The $100 MBA Show

It’s one of the most tempting mistakes you can make: measuring yourself by someone else’s ruler.Or more accurately, measuring yourself by what you think other people are achieving. It wastes time and energy. It throws off your confidence and creativity. Through self-imposed feelings of inadequacy, FOMO, and simply falling for the Insta-version of other people’s lives and businesses, you can really wear yourself thin.It’s time to stop.Today, we explore how to measure your own progress in a healthier way. By pegging your goals and self-evaluations to more objective, realistic, and personal standards, you can let go of the endless, useless comparisons that are holding you back.Business is competitive — but that doesn’t mean you should define yourself by your competitors. 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.

Sick of online meetings? Who isn’t?Since an unprecedented number of us suddenly became remote workers, “Zoom fatigue” has set in hard. For many of us, virtual meetings are the worst part of our day. Between staring at our own webcam feeds and sneaking peeks at Facebook, we’re forced to ask: is there a better way?Turns out there is.Lauren Sergy is a speaking and communications expert. Today, she tackles what may be the biggest communications challenge of our time: making virtual meetings less godawful. She’ll discuss exactly what makes these meetings so unpleasant, and offer 3 tactics you can use to get more out of them in less time.Learn how to plan better (not more) online meetings, and get the strategies you can use on and offline to be a better communicator and leader. Click Play!Unmute! by Lauren SergySUBSCRIBEYouTube | 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.

In business, you have to be selective.You have to be selective in how you spend your time, money, and energy. You have to prioritize, and focus on what matters at the cost of what doesn’t. And when it comes to other people, you won’t have bandwidth for everyone — especially not jerks.That’s right, jerks. Toolbags. A-holes. People who just aren’t nice. Sometimes, they’re your customers. Other times, they’re your employees. They can even be your partners. But you have the sacred right — in fact, a duty — to cut them loose. At first, it might make you feel like the jerk, but eventually you’ll realize that protecting the environment you build means excluding those who bring a bad vibe.We learned it the hard way, so you don’t have to. 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.

“Not seeing color” isn’t an option for some of us. Whether we like it or not, the experience of minority groups is different.But that’s not always a bad thing. In fact, being different can be an asset. Overcoming the challenges unique to POC can make you the kind of entrepreneur who’s uniquely qualified to navigate other challenges. Business — especially marketing — is about perception. It’s about the courage to be yourself, and the skills to communicate with people who don’t see what you see. You get a lot of practice with that, when you don’t look like the people around you.As you might know, our intrepid host Omar was born to first-generation immigrants, who instilled in him a love of Egyptian culture along with business savvy and a serious work ethic. That experience — and the experience of being misunderstood, typecast, and questioned by his peers — became the building blocks of the entrepreneur he is today.Tune in, and learn how your differences can be your greatest strength. 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.

The first challenge of e-commerce: keeping track of inventory.It can be a nail-biting affair to predict exactly how much product to order or create, without knowing exactly how much people will buy. Too much, and you lose money on overhead. Too little, and you lose money on lost sales and slow fulfillment. How do you strike the right balance?It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’re helping one listener find the e-commerce Goldilocks Zone.This listener runs an auto parts business, which can be particularly tricky to predict. In this episode, we explain a simple formula for deciding how much product to keep on hand, and how to measure the success of your predictions. You can never know precisely how much product customers will ask for. But by studying industry patterns, you can make a very educated guess. 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.

Company policies: do they uphold your principles and offer a guidepost for how your team conducts business? Or are they just fluff?We all know that the only real rules are the ones that actually get enforced. Is it realistic — or even necessary — to have hard-and-fast policies? Do your policies keep your team grounded and in line with company values, or are they just words?Is it professionalism, or pantomime?Today, we discuss how to have real policies that genuinely guide your team. In fact, your team should play a key role in creating those policies, to ensure they’re a compact, an agreement, rather than a set of top-down mandates. Put your values into action, and get your entire team on board. 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.

Every business owner has to deal with forces beyond their control. But handling what you can control is usually enough to guarantee that you can navigate whatever happens.That’s the basic premise of Great by Choice, Jim Collins’ study of businesses that thrive in unpredictable, even hostile conditions. Researched like a thorough work of academia, but written like an accessible guide for real-world entrepreneurs, Great by Choice makes one thing clear: you can succeed, come what may.You just have to stick to certain principles.With a conscious strategic approach, you can organize your business around big-picture ideas that equip you to weather the storms. Just as good nutrition and fitness can preclude all kinds of threats to your health, certain key principles of business “wellness” can make you resilient. Click Play!Great by Choice by Jim CollinsBuilt to Last by Jim CollinsGood to Great by Jim CollinsDiscover 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.

Which software is best?Whether it’s for web design, CRM, payment processing, fulfillment — you name it — every new business eventually runs into the question above. And yes, you can sift through company websites, review forums, and more as you search for The One. But listen to this episode first!Today, we’re not reviewing software. Instead, we offer a matrix, a list of questions you should ask yourself before considering any of your options. By nailing down exactly what you and your business need, you can do better than searching for the “best” tool. You can search for the best tool for you. If you’re not careful, software (and its costs) can pile up. Stay lean, and take a strategic approach to your choices. We’ll show you how — 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.

One of the biggest reasons for unsubscribes: too many emails.Of course, one of the biggest reasons for slow sales is not enough emails. So how many is enough? What’s the Goldilocks Zone for email frequency? Healthy open and click rates are the key to online marketing. Even in the age of social, email is still the highest-converting way to reach out to your audience. But inboxes are becoming harder and harder to get into — and stay in for the long haul.Today, we discuss how to know if you’re under-or-over-communicating, and how to establish an email frequency that works for you and your audience. With a little research, strategy, and communication, you can get it just right.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.

The written word: it’s still your most powerful tool for creating online traffic. But sometimes, you have to stimulate that traffic by getting your thoughts onto someone else’s site.The question is, why would anyone let you?Guest posting was huge for our business in its early days. By posting on more popular sites, Omar was able to build a foundation that made everything else possible. In fact, we still get traffic from years-old guest posts that continue to resonate — and generate leads.But first, Omar had to convince these other bloggers to host his posts. Today, Omar shares how. With a creative (if somewhat more labor-intensive) method, he went from being ignored to hearing a big loud “yes” from other blogs. This trick can work for you — if you’re willing to put the effort in. 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.