Six Top Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets Based on ‘The $100 Startup’
Let me introduce my awesome mastermind group – The Brain Trust.
Left to right: that’s me (long arms, so I get to hold the camera), Michele Lisenbury Christensen of Loving with Power (with baby Mira), Eric Klein of Wisdom Heart, Jen Louden of JenniferLouden.com, Mark Silver of Heart of Business and Molly Gordon of Shaboom Inc.
We’ve supported each other (strategy and tactics, hugs and arse-kicking) for 6 years now, and we met once a year to hang out and go deep on our businesses.
A couple of weeks ago we were all on Bainbridge Island, and I happened to have a advanced copy of Chris Guillebeau’s new book with me, The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future, a book that happens to be released today.
At a lunch break we took half an hour and shared our own insights and secrets based on Chris’s book, including:
- What we think of shameless self-promotion
- How to find the bridge from our passion to serving the people we serve
- The key thing we’ve each started and stopped that’s helped our businesses grow
It was a great conversation, and if you run your own business you’re going to find this useful to listen to. You can download it here for your easy listening pleasure. If you’d prefer to read, then the transcript is here.
And if you’re toying with/starting up/running your own small business, then check out Chris’s book. It’s full of insights, worksheets and tactics from his and many others’ micro-businesses that you can grab and use.
Thank you for this, Michael! Very illuminating, and I loved getting to see inside the heads and hearts of your Brain Trust (Eric is the only one I haven’t followed for very long).
And, I know it’s more work, but I loved having the transcript to read instead of listen. I’m a fast reader, but finding the time and quiet to listen to a recording is often hard to do.
Sherrill – glad you enjoyed it. And yes, I realize I’m more a transcript guy than a listener myself
Michael (et al)~Thanks for a delightful conversation filled with rich reminders and gems. Your bit on focusing your efforts on only two projects as well as on getting key people to be part of your team resonate. I also appreciated the bits about “follow your passion + let your passion serve others.”
Cheers, you lucky lad (to have this Brain Trust), Jeffrey
Jeffrey – you’re quite right, I am lucky indeed!
Mark Silver quoted you in a comment on his blogpost. I loved the line –
One trick a friend of mine, Michael Bungay-Stanier, let me in on is not saying “NO” but simply saying “Yes” more slowly…
– and wanted to thank you for it. Saying Yes more slowly. This is powerful, loving and so useful!
Thanks!
Love and light,
Sue
Sue – so glad you like that!