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Entrepreneur Mastermind Podcast

Welcome to the Entrepreneur Mastermind Podcast! One of the most powerful ways you can grow your business and expand your knowledge is by having a mastermind group of people who come together to share their business experiences, struggles and solutions with each other. We wanted to document this process by making our mastermind public and completely transparent. Initially this podcast was called Entreprogrammers since we were a group of entrepreneur programmers starting our first businesses, but since then several people have left and new people have joined and we’ve rebooted the podcast as the Entrepreneur Mastermind Podcast.
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Now displaying: January, 2016
Jan 26, 2016

Episode 101 “Wedgie Of A Lifetime” 

3:18

And We’re Live! Today the EntreProgrammers welcome Larry from TrackAbout. Larry wants to talks about Skydiving today! Derick mentions the prior episode’s talk about getting over fears and skydiving. 

6:00

John shares some memories of his time at TrackAbout, and was afraid to fly anywhere on business trips. John explains a panic attack he experienced, and how he was able to conquer the fear by facing the adversity head-on. 

8:45

Derick shares his approach to conquering his fear of feeling pain when getting tattoos, by focusing on the pain itself. 

10:00

Larry shares an adventure story of mountain biking and stumbling upon a skydiving festival. Larry talks about different types of skydiving such as: static line jump, tandem jump, accelerated free fall. Larry tells the story about taking the 101 course of skydiving, and describes the details of learning to jump out of a plane. 

14:30 

Larry shares his intense experience of leaving the ground on a plane and getting ready to jump. Larry talks about forgetting all the steps of the skydiving training and finally getting the signal to pull his parachute.  Larry trying to recall how to brake and land with his parachute. Then he remembered after crash landing, the Jump Master forgot to teach him about landing.  

23:00

Larry explains that he did not have the responsibly of children and marriage to notice the real risk involved of skydiving. Derick talks about his father’s experience with a motorcycle purchase and realizing the risk involved in riding. 

26:40

John talks about a woman that survived a fall out of a plane at 20,000 feet. Josh asks how this changes his plans to skydive. John still thinks the tandem jump is still on his list. 

28:00

Larry mentions that some peoples worst fear is public speaking. Derick shares his thoughts about himself when public speaking. John talks about getting energy when speaking publicly. Larry shares his time when playing in a band, and being nervous when his did not practice. 

32:00

John talks about the certainty and the quality of life that Tony Robbins teaches. Larry talks about the punctuated moments in life, and getting older, and noticing time going by faster. 

35:50

John, again mentions possibly creating a course on over coming fears. Josh talks about the time he found out John was afraid of flying, and how it was taboo to talk about at TrackAbout.  John talks about choosing to over come fear on your own, verses being coached.

39:00

Derick talks about his fear of spiders after getting bit by a brown recluse. Chuck shares his thoughts on fears, and what he considers his worst fear. 

42:00

John talks about an exercise of making eye contact with people and not smiling. Derick speaks about social norm violations. Josh mentions Tim Ferris’ stunt of laying down in the middle of the floor of a restaurant or store, for no reason. Derick mentions that you should look at your behavior when you are around people, and notice what society has ingrained in you about how to behave in public. 

50:00

John mentions that there was a period of time when the EntreProgrammers did not talk about Josh’s job at TrackAbout. John asks when Larry noticed  that Josh was about to quit his job at TrackAbout. Derick shares his experience when leaving TrackAbout, and feeling like he was letting people down for leaving.

55:00

Derick, Josh and John talk about when they started the EntreProgrammers. Larry mentions he did not have an idea they were in a mastermind together. Larry talks about what the podcast industry needs as far as stats and analytics. Larry says he needs the accelerated playback for listening to podcasts. 

59:00

John mentions the real reason they started the EntreProgrammers was to shared their entrepreneurial journey. Dericks talks about the transparency in the jobs that they are doing. Josh and Derick shares their thoughts about the culture at TrackAbout. 

1:13:33

John shares how he had quit his job at TrackAbout, and how he was afraid of Larry as well. Larry says “It’s about time!” Josh mentions the famous MacBook that once belonged to Derick, and how everyone who used it after he had left, also doesn't work there anymore. 

1:20:00

Josh talks about the bookkeeper situation with Simple Programmer, and how the bookkeeper needs to be familiar with this kind of business to understand how it works. Here is a discussion about hiring and firing people for varies reasons. 

1:25:00

Josh asks Larry about what TrackAbout is doing about Code Challenges. John talks about liking  the real world situation, and how some new hires question the challenges.

1:32:00

Larry talks about the liability of leaks in companies if they permit their developers run blogs or some sort of entrepreneurial outlet.

1:37:50

Josh shares feeling guilty at a job before TrackAbout, and how he decided to leave after a bunch of paid training. Derick shares his experience of leaving his Telerik job and having nothing to do in the last few weeks. 

1:38:00

EntreProgrammers share their stories of quitting their old jobs and the irony and inexperience the witness looking back. 

1:47:00

Larry mentions that Chuck needs to take a spin at TrackAbout to get in on the stories. Larry shares some of what TrackAbout is up to these days. 

1:53:00

A small interjection of had bad Apple is doing.

Thoughts of the Week!

John  -  The happiness in your life is  directly proportion to the amount of uncertainty you are comfortable to live with…

Derick - Embrace your fear!

Josh - Systems and habits, and rhythms 

Chuck  - Being ready of opportunity..

Resources Mentioned In The Episode 

https://corp.trackabout.com

Jan 19, 2016

Episode 100 “Studying Weasels…”

3:20

Alright, We’re Live! Episode 100 and almost 2 years of EntreProgrammers!  Derick mentions he is nervous about his presentation at the JS Remote Conf. with Chuck. Derick talks about the difficultly with condensing information into a few minutes, rather then a couple of hours.

7:00

Derick talks about monitoring his numbers with Baremetrics, and more issues with fail charges on customer credit cards.  But things are looking good as most are being resolved as, Derick sends email notices out. 

10:00

Derick talks about speaking with a friend about doing an annual subscription with Watch Me Code. Derick mentions theses ideas were formed after reading The Automatic Customer

12:00

The EntreProgrammers discuss the different ways Derick could implement a yearly subscription, pricing the subscriptions, and revenue spending. Josh provides ways to look at the analytics and how to form a strategy. Derick is planning to contact Baremetrics about certain ways to view analytics. 

26:00

Derick mentions that Barometrics barely has 40 more customers then Watch Me Code subscribers. Derick said he is excited about the Visual Designer with Drip. Derick is not happy with PayPal, and how his customers are experiencing problems with the subscription account in PayPal

32:00

Josh and Derick talk about credit card fees, sending money, and trying to collect a pay check. Derick explains the fees in PayPal for Friends & Family, and Goods & Services. 

38:00

John talks about reading Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto. Josh gives a little insight into the author’s background. Derick mentions The UnSchooling Method

40:00

Josh talks about studying the weasel family? Josh mentions hating the practice of teaching children something they don’t need to know. John talks about the importance of teaching Math and Reading to children. Josh and John discuss home-schooling and non-traditional education models for children. 

48:00

John shares his vision of a Utopian society of entrepreneurs.

53:00

John might see Tony Robbins again in March. Josh talks about getting banned from Facebook, and how some people will attempt to re-establish uses of Facebook by using different computers and accounts. Josh shares his thoughts on Content Marketing, and how he dislikes not bringing value. 

1:03:00

Josh talks about writing article for P90X and Trello, but does on rank for searches. Josh speak on reaching out to entrepreneur.com to get some articles out as a guess post. Josh talks about a Copywriting tag on their site, and that nobody owns that section. Josh talks reading the book Wire For Story and using this book as content for a blog. 

1:10:00

John talks about Glen Allsopp’s blog on 6,595 Words on a Traffic Generation Tactic You’re Not Using (But Should Be).

1:13:00

Josh talks about unwinding and working on guess blogging. Josh is trying to figure out why he is having a difficult time with guess blogging and ‘hitting a wall.’ Josh wants to merge two disciplines of Copywriting and Storytelling. 

1:20:00

With Josh’s plans, John ask if Josh is still wanting to work with Simple Programmer. Josh confirms he is still interested, and his plans are for a later time. Josh talks about the storytelling strategy and what makes a good rounded story for marketing purposes. 

1:29:00

Josh mentions he wants to work up to publishing one blog post per week.  Josh is working on writing 800 words a day, and then adding 100 words as things progress. 

1:31:00

John talks about stressing out with catching up with and doing refunds on his courses.  Josh suggests that someone else should take care of processing refunds, rather than John himself. John talks about the numbers ‘How to Market Yourself' should hit, to break even. John shares that he had a talk with his editor about the quality of posts, and maybe cutting back on posts per week for quality sake. 

1:44:00

John is talking about getting ‘How To Market Yourself’ up to 5K per month. John gives a breakdown of the current sales. Josh is not sure about the numbers, and maybe sticking with the 97 dollar price. 

1:50:00

John thinks the Bogging Workbook might be hurting the How To Market Yourself sales. 

Thoughts for the Week

John - Sometimes you need to just hold the line…as much as you can.

Josh - Re-examine your assumptions…

Jan 12, 2016

Episode 99 “Bookkeeping Time”

3:22

We’re Live

No Chuck today! Josh compares John and Derick camera quality.  Derick tells us about trying to get back into the swing of things.

7:15

Derick tells us he is reading “The Automatic Customer” by John Warrilow. Derick says he is taking away a lot of information form this book to help with Watch Me Code subscriptions and other parts of his business. 

12:00

Josh asks if this book is geared toward SAAS type business or businesses like Derick’s.  Derick mentions this book covers all different angles of subscription type businesses and more. Derick hopes in the near future, he should be able to make a livable income on Watch Me Code alone. 

15:30

Derick lost 40 subscribers for a variety of reasons, including credit card expirations. Josh says he should only be getting at least 10 cancellations a month, due to expirations. Derick remedies charge failures with a few tools in place, like Baremetrics.

20:00

Derick mentions some 46 credit cards failing in the last month according to his Stripe account. Derick mentions that Stripe sends a risk notification about coming credit card expirations. Derick says he is awaiting more cancellations, because of the Holiday spending. 

25:00

Derick recorded two more Watch Me Code videos, delivering content that some people have been asking for. Derick says he should start Watch Me Crochet.

29:30 

Derick mentions his final income was 160,000 dollars, 70 thousand is from his entrepreneurial efforts for Watch Me Code, and LeanPub. Josh mentions that Derick seems to be less stressed after shutting down SignalLeaf. 

33:15

John mentions introducing a new technical project to Simple Programmer as a collaboration project with Derick. 

35:50

Josh finally gets his bookkeeping in order. Here are Josh’s priorities for the new year, Giving, IRA, Savings, and Emergency. Josh says he tracked his spending for 10 hours in Quick Books. Josh finally solves his categorizing for expenses. 

43:00

Josh says he recently spent some time writing about bookkeeping when he didn't know what to write about during his morning emails and blogging. 

45:20

Josh tells us he did a Copy Hour. Copy Hour is the course that he has been promoting. Josh is still running the price testing with Simple Programmer. Josh mentions changing the price on the How to Market Yourself Course, and it is still selling. 

56:30

John is now in San Diego, exploring the city. Possibly looking to move to California. John has been pumping out videos and working well with the new video editor. 

58:30

John thinks that Quick Books is a sleazy company with sleazy practices. But, John is still looking to find someone to do book keeping for Simple Programmer. 

1:01:00

John mentions that his father in law influence him to watch The Walking Dead. Beside that Johns is exploring other ways to create more content for Simple Programmer, possibly a course on “How to Build a Business.” Josh and John discuss that example stories for a biography.

1:08:00

John mentions he has been giving more thought to do a “How to Overcome Fear” course. Maybe after executing the serious projects first. John gives a lesson in over coming the fear of flying. John at some point plans to skydive.

1:18:00

John updates that his vision improvement test did not work for him. But he says the level of dedication needs to be higher in order to make a small improvement. Maybe the dedication of a pilot wanting to fly again, would be enough. 

1:20:00

Derick talks about doing another bundle on Express JS, similar to his Rabbit MQ bundle. Overall, Rabbit MQ made $14,000 for Derick. 

 1:24:00

Josh talks about having a difficult time setting goals, especially with all the projects that are coming up. 

1:25:00

John explains the validity of a 5 year goal, rather than a 1 year goal. Josh talks about how all his expectations and an entrepreneur had change in the last 3 months. 

1:30:30

John says to look your goal at the end point, and find what it is that you can do to achieve that result. 

1:45:00

Here is a discussion about discrimination, circumstances, advantages, and disadvantages of those in society. Yikes. 

Thoughts for the Week

Derick picks of the week:  “The Automatic Customer” by John Warrilow

Derick - “If you can’t question your own beliefs, you will never know they are true, you will only believe that they are…”   

John  -  You can choose whatever reality you want…Or you can defy what statics you want. 

Josh - Be consistent over time…

Jan 5, 2016

Episode 98 “Fear of Roller Coasters”

2:00

We’re Live! Just John and Josh today! Chuck has the day off and Derick is on vacation. John tells us about his roller coaster ride.

10:00 

Josh shares his experience on a ropes course when in he was in a college. John shares a similar experience on over coming a fear of heights. 

16:00

Josh mentions reading Tony Robbins “Money: Master the Game,” Josh talks about the interesting study on stress. 

20:00

John talks about how making the choice to over come a fear is far more beneficial, rather than being forced of told to do so. 

29:11

Josh talks about how the price test is still kicking butt on Simple Programmer. Josh and John discuss the price changes and how the conversions are still looking good.

 31:00

John talks about an interesting strategy and launch by Brian, and how this strategy could help them price the different tiers of “How To Market Yourself.” Josh and John discuss the mid price for the tiers, and how to prices out the higher level packages. 

44:00

John talks about the changing to a payment plan, instead of a huge price point all together. 

47:00

Josh talks about people trying to get a tax break before the new year.  John talks about an interesting pricing strategy for a course by Jason Zook.

51:00

John mentions that for the product sales they’ve reached 8300 dollar. Josh mentions he will have reach milestone 1 with Simple Programmer. 

58:00

Josh does a shout out to Rob about a feature in Drip, possibly a bug with the commas and such. 

1:06:00

John mentions the sales on Soft Skills, and also doing a couple of podcasts. 

1:09:00

John talks about getting the pricing tiers together and plans for the next few weeks. Josh talks about optimizing the content in his emails for congruency with other content like John’s videos. 

1:14:00

Derick gets and assignment for John and Josh. John shares how the empire of Simple Programmer works.  John talks about figuring out a strategy to grow on Youtube and with subscribers. 

1:18:00

John talks about Paid Acquisition to grow the company. Josh talks about the marketing possibilities of marketing on Facebook. John talks about the growth of Simple Programmer subscribers on Youtube. 

1:25:00

Josh mentions marketing strategy of Neil Patel at Crazy Egg. 

http://blog.crazyegg.com/author/neil/

1:28:00

Josh mentions hiring a Facebook pro to do the marketing on social media and Facebook. 

1:30:00

Josh talks about getting his investment situation squared away. Josh is looking into Mutual Funds according to John Bogle’s books.  Josh share the he fired his financial advisor and took control of his accounts. Josh shares his plans to handle the accounts. 

1:45:00

John compares poker and trading stocks. Josh to shares his investing plans for the year. Josh talks about how investing is buildings wealth over time rather than getting rich.

1:56:00

John talks about Wealth Front, for investing services. Here is a discussion on fees when investing. 

Thoughts of the Week

John - Take responsibility for everything in your life

Josh - Don’t outsource the important part of your life 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom 

http://www.amazon.com/MONEY-Master-Game-Financial-Freedom/dp/1476757801

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