Best Optimizing Growth During Uncertainty Podcasts (2024)

1
#72 Is it a Culture Problem or a Hiring Problem? 38:32

1+ y ago38:32

38:32

This week’s guest Pat’s business centers on one of the most hyped and controversial investment forms ever – crypto currency. His company The Giving Block is at the forefront of crypto-philanthropy, bringing a new generation of investors together with non-profits. Despite market turbulences this is one hot sector and his team has ballooned from 5 to…

1
#71: Is Pre-Revenue Funding a Pipe Dream? 33:42

1+ y ago33:42

33:42

Many great entrepreneurial ideas were spawned in response to the pandemic. For this week’s guest Kyle it all began with him wondering how he could recreate the in-person feeling of reading bedtime stories to his child in Canada when he was stuck in Texas while the borders were shut. He also worried about how he could stop kids like his from falling…

1
#70: How to Get Your Business Buzzing 39:02

1+ y ago39:02

39:02

Many people dream about their passion project becoming a full time gig but Allison is one of those rare people who made it a reality. Her love for honey bees became the Siller Pollinator Company and the initial momentum was gratifying. But growth has stalled and this has her at a juncture… Can Marc help her find her scalability sweet-spot? Listen i…

1
#69: Should You Buy or Lease Your Location? 20:24

1+ y ago20:24

20:24

Have you ever wondered what people do with the advice that Marc gives them on the show? Well, David Silberman, co-founder of PingPod, is here to tell you just that. The first time he and Marc talked, David was trying to strategize the growth of his ping pong venue business and one of the hot topics was whether to buy or lease locations. Now that th…

1
#68: The Premium Product Conundrum 34:07

2y ago34:07

34:07

How earth friendly are the so-called “earth friendly” products? In the opinion of this week’s guest Justine Potashnik - not very. But she believes she has the answer in her Advanced Soapberry Formula, derived from Himalayan tree nuts. A product like this has a higher cost to create than its competitors, which has her at a juncture - should the comp…

1
#67: Let Go to Grow 33:40

2y ago33:40

33:40

Belissimo Hats has achieved something rare in today’s market – the company has an enthusiastic celebrity following without ever having to pay a dime in influencer marketing money. They can count mega stars like Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg among the fans who just love to post about wearing their product. But the problem is co-founders, brothers Levi a…

1
#66: How to Become a Pitch Pro 25:36

2y ago25:36

25:36

Faith has a patent pending product and she thinks it’s time to take it out to investors. Trouble is, as an Entrepreneurship & Marketing Junior her live pitching experience for The Shaving Step was limited to student pitch contests. So what does that mean now that she wants to get real world investment? Listen in for a masterclass from Marc on how t…

1
#65: The Wedding Industry is Worth Billions – What Could a Break-Up Industry be Worth? 38:05

2y ago38:05

38:05

Natasha’s dream wedding went up in flames just before the big day. As she picked up the pieces of the breakdown of her nine year relationship, she had a realization: she was in way more need of all those items from her gift registry now than she had ever been when she and her fiancé were still together. As she moved back into her parents’ basement …

1
#64: Did it Work? Catch Up Special: Bolder Adventure Park 23:25

2y ago23:25

23:25

Have you ever wondered what people do with the advice Marc gives them? This week’s guest Paul Fontanelli was in the planning stages of his Bolder Adventure Park when he appeared as one of the first guests on the show. His business is an ambitious indoor venue out of Grand Prairie, Texas, which seeks to bring together everything from rock climbing t…

1
#63: Stop Thinking and Start Doing! 40:51

2y ago40:51

40:51

Sometimes entrepreneurs get so caught up in making their idea perfect, they forget to collide it with reality. Is that what’s happening to this week’s guest Reilly? His site Fleur.ai seeks to disrupt and democratize the art world. But it’s been tough. It’s an idea he and his co-founders passionately believe the world needs but it’s also a pitch tha…

1
#62: Resurrecting the Great American Movie Drive-In with an Urban Twist - Feat. Special Guest Mitch Lowe 26:11

2y ago26:11

26:11

Ben is stuck. He’s the founder of outdoor pop-up concept WEDriveIns, which repurposes disused urban parking lots as drive-in movie theaters. City officials have been gratifyingly swift to support the project which provides Covid safe entertainment and brings customers to shopping areas. It all looks so promising… So why can’t Ben scale? Well, he ne…

1
#61: The Six Month Work Year 32:43

2y ago32:43

32:43

Matt has an intriguing question - can a founder work just six months of the year and still have a successful business? Frightmare - his UK based scare attraction - turns a great profit every year. But while the event itself is seasonal, he’s realized that to be a success the business needs backroom staff year round. But he’d rather spend the off se…

1
#60: How to Turn Your Kitchen Side-Hustle Into a Brand 32:47

2y ago32:47

32:47

Krystina decided to take the leap and try to make her home- bakery business her full time gig just before the pandemic hit. While most people would have hit pause, she instead reimagined her offering and The Messy Cookie home kit was born. Big names like Wayfair and Ebay jumped on board for her delicious virtual team-building escape. But while she’…

1
#59: Entrepreneurship Isn’t Brain Surgery… Or is it? 30:39

2y ago30:39

30:39

Some industries don’t want to be disrupted, but that doesn’t mean you should step back from the fight! This week’s guest Alex Koefman knows he has a solution that surgeons like him all over the world need – but he needs to form partnerships with medical device companies in order for his SurgeryTV app to be successful. The trouble is, they just aren…

1
#58: Success is in Sight - Now What? 41:40

2y ago41:40

41:40

When bars and pubs across the world closed during the pandemic, so did their game nights… For this week’s guest Mark Walsh it was a heart-stopping moment as British pub quizzes were his business. He immediately set to work reimagining this unique style of trivia entertainment for remote times by creating his Kwizzbit app. The growth has been so fas…

1
#57: How to Overcome Resistance to Change 29:12

2y ago29:12

29:12

There are few industries more resistant to disruption than education… But despite the odds, this week’s guest Benny Boas seems to be making some headway. He’s the founder of Upright Education, a bootcamp-style program aimed at helping adult learners rapidly re-skill in tech. The course is intended to be white-labeled at colleges. But while the prog…

1
#56: When your Biggest Competitor is Inertia 30:52

2y ago30:52

30:52

City red tape seems so baked into American life, that it stopped being a problem people even bothered trying to solve. But when Covid hit, it forced the opportunity for change. Businesses – especially restaurants - faced fast changing regulations and had to be able to get the new permits they needed to operate at speed, or face going under. No busi…

1
#55: How to let go When You’re the Founding CEO 30:39

2y ago30:39

30:39

Where to put the mountains of trash humans create is a problem that only seems to keep growing. Recycling is one part of solving the problem… the other is having consumer products last longer so we don’t create as much garbage to begin with. That’s the thinking of this week’s guest Chris Burrage, founder of San Francisco based Proclamation Goods. W…

1
#54: The Boutique Approach to Taking on the Big Box Stores 31:40

2y ago31:40

31:40

Stephanie’s cracked the hardest part – her Austin, TX, designer boutiques have seen record growth this past year despite the pandemic. She knows for a fact she’s taking sales away from the big hitters like Nordstroms, Revolve and Amazon - her customers just prefer the personal touch she brings to the sales experience. But now that she’s setting her…

1
#53: My Meeting with Jeff Bezos. Is Netflix for sale? 33:43

2y ago33:43

33:43

In the summer of 1998, Reed and I flew up to Seattle to meet with Jeff Bezos to discuss nothing other than potentially selling Netflix to Amazon. It was a decision that would have serious implications. Listen to me tell the whole story in this free chapter from the audiobook of the international bestseller: That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netfli…

1
#52: Start-Up Stress Special: Mental Health for Founders 46:50

2y ago46:50

46:50

When you look at social media it seems like founders all live like rockstars. But this belies the reality. The truth is, being a founder can be one of the toughest, loneliest tasks you’ll ever face. It’s not just the long hours and financial pressures… studies show three quarters of entrepreneurs are affected by mental health issues. So why isn’t S…

1
#51: Finding Your Subscription Sweet Spot 42:53

2y ago42:53

42:53

Karl is faced with a puzzling subscription problem: he has plenty of downloads of his Cofeesup app – but his conversion rate from free trial to paying customer is surprisingly low. His solution to lift up neighborhood cafes over the mega marketers like Starbucks seems like a no brainer – you can get three cups of specialty coffee a week for just $8…

1
#50: Does it Take Money to Make Money? 27:36

2y ago27:36

27:36

Is the old adage still true, that it takes money to make money? That’s what this week’s guests Lauren Arshad and Jen Cefaly are trying to figure out. They are the co-founders of Los Angeles based Design Hive, an edutainment company that creates hands-on STEAM workshops for both kids and adults. The duo are brim full of ideas and are poised to grow …

1
#49: Using Sampling to Unleash Your Niche! 36:21

2y ago36:21

36:21

How best to unleash your niche? That’s what has Paul stumped. He’s the founder of a company called Cicero Learning, a business that helps families with the problem of global education access on a bespoke basis. It’s an educational method referred to as “World Schooling” which has become a hot topic thanks to the pandemic when laptop wielding parent…

1
#48: Can Free Consumable Products Make Big Profits? 32:31

2y ago32:31

32:31

Is it possible to make big profits from a free consumable product? This week’s guest Josh Cliffords certainly thinks so. By selling ads on the side of bottles he’s been able to establish his brand FreeWater at lighting speed in his hometown of Austin, Texas. His flair for posting viral TikTok videos has sent his message around the world. Josh has a…

1
#47: Could This Rival Kumon? 33:51

2y ago33:51

33:51

It’s no secret that the pandemic hammered small businesses - especially those with brick and mortar locations. But this week’s guest, Angela, wasn’t going to let her thriving math enrichment business close, even when her store had to. As a prime example of the power of the pivot, she’s actually managed to more than double her customer base and take…

1
#46: Can you Create a Repeatable, Scalable Business When Your Business is You? 31:04

2y ago31:04

31:04

She’s worked with celebrities like Kendall and Kylie Jenner, brands like Adidas and magazines including Rolling Stone and Teen Vogue… She's even been a judge on Miss USA. But fashion photographer Sophie Elgort has hit a career juncture faced by many would-be entrepreneurs: how do you scale when your business is you? She thinks she’s created a solut…

1
#45: Betting your Idea will Disrupt the Market? Here’s what You Need to Know. 29:07

2y ago29:07

29:07

Army vet Cooper is the founder of SoBet, a new peer-to-peer sports betting and social media platform that targets the elusive Gen-Z consumer. But it’s a pitch that Marc has heard a thousand times before… and most of those pitches failed to make it. Can this West Point grad prove both to Marc - and to the market - that his mix of reducing the juice …

1
#44: Could this be the World’s Youngest Start-Up? 22:40

2y ago22:40

22:40

How do you support entrepreneurial spirit in your child? That’s what Marc explores in this week’s episode with the help of the first ever quartet of co-founders to appear on the show. Elementary schoolers Julianne, Zachary, Maxfield and Mark have created beverage brand Astronade and caught Marc’s attention with their plucky marketing plan that even…

1
#43: Did Marc just get Career Envy? 30:03

2+ y ago30:03

30:03

James is an adventurer in both life and business. But when your career is breaking world records how do you turn that into a sustainable business? He thinks he found his answer when he created his wilderness team building program My Adventure Group… and he’s getting rave reviews. The trouble is, he’s just not getting enough customers. Can Marc help…

1
#42: Data Driven by Design 38:36

2+ y ago38:36

38:36

How do you get your creative team on board with using data to help drive their decisions? That’s the question facing Katie, co-owner of Studio 882, an interior design and furniture showroom out of Glen Mills, PA. Katie believes she has found the secret sauce that will grow the business to the next level and enable her to expand around the US. She’s…

1
#41: Super Coffee: How to Scale Culture in a Family Business 30:47

2+ y ago30:47

30:47

Jordan DeCicco created Super Coffee in his dorm room when he was only 19 years old. He dropped out of college to go full-time on his side-hustle and now, together with his two brothers runs the bottled beverage brand out of Austin, Texas. With an impressive $125m in annual revenue, the DeCiccos have attracted big name investors including J. Lo and …

1
#40: Can a Product Aimed at Classrooms Turn a Profit? 28:11

2+ y ago28:11

28:11

Education major Erin has developed a fun new STEM product for kids with her Boeing engineer business partner – a quad drone kit for kids to build and fly. She knows the palm-sized toy drone market is a crowded space, which is why her company Finger Flyer differentiates itself as an educational tool. But why is her strategy of marketing direct to sc…

1
#39: How to Sell a Product Before you Make It 32:13

2+ y ago32:13

32:13

Grad student Ivana needs Marc’s help to figure out a big decision – should she spend $10,000 on a mold for her time saving lab tool Flasky? Or is there a better way? Her uniquely shaped flask-cleaning tool could save labs everywhere hours in cleaning time and thousands of dollars in drug wastage, benefitting the development of everything from paink…

1
#38: Marketing a Minibar for Meds 27:50

2+ y ago27:50

27:50

As entrepreneurs, engineers have an enviable advantage - they can easily build prototypes of the products and services they want to bring to market. But they still need the more fundamental skill that all entrepreneurs require: deciphering what the market wants. And the process to figure that out can take all of us out of our comfort zones. On toda…

1
#37: Repeat After Me: Ideas, Not Apps 29:28

2+ y ago29:28

29:28

Ahhh the ‘idea stage’: when you’ve identified the problem your business is solving, and you’re ready to bring your vision to life. And what better way to do that than building an app, right? Wrong. On today’s show, Marc takes aspiring entrepreneur Kristen back to the ‘idea stage,’ and asks the key questions she - and anyone - needs to answer before…

1
#36: Finding The Backbeat For Your Budding Business 32:54

2+ y ago32:54

32:54

As we settle into life in a (hopefully) post-pandemic world, there are a ton of newly launched businesses that are facing a pivot point. These are the entrepreneurs for whom ‘going remote’ was a boon - and now it’s time to figure out if that was a blip or the start of something bigger. In the case of today’s guest, Dustin, a professional drummer wi…

1
#35: Started in the Garage and Now We’re Here 34:18

2+ y ago34:18

34:18

Today it’s a crash course in getting your business out of the garage and into the showroom, so to speak. Laurie and PJ, partners in business and life, have already demonstrated the validity of their Van modification business, and attracted a lot of interest through a crowdfunding campaign. Now, it’s time to take it to the big boys, the venture folk…

1
#34: Arming David To Take on Goliaths 32:25

2+ y ago32:25

32:25

What do you do when the world’s biggest tech players think they’ve already solved a problem - but you think you can solve it better? That’s what today’s conversation is all about. In order to disrupt, you need to pick your spot - it could be a unique feature, an overlooked customer segment, or just better overall functionality, but if you don’t com…

1
#33: Life After Launch 32:49

2+ y ago32:49

32:49

It sounds like a great problem to have, really. You’ve stood up your dream business, creating a sustainable and profitable entity that’s delivered on your initial goals. Now, you can take a step back from the day to day as an able staff runs the show. But what’s the best approach for a Founder-turned-Board Member to take? And…what’s next? Marc, who…

1
#32: It’s Only a Service if People Will Pay For It 31:11

2+ y ago31:11

31:11

Congratulations! Drawing on your personal and professional experience, you’ve created a service that addresses an obvious market need. Now, who’s going to pay for it? Sarah’s solution for onboarding parents and nannies is a good one, and clearly has a lot of potential. But she needs to re-examine her business model to maximize the customer base wit…

1
#31: If The Shoe Fits, Sell It 30:28

2+ y ago30:28

30:28

Entrepreneurs hawking new products find inspiration in a variety of ways. And you know what? To the outside world, it doesn’t matter that much. A compelling origin story makes for great brand building, but it won’t be the first reason people buy your wares. The product has to fit a consumer need. Today’s guest, Kenton, who started making expandable…

1
#30: When Ramping Up Your Business Means Blowing Up Your Model 30:33

2+ y ago30:33

30:33

Why would you blow up a successful business model? To make an even better one, of course. That’s the place we find today’s guest, Nunzio. In order to streamline and maximize his service - which provides listings for folks buying and selling businesses - he’s going to ruffle some feathers and dry up some previously wet beaks. Marc coaches him throug…

1
#29: Think Big But Start Small 29:49

2+ y ago29:49

29:49

Every app or service that sets out to change the world needs to start the same way: by changing the life of a single customer. So no matter how bold your vision, you still have to go through the same steps of iterative development. Today’s guest, Dana, wants to transform Global literacy, but Marc brings her down to earth, sharing his tips on how to…

1
#28: The Most Important Decision? Deciding Who You're Building For. 30:38

2+ y ago30:38

30:38

Creating a new product or service involves hundreds of decisions: features, pricing, functionality, etc. But you can't make any of those decisions without making a bigger decision first: exactly who are you building for. In today's episode, Marc helps an oncologist-turned-entrepreneur take that critical - but non-intuitive - first step. Want to be …

1
#27: Perfecting the Art of Gift-Giving - And Receiving 28:25

2+ y ago28:25

28:25

Kat has carved out a niche for herself as a personal jewelry shopper for milestone occasions. But her life- (or relationship-) saving service is a bit more complex than it seems, as she is really serving two customers, not just one. Marc has some great suggestions for how she can expand her messaging to turn that dual customer aspect into more busi…

1
#26: From Service to Product and Back Again 23:45

2+ y ago23:45

23:45

In the highly customized world of business consulting, Juan’s Madrid-based company is already turning a profit. Now, he and his colleagues are looking to expedite the onboarding process by providing a tool for clients to help them determine their efficiency needs. He’s come to Marc for advice on how to develop this emerging tool while still keeping…

1
#25: No Time In The Penalty Box 31:43

2+ y ago31:43

31:43

Bill, today’s guest, is the living embodiment of entrepreneurial persistence. A youth hockey coach as well as a businessman, he’s used to taking hard knocks around the clock. With his latest venture, which aims to simplify the compliance process for youth sports coaches, he’s going through a lot of trial and error as he works to break into the mark…

1
#24: A Metaverse of His Own 29:58

2+ y ago29:58

29:58

Don’t let the low-key vibe of today’s guest, Jak, fool you; he’s a successful content creator whose “metaverse studio,” Disrupt, has amassed over 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube. And that’s just the issue we discuss: how should today’s content creators evolve beyond the platforms that have made them successful, and create a direct relationship w…

1
#23: A Solution In Need of a Market 31:56

2+ y ago31:56

31:56

On today’s show, we meet JR. A successful contractor, he is also a quintessential entrepreneur; in the course of running his own business, he’s discovered some industry-specific problems that he believes he can solve. Now, the question is, will his solution have broader, industry-wide appeal, and if so, how to let his fellow builders know? A case s…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Optimizing Growth During Uncertainty Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide