Imagine a 12-year-old high-schooler who just came to the US, all the way from Pakistan. He barely speaks English and spends most of his time in the library. Basically, he’s a total geek… all he wants to do is play computer games, but the library computers have their proxies blocked (because school’s not meant to be fun!). So what does he do? He creates his own proxy…obviously! … no wonder he went on to become such a successful entrepreneur, who, might I add has over 2.5 mil YouTube subscribers. Such problem-solving skills are priceless for entrepreneurs. Most of our job boils down to finding solutions and bypassing obstacles. In this episode of Escape Velocity, watch this now grown “high school nerd”, Syed Balkhi CEO of WPBeginner / OptinMonster (and 2 dozen other companies) dive all the way down to the technical details of black-hat SEO, YouTube domination, and the rise of the WordPress giant. It’s rare to hear someone go beyond just scratching the surface with interesting ideas. But Syed drills all the way to the bottom and gives VERY PRACTICAL tips that you can use to grow your SaaS business. And in case you’re wondering, it all started with cricket… It’s hard to list all the gems I got from this conversation, but here are some of the key topics: 1. The role of a mentor 2. Why SaaS is like real estate 3. How to evaluate business opportunities (make sure they NEED it, not just want it!) 4. Getting them to subscribe (retrain the consumer) 5. It’s all about customer mentality 6. Staying competitive with your SaaS product 7. What is the SaaS niche with a big void? (You’ll be surprised) While the practical juice in this conversation is spilling all over our 30+ minute conversation, it’s the insight about staying competitive that can give vitamins for your SaaS business right away. Around minute 22 is where Syed unwraps it all in a 2-pointer response… 1. Customer-driven surveys- Everyone does surveys for their SaaS. But the key is to use them to really talk and understand your customers. One way to do this is through conditional surveys. If you bombard users with automated questions, you are not going to understand why they responded with a 3 and not an 8 to your previous question. So make sure you personalize the follow-up questions based on what they initially respond. 2. In-product marketing- Your product probably has some premium features which are not available for the lower-tier customers. Instead of hiding these features, make sure you add a link, a preview, or a video…You need to explain to your users the value they could get by upgrading their tier. A simple strategy that can easily increase your existing clients’ revenue. It all boils down to the attention to detail. Be sure to catch the full episode here and drop me a comment with any questions you have about maintaining your product competitiveness. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

One small step for a startup founder… one giant leap for his business… As a SaaS entrepreneur you deal with tons of doubts, fears and worries. And sometimes you feel like YOU are just not capable of doing it all. How do you overcome the struggle? Well… you become the Alter Ego who can take on these challenges. And how does that work exactly? Basically, it all boils down to a little game we all played as kids. So… as a startup entrepreneur, sometimes you have to act like a child :) As children, we instinctively use our creative imagination and embody other personalities. When we play basketball, we imagine we jump like Michael Jordan. When we play astronauts, we imagine we walk on the moon like Neil Armstrong. This ability to be in character is one of the essential elements of maintaining our freedom of self. Adults who lose this natural ability become victims of the “Trapped Self”. So, imagine this scene… As a SaaS entrepreneur, you have an important investor meeting; a very big fish, lots of opportunity for your business, but you haven’t done this before and feel the butterflies in your stomach… How are you supposed to approach all these influential people? You feel like a chess club captain trying to ask the head cheerleader out to the prom… That’s when your Alter Ego comes in. All you have to do is become the confident and successful entrepreneur. YOU HAVE TO BECOME YOUR ALTER EGO. BECOME NEIL ARMSTRONG. In this episode of Escape Velocity, my good friend Todd Herman gives you the 5 stages of creating your Alter Ego. Choose your goal and tap into your power core self. Use the phenomenal power that we humans have – creative imagination – to generate the identity you need to face every challenge that comes your way head on. Watch the full episode to uncover all the priceless tips. You’ll learn so many wonders about yourself… you’ll probably feel like Alice through the Looking Glass… The 5 stages of building your Alter Ego 1. Choose the context you want to excel in 2. Unpack what is frustrating you 3. Choose the Identity you want to appear as 4. Use an Anchoring Totem 5. Activate and become the Identity you want to be So… you might be wondering what an Anchoring Totem is? Around the 14 minute mark Todd opens up the whole Wonderland… An Anchoring Totem is simply an object in your physical world which activates your desired Alter Ego. A simple example are glasses. Feeling a lack of confidence? Put on your glasses and activate your Confident Persona. Todd does a great job of activating his Alter Ego using his glasses. Crazy when I think about it… I didn’t even know these were not prescription glasses for first two years of our friendship! The Anchoring Totem is just one of the amazing tools to help you tap into your Alter Ego power. So don’t limit yourself to one trapped self… use as many versions of yourself that you need to become the successful startup founder you want to be. Catch the full episode here and then drop a comment letting me know any questions you have about the Alter Ego and how to use it for your startup. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

May I have your attention, please? Will the real startup founders please watch this video? We’re gonna have a podcast here! Today is a special day! We’re announcing my NEW show, it’s called Escape Velocity. It’s a video podcast show where I interview the world’s top SaaS CEO’s to deconstruct and learn what it took for them to succeed and grow. So let’s kick things off with a question… Have you been wondering how to improve customer support for your startup without spending more $$$? Maybe you think the obvious solution is hiring more support staff How about something more far-fetched that can actually boost the quality of your support, but also get your engineers to think more like your customers, fix software bugs faster, and add new features? In the very first episode of Escape Velocity, Proof’s CEO Dave Rogenmoser shares his simple customer support strategy which achieves all of the above. But that’s just one of the many things we covered. Check out the full Escape Velocity show below. Seriously…so much food for thought, it’s like Easter dinner at your grandma’s. During our conversation, we cover: 1. Customer Support Power Hours2. Building your company for exit (or not) 3. Learning through failures 4. How to fight churn rate5. The role of a company leader 6. Success – brilliance or good timing We’ve prepared a HUGE 6-course menu here with very Saa(u)Sy appetizers, but if you want to skip to the main course, go to the 30 minute mark… The idea behind Customer Support Power Hours is brilliant in its simplicity. You take your co-founders, engineers, EVERYONE on your team…you sit together and hammer away support tickets. Who knew this would be so effective? It works because if an engineer messed up the coding, they can just jump on the spot and fix it for the client. It also gives them the ability to understand what exactly the customers need, build new features, and get a real sense of how the software works. If you don’t involve your engineers in customer support, they cannot feel the repercussions of writing crappy code. So there’s simply NO BETTER WAY to expose your team to your software’s bugs and opportunities than having them interact with customers in real time. It will help you create the customer-centric culture your startup needs. In order to be a 3-star-Michelin chef, you should engage your entire team with the quality of your service. Catch the full ep here and then drop a comment letting me know any questions you have about this awesome new podcast chapter. Ha ha, guess there’s a startup founder in all of us. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell