The Graham Cochrane Show

Everybody online is talking about whether we are entering into a recession here in the US and globally. It's been the talk of the town for months, if not a couple of years now. And we might already be in a recession as of the time you're diving into this episode. Let's get to the obvious question first. Do I know when or where it's coming or how long it'll last? No, I don't know the future, but what matters more to me is understanding how do we conduct ourselves and how do we run our businesses in light of a potential recession. You need to be prepare for dark days of business. You need to have the financial and decision making prowess to navigate through the periods when your business isn't booming, and also through a global recession, when that day comes. And that's what I want to share with you today. Let's talk about what you and I can control instead of all the scary gloom and doom out there that we can't control. And I'll share my own story of how I made it out of the previous recession with a prospering online business. In this episode you'll learn: What essential steps you need to take to navigate through a recession and keeping your business prosperous How the previous recession of 2008-2009, changed my way of thinking and made me a better business owner Why recessions can actually be a good thing for your business Hope you enjoy!- Graham

When you're running an online business, there are generally only two levers to pull. When it comes to selling your products, you're either a launching products or you have products selling in an evergreen fashion around the clock.  The launch model is the sexy model. It's the one that gets talked about a lot and taught a lot when it comes to online business. But it also comes with a lot of bagage and downsides which you never hear anyone teaching online business mention or acknowledge. I'm here to tell you the truth. Even if that truth is ugly. And today we’re going to do just that.  In today’s episode I’m going to unpack how you can make more money longterm, if you build out an evergreen style product business and actually move away from launching new products all the time. It is the evergreen model, that's been responsible for the bulk of my revenue and both of my seven figure online businesses. So let’s talk about these six ugly truths about launching your products and hopefully I'll steer you into the evergreen product lifestyle! In this episode you'll learn: Why launching new products all the time actually might hurt your business What the evergreen model is and how to it can revolutionize your business My formula for using the evergreen model that allowed me to build two seven figure businesses Hope you enjoy!- Graham

So in about a week, I'm going to step away from my business for an entire month. That's right. I'm leaving my business, taking a month long sabbatical for the month of July. And today I thought I'd bring you in on this process, because it really ties into what I teach, what I preach and what I believe. I could have just kept this private, but I decided to be a little more public about it and use it as an opportunity to encourage you. I think there's a stigma around taking long breaks and taking periods of rest. Vacations last, maybe a week or two for most Americans, and turns out that business owners are actually the worst at taking breaks and not working for longer periods of time. I am the antithesis of the hashtag hustle culture. It is a badge I wear proudly. And so today, we're going to dive in head first into this mindset. In this episode I'm going to explain to you why I'm taking a month long sabbatical, what benefits I think will accrue to me in taking that month off, how I've experienced sabbaticals in the past, (both good and bad), what some of my mental scripts are that actually almost prevented me from taking the sabbatical this year and then I got a little challenge for you at the end that you don't want to miss! Let's dive in!   In this episode you'll learn: Why I'm taking a month long sabbatical and how I believe that will benefit my business What the stigma is around taking breaks for business owners, and how you can start to come out of the mental scripts that are holding you back How to tap into a creative superpower for your business - by actually not doing anything business related Hope you enjoy!- Graham

How can you grow your small online business fast? Everybody asks me: Graham, how can I grow this thing faster?Usually try to break it to them slowly that, hey that’s not really how this thing works. I get that there's pressure. I get that you want this to grow quickly, I can totally relate. When I started my online business, I was on food stamps. I needed to make money as fast as possible.There is no shortcut to making this happen in the way you're expecting it, BUT there are five counterintuitive ways to grow your online business faster. These are the things that you must be doing to actually turbocharge your efforts and move across the board game a little faster than someone else. So brace yourself, because this might not go where you think it's going to go, but I promise you, this is what it takes to take your small online business and turbocharge it and grow it fast! In this episode you’ll learn: The counterintuitive ways you can turbocharge your business growth Why most online business owners focus on the wrong things, when trying to achieve fast business growth How growing your business fast could potentially harm your business and how you can avoid it Hope you enjoy!- Graham

We're living in an attention economy. You and I need to get attention on the things that we're doing in order to get our ideas out there in the world, to get people to buy our products or hire us for our service. Whatever it is that we are selling or offering, whether free or paid in the world - you need eyeballs. You need people to pay attention to what you're doing. And that's why this conversation today with Alan Henry is going to be so instrumental for you as you think about creating content and finding your unique voice in the marketplace. Alan Henry is the service editor at Wired. He was previously the Smarter Living editor at The New York Times, and before that the editor in chief of the productivity and lifestyle blog Life Hacker. He's got a brand new book out that just dropped this week called Seen, Heard and Paid: The New Work Rules For The Marginalized. It's on sale now anywhere books are sold. It's a fantastic read, and I sat down with Alan to talk about the book and his thoughts on finding your unique voice in your market.Hope you enjoy!- Graham

Newsflash friend! You don't have to do every single business strategy that you see other people doing. In fact, there are a ton of strategies that I see people doing that are popular, flashy and trendy - that I just choose not to do. And there are some business strategies, that I have done in the past but have moved away from. And so in today's episode, what I want to do as always is bring you behind the curtain, show you some decision-making that I've done in my strategies for growing my business, show you the strategies that I've stopped doing or don't do at all - in hopes that it might give you a little bit of freedom to make some decisions for yourself. You get to decide what strategies make sense for you and your goals, and even the way you want to show up in your business. I want to give you a little bit of that insight today, because it's not just what you see people doing - it's WHY they are doing it or not doing it. That is the really insightful part for all of us. And I want to share that insight with you today, from my vantage point as a seven figure business owner. In this episode you'll learn: What flashy and trendy business strategies I stopped using, because of their inability to grow and scale my business What my ultimate big goals are as a seven figure business owner, that lead me to cut ties with some of these strategies How you can evaluate your business and make sure that you are hitting your goals and not wasting time on strategies that don't benefit you in any way Hope you enjoy!- Graham

Many people believe that online business success is simply derived from using the right tactics and the right strategies. But I believe that is a false perception. There might be some truth to using strategies that work (because the online business model is essentially a system to follow) but what I think it really comes down to is your own behavior.  Have you had this rude awakening? You've started your online business, and then suddenly you realize that you are your own boss. Nobody is going to tell you what to do. Nobody is coming to the rescue. Your online business success, is solely dependent on the amount of discipline and fruitful habits that you have. But it is very rare, that we stop and really think about our habits and what type of results they brings us closer to, or pulls us away from. That's what we're going to look at today. I want to share 7 bad habits that will destroy your business. If you resonate with any of these, it is time to step your game up and turn your bad habits into good ones - all for the sake of your business success. In this episode you'll learn: Why so many business owners never see real business success because of their habits How to turn your bad habits around and explode your business success What the seven bad habits will do to your business if left unchecked Hope you enjoy!- Graham

So you just lost your job. What do you do? How should you move forward? And how does online business connect to a scenario like this? If you're reading this right now, then you're obviously interested in online business, but maybe you just weren't expecting to have to start one this soon. As someone who's lost many jobs in the past, two in the same year back in 2009 during the global recession, I can empathize with your pain. And in today's episode, what I want to do is address literally the five things you should be doing the moment you lose your job and how to transition into something better and take this potential curse and turn it into a blessing!In this episode you'll learn: How to navigate safely and securely through a job loss and what role online business plays in this scenario Why losing two jobs in the same year, was actually the best thing that ever happened to me How to make sure you never loose a job again Hope you enjoy!- Graham

For a lot of people, online business is regarded as like the ultimate dream, right? You get to do work you love, you get to have scalable income, flexibility, work from home and all those great things. And every single week, I'm trying to help you get closer to all of that. It is a dream in a lot of ways, but as I've said multiple times over, this dream is actually doable! But as with all great things, there's also some dark sides, and online business definitely has a few of those that I don't think people talk about enough. Today I want to play devil's advocate for a moment literally pull back the curtain on some of the darkest secrets about online business that maybe you haven't considered. Just so that you are fully prepared and have a realistic view when you're out there building the dream that is online business. In this episode you'll learn: What the darkest secrets are to online business and why people aren't talking about them How learning about these dark secrets can actually make you a better business owner How understanding the dark side of online business can actually be a superpower that fuels your motivation Hope you enjoy!- Graham

Does online business actually work or is it just one big giant fantasy? Can the average man or woman actually find success with this business model or is it reserved only for a select few people who can afford to fail at first? Well today, what I thought I would do is bring it on. I thought I would curate all the common criticisms, skepticisms or doubts that I hear in emails, social media comments, people tell me about what I teach and what other online business gurus teach - does this model actually work? Let's just tackle all of this head on today. I think this will be a really helpful episode. And my hope for you is that there'll be at least one of these doubts that you've had that I can tackle in front of you, that might bring you a little closer to believing that you could actually pull this off. Because here’s the secret - you actually can! Let's dive in.In this episode you'll learn: The top objections to the online business model, and how I usually respond to them Why I believe online business isn't a lie and that ANYONE can succeed, following a set of core guidelines and principles What to do if you're stuck with your online business endeavor and don't know where to go next Hope you enjoy!- Graham