In The Trenches with Tom Morkes provides behind-the-scenes look into the life and work of entrepreneurs, writers, artists, warriors, and leaders.
Episodes
Monday Jul 22, 2019
Monday Jul 22, 2019
Michael Greenberg is a serial entrepreneur, strategist, founder of Gentleman of Technology and the CEO of Call for Content, a white label podcasting agency. In a nutshell, Call for Content helps agency owners book podcasts for their clients. Instead of going the typical straight to client approach, they sell their services to agencies who then resell the service to their existing clients.
In today’s conversation, I sit down with Michael Greenberg to discuss all things podcasting. My big takeaway from today’s conversation is that if you already do client based work, you really should consider what a white label, B2B type structure would look like for you. This is especially helpful, if you are somebody who really likes the implementation side, but you struggle with the sales side. During this conversation, we really dive deep into how you can make money podcasting without dealing with the administrative side of things. Without further ado, let’s dive into the conversation!
In this broadcast, Michael and I talk about:
- How Michael entered the business-to-business space
- In what ways can clients take advantage of podcasts
- Why Michael decided to productize podcasting for his clients
- What agencies are ideal targets for his services
- How to maintain relationships with agencies in the white label space
- How Michael plans to scale in the podcasting community
- In what ways you can apply authority marketing in podcasting
- The shotgun approach v.s. Michael’s preferred laser focus type of marketing
- The importance of recent and consistent appearances on podcasts for return of investment
- Why you should shift your view of a podcast to a speaking engagement v.s. an audio blog
- How engaging your podcast audience in an open ended conversation leads to growth by word of mouth
- How to increase your amount of podcast downloads
- Where Michael views the future of podcasting is heading
- When to decide if moving to a paid subscription for a podcast would be beneficial for you
How to Connect with Michael:
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Monday Jul 15, 2019
Monday Jul 15, 2019
Caspar Craven is a conference and corporate event speaker, adventurer who sailed around the world with his wife and three children, and the best selling author of the book Where the Magic Happens.
In today’s episode, Caspar and I talk about his experience sailing around the world with his wife and three children, who are all under the age of 10, and how he was able to manage his family and his business at the same time. We discuss what he learned about entrepreneurship, productivity, success and overall happiness in general. My big takeaway from today’s conversation is that everyone should have a goal and an aim for their family. This goal and aim should pull your family into the future so that they are inspired collectively.
In this broadcast, Caspar and I talk about:
- What it was like to sail around the world with his family in tow
- How Caspar was able to manage his expenses while traveling
- How his travels led to developing new business ventures
- What were the challenges surrounding time spent working on his businesses versus time he was able to spend with family
- How to create a strong narrative at home to positively impact your business
- What is a family story and why is it important
- The importance of clarity and excitement in a family story
- How critical it is to carry out your vision and your family story
- Why focusing on your values is a core way to engage teamwork
- Ways to establish a timeline that fits in with your goals and your current situation
- Why you need joint engagement regarding the creation of a family story
- What are rituals and how do they shape your lifestyle
How to Connect with Caspar:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Tuesday Jul 09, 2019
Tuesday Jul 09, 2019
Dov Gordon is a coach who helps consultants, coaches and experts get ideal clients. He is the founder and head coach of The Alchemist Entrepreneur, which works on the core concepts of your marketing message and systematic implementation.
On today’s episode, I sit down with Dov Gordon, a coach who helps consultants, coaches and experts land their ideal clients. We dive into precisely how you should be crafting your tagline or hooks that will allow you to get more clients. My big takeaway from today’s conversation is Dov’s three step process that he walks through with clients when he’s helping them develop their taglines and hooks.
In this broadcast, Dov and I talk about:
- What led Dov to enter the consultant space
- How did Dov use the “live it to learn it” mentality
- In what ways did Dov use experiential learning without a college education
- What is the “path of mastery” and how it applies to a marketing funnel
- How to lead a customer through an experience
- The importance of connecting with a master/mentor to save yourself time
- What is considered interesting content for an ideal customer/client
- How the ideal client is concerned with a problem that they have and don’t want, and a result they want and don’t have
- Why starting simple, such as assessing a general problem, engages further interest in the consultation
- In what ways can a consultant shift positions to attract higher end clients
- Why a consultant should ask themselves what problems they help solve and what results they can enable
- When you gain the trust of an ideal client, how do you effectively close
How to Connect with Dov:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Jul 01, 2019
Monday Jul 01, 2019
Eric Bandholz is the founder of Beardbrand and the first urban beardsman. He is passionate about changing the way society views beardsmen. Eric wants to help men find ways to keep on growing and become better men. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, daughter and dog.
Today, I’m sitting down with Eric Bandholz. You may know him from Shark Tank, though he did not walk away from the Sharks with an investment… And that is something I wanted to talk to Eric about today. He is such a stunning example of someone who bootstrapped something from scratch simply because he believed in it. His hard work and dedication showed that slow and consistent growth can be a huge game-changer for entrepreneurs. Even though Eric has grown his brand to a thriving, successful multimillion dollar business, he is still able to live a life that he loves to live.
In this broadcast, Eric and I talk about:
- How did Eric’s entrepreneurial journey begin
- In what ways did Eric prepare for his time on Shark Tank
- What was Eric’s experience as a contestant on Shark Tank
- What prompted Eric to apply to be a contestant on Shark Tank
- Did Eric’s appearance on Shark Tank lead to investors
- Why did Beardbrand choose to stop selling on Amazon
- What were the reasons behind why Beardbrand moved away from the European market
- How does Eric set priorities for his business and his personal life
- Why you should focus on your health and wellness
- In what ways does Eric maintain his health while being an entrepreneur
- How does Eric build his own spiritualism
- What is Eric’s Triangle of Success
- Why does Eric rank his wife as the highest priority in his personal life
- How setting priorities helped Eric finance his business
- Why the long-term vision of your business is one of the most important visions to have
- Why maintaining focus on your goals for your brand is important
How to Connect with Eric:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Jun 24, 2019
Monday Jun 24, 2019
Mani Vaya is the founder of 2000 Books. He is a Physicist and Electrical and Computer Engineer. Mani spent 13 years in the tech industry rising up the ranks to manage billion dollar cellphone projects at a Fortune 500 company. However, he realized that ambitious entrepreneurs must read often and constantly feed their minds with great ideas. Thus, 2000 Books was founded.
Today, I’m sitting down with Mani Vaya who bootstrapped his company after leaving the corporate sector. He has been able to grow 2000 Books into a profitable and cash flowing business. In today’s conversation, we talk about how he took his simple concept and executed it very well. My biggest takeaway is why we must focus more on reading and reading comprehension in the sense of understanding the value of reading books and how to read books more effectively. So give this episode a listen, take some notes, and then try out the methods we discuss.
In this broadcast, Mani and I talk about:
- What inspired Mani’s business 2000 Books
- How did Mani’s business vision pivot in the early stages
- Does Mani run into any legal issues when selling summaries of their books
- What is Mani’s process in getting permission to use an author’s work
- In what ways does Mani choose which books he offers through his company
- How does Mani summarize a book and what is his investment personally
- How can someone get the most value out of a book for maximum learning
- Roughly how much time does it take to get a good understanding of what a book is about
- What is the different between speed reading and actually comprehending what you’re reading
- What triggers can you look for when reading paragraphs
- Why reading thoroughly helps you understand and remember ideas more clearly
- Can you still get value from a book if you do a speed read of it
- Why you should only speed read some parts of a book, not all of it
- What are the different levels or phases of reading
- Why you must think about what you’re trying to extract from the book you’re reading
- How can you make the most of audio books
- What note-taking software does Mani use to take notes while reading
- Are summaries useful
How to Connect with Mani:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Jun 17, 2019
Monday Jun 17, 2019
Taylor Lou Dixon helps women create amazing businesses/passion projects/and side hustles as an integral part of their higher purpose. Prior to coaching, Taylor managed to create a profitable and growing social media agency. She worked with clients like Chick-Fil-A and other big-name restaurant chains; however, she learned it was important to her to facilitate a true inner joy and confidence for women who are deciding to take those first steps towards creating their own dream life.
Taylor is a lifestyle design coach for millennial women. She helps these women design lifestyles that they love and really enjoy. I brought Taylor onto the podcast today to talk about how she approaches branding her own business and how she approaches her target market. I’m excited to explore how she approaches these two things because I think when it comes to branding and target audiences, most business owners need help in figuring out what content actually resonates and converts. My big takeaway from today’s conversation is that it’s so important to share authentic stories that will help people and allow them to trust you enough to buy from you.
In this broadcast, Taylor and I talk about:
- What is Taylor’s origin story and how did she start her brand
- When Taylor started her business she felt multi-passionate
- How did Taylor feel very disconnected from her social media agency
- Why did Taylor need to do a self-exploration to truly know what she wanted to be doing with her life
- How to decide what content to include in your branding
- Why you do not need to feel generic by sharing your mission statement in your content
- How building a community around your content can make you more unique
- In what ways is the influencer movement moving towards storytelling and vulnerability
- Why you need to be able to mix the business and the lifestyle because it’s all one in the same
- How you can show up intentionally in your brand
- What you need to do to create a brand voice persona
- Why personal development is an important piece of Taylor’s process
- Does sharing your personal life in your content vary on the niche
- What does Taylor recommend you share and not share in your messaging
- Why does the subconscious mind understand metaphors easier
How to Connect with Taylor:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Jun 10, 2019
Monday Jun 10, 2019
Meny Hoffman is the Chief Executive Officer of Ptex Group, a marketing agency located in Brooklyn, NY, and a published business author. He is a lifelong entrepreneur who is passionate about collaborating with growing businesses to create winning strategies that yield hard-hitting results. More recently, Meny has fused his business development experience into the role of an angel investor. By investing in promising startups and walking them through the challenging journey of growth, Meny knows he’s fulfilling his entrepreneurial calling, while helping his fellow business people succeed.
In today’s conversation, I sit down with Meny Hoffman to talk about what it was like for him to build his agency from scratch and to be in business for close to a decade now in New York and still thriving. We dive into what it’s really like to bootstrap an agency, how he approaches hiring, his processes and systems for that, and how he gets the right employees on board in the right way. This is a particular interesting conversation for anybody who’s hiring, has staff or is thinking about going through the hiring process. My big takeaway from today’s conversation is that it’s hard work to grow any kind of successful organization, but hiring the right people may be a critical component to your success.
In this broadcast, Meny and I talk about:
- Why is it important to start a business you are passionate about
- How did Meny land his first client
- What did Meny do when he found himself struggling to wear all the hats in his business
- What positions were the first two that Meny filled
- Why does it not matter what you’re selling to be successful
- What is the most important asset that can make or break your business
- What is the order of importance when it comes to a successful business
- Why every person you hire should bring value to the company
- Has Meny ever used a personality test for his employees
- What are the three steps to Meny’s interview process
- What is one of the mistakes that most companies make when conducting interviews
- Why are KPI with metrics one dimensional
- How you can develop a great company culture
- Why you should have quarterly Q&As with your employees
How to Connect with Meny:
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How You Can Support In The Trenches
Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Jun 03, 2019
Monday Jun 03, 2019
Abdo Riani is the founder of StartupCircle where aspiring and rising entrepreneurs can connect with and learn from successful founders over daily live Q&A sessions. He also mentors and guides entrepreneurs to their first paying customers and beyond. Abdo helps entrepreneurs design a plan to market under the condition of the unavailability of the product and by doing things that don't scale.
During today’s conversation, I talk with Abdo Riani about his Bootstrapping Summit. We discuss how he came up with the idea, what he did to implement it, what this idea did for his business, and the ins and outs of what worked really well and what didn’t. We explore what Abdo would improve and where he would double down next time. This conversation is great for those of you who are interested in running a virtual summit to get a feel for what it takes to execute a successful summit. My big takeaway from this conversation is to get out there and follow your virtual summit ideas because they don’t have to be a huge time investment or cost a lot of money.
In this broadcast, Abdo and I talk about:
- What led Abdo to what he is doing today
- What were the results of Abdo’s initial launch
- How are virtual summits one of the fastest ways to meet your business goals
- Why is it important to leverage other people’s audiences to grow your own audience
- What are the short-term outcomes of knowing your audience
- What is Abdo’s launch process
- How long does it take to launch a successful summit
- Why you should be willing to invest time into organizing your virtual summit
- What were the strategies or tactics Abdo implemented that worked really well
- In what ways can you pitch speakers
- Why are people usually hesitant to commit to speaking at a summit
- How to leverage relationships to book in speakers
- What impact did the virtual summit have on Abdo’s business
- Why should you start with the end result when you’re planning a virtual summit
- How has RightMessage increased Abdo’s conversions
- What did Abdo personalize in RightMessage to drive his increase in subscribers
How to Connect with Abdo:
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How You Can Support In The Trenches
Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday May 27, 2019
Monday May 27, 2019
Liam Austin is the Co-Founder of Entrepreneurs HQ. He hosts marketing summits and sends a daily marketing tactic via EHQ Daily to help small business owners and entrepreneurs grow their business. Liam’s passion for entrepreneurship began whilst at Macquarie University when he was tasked with growing strategic partnerships for one of the top tech startups in Sydney, Soulmates Technology. This foray into tech led Liam to begin building and running his own businesses online to varying degrees of success.
In today’s conversation, Liam and I discuss virtual summits. What are they? How do they work? And why could they be so profitable? Liam is someone who is an expert in this space, and I’m eager to learn more about where he focuses his time and attention when planning these summits and what are some things that you should be considering if you want to run a virtual summit someday. My hope is that this conversation will give you the foundation and the fundamentals you need to run a successful virtual summit. My biggest takeaway from this conversation is that virtual summits are definitely worth considering no matter what space you’re operating in because they absolutely work!
In this broadcast, Liam and I talk about:
- How did Liam use LinkedIn to get started in the virtual summit space
- What is the referral software that Liam uses
- What are ambassadors for your product
- What is the difference between ambassadors and affiliates
- How hard is it to integrate referrals
- How many people who are referred actually buy
- What’s working now with virtual summits
- What are the five foundation pieces of virtual summits
- What is something that your solving for your audience
- Why you should build your network with influencers
- What should you lead people to after a summit
- When should someone consider doing something other than a virtual summit
- What is the perfect length of a virtual summit
How to Connect with Liam:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Friday May 24, 2019
Friday May 24, 2019
Steve Glaveski's mission is to unlock the latent potential of organisations and people to create more impact for humanity and lead more fulfilling lives. He is CEO and Co-Founder of Collective Campus, a corporate innovation and startup accelerator based in Melbourne, Australia with clients across the world. Steve is also the author of the current Wiley book, Employee to Entrepreneur, which is available in bookstores around the world, and previously self-published two books, including an Amazon bestseller. Steve co-founded Lemonade Stand - a children's entrepreneurship program, hosts the Apple Podcast charting Future Squared, is a founding investor in Konkrete, a blockchain-enabled share registry and is a contributor to Harvard Business Review.
Today I’m chatting with Steve Glaveski to talk about entrepreneurship and doing work that matters. My big takeaway from this conversation is that there is no cure all. There is no technique, no strategy, tactic, hack or trick that will make you a successful entrepreneur. The only path to success is hard work and doing that work each and every day. In today’s conversation you’re going to hear things that maybe you’ve heard before, but my hope is that this conversation will help cement this mindset and further cultivate the critical aspects of entrepreneurship within your mind and heart.
In this broadcast, Steve and I talk about:
- What has been Steve’s entrepreneurial journey
- How are freelance techniques helping the corporate world
- What are the challenges that Steve faced with his first business
- Why you need to believe in what you’re doing as an entrepreneur
- What does Steve’s book Employee to Entrepreneur cover
- What is the number one reason why startups fail
- How do you ensure you’re building a business that will work
- Why it’s important to do your market research
- How can you determine if your idea is a scalable opportunity
- What are intelligence factors and why should you look for them
- Why should you set a keyword tracker to respond to market signals
- What did Steve do to have a successful launch of his book
- Why you should not downplay the importance of luck
- Where does Steve’s book fit within his brand
- Why you should look for more ways to create impact
How to Connect with Steve:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.