To write show notes, would not even begin to do this story justice.  I'm not telling you what to do, but I'm telling you, you HAVE to listen to this show.

[powerpress]

I read about Jason 5 years ago in Entrepreneur Magazine, and was so inspired by his story of how he started 1-800 Got Mold.  As someone who is extremely passionate about rescuing animals, I found his business concept to be brilliant.  And it's honestly, something I think about almost every day...  How can you create something where you're doing something awesome for people, AND for dogs, AND you're making a living doing it?

The opportunity to talk to Jason was truly amazing, and he did not disappoint.  I sat through awe and amazement, through this entire interview, so I hope you'll take a listen and enjoy it as much as I did.   This story is seriously like a combination of The Pursuit of Happiness, A Man on a Mission, and the Ultimate Dog Rescuer!

Jason also gives great insight...

I have a bit of a bone to pick.  I spent the last weekend at Podcast Movement, which was an amazing experience.  I met a lot of great people, made some fun new connections, and just had a wonderful time.

But as much as I loved it, and learned a lot of great things, I also learned a lot of what 'Not To Do's'.

It's getting really bad in the podcasting world, the what are you going to do for me attitude, and this constant need to leverage someone else's audience.  I get it.  I mean John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire Fame, did it to get himself to a pretty comfortable financial position in just two short years.  

I just feel now it's gotten out of control.  It's not about what's best for their listeners, it's what's best for them.  And their efforts are constantly being spent figuring out how they can get more and more.

I also had someone form email me a few months prior asking me to sell his program to my listeners.  I had never heard of this...

To know podcasting, is to know Elsie Escobar.  She is probably one of the most passionate people for this medium who I have met, and her love for it is infectious.  As podcasting gains more popularity, there seems to be less and less originality in the newly released podcasts.  If you're thinking about creating your own, this is a can't miss episode, as Elsie gives some brilliant ideas of what you can do with a podcast outside of the basic interview.  

Elsie started podcasting because she really loved listening to podcasts.  She has made it a goal to be a student for life, and it was podcasting that really gave her that ability.  She started her own podcast by teaching yoga classes.  Because she was one of the only few producing a yoga show, iTunes was very good for building her brand.  Today, Elsie has several different shows.

What are some ways to use podcasting to promote your business outside of the standard interview format?...

Failures are okay.  Yes, they're kind of scary, but you know what there are a lot of lessons to be learned from them.

Instead of pretending how perfect and awesome I am (okay, so I'll take the awesome), I wanted to lay out my top 3 failures, and the lessons that you can learn from them.

This one's been heavy on my heart for a while, so I hope you enjoy!

(Oh, and tell me your failures, I want to hear!!)

I’ve known Sunny Nunan now for a long time, and I remember her telling us she was leaving her very cush corporate job to start something on her own.  I can’t believe it’s been five years now, and Sunny is doing so amazingly well.  She’s been featured on Forbes.com, and is getting ready to take her company, Core 24, outside of Dallas.  I was so honored that she stopped by to share her story of the start, and hopefully inspire someone else to take a leap without a plan b.

Core 24 is about helping people find services for mid market companies.  When they need find expertise in an area, they provide a list of service providers for them.  However, these providers need to go through an extensive approval process before Core 24 puts them in front of their customers. 

Sunny’s background in sales helped her connect with other businesses.  However, she found this missing link in the marketplace.  So she started to create...

Have you ever wanted to start a project within your business, but you didn't have the funds to get it going?  Well, a campaign on Kickstarter might be something you may want to try.  Colleen Darby did just that, and she was kind enough to share her tips and secrets to getting double her initial ask!

Colleen was turning 50 and really wanted to take a new approach to her life, and take on a dream she had always had of being a full time artist.  She decided to take 30 days off from her day job, and work towards this dream.  She was working as an artist in residence in an oncology floor, when she realized no matter how beautiful the day was outside, that the patients really only had a view of the same white walls.  That's when her idea of A Room With A View came to be.  She wanted to paint landscape views for the patients.

She did start planning her launch in March and didn't launch the Kickstarter Campaign until August.  

What were the first steps in...

If you know anything about Fast Pitch Softball, then you definitely know the name Gary Leland.  He found a need when they had a hard time finding equipment when his daughters played competitively.  However, it's grown to so much more than just selling equipment.  Gary has made sure his name is attached to all things softball.  The way he built this business completely amazed me, and I wanted to bring him on to share his story.  Gary is also a pioneer in the podcasting world.  If he gets an idea for a business, he runs with it, no questions asked.  I can't say many people can honestly say they do that every time.

What is FastPitch.TV and how did it come to be? FastPitch.TV serves a very small niche; it is not just softball, its women’s softball and fast pitch women’s softball at that. FastPitch.TV puts out podcasts and books on training for women’s fast pitch softball as well as daily blog posts and video posts and a monthly...

I admit it, I watched someone's career for five years, and finally reached out to him to be on my show.  I talk all about the experience here, and how it left me just a little invisible.

Back of the Room Productions was the brain child of Alicia White when she saw that a multimillion dollar speaker was not getting the most out of his marketing. Alicia now provides speakers with speaker sheets, business cards, social media images, website graphics all geared to their speaker branding.

What can speaking do for your business? Alicia has learned that speaking is not only a great way to share her expertise but it also captures a greater audience. Alicia is now providing real value to people who may need her services. Speaking is a great business development tool, it gets you in front of more people, shows your expertise, and you are able to present your products or your services.

How can you get over the question of “What can I really offer?” Everyone does not know what you know even though it might seem like it. There will always be someone listening that resonates with something you are speaking on.

What are some first steps of where you should start...

Flourish and Thrive Academy is the “brain child” of Tracy Matthews, Robins business partner. In 2012, after Robin started her own consulting business and Tracy closed her jewelry business of 10 years; Tracy approached Robin to start a business in which no jewelry designer would have to go through what she had to. Tracy coming from a background of owning a business and being the creative while Robin had a background in sales, marketing and branding, the two started their business. Many designers do not know how to get their business started or take it to the next level and Flourish and Thrive Academy is there to help guide them in these processes and to provide a community.

What was the first step taken to make this into a full fledge business? Robin and Tracy had an extensive amount of information and the first step was getting it out there to the public with a four week course and organizing the extensive amount of information the two of them had.

Did you work on...