Remotepreneurs Podcast

Tom Libelt is the founder of Smart Brand Marketing. His entrepreneurial journey went through the marketing world from SEO to publishing thousands of Kindle books and he finally landed onto creating online courses that sell.

Remotrepreneur’s Insights

• Figure out What you Want to Do – There are different types of business. That’s why before you start a remote business, you need to find a direction and what you’re going to do.
• Develop a System – Create a manual or a list of instructions that will help new upcoming employees through the onboarding pipeline without your help.
• Let Your Team Build the Company’s Culture – Give your team members a voice in saying how things can run in the business. That way they create their own rules that they need to follow instead of your rules.

Key Podcast Milestones

03:43 – Tom’s early hustling years

08:11 – Is socialism coming to the US?

21:30 – What are the first steps towards building a remote business and team?

33:47 – How to remove yourself from fulfillment?

43:33 – Golden nuggets of HR

47:07 – How long is Tom’s hiring process

48:20 – Rewards for remote employees

56:19 – How does Tom calculate expenses and profits

Top Key Quotes

“The first thing you need to do is what kind of a business you want to run. That’s the main thing because you can run all types of businesses. You can have an online information business, you can have a service business or just a coaching business. There are a lot of different things you can do. As a business owner, you have to figure out what it is that you’re going to do.”

“I always think about the McDonald's model. If you go to McDonalds, they have systems set up in such a way where they can take any idiot off the street, show them the system and let them do the task. That’s beautiful and that’s the best thing you can hope for.”

“Now with every employee, what do you do? Let’s get you into the system. If you’re a graphic designer, I want all the templates, Photoshop files so that I can just bring someone in and continue to work if you’re not necessary. Remote work takes the power away from the employee.”

“You bring the new employee in fresh from the street. The first one is going to be the worst. You only want to do this with the new person because the old one is going to push back. If you have someone currently they are going to push hard. The way we fulfill is usually similar. If you have custom fulfillment you’re going to be screwed a lot. You need to productize as much as possible. Each one can be fairly productized. As you go through the operations, their job is to fold. One is to actually do the fulfillment, which initially you’re going to teach them. Their second job is taking everything you’re teaching them write it down in a system process. Essentially, you have steps to fulfillment.”

“The second thing I’ve had done is I had the team create the rules of the company, themselves without me. They define the culture of the company. What kind of company are we going to be based on how they were interacting? The type of things we are not going to tolerate, etc.”

Resources

Socials

Tom Libelt

Remotepreneurs

Books

Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less – Sam Carpenter

Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success – Phil Jackson

Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable – Tim Grover

Laws of Success by Napoleon Hill

Danny Carlson is a guest on our podcast today to talk about the things that have been bothering you for quite some time now. He's a 27-year-old entrepreneur, podcaster, & lifestyle architect. His first business produced extreme downhill longboarding videos in 2014 & has since grown the Amazon FBA Agency “Kenji ROI” to more than 10 team members. Kenji ROI has served over 500 Amazon sellers & created photos, video, copywriting, & graphics for over 1240 listings. He's also a host of the Actualize Freedom Podcast & the Danny Carlson Podcast completing more than 60 interviews with names like Daniel DiPiazza, Steve Sims, Manny Coats, & Kevin King.

Remotrepreneur’s Insights

• Never Stop Developing Your Product – Always have in mind that competitors are doing way more product research than you. Never stop improving your product and be one step ahead.
  
• Lifting Your Company Up Requires Hustling – Especially in the beginning stages you have to use all of your powers to get your company out there. Whether it’s SEO, blog posts, websites, reaching out to people, you have to do try it all if you want to see results
  
• Don’t Rush Implementing SOPs Right Away – Wait until you’ve tried your system and procedure at least five times until you install it permanently in your company.
  

Key Podcast Milestones

02:55 – Danny’s first steps to remote entrepreneurship

06:51 – Danny’s thoughts on Amazon products

08:15 – How did a near-death experience change Danny’s perspective

10:46 – How did Danny overcome problems in the first three months of starting a business

14:24 – The turning point where Danny removed himself from fulfillment

16:33 – When should you be starting to create the systems and processes

18:55 – How did Danny create and employed his team members

22:47 – The budget for hiring an operations manager

28:35 – Danny’s recommendation for improving communication between teams

36:48 – How Danny manages team meetings

38:48 – The next level for Kenji

Top Key Quotes

“If you just sit back on your profits and you’re extracting money, enjoying it, then those profits are going to dry up. Competitors come in, product life cycles and Amazon are fairly short unless you have a really unique product or a patent. So, if you’re not constantly doing product research, launch a new product, just doing things to maximize your current product, then it’s not doing to last”

“I would recommend hiring a dedicated, at least part-time / 20 hour, general virtual assistant. If you can afford it, you can get something like that $400 a month. Even if your profits are not much more than that, the ability to be able to focus on the things are going to generate more revenue for your business that is going to improve the system so that you can scale the business. Just the fact that you can focus on that, even if you keep your profits not that high above break-even, you are going to be building an asset for yourself that can then scale to a much larger company.”

“It’s really important to go through a process at least 5 times by yourself so you really understand the process. That way you’re going to know how the process itself can be improved or what part of the process doesn’t work.”

Resources

KENJI ROI – Danny’s company

Freedom Agency Blueprint – Danny’s courses

Socials

Danny Carlson

Remotepreneurs

Credit doesn’t have to be scary when you use it for your own benefit. Our podcast today is focused on how to use the banks to work for you instead of the other way around. We are joined by Colin Yuricisin, the credit card Robin Hood, who found a way to break the matrix and make debt a machine that makes you money.

Breaking the stigma about credit cards, Colin breaks down his journey of leveraging banks to make him the successful entrepreneur he is today.

Colin started his journey of ascension towards success with some bad investments that cost him years of getting out of debt. He then decided to apply for a credit card and found a way to make banks work for him. Colin explains how you can use credit not only for your business but also for your lifestyle. There are no limits in real life, they only exist in your head. That’s why we are here to empower you to get where you want to get, business and lifestyle-wise, with other people’s money.

Remotrepreneur’s Insights:

• Importance of Starting Your Line of Credit Card Early – Colin shares his experience when he first started out using credit cards and why it’s important to start early.
  
• Leveraging Banks to Work For You – The tables have turned and now Colin tells us how you can make banks work for you to build income and assets.
  
• Using Credit For Personal Use – There are hacks you can use to travel the world at luxury hotels using credit points, Colin is here to tell you how to do it.
  
• Importance of Debt – Colin explains how debt can be a good thing for your business and how you can make debt make you more money.
  

Top Key Quotes:

“I don’t work through a bank, I’m using the bank”

“When you have a bank account, you have a debit card. A debit card is basically you just storing your cash inside of a bank. When you use a debit card, you’re taking out your own money. When you use a credit card, none of your money is in a bank account, it’s not tied to a bank account. You are literally using the bank’s bank account because they trust you.”

“When you first turn 18, you need to get a credit card. You need to start your credit history ASAP.”

“Debt is how the rich get rich”

“The more credit you have, the more trust you have”

“Living in luxury, traveling for free, leveraging bank’s money for little cost. It’s just education.”

Resources:

Courses:

EXCLUSIVE MASTERMIND – Colin’s private mastermind class

Learn Credit for $1 – Colin’s $1 class

Inner Circle:Credit Class – Colin’s credit class

People:

John Malott

People mention:

Grant Cardone

Donald Trump

Tony Robins

Gary Vee

Connect on social:

IG: @remotepreneurs

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Podcasting sucks - that's my summary of 2019!!!

Did I get your attention???

Well that's the biggest lesson that I learned from starting the Remotepreneurs Podcast. The biggest value or currency if you will is ATTENTION!

Besides that in 2019 I've discovered my biggest weakness that is actually stopping me from getting attention - INDECISION (aka trying to make everything perfect)!

Today I share my thoughts and lessons learned from starting the podcast and all the behind the scene work it takes to actually run a podcast. The episode is not edited on purpose because I'm fighting the syndrome of indecision "making it perfect".

If you are curious to hear the story of how and why I started the Remotepreneurs Podcast and want to learn what to do not to quit on your podcast listen to this episode now!

Remotreprenurer’s Insights

• How & Why I started the Remotepreneurs Podcast
• How networking skills helped me to launch the podcast with amazing guests
• Why podcast post-production is the number 1 reason why people quit their podcast
• How not quitting your podcast
• My fight against INDECISION
• My new business idea
• The Pros & Cons of running a podcast
• My speaking engagement in Bali (Digital Nomad Summit 2020)
• End of Season 1 & The Future of Remotepreneurs Podcast

Top Key Quotes

"It's not just hard work and hussle, if you work all day, every day you'll just burn out. You need systems in place to do the work for you!"

"Podcast Post-production sucks! If you have money you must outsource that part and save your mind!"

"One of the biggest weaknesses is INDECISION aka "making it perfect"

Resources & Places Mentioned

Remotepreneurs Podcast Website

Contest: Remotepreneurs on iTunes/Apple Podcast

Interview w/ Callum McVickers about Systems & Decision Making Fatigue

Interview w/ Russ Perry about BPO & Flat Monthly Fee Model

Interview w/ Liam Martin about Remote Employee Productivity

Interview w/ Olumide about Digital Nomad Summit 2020

Grant Cardone 10x Ambassadors Program

Rotaract & Rotary Foundation (my humanitarian work)

Upwork

Fiverr

Connect on Social:

IG: @remotepreneurs

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In this age of sales funnels, email marketing, and robocalls, is there still a place for cold calling?

If you ask Jason, the answer is an undeniable YES. Jason built a highly successful remote business from his home around his skill on the phones. He runs 2 separate teams that are closing 7 & 8 figures revenue using the phone!

In this episode, you’ll hear from Jason as he shares why cold calling needs to make a bigger comeback and the best options for running a remote sales team using the phones. Jason shares how his team trains people on the people, managing a remote sales team, and balancing your life when your office is right at home.

Remotreprenurer’s Insights

• Is cold calling dead?
  
• How cold calling could help e-commerce with abandoned shopping carts
  
• The business shift away from phones & mail to email
  
• Hiring and training remote team to handle the phones
  
• What to look for in a good telemarketer
  
• Improving the hiring and training process to make a stronger remote team
  
• Why Jason’s team does a post-mortem after a bad hire
  
• Staying motivated and productive as an entrepreneur

Top Key Quotes

"I think companies need to get back to collecting phone numbers.” (6:00)

“We’ll open up resumes in certain cities and get 1200 resumes in under 4 hours.” (10:59)

“Hiring remotely has really exploded our ability to do what we are doing.” (11:53)post quote

“I’m laser focused on that one next thing...”(43:46)

“I always have something in the calendar that I’m looking forward to.” (01:04:00)

“I wake up at 4...not because I enjoy it but because I learned to discipline myself to do it.” (01:12:00)

Resources & Books Mentioned

Shinobi Sales

Shinobi Sales on Facebook

Indeed

Google Docs

Slack

The Ivy League Method to Scheduling

Andy Frisella Power 5 List

GrowthCon

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

CONNECT ON SOCIAL:

IG: @remotepreneurs

PLEASE RATE, REVIEW & SUBSCRIBE!