The Happy Entrepreneur

In this episode I talk to Ines Gaston who recently joined the community. She’s a trained psychologist in the early stage of her building her coaching business. When I first talked to Ines she was struggling to understand how to reach new customers.She has a need to share her gifts and experience which she knows that can help many people. But given she’s not able to clearly define a target audience she’s finding it overwhelming trying to decide what her next step should be.There are so many ways to reach people and they all have their own different contexts. She feels pulled in so many different directions by different types of advice and she just wishes there was someone who could just show her the way.If you find yourself in a similar position then I recommend you have a listen.I also recommend listening to two earlier podcasts with Ben Johnson and Alan Wick on pricing and How much should people pay me for what I do? respectively.

If you've got something of immense value, not only monetarily but also in how it could positively change someones life, then it's your responsibility to get it to as many people as possible. Knowing how to price well is essential not only for the sustainability of your business but also in making sure the right people buy what you offer. Don't expect your customers to be able to intuitively know whether to work with you or not. If they don't understand your pricing then they're missing out on the value you provide and that would make their lives better. Please listen if you've created a product or service that you know will make people's lives better but have struggled to put a price on it that feels right and makes sense.

In this episode I talk to Gail Bainbridge about launching her first online course. And while we break down her approach by thinking of tactics and strategies it's clear that while all the theory is useful once the rubber hits the road it's a totally different experience.Learning about startup is one thing. Doing it is another. Our intention with the Happy Startup School is to share with you all the tools you need to get clear about how to approach this sometimes scary journey. But more importantly we exist to support you while you try things out and not only learn new skills but also learn about yourself along the way. This is a journey of adventure where the objective isn't just a sustainable and viable business but also a greater understanding of our place in the world and what we can contribute to it.During this episode we tackle some of the fundamentals with launching a new product. What is my real intention for finding "early adopters" to improve the product or to validate the price?

When you're launching a new product or business you're going to want to focus down on who you really want to help because if you talk to everyone you talk to no one. In this episode I discuss with Alan Wick the idea of the minimum viable audience. Rather than trying to go broad and sell to everyone you should pick the people who'll love what you do and find out what their dreams, wishes, hopes and fears are. All too often entrepreneurs start with an idea and then try to push it onto anyone in earshot.Instead be clear about who you want to help and what you want to help them with. You can then develop the right product and position it in the right way so your audience understands what you offer and the value it provides. This will make selling more effortless. You may only need 1,000 or even 100 customers to make a successful business. But unless you can define your MVA the you'll never know.

A big challenge of turning your passion into profits is taking that first step. Procrastination can kill your idea quicker than any customer feedback. Where does procrastination come from and how do we overcome it? In this episode I talk to community member and Tiny Habits coach Mike Coulter about how creating Tiny Habits can get from dreaming to doing. He has a little pop at Simon Sinek and share why he thinks that sometimes starting with why can stop you from starting. Listen to find out more...If anybody wants to get started with Tiny Habits you can read about the free 5 day email based version here.Also, during this episode Mike mentions the book by Scott Adams called How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, which you can check out here.

Pricing vs charging and how to avoid burnout.

It’s START season at the Happy Startup School and we believe one of the most important things when starting a new business or project is how you communicate what it’s about to others and how you motivate them to join you or help you. The way to do this most effectively is storytelling and so listen along to find out why.

This is a trial run with using anchor.fm to get into a rhythm for our podcast.

A webinar that Carlos hosted with students from Birkbeck College who wanted to follow up about how to use the Happy Startup Canvas.