In The Trenches with Tom Morkes provides behind-the-scenes look into the life and work of entrepreneurs, writers, artists, warriors, and leaders.
Episodes
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
Ryan Waggoner is a freelance developer, and the creator of letsmakeapps.io. Ryan created LetsMakeApps as a way to generate more leads for his development business, and is dedicated to helping his audience do the same.
In this broadcast, Ryan Waggoner and I talk about:
- 2:23 – How Ryan got into freelance development work, and grew that into a million dollar business
- 3:22 – How Ryan chooses to position himself in a specific niche, and why it s important
- 11:12 – Why freelancers should never charge hourly (and the alternative value based pricing)
- 16:24 – The luxury of having enough leads to be able to charge more, and say no
- 18:37 – How Ryan used Craigslist to find a $107,000 piece of business
- 20:40 – How to find, vet, and close freelance development leads (and how to make it easy with letsmakeapps.io)
- 25:45 – Why the best work is repeat business
- 26:51 – The importance of managing your time and mental work load as a freelancer
- 29:02 – How many projects Ryan has on at a time, and how he structures his week
How to find Ryan Waggoner online:
- Website: ryanwaggoner.com
- Ryan s service: letsmakeapps.io
- Check out letsmakeapps.io/itt to get some great giveaways from Ryan, including 30% off a letsmakeapps.io pro plan, and a guide to how Ryan made his first million dollars from freelancing.
If you enjoyed today s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 089: How to Take Your Freelancing Business to the Next Level with Ryan Waggoner appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Tuesday May 17, 2016
Tuesday May 17, 2016
A technology & innovation guru, Scott Bales is a global leader in the cutting edge arena known as The Digital Shift, encompassing innovation, culture, design, and mobility in a world gone digital. As thought leader, Scott thrives on the intersection between cultural and behavioural changes in the face of technology advancement.
Scott is also the author of the upcoming “Innovation Wars” – a book that will show you how to drive innovation in your company, big or small.
The book is currently being crowdfunded on Publishizer – order your advance copy here.
In this broadcast, Scott Bales and I talk about:
- What drives innovation (and why it matters)
- How to create innovation in your company
- How Scott is driving innovation in the publishing sector
- Why “Bridge Publishing” could be the latest innovation in publishing
How to find Scott Bales online:
- Website: scottebales.com
- Scott Bales’ latest book: Innovation Wars
- Twitter: @scottebales
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 088: How to Drive Innovation in Your Startup with Scott Bales appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Apr 04, 2016
Monday Apr 04, 2016
Marshall Van Alstyne is the Chair of the Information Systems Department at Boston University, Research Associate at MIT s Initiative on the Digital Economy, Co-Author of the book Platform Revolution , writer for Harvard Business Review as well as other articles including Strategies for Two-sided Markets .
In this broadcast, Marshall Van Alstyne and I talk about:
- How his experience of coming up through the Dot.Com boom helped him to understand platforms.
- The four times that giving things away for free works in platform creation.
- Examples of how companies fail to understand the nature of platforms.
- The differences between Network Effect and Virality.
- The Anatomy of the Sneeze and how it helps us to understand Virality.
- Host: who is infected already
- Target: who are you trying to reach
- Germ: idea you want to spread
- Medium the way that idea is spread
- The problems associated with launching a platform.
- Six different launch strategies and how they work.
- The importance of testing your market to see which launch strategy is a good fit for your company.
- The relationship between monetization and launch strategies.
- How competition may affect your launch.
How to find Marshall Van Alstyne online:
- Website: platforms.bu.edu
- Marshall s book Platform Revolution .
- Twitter: @InfoEcon
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 087: How to Create a Platform with Marshall Van Alstyne appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Mar 28, 2016
Monday Mar 28, 2016
Mojca Mars is the creator of Super Spicy Media, an advertising firm that focuses on helping clients with their online presence through social media. Mojca began her career as a journalist before founding her ad agency at the age of twenty-one.
In this broadcast, Mojca Mars and I talk about:
- The joys of being your own boss
- The challenges that come with dealing with clients as a millennial.
- Her mindset of using hurdles in business as a way to prove yourself.
- The process of setting goals continually to measure where you are in your business.
- Positioning her company in the international, English speaking market instead of a local business.
- Transitioning from a purely service based business into the informational product market.
- How products can help provide passive income.
- Finding the time to work on your business and not simply in the business.
- Building authority with potential clients through social media.
How to find Mojca Mars online:
- Website: http://superspicymedia.com/
- Twitter: @mojcamars
Check out SuperSpicyMedia.com/ITT to learn more about Mojca and her company, find many resources, and a 50% discount for our listeners on her book Facebook Ads Manual: Everything you need to know to get started .
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 086: How to Build a Business as a Millennial with Mojca Mars appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Mar 21, 2016
Monday Mar 21, 2016
Philip Morgan is the founder of Philip Morgan Consulting which helps firms generate and close more leads. They focus on education based content marketing and marketing automation as well as helping their clients with positioning their company in a way that helps them grow market share.
In this broadcast, Philip Morgan and I talk about:
- Philip’s background in technology and how he started his own business
- The mistakes he says he made in transitioning from an employee to business owner, including:
- Not building a strong professional network
- Not marketing the business well (and relying on people coming to him)
- His advice for building your network, such as:
- Thinking about how other people will remember you
- Finding communities where people gather and providing them with value
- The misconception that some people are just lucky to have good connections
- Using the Internet Archive Way Back Machine found at archive.org/web to learn about how different web sites have grown and changed over time
- How positioning your company well can help you increase the number of quality leads for your business
- Why it is that marketing works better when you have a strong, narrow focus
- Why the first step of being focused is to decide what to stop doing and why that focus will help people perceive you as an expert
- How having a narrow focus will help you gain experience faster by understanding what creates value for your specific customer base
- Why value ought to be the foundation for determining your prices
- Philip’s experience using online channels to get more clients.
- Some of the pitfalls of using content marketing alone to drive traffic to your site
- The benefits of building trust with your leads through teaching
How to find Philip Morgan online:
Other Resources Mentioned:
- If you are interested in learning more about positioning Philip recommends you start at PositioningCrashCourse.com
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 085: How to Position Your Company for Rapid Growth with Philip Morgan appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Mar 14, 2016
Monday Mar 14, 2016
Jonathan Raymond is the founder of Refound.com and the author of a new book called Good Authority . Jonathan has worked in many businesses, including, in the wind energy sector, as a lawyer, and as a yoga instructor. He began his work as a business consultant when he became the CEO of EMyth in 2011.
In this broadcast, Jonathan Raymond and I talk about:
- How becoming the CEO of EMyth helped him begin to find his balance in life.
- Why it is that Refound.com has the goal of helping the helper .
- Some of the common challenges to holding people accountable in business and organizations.
- How to hold people accountable while keeping an open heart. How to be a boss who is not too tough or too soft.
- Identifying some of the symptoms of being a boss who is not great at accountability with his team, including:
- Constantly finding yourself mediating disputes between people.
- Having the sense that there are sloppy mistakes being made by your team.
- Having people continually check in with you on tasks they should be able to complete themselves.
- Finding that every meeting ends with a call for better communication.
- Frequently seeing that something is off with your team but not doing anything about it.
- How to take proactive steps to avoid these accountability and communication problems by naming the problem and setting up a culture of communication within your organization.
- The problems that happen when bosses forget that they do have power, which can cause a barrier to honest communication.
- His theory of the Trickle-Down-Transformation , how it happens and why it does not work.
- How the alternative to Trickle-Down-Transformation is real time feed back, a culture of communication within the organization, and consistent outside feedback from those who are structurally outside of the day-to-day operations of the organization.
How to find Jonathan Raymond online:
- Websites: Refound.com
- Book: Good Authority: How to Become the Leader Your Team Is Waiting For
- Course: The Culture Course
- Twitter: @jonathanraymond
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 084: How To Become an Effective Leader with Jonathan Raymond appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Mar 07, 2016
Monday Mar 07, 2016
Keith Perhac is the founder of DelfiNet, the co-founder of SegMetrics, and the co-founder of Summit Evergreen. Keith had done work as a developer and designer before starting his first company, DelfiNet. He helps companies automate, measure, and drastically improve your sales and marketing funnels that drive their business.
In this broadcast, Keith Perhac and I talk about:
- How he got his first client and what he learned through that experience.
- How his love for analytics drove him to start SegMetrics.
- Summit Evergreen filling the void of course-ware that provided customers custom integration, full customization, was hosted, and could be fully integrated into an already existing sales platform.
- The process for his team to develop software.
- The difference in thinking between a product launch and an evergreen sales funnel.
How to find Keith Perhac online:
- Websites: summitevergreen.com, segmetrics.io, keithperhac.com
- Twitter: @harisenbon79
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 083: How to Build a 6-Figure Sales Funnel with Keith Perhac appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Feb 29, 2016
Monday Feb 29, 2016
Danny Flood is the founder of Open World Magazine and the author of multiple books, including Buy Your Own Island . He is also the host of the OpenWorld podcast. Danny has started three separate location-independent businesses that he successfully ran remotely from various corners of the globe.
In this broadcast, Danny Flood and I talk about:
- His life as a nomadic minimalist.
- His travels around the world and how he came to live in Bangkok.
- How Danny went from running his own successful digital advertising agency to starting Open World Magazine.
- How his book Buy Your Own Island helps people face their fears and set their dream goals.
- Danny tells us how he knew he needed world experience to be a successful writer and how he has gotten that experience.
- He explains how being on multiple platforms has helped him find his 1000 True Fans .
- Danny talks about his choice to use a subscription based model to fund the magazine.
- He discusses with us his goals for the year and how he plans to achieve those goals while traveling and living abroad.
How to find Danny Flood online:
- Website: openworldmag.com
- E-mail: danny@openworldmag.com
- Audiobook of Buy Your Own Island
- Twitter: @dandanflood
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 082: Building a Location-Independent Business with Danny Flood appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Feb 22, 2016
Monday Feb 22, 2016
Kurt Elster is the founder of Ethercycle. He has an MBA as a Senior E-commerce Consultant who helps Shopify owners uncover hidden profits in their website. Kurt got his start in business as a product manager for a company that drop shipped car parts, however he knew he wanted to be in business for himself. He started his own agency that offered a broad range of services before niching down and driving his income up.
In this broadcast, Kurt Elster and I talk about:
- How he made the decision to niche down and only work on Shopify websites.
- Why it is it that The smaller the niche, the smaller the audience, the easier it is to sell, the more you look like an expert .
- How niching down can radically increase the effectiveness of your marketing.
- His choice to do the work that gives joy.
- The value of word of mouth and getting the most out of that by, first, giving people the best possible experience, and second, doing everything you can to keep yourself top of mind.
- Remembering that everything comes down to relationships. Your website should reflect that.
- How he qualifies clients based on the size of their team.
- How Kurt uses tools like Clarity Calls to decide which clients would be a good fit.
How to find Kurt Elster online:
- Website: www.kurtelster.com
- Podcast: www.unofficialshopifypodcast.com
- Video Course: www.ecommerce-bootcamp.com (use the code TRENCHES for a 25% discount)
- Twitter: @kurtinc
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 081: How to Rapidly Qualify Lucrative Clients with Kurt Elster appeared first on Tom Morkes.
Monday Feb 15, 2016
Monday Feb 15, 2016
Jane Portman is the founder of uibreakfast.com. She is the author of The UI Audit and has developed a course with the same name for SaaS Founders, developers and UI/UX designers and consultants. She started doing design work in high school, came up through the agency system, and then after having children, started doing consulting.
In this broadcast, Jane Portman and I talk about:
- What makes good user interface
- The best ways to choose colors and fonts, as well as the benefits of templates
- The advantages of creating products based on audience research
- How she has been able to reach her target consumers
- The process of setting prices and knowing whether to offer a book or a course
- The process of moving from consultation to information product production
- The importance of focusing on your audience, coming up with simple solutions to one of their problems
How to find Jane Portman online:
- Website: uibreakfast.com
- Twitter: @uibreakfast
If you enjoyed today’s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
The post ITT 080: How to Put Your Audience First with Jane Portman appeared first on Tom Morkes.