The Entrepreneur Start-Up Series Week 23 -

These entrepreneurs were motivated to change, and they were deliberate in how they were going to do it.

Ep #117: Russ Perry, Design Pickle

Ep #118: Travis Chambers, Chief Media Hacker

Ep #119: Johnathan Grzybowski, Co-Founder of Penji

Ep #120: Colin Nanka, Sales and Leadership Development

Ep #121: Brent McClure, CFO

The Daily Grind Business Podcast interviews successful business owners and people in hopes to inspire the next great entrepreneur.

Welcome to Week 23 of The Daily Grind Business Podcast Weekly Summaries. Each week the interviewees impart their wisdom by sharing their experiences. Learn from them. To connect with them and to receive some free information please click on the links below.

There is a common thread with all successful entrepreneurs and that is the importance of investing in both your business and personal growth. So each week we also share with you titles of books that either these entrepreneurs have written or suggested that you read.

The people who Colin interviews didn’t just make a million dollars. They persevered. A lot of them failed; but they got back up, dusted themselves off and got back in the race. They had an undying belief that what they were doing was the right thing and would eventually take off – it just needed time and more hard work. In the process, they reached out to mentors, read books, listened to podcasts and audiobooks and attended seminars. They got rid of their egos and they learned from people who were doing exactly what they wanted to do.

We are passionate about helping entrepreneurs get started in their businesses so this is why we have compiled weekly notes from our weekly podcasts. The entrepreneurs who so graciously offered their time to be interviewed are passionate about giving back and helping others as we do.

Week 23

1. Russ Perry is the Founder of Design Pickle, the #1 unlimited and flat-rate graphic design service in the world. Launched in 2015, Design Pickle has experienced unprecedented success helping small businesses get the creative content they need so their clients can focus on what they do best. Russ is the author of The Sober Entrepreneur, a powerful book uncovering his journey from rock bottom and his commitment to the ultimate life hack: sobriety. Additionally, Russ is a Certified Trainer with Wake-Up Warrior, the #1 training program for men worldwide. He enjoys traveling with his wife – Mika – and their three beautiful daughters.

2. Travis Chambers is the Founder and Chief Media Hacker at Chamber.Media, an agency that makes scalable social videos; large production videos run as ads on Facebook and YouTube that drive millions in sales. In his career, he’s been a hands-on Director, Producer, Writer,
and Social Ad Buyer. See case studies at www.chamber.media.chamber.Media videos have driven $40,000,000+ in trackable sales, 250 million views, 3 million social shares, 15k press features, and thousands of brand integrations with social influencers. We’ve been featured in AdWeek, Forbes, NextWeb, and Time.

Travis led distribution and content strategy for “YouTube’s #1 Ad of the Decade,” Kobe vs. Messi with 140 million views. He’s worked with brands like Yahoo, Kraft, Old Navy, Coca-Cola, and Amazon among others.

Travis regularly speaks about social/web video at conferences such as VidCon, VidSummit, ad: tech, Start Festival, CVX Live, and Universities.

3. Johnathan Grzybowski is the co-founder of Penji, a dependable on-demand design service that helps marketing teams receive unlimited custom design at a flat monthly cost. His goal is to empower the next generation of designers through education and community building. Johnathan is also the producer and host of The Blind Entrepreneur Podcast featuring interviews with entrepreneurs, CEO’s, and business professionals to help those who may be temporally blind in business and guide those individuals to profitability.

4. Colin Nanka is the Senior Director of Enablement for North American Sales and Leadership Development at the world’s leading Customer Relationship Management Company, Salesforce.com. He is a proven sales leader with over 20 years of sales experience including time at Salesforce and Xerox Corporation. Colin completed his business degree in Canada at the University of Alberta. In his spare time, he competes in multi-day, self-sustained, adventure races in the world’s most treacherous terrains, including the Sahara Desert, Gobi Desert, Iceland, Grand Canyon, Atacama Desert and, most recently, in Antarctica. He has a passion for writing, collaborating, learning and empowering his community to go further.

5. Brent McClure is not your typical CPA. He is a visionary, a change agent, and paradigm breaker for the accounting profession as well as businesses across multiple verticals. Brent grew up in his family grocery store and took a love of business from an early age and turned it into his future.

A results-oriented Senior Executive and Consultant with more than 20 years of success, Brent crosses many business verticals: financial services, construction, SaaS, retail, distribution, manufacturing, oil & gas, and technology industries. Brent leverages his extensive experience to help businesses improve profitability, increase their capacity, develop sustainability and ensure necessary compliance all while achieving a greater return on investment.

In his experience, Brent has learned that hiring a CFO isn’t something many small or medium-sized businesses can afford, yet many times desperately need. With this knowledge, he started promoting his CFO services as more of an outsourced, a la carte, offering via McClure Consulting & Advisory, LLC.

Now Brent helps businesses surpass their financial goals through leadership coupled with strategic planning and execution. He wants to ensure business leaders and owners no longer ignore the need for robust financial support or the “back office”, finances to their own detriment.

The one piece of advice that most of these entrepreneurs would like to give you is to have patience. They were always pushing to be successful. “It is good to push but too often we keep climbing and fail to enjoy the process and to be grateful during the process.”

“I had to make a hard decision at 22. I was going to be a father. I decided to become an entrepreneur then. I wish I could say it was roses and success, but it wasn’t. I was struggling with alcohol addiction. When I made the decision in 2013 to become clean I was very clear about what I needed to do. I wanted to pursue a professional path that was in total alignment with my interests.” by Russ Perry
When I first started, I was always chasing the dollar. I was always chasing the next contract because I needed to get paid. I didn’t think about how I was getting paid and the value I was providing. I was addicted to be an entrepreneur without actually knowing how to do it.” by Russ Perry
“To make more money you need to create more value in what you are offering. Find out what your customers value and service those needs.” by Russ Perry

“When I started this business, I was curious. I had side projects. I had a desire to learn this industry, so I invested 100’s of hours studying the industry. It was preparation meeting opportunity. by Travis Chambers
“We had a client that we did a lot of work for, but he only paid us ½ of what they owed us. It hurt our cash flow. I had to move in with my mother-in-law for a while just to make ends meet.” by Travis Chambers
“Six months later we transitioned our business from selling shareable videos to direct response sales videos. Anytime you pivot your business like this expect a downtime in your business. This was two years ago. I was three months away from letting my employee go and then we got a major project that got us going again and we have never stopped.” by Travis Chambers

“Initially when we started the business it was great. It was growing but I was not happy with the way we were delivering our service; we were lacking something. It wasn’t a lack of quality there was a lack of care missing in our service. I wasn’t happy with the way the business was running. We were asked by the press: “Why are you here in the city of Camden, New Jersey” and “What are you doing to give back.” We had no answer. We wanted to flip the narrative. We now want to give people opportunities – jobs. We deliver more quality to our service. We are now a socially-conscious business.” by Johnathan Grzybowski
“Leadership has been my biggest learning curve – you need to check your ego at the door. The company will always be bigger than you especially if you have employees. You must admit that you are wrong sometimes. Look after your employees. It is a give and take relationship.” by Johnathan Grzybowski
“You can be successful right in your backyard. You do not need to move to a major city to be successful. By creating an incredible service and giving back to the community you can be in business anywhere.” by Johnathan Grzybowski

“I have had a lot of life lessons through failure. What I learned from racing is that you need to find new gears when you are at the bottom of your tank. IT IS BY ASKING YOURSELF GOOD QUESTIONS like; What is the learning opportunity. I needed to switch my mindset. I knew I was going to grow from this race.” by Colin Nanka
“Good salespeople play the long game. They know that there is a set of skills that they need to have but they don’t try to take on everything at once.” by Colin Nanka
“This is the way I like to think of Mentorship. I like to have these 3 buckets full at all time:
Play with someone that is better than you because they will stretch your capabilities.
Play with someone who is equal to you because it will drive that competitiveness in you.
Play with someone who is not as good as you. Pay it forward.” by Colin Nanka

“I didn’t like working in the corporate world. I felt like something was missing. It didn’t excite me to make partner where I was working. What excited me was to be my own entrepreneur, although it took me awhile to step out on my own. It was difficult for me making that leap of faith and not having a regular pay check.” by Brent McClure
“I meditated. I made lists. I listened to podcasts and I realized that many people were in the same situation that I was in. I was unhappy in my job and I needed to branch out on my own.” by Brent McClure
“Many business operators ignore their financials. They think anyone can do it but deep down they are afraid because they don’t know anything about the financial side of their business. Many business operators ignore their numbers, and many suffer from margin erosion.” by Brent McClure

FREE RESOURCES:

To connect with Russ Perry click his Website: https://designpickle.com/ or you connect with him on Instagram: Russ Perry

To connect with Travis Chambers visit his Website: www.chamber.media or connect with him on LinkedIn: Travis Chambers or you can listen to his Podcast: How I Sold Your Attention

To connect with Johnathan Grzybowski, visit his Website: penji.co

If you want to use Johnathan’s graphic design services, click for 15% off use PROMO CODE: podcast15

To connect with Colin Nanka on Twitter: Colin Nanka or Instagram: Colin Nanka or you can read Colin’s Daily Blog: https://colinnanka.com/blog/

To connect with Brent McClure, visit his Website: brentmcclure.com or follow him On Social Media: @lbmcpa.

For a FREE Strategy Session: brentmcclure.com/dailygrind

If you need a Business Plan visit: Plan2Profit