The $100 MBA Show

YouTube has been called “the world’s 2nd biggest search engine” behind Google. While so many entrepreneurs are striving to climb the Google rankings, are we leaving potential customers on the table by ignoring YouTube? Our first guest teacher of 2018 seems to think so, and he’s put the time in to discover exactly how to dominate it. Now, he’s here to tell us how it’s done.Brian Dean is an SEO genius, whose years of experimentation and fine-tuning have made his website, backlinko.com, one of the most trusted resources for content marketers. In fact, he’s so great at SEO that we actually found him through (you guessed it) a Google search!In the last year, he’s turned his attention to YouTube, which – like Google – is key to building your audience. But YouTube’s ranking algorithms are very different from Google’s. Today, Dean shares 7 strategies to optimizing your YouTube videos, including some surprising discoveries that will completely change how you approach the video-sharing site as a content marketing tool.Brian Dean is the first of many fantastic guest teachers we have lined up for this year. Don’t miss out on what YouTube can do for your online presence. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow Links5 Steps to Idea ValidationBacklinkoBacklinko on YouTubeThe post MBA913 Guest Teacher: Brian Dean- How to Optimize Your YouTube Videos for Higher Rankings (and More Views) appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s FREE RIDE FRIDAY!!! For the first time in 2018, we’re giving away a special gift to one lucky listener. We’re also looking back at 2017, and discussing the lessons learned from the most intense business challenges we had to face. And boy, did we ever face some doozies. After a wild year in which we completely re-launched our webinar software, WebinarNinja, the insights we gained were commensurate with the uphill battles we fought.Reflection is one of the most important things an entrepreneur can do, in order to grow. Join us as we discuss all the things wish we knew going into 2017. We learned these things the hard way, so our listeners don’t have to! Take these lessons into 2018, just as we will. Struggle, reflect, grow, repeat — Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow LinksWebinarNinjaEasyCourseGuide: Must-Haves for Any Business WebsiteThe post MBA912 What I Learned From My Biggest Challenges in 2017 + Free Ride Friday! appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, we’ll teach you how to KISS.No, we’re not celebrating Valentine’s early. We’re showing listeners how to do the most important thing a lean, growth-focused independent business can do: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Of course, we don’t think anyone smart enough to listen to our show is “stupid,” but the acronym is a valid one.When complications creep in, it becomes harder for you and your customers. In this episode, we discuss how to streamline your business into its most simple, direct, and effective form. Tune in, and hear our 5 key principles of business simplicity, the 5 ways you can give your company the edge by discarding unnecessary complications. Simplify, and watch your business grow. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow LinksFree Idea Validation CoursePodiaThe post MBA911 How To Keep Business Simple appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s our first Q&A Wednesday of the year, and we’re kicking 2018 off with a tough one! It’s uncomfortable to think about, but what should an entrepreneur do when resources dry up? The accounts are low, spending is outpacing revenue, and it looks like all is lost. Can you carry on?Absolutely. Just because you’re tapped out, doesn’t mean you have to tap out. On today’s episode, we teach you how to evaluate the problem, get things under control, and make the tough choices necessary to save your business. In our experience, struggle can be the best teacher. Stay positive, and power through. We’ll show you how. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow LinksFree Idea Validation CourseEasyCourseThe post MBA910 Q&A Wednesday: What do you do when you run out of cash? appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is this working? If you’re not asking that question about every aspect of your marketing, sales, and finance strategies, you’re leaving money on the table. It’s vital to know when your efforts produce fruit, and when you’re wasting your time. Knowing how to measure growth is the key to achieving it!Today, we discuss specific, actionable techniques for making sure you’re doing what works. We lay out the key progress indicators (and how to measure them) for everything from your blog to your social media to your hires. By putting a little time and thought into analytics, you can maintain a truly lean business — doubling down on what’s effective, and cutting out everything else. Learn how to get a clearer picture of your business. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow LinksWebinarNinjaFree Idea Validation CourseGoogle Tag ManagerSumoEasyCourseThe post MBA909 How To Make Sure You’re Doing What Works appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Happy New Year! It’s 2018, and we’re back with our DAILY podcast! We’ll be bringing you 5 practical business lessons every week, including our popular Q&A, Guest Teacher, Free Ride Friday giveaway, and Must-Read Book Review episodes.Steve Martin might not be the first person you think of for business advice, but his biography is a master course in business perseverance. From his hard-earned advice on staying lean, to his invaluable lessons on the value of effort over inborn talent, Martin’s Born Standing Up is a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone trying to make it against all odds. As entrepreneurs, we’re on stage in front of an audience, too. Tune and learn how to “perform” successfully, no matter what industry you’re taking on. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow LinksWebinarNinjaBorn Standing Up by Steve MartinThe post MBA908 Must-Read: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

‘Tis the season — let’s talk giving!Offering free bonuses is a common sales-boosting strategy, used by everyone from the smallest mom-and-pops to the biggest corporations. But do these giveaways work? If you’re starting or running your own business, it’s important to use every resource wisely.You’ve got to carefully consider everything you offer to customers, or it’s money down the drain.The key to effective bonuses is to remember what they really are: not gifts, but investments. The value of the investment relative to the value of the outcome has to be favorable, for both you and the customer. Give the wrong bonus, and the outcome is nothing but increased expenditures and lost credibility.It’s all about the ROI.Today, we’re discussing exactly what kinds of bonuses work, and what kinds don’t. We’ve used bonuses to promote our own products, from our webinar software service to The $100 MBA course. We’ve seen bonuses succeed, and we’ve seen them fall flat. In that time, we’ve learned a thing or two about precisely what makes a bonus effective.Specifically, we’ve compiled 4 distinct characteristics that define a successful bonus offer. By ensuring these 4 keys are in place, you can craft an offer that will be worth every dime you “give” away, to yourself and your audience. You gain the trust that drives sales, and your customers get one step closer to the solutions they seek.Bonuses are the gifts that keep on giving.In a nutshell, a great bonus comes down to relevance, actionability, and value. The 4 principles we discuss today are the keys to establishing those things for your bonus offers. By aligning your offer with your own product and your own customers’ needs, you can pinpoint the offers that will truly generate sales.You’ll also learn how to “sell” the bonus, and deliver it in a way that’s targeted towards results.This is our last episode of 2017, an incredible whirlwind year that’s seen major twists and turns to our own business journey. It’s been a privilege to share those twists and turns, in our effort to make our experience valuable to you.From the complete overhaul of WebinarNinja, to our decision to mine that overhaul for insights for our audience, to our experiment with our current weekly podcast format, we’ve learned a ton — and we hope you have too.Starting on January 1, we return to our daily podcast format, with 5 episodes per week — including our ever-popular Q&A episodes, and our FREE RIDE FRIDAY subscription giveaways.We can’t wait to tackle 2018 with you. Learn how to maximize your success with effective bonus offers, so you can make the new year all yours. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow LinksWebinarNinjaEasyCourseThe post MBA907 Do Bonuses Increase Sales? appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s that time of year!No, not that.Even better: it’s time to reveal this year’s 5 lessons from 5 of the greatest business teachers around!Every year, we choose 5 entrepreneurs whose unique approaches, strategies, and styles inspired us, educated us, and made us better business people — whether they knew it or not. Some of them we know personally. Some of them, we’re just fans of. But whatever the case, their choices informed our business, as well as the personal entrepreneurial development of our host, Omar.We learned from them, and so can you.These 5 special individuals have no idea we’ve been studying their work so intensely. We have no arrangement with them to be the subject of this podcast, for sponsorship or any other purpose. In fact, they don’t find out how much they’ve taught us until the day the episode airs!They are simply the people whose examples were of the greatest genuine value to us — and we’re hoping, to you.Some are writers. Some are software developers. One is a comedian who started with nothing but a YouTube channel. But all of them are dynamic entrepreneurs. All of them have taken on their own business development with creativity, flexibility, and ingenuity. They’ve done something different.They’ve all done something completely their own, but with implications for anyone who wants to learn entrepreneurship.Each of these 5 incredible game-changers has a unique twist on independent business, one that allowed them to stand out from the crowd. Their accomplishments were not insanely well-funded or corporate-backed ventures. There are people whose success was derived directly from their willingness to find new roads, to do what true entrepreneurs do: give the market something it was missing.By forging their own approach, these great teachers (whether they meant to teach or not) are the year’s best examples of the founding principle of The $100 MBA: that being true to your own vision will reveal your value to consumers.Tune in. Hear what our 5 inspirers have to teach us about marketing, selling, innovating, managing, and all the rest. Take what we’ve gotten from them, as we pass it on to you. Learn from the best, just like we did. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow Links$100 MBA Essential GuidesWebinarNinjaBackLinkoh3h3 ProductionsBaseCampRyan HolidayNoah Kagan interviews Ryan HolidayThe post MBA906 5 Things I Learned From 5 People in 2017 appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There’s more than one way to start your own business. When plotting out your entrepreneurial path, it’s important to establish something early on: what kind of independent business person you are.Would you make a better entrepreneur, or solopreneur?Maybe you’re the type to go it alone. Maybe your product is best produced, marketed, and sold by its creator. In that case, solopreneurship might be the path for you. If you love leading a team, and your product requires diverse skill sets to bring to market, entrepreneurship could be the way to go.It’s important to start thinking about this now, especially if you’re at the beginning of your business journey.Your own talents and skills, plus the nature of your product and business goals, need to be carefully considered. Many factors determine the best way forward, and it’s crucial to choose correctly.That’s what today’s podcast is all about: helping you decide what will work best for you.Let’s be clear — neither solopreneurship nor entrepreneurship is better or worse. Neither is easier or more difficult. These are two very different, but equally valid, ways to build a business. In fact, our host Omar has found success with both approaches, depending on the kind of product and the goals for the business.Some entrepreneurs even start as solopreneurs, building their brand on their own until it grows to the point where it takes a team to scale up. Some solopreneurs go it alone all the way to the top, reaching 6-figure incomes without hiring a single employee.As they say, it all depends.Both options have their advantages. Both have their challenges. Today, we want to explore all the ups and downs of both, so that you can apply this knowledge to your own business ideas. By understanding the strengths, risks, and unique factors of each approach, you can optimize your chances of success. Whichever you choose, though, it’s important to choose as early as possible.This episode offers a comprehensive explanation of solopreneurship, its practical differences from entrepreneurship, and concrete, actionable steps you can take to move forward with this information in mind.We don’t just want to help you get started; we want to help you get started with every possible advantage. That begins with defining your approach to business with clarity, specificity, and forward-facing vision. With that accomplished, you can move on to building your audience, creating your product, and shaping your strategy towards achieving the lifestyle you want.Tune in, compare and contrast these two approaches, and get ready to take action. Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow Links$100 MBA Idea Validation CourseWebinarNinjaBaseCampSumoThe post MBA 905 Solopreneur vs. Entrepreneur appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So you want to start your own business. What’s taking so long?Here at the $100 MBA, we battle a myth. We battle it day in and day out, because it’s the one thing holding more entrepreneurs back than anything else: the belief that you need huge amounts of funding, education, time, or resources to start a successful business.It’s not that you won’t ever need things like knowledge or capital. You just don’t need as much as you might think to get started! You can begin the journey any time, including right now, and gather those things along the way. All it takes is a little guidance, and the will to move forward.So many people want to be independent entrepreneurs, but too many people overestimate the obstacles to doing so. You don’t need a huge budget. You don’t need the experience of an expert. You don’t need a degree. You don’t need “passion,” or some Earth-shattering product idea.You just need to take the first steps.You can build a business right now, today. What business will depend on you, but there are a few categories of business that anyone can establish with minimal resources and experience. We know — we’ve built these businesses ourselves. Today, we’re sharing 5 specific types of businesses that you can start with nothing but a laptop and decent wifi.The greatest preparation for entrepreneurship? Just plain doing it.We talk all the time about the MVP, or Minimum Viable Product. It means that every product has to start somewhere, that it can’t be perfect before you get the ball rolling. The same applies to entrepreneurs. If you want to be in business for yourself, the most important thing you can do is to get started! You don’t need the features of a long-established career to begin one. Sometimes, you just have to stop packing and get on the road.Whether it’s service, creative, or educational, there are countless ways to leverage your talents into a real-world business. With this lesson, we offer 5 examples. We discuss why you don’t need to wait for conditions to be “perfect” to start a business, how to find your niche, and how to find your first clients.Tune in, hear how jumping into entrepreneurship really works, and decide how you can start your independent business journey, right this minute. After the lesson, stick around for a very special, very important announcement for all our listeners. We can’t wait to share this lesson, and we can’t wait to share this week’s exciting news.Let’s kill the excuses. Let’s kill the doubt. Let’s get going! Click Play!SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTSSpotify| Podcast Feed| How To SubscribeGive us a Rating & ReviewShow LinksWebinarNinjaThe post MBA904 5 Businesses You Can Start Today appeared first on The $100 MBA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.