The $100 MBA Show

Second-guessing: some would say it’s a sign of healthy skepticism. But if it becomes a habit, it’s fatal to entrepreneurs.When you run your own business, you are constantly faced with high-pressure decisions — way more often than people with conventional jobs. With every call you make, that little voice can be heard talking: was I right about that? Should I have [fill in the blank] instead?Don’t “what if” yourself out of business.There are simple steps you can take to make sure that while you don’t always make the right call, you make the call that made the most sense. While nothing can ensure you bat 1000 with all your decisions, you can rest easy knowing you didn’t make the kinds of mistakes that put your judgment into question.It’s just a matter of preparation.You can maximize the odds of every decision turning out to be correct by laying the groundwork. Today, we share the surprisingly easy precautions you can take that make all your decisions better — and let you sleep soundly knowing you did your best. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Content business vs. software business: which is right for you?Today’s episode is a good place to start answering that question. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’re helping one listener understand the biggest, most fundamental difference between the two business models.That difference is critical.Content businesses (like The $100 MBA) require different skill sets, resources, and personnel to pull off than software business (like our webinar platform company, WebinarNinja). As you can see, we do both, so we’re intimately familiar with the differences — including the big one.Hint: it’s about what customers expect from you in return for their money.We’ll discuss how this difference affects your role as founder, the relationships you’ll have with customers, and your decision to choose one model or the other. Both have their challenges — which one suits your skills and talents? There’s one way to find out: Click Play!To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q.SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To get more wins, study the ones you have.The “buyer’s journey” is a much-studied topic that CRM (Customer Relationship Management) experts have spilled thousands of gallons of digital ink on. What is the process by which people go from awareness of your brand to a final purchase?What gets them to that final decision? What triggers them to pull the trigger?The short answer is that it’s different for every business. That’s why you have to do the work and find out why your customers bought from you. Then, you double down. Today, we discuss how to take a deep dive into your sales funnel, and come out with the information you need to optimize your approach.This is Lead Nurturing 101.We’re doing some research into our own business, and preparing to experiment with some new adjustments to our own process. On this episode, we’ll share exactly how we gather the information and data we need to construct those experiments and measure the results.Don’t “trust the process.” Study it. Improve it. Start with today’s lesson — Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you.Was that so hard?Actually, effective gratitude is more than just stringing two words together. It’s something today’s special guest teacher, Dr. Cindy McGovern calls a “lost art” — the ability to thank employees in a way that values, motivates, and inspires them. Thanking isn’t just a social reflex. For real leaders, it’s a strategy.Genuine appreciation is a massive motivator, right up there with pay! Seriously; research shows that employees generally don’t quit “bad” jobs. They quit “bad” managers and employers. If you’re not making your team feel vital, you’re not giving talent a reason to stick around.Fortunately, Dr. Cindy can help with that.As she explains today, gratitude isn’t just an act. It’s a skill. And it’s not just politeness; it has a substantive impact on team performance. Dr. Cindy has a 5-step formula that any business owner can use to hone their gratitude game, and get the best from everyone on the team.Don’t let your business’s culture be an afterthought. Take Dr. Cindy’s advice, and prioritize your thanking skills. You might be surprised at the results. Click Play!Every Job Is a Sales Job by Dr. Cindy McGovernSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What do your employees really think?It can be hard to find out. People are naturally more reserved in meetings, and can feel “evaluated” or cornered if asked too much in front of others. That’s why we decided to do individual, one-on-one sit-downs with each of our employees to get their feedback.In other words, we had the employees evaluate the employers.By having a private, intimate, low-stakes conversation, you can get the truth from the people you trust to run your business. You can discover hidden problems, and reveal assets you never considered. You can resolve issues you never knew existed, and strengthen your business overall.Sometimes, just being heard is the greatest motivator.Today, we discuss how to execute these 1:1 conversations — what to ask, how to ask, and how to act on the information you get. How well you know your team may determine how far they’re willing to go for you, and how invested they feel in the company’s success. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You and your team: are you in it together?Recently, we made a significant decision. We decided to share our biggest, longest-term, most ambitious goals with our entire team — every single employee. While we used to reserve our Grand Plans for ourselves and a few managers, we decided it was time to put our cards on the table.Why did we do that? Should you?Today, we discuss the reasons for sharing everything with everyone, and the effect that doing so can have on your business. While it can be nerve-wracking to put it all out there, we believe it increases personal investment from our team, and makes our goals more likely to be achieved.We unveiled a 10-year plan, with specific benchmarks and SMART goals that are more than just hopes and dreams. In this episode, we’ll help you determine what to include in your plan, how to format it, and how to present it to the people who will help you make it a reality. Start envisioning the future together, as a team. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Prepare for launch! Actually, scratch that. We need to start even further ahead, with a pre-launch strategy.It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener is wondering how to maximize their launch by marketing well in advance. This doesn’t just apply to the debut of your whole business; product launches, updates, and other milestones all require the same planning to get maximum results.A launch is an opportunity — one that’s wasted if you don’t seed the ground.Today, we’ll discuss how to build buzz, grow and stoke the audience, and tee yourself up to capitalize on Launch Day. While we often think of launches as a beginning, smart entrepreneurs treat launches as the culmination of something as well. This episode is your pre-launch guide. Before you announce anything new in your business, make sure the news hits the right people in the right way. Otherwise, you miss the chance to leverage a rare and special event for growth. Click Play!To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q.SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is hustling effective? Does more work mean more results?Maybe not. Today, we’re discussing the math on work hours. While it might seem logical to assume that more work = more success, that approach forgets a key principle of productivity: working smart, not just hard.Which brings us to the “standard” work week of 40 hours.Is independent success really possible within that limit? Do entrepreneurs need to put in more hours than everyone else to make it? It’s time to get brutally honest, and explore the relationship between the quality of our work and its quantity. The truth is this: every sacrifice of your time has diminishing returns. You can accomplish more in a few focused hours than an entire day of burnt-out, bedraggled slogging. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to put in the hours — especially at the beginning — but it does mean you have to keep a careful eye on the cost/benefit ratio of your time investment.Finding a balance between time and effort is the key to real productivity. Tune in, and let’s figure out how much you should really be working. Click Play!Deep Work by Cal NewportSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sometimes, abandoning logic is the most logical decision.That’s the (somewhat controversial) premise of this week’s Must-Read book, Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. While it’s tempting to think that fact-based, rational reasons are the most persuasive, the reality of business says otherwise. In other words, appeals to emotion are more effective than appeals to reason.In business, this principle works for everything from your marketing copy to your sales pitches to your negotiations with potential partners. According to Voss — a former hostage negotiator — logical arguments are vastly over-valued. This flies in the face of a lot of business advice, and of common sense. But sometimes, it’s the uncommon advice that really works.Today, we’ll discuss some of the key takeaways of Never Split the Difference, and how it can help you cultivate the skill of emotion-based persuasion. We are not rational animals — and the entrepreneurs who recognize this have the advantage. Click Play!Discover all our must-read book reviews at https://100mba.net/bookreviews.SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What kind of growth can you get for $300? The answer might surprise you, but only if you’re willing to experiment. If your marketing budget isn’t exactly…flush, but you need a nice boost, it’s time to think outside that proverbial box. This is the beauty of entrepreneurship: how a little creativity can give you exactly the spike you need.And boy, do we have some bang for your marketing buck.These ideas occupy a funny space: they’re unusual, and unexpected. But they’re so effective it’s difficult to understand why more people don’t use them. They don’t require anything special, other than the willingness to stake a few hundred dollars on something different.Are these ideas typical? No. But can they work? One way to find out.This is what being “lean” is all about. Taking roads less traveled to produce more results from fewer resources is what startups do. With a little hustle, a little creativity, and — yes — a little independent-sized budget, you can move the needle. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.