The Foolish Adventure Show with Tim Conley: Internet Business Radio | Be An Entrepreneur Without The BS

FA148 – How To Transition Into A New Industry Without Risking Everything With Jake Hower

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:16:00 -0700

Do You Want To Change Directions And Do Something Different?

Jake Hower of The Multimedia Marketing Show (and a member of the mastermind I run) joins me on The Foolish Adventure Show to talk about how he is transitioning himself away from his travel agency to a content marketing superstar.

We cover everything from family responsibilities, keeping your current business/career going and doing the work necessary to enter an entirely new industry.

You’ll learn how Jake started learning the skills used in The Multimedia Marketing Show in his travel agency long before he entered into the new industry. This is key. You need to learn new skills in a safe environment. If you jump into a new industry and need to learn all new skills at the same time your likelihood of success (ie. making a living) is very low.

In the episode, you’ll hear what Jake is going through to learn who makes up his market and the needs they have. This learning process will lead Jake to the problems he can solve and generate scalable revenue.

Listen in and if you’re looking to enter a new industry you’ll get a roadmap and inspiration to succeed.

FA147 - The Fastest Way To Obtain Location Independence With Sean Ogle

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:14:16 -0700

How To Get Freedom Of Time, Income & Mobility

On this episode of The Foolish Adventure Show, I’ve got internationally known, Sean Ogle, on to talk about the fastest way to become location independent. Inside this episode, you’ll learn about:

Why location independence is the ability to choose where you are,
How to overcome uncertainty by turning it into an asset,
Leveraging skills to make money from anywhere in the world,
How to spend your time working on the right things,
Using mistakes now when the risks are small to speed success,
and so much more packed into this episode.

FA146 - Even Unusual Skills Can Be Successful Online

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:16:14 -0700

Who Would Have Thought Accent Coaching Would Work Online?

My guest, Jim Johnson, that’s who.

Jim helps people learn accents for acting and helps people alter their natural accent to help them fit in. Sometimes our accents make it difficult for people to understand us or think we are less intelligent. I altered my own accent as a kid because I didn’t want to sound like an uneducated redneck, which is how people perceived me when I would speak with my natural accent.

Jim has taken his passion for accents and created an online business, AccentHelp.com, that provides digital accent courses.

I’m no longer surprised by what can be successful online. In the early days of my consulting I would tell people I thought their idea wouldn’t work. But I haven’t done that for years. Nearly every interest can make money. Not all can produce a full-time income, but nearly all of them can cover a mortgage and a car payment if they have a good business model built in.

As you’ll hear in this episode, getting accent help has a sizable market — two actually. There are actors who obviously need to know accents to provide realism to their roles and business people who want to be understood and thought highly of.

What’s your unusual skill that you can build an online business from?

FA145 - Successfully Build And Sell Digital Products

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:04:09 -0700

Find An Underserved Market And Serve It

In this week’s episode of The Foolish Adventure Show, I bring on George Palmer of DigitalDeliveryApp.com to talk about creating digital products — from info-products to software.

George shares how he built his software business and how he is using that business to help others succeed. George saw an underserved (and poorly served) market in the digital product delivery space. There were few players and of those they had clunky and mainly expensive solutions to getting your product into your customers’ hands.

Listen in learn how to successfully build your own software business and how to succeed in selling your own digital products.

FA144 - How To Run Your Business Like A Hobo CEO With Chris Kirkland

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:22:14 -0700

In this episode you’ll learn what it takes to live anywhere and keep running your business. Some of the advice may be seen as a sacrifice and if you feel you’re sacrificing instead of gaining something new, then the Hobo CEO lifestyle may not be for you. But if you’ve got faith that living where you want and running your life the way you want

My guest, Chris Kirkland of Artweb.com, shares his journey of leaving England for Japan with a round trip ticket. You’ll also hear how and why he skipped the return flight and stayed in Japan.

Chris has taken the concept of Time, Income and Mobility freedom and truly integrated it into his life so that he can travel (and live) where and when he wants, have enough money to support the lifestyle he desires and enough time off to be able to indulge his interests.

Chris also shares the trials and benefits of having business partners. Even if you’re not interested in traveling while running your company, you may be interested in learning how to deal with partners so that you can grow your business and limit the downside risk of bringing someone into the business.

This is definitely a Time, Income & Mobility episode to listen to.

FA143 - Are You Making These 8 Common Analytics Mistakes?

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:01:01 -0700

8 Common Analytics Mistakes Made By Online Entrepreneurs

I’m joined by my good buddy, Dan Norris of Inform.ly, to talk analytics. Since Dan runs a startup that helps entrepreneurs analyze and keep track of their analytics he is seeing several mistakes being made over and over in online businesses.

Dan is going to walk us through these mistakes and show us how to correct them.

The Eight Mistakes
1. Not having good access to data
2. Not measuring anything
3. Not thinking like an experimenter
4. Not measuring the hard stuff
5. Addicted to vanity metrics
6. No idea about LTV or CPA
7. Drawing incorrect conclusions about experiments
8. ??????

Here are the shameless plugs Dan mentioned in the episode:

Most important metric – Quora
CPA Calculator
Content marketing analytics
Actionable analytics email course

These links are also great examples of content marketing you can implement into your business.

FA142 - How To Buy An Existing Business

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:01:58 -0700

Is It Better To Buy Or Build?

For today’s guest, Terry Groulx (pronounced grew), the answer was definitely, “Yes.” As he shares his story of searching out and buying an existing business, you’ll learn why and what happened before, during and after the purchase.

Even after doing his due diligence, Terry found several surprises that had a big negative impact on the business. But, you’ll hear how Terry overcame these problems and how he fixed several problems in the business he knew about. As Terry went to work on the business, he was able to quickly achieve profitability even with repaying the Small Business Administration loan he took out to buy his company, Ahna Inc.

If you’re interested in buying an existing business, then this episode will give you plenty of insights to help you find, evaluate and purchase one.

FA141 - Adventure Philanthropy: Running A Business While Doing Good

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:01:07 -0700

What Does Travelling Five Months In A Shoe Have To Do With Business?

In today’s episode of The Foolish Adventure Show your intrepid host (that’s me) is joined by adventure philanthropist, Scott Brills.

Indiana Brills (no one calls him that) shares his tale of driving a shoe — yes, a shoe, from the United Kingdom to South Africa.

Scott and several of his friends turned two Subaru cars into Converse sneakers and drove them over 13,000 miles to raise money to help educate children in Ethiopia and to fund water wells through Charity:Water.

You’ll hear how Scott ran his business with limited Internet access, overcame break downs (both mechanical and personal), evaded bandits, and so much more all while having a Foolish Adventure of a lifetime.

What I love about Scott’s story is that too many people think they have to work their whole lives, save their pennies, retire and then go have adventure, or worse, to start doing good in the world.

Scott shows us through his actions that you can help those in need while running a business and designing a fulfilling life. Don’t wait for someday. Have adventures now. Do good now.

FA140 - Haters Vs Customers

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:29:50 -0700

Do Not Feed The Trolls

I’ve been known to take a tough-love approach to customers and prospects, but…

I’m good at customer service. I really care about my customers so I do my best to go above and beyond their expectations especially when something goes wrong or their not satisfied.

However, I’ve learned over the years that sometimes the best way to deal with some customers or audience members is to fire them.

In this episode, my guest co-host Lain Ehmann comes back on to ask how to deal with haters and how to know if someone is a hater or actually has a legitimate criticism of you and/or your business.

Listen in an implement these lessons in customer service.

FA139 - Make Your Content Marketing Playbook With Damian Thompson

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:10:28 -0700

Get Your Content To Market Your Business

In this episode, my good buddy and mastermind member, Damian Thompson of Linchpin.net shares how to create a content marketing playbook to guide your content creation. No more haphazard approach. No more publishing whatever comes to mind.

When you create your playbook you’ll be just like a coach guiding the players on the field. You’ll be able to make changes to your content to fit the needs of your market, which will attract your target audience and get them to know, like and trust you.

Inside you’ll learn why a “Big Idea” is important to your success and how your content reinforces it. You’ll set your content marketing goals so you know what is effective and to create an efficient system of creating content and getting it seen by your audience.

Listen in now and start building your Content Marketing Playbook.

FA138 - Compelling Autoresponder Marketing With John McIntyre

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:57:17 -0700

Increase Sales and Lifetime Value of Your Customers

Using an autoresponder email series, you can generate more revenue by… get this, helping your email subscribers to actually achieve their goals.

My guest today is John McIntyre of DropDeadCopy.com, a friend I made while visiting the Philippines. John had set out to become a copywriter and found his niche. Writing compelling email autoresponder series that get prospects to know, like and trust you.

In this episode, John shares his strategies for crafting emails that get results. He does this by writing as if he was sitting down with a friends over coffee and sharing stories that can help them get what they want in life. He uses his fruit and vegetable juicing site as a concrete example on how to do it.

We go into the technical stuff too. John and I both use Aweber for our autoresponder, but we mention several others that are very popular and used by some of our friends and peers.

Take notes because you’ll get the steps to creating your own compelling autoresponder series in this episode.

FA137 - Illimunate Possibility For Your Users With Good Design

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:47:44 -0700

Using The Myers Conceptual Design Model

On today’s show I have Keyser Soze, aka Jon Myers, who is an international user interface designer, digital nomad and secret agent. I kept hearing about this Jon Myers guy who was super-smart and worked on really cool projects for big international corporations, governments and military contractors and is a serial startup entrepreneur.

Through the use of a few dead drops and an assassination of a banana-republic dictator, I was able to get the elusive Jon Myers (who was holed-up in a luxury hotel in Dubai) on Skype for a conversation about good design principles and how they affect the success of your product — whether physical or digital.

This episode won’t teach you to be a designer, but it will give you the insights you need to work with a designer or for a designer to guide clients to a successful design. Inside you’ll learn about Jon’s 4 Part Design Model he uses to articulate design principles to his clients and his own startups.

FA136 - UnManagement: How To Manage A Team Even If You Suck At It With Chris Ducker

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:05:23 -0700

Do You Resist Hiring Employees?

Do You Feel Like You Suck At Managing People?

Well, Chris Ducker of ChrisDucker.com is here to help. Chris fully admits to being a crap manager, but…

He has a growing company with over 200 employees. How can a guy who says he isn’t a good manager run such a large and continually growing company?

Listen in to hear Chris Ducker’s UnManagement Secrets.

FA135 - Creating Sales Funnels That Work With Rob Hanly

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:09:18 -0700

Do You Have Barriers To Customer Acquisition?

Many times we don’t analyze our sales funnels to see if we have accidentally put barriers between our products and our customers.

Sometimes the barrier is that there really isn’t a funnel in place — just a buy button. Sometimes we mimic other sales funnels we’ve seen and put in steps (or don’t have steps) that aren’t needed for customer acquisition.

In this episode, I bring on Rob Hanly to discuss how to create sales funnels that actually work. Rob gives us basic frameworks to work with from finding our ad channels to getting people to take action.

FA134 - Turn Your Business And Income Into Assets With James Schramko

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:17:43 -0700

Do You Have A Business Or Are You Self-Employed?

Out of the hundreds of businesses that I’ve worked with very few had a sellable company. That means that after all the work they put into their business it wasn’t worth anything to anyone else. Even though I’ve call myself a marketing consultant I end up doing a lot of systems consulting so that my client can gain control of their Time, Income & Mobility.

In almost every case my clients don’t have the proper systems — software, hardware and people, in place that would allow them to 1) have a life outside of work and 2) have an asset that they can sell or retire from.

Another area I work with my clients on is to take some of their net profits and invest them into other cash-producing assets and even to just set aside some cash for savings.

You’ll learn about these systems in this episode and more as James Schramko and I discuss building and accumulating assets. One of the reasons I like having James guest co-host the show is that he is so open with how he is building his business that you, dear listener, get true insider information you can use in your business.

FA133 - Write Compelling Copy Even If You're A Hack With Joanna Wiebe Of Copyhackers

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:44:51 -0700

Use These Simple Methods To Go From Hack To Copyhacker

Special guest, Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers, joins us to talk about copy. I do like learning about copywriting, but it has always been something I’ve struggled with. I’ve practiced writing copy on and off for the last 14 years and I feel I’ve gotten good at identifying good copy, but have a hard time writing it. So anytime I get a chance to talk to an excellent copywriter, I take it.

Joanna has gone from “creative writer” to copywriter extraordinaire by learning some relatively simple copy practices which she shares in this episode. Inside you’ll learn how to:

Swipe your copy right from your prospects’ mouths
Research your market’s secrets… that are hidden in plain sight
Have others write your headlines and have your customers love it
Use the 3 levels of a call to action to increase your conversions
and much more.
I will warn you…

I was in a goofy mood when I spoke with Joanna so you may get bombarded with my bad jokes along side Joanna’s brilliance.

FA132 - Change Your Operating System With Derek Sivers

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:49:57 -0700

Get Unstuck By Rebooting

Ever have that feeling like something wasn’t quite right in your life? Derek Sivers of CDBaby & TED Talks fame had a similar feeling even though he was successful by most any measure. After selling his company, he almost started another company since that was what his operating system was programmed to do — have idea and act on it.

Derek set out to change his operating system. A complete reboot of the scripts that ran his life.

I’ve been on a similar path since 2008 when I started giving away my personal possessions. I was running on a script of make lots of money, spend it all and repeat. I needed to examine the scripts I was operating by and then systematically reprogram them to get new outcomes.

That’s what this episode is about. If you feel like you’re operating on the wrong programming then listen in to gain insights on how to get unstuck by installing a new mental operating system.

FA131 - Effective Email Marketing For Startups With Patrick McKenzie

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:45:16 -0700

Start, Grow & Profit From Email

Did you know that email marketing is dead?

Yep. It died years ago. Unfortunately, no one told all the people who were making anywhere from thousands a year to 10s of millions from their email lists that email no longer worked.

Well, there is a renewed interest in email marketing now that all the social media hubbub is cooling down. I’ve been pushing email marketing onto my clients for over 13 years and the power of email hasn’t diminished — changed? yes, but not lessened.

In this episode, Patrick McKenzie of Kalzumeus Software shares with us his experience using email marketing in his software company and for his clients. You’ll learn why email is important and how to get started.

You’ll also learn effective ways of communicating with your list — first lesson is that it isn’t just a list, these are real people who have entrusted you with their attention.

I’ve been wanting to cover email marketing for awhile now and I think this is going to be a part one on the topic. I intend to bring on additional guests to talk about their best practices so that you get a well-rounded knowledge base for your own email marketing.

FA130 - Kicking Apps And Taking Names With Jesse Lawler

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:20:33 -0700

How To Build An App If You’re Not A Programmer:
Lessons From A Software Developer

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

FA129 - The Secret To Saving Time & Money When Launching A Product Or Business

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:15:24 -0700

AKA: Customer Development For The Rest Of Us

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.

To get more knowledge on the subject and to learn exactly how to put Customer Development into action check out these resources:

Steve Blank
The Startup Owner’s Manual
The Four Steps To The Epiphany

Eric Ries
The Lean Startup

Ash Maurya
Running Lean
Practice Trumps Theory

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure

FA128 - How To Market Software With Rob Walling

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:12:51 -0700

Effectively Market Plugins, Downloadables & Software as a Service

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.
To watch how Rob is launching a new software business check out GetDrip.com.

FA127 -Build Your Online Store With Terry Lin

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:03:58 -0700

A Pay Now Podcasting Tale

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.

FA126 - Work From Anywhere, Be Your Own Boss And Make A Lot Of Money

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:09:49 -0700

Do You Have A Valuable Message To Share?

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.

FA125 - How To Use Direct Mail In An Online Business

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:35:08 -0700

Stop Thinking Offline Vs Online:
Use All Tools Available To Grow Your Business

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.

FA124 - Sales Funnels That Sift, Sort And Screen

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:00:44 -0700

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.

FA123 - How To Successfully Manage Virtual Employees

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:10:05 -0700

Learn To Hire, Train And Manage Employees Anywhere In The World

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.

FA122 - Pay Now Podcasting: Put A Buy Button On Your Content

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:25:02 -0700

Is Podcasting Dead?

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.

FA121 - Risking It All To Live Your Passion With Keith And The Girl

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 08:13:03 -0700

Would you be willing to give up what you enjoy to live what you love?

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.

FA120 - How To Double Your Business With James Schramko

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:48:19 -0700

Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?

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.

FA119 - How To Buy Your Online Business

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:01:34 -0700

Buying, Renovating, Selling & Profiting

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.

FA118 - How To Make $10,000 A Month With A WordPress Business

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:11:16 -0700

The WordPress Ecosystem Is Filled With Opportunity…
Grab Yours: Themes, Plugins, Services, Hosting & More

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.

FA117 - Cold Calling: Discover Your Market's Desires By Picking Up The Phone

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:09:42 -0700

Are You Creating A New Product Or Starting A Business?

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.

FA116 - Should You Use Discount Pricing?

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:08:07 -0700

Can You Put Your Products On Sale And Still Be A Profitable Company?

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, and how to make 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.

FA115 - Business Gets Personal With Andrew Warner Of Mixergy

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 11:12:23 -0700

Sometimes Things Don’t Go As Planned

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.

FA114 - Create A Profitable Celebrity Brand With Infoproducts

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:13:31 -0700

Create A Personal Brand To Propel Your Business Success

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.

FA113 - Online Business For The Rest Of Us With Rob Walling

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:20:48 -0700

This Just In…

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.

FA112 - How Not To Suck As A Writer With Forbes.com Columnist Elisa Doucette

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:49:57 -0700

Becoming A Better Writer Isn’t Impossible

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.

FA111 - How To Use Social Media To Supercharge Your Business With Laura Roeder

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:16:14 -0700

A Few Simple Techniques Turned A Social Media Dunce Into A Social Media Savant

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.

FA110 - Rapid Product Creation Strategies – A Summer Marketing Mashup

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 10:03:53 -0700

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.

FA109 - Skyrocket Your Business Without Selling Your Soul With Ryan Holiday - Trust Me I'm Lying

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:43:32 -0700

Insert Titillating Headline Designed To Compel People Into Clicking

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 of 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.

FA108 - 3 Key Fundamentals You Need That Business Bloggers Don’t Teach

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:07:08 -0700

Learning The Basics Might Be Boring, But Without Them Success Won’t Come

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 don’t 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 Business Bloggers.

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 money-making basics.

FA107 - Developing Your Core Competency In An Online Business

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:18:00 -0700

Sow The Seeds Of Unique Ability

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.

FA106 - Website Design That Doesn't Suck With Dan Norris

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:57:34 -0700

Have You Made These Same Mistakes On Your Website?

My Mate from Down Under, Dan Norris of WebDomination.co (links to episode I did on Dan’s show) 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.

FA105 - The Only 3 Ways To Grow A Business

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 09:09:29 -0700

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.

FA104 - 5 Key Behaviors of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 05:49:36 -0700

Super Successful Entrepreneurs Do These Five Things, Do You?

Dan Andrews, of the Lifestyle Business Podcast, and I sit down to have a discuss 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.

FA103 - How To Source Products In China

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:39:00 -0700

Getting A Product Manufactured Doesn’t Have To Be Scary

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.

FA102 - Do Impossible Things With Joel Runyon

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 05:46:57 -0700

In this episode we are joined by a man who does the impossible, Joel Runyon of ImpossibleHQ.com, who is here to help us achieve the impossible in our own lives.

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.

FA101 - Succeeding Online With Internet Business Mastery's Sterling and Jay

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:59:40 -0700

How To Succeed Online With The Godfathers of Internet Business Podcasting

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.

FA100 - How To Thrive On Change With Izzy Hyman

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:09:59 -0700

AKA The Reunion Episode

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.

FA099 - Are You Setting Transformational Goals?

Thu, 17 May 2012 11:11:47 -0700

Are your goals materialistic?

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.

FA098 - Are You Self-Employed Or Are You Launching A Startup?

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:56:07 -0700

How Your Mindset & Words You Use To Identify Yourself Can Effect Your Success

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.

FA097 - Acquire The Right Clients and Make $5000 to $10000 a Month

Thu, 03 May 2012 11:30:11 -0700

Back By Popular Demand…

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 are starting a new site that covers how to be a marketing consultant over at MarketingConsultantBlueprint.com. There’s only an opt-in there for anyone who wants to learn more.

FA096 - How to Quit Your Job and Double Your Income In 6 Months

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:34:27 -0700

There’s a myth about making a living online that says you can’t make money online unless you’re selling how to make money online.

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

PS. This episode was edited by my 12 year old daughter, Taegen Bryn. She made a lot of the editing decisions on her own with only a few times asking me if she was making the right choice. If you think the episode sounds good, then please let Taegen know in the comments.

FA095 - The Selling Mindset That Leads To Success

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:46:16 -0700

Are The Voices In Your Head Making You Fail Or Succeed?

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.

FA094 - How To Make Six Figures Without Being An Expert

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:54:48 -0700

Your daring host of the Foolish Adventure Show, Tim Conley (hey, that’s me) comes face to face was 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.

FA093 - Make $2000 A Month In A Small Niche With Ebooks

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:34:15 -0700

How does someone make a living in a niche that most people have never heard of?

Laura-Jane Koers 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.

FA092 - How to Get Automated Newsletter Income

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:13:06 -0700

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.

FA091 - Jobless In A New Country To Internet Success With Gideon Shalwick

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:50:28 -0700

What do you do when you immigrate to a new country, but can’t get a job?

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

FA090 - How To Get More Freedom From The Money You Make

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:04:58 -0700

Time To Get Foolish With Your Finances

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.

FA089 - Customers Are Always Right Except When They're Not

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:26:09 -0700

How Far Do You Go To Provide Customer Service?

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.

FA088 - Up, Down and Across: The Art of Selling More To Your Customers

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:54:29 -0700

Dan Andrews of Lifestyle Business Podcast and Tim Conley are all about making you a lot of profit really fast using the tactics we share in this episode.

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.

FA087 - Social Triggers: Converting An Audience Into Customers With Derek Halpern

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:38:09 -0700

What if you created a Social Trigger that made it look like you were everywhere your potential audience was, created compelling copy with the help of other site owners and drove thousands upon thousands of visitors to your site in just a few short months?

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.

FA086 - How To Make $500, $1000 Or Even $25,000 A Month With Adsense Sites

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:10:30 -0700

This is a can't miss episode! Joe and Justin are doing something I didn't believe possible -- their making serious money every month with Adsense sites. You'll learn how they started (very humbly to the tune of $10,000 in the hole) to now they just did over $44,000 in January. I wanted them on the show because I think anyone can set up a small group of Adsense sites and make $500 to $1000 part time to get some Getting Ahead Money. And if you're really gung-ho you'll make a serious living from Adsense.

FA085 - Can You Love Your Job and Build an Internet Business

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:34:16 -0700

Two Internet entrepreneurs go head-to-head over whether day jobs suck or not. Leslie Samuel of Learning With Leslie counters Tim Conley's assertion that day jobs suck. This episode is all about building an additional stream of income online even if you love the work you do in your job.

FA084 - How to Create Wealth Fast, Pull Onto The Millionaire Fastlane With MJ DeMarco

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:28:39 -0700

Join special guest MJ DeMarco, author of The Millionaire Fastlane, which is one of my top business books of 2011. Listen to this chat about building wealth rapidly with an online business.

FA083 - How to Make $5000 to $10,000 a Month as an Internet Marketing Consultant

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:40:27 -0700

Aspirin Internet marketing consultant, Johan Woods, grills Tim Conley on how to start, grow and run an Internet marketing agency. This episode covers what small businesses are looking for, how to get them as clients and how to keep them. If you're interested in developing a business that can pay you $5000 a month working part time then definitely listen in.

FA082 - 3 Types of Action Takers and How to Become One

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:15:12 -0700

Lain and Tim talk action. This episode is all about becoming an action taker from the humble beginnings of building your first website to growing a successful business.

FA081 - Creating Awesome Web Graphics With Liz Ness

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:40:42 -0700

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.

FA080 - Retention: How To Manage Your Membership Site Pt2

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:17:14 -0700

This episode is about building profits through member retention. Enjoy part two of the How To Manage Your Membership Site series.

FA079 - How To Manage Your Membership Site Pt1

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:30:22 -0700

Learn to manage your membership site for growth, profit and freedom. Membership sites are an excellent way for a content creator to make a living and truly enjoy the "Internet Lifestyle." But... they can be a lot of work. This series of episodes are all about managing your membership site.

FA078 - The App That Wasn't: A Business Management Tale

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:29:37 -0700

This episode is all about hiring and managing a team versus outsourcing to freelancers when entering new markets. Lain shares her trials with trying to get an app created, but even weeks later the project hasn't even started. Tim gives his best management tips on hiring and project management.

FA077 - Business of Blogging with Srini Rao of BlogcastFM

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:15:15 -0700

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.

FA076 - Are You Making A Product Line Or Product Hell

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:35:42 -0700

Avoid the mistake of making products till your brain explodes and learn to develop a product line that grows your business.

FA075: Lynchpin Lies: The Risk of a Job Vs Entrepreneurship

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:58:28 -0700

The MOST personal Foolish Adventure Show episode yet. The risks of having a job are made real to people all over and everyday -- usually it's unexpected. You come in one day and you're laid off or your potential for advancement is ruined. Let's talk risk... Listen in and share your story on the blog.

FA074: Make Thousands Each Month From User-Generated Content

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:23:02 -0700

Dan Andrews of DynamiteCircle.com and Tim Conley discuss the power and profit potential of user-generated content.

FA073: Successfully Using The 5 Types of Membership Site Content

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:26:38 -0700

There are 5 basic types of membership site content and in this episode Lain and Tim share how to best use them without feeling like you're forever running on a hamster wheel.

FA072: Doing Enough, Having Enough and Being Enough

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:31:53 -0700

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

FA071: How To Run A Million Dollar Online Business

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:26:55 -0700

Ian of the Lifestyle Business Podcast shares his insights and experience running a multinational online business that designs and sells products to consumers and businesses.

FA070: Sell 'em What They Want

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:30:16 -0700

Is the customer always right? How do you innovate without losing your shirt? This episode takes the philosophy of "sell 'em what they want, but give 'em what they need" and turns it into a method for product and customer service innovation.

FA069: Blogging Success: Do What We Do Not What We Say

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:00:08 -0700

Dan Andrews of LifestyleBusinessPodcast.com joins Tim Conley to discuss why most success advice is wrong. In this episode, you'll learn how to use success advice to be success and not let it steer you in the wrong direction.

FA068: Outsourcing Management Pitfalls & Profit With Tyrone Shum

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:37:54 -0700

A No Hype, No BS conversation about starting, growing and managing an outsourced team. Outsourcing success isn't as easy as higher someone on Elance or Odesk to do a task or two. Find out how Tyrone Shum manages a team of outsourcers to run his business.

FA067: How Not To Get Crushed When Expanding Your Business W/ Lain Ehmann

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:34:16 -0700

A conversation with Lain Ehmann of LayoutADay.com about the danger of scope creep when growing your business. Scope creep masquerades as growth and prevents you from achieving greater success -- oh, and it just wears you out since it always gets bigger!

FA066: Stop Being Normal. Be Entrepreneurial. - FA066

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:49:05 -0700

A conversation about Normal Vs Entrepreneurial decisions and the effects on your life with Dan Andrews of The Lifestyle Business Podcast.

FA065:Online Entrepreneurship For Women With The DailyDigi's Steph

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:11:31 -0700

A conversation on women running or starting an online business with special guest Steph of TheDailyDigi.com.

FA064: Become A Virtual CEO With Chris Ducker

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:08:31 -0700

In this episode you'll learn secrets of outsourcing and arranging your work to allow you the lifestyle you desire -- all while building a hugely successful business.

FA063: The Break Up Episode

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:59:47 -0700

No show description needed for this one. It is a must listen…

A huge, shocking announcement…

Listen now to find out what it is!

FA062: How to Build a Minimum Viable Business

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:42:52 -0700

We’ve talked about the Minimum Viable Product, but now we take it up a notch.

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…

FA061: 8 Ways To Find Out What People Need

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:46:17 -0700

Before Starting Your Business Or Creating A Product
Know What Your Market Needs

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.

FA060: How to Create a Successful Membership Site: Tim Bourquin Interview

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:28:42 -0700

From Police Officer To New Media Mogul: An Interview With Tim Bourquin of TraderInterviews.com

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

FA059: Are You Chasing Fads or Trends?

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:22:21 -0700

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.

FA058: Invest in Yourself

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:43:34 -0700

How Advice From A Roman Emperor Can Make You Successful Today

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.

FA057: The Niche and the MVP

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:47:12 -0700

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,

FA056: How Important Is a Needs-Based Business?

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:27:11 -0700

Tim and I sometimes agree, and well, sometimes we don’t. And that’s okay, because it makes the show interesting, right?

In this new episode of Foolish Adventure, we have a bit of a debate about what’s more important: building a business about something we love, or building a business to meet a customer need?

After you listen to the show, let us know your thoughts in the comments…

FA055: Real Business Vs. Making Money

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 06:40:53 -0700

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.

FA054: Turning Expertise Into an Internet Business

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:05:26 -0700

Career Expertise Plus Passion Creates A Growing Info-Product Business

Izzy and Tim interview Foolish Adventure member, Jules Watkins of 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

FA053: Repurposing Content to Increase Your Product Line

Thu, 26 May 2011 08:23:24 -0700

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

FA052: Produce More Profits with Product Progression

Thu, 19 May 2011 08:09:55 -0700

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.

FA051: The Art of Time, Income, and Mobility

Thu, 12 May 2011 07:19:02 -0700

Discover The Importance Of T.I.M.

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

FA050: Knowing What Levers to Pull

Thu, 05 May 2011 06:30:45 -0700

I'm not embarrassed by what I’m about to tell you. It happens to everyone at some point…

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.

FA049: Is Your Online Business Healthy?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:06:43 -0700

Do you know the vital signs of your business?

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

FA048: Freedom Changes Everything, and It's Online

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 08:08:49 -0700

Freedom Changes Everything…
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

FA047: Busting 5 Internet Business Myths

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:26:16 -0700

Believing In Myths Can Prevent Success From Becoming A Reality

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

FA046: The Power of Online Advertising

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:11:27 -0700

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

FA045: Sell! Sell! Sell! 7 Steps to Selling Like a Pro

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:15:04 -0700

Izzy’s Seven Steps To Selling Like A Pro…Plus
Tons Of Online Business Sales Tips

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.
Mentioned In The Show

People
Joe Polish
Dan & Ian of Lifestyle Business Podcast

Books
Prospecting Sucks! How to Bring Professional, Effective Direct-Response Advertising & Marketing to the Network Marketing Business

Or get Dan Kennedy’s updated version that talks about many of the same things as Prospecting Sucks.
No B.S. Sales Success: The Ultimate No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners, Tough and Spirited Guide

Note: The above are Amazon affiliate links. We’ll make a few cents if you purchase from them.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

FA044: Use Your Passion, Don't Sell It

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 06:45:47 -0700

Our tangent-driven heros — one carrying a deadly illness (the sniffles) — bring you another exciting episode of The Foolish Adventure Show! Tim and Izzy share harrowing tales of people without passion, online business mayhem, and monsters that only eat the ambidextrous. Okay, that last one is made up.

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

FA043: Lifestyle Business Design Roundtable

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 08:56:52 -0700

How To Design Your Business To Support Your Lifestyle

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

FA042: Foolish Guide to Being Decisive

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:05:34 -0700

Making Decisions Builds Confidence
And Confidence Leads To Success

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

FA041: The Future of Online Business is Paid Content

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:27:06 -0700

The Free Content Vs Paid Content Debate

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

FA040: How to Create a Breakthrough in Your Online Business

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:22:06 -0700

For Episode 40, we wanted a big topic to celebrate so we are hitting you with business breakthroughs.

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

FA039: Are You a Failure? And 5 Ways Not to Be.

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:49:25 -0700

How Not To Be A Failure

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

PS. You also get a peek into Tim’s “Your Fly Is Down” consulting system.

FA038: How to Make Money from Your Podcast

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:42:54 -0700

Podcasting…We Finally Did It!

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

FA037: Grow Your Internet Business by Extending Your Reach

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:02:59 -0700

Izzy and Tim dive into a topic that increases your traffic, revenue and authority. This episode is all about Extending Your Reach.

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…

Enjoy the show,

Izzy and Tim

FA036: How to BE great content

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:58:50 -0700

Creating Valuable Content, Differentiation and a Persona

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.

Also, tomorrow we’ll be posting answers to questions we’re getting about our membership site launch.

Enjoy your Foolish Content,

Tim and Izzy

FA035: Stephen King and a Content Creator Walk Into a Bar: An Analysis Paralysis Parable

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:11:53 -0700

Izzy VS Tim

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.
Our Picks Of The Week

Izzy’s pick is Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communication

Tim’s pick is personal finance management site: Mint.com

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

FA034: How to REALLY Get Things Done

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 08:45:54 -0700

Overcoming Resistance To Getting Things Done

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.
Our Picks of the Week

Pomodoro Technique: focus & time management system

WordPress Documentation: need answers to a WordPress problem–search here first.

Bustaname: Researching a great domain name
Coming Soon…

We have mentioned on recent episodes that we are launching a membership site. Our birthdays are just days apart so we want to launch on Tim’s birthday (Jan 24th) and close enrollment on Izzy’s birthday (Jan 29th). For us, this is a great way to celebrate our birthdays (also it’s Tim’s 40th) and keep our initial charter members limited so we can focus our attention on helping you build your business.

More details will be coming soon.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim and Izzy

FA033: Content Creators Unite! Our Foolish Manifesto

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:45:12 -0700

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.
Picks Of The Week

Tim picked a book that was influential in his life, Getting Everything You Can Out of Everything You’ve Got by Jay Abraham. Click here to see this book and others recommended by Tim.

Izzy picked a site he gets a lot of useful blogging and business knowledge from called Copyblogger. Even if you’re not a blogger, you will still get information you can use.

Enjoy the Audio Manifesto,

Tim And Izzy

FA032: Your Internet Business Education: When to Invest in Training

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:37:22 -0700

In this episode our stalwart co-hosts do the expected–they deviated from their new format.

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.

In the Picks of the Week segment Izzy picked a Problogger post that you can read here. Tim almost created a pithy saying, but fumbled it at the end and had to get help from Izzy to complete the thought.

Tim picked Google’s Gmail because is awesome and topped with awesome sauce. Having the ability to run your email from anywhere without worrying about spam or losing your email. Also it is super easy to locate email so you don’t have to have folder upon folder to organize your email.

Have a great New Year,

Tim and Izzy

FA031: The Power of TOT: Testing, Optimization, and Tracking in Your Internet Business

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:07:38 -0700

Mail Segment:
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.

Picks of The Week:

Tim’s Pick: Internet Business Mastery: I’ve been listening to this podcast shortly after they went ‘live’ on iTunes. They are definitely a favorite of mine and they’ll give you a different perspective about online businesses. Go get their 3 Pillars of Designing Your Ultimate Internet Lifestyle. This is a great tool for setting your goals and getting motivated to accomplish them.

Izzy’s Pick: Landing Page Optimization For Dummies by Martin Harwood & Michael Harwood is a great book to learn how to get more conversions on your website. It is a great supplement to this episode.

FA030.5: A Ridiculously Extraordinary Online Business & Lifestyle: Karol Gajda Interview

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:41:27 -0700

I have been watching what Karol Gajda of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com has been doing online for about a year and he has done some very interesting product launches, networks with others in his industry and has used Manifesto Marketing (like Izzy & I talked about in episode #28).

Another reason I wanted Karol on the show is that we share a couple of other interests–travel and vegetarian diet. Karol & Izzy are vegan (eat no animal-based products at all) and I am an ovo-lacto vegetarian (I eat unfertilized eggs & dairy products).

Foolish Adventure is about creating the lifestyle you desire for yourself through an online business so I wanted you to hear from someone who has created a life he loves, but “normal” people may find foolish.

Enjoy the show,

FA030: Buying Websites to Build Your Online Business

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:57:25 -0700

We have created a new format for our regular episodes. We’ve added a Mail segment, which we answer questions or talk about a topic brought up in our voicemail line, email or in comments both on the site and on Facebook. Also we added Picks of the Week where we each name something we like and tell you why it is useful, cool or whatever.

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.

Mentioned in the show: Flippa

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Tim & Izzy

FA029.5: Smart Passive INcome From Your Internet Business: Pat Flynn Interview

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:18:55 -0700

Pat Flynn became an Internet entrepreneur after being laid off from his architecture job, but thankfully he had been building an audience that was interested in passing an architecture certification exam.

In this interview, you’ll hear how Pat turned his study notes into a full-time income and then how he has grown into several other online businesses. He talks about his niche sites, affiliate marketing and building iPhone apps. This is an interview you don’t want to miss.

Check out his website and his podcast (Izzy and I enjoy both) over at The Smart Passive Income Blog.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

Izzy and Tim

FA029: How to Use Social Proof In Your Internet Business

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:37:21 -0700

Where’s Your Proof?

One of the most powerful tools of marketing is social proof. It can also be misused–so be cool with it.

In this episode, we talk about what social proof is, how to get it and what to do with it. We cover customer testimonials, of course, but also go into a few forms of social proof you may not have thought to use.

Below is the video we discuss in the show. You can watch it before or after listening to the show.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure!

Izzy and Tim

FA028: Manifesto Marketing: The Power of Declaring Your Story

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:39:19 -0700

man · i · fes · to: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or view of its issuer (Merriam-Webster)

In this episode, Izzy and Tim discuss the recent rise in creating a manifesto to drive traffic to your site and increase audience engagement.

This is a powerful new tool in Internet marketing, but also a true way to show your authenticity.

Here is a great example of a manifesto that helped build a large audience: A Brief Guide To World Domination: How to Live a Remarkable Life In a Conventional World. You can find the pdf download link on that page.

Here is a recent manifesto that helped add several thousand new subscribers: 18 Months, 2 Blogs, Six Figures

Have a listen and then go make your Foolish Declaration!

Izzy and Tim

FA027: From Hobby to Industry Content Site: Mark Robertson from ReelSEO.com Interview

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:11:27 -0700

IN this interview episode, Izzy and Tim interview Mark Robertson of ReelSEO.com. Mark was working in search engine optimization, but decided to learn about the emerging video SEO industry. He took his blog from a personal interest to an industry-leading content site in just 2 years.

You will definitely learn a lot about creating and growing in your niche and get some tips to optimize your site and videos.

A couple things mentioned in the interview:

TubeMogul: Distribute videos to multiple video hosting sites.

Yoast: A leader in Search Engine Optimization and WordPress plugins

This one is a great interview though we had skype audio difficulties.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure!

Izzy and Tim

FA026: Nuts and Bolts of Making a Digital Information Product, Part 2

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:38:04 -0700

Video, Audio, Webinars, Teleseminars and More!

In this episode, we continue our conversation about creating your digital info product. We covered making an ebook in the last episode, but this one we wanted to talk about using different media for creation. Also, we talk about getting paid before and after the creation of your product.

Also inside we mention some software we use to make these products. Check them out below.

GoToWebinar – great tool for teaching how to do something on the computer. Preferred method when you need to show people instead of just tell them.

Screen Capture Software

Camtasia – both for PC and Mac; record what is on your computer screen with voice narration

Screenflow – similar to camtasia, but only for Mac

Jing – Up to 5 minute screen capture videos. No editing tools, but awesome for quick how-to videos.

Depending on the questions we receive, we might record a part 3 to this series. We think there is a lot more to say on the topic and we want to know what you think we should cover.

Enjoy the show!

Izzy and Tim

FA025: Nuts and Bolts of Making a Digital Information Product

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:14:51 -0700

We’ve been asked several times to talk about how to make an info product and turns out we had a lot to say.

This episode focuses heavily on making an ebook, but the concepts we cover can be used for any info product.

Note From Tim: We didn’t talk about using specific tools for ebook creation, though. When I’m making a PDF, I use cutePDF to turn doc files into PDF. It is free and wholly inadequate for doing high quality ebooks. The people I hire from eLance.com typically use inDesign to layout and design the ebook and then Adobe Acrobat to turn it into a PDF.

FA024: Biology Teacher Evolves Into an Internet Entrepreneur: An Interview with Leslie the Freebie Guy

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:03:29 -0700

Leslie Samuel (aka The Freebie Guy) was commenting and asking questions several times on our site. But most importantly, he reported back to us how he was taking action on what he was learning.

We thought it would be interesting to interview one of our listeners, especially one who has had an online business for several years to see what Leslie was up to and what we could learn from him.

This interview goes into the power of online networking with people in your niche, time management (how to handle a full-time job and run several niche sites) and many more topics we hope you get a lot of actionable takeaways as we did.

FA023: How to Craft a Sales Page for Your Digital Product

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:06:44 -0700

Creating a Sales Page for Your Internet Business Doesn’t Have to be Scary

Sparked by a listener email, Izzy and Tim set off on a Foolish discussion about what makes a good sales page.

* You’ll learn about techniques from the offline world of direct response marketing that still work today in an online business.
* New forms of sales pages are discussed such as audio and video sales messages.
* Tim covers some important elements that were in the Foolish Guide to WordPress sales page he wrote.
* All this and much more…such as going off on mostly-related tangents, but all filled with Foolish knowledge.

FA022: Our Foolish Interview with Don McAllister from ScreencastsOnline.com

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:30:07 -0700

I learned the basics of my business model from Don McAllister, the host of ScreencastsOnline. The things he showed me had an enormous impact on me and my life. And frankly, his willingness to share with me is one of the reasons I want to share what I’ve learned with you.

His story is inspiring and packed full of great lessons. Enjoy!

All the best,

Izzy

FA021: The First Foolish Success

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:05:15 -0700

This episode is loaded with valuable information. Inside the audio, you’ll hear us talk about:

Strategies for doing a product launch
How to increase conversions on your website
Some strategy examples from Amazon.com
How to create dual readership paths
More things you can learn from Izzy’s mistakes

This one is fun, and hopefully useful. Enjoy!

FA020: Inside Two Successful Membership Sites

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:03:12 -0700

This episode gives you an inside look into how Izzy and his wife, Noell, started and operate their successful membership websites.

You’ll learn about some of their mistakes, how Izzy was able to quit his full time, stress-filled corporate job and how they view growing online businesses.

They have made some very Foolish choices to protect their lifestyle so they didn’t turn their passions into J.O.B.s.

There is a ton of laughing in this show. If you hate fun, don’t listen.

Otherwise, enjoy this inside look.

FA019: Online Success Starts with Mindset

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:45:58 -0700

How we perceive the world and the events that happen around us and to us greatly affects your success. It may even determine whether you succeed or fail.

In this episode, Izzy and Tim go on a meandering walk through mindset. This one is more philosophical, but still has some practical ideas you can use in your life to get your online business going and make it a success.

FA018: Making Money Online: Behind the Scenes

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:00:43 -0700

Here’s another show where Izzy and Tim pull back the curtain on how they monetized the Foolish Adventure show.

The Foolish Adventure Show will always be free. That was the promise made in the beginning and it will always remain, but we need to be able to fund this show. We set out to give the best of our knowledge for free, but knew many would want specific how-to information that a show format really couldn’t deliver.

In this show, you’ll hear the thought process behind how we planned to make money and we explain the steps used to launch “The Foolish Guide to Creating a Website With WordPress.”

Enjoy the show!

FA017: Going Pro: Charging for Your Content

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:37:25 -0700

If you’re someone who already has a website with content, and you’re looking to make money with it now, this show should give you some ideas. Tim and I explore several options for the money-making transition.

Learn how to go from hobbyist to pro with several strategies:

Moving the free line
Izzy’s 3 product approach
Various ways to organize your content for sale
Evergreen content vs time-sensitive or news-based content
Enjoy the show…

FA016: The Niche: How to Find Yours and Then Scale Up

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:22:35 -0700

Getting Niche-y With It

Bad jokes aside, this episode goes deeper into the strategic value of finding your niche. We cover finding an online niche within a niche and how to scale up to larger audiences.

You’ll learn why we think you should start with the smallest niche possible especially if you are a beginner and how to leverage that smallness to build your authority and market leadership.

Enjoy the show…

FA015: How to Focus on What is Important in Your Online Business

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 07:49:58 -0700

This episode is a conversation about what is really mission-critical in starting and building an online business.

Izzy and I were discussing the topic of priorities and pitfalls and then decided to go into the studio to record our thoughts. There was no planning–at all. Just stuff we thought was super critical so you don’t end up wasting time on things that may seem important, but aren’t.

Even though this is a long episode, there is still so much to say so please join in the discussion in the comments below or ask a question on our voicemail at +1 (480) 331-4695.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

~ t

FA014: How to Name Your Online Business

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 06:15:40 -0700

In this episode, Izzy and Tim talk about naming your online business using two major naming strategies: Branding and Search.

We give you resources to look for good domain names and how to get them even if they are not available.

There are also lots of Do’s & Don’ts with domain names to get the most out of your website name.

Izzy and Tim prefer the branding approach to naming, but also recommend doing search naming together to drive as much traffic to your online business as possible.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure…

Please take a second to share this episode on Facebook, Twitter or email it to a friend. Thanks for helping spread the word.

FA013: Tips and Warnings Regarding Paid Traffic

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:10:04 -0700

Hi again!

Tim and I promised we would talk about paid traffic, so here’s a show that digs into this wild and crazy subject. Because my own experience is limited with this type of traffic-building, I decided to squeeze the information out of Tim through an intense interview (which he survived just fine).

If you’ve been thinking about trying this method for traffic, listen well and take notes. This show is packed full of great stuff.

Enjoy!

All the best,

Izzy

P.S.> We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you do, we would really appreciate it if you could give us a positive rating on iTunes. Hey, it only takes a minute!

FA012: Foolish Q&A + What Are Our Core Values

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:17:08 -0700

Today we do something different. Izzy and I answer questions we have received on our voicemail. Maybe we should call it the Fool Phone like the old Adam West Batphone. But we aren’t going to name it that since Izzy won’t let me have a utility belt to go with it–something about endangering the populace.

We also talk about defining the core values of what Foolish means to us and to you. So we need your help in what you think a Foolish Adventure is.

Call in and leave questions or comments on our voicemail [+1 (480) 331-4695] or feel free to jump into the conversation in the comments section.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

FA011: How to Quit Your Job and Live Your Passion: A Foolish Interview

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:09:57 -0700

This episode is an awesome Foolish First.

Izzy and Tim interview the coolest cat in woodworking, Marc Spagnuolo of The Wood Whisperer.

Marc shares some great ways to start and grow your own online business. He’s so good we ask him to become the permanent host of Foolish Adventure so we could just sit back and sip drinks with little umbrellas.

Marc politely declines. And we don’t blame him — his online business is doing very well so listen in.

And take notes.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure…

FA010: Find and Develop Your Foolish Expertise

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:06:30 -0700

In this episode, Izzy and Tim cover finding and developing your expertise for your niche. We cover partnering with experts, finding time to become an expert and many more ways.

You might find that you are already an expert without knowing it. Tim even brings up a new type of expert that has been working in a bunch of niches for the last few years.

Stay Foolish, my friend.

FA009: Bootstrap Your Business and Your Life

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:18:15 -0700

I guess you could call this episode of Foolish Adventure “The Soapbox Edition” or “Wandering Around Inside Foolish Minds.”

We set out to cover just bootstrapping an online business and then dove into ways to bootstrap your life by conserving money and time.

Izzy and I have a wager that we get some hate emails. They say to polarize your audience–well, this might be the show to do it.

Enjoy…

~ t

FA008: Making Money Online, Enough Said

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:00:28 -0700

All about the Benjamins!

Pockets full of Franklins!

In case it’s been awhile since you’ve seen one, Ben Franklin is on the $100 bill. And if it has been awhile, then this show should get you on track to putting them back in your pocket.

Was that enough hype for you? I do try.

Izzy and I discuss, well, making money. Making offers and getting paid. Oh, and Izzy gets a bit more consulting out of me.

Enjoy the show,

FA007: Even More Awesome Audience-Building Traffic Sources

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:11:17 -0700

Welcome to the Bond episode, FA007, licensed to grow your business. Okay, that’s pretty lame even for me.

In today’s show we continue our discussion from Monday on Unpaid Traffic tactics. Unpaid meaning takes time, but not money.

In a future episode we’ll cover ways for you to spend yo’ money to get targeted traffic to make mo’ money.

Enough lameness from me…

Enjoy the show and as always leave us comments & questions,

FA006: Six Free Traffic Sources for Audience Building

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:59:03 -0700

By Popular Demand:

We have gotten comments and emails asking for traffic generating strategies and tactics. So we decided to not wait any longer. Today’s show is Part 1 in our Traffic Source series and covers 6 of our favorite traffic tactics for building a following. (Izzy wanted to cover 5 and I made him throw in a bonus.)

Why just 6 in this show? Well, we wanted to give you some depth on each source instead of just making a quick list of traffic ideas.

In Part 2 (coming out Thursday), we cover another 6 great free traffic building tactics.

Listen in and enjoy our Traffic Source Series.

FA005: The Thing We Wish We Had Done Sooner

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:12:51 -0700

In today’s show, Izzy and Tim reveal things they wish they had done sooner with their businesses.

Tim again gives Izzy some free consulting about optimizing and tweaking his business to get greater results.

Tim talks about his reluctance to be a “guru” and how he stayed behind the scenes in the marketing world and what he wished he had done sooner.

Have a listen and enjoy the show…

(It’s a short one today)

FA004: Looking at Super (Business) Models

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:09:58 -0700

The Adventure continues with our foolish heroes talking about models–the super kind.

Business Models, Baby!

Listen to hear the pros and cons of the major business models and which one we highly recommend. To us, this one model has very few cons and lots of pros. It will be the one we spend the most time on in future shows.

FA003: Musical Marketing Mayhem and Other Awkwardness

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:28:02 -0700

In this “behind the scenes” show, Izzy and Tim remove any sense of structure to share their conversations about:

Izzy’s Super-Trademarked, Ultra-Copyrighted Secret Marketing Strategy
A listener’s business idea gets some Foolish advice
Izzy puts out a call for a new business partner…
…After getting some on-air consulting from Tim
You’ll get some truly Foolish insights, ideas and (hopefully) inspiration to take action on your online business. Listen now!

FA002: Products, Services, and Bits

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:26:02 -0700

In our first installment, we discussed finding your passion to know what niche you should be in. In this second installment, Izzy and I cover what form your passion should take — physical products, services or digital products (we call them bits).

Inside this show, you’ll find pros and cons for each type and which one we prefer (I bet you can guess).

FA001: Passions and Obstacles

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:15:43 -0700

This is the first episode of the Foolish Adventure podcast. Israel Hyman and Tim Conley discuss tips for getting started when you're building an online business.