactical shortcuts and the idea of Build It, And They Will Come. It rallies the masses and gets everyone excited.

There's a time and place for those things, of course, and there's always room to grow.

But it's easy to ignore real-world fundamentals for a while and look at your Google Analytics to see posts go viral, visitors in the thousands, posts comments galore – but is your bottom-line getting any bigger?

If you don't have a handle on the essentials, chances are it won't.

Break out the pen, grab the notepad, have a Come To Jesus meeting, and see where you can get back to the business-building basics.

Enjoy your Fun & Mental Adventure!

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

You and your company have Core Competencies (or Unique Ability) that you have and develop over time.

This episode, guest starring Lain Ehmann, dives into really implementing core competency in your business. I've got issues with a lot of gurus who talk core competency or unique ability that say you should just focus on that, but they don't give instructions on how that works in a fledgling company where it's just you — doing everything.

I think Lain and I do a decent job explaining how you can develop into your core competency as you grow your business.

Oh, during the recording I was a bit wired on espresso so be warned that I go a little crazy.

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

My Mate from Down Under, Dan Norris of WebDomination.co joins me today to school me on some web design Do's and Don'ts.

And oh, buddy…

I needed some schooling. I admit to a HUGE design mistake for the Foolish Adventure redesign that I've delayed because of how badly I messed up.

And let's not even bring up the lame design that is Foolish Adventure currently (it was just meant to be temporary and nearly 2 years later it's still there).

I was thinking that I would list the 5 things you must do and the 5 things to never do, but I don't want you to think you already understand them. Dan brings some unique explanation why he chose these to focus on in this episode. So you'll just have to listen to find out how to make your website design not suck.

Tim "Design Challenged" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Jay Abraham, Consultant Extraordinaire, teaches that there are only 3 ways to grow a business. Since I'm creating training for Foolish University on Maximizing Profit Centers in a Business, I thought I'd share the 3 ways to grow a business and several simple ways that you can implement them in your business.

What we didn't cover in this episode is what happens to your business when you increase each of these 3 ways by just 10% each. What happens is you don't increase your total business by 10% or even 30% — you end up getting a compounding effect. Jay Abraham says by simply increasing each of these 3 areas by 10%, you'll grow your total revenue by 33.1%. This is a tremendous boost in income.

If I said you should grow your business by 33.1%, you might feel overwhelmed, but if I said increase just these 3 areas by only 10% each you would believe it's possible to achieve.

Here's the math used by Jay Abraham in his book, Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got:

1000 customers x $100 per transaction x 2 transactions per year = $200,000

Increase by 10% in each area:

1100 customers x $110 per transaction x 2.2 transactions per year = $266,200

Just following this simple formula, you could double your business with a 25% increase in each area. I've always liked this idea since it gives you a concrete idea of what to do to grow your business rapidly.

My guest co-host, Johan Woods, joins me in this discussion. I've been mentoring Johan for over 6 months now and he has come a long way. He's an action-taker and is becoming a knowledgable marketer in his own right. I think Johan brings a different perspective to the Show especially when he asks questions that I'm sure are on the minds of listeners.

So, join Johan and I as we talk about how to grow your business. Make sure to take notes and then put them into action in your business.

Mentioned in this episode:

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "3 Way" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

SUPER SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS DO THESE FIVE THINGS, DO YOU?

Dan Andrews, of the Lifestyle Business Podcast, and I sit down to have a discussion on success traits. We decided to discuss a presentation I gave to his TMBA Startup attendees where I shared 10 behaviors of highly successful entrepreneurs.

Inside this episode, we cover 5 of those behaviors (Dan picked) that can have a huge impact on your business and your life if you're willing to implement them in your business.

The 5 Key Behaviors we cover are:

• Ready, Fire, Aim!
• Master of Details
• Adversity Challenger
• Disciplined
• Systemizer

I hope you get a lot from this episode, but I have a warning…

There was heavy construction going on all day and we couldn't find a quiet enough place anywhere so you will hear a lot of pounding of hammers. You can easily make out what Dan and me are saying, but it does get a bit annoying. I know, I edited the show.

Check it out and let us know other Key Behaviors of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs. 

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Hammer Time" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Matt Kowalak, a TMBA startup attendee, sat down with me to talk about sourcing products in China. He's been there for 8 years helping companies navigate the complex waters of product manufacturing.

In this episode, Matt shares his experience and gives some great tips on how to avoid making big mistakes.

I know this isn't the typical show topic, but I found Matt and his company very interesting and hope you do too. It's a story of a Midwest boy who sought adventure and became a pioneer in the new frontier of doing business in China. I'd say that's Foolish Adventure material.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Joel uses his story of how he went from being laid off from a temporary, part-time job at UPS to a well-paid marketing director and then on to running Impossible HQ and his own marketing agency.

This is an episode that you can use as a roadmap to determine the life you want to live and get the skills to live it.

Turn your life into a movie you'd love to watch.

Enjoy Your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Possible" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

A long-time favorite podcast of mine is Internet Business Mastery. I've been listening to Sterling and Jay since the nearly the beginning of their podcast almost 7 years ago. That is some serious longevity in the Internet world.

In this episode, Sterling, Jay and I discuss what it really takes to start, grow and manage a niche online business.

This show has a lot of excellent advice especially about outsourcing and success mindset. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

GIVE A WARM, "WHA'SUP, IZZY?" IN THE COMMENTS!

Izzy comes back on the show to let us know what's up with him and to talk about dealing with change. No, thriving on change.

Check out the episode. Have a few laughs with a couple old friends and change right along with us.

Tim and Izzy

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Achievement driven?

Or are they transformational?

In today's episode, guest co-host Lain Ehmann and I have a chat about setting and evaluating goals. We're just over a third of the way through 2012 and it's a great time to see if we are on track to achieve our goals. BUT…

Contrarian that I am, I switch things up a bit on Lain as she lists some goals she has and asks advice on meeting those goals.

Listen in. I think you'll see goal setting in a whole new light.

Tim "Anti-goal Guru" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Dan Andrews, of Lifestyle Business Podcast fame, and I have a chat about Startup Success since I'm flying out to the Philippines soon to help him put on the first TropicalMBA Startup Class. 

This episode is, as with most episodes I do with Dan, is a philosophical conversation about the mindset it takes to 1) want to start a business and 2) to actually do it.

Most people are stuck at the first stage and seldom get to the second stage of starting up. Dan and I attempt to figure out what makes a startup tick and how the people who run them succeed. 

Listen in and get a success mindset adjustment.

Tim "Quick Start" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Johan Woods has returned to the Foolish Adventure Show to ask, "How in hell do I get more clients for my marketing consulting business?"

In this episode, Johan dives right for the core of building a business — any business. If a business doesn't get customers it isn't a business. For Johan, it's a matter of paying the bills. Rent has to get paid. Food has to end up in the fridge.

Johan and I dive deep into the topic of getting clients especially positioning yourself before you even set out to get your first client. We go into the psychology of small business owners, targeting specific businesses, how to sift, sort and screen businesses to get the right clients and much more.

I know that marketing consulting isn't the main focus of the Foolish Adventure Show, but the first episode that Johan and I did together got a lot of people to email us asking a ton more questions.

There's just no way we could cover all that needs to be covered and I know a lot of listeners won't be interested in learning how to do what I do for a living. So, Johan and I have created a new course that covers how to start and grow a consulting business called Rain Maker Model: Reverse Engineered Acquisition. Get it today.

Tim "Marketing Mentor" Conley

Didn't hear the first episode on Marketing Consulting, then go here to check it out: Make $5000 To $10,000 a Month as a Marketing Consultant Part 1 

SIX FIGURES IN 12 MONTHS OR LESS…
IGNITE YOUR CONSULTING BUSINESS WITH MY CLIENT ACQUISITION BLUEPRINT.

Here's the third in my series of Foolish Adventure Show listeners who make a living from the Internet and don't do it in the "How To Make Money" world.

Inside this episode, you'll meet Denver Riddle (yes, that's his real name) of Color Grading Central, who started listening to the Show in the very beginning. After listening for a few months, Denver had the confidence to start his own Internet-based business.

But here's the key and I want to really stress this because I don't think it got highlighted enough in the episode: Denver started a business in something he was already experienced in and had a strong interest in. This is foundational to the Foolish Philosophy of building a business online. 

We're not trying to find some untapped niche that we don't know anything about and hopefully make money from like most "guurs" teach about niche businesses. Here at Foolish HQ, we want you to start where you already have skills and a desire. This may not (and probably won't) be the business you have five years from now, but it will help you build the necessary skills to succeed.

But…

Denver's story is inspiring because his success came from focusing on something he was already doing. He didn't have to go through a giant learning curve to learn new skills and then also learn the needs of his market. He had the skills and he was a part of the market he was going to sell to.

There are a ton more lessons packed into this episode — it really is a framework for designing and growing a digital products business rapidly. So listen in to here how Denver did it.

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

There's a cultural script that says selling is bad. Being called a used car salesman is an insult. This script has made a resurgence online. A lot of the blogging community (bloggers who blog about blogging) are giving anti-sales advice, which really translates into anti-business advice, which is very detrimental to building a successful business.

In this episode, my guest Craig Ernst and I have a conversation about selling mindset and how it greatly affects your business and your life.

We talk about the conversations we humans have in our own heads that make us afraid of rejection and failure. But the good news is that if we change the words we say to ourselves — if we have a positive conversation with the voices in our heads, we can turn failure talk into success talk.

Jump into this episode and listen in as Craig and I discuss the successful sales mindset.

Tim "Glengarry" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Your daring host of the Foolish Adventure Show, Tim Conley (hey, that's me) comes face to face with a…
curmudgeon! Dun dun DUN (inside joke, like it's inside the episode)

Today's guest, Carl Olson of DigitalFilm.TV is a Foolish Adventure Show listener from the very early days of the show and was also one of the Charter members of the Foolish University. 

What makes this a great episode is that Carl used to disagree with some of the things I would say. So, I would give my patented response, "Test it."

Well, Carl did and has done extremely well as he moved from work-for-hire projects to creating a successful six figure plus infoproduct business in under a year.

Check out how Carl made the transition by partnering up with an expert to form Reets.TV.

Tim "Test It" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Laura-Jane the Rawtarian makes $2000 a month in a niche inside a niche that's inside another niche. 

Have you heard of being a rawtarian? It's a subset of veganism, which is a subset of vegetarianism. I had heard of it since I'm a vegetarian, but I've never tried to go "raw."

Well, Laura-Jane has built an audience in this niche and is now making $2000 a month doing what she loves.

How cool is that? Well listen in and find out.

Tim "Fooltarian" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

This is as close to getting passive income as I've seen from someone actively running his own business. Oh, I'm not changing my position on earning passive income. 

This is a case of Leveraged Income, but boy howdy, it sure is leveraged.

In this episode, you'll meet Matt Paulson (one smart dude) who created a premium newsletter that he promotes on his financial news sites.

His audience signs up for the newsletter and he gets $10 to $15 per month. Software does all the rest. No writing "epic" content. Or "connecting" on social media. Just delivering a quality product to their inbox each day — automatically.

Hopefully, I got your interest piqued. This episode should get you thinking on how you're going to create a premium newsletter for your audience and maybe even make it completely automated.

Also, Matt wrote a supplemental post on his site so you can get more information on setting up your own automated newsletter.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Semi-Automated" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

You start an online business, of course!

In this episode, guest Internet entrepreneur, Gideon Shalwick of GideonShalwick.com shares his story about being jobless in Australia and his struggle to make a living online. Within a couple of years, Gideon became a very successful Internet marketer and a known expert in Youtube marketing.

Oh, and this isn't an episode all about how Gideon did it, he also gives some killer advice on doing super successful joint ventures (JVs) and how to get started with video marketing and build an audience rapidly.

We go into more than just "make money online" products. Gideon shares how he built a successful online business in the magic niche starting from scratch — no list and no contacts. You can follow a similar path in your niche to rapidly reach your goals.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Foolish Adventure Show listener and (now) contributor, Tom Wachowski of YourMoneyHouse.com joins me in this episode to talk about your money and what to do with it to gain more freedom in your life.

Tom and I talk about the cultural script of "spending equals success" and how to overcome societal pressures to live the life that's truly important to you. 

You'll learn about finding your BIG WHY for financial freedom. 

What you won't find in this episode is stock tips or specific investments for you to put your money into. No, this episode is about your Money Mindset and Money Methodologies. I do spend some time sharing how I investment my money — hint: it's about control.

If money and the keeping of money is important to you, then dive right into this episode.

Tim "Stash the Cash" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

In this episode, guest co-host, Lain Ehmann, asks, "Is the customer always right?"

As business owners we have to walk a tight-rope between serving our customers and serving ourselves. There are some altruistic sentiments floating around that says if you serve your customers completely then you'll prosper as a business owner.

I don't think this is true. You shouldn't leave a job to gain your freedom from one boss only to enslave yourself to thousands of other bosses in the form of customers. But…

We still have to give great customer service. What does that even mean? 

How can we have a life and still serve our customers? 

When is the customer right and when is the customer wrong?

Lain and I go into these questions and more so have a listen.

And enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Dan and I cover Upselling, Downselling and Cross-selling in your business whether you're selling digital or physical products. 

Adding these sales techniques to your shopping cart and customer communications will dramatically increase the size of your average transaction which in turn grows your net profit.

Inside this episode, you'll get: 

• the definitions of Up, Down and Cross selling
• where to use these techniques
• how to use them and
• Dan throws in a bonus tactic that will increase your sales even more.

Listen in as we teach you how to do these sales techniques in your business.

Enjoy your Foolish Selling,

Tim "Willy Loman" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Meet Derek Halpern who blasted onto the blogging business scene last year and is now seen as one of the premier expert on the psychology of conversion.

Derek and I discuss how to replicate his strategy for success in any market and super-simple ways to get people to convert from being some random visitor to a member of your audience. 

We also go into making money from your traffic and the conversion psychology behind it.

This is a quick, high-energy conversation that you may need to play a couple of times so you don't miss anything.

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Justin and Joe have become a major tourist attraction online because they have done something many, including myself, thought impossible — they actually make a lot of money from Adsense Sites. Like to the tune of over $44,000 in January!

These two guys have legitimately built a business around Adsense sites that can be replicated by you if you're willing to put in the work. You don't have to completely do what the Adsense Flippers have done you can just build a small group of Adsense sites to bring in $500 or $1000 a month.

Listen in to the show to hear how they do it. I think you'll be blown away just as much as I was.

Enjoy your Foolish Flipping,

Tim "No Sense" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

This episode is a conversation about keeping your job (if you enjoy it) while building an Internet business. He and I do disagree about jobs and businesses especially since I believe the good things that can be found in a job can be replicated or even better in your own business. 

Leslie believes and is living the opposite. He gets great enjoyment from his day job and it really couldn't be replicated in his business.

Maybe we're both right. Listen in and you decide if you want to be on Team Entrepreneur or Team Day Job/Entrepreneur.

Enjoy your Foolish Employment,

Tim Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Where you possibly get wealthy after 30, 40 or 50 years of saving.

Or worse… are you on the Financial Sidewalk?

Where you'll never generate wealth because every penny you make is spent and then some.

Special guest, MJ DeMarco is here to share how you can get off the wrong wealth road and onto the Millionaire Fastlane. 

Get rich quick is possible. We see it all the time, but it doesn't come from buying lottery tickets or purchasing an ebook on how to get rich in social media.

There is a proven path — a fastlane, if you will, to creating wealth quickly.

How quickly? In a decade or less. 

"Ten years?!!! That's a long time!" you might be thinking. Making wealth quickly (3-10 years) can and has been done many times over. Your alternative is to maybe get rich in 30 years or worse… never.

In this episode, MJ shares his take on wealth and how to make it. It's funny, even though I never talk about getting rich from an online business and MJ talks about getting rich quickly, he and I have very similar beliefs about Time, Income and Mobility.

We both want you to have wealth so you can have time freedom, income freedom and mobility freedom.

Jump into the show and then go check out the book, The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco. It's one of my top business books of 2011 and ranks as one of my favorite business books. Also, follow MJ on Twitter: @MJDeMarco

Enjoy your Fastlane Adventure,

Tim "Speedy" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Have you learned anything about Internet marketing?

Have you set up email opt-ins on your website and made an autoresponder series for it?

Do you know how to set up Facebook fan pages that get people to like a page?

What about getting your site to rank for a keyword phrase or two?

If you really want to quit your job and get control over your Time, Income and Mobility then becoming an Internet marketing consultant may be your ticket.

In this episode, guest Johan Woods grills me about how I made a good living as a marketing consultant. Johan wants to build a successful Internet marketing consulting company and I give him a roadmap that will get him there.

NO HOLDING BACK

I don't hold anything back, but something I realized he didn't ask in the episode was how much money he could make. With doing marketing work for other businesses, especially offline, local businesses, you can charge up to $1000 per month before you get to too much price resistance — though you'll probably need to have some lower priced packages when you first get started.

BIG INCOME, FEW CLIENTS

If you got just five clients at $1000 per month (this isn't as hard as you may think), you're making $5000 per month part-time (about 5 to 10 hours per month per client), which is significantly higher than the median household income in the US.

With some hustle you could land ten clients and still be working less than full-time. But…

Instead of spending all that money on your lifestyle, you should invest most of it into systems and staff that can help you increase your revenue and free up even more of your time.

The worst situation to be in is to fall victim to the rollercoaster of getting clients, doing the work and then needing to go find more clients.

OUTSOURCING & SYSTEMIZATION

Systems and staff (outsourced on a need-by-need basis) will help you make this into a sustainable income that will fund the business idea that you're truly passionate about.

I cover how I outsourced work to experts so I could focus on the high-level strategies and customer relationships.

Warning: working with wonderful clients can be addicting and you may end up like me, 13 years later and still loving the work.

Listen to episode if you find this concept appealing. If you really like the episode and want to learn more, please leave comments or questions below. Johan and I may do a part two in a month to this to see what has transpired since recording this.

Enjoy your Foolish Consulting,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

This episode is all about giving yourself permission to get started…

To get the beginnings of a business going…

To build the skills necessary for success.

This episode is also about giving yourself permission to not make thousands of dollars a day in thirty days. It is okay to make mistakes because it's the only way to learn…

The only way to get the skills to pay the bills.

Listen to this episode about Action Takers and Learn How to Become One.

Enjoy your Foolish Actions,

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

In this episode I chat with Liz Ness of LizNessStudio.com about WHY (even if you're not a designer and never plan to be) you need to be able to make your own website graphics.

This conversation touches on principles and purposes of web design and how graphics make a huge difference in the way a website visitor perceives your online business. We also talk about design software and what you should use and why.

Also, we talk about the Foolish Guide to Creating Website Graphics which we'll be releasing for sale on Tuesday January 10th.

This is a great training program for those who don't know how to make web graphics, but want to have the basic skills need to quickly crank out their ideas.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Lain and I continue our discussion on how to deal with all the issues of running a membership site.

We were going to talk directly about money in this episode, but ended up talking mostly about something that will make you more money — retention.

Keeping customers will make you extremely profitable. When your site isn't losing lots of members, your income can stabilize and then grow.

Also, in this episode we toss out some more advanced ways of managing a site and do bring up some money talk.

Jump into this episode and start building a more profitable membership site.

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

The business of membership sites.

Lain and I run membership sites and I consult on several so what we wanted to do is bring you some concrete ways of managing your membership site.

What was going to be a single episode is turning into a series. (We're recording part 2 tomorrow and will publish it next week.)

In this episode we tackle:

1. member intact strategies,
2. two types of membership sites,
3. doing "live" content vs digital content and
4. pricing strategies.

Membership sites are a great way to make a living online. But…

They're a lot of work. Hopefully this series on managing your membership site will help make you successful.

Until the next time,

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

In this episode, Lain explains how she is having trouble using outsourcing to build a new app for her business.

She doesn't know how to program, hasn't managed any software development until this project and is finding that she can't get the people she hires to actually deliver the work they said they would do.

Lain and I sit down for a conversation on hiring a team versus outsourcing to a freelancer. 

I give my best tips on how to manage short-term projects like building an iPhone or iPad app or even getting a website built for your business.

If you haven't run into personnel problems & project management headaches — from employees to outsourcers — then you haven't been aggressive enough with your business or you're just getting started.

For those looking to build a company and grow into new markets, then this episode will give you management strategies to help you succeed.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

You're missing out on the insights and experiences of a couple hundred bloggers — from the really successful to the just-getting-started.

I got Srini, the host of BlogcastFM to come on the show to share what he has learned from interviewing all these bloggers, what he's learned about running a business and advice he can give to you, dear listener.

Inside this episode, you'll hear about the "scripts" we run in our lives, consciously and unconsciously, that define our lives and what you can do to only run scripts that create the life you desire.

You'll also hear about:

• The two types of people that come on BlogcastFM and what those types have to do with you and your business.
• What "treating a blog like a business" really means.
• Srini's Ultimate Networking Tip for students.
• How to build your expertise and using what you learn as you build your expertise.
• What's holding back most bloggers and what you can do about it.
• And much, much more.

I had a great time talking with Srini and learned a lot so I hope you get a lot out of this episode, too.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Lain wanted to know what I thought she should do with her business since she felt she needed to make more products.

Advice that I had given her in the past was to focus on selling what she already had to a bigger market. Her question was, "But how do I do it?"

That what this episode is answers. It covers the problem of too many products (Product Hell) compared to building a product ladder (Product Line) with the right mix of products that can appeal to bigger markets — even if you start out in a tiny niche.

There's also a topic inside that I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about when segmenting your prospects. I think I just might have come up with an original thought. 🙂

Check out this episode and keep yourself away from Product Hell.

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

As a matter of fact, I was reluctant to record this conversation. And even as I sit here writing this, I'm still unsure of releasing it to the world. Yeah, it's that personal.

WHICH IS RISKIER, A JOB OR ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

Lain and I talk about our personal and familial experiences with Lynchpin Lies. Seth Godin wrote a book about becoming a lynchpin in an organization — you know, becoming indispensable. 

Well, there is no such thing as being indispensable in a company. Inside this episode, we share why you shouldn't put all your trust and loyalty into an organization.

We feel — hell, we know, it is less risky to be entrepreneurs and have control of your Time, Income and Mobility than to put your life in the hands of a company.

Listen in and if you can relate to what we share in this episode, please share your story.

Stay Foolish,

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

What if that content is more diverse and higher quality than you could ever make on your own?

That's the power of user-generated content.

Dan Andrews is the guest co-host for the show today and lets us in on how he set up a community site that has very high quality content covering dozens of advanced business topics from setting up Hong Kong corporations to search engine optimization strategies that catapult niche sites number one rankings.

Dan's site, Dynamite Circle, is a great example of cultivating an audience that wants to connect with each other. Of course, they could just comment on Dan's blog, but they couldn't get the depth of conversation nor could they be as open in their discussions.

So they join a community that Dan curates — he keeps out newbies & showcases the best content — this is very valuable to all the members.

Listen in to see how you could set up your own community site and make a living from user-generated content.

Stay Foolish my friend,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Do you know what they are?

Are you using 1, 2 or all 5?

NOVEMBER IS TURNING CONTENT INTO CASH MONTH

In this episode of the Foolish Adventure Show, Lain and I use our knowledge and experience to talk about successfully using content in a membership site. 

A big problem we've seen for membership sites is creating content. Many people focus on being the sole creator of content for their site, but…

This can lead to burn out especially if you get caught up in the idea that you need to offer more and more content each month.

As you listen to this episode, you'll discover ways of using one or two or more types of content to keep yourself from getting burnt out from always running on the hamster wheel of content creation.

Inside FoolishUniversity.com, I use all five types of content along with the sixth type of content. 

Ooh, I slipped another one in there.

Don't worry, it's not "Just great… more work to do" kind of content. It is one that actually mixes with the other five and is also one of the easiest methods of generating very high quality content.

Listen in and stay Foolish,

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

HOW ABOUT SUCCESSFUL ENOUGH?

Own enough?

This episode of the Foolish Adventure Show addresses the problem all small business owners face — especially startups — how much is enough?

This ISN'T an episode on having less.

It's about looking yourself in the mirror and knowing — really knowing that you accomplished enough today.

Knowing that you can get enough of what you want in life.

The show runs from practical to philosophical, but hopefully you'll find it all useful.

Enjoy Having Enough,

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

All the principles of running a million dollar online business are used even when you're just starting out.

Yeah, some of the things you have to do in the day are different — like managing staff. When you are first starting, there is a good chance it is just you or you plus a cofounder or two, and you'll be wearing all the hats in your business.

My friend and fellow podcaster, Ian of the LifestyleBusinessPodcast.com, was kind enough to come on the show and talk about how he runs his million dollar a year company.

Ian is the operations manager, or probably more accurately, the CEO of the company he and Dan Andrews founded. 

In this episode, Ian covers how he and Dan run their business from multiple countries while focusing on a company culture that ties together staff from around the world.

And speaking of staff, the company is team focused. Ian explains why having a team has been a key element in creating a successful company.

Ian doesn't hold back in this conversation. Business isn't all mansions and Lamborghinis. Sometimes building a company isn't glamourous and Ian talks about some of those downsides of business and how he deals with them.

This is a great show for anyone wanting to grow their own successful business especially if you're willing to build a team to do it.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

This episode of The Foolish Adventure Show is all about business innovation — from products to customer service and it's all wrapped in the concept of "sell 'em what they want, but give 'em what they need."

Also, welcome Lain Ehmann back to the show. Lain has decided to become a part time cohost for the show. I think her experiences in her niches and her membership site will bring back some of the consultant/business owner dynamic that former Foolish cohost Izzy brought to the show.

I think Lain and I were both a bit surprised by some of the actionable nuggets of wisdom that sprang up while we recorded.

Listen in and learn how to grow and innovate around what your customers want and need.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Lain

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

SUCCESS IS A HABIT

After two hours of conversation, Dan Andrews and I decided to hit record to talk about why success is singular.

No one wants to talk about this problem — especially in the Self-help and Internet Marketing industries, because it doesn't help sell info-products. The reason success advice is usually bad advice is because people attribute their success to factors that weren't the real reason they succeeded.

It's a matter of correlation instead of causation.

Because of this conundrum about knowing what really caused the success, Dan and I typically provide high-probability business advice that we think will lead you to success.

Gurus — and every blogger giving advice today seems to be one — will promise you all kinds of success if you follow their system that they claim made them successful. They make these promises while ignoring the variables that you'll face when trying to replicate their success.

In this episode, Dan and I suggest you do as the successful do and not as they say. Listen in to find out more about the causation of success and how to evaluate when advice is correlated to success.

Also, Dan pulls some free consulting out of me on how to determine if using a popup would be beneficial on his site.

Until the next time…

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Causation" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

My guest on the Foolish Adventure Show this week is Lain Ehmann of LayoutADay.com. Oh, and 30 Minute Martha, which I think is a compelling brand concept.

Lain operates a successful membership site in the scrapbooking industry and also a few other niche sites. She brings a wealth of knowledge and passion about running a business especially as a busy mom.

In this conversation we cover briefly the topic of rejuvenating an industry during a recession — essentially filling gaps in a market after older companies fail or pull back their growth.

Then we jump onto the topic of Scope Creep — a term normally used in project management. Lain wanted to discuss the concept of scope creep in relation to growing a business. As we grow there is always more work to do, but sometimes that additional work doesn't make your business more successful. Instead it usually just wears you down from the effort you expend.

Small businesses must jump this hurdle if they are ever to become sustainable companies and an asset to the owners as opposed to being just a very taxing job.

So, how does one go from being a solo entrepreneur to building a company without falling prey to scope creep?

Listen in to the show to find out…

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Dan Andrews of The Lifestyle Business Podcast and I have a conversation about being normal and making normal decisions versus being entrepreneurial and what that means for your life — good and bad.

We discuss how purchases can effect you and determine your future. A lot of this conversation revolves around money. Spending it, saving it and earning it.

You can quickly lock yourself into a typical workaday life without ever trying to. Since your coming to Foolish I presume you don't want to work at your job or your want to make changes in your worklife to have more control over your day.

For those of us who have left normal a long time ago, this episode will be a nice reminder that we need to keep our eye on the prize.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Abnormal" Conley

Join The Forge: A Group Of Entrepreneurs Creating A Life While Building A Business
bit.ly/entertheforge

New Training: How To Scale Your Business
If you want to get in-depth training on operating and scaling your business check out The Bootcamp: TimConley.co/bootcamp/

Steph, of TheDailyDigi.com, has a life many people (women and men) would love to have — great kids, happy marriage and an income-producing business she can be passionate about. 

In paying attention to my audience, I've noticed that Foolish listeners are almost split 50/50 between men and women. Yet only once before has a woman been on the show and that spotlight was shared by her husband (I interviewed Izzy & Noell about their membership sites). 

Steph brings a woman's perspective to running an online business that I hope will resonate with more than just half of the Foolish listeners.

Why am I making a big deal of this?

I have a daughter.

I want her to know — beyond her dad just telling her — that she can do anything she sets her mind to. She can achieve success in any field (as long as it's entrepreneurial — a dad can hope, right?). 

I don't want her to be afraid of standing up for her dreams or to be intimidated by technology and finance two crucial parts in modern business success.

That's why I'm doing this. It's for me. But…

If I want my daughter to grow up in a world where women are considered equals, I need to make sure I contribute resources for all women to succeed.

On another selfish note, I love being a stay-at-home dad. Right now my daughter is sitting across from me doing her math. She also gets to see what I do for money. Consulting and "Interweb" stuff is very abstract so it is good for her to see how it all gets done.

I think more parents would be happier if they could design a life for themselves and their children that includes lots of quality family time anytime and anywhere they wanted it. And hopefully, the Foolish Adventure Show can help parents create the life they dream for themselves and their kids no matter where they are in the world.

This episode isn't about me, but about women in online entrepreneurship. I just wanted to share my motivation for this episode and to let you know that more women will be on the Foolish Adventure Show very soon and frequently. FA is no longer a bachelor pad.

Tim "aka Dad" Conley

You can't have really big success without the help of others. 

I didn't want employees because I didn't want the imposition on my freedom. Wow, was I wrong!

I've watched Chris Ducker, through his blog VirtualBusinessLifestyle.com, transform himself into a Virtual CEO. This episode is a conversation with Chris to see how we regular folk can use the power of outsourcing and virtual management to build really successful companies like Chris.

Chris has a service for helping entrepreneurs find high-quality virtual assistants that I will be using in the next couple of weeks. I personally know several business owners who have used this service and have had great results. If you are in need of virtual staff then do yourself a favor and visit Virtual Staff Finder.

Thanks go out to Dan Andrews of LifestyleBusinessPodcast.com for connecting me to Chris Ducker. 

I highly recommend you take some notes when listening to this episode. That way you can craft your Virtual CEO plan for growing your business while keeping control of your lifestyle.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "Virtually Successful" Conley

A huge, shocking announcement…

Listen now to find out what it is!

This is also the minimum viable post — just enough to give you the episode. 

Okay, there is no way I could just write a couple of sentences…

This episode combines several topics that we have talked about in the past. The first being the minimum viable product (MVP), the idea of good enough, taking action and iteration — changing things as they are needed.

The main reason we did this episode is to remove any confusion to whether a product is a business and to get you to a sustainable business as fast as possible.

Enjoy you Foolish Adventure…

Know the wants and needs of your target market puts you on a fast-track to success.

Not knowing and just throwing out products to see what sticks is a lousy approach and will most likely lead to failure instead of success.

Listen in to this episode and you may be surprised at some of the simple methods you can use right now to know what your prospective customers need.

Tim Bourquin was day trading stocks after getting off his shift as a police officer.  He got interested in podcasting in the days before it was called podcasting and built an audience for a mountain biking/triathlon podcast — he later sold this podcast and it was most likely the first podcast ever sold.

Tim has a broad range of business experience so he has a big picture view of business combined with a depth of knowledge that only comes from being in the trenches — from creating a couple expos & selling them to building a successful membership site called TraderInterviews.com that gives Tim and his brother a great lifestyle.

This episode is a Blow Your Socks Off actionable, information-packed interview.  Listen at least twice if not half a dozen times.  You'll learn something new each time.

We can't wait to have Tim Bourquin back on the show.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

In this episode we have a conversation about fads and trends and what that can mean to your business.  

Learn to identify the difference between a fad and a trend so you can create the right kind product.  We discuss how the skill to identify a coming fad or trend comes from developing your "producer" mindset which is critical for value creation.

We cover two big trends that Tim thinks will continue to grow exponentially and that you should find your place inside one or both of those trends.

I'm about to show some of my nerd cred here — for pleasure reading I will, on occasion, read ancient Greek philosophy and sometimes this reading takes place on a Friday or Saturday night.

What's a night out compared reading the teachings that were foundational to Western culture? Right? No? Okay, so maybe it's just me.

In this episode of Foolish Adventure, Izzy and I converse about an idea sparked from reading the Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius. I won't go into his history here as to not bore you any further than I have.

The inspiration, a muse, you might say, that came from my reading was how from a young age Aurelius invested in himself. He invested in his education, his work and his relationships, which turned him into one of the most successful Roman Emperors.

Join us in this ancient conversation about investing in oneself so that you can be a success today.

Enjoy your Foolish Philosophy,

Tim

PS. For some reason the audio from me was messed up and I sounded like I was talking in a tunnel. Sorry about that. We'll make sure my audio sounds great next time.

In this episode, Izzy and I get away from some of the more philosophical topics we've been discussing lately and jump into getting you from "Zero To Sales" in the shortest time possible.

We do a rundown of the steps you need to take to find out if you have a profitable business idea. To do that we marry the basic niche selection steps that we've covered in the past with the concept of the MVP — not the most valuable player version, but the Minimum Viable Product version.

MVP comes from the software development world and it's a conceptual framework for building just enough of a product to test whether your market will buy it.

Listen in to the show and get a MVP on your roster.

Enjoy Your Foolish Adventure,

t

How To Build A Real Business

Take a look at most of the Internet Marketing courses out there — they focus on making money. 

Few focus on building a sustainable business. Why?

Building a business can't be done with a "magic bullet" system or a single marketing technique like using Cost Per Action (CPA) networks or Facebook advertising.

Magic bullet systems are really sexy to sell. They hit the greed glands hard and avoid that nasty four-letter word …WORK.

Join us on this exploration of "Making Money" versus a "Real Business." We cover "making money," self-employment and sustainable business systems. 

You'll get an inside look at areas Izzy needs to make changes in his businesses so that he can go from self-employed to a business owner.

There is nothing wrong with "making money" as your motivator in starting your business, but if you wish to continue making money even if you're physically or mentally unable to work, then you should listen to this episode to find ways you can build a Real Business.

CAREER EXPERTISE PLUS PASSION CREATES A GROWING INFO-PRODUCT BUSINESS

Izzy and Tim interview Foolish Adventure member, Jules Watkins of iPhone Video Heroand PocketVideoPower.com about his Internet business. 

You'll get an inside look at a growing online-based information product business. Jules' story may sound familiar — it may sound much like your own, where he was tired of using his knowledge, time and energy to build wealth for others and not creating any long-term assets for himself.

The industry Jules is in can be taxing where a team of film professionals come together for short-term projects and then need to go looking for the next job. The film industry means a lot of travel and long hours with little time left for family let alone building a business.

But, Jules has been able to get a business off the ground and has growing sales. Listen to this candid interview where Jules shares the trials and tribulations of creating an Internet business and…

Hear the joys of the first sale, and then the next and the next. Learn how creative promotion ideas drove sales, especially with the Royal Wedding celebrations in the UK.

This is both an inspiring tale and instructional story of a family man turning his expertise into a business.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

THE PRODUCT LADDER, OR AS "THEY" SAY…
THE GOOD 'OL FASHIONED BACKEND

In corporate speak, it's called the Product Line or even Brand Extension — no matter what you call it, the best thing you can do for your business is have more products available to sell to your customers.

Getting customers is hard work — really hard and expensive work.

So why would you, after all the work and expense, not offer your customers something else that they would need, desire and find valuable?

This episode is all about the Product Ladder and helping your customers to ascend it.  Huge profits await you when you get them to the top.

How To Build A Backend To Your Business

Last week we introduced the Product Ladder so that you could build a backend for your online business.

You may be thinking, "How the heck am I going to create a bunch of information products?"

That's what this episode is all about — taking the content you create, whether written, audio or video and turning it into more products.

We cover webinars, teleseminars, virtual events and so much more that will give you a bunch of content in a short period of time that you can "slice and dice" to create all new products.

You'll become inspired by all the ways you can create great content quickly — even if you're not an expert.

Listen to the show and then go create some products.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

Once you master the art of TIM…

Your life will be your own.  You will have the freedom to do what you want, when you want and where you want.

TIM & THE INTERNET LIFESTYLE

Developing systems so you can control your Time, Income and Mobility (TIM) is the key to having what people perceive as the Internet Lifestyle — you know, lounging on the beach running your business from a laptop with just four hours a week of work.

This episode is a philosophical discussion and less a How-To.  The reason?  Most of the problems that prevent us from gaining control of our Time, Income and Mobility come from our cultural upbringing.

We, Izzy and Tim, promote developing an Internet-based info-product business because this kind of business inherently lends itself to TIM principles.  Once you develop the systems, technological and human, for your online business, you will have control over your Time, Income and Mobility.

And when you have control of TIM, you have control over your life — that equals real freedom.

Enjoy your Foolish Time, Income and Mobility,

Tim and Izzy

My numbers went down in April.

In particular, I'm talking about two important statistics for one of my websites.
"New Visitors" decreased, and "New Email Subscribers" decreased.

When I first got started in online business, this kind of thing worried me. I would start to panic thinking that things were going to trend downwards, and my business would eventually fail.

But not anymore. These days I know exactly what to do. That's what we're talking about on this week's show…

Whether you're just starting out or you've been running a business online for years, I think you'll find this episode helpful.

Knowing if your business is healthy comes down to tracking and not guessing.

Over the years I've asked my clients some very basic business questions and only a handful knew the answers.

Questions like:

• What's the Lifetime Value of a Customer (LVC)?
• What's your Average Cost Per Acquisition (or new customer)?
• What's your monthly break even point or annual break even?

Of course, there are a lot more questions to ask of a business. There really is a lot to know when running a business. So a great way to know if your business is healthy is to set up a Business Dashboard (or Instrument Panel).

First off, Izzy and I aren't going to recommend any software that can manage your business dashboard since we don't know your specific needs. And if you are a really small business you are probably going to be doing it the old fashioned way–manually.

This was a much bigger topic than we expected when we recorded so I left out a few specifics on what you should be tracking. This is only a partial list, but a good place to start.

(In no particular order)

• Cost Per Conversion (CPC): not to be confused with cost per click, cost per conversion is a very important number. If you spend $10 and you get 10 conversions (optin, sale or other conversion), then your CPC is $1/conversion.If you are building an email list, then you want to get optins as your conversion. You want CPC to be low enough to make a profit not just cheap. The idea is to maximize conversions, but balanced with profitability.
• Cost Per Sale: this goes along with CPC above, but is specifically tracking how much a sale costs the company. This may even be an average between new and existing customers.
• EBITDA: pronounced ib it duh is your Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. What a mouthful. This is your profit–Revenue minus Expenses before you pay the tax man and interest on loans or getting the phantom expense of depreciation and amortization. Your actual Net Profit is revenue minus expenses including EBITDA.
• Lifetime Value of a Customer: this is a very important number. It helps keep you focused on retaining customers instead of focusing only on getting new ones. When you understand just how valuable a customer can be to your business, you'll go out of your way to keep them.

I really wish I could go even more into the idea of a Business Dashboard so hopefully Izzy and I will create in-depth training on this topic. Listen to the show and get an understanding of how a Business Dashboard can let you know if your business is healthy and how to optimize its health.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

FROM THE DECISIONS YOU CAN MAKE WITH YOUR LIFE TO THE IMPACT YOU CAN MAKE IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS.

This episode gets us back to our roots–freedom through entrepreneurship.

Freedom is probably the number one reason people get into business for themselves.  They want choices that aren't available to them by working for someone else.

This may be a choice on how they spend their time or what they do to earn their money or where they earn an income.

Some people may be like Tim and just have a problem with authority.  Authorities are telling you what you can and can't do.  Most of the time they are wrong, and the times they are right they are usually only part right.

We started Foolish Adventure to help others stand up to the Status Quo and the conformity that surrounds them.  When the majority thinks you are foolish for wanting to be free (really free) it can be difficult to take action on your dreams.  We, Izzy and Tim, believe we are in a period in history where anyone who wants control over their income can get control online.

Why the focus on income?  When you have control of your income–how, when, where and why you make it, you gain access to a new world.  This new world has been around for a long time, but it was harder to access before the commercialization of the Internet.

This new world is freer than the old world.  When you can earn an income 24 hours a day, every day no matter where you live or what you're doing, it gives you choices…and more choice equals more freedom.

If freedom is important to you–not the freedom to be comfortable, which we already have in wealthy nations, but real freedom to make your way in the world–to launch into your Foolish Adventure, then this conversation is one you'll enjoy listening to and participating in.

Let us know what freedom means to you in the comments.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

You may not have seen these myths in your classical mythology course in college, but they are some of the most famous ones in business today.

In this episode, our Herculean heros step up to bust 5 of the most pervasive myths that are holding many business owners back from success.

Sometimes building, growing and managing a business feels like the 12 impossible labors of Hercules.  But we persist.  What can make business even more difficult is when we believe in myths that seem so true, but in reality just slow our progress.

Jump inside this episode to learn what these myths are and how to break free of them.   You may just discover the path to the golden fleece called success.

Enjoy your Foolish Odyssey,

Tim and Izzy

[edit] Bonus 6th Myth Busted!

Having been sick during the recording of this episode I completely forgot one of the biggest myths–"It Takes Money To Make Money."

Many people use this excuse to not even try.  They don't even calculate what the real cost to turn their idea into a business.  I've started a business with $0.  I went out and found a client.  Then I used that money to get biz cards and pay for web hosting and other essentials needed to promote my business.

With an online business, you can get started without owning a computer, without paying for a website or really an expense at all.  This is a tough way to start, though, but it can be done.

Use a library computer or a friends.  Start a tumblr or WordPress.com blog and get on Twitter & Facebook.  Start building a small audience and connecting with others in your niche.  Find a cool affiliate product and promote it to your small audience.  Invest the money from sales into a website of your own. Repeat over and over.  Keep reinvesting the money coming until it covers all the business expenses and starts generating a profit.  ~ t

There are a lot of people online, experts of sorts, who spout phrases like, 'Attention is worthless so don't buy people's attention.'  What they are saying is spending money on advertising (any paid activity that gets someone's attention) is worthless.

If you see someone online bad-mouthing advertising you should put it into context; either they have never used advertising or they have never used advertising successfully.  There is a third type–the social media guru who is advertising his/her product on how you only need social media to promote your business, in other words a hypocrite.

Advertising works especially online advertising.  It will take a lot of testing to get an advertising method to work for your product, but it will work if you have a good product.

Listen in to the show to learn why online advertising has the potential to double, triple or quadruple the size of your business.

Enjoy your Foolish Advertising,

Tim and Izzy

Where the rubber meets the road…

Sales. You know, that evil thing capitalists do.

We've been known to say the only thing it takes to be in business is to make a sale. Without selling a business is just a hobby or more accurately on its way to extinction.

Inside this episode you'll learn tips, tricks and techniques for selling–both selling online and offline. Selling offline or at least marketing offline will become a larger percentage of most online businesses in the near future so you might as well learn to do it now.

After this episode you won't shy away from asking for the sale.

I'm still sick from when this show was recorded so I'm making this process of posting the show more fun, well…at least for me.

This one tries to answer what to do when you aren't that passionate about anything or you don't want to sell what you are passionate about.  Say you love golfing, but you don't want to make a business out of it.  All you want to do is go golf eight days a week.

What if you could harness what makes you good at something and use that to make a living online?

Well, listen to the show and find out!

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim "I has a cold" Conley

This episode brings to you a couple of really smart and successful online entrepreneurs, Dan & Ian of LifestyleBusinessPodcast.com.

You're about to get great information and inspiration from guys who sell–wait for it…real physical products!  Who knew that people still bought stuff you can touch.

Here at Foolish Adventure, we live off ones and zeros, but not only is it possible to sell physical products – you can even build a successful business.

What's best about this episode is partnership.  The roundtable was meant to be physical vs. digital products, but turned more into discussing lifestyle and business building strategies, especially the power of great partnerships.

There is also discussion of an idea that Tim thinks is pure genius.  Let's see who takes credit for it.

We all had so much fun and we felt there was so much more we could cover together we decided to do a part two soon.

Check out Dan & Ian's podcast over at Lifestyle Business Podcast and listen to Episode #57 because it goes really well with this roundtable discussion.

Then go over to TropicalMBA for some lifestyle and business inspiration.

Next follow @AnythingIan and @TropicalMBA on Twitter.

Finally, enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim & Izzy

Join in on our conversation about Decision Making and Confidence.  We talk about the pitfalls of indecision, waiting on others to make decisions for you and the problems with certainty.

Of course, we don't just talk about the problems, but also the way we go about building our confidence through decisions plus action.

Decisions without actions are as ineffective as making no decision and letting the world happen to you.  Once you make a decision, even a little one, take an immediate action that furthers your decision.

We all need to exercise our decision-making 'muscles' and the more we do, the more confident we become.  We'll soon be able to make big decisions quickly and confidently.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

This debate has gone on for a long time–basically since the Internet went mainstream.  A new version of this debate has popped up recently because several high(er) profile bloggers have started email newsletters that…OMG…you have to pay for.

Recently, a guy I read, Adam Baker of ManVsDebt, started a pay-for blog.  I paid just to check it out.  It's called ShutUpAndHustle.com.  Baker (that's what he goes by) charges $25 a month for people to read this blog.  (This site went live after Izzy and I recorded this)

This is the "purest" form of the Future of Blogging Is Paid Access I've seen.  Most of the recent converts to getting paid for what they create have been using Letter.ly, which we have mentioned before.

CONTENT CREATORS GETTING PAID TO CREATE

Izzy and I started Foolish Adventure as a free audio show and have promised that as long as we produce the show it will remain free.  We also said in the beginning that we would develop a way to earn money from it.  Six months later we created a Pay For Access site called Foolish University.  It is also a Pay For Content site since members get premium content from us as well as direct access to us in the Forum.

We've been preaching the Paid For Content/Access since the beginning, but it is good to see other Content Creators waking up to this idea.

READ THIS FOR CONTEXT

Article mentioned in the show: In Over Your Head: The Future of Blogging Is Paid Access

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

Inside you'll learn:

• what a breakthrough is and how to create one
• how to shift your mentality to make creating breakthroughs easier
• how not to fall victim to the "what ifs"
• where to get ideas for breakthroughs
• and real world examples of breakthroughs

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Izzy and Tim

If you're not having the kind of success you want in your life–you can't get your business started, you can't seem to make enough sales or build an audience.

This episode, as with all our shows, started from a conversation Izzy and Tim had about not reaching goals. First, at Foolish Adventure there is only one type of failure–quitting on your dreams for your life.

As long as you keep working and improving, you'll eventually reach your goals.  You'll build momentum and your successes will pick up speed.  When tough times hit, and they will, you'll have the momentum to carry you through to success.

Listen to this episode if you're not getting to your goals as quickly as you would like and learn ways to not fail.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Izzy and Tim

We finally covered a topic we probably should have covered in the beginning since it is central to the success that Izzy had in escaping the corporate grind.

In this episode we cover the different ways of making money from a podcast, whether audio or video, or as we call it an Online Show.

Inside you'll learn about:

• Advertising
• Affiliate Product Sales
• Consulting
• Product Sales
• And Brand Building.

This is one of our longest we've done, but strangely one with the fewest tangents.  Go figure.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

We all have a sphere of influence even if we are just getting started. By doing what we cover in the show, you can greatly expand your sphere of influence. With more influence comes more opportunity and more opportunity contains more revenue.

Or said another way, increasing the number & size of your streams of influence brings more streams of income.

In the episode, we talk about how to:

• Get into different markets
•  Use networking, public speaking and other "Real Life" interactions
• Use affiliates to increase your revenue & influence
• and much more…

In this episode, our wayward hosts cover the world of content and how a creator like you can use it to build a loyal audience (your people) out of a larger market.

You'll learn:

• what makes content valuable, 
• how to create content your audience likes, but you still find enjoyable (content creating as a form of art),
• creating authority content even when you're not a known expert.
• Tim accidentally coins a new word – creageous: creative courage.
• Where to find ideas on creating audience attracting content.
• And tons more.

We cover a lot in this action content-packed episode.  You may need to listen to it a couple of times to get everything you can out of it.

We explore our past successes, failures and experiences and how that makes our show different in the "make money online" industry.  All of this leads up to the point of today's show, which is Analysis Paralysis and how to overcome it.

Not going to say much more.  Listen to the show and find out what we mean.

Sparked by an email from a listener, Izzy and Tim dive into overcoming the internal resistance many feel when trying to start and continue a project. Sometimes starting a business is like trying to get in shape. Getting to the gym the first time may be a struggle and may take coaxing yourself for several months before you go.

Then each day you need to get yourself to take another action towards your improving your health. A business is built much the same way. Sometimes you don't want to work on your business especially after a long day at work, but staying focused on that future goal of one day being the captain of your own destiny can get you through.

Listen in to get advice and encouragement on really getting things done.

The business model which Izzy and I have been promoting is customer-support instead of ad-supported. Too many content creators – whether using blogging, podcasting or livestreaming – rely on ad revenue.

When an internet show, say on Youtube, is a huge success and getting hundreds of thousands of views, then the ad revenue can be lucrative. But most never hit huge numbers.

With our model you don't need large numbers to be successful.

This show is about the direction of Foolish Adventure and how we intend to help Content Creators.

Okay…here's what happened.

We got a voicemail for our Mailbag segment from Patricia asking about buying Internet Marketing courses and how some of them sound too good to be true.  We started talking about why most $1000 and up courses can be very valuable to people who have been running an online business for awhile, but usually leave too many unanswered questions for the beginner since the "guru" selling the course doesn't allow access to him or herself.

What started as the Mailbag segment turned into our entire Main segment since we really felt this was an important topic to cover extensively (meaning we went on a tangent or two).

We also gave a tiny preview of what we have up our sleeves to 'celebrate' our birthdays at the end of January.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MEMBERSHIP CONTENT EVEN WHEN IT IS PASSWORD PROTECTED

I mention First Click Free in this segment (I mistakenly called it First Look).  For more info, here is Google's First Click Free page.

Discussion Topic: 

HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY, INCREASE VISITOR & CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND BOOST CONVERSIONS BY TESTING, OPTIMIZING & TRACKING

Testing & tracking are crucial to your success in any business.  There is a lot of power in knowing what is really happening in your business as opposed to what you feel or think is happening.  The only way you'll know is to learn how to test, optimize and track.  We recommend using Google Website Optimizer, Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools as your starting toolkit.  You may end up moving over to other services, but these are a great place to start.

In today’s episode, we talk about growth through acquisition.

There are many reasons to buy an existing website such as:

• instant access to targeted traffic,
• increasing your search rankings,
• diversifying your income and/or products
• and entering new markets.

You might just be a purchase away from achieving your business goals.  Listen in to find out how.