Interviews, New Economy
Shortly after I met Megan and right as I was really coming into my own with writing & growing my business, she said to me, “You do know Chris Guillebeau, right?”
“Um, no.” I said. “Should I?”
I went home and devoured his blog for hours. I felt like I had found a place I could belong, a community I could relate to, a leader I could follow. This story is not unique; it is shared by tens of thousands of others.
I now have the privilege of calling Chris a friend and mentor.
From his popular blog, to his first book, The Art of Non-Conformity, to the twice sold out World Domination Summit, to his latest book, The $100 Startup, Chris is influencing and inspiring thousands upon thousands of artists, entrepreneurs, and motivated idealists. He is a humble leader, a shrewd strategist, and a practitioner of all that he preaches.
In his new book, Chris examines hundreds of You Economy businesses and analyzes what makes them work. Then he distills that information down into strategies, action steps, and practical ideas for you to use in starting or growing your own bootstrapped startup.
Here are the highlights from our interview:
- Did you notice anything in common between all the businesses you examined? (1:06)
- “They’ve pursued a passion or developed a skill and tied that to the needs of the market” (2:34)
- How do you define a “startup?” (3:17)
- What’s the benefit of staying lean & mean? (4:48)
- “The number one thing people want is more freedom.” Click to tweet! (5:19)
- How big can a self-funded business get? (6:21)
- “It’s easier to create growth once you have something that’s already working.” Click to tweet!(8:18)
- “What can you do to tweak your way to the bank?” Click to spread the word! (8:52)
- What do you see as the future of this information economy? (10:30)
- “Anything we want to do – we can either do it or we can figure it out.” Click to tweet! (13:00)
- Why is it important to you to have a business that gives back? Is that an advantage in the 21st century? “I don’t really separate business & life.” (13:37)
Grab The $100 Startup today!
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Interviews, New Economy
What does it take to turn an entire industry on its head? What’s involved in rethinking process, billing, communication, and approach?
Ask Dr. Cory Annis. She’s bringing innovation to the patient-client relationship and helping to rethink the future of the healthcare industry. Instead of using technology to make medicine more, faster, cheaper, Dr. Annis is using technology to strength relationships, to create an experience of health, or make healthcare more meaningful for those she serves.
Dr. Annis has chosen to focus her remote medical practice on entrepreneurs. She believes healthier entrepreneurs are more effective entrepreneurs. And that more effective entrepreneurs solve more problems, serve more people, and affect greater change.
She faces a number of obstacles, including well-meaning medical boards, but, because of her beautiful vision, she is determined to make this business work and to create the change that it requires.
Here are some highlights:
- How did this remote medical practice begin? (1:02)
- “Private practice doctors are, by nature, entrepreneurs” Click to tweet! (1:35)
- “Being healthy & being an entrepreneur are sometimes diametrically opposed to one another.” Click to tweet! (2:45)
- “Each of these monolithic infrastructures have been crushed by the ability of one person to talk to another person.” (5:21)
- “Not only would I be creating a business for myself but I would be doing my civic duty” (8:20)
- Tell me more about optimizing the performance of entrepreneurs through health. (18:18)
Pay attention to how a lifetime of experience plus a genuine need created a business. It wasn’t a single moment but a slow genesis of inspiration & need.
The real question that pushed the business forward was the question, “Why can’t I?”
Whether you watch the interview or not, I hope you’ll check out The Unorthodoc. And I hope you’ll answer the following question either in the comments below or by tweeting @theunorthodoc:
What would your ideal medical practice include?
Interviews, New Economy, society & culture
What happens when a casual lifestyle blogger realizes her real calling is learning about & exploring sexuality online? A new blog is born, naturally.
Sex Love Liberation is that blog.
I’ve had my eye on the creator of Sex Love Liberation, Ev’Yan Whitney, for a year now and had the pleasure of meeting and talking with her last year at the World Domination Summit in Portland, OR, her home base.
Ev’Yan is a beautiful combination of openness and strength, quiet and candidness. Her site is provocative but never vulgar. It attracts an incredibly diverse audience that comes to learn, listen, explore, and contribute from their own experiences. Her site fosters both public & private conversation.
Sex Love Liberation is a beacon of hope in a sea of sameness.
And that’s why I think it’s such an important You Economy story. I wanted to explore the motivation behind Sex Love Liberation and the experience of running a site based on such a controversial (from so many angles!) topic.
N.B. Our conversation discusses the topic of sex but not the actual content of her site. You might not want to listen to the video at work — but we’re certainly not talking about anything even remotely inappropriate!
Highlights:
- Sex Love Liberation is actually a refinement of your original personal blog, right? Tell me about how you came to honing your message down to that simple credo. (00:42)
- How do you prepare yourself first for the difficult task of putting controversial ideas out to the public and then for the thankless exercise of receiving the response? (02:43)
- “Take the criticism without letting it seep into your bones.” (5:18) Click to tweet!
- Welcome the discussion. Ruffle feathers. Make people think. (7:15) Click to tweet!
- SLL attracts an extremely diverse audience. Did you have a strategy for attracting so many different types of people? How do you foster the conversation between them? (7:30)
- Where do you see your movement & your business 6-18 months down the road? (14:01)
Discover more about Ev’Yan at Sex Love Liberation and follow her on Twitter @ev_yan.
Please share this interview with your network by using one (or more!) of the buttons below.
Interviews
Danielle LaPorte is the high priestess of entrepreneurship, consciousness, and self-empowerment. And her white hot book, The Fire Starter Sessions, lands today.
I found this book practical yet high-level, immediately actionable yet full of long-term wisdom.
As a long-time fan of Danielle, I also found it fresh & revealing – not at all tired or recycled. This book is gold. And it just might help you make some too.
Danielle graciously sat down to talk with me about the book, gratitude, the language of visual design, barriers to entrepreneurship, co-creation, and value. It’s only about 15 minutes but I guarantee you both laughs & aha! moments in that quarter hour.
Here’s the run down:
- “Gratitude is a feedback loop that will show you where you are thriving.” (Click to tweet!) What do people thank you for, Danielle? — 0:52
- How do you use the visual language of design to better spread your message to the right people? — 2:00
- What is the greatest barrier to entrepreneurship now? Is it all in our heads? — 5:02
- How do you determine who you co-create with? — 8:04
- “Part of determining your value is how determined you are to give value.” (Click to tweet!) How can a business owner create laser focus around the value she’s providing her customers & clients? — 11:30
- What was one thing you learned about yourself in the process of writing this book & growing your business to support it? — 14:00
Prefer to listen on your iPhone or MP3 player? Got ya covered. Download the MP3 here (right click than “Save Link as”).
Does this interview light your fire? Please share it with your network by hitting one of the buttons below. They’ll thank you.
Want more Stories from the You Economy plus in-depth business thinking you can actually use? Enter your email address in the box below. You’ll also receive 3+ hours of strategic advice I gave to 9 brave entrepreneurs just like you.
Interviews
Every craft needs a special set of tools. What kind of tool do you need to craft a meaningful life?
The guys, Ryan Nicodemus & Joshua Millburn, at TheMinimalists.com use “minimalism” as a tool for more meaningful living. While minimalism has become quite the trend, with everyone & their kid brothers selling their stuff and flying around the world with all their worldly possessions tucked inside a backpack, The Minimalists take a more measured, intentional approach to minimalism.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re not wishy washy! No, they’re just oozing with purpose.
Ryan & Josh have a new book out, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, which lays out their philosophy alongside practical advice that’s helpful whether you choose to label your lifestyle “minimalist” or not. The book is at once personal and authoritative.
If you’re looking for big ideas on jump-starting the way you live, this is the book for you.
I had the pleasure of talking with one-half of The Minimalists, Ryan Nicodemus, about their purpose, the book, and the business of being a minimalist.
Listen below. Or download the 20 minute MP3 here. (right click then “save as”)
[audio:http://taragentile.s3.amazonaws.com/InterviewRyanNicodemus_TaraGentilecom.mp3]
Here’s what we talked about:
- How do you define minimalism outside of absolutes?
- How do you discover for yourself what is “unnecessary” or “excess” in life?
- How do you know when a “should” is worthy of becoming a “must?”
- How do you manage a life of work-life integration instead of work-life balance?
- Why has The Minimalists brand spread so quickly in a saturated market?
- Does writing about minimalism and living a meaningful life have a shelf life? What’s next?
Pick up Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life at Amazon, exclusively for Kindle.
PS Look for many more interviews here in the coming weeks! I’m calling them “Stories from the You Economy.” Who would you like to see me interview?
